Youth of Zion, Service and Love!

This past week I learned so much about my Saviour Jesus Christ!  On Saturdays there is a fruit and vegetable fresh market that is set up on the streets. Elder Ortiz from my district  had the idea to set up a table and give out free Liahona magazines and pamphlets. We set up the table and made contacts and gave out the magazines with nothing but smiles.😊 Between the four of us we made eighty contacts and found a ton of new people to teach! It was a blast to help people come a little closer to Christ. In Preach My Gospel it says that you will find the truest and purest kind of joy serving and helping the children of God.

The youth in our area and wards are so fantastic and I love each one of them! I also gave my first talk in a ward, of course in Portuguese, this past Sunday and it went really well. I spoke about ministering and serving others like our Saviour. There were many people in the congregation that were touched by the words spoken as the Spirit bore witness to them. It is awesome to be a missionary! The next speaker, a man in the ward that spoke after me said that I am blessed with the gift to speak fluent Portuguese in only three months. It was really nice to hear such a compliment. Love the members and the people of Brazil!

Awesome youth in Cursino area - I love each one of them!

Our baptism fell through again. Dinho is really great and doesn't have a problem with any of the commandments and  has a sincere desire but he feels he isn't prepared enough to be baptized. We pray for him in hope of a baptism soon. He also works at night so it is really hard to find him home and awake and get him to church at nine in the morning. Transfers are coming this next week. I really want to stay in Cursino because I think I have a lot to offer and have learned so much but transfers are this Sunday so we will see what happens.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves each one of us individually. Have a fantastic and miracle-filled week! I love you all!

True to the Faith

Lyrics

1. Shall the youth of Zion falter

In defending truth and right?

While the enemy assaileth,

Shall we shrink or shun the fight? No!

2. While we know the pow'rs of darkness

Seek to thwart the work of God,

Shall the children of the promise

Cease to grasp the iron rod? No!

3. We will work out our salvation;

We will cleave unto the truth;

We will watch and pray and labor

With the fervent zeal of youth. Yes!

4. We will strive to be found worthy

Of the kingdom of our Lord,

With the faithful ones redeemed

Who have loved and kept his word. Yes!

(Chorus)

True to the faith that our parents have cherished,

True to the truth for which martyrs have perished,

To God's command,

Soul, heart, and hand,

Faithful and true we will ever stand.

Text and music: Evan Stephens, 1854-1930

Free to Choose - Agency and Birthday Cake.

This week was pretty good in some ways 👍, pretty normal in others 👌, and not so good, as a  matter of fact, in other ways 👎.  Unfortunately, we are kind of "hitting a wall," - literally a "smack in the face." Almost our whole group of investigators - people we teach and our scheduled baptism fell through; not so good and a bit depressing. We had the scheduled baptismal interview with Dorival. Elder Gonçalvez was with him interviewing for almost two hours. Elder Gonçalvez walks out with the scriptures in his hands and tells us he can't be baptized as scheduled. There were a lot of things that Dorival is doing and unfortunately continues to do that prevents him from being baptized as scheduled. He has a ton of problems with some addictions. We continued to try and help him, pray for him to help him improve but he doesn't want to change right now. We told him we can't continue to visit him unless he has a desire to change.  He came to church on Sunday and began to argue with us because of this. He said that we can't deny or shy away from him because God wouldn't do that. We are going to start teaching him once a week or so at the church house. We will see what happens. I really hope he recognizes where he is wrong and changes it. Funny after over a month of visiting him he calls us Sister Lara and Sister "Americana" - his nickname he calls me, he keeps trying to imitate with an American accent. Makes me laugh and roll my eyes every time!

Remember Luana that we baptized is doing well but now we were trying this week to help her twelve year old brother Daniel be baptized. He said that he hadn't received an answer that he needs to be baptized. We prayed a ton and even fasted with him Saturday until Sunday morning. He promised that even if he didn't receive an answer he would go to church. We get to their house and are literally dragging him out of bed and he refuses with everything he had. He said he doesn't want to be baptized. To make things worse, our other investigators called and said they don't want visits right now; it keeps them from progressing. This week was definitely sad in that fact but we are doing our best and I know that God is accepting our efforts. The sad part is we can do everything possible to help them and God can give them a million answers but they still have their agency to choose Christ or not.

