Happy New Year

Well Christmas sure was good here! It was so good to be able to see and talk to my family for a bit! We spent the day with Irma Fabiula, who is absolutely wonderful! She seriously is the best! So we spent the day in their house, eating yummy food and talking to our families. I even got some American food which was the best :) Here in Brazil they celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and midnight so we didn’t get to really participate. But we spent some time celebrating in our house with the other sisters. They loved the stockings from my parents (thank you!!!!) then we ate a fruit cake. Fruit cake is huge here!! They are so expensive too! But a member gave them theirs and it was just chocolate so it was pretty good :) We slept in a little bit on Christmas which was nice as well ha! But that was our Christmas and it was absolutely wonderful :)

They next day we went out and gave some food to some homeless people. I sure love being able to really serve those around us who are less fortunate then we are. It makes me feel good that even if it’s not a lot, i can do a little something to brighten someone’s day :)

Well wave got a baptism this weekend!!!! Luiz will be baptized on Sunday and we are so excited!! It’s amazing to see how much he is changing and how much this gospel is already blessing him! So cool!

Well that’s about it for this week. Not too much happened other than getting Luiz ready for baptism and Christmas. But i hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a wonderful New Year as well! Love you all and remember to read the scriptures :)

Love Sister Steadman :)

McKell and her MTC companions at a Christmas activity

Elder Fonseca sleeping on the way home

McKell's Birthday

Elder Fonseca

Christmas with the President

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and remember the true reason for the season :) Also I invite you all to watch the video the church made of the savior, I don’t know exactly what it is in English but translated from Portuguese to English it is he is the gift. It’s a really good reminder of what this holiday is all about.
Here’s a little about my week:

We moved into our new apartment.....FINALLY!!!!!!! We were so excited but it’s been a little bit of a mess around our place ha. Since the elders were moving into our old place we left everything there and received a bunch of new stuff and it was interesting trying to set it all up. So the elders and others from our zone spent several hours in our apartment setting up our stuff ha. It took forever because we don’t have any tools so it was interesting to watch then improvise and make the best of what we had ha. But we are finally all set up and settled in :)

Wednesday we had our Mission activity for Christmas and it was so good :) First we had a really good training from the assistants then we got to watch frozen!!! It was so awesome! Then we had a talent show! I did a song with the sisters I lived with in Palmas then sang a Christmas hymn with my sisters and some of the elders. It was really good! Then we had an awesome dinner and watched another movie. I don’t remember the name of it but it’s fairly new. Its Ephraim’s something... a church movie about the pioneers. But it was super good!

Thursday we went to a retirement home and sang Christmas songs to them! It was so sweet! They were a hoot! It was fun to take some time and talk to them and get to know some of them!

We didn’t get to visit a lot of our investigators this week because of our move and activities but we did get to visit Luiz!!! We visited him yesterday with some members in our ward and it was perfect. We talked about the plan of salvation with him and he was amazed! He loved it! And we set a baptism date with him!!! So we are shooting for January 4th! So fingers crossed that he feels prepared by them! But he is already so ready. It’s so amazing to see the spirit work in people. It’s amazing to watch and see how the lord starts to bless people as they start to learn more about this wonderful gospel. I love this gospel.

Thank you so much for all your love and support! I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy this holiday :) Take this time to remember our savior and help others as well. But don’t stop with the holiday. Continue to serve those around us. Love you all!

Sister Steadman

The Christmas Spirit

I loved seeing the people here get all excited for Christmas! I absolutely love the Christmas spirit! Here’s a little bit about my week...

This week we were able to visit Luiz and his family and it was so good! We were able to teach him, his mother, his grandmother and his aunt the restoration and it went so well! They seemed to just soak it right up ha!  But really it went so well with them! We invited them to be baptized and they were all for it! They just want to receive an answer first. But they were so ready to receive the message! It was so perfect! We had that lesson with a young man who is waiting for his call to come and he was so perfect! He said exactly what they needed to hear! We tried to visit them again this week but Luiz wasn’t home. So we talked to his grandma a little bit more, but she’s a little more difficult. So we are hoping to catch him again this week.

We also taught the sister of another young man in the ward, Grazielle. She’s a tough one. She has a testimony of this church. She knows it is true, but refuses to go to church and participate. She likes her church way too much! But as we have been talking to her brother and one of the other young men, turns out she doesn’t really know anything about her church. So I’ve come to figure out that they have an awesome music program there and that’s why she likes it so much. Man she is a tough one! She’s had soooo many missionaries visit her and she knows that her baptism in her church isn’t correct but she isn’t willing to leave. As we talk to her she gives us the look of, I’m so bored out of my mind and I want to punch a wall... haha but we keep trying. I’ve learned that some people just need time... some a lot of time ha!

This week in Varjao we’ve had a little bit more success! We met some more people to teach and are returning this week to teach them! Also our investigator Regis is reading the BOM!!!! We are sooo excited! When we stopped by his house he wasn’t there, so his wife, who less active, told us that he has been reading and has been praying as well and is showing an interest again! And as we were leaving he showed up and as us, did she tell you that I read? He was so excited to see us and to tell us about his experience! He had a different light in his eyes! And then he asked us when we would return... he never asks that... so we are super excited! Our only struggle with him is having him recognize his answers. But hopefully this week will good!

We had the elders visit José week which was perfect! We dropped by as well and left an envelope with him so he could write his card. We returned the next day and he wrote the card... we were amazed! And he came to church without us saying anything... he is sooo ready to be baptized! Elder Dobner asked him all the questions and everything! He just needs to say yes! But hopefully this letter will help him.

