He knows YOU

Well hello everyone! I hope you all have had a wonderful week! Mine was good :) This week flew by so fast I’m not really sure what happened ha. But I’ll try to remember :)

So this week we went and visited the family that we are teaching; Dagma and Aldo. We walked in and sat down, started to talk to them and I felt like we were in the middle of a marriage counsel class or something like that, ha. They started talking about their problems and then Aldo asked us what we thought about some stuff. And as missionaries we can’t really give marriage advice, especially because we have never been married, ha. So we just explained the importance of family and stressed family prayer a lot. They were more open in this visit then the other and are more willing now to do these things for their family. So we are going to focus more on what is going to help their family while we teach them. But I am super happy with them because before with the other missionaries they didnt really care much and didnt want much. But now they are more willing to change and do what I best for the family. So please please, please keep them in your prayers!!!!!! 

This week was fun with one of our less active members Davi. So as we visited him we asked him about some of his friends and he started naming a ton of them. So then we went out and tried to visit them, ha. He was super excited and was being all cool about it. So he prepared a scripture to read to one of them as well. So the scripture he read was 2 Nephi 4:3 which says:

“3 Wherefore, after my father had made an end of speaking concerning the prophecies of Joseph, he called the children of Laman, his sons, and his daughters, and said unto them: Behold, my sons, and my daughters, who are the sons and the daughters of my firstborn, I would that ye should give ear unto my words.”

Haha, so when he read that we were a little confused. Oh well. He did his part :)

For our splits this week we went to Gama Sul and I spent the day working with Sister Aparicio who is from Argentina. It’s a smaller city so it was nice to be in a place a little bit more humbling again and I really liked spending the day with her :)

Then we did a split with the sister in Ceilandia and I spent the day with Sister Amaral who is from the Rio Grande do Sul. 

So this week my comp shared a scripture that I really like that I would like to share with you all. 1 Nephi 21:15-16,

“15 For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

This scripture always leaves me thinking. We meet so many people in our lives, talk to so many that we wont remember them all. And they will most likely forget us too. But there is one who will never forget us.  And that is our Savior. He always will remember us. I really like the second verse because he died for every single one of us. Our names are written in his hand. He knows every one of us personally. So in any moment we always have someone to turn to. I hope you all remember this and use the atonement of Christ in your lives.

Well I love you all and hope that you all have a wonderful week! Remember to read your scriptures and say your prayers:)

Com Amor,
Sister Steadman

"I Still Haven´t Found What I´m Looking For" ~U2

Thanks to hearing this song in the street this week, I got my title for this email, :) Because we just still haven’t found what we are looking here which would be our golden investigators. But I still have hope that we will find them.

I made a nice list of everything that happened this week, but I left it at home, ha. So I will do my best to remember everything, :)

Well as being a Sister Trainer that means we deal with all the needs of the sisters. That also means when they have a problem they call me to call Sister Lundgren and translate everything over into English. And I have learned this week that, that is very hard for me, ha. But with practice I am getting better! But it was crazy! At one point I was speaking in Portuguese, then I would have to try and figure out how to say it in English. But in the end it all worked out and I only accidentally said a few things in English to my comp, ha.

This week we really tried finding some new people to teach and tried to visit everyone from the week before. Not too many good results, but we did end up finding some new people last night who seemed really interested so we were excited about that!

Wednesday we did a split with the sisters in Gama Sul and I stayed in my area with Sister Stratford who is from Sandy, :) So it was cool to be with an American! She is in her second transfer of the mission. But I felt so bad for her this day because all of our appointments fell through. We had a feeling that this would happen so me and