This past week we had a family home evening in a members house with Luana and her three younger siblings. We are walking in the community and it starts pouring rain. The water literally rushes through flooding everything! I grab the youngest girl so that she doesn't get soaked as we try and maneuver through puddles and inches of water. Needless to say I got soaked but the little girl Rafaela that is three years old was completely dry - thank goodness!

Sister Lara and I are always helping the little girls get ready for the day on Sunday playing soccer with Daniel and folding laundry to help Luana. Her grandpa works and she goes to school and takes care of pretty much everything else because her mom passed away. The hugs from the little girls are adorable and I love serving their family!

This week was Sister Laras birthday. I think we have eaten cake almost every day this entire week and we ate cake four times and ice cream on the day of her birthday. It was almost like it was my birthday too; benefits of having a companion. 😉 We ate açai - a berry found on açaí palm trees in South America, açaí berries are a lot like grapes; you can also make all kinds of things with it. We ate cake with our district and with a member from our ward named Rosy. With all the stuff I am eating I am gonna come back home a billion pounds. 😄

Sister Lara's Birthday celebration at a member's home.

We had a thought after much prayer that we needed to visit a specific investigator. As we were walking we found a man named Dinho that confided in us that he is looking for a church to attend and that he wants to come closer to God. He came to church on Sunday and is incredibly kind. We are going to visit him this week and hopefully get him ready for baptism the next couple of weeks! He is middle aged and lives alone but has a testimony that God lives. It is a great feeling to follow the Spirit!
Transfers are in two weeks a little nervous for that.
Love you all lots have a great week!

Brazil June Festival and Teaching Investigators.

Ola Tudo Bem! - Hello, how are you!
I hope it was a fantastic week for all of you! This week was honestly super, super exhausting and difficult but rewarding at the same time. This week we did two divisions (temporary companion splits) with different sister missionaries and I stayed in my area both times. It's kind of tough because we have a lot of daily goals that are important to meet in order to have success  and I feel it is very important to meet the goals. I am the one that stays in the area during the week with other new sisters. But I have honestly learned to love getting to know new Sisters and I am learning so much, so fast like - how to teach, joke and get to know the investigators and problem solve. Sister Lara is still the Sister Training Leader over six other sisters. Everyone says that it seems like I have way more time on the mission than I have. Sister Lara also says that every Sister that is trained by a Sister Training Leader becomes one on the mission so that could happen in the future for me.  President Acosta loves Sister Lara and the work she does and the way she teaches. He told her and I that he wants me to be even better than her as a missionary. He wants me to be strong, brave, and good so that's a little bit of pressure. 😊

I love my district! They literally save my life almost every day, especially my District Leader Elder Gomzalvez. The week before I only did twenty-four contacts or people to hopefully investigate and teach. This amount is not good at all and so I made a new goal with my District Leader to do fifty contacts  this coming week. He calls me everyday to talk with me about how the day went and my goals and to help keep me going.

This week our baptism fell through with an older man about sixty-five years of age, named Dorival. He has an amazing knowledge of the Bible and knows without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. He reads the Book of Mormon every day. He talks a lot and has lots of questions. But through this experience, I have learned the power of listening and to pray for the Spirit when teaching him and the Spirit will help him know the truth. The Spirit is one that teaches, comforts and inspires. We have helped him prepare for baptism but one day we went to visit and he told us he was going to stop going to church with us and that he was going to stop praying because God was tired of listening to him. He didn't think that God listened to his prayers because of some personal problems he has that have been going on for many years without a solution. He kept resisting baptism and we didn't know why. He had his baptismal interview with Elder Gomzalvez, our District Leader, this past week. It lasted for almost two hours. Elder Gomzalvez walks out from the interview with the scriptures in his hands and told us he couldn't be baptized. Dorival has some problems with addiction and some really terrible difficulties and bad choices in the past he needs to correct first. Once he told Elder Gomzalvez, Dorival seems to be a lot happier and has agreed to prepare for baptism the thirtieth of this month! He always tells us that he misses Sister Lara, Sister Affonso and I when we would visit and teach him and that he likes talking with us. He lives alone which is really sad. Dorival calls me "Americana." He often says, "Where's Americana?" "How are you Americana?´"  Oh, how I love nicknames! It's pretty funny because he always says "Americana" with an American accent or what he thinks is an American accent. 😊

This past week we had Festa Junina (translated as 'June Party' or 'June Festival') which is a holiday they have here in Brazil. We had a ward celebration at the church house and it was a blast! We ate hot dogs and Paçoquinha or Paçoca which is a ground peanut sugar and salt candy. There is a young woman in our ward about fifteen that "I love to death." Her name is Isabel. She was "dragging" me around everywhere at the party saying, "Sister Smart you have to try this, you have to do this Sister!´" She always writes me notes and we joke a ton about everything! We played the game "musical chairs" and just chatted with some of our recent converts and members.  It was a blast! Tons of flags and colors everywhere and all the girls wore floral dresses. It was super cool to see something authentic!