Well that’s about it for this week. We move apartments tomorrow, we have a mission activity this Wednesday and then Thursday, my birthday, we are going to sing Christmas songs for a retirement home so it should be a good week!

I love you all and hope you’re feeling the Christmas spirit! Have a fabulous week!

Sister Steadman  

This Past Week

Well this past week was a little slow. I feel like we are starting over again, ha. But it still was a wonderful week!!

We spent our last few moments with Eduarda this week and it was so sad! I can’t believe I’ve only known her for about 3 weeks now but I feel like I’ve known her forever! We spent some time with her explaining personal progress. She’s so awesome! She going to be such a great example to her family!

We visited Jose again.... and he just isn’t progressing at all. So we finally just cut him for good. It’s so sad but we need to visit other people and help them. He has the desire but doesn’t want to do anything about it. So we will see if he keeps coming to church. Maybe one day.

As we were making visits in Varjao this week, we found out one of our investigators was moving :(  We were so sad because she was doing so well! But in the process we met one of her friends Maria. She is so awesome! She has a lot of faith and has such a strong desire to help others to come unto Christ, and she isn’t even Mormon! So I told her we could help her serve a mission and she was all for it! So I’m super excited to so where things go with her :)

We finally were able to visit Luis this week, a reference from some of the young men here. He lives in Granja do Torto. He’s about 21 and teaches dance. But as we were talking to him the other day he told us he feels so good in our church and is so impressed by the young men. He came to church yesterday and as he was leaving, he told us it was amazing and he felt so good! He told us he was excited for our next visit. So I’m super excited for him as well! He is so ready for this gospel!!

Well that’s about it this week. I hope you all have had a wonderful week! As Christmas is approaching, try to remember our savior. For he is the reason. Help others have his spirit and help them to feel of his love. I love you all and thank you all so much for your love and support! Have a wonderful week!

All my love,
Sister Steadman

Coincidences and a Pit Stop in Águas Claras

Well this week was sooo good!!! And I am officially staying here in Asa Norte with Sister Brito :) We are extremely happy!

First off I’ll start with Eduarda! We set the date for baptism last week then ended up visiting her on Tuesday. We didn’t have her planned in our visits but we just thought we’d stop by really quickly and see how she was doing and finish teaching her the lessons. It was funny because right as we were walking to the door of the apartments, she was walking out to walk the dog, the first coincidence. Turns out she was having some major doubts. She had stopped reading the Book of Mormon and was afraid of all the changes that were going to take place in her life. So we walked with her for a bit and right as we were up to an apartment building it started to pour so we quickly ran underneath it and talked to her some more. It turned out to be so perfect for her. We were able to answer all of her questions and help her feel more comfortable about things. And because of the rain, our FHE for that night got cancelled so we were able to spend more time with Eduarda. Second coincidence. Her baptism was Saturday and it was absolutely beautiful! We were afraid that people wouldn’t come and support her but people ended up coming and it was so great! She was so happy and excited! The spirit was so strong and it was a really good meeting :)

This week we also came across a girl named Julianna. But first I will tell about our lesson with President Lundgren. We hopped on the bus to Lago Norte and got talking to people on where we needed to get off because we still haven’t worked a whole lot in Lago so we don’t know the area very well still. But we found a girl who just happened to need the same stop as us to we stuck with her and she helped us out. So we arrived in the president’s house and then headed to his friend’s house. It was a really good meeting with them, ha. I guess you would call it a meeting because it wasn’t really a lesson. But we got there and got to know them for a little bit. Their names are Roberto and Silvia. They are both super smart and have the biggest hearts. And he sure loves to talk! So we talked about a whole lot of things and just got to know them. It was really good and he wants us to return! So we will be returning there with the president! I’m not exactly sure when yet because he is super busy with work right now but we will return! But after our visit with them, president gave us the address of his mission president so we walked to go meet him. On our way there I had to use the bathroom really bad! Typical.... So we made a quick stop in the gas station. We gave one of the workers a pass along card and as we were walking away a girl said to us, "hey I’m a member of your church.... Julianna". So we met Julianna Wednesday night. She has been less active for many years now. So we sat there in the parking lot and talked to her for a while and she told us her whole life story, ha. She was a ballerina in the USA for a while and studied at Julian arts, got baptized there, married, divorced and returned. She now is here as an event manager. But it was so good to meet her and she has such a strong desire to return back to the church! So we are going to start working with her. And she happened to give us a ride to the president’s house :)

So we had a nice little trip to Aguas Claras yesterday, ha. As of right now I haven’t been in my apartment for 28 hours, ha. So during one of our lessons here in Asa Norte yesterday it started to rain really hard. So after we headed to the bus stop. As we were walking across the road we saw a bus sideways and one part of the road was completely flooded. So none of the buses were able to pass by. We had no idea what to do. But a lady on the other side of the road asked for help so we went and talked to her and she ended up giving us a ride. So we ended up in Aguas Claras for the night because that’s where she lived. So we stayed there for the night and returned this morning to Asa Sol for the transfers. So it was crazy but we are happy we made it here this morning safely and that we are staying here in Asa Norte. The Lord truly watches over us and puts things in our path for a reason. I know for a fact that everything happens for a reason. We just have to take it as it comes and trust in the lord.

I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week! As you’re preparing for the holidays, remember the reason for the season and help spread the true love of Christ to everyone!
Sister Steadman