The Miracle of Fasting

Well another great week has come and gone! I hope you all had a good week too! Here’s a little bit about my week. 

Last Monday we got to visit the body of Brasilia and it was so cool! Brasilia was built in the shape of an airplane and I work on the north wing so we went and visited the body. We visited the TV tower they have and got to go up and see the city from above. We also visited and art museum and it was pretty cool! We took a lot of cool pictures and it was a lot of fun!

We’ve been teaching an older man named José since the first week we got here and at first he was progressing really well but this past week it’s just been the same thing over and over again. He still wants the approval of his old church in Sao Paulo (turns out they have the same church here and its right down the street from where he lives but I definitely was not about to tell him that ha) and he is still drinking a little bit of coffee. So I told him we are doing everything we can for him but he needs to do things in return. So we told him we would visit him in a week and if he wasn’t improving we couldn’t visit him anymore. So we will see how he is this week. He was in church yesterday which was a good sign but he left right after sacrament. So we will see how he is feeling about things on Wednesday.

We have another investigator named Regis who is the husband of a less active member. He received all the lessons a couple of months ago, had a date for baptism and all but never received an answer so he didn’t get baptized. So we are teaching him again, trying to help him recognized his answers. He’s getting answers, his wife tells us all about the little miracles that have happened since we have started visiting him but he is just having a hard time believing. His biggest struggle is the Book of Mormon. So we are doing our best. During our lessons with him the spirit is so strong! So we are just doing our best to help him and understand his needs. One of our lessons with him, he had me say the closing prayer in English, boy was that hard. I got to the end of the prayer and forgot how to end a prayer in English so I said it in Português ha. It was so hard!

This Wednesday we have a lesson with our president, the president of our stake who is the son of the mission president of our mission president and they will all be in this lesson..... Ha so much pressure! We are going to teach the friend of our mission president. I’m excited because he is already reading the Book of Mormon and knows a lot, but having the president there is a little nerve racking!

This week we also found out what is going to happen this next transfer! Perks of being in the same ward as your mission president ha. He basically told us that he is going to keep me and Sister Brito here to together, but add elders to our ward as well. And he found a new house for us!! So we will hopefully be moving soon into our new house which he says is a little bit bigger and nicer for us. So we are pretty excited that we are staying together! 

This week I learned the importance of fasting. Fasting really can bring miracles. Last Sunday everyone in Brazil fasted for more rain because it has been so dry here. Many parts of Brazil are in a drought and don’t have a lot of water. So we all fasted together, and we received rain every single day this week! It was so cool! So amazing!

Sister Brito and I also had our own fast this week. We’ve had to drop a lot of our investigators this week because some just weren’t progressing and some just plain out didn’t want us anymore. So we kind of had no one. So Friday afternoon we started a fast and just started talking to everyone on the street. I had the thought to go talk to people in another part that we don’t usually work in. so as we were talking to people there a mango fell and hit me on the shoulder ha.  We were both surprised. But right as we were about to leave, a girl came up to us and asked if we were missionaries. So we got talking to her and turns out she has been an investigator for five months. She hasn’t received the lessons for a while though and hasn’t had the guts to walk up and talk to the missionaries but decided to that day..... We also found out that she is the daughter of one of the people in our area book that we were searching for in the beginning of this transfer! But we also found out that she is moving to Rio de Janeiro the beginning of next month. So we went and met her dad and got talking to her and she told us she was planning on being baptized after she moves. We got talking to her and invited her to be baptized here, at first she said no but then accepted! So we have a baptism this Saturday and we are so excited! Seriously a miracle! As we were talking to her I told her that I knew her from somewhere else. Sister Brito felt the same way. I’m convinced that I know her from the pre-existence. And her dad was so familiar too! It was sooo cool! 

Well that’s it for this week. I hope you all have a good week! Remember to rely on the Lord. He will help you get through everything. Sometimes it takes a little sacrifice but he will guide us through everything! Love you all

Sister Steadman

5 Months Down!

Well another week has come and gone here in the Beautiful Asa Norte! The work is continuing on! 