Children's authentic dress for Festa Junina.

Brazilian colorful decorations during Festa Junina, "June Festival/Party."

This week during one of the divisions (temporary companion splits) we were knocking on doors to try and find new people to teach. This lady named Elena opened the door and was a little annoyed at first but I felt I needed to share a message with her. I started sharing about the importance of baptism and the Holy Ghost and all of a sudden she starts crying. I ask her why she is crying and she said she felt something in her heart and I told her that that was God telling her he loves her and that what we are saying is true. I felt so happy that I was worthy to bear the Spirit and that she could recognize God's hand in her life!

We also had a family night with some less active members Davidson and his wife Juliana, Eliane and a new investigator, Natalia. We played the card game UNO®. I have never met people that can play UNO® so fast and so well. I need to practice up. Eliane's daughter said, "Do you see Jesus up there?" and I said,  "No, do you?" and she said, "Yeah, he has white hair and brown eyes, he is up there!" She is about six years old and has the cutest blond, curly hair. I had prayed five minutes earlier that the Savior could walk beside me. I know that He will walk with us when we ask Him too. I know that He is with me every step of the way.

I hope that you are all doing well and that life is full of joy! Have an amazing week!

Have Courage - The Savior will be by Your Side!

We had divisions (i.e. missionary companion(s) temporary reassignment) again this week and Sister Larsen stayed with Sister Affonso and I in the area. We were doing practices and Sister Larsen is becoming noticeably sad. As I ask her what is wrong she said, "I am here to help and love people but how can I do that when I can't even speak the language?" She has only been in the field one week so getting adjusted is definitely hard.  I remember the huge amount of culture shock that I felt that first week in the field. That night she and I talked in English for a little while about the difficulties of mission life - it helped both of us. I gave her a huge hug and we took a picture so that in eighteen months when we have worked through and overcome so much we can look back and recognize how much we have grown! With trials in ones life, I recognized something super important that Christ will walk with Heavenly Father's children every step of the way!

We had our temple day this past week with three zones in our mission.  I got to talk with a bunch of the missionaries serving in different areas in the mission - and even missionaries I have not seen since the CTM! I have made lots of friends especially with the people in my district.

At the Brazil São Paulo LDS Temple - (Left to Right) Sister Smart, Sister Lara, Sister Affonso

We have an investigator named Dorival and he is super challenging because he asks a ton of questions. The day we did divisions our District Leader,  Elder Gomzalvez and Elder Ortiz went with us to help us to teach a lesson. After, Elder Gomzalvez told me to continue to believe in myself,  he said, "Sister Smart you need to continue to  believe in yourself  because I believe in you and see your potential and God believes in you. Continue to pray for something better, more powerful and more essential when teaching and the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, will provide. He will always give you what you need in the moment you need it. So I want you to believe in yourself use the Spirit and be happy!" Every time I see him he always asks me if I am happy and says , "Only joy Sister!" I know that God places people in our lives exactly when we need them. He is a great District Leader.

It's crazy how your mission allows you to believe you can accomplish and do anything - most of all have courage. There are so many things I am excited to achieve while here; a mission teaches you courage that's for sure.

The trucker strike is finally finished or over so there is food and gas again. Once the gas stations had gas again, it was chaos for miles and miles as people waited in line and argued to fill up their gas tanks. President Acosta warned us before it happened to buy three days worth of food and water so we had all the food and water we needed. He truly is inspired!

I can bear testimony that we are in a "battle" and the missionaries out here in the mission field are on the front lines. We have an investigator named Pablo and because of his friends that are disrespecting his decision to be baptized - trying to limit his desire; he isn't going to be baptized anytime soon. I hope and pray he will be baptized in the future.  He is young and has so much potential!  I know that these things happen because he truly is a special son of God and that he can be a strong and courageous member of the church and that Heavenly Father loves him.

I will keep growing, loving and pushing forward! There truly are miracles in each day! Love you all!