Staying in Cristalina

Well today was transfers but luckily, I will be staying here with Sister De Paula!!!!! We are extremely excited. :)

This week was pretty good! We were able to find some more investigators, and finally get some to progress a little more! This week we had our first relief society activity and it was really good! It’s fun to finally have enough people to do these activities. :)

We met two young girls a couple of weeks ago, Jessica and Bruna, and this week we were finally able to sit down with them and teach them! They had been coming to all of our activities, and they even came to church! So we were able to teach the about the Book of Mormon and the plan of salvation and it was so good!! When we taught them about the Book of Mormon they were both so excited to start reading it! Then they were amazed with the Plan of Salvation. It was so cool to see them finally have answers to some of their questions and truly understand this plan. I love teaching the plan of salvation! We invited them to be baptized and they both accepted! So now we just need to talk to their parents...... wish us luck, ha!

This week I was also able to work a lot with some of our recent converts; Gilton who was baptized about 3 weeks ago and Aline who was baptized before I arrived. Gilton told me a little more about his life before he got to know the church and it’s truly amazing how the lord works. He’s got a plan for every single one of us and loves us so much! With Aline she got called as the seminary teacher and she is extremely shy! So we’ve been working a lot with her on talking in front of people and this week the classes start! So we are really excited to see how she does. :)

One funny thing for this week - we were looking for the house of an investigator of the elders and were in an area that we didn’t know yet. We were searching for a house that was more out in the farms. So we came to a strip of houses with a bunch of chickens in the front and a lamb. Ha, this lamb really liked Sister de Paula but she wasn’t to fond of him, ha. So he chased us around for a bit and kept bugging Sister de Paula ha. In the end, we found the house and everything was good. :)

Have a fabulous week everyone!!

Sister Steadman

Growing in Cristalina

Well I feel like this week has flown by! Can’t believe it’s already Monday again! But here’s a quick recap of my week!

I’ll start with Gilton. It’s been such a good week with him! He seriously progressed so much! He reads every day and enters the church website and reads from there too. We talked about a mission with him and he wants to serve! So we are going to start preparing him to serve! And he was baptized this past Saturday! He was so excited! And this next week he wants to take us to visit his sister and some of his friends! So we are super excited to get started working with him!

Irma Carmen helped us a lot this week! We don’t have a lot of investigators right now, but when we visited Carmen she went out with us and we visited some of her neighbors and they came to church with her! She is amazing! She is 63 and has so much energy! She is always ready to serve and is so willing to help! I hope I have that much energy when I'm old, ha!

This week we met a women named Maria de Conceicao and she is awesome! We’ve already taught her the first 3 lessons and some commandments and she tells us every time, I know this is all true, I don’t even need to ask, haha she is so funny! But we were able to meet her daughter and are going to start teaching her daughter as well.

This week we tried really hard to find a family and we were praying super hard. But Sunday came around without any luck. So as we were walking to a members house we walked passed a park and bam! There, sitting on a bench was a family. Like picture perfect kind of family! So we talked to them and they were super interested. So we are going to get working with them! So hopefully it all works out well!

Well thank you all for your love and support! I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember to read the scriptures! Love you all!

Sister Steadman :)

Renovations

Well this week sure was a busy one! We started it out traveling to Brasilia and got a little bit of rain this week.

Tuesday: We had our mission conference and it was super good! We watched the movie ‘Get to Know the Mormons’ and it was so good! So inspiring and I absolutely loved it! If you haven’t had a chance to watch it, you definitely need to! Later that night we arrived in our house about 9 that night and we found out that we didn’t have any energy. So it was interesting, ha.

Wednesday: We went and visited Carmen who was recently baptized and she is the cutest! She is learning how to read and ever since she has been baptized she’s been able to read the scriptures and understand them! She was so happy about that! We still didn’t have any energy so we had to have our English class outside, ha. Only a few people showed up so me and Elder Noyes just taught them parts of our body and our clothes and sang head shoulders knees and toes with them in English, ha. It was so fun! We were able to teach Gilton this day and it was amazing. We taught him about the restoration and he loved it! He was so amazed! He is getting ready to be baptized this Saturday and is so excited! He truly was an answer to our prayers. We were praying so hard to find good men to hold the priesthood and we randomly came across him. We were walking down the street one day and we heard the song `The Club Can’t Handle Me Right Now` by Flo-rida and started dancing in the street a little bit so we decided to knock on his house and he walked out. Truly a miracle!

