Manifest the Truth Unto You by the Power of the Holy Ghost

Brazil is definitely my favorite place on the Earth! The weather is warm all year around and the people are incredibly kind.

One of my favorite instructors here at the CTM is Irmão Lima. He is one of my heroes.
Irmão Lima will often call me Galega which means lemon  because of my hair being so light in color in comparison to many here in Brazil. 😉 He is such an inspiration to me, he helps me to be courageous! He always tells me to have courage and never forget who called me here to Brazil to serve. For example, one day my district and I were having a hard time staying focused and being one hundred percent invested and enthusiastic. He said, "Remember that you are and will be teaching real people with real problems and difficulties. You have something special that they desperately need. It is your privilege to help them feel of God's love and help them realize what they are missing." Ever since then I have  been able to see missionary work with a perspective more personal and glorious than ever before. I know that God loves me. I have seen his hand so much in the short time here at the CTM.
We had two splits (a temporary new companion for a portion of the day) this past week and I was with Sister Ellsworth and a Brazilian, Sister Barros (one of my room companions).
The gift of tongues is super real! During one of our lessons I quoted Moroni 10 verses 4 and 5 almost perfectly in Portuguese and bore my testimony with power and clarity!

(Moroni 10:4,5, Book of Mormon)

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

By holding the trumpet to his mouth, Moroni symbolizes the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(Mathew 24:30, 31)
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: [ ... ] they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 

The Spirit is so real!  Never forget to pray and love others. I know with the Spirit I can and will help those of Heavenly Father's children here in Brazil realize what they are truly missing. I´m so thankful that I have the privilege to do this great work for eighteen months!

The CTM can be a challenge at times - in fact almost every hour and every second you are expected to be doing something and ninety percent of the time it´s something "brain power" oriented. 😊 This for me is like college times a billion. I realized when God sees that you are becoming too comfortable and on the edge of pride he gives you a challenge to bring your humility back to the forefront.

Sister Thomson and I are known as "always studying"  or "always  sitting with the Brazilians." - this has been asked of us to help us learn the language as well as the culture.  By doing this and being obedient, I will often  feel Heavenly Father's love for me.

My first P-day, walking around outside the CTM it was difficult to understand people because of everyone's sataki or accent; each of which is so different. The Northern Brazilians speak more clearly and eloquently and the people of the South tend to talk faster and mush their words together. Since São Paulo is so diverse, you have to learn all of these accents, so I´m basically learning four languages.

São Paulo, Brazil with a rainbow

I get to go proselyting for the first time tomorrow [March 24th, 2018]! Someone from the CTM is basically dropping you and your companion off in an area and with the expectation that you are to get contact information from those you talk to. I´m really nervous about this but also excited because everyone that has gone said people love talking with Sister missionaries!

We are now one of the oldest districts in the CTM so we have a lot of younger missionaries here at the CTM!  I had to pray in Sacrament meeting this past Sunday which went super well. Our current zone leader is going to the field so Elder Jarchow from our district just got called as the zone leader and  Elder Jones is our new district leader. Sister Conlin is the lead training sister for our zone so I would say we are doing pretty well!

Life is still good, I love the work!