The City Life

I´ll be honest, it’s a little weird seeing sooo many apartment buildings and so many fancy cars ha! But, it’s good to be back in Brasilia. :) Here’s a little bit about this week!

Monday: We went and visited the bishop and I can’t even explain my happiness!! It´s so nice to have a bishop again ha! It’s a big relief that’s for sure. :) But he gave us a bunch of names of less active members to look for and find out if they were still living here or not. But he is very active in our work and is so willing to help us out! So this transfer will be really good!!! 

Tuesday: We had lunch with Irmã Eulita and she is the cutest old lady! As we were leaving she asked us if we could iron some clothes for her because she has some back problems. So we spent about the next hour ironing her sheets and hand towels, ha. But we spent most of the day looking for the less active members and I spent most of the time trying to figure out where I was. Ha, it’s hard because it all looks the same!

Wednesday: We had lunch with an Irmã who served a mission and it was super cool to hear some of her stories! I love mission stories! But this day I met one of the investigators here, who has been going to church since 2000. And he already knows everything and has a strong testimony. And you’re probably wondering why he hasn’t been baptized yet? Well, let me explain. Irmão Sebastião is an older gentlemen who is afraid to be baptized. I don’t know if any of you have heard about the mark of the beast of the chip. In revelations (at the moment I have forgotten what chapter) it talks about the mark of the beast. So all of the evangelist here have been saying that this chip that the government wants to put inside of us is this mark and it’s a huge deal to them. So he talks a lot about this chip and it’s really confusing sometimes, ha. But our district leader is going to do an interview with him this week to see what he really is needing so we can continue to help him. :)

Quinta-Feira: We had our first split!!! So because I am still very new in the area I went to Gama Centro and worked there with Sister Goncalves which was super awesome!! I absolutely loved getting to know her more! But we were able to find some awesome people for her to teach! It’s so nice being around sisters again. :)

Friday: We spent a little bit of time in the afternoon helping the sisters here set up for an activity so it was nice to get to know more members. I also met another one of our investigators. His name is Jefferson and he is super awesome!! He has a date for June 11^th. But he already knows everything. The sisters have been visiting him for about the last year, ha! He just needs to stop smoking! But he is doing a lot better and I really believe that he will be able to be baptized on the 11^th. :)

Saturday: This day I received the quote of the week from Sister Alves “If the devil were to have one good quality, it would be that he is a hard worker. He is very diligent in his work" haha haha. She makes me laugh! But this is so true! We see so much how hard the devil works! But we also see how much the lord works! That night I got to meet one of the families we are teaching and they are so perfect! They have 3 little boys 11, 7 and I think 4. But up to this point, we haven’t had much success with the dad. But the mom, Gilcelene, said Saturday night that she and the boys would go to church whether her husband, Assis, would go or not. So she showed up in church yesterday and loved it! The boys loved it as well! So we visited them again and set dates for the 29th. But we don’t know if they are legally married or not, ha!

I have only had one week here so far but I am already seeing so many miracles! I am really able to see the Lord’s hand in our work. There have been moments where I can really feel the spirit so strong and we leave a lesson and I have no idea what we said, ha. But I know the spirit is doing his job. :)

This week I was also reading in the ensign for this month and came across a talk that I really liked. It’s called "How we Preach of Christ in our home" I would like to challenge all of you to read it and study it and see how you can change the atmosphere in your home. :) 

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

Sister Steadman

Changes, Familiar Faces and New Challenges

Well, as I am sure you all know by now, I have been transferred! It was sad leaving Cristalina, but I have left it in good hands. :) But before I talk about my new area I will start with this past week. And I will try to be a little more descriptive because Sister Dixon got a little mad at me ha... So I’ll try to be better, ha!

The miracles started Tuesday night. After a long day of working and not finding anyone in their home..... we were heading home and ran into the elders. So we got started talking about our day and everything, then they told us about their day. And they told us about a family they found of 9 people. They told us that the family was super awesome, the lesson was super awesome and they were able to mark baptism dates with almost all of them! Then..... here’s the good part..... they told us that this family lived in our part of the area!!!!!! Oh we were soooooo excited and happy!!! Finally after a long transfer we found a family!!!! So Thursday night we went and visited them. But first we ran into the mom, Bethania, in another house earlier that afternoon. And we could tell that right from the beginning she was really looking for the truth! So that night we went and visited, we taught them the first lesson, showed them the video of the first vision and it was more than perfect!!  They were all paying attention and loved it! Oh we were sooooo excited!!!! After the lesson we were walking in the street talking about how it went, and Sister Costancio was jumping in the street and screaming because she was so excited, and the older son of the family showed up beside us on his bicycle laughing at us, hahaha...... que vergonha [How Embarassing]! But we were super excited!!!

Also this week I was studying a little bit in the end of Alma in the Book of Mormon and I have decided that if I were ever to be a captain of war, I’ll just read Alma and follow captain Moroni and Helaman. They know exactly how to win. :) That is by having the Lord on their side of course... ha. :)

This week was a little hard with Denis. We tried to visit him every single day, but we were not able to find him. We finally found him one night this week, but we found him just a little drunk..... so of course we sat down and taught the word of wisdom, ha. We returned the next day and made sure that he really understood. But this week he just wasn’t feeling ready to be baptized. So he will most likely be baptized this following weekend. 