Thursday: We started the day out with a district meeting which was super good and Elder Zampieron talked a lot about patience and persistence and how our area is so different from others so we have to work a little different here. But it was perfect and exactly what we needed to hear. This area truly is one of a kind. It’s going to be an extremely sad day when I leave. But later that night we had a family night with some less active members and it was really good. We had each of them light a match and while the match was burning, we had to quickly say all of the things they wanted to accomplish in their lives. We shared the `Your Four Minutes` talk with them, I forgot who gave it but it was super good! I really love that talk! Also that night we started our renovation in our church. So we got home that night and the elders had knocked down two walls. They made a hole in the wall so we walked into our house and my desk was covered with brick and dust ha. Still to this day I am still trying to get rid of the dust, ha.

Friday: We spent the morning painting and cleaning the church. And that night for our bible study, we just gathered some of the benches in a corner and Sister de Paula gave the lesson that night while the elders continued working.

Saturday: We spent the entire day getting the church ready. We finished painting and cleaning. We had to move our baptism font, pool thingy, ha. So I was chosen as the one to step into the freezing cold water and bucket out the water, ha. But it was fun! That night we had a family night in the house of Carmen and it was really good! She invited all of her neighbors, ha. While we were waiting, the Elders were doing some magic tricks and one of the little kids was so amazed. He left before the message, then two minutes later he came running back in saying that he had discovered the magic! Ha, he was a hoot!

Sunday: Well we didn’t have too many people in church but we finally had all 3 hours. I got to teach young women's and I loved it! I love the youth! We also got to visit some less active members on their farms. The farms are super far from the city here but they are sooo pretty! Just tons of land and nature!

Well that’s about it for this week. This next week we are focusing on finding new investigators and helping Gilton prepare for his baptism this Saturday so it’s going to be a great week! I love you all and hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Steadman

Like the Pioneers

This week sure was busy but it was so good! We ended up having a lot of activities in the church and a few baptisms as well! Our “group” sure is growing and getting a little bit bigger every week! We joke all the time that we are like the pioneers. We are starting from the ground up, spreading the gospel with everyone that we can!

So our first day here in Cristalina we met a woman named Carmen, she’s 63 years old and probably the cutest old lady I have ever met! She’s got so much excitement about her and loves this gospel. So we’ve been teaching her and we set a date with her for the 14th of this month to be baptized. Well, as we visited her this week, things were going super well and we started teaching her all of the commandments. When we went to ask her how she was feeling about being baptized, she told us that if she could, she would be baptized in that day. So we moved her baptism to this past Saturday and she was baptized! It’s truly amazing to see people get so happy! It was amazing to see. As soon as Carmen made the decision to be baptized and accept this gospel, there was a different light in her eyes. I love helping these people!!

This past weekend was also the baptism of Adrianno! I sure had my doubts about this one but it just goes to show that the Lord still puts miracles into our lives. We were struggling with him. Every time we set up a time to meet with him, he always planned something else or just wouldn’t show up. So finally we got him one night in his house and just sat down with him and asked him what he really wanted. It turned out to be really good and turns out that he just wasn’t feeling prepared for his baptism. So we went over all the commandments and he knew everything. So he was baptized this weekend as well and it was such a beautiful baptism!

So on Saturday, the same day as the baptisms, we started the morning with an activity with the youth! We had such a good turn out! We talked about family history and had them fill out the little booklets to get them started. We had a lot of investigators there and they loved it! After we had lunch with them and they did a little water fight, ha. Then we had a baby shower. It was for one of the investigators of the elders. She’s super young and doesn’t have a whole lot so we tried real hard to make it special for her and a lot of people came to help out! It was so good!  We made some yummy treats and made some cute decorations! Then we had the baptisms.....man was it a crazy day! But it turned out to be so good!

I sure love serving other people! I feel the closest to my savior and feel the spirit so strong when I am out helping those who are in need. I love being a part of this work. I love watching this church grow here and helping them all get started here in Cristalina. We really feel so much like the pioneers.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! Remember to read your scriptures!

Love you all!

Sister Steadman

It's raining baptisms

Lorrane's Baby Shower