Monday: Sister Brito and I spent the afternoon in our house. It was really nice to just relax and bit. We watched the few church movies that we have and we made microwave brownies.... ha it was good :)

Tuesday: We had a lesson with Jose, turns out he is 80 years old ha. He’s a funny old man. But we’ve been struggling a bit with him lately and he finally opened up a little bit more and explained some stuff to us. He has told us about his old church he would listen to on the radio but his radio broke so he hasn’t been able to hear more, this happened right before we met him and started teaching him, if this wasn’t a sign I don’t know what it was ha. But he would keep talking about this church and we didn’t understand why. But he finally told us why. He has a desire to be baptized and wants to, but he first wants to write a letter to this church in São Paulo, saying that he is going to switch churches and he wants to tell them all about us missionaries ha. But hey, whatever works for him. The only problem is that he still hasn’t written this letter and won’t let us help him write it. And he still is drinking coffee...... A bit of a struggle for him. He is willing to stop, he just wants to buy sevada first but hasn’t been able to find it. Sevada is like coffee but its church approved ha. We’ve learned we have to be very blunt with him in order for him to understand why. So now he understands, we are just waiting for him to act. So me and Sister Brito and searching for sevada in every store we pass ha. But he was in church yesterday! He has a date set for this Saturday for his baptism but says he isn’t ready yet. So please keep him in your prayers!

We were also able to teach Lucia today. She is a mom and definitely thinks very differently about things ha. She loves to talk about the profound things of the gospel and asks a lot of questions. But I really enjoy teaching her. She is so curious! We still haven’t been able to really sit down and teach her the lessons yet though. Every time we set an appointment with her she ends up calling and canceling, but she still is going to church. So hopefully this week we can help her a little more :)

Wednesday: We started teaching a women named Dilci and our first lesson with her was so good! She was so receptive and loved it! So I went into our second lesson so excited, all pumped and ready to teach her about the plan of salvation. But turns out she talked to some pastors of other churches and they confused her soooo much. We were so sad to hear this. She didn’t read the Book of Mormon because they all told her it was bad and of the devil. We explained to her the importance of trusting in god when it comes to things of god. And we told her people will talk bad about our church because it is different and they don’t know anything about it. We read part of the Book of Mormon to her and she was surprised. She said she liked the message and felt like it was from god. And not the devil. She realized it really contains the truth and is a good book and said she would read it and pray about it. But she didn’t go to church Sunday so we are going to try to visit her this week and see what happened.

Thursday: We have an investigator named Ingrid and she is interesting ha. She told us she has fear of finding out the truth. So we talked to her about this a bit and helped her understand that she doesn’t need to have fear.

We talked to her about sincerely praying and asking God. But she understands things a little better so hopefully this will help.

Friday: We got caught in the rain today ha. It’s been raining quite a bit here but today it poured! We were in Lago Norte, which is a huge area and is kind of far from everything else, and as missionaries we like to save our money and walk everywhere instead of taking the bus ha. So we got poured on. We were looking for a house and weren’t really sure where to go so we were just walking in the pouring rain. I got the feeling that we needed to stop looking, turn around and catch a bus. We were starting to approach a part that from what I’ve heard is a little dangerous. So we turned around and started to head to the bus stop. It started to rain even harder, but we got so lucky. A member pulled up and gave us a ride. Turns out he was headed exactly to the same area we were headed towards. Truly a miracle because then we were able to arrive in our area and teach some more instead of waiting forever for a bus. Lots of little miracle happened with the rain this week. It’s almost like the Lord was waiting for us to take shelter, then the rain would pour. This happened several times this week.

Saturday: We had an activity in the area of our district leader. So all the missionaries in our zone participated. We all went out proselyting in their area and gave them a lot of references. It was awesome! We met an old lady in the street and got talking to her. She told us that she was sick and her sister was super sick as well. So we went in and met them and Sister Brito had the feeling that she needed a blessing. So we had the elders come and give her a blessing. It was such a cool experience. I'm so grateful for the priesthood!

