A Burning Feeling

Boa Tarde Gente!! How are you all doing today? Today I’m doing great because it is raining, haha. Today was transfers and luckily I will be staying here with Sister Aldana! We are very happy about that :) Three of the four elders here got transferred and we will only find out which ones are coming here when they arrive, which will most likely be tomorrow or Wednesday.

But, this week was really good. It was super hot!!!! But good :) But here when its hot, its hot and there´s nothing you can do about it! When we are out in the street we get fried, but when we enter a house we bake, ha. But the Lord was so nice and blessed us with a little bit of rain one day last week and today :) So, we are still alive :)

But anyways, this week flew by once again. But this week was a really good week! My comp and I were commenting last night on how much stronger the spirit was this week. We had a couple of lessons where the spirit was so strong that people were in tears and I was on the edge of tears! But, it really was such a good week!

So two weeks ago we started teaching a woman named Bia. She lives alone with her 2-year-old daughter Kathleen. In our first visit she was super receptive and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. The second we met her ex-husband and we talked to them about the importance of prayer and gave her the pamphlet of the Restoration. So this week we went back to visit her and we taught her the first lesson and I’ll just tell ya, it was really good! It was one of those lessons where the spirit led every word. She took in everything and was so excited to receive the Book of Mormon!! The only down side is that she works almost every Sunday, but she is excited to go to church and get to know more!

Then this week we spent some more time with Alsirene and her family :) They live just one street above us so we see them in the street a lot and every time her kids see us they come running to us and ask when we are going to visit them again. I sure love her kids :) She has a daughter, Estefani, who is 10 and she is super smart! In one of the lessons we asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon yet and she said no. But she said she really wanted to start reading it because it has a good name and so she thinks it is a good book. This week we have slowly been teaching them the Plan of Salvation. Unfortunately, they weren’t in church yesterday. We stopped by yesterday morning before church and nobody answered but we are going to stop by tonight and see what happened.

Yesterday we had some way awesome lessons as well! On Saturday we met a girl in the street named Yasmin who is 14. She told us that her family was looking for a church and told us how she has been to a couple of churches already. Basically all the stuff we love to hear :) So we went back to visit her yesterday and we met her Godmother, Raquel. So we got talking and we started to teach the first lesson, the Restoration. And it was going so perfectly! But of course, right as my comp was talking about the first vision a bunch of people entered the house, making a ton of noise and talking to Raquel and Yasmin.... super annoying. But we were able to bring the spirit back and my comp finished. But the coolest part was when we went to bare our testimonies. The whole time Raquel had that look in her eyes that she just wasn’t listening to our message, but she was feeling the truthfulness of what we were teaching. I love these moments! But when we bore our testimonies the spirit was so strong that is was tangible! And Raquel started to cry. So we invited her to be baptized and she accepted. But we didn’t mark a date because we think she has a boyfriend and we need to make sure that they aren’t living together. But for sure, she will be baptized :)

Then last night we went and visited Leo and Bella. I will admit, I wasn’t really looking forward to it because I didn’t want another lesson of him trying to prove us wrong. But we promised to return one more time so we went. The whole day we were praying for the spirit to really guide us in our lesson with them that they would be able to feel that what we were saying was true. And we really didn’t want to cut them because we haven’t been able to teach them anything else other then the first lesson and we really wanted to help them know a little bit more. So we went into the lesson planning to teach the Plan of Salvation. So when we arrived, there was a different feeling in the house. They were a little bit more quiet then usual and didn’t seem quite as happy. So as we got talking to them they told us that they had a really rough week that a lot of things happened so they were a little down. So we decided to talk about our purpose here in life and the Atonement. We only used scriptures from the Book of Mormon and it was perfect!! By the end Leo was emotional and said it was exactly what he needed to hear! But once again, it was all the spirit. The lessons we had this week were only possible because of the spirit.

Well, one more transfer left. It’s a little strange but its gotta happen sometime. One thing that I am so grateful for, is my testimony. Before the mission I thought I was ok. That I was prepared for whatever life would bring. But that is so untrue. I have learned so many things here on the mission that has only strengthened my testimony. I’m so grateful for everything that I have been through here on the mission.  I’m grateful for everything that I have learned as well. I’m grateful for the testimony that I have gained. I’m grateful that every time I share my testimony, the spirit confirms for me that this gospel really is true. I’m grateful for my Savior. I’m grateful for my Heavenly Father. For all the things he has taught me to prepare me for my future. I’m so grateful for this gospel. I don’t know where I would be without it :)

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week. Keep reading the scriptures and saying your prayers. Work on your own testimony and share it every opportunity that you have. Love you all!

Com Amor,
Sister Steadman

Let the Spirit Speak

Well time is flying by so fast I just can’t catch my breath! Literally, climbing these hills everyday is really getting to me, ha! But this week was wonderful!

This week was an adventure! We had cut a lot of our investigators so this week we explored our area a little more and found some way awesome people to teach! First off, we found Ana Paul. We had the Sister trainers come and spend a little bit of time with us this week so one morning me and Sister Alves went out and made a bunch of contacts. And we came across Ana Paula and her daughter Rafaela who is 4. So we sang them a hymn and marked the next day to visit them again. So I went back with Sister Aldana the next day and we taught her the Restoration. And it was a super good lesson! She made comments and participated and even said the closing prayer! Usually with people here we have to bribe them a bit to get them to say the closing prayer, but she willing said it!

These past few weeks we have been doing personal progress with some of the young women and this week we were really seeing the fruits of the work! They are turning into such beautiful women! In the beginning it was a struggle to get them to pray, but now they fight over who will pray, ha! But they are so excited to get working on the next experiences! We also split classes yesterday in church! We were going to start this week with just splitting the youth and kids from the adults during Sunday School because we don’t have a lot of members to help teach all the classes. So we showed up yesterday and they decided to do all three hours so I gave the lesson in Relief Society yesterday. But from what is was told I will now be in charge of the YW and one of our members here will take on the Relief Society! So I’m super excited about that!

One struggle that we have here in Paracatú is that no one goes to church! Nor wants to! So it’s been a challenge, but yesterday Alsirene showed up! So we visited her a couple of times this week just helping her out with her kids a bit and teaching her little bits of our lessons. And one night we caught her husband as well so we sat them down and read the Book of Mormon with them and it was perfect! The spirit was so strong! So we passed by quickly Sunday morning before church and reminded her because we had an hour change here so everyone forgot. So we passed by and she ended up going to church by herself. But she really liked it! So our plan this week for her is to set a date for baptism! Please send some prayers her way!!

Last night we visited Leo and Bella. So we got there and he told us that he had 2 questions that he wanted to ask. So we said a prayer and we let him do the talking. So he pulled out his bible and started to read it to us. He has been struggling a lot with the fact that Joseph Smith saw God and the Son. And every time we visit him we invite him to do the same thing, to pray and ask God personally. But he always turns to the bible. So he spent about 40 minutes explaining to us that God doesn’t appear to man and that Jesus was the last prophet here on the earth and that there couldn’t be another. We have showed him all the scriptures before, but scriptures just weren’t what he was needing. He needs a personal answer from God. So we sat there quietly listening and when he ended we asked him 1 question. If he had asked God if Joseph Smith was a prophet and Bella said that she has but Leo no. So we sat there and bore our testimonies of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We quickly said a prayer and booked it out of there to let the spirit do his work. But we are going to give them time to see if they really will seek for God or not.

Well that’s about it for this week! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Remember to always say your prayers and read the scriptures! For in the scriptures, you will find peace and answers :) I love you all!

Com Amor,
Sister Steadman