Saturday night we had our Fest Junina!! It was super fun! So the month of June here is kind of a big deal for the Catholics here in Brasil. They have a holiday, which name I have forgotten, but basically everyone in Brasil celebrates. So they have a big party where they all wear plaid shirts and dresses, boots, hats, things that farmers wear. Then they dance and dance and eat and dance and eat a little more ha! It was a lot of fun! Of course we didn’t get to participate in the dancing.... but it was fun to watch! Sister Costancio and I were able to find some plaid shirts so we could participate. :)

Yesterday was my last Sunday teaching Relief Society. But it has been such a good experience being able to prepare the lesson every Sunday! And I have officially decided that the teacher definitely learns a lot more than the people in the class!

Well I also passed my one year mark this week..... so weird! Sister Costancio and I were commenting that it doesn’t feel like we have been out for a year but then at the same time it feels like we have been gone forever!!! But time is flying by sooo fast!!!

Well Friday night we found out that we were transferred. So we packed everything up and left Sunday afternoon. We stayed with the Sister trainers in Guará 2. So last night as we were getting ready for bed, the assistants called and told me to leave my luggage in the Sister’s house and the next day they will pick it up and take me and my new companion to our new area..... ya let’s just say that the assistants aren’t really good at lying, ha. So it was confirmed this morning. So now I am in Guará 2 with Sister Alves, minha mãe!!! My first companion here in the mission!! I was super excited! But being here in Guará 2 means that I am a Sister Trainer. Which means we will be doing splits every week with the sisters, helping them out and stuff.  I’m super excited and honored for the opportunity but a little nervous. But it will be good. :) It will be good to get to know all of the Sisters. :) 

Today I finally got to see my companions from the CTM [MTC]! I was so happy! When I saw Sister Dixon I ran up to her, gave her a huge hug, and we started to cry, hahah. I know we are babies.... but it’s been almost 7 months since I have seen her! So that was super cool!

Well that’s about it for this week! Sorry, no pictures this time but I will try next week! Well, I love you all and hope you all have a fabulous week!

Love Sister Steadman

The Lord's Invitation

Well, just like always, another wonderful week has come and gone here in the wonderful Cristalina. This week was hot, and included a lot of work! But in the end it was good :) 

So to start out the week we had a family night with one of the investigators of the elders. It was a proud moment for me and my companion because it’s a family we found in the hospital when Sister Costancio was sick. But it was really good to spend some time with them and get to know them better :) But it’s just amazing to see how much the gospel really changes lives. The wife, Fabiana was telling us how much the gospel has changed their lives in such little time! But it’s so true! The moment we give ourselves to the Lord, the same moment he starts blessing us! I love seeing how the gospel blesses families :)

This week with our investigator, Denis, has been really good! He wants us to visit him every day so that’s what we have been doing! And he is already inviting everyone he knows to go to church and to sit in with us on our lessons, ha! But this week as we were going to visit him one day, we found him talking to his neighbor who is a pastor.... My first thought was “Oh Crap..." So we were introduced to the pastor and the pastor gave us his thoughts on baptism. I don’t know why but almost all of the pastors here think that people should wait 6 months or so to be baptized. It just doesn’t make sense to me. But we had a nice chat with the pastor, luckily for us he was very friendly and he just wanted to preach to us a bit. So we let him do his thing, then we were on our way. So we sat down with Denis and just kind of asked him how he was doing, how he was feeling. And he said, “I’m doing good. But don’t worry, I don’t listen to anything that pastor has to say. He just wants me to go to his church. But I don’t want to. And he wants me to wait to be baptized. But I can´t wait. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow!" hahaha we laughed when he said this but we were super happy! So Denis is strong and firm and will be baptized this Saturday!!! Woohoo!!! We are extremely excited :) 

But other than Denis, we just visited some contacts that we made in the street and have been finding new people, and cutting more people, ha. We had the opportunity to travel to another city yesterday with our group for stake conference. Our stake was divided and we are now a new stake. But we still haven’t become a branch... but it will happen soon enough :)

But one of the General Authorities gave a talk yesterday that I thought was so good! So lately, the first presidency and our leaders have been talking a lot about the Sabbath day and what we really should do on this day. So the General Authority (whose name I have forgotten...ha) went on to explain a little more about this. He started out by saying what would we do if we were invited by the savior to his funeral. How would we react... and so on. Then he went on a little more about taking the sacrament. That literally Christs body lays upon the sacrament table. It made me really think about what we do during the breaking of the bread to really remember our Savior. Are we playing with our phones, talking to others? What are we doing to keep the reverence? He compared it with our baptism. We weren’t baptized with our phones in our hands. When we partake of the sacrament it is like we are being baptized again. Our attitude during the sacrament reflects our love for our Savior. This made me really think about what I am doing to show my love for my Savior. 

Well that’s about it for this week! Next week is transfers, who knows what will happen! But I hope you all have a wonderful week! Be safe! And for this week, I want you all to remember to study the words of the living prophets :) (had to change the challenge because my dad has now stolen it from me, ha) Love you all!

Love,

Sister Steadman