Sunday: I walked into church and the first person I saw was the mom of Sister Mercer ha! Crazy!! But I was so happy to see her :) We also had Jose come to church with us and it was really good! That night was a baptism of the dad of one of the members in our ward. The assistants of our mission taught him because his daughter wanted him to be taught by elders first then have us teach him after a few lessons with the elders. He’s super sick so president had him be baptized on Sunday. We missed the actually baptism part but it was cool to talk to him after. He was so happy. Now we just have to teach his wife ha. From what we were told, she is going to be a little bit harder. She is extremely catholic but president tells me every time I see him that we need to teach her and baptize her. So I’m hoping and praying that we will be able to say something that will touch her heart.

Monday: Yesterday we spent the day in Granja Torta. We finally got to meet some people that we have been trying to meet! So it was really good. There are some great members that live there so we are going to try to work with them more and get them to make more visits with us!

We’ve sure got a lot of work to do and I’m so excited! Things are starting to progress and the work is continuing! Thanks for all the love and support :) I hope you all have a good week :)

Love,
Sister Steadman

Another Week in Aza Norte

This week was really good! We were able to contact a lot of people and have some awesome investigators now! Nothing too exciting happened but I’ll talk about the few investigators that we have :)

Jose: We came across him our first week here and he has really been progressing! He reads all the pamphlets we leave with him and he started to read the Book of Mormon! The only thing we are really struggling with him is having him pray with us. But we finally got him a little bit more excited for his baptism and he is starting to feel more comfortable with things. This week we taught him the word of wisdom and it was so funny! He was so surprised to figure out that coffee is actually bad for our bodies, like so surprised but he jumped right on board and agreed to stop drinking it! We talked about having him come to church with us and our first lesson with him this week he said he would. But when we returned to visit him again he said he couldn't come to church with us because he had to go to the fair in another city. He could only go on Sunday because he works all the other days and doesn't want to go at night because he likes to ride his bike there. So we reminded him about keeping the Sabbath day holy and the importance of going to church. And sure enough he was at church with us yesterday :) it was so perfect! For Sunday School it was only him, us missionaries and the teacher, so we were really able to focus on him and the instructor helped him out a lot! And we got him to say the closing prayer! He really is progressing so well and I am so excited for him!

Ingrid: We found Ingrid in the area book and she is a young girl about 19 years old. She is awesome! She does a lot with her religion so I was a little nervous going into teaching her but she is so receptive! She asks a lot of really good questions and really understands everything so well! We weren't able to get her to come to church with us this week but I think she has great potential. One of the young women in our ward made visits with us yesterday and happens to know Ingrid and was surprised to hear that she was receiving our lessons and was reading the Book of Mormon. So I’m hoping that’s a good sign!!

Cleide: She was a reference from the elders and contacted her this week. She is and older lady and works as a maid in one of the houses right by the church. We started talking about the plan of salvation with her and she opened right up. She told us that she smokes but has tried to stop two times with no success but she is confident by learning more about this gospel she will be able to stop. She also told us a lot about the family she works for and asked if we could help them as well. She loved our message. WE spent a lot of time talking about the atonement and our life here on earth. She was sooo receptive and accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 30th of this month. We weren’t able to visit her again because she wasn't home, but we are hoping to visit her again this week!

This week we visited some other people again and they actually were improving! Our first week here we visited a woman named Maria Madalena and she wasn't too interested. Then we stopped by her house again this week and taught her the restoration and it was totally different. She had a different look in her eyes and actually paid attention.

This week we also visited a nursing home. One of the Elders passed a reference for a man in the home so we visited him. Fransico is his name. We walked in and he instantly took us on a tour. He showed us all the bedrooms and introduced us to everyone. It was a pretty small house with maybe 16 people living there but it was fun! We got to the activity room and he made me play the piano for him... ha I don’t know anything without music in front of me so it was a little hard but I played a little bit and he started dancing then got mad when I stopped ha. At the end we gave him a pass along card and told him he could call the number on the back and receive a free DVD about Christ. So we ran to the phone and called the number ha. It was really fun!

Well that’s it for this week. We are just trying to help these people progress and come to know who they really are. I love teaching them and am so honored to be here. Sometimes I think to myself how lucky I really am. Every lesson I teach, every person I share this gospel with, my testimony is strengthened. As I share my testimony, the spirit testifies to me that these things are true. I know this church is true. I love this gospel. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be a part of this great work. I am so grateful that the Lord has trusted me with his children.

I hope you all have a fabulous week! Love you all!

Sister Steadman

District Meeting.  Sister Brito dropped her name tag in the font.

Sister Oliveira made her 9 month mark here in the mish and so this is what us sisters do ha. We had fun with it:)

This is what our companionship study consisted of one of the days this week ha. Sister Brito was trying to be Mia off of princess diaries.

Me and Sister Brito

"What have you done with my name?"

Well this week was good! I'm absolutely loving it here! The work is slow, but this next week is going to be a busy one!

Last P-day, we didn't have any plans for the night so we went out with the other sisters and visited one of their investigators. Her name is Maria Lucia she is an older woman. From what I understand ha.... She had a stroke a couple of years back and lost a lot of control of the muscles in her body, but she has been able to gain back some of this control but still has a hard time talking. So the sisters have been thinking about dropping her because she doesn't read the Book of Mormon a lot and still hasn't gone to church with them. So we went and talked about the Plan of Salvation with her. We focused a lot on things we need to do now to be able to return with our heavenly father. And we finally got her to agree to go to church with us! It was a struggle but we did it! Then the lesson went a little downhill from there...she started doubting and you could tell the devil was working real hard with her. It’s super hard to understand her so we rely on the spirit A LOT when we teach her. But before I knew it I was searching for the scripture in Alma that talks about us gaining perfect bodies when we are resurrected. That seemed to catch her attention. So we were able to get the spirit back and get our message across. And....she came to church with us yesterday! It was so cute! She loved it! After someone bore a testimony that she really liked, she would quietly clap her hands a look at us! It was such a sweet experience with her :)

Tuesday we found out that Sister Cabanilla had mumps. So this week we did a lot of splits so that Sister Oliveira could visit her investigators as well and not sit in the house all week. But Sister Cabanilla is a lot better and is out with us today!!!!!!! It was a bit scary though because I was so scared that Sister Brito was going to catch it! So Wednesday we went to the doctor and she got a shot. I'm so glad I didn't have to get one, ha. Soooo glad!!!!

This week was spent trying to find more people from our area book. We've been able to contact a few but not a ton. But we were very fortunate and had the help of our zone leaders. They came into our area on Tuesday and worked with us. We gave them a list of names and they went out and contacted them for us. So we were able to mark off a few more names in our area book and they were able to give us a couple of references as well.

This Saturday we had a Family History activity in our church. All the missionaries from our zone and people from their wards came. We had some films playing throughout the day then had courses teaching people about family history work and how to do it. So us missionaries went out and invited people. It was great! We received so many references and got a really good turn out!

Yesterday in church we sat down with the stake president and my mission president. We don’t have a bishop in my ward here right now, they haven’t had one for four months now ha. So the stake president is like the bishop. So we sat down with them and they gave us a bunch of people to visit! They are all people who are super interested in the church but for some reason or another haven’t been baptized. So we are hoping to be able to visit all of them this week and get the work moving here :)

This morning in my studies I was reading a general conference talk from November 2010. I can’t remember who gave it but it talked a lot about what we are doing as members of the church. In Helaman 5:6-8, it talks about how Nephi and Lehi were named after the first Nephi and Lehi. It’s the exact same thing with us. We as members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are representatives of Christ. And what are we doing with this name? It sure made me think a lot this morning. As missionaries, people ask us why we are called sister or elder. So we always go on to explain sister is just a missionary nickname. We have our last names because we are here representing our families, but most importantly we wear the name of Jesus Christ. We are here doing the same thing he did when he was here on the earth. We are here preaching his gospel and helping others come unto him. It so important that we wear his name proudly. Not only as missionaries, but as members of the church. We are his representatives. Through us, others can get to know him. I hope to be able to stand in front of my Savior one day without any guilt or sadness.

I know our Savior lives. I know that through his atoning sacrifice we can be saved. As members of the church we are very lucky to have this knowledge, but it is very easy to become lazy with this knowledge. We must continue to learn and grow. Continue to serve our father in heaven and keep our covenants with him. By doing this, we can have everlasting peace and happiness here on earth and in the life to come. I'm so grateful for this gospel and am so honored to be a part of this work. Love you all and hope you all have a good week!

Love,
Sister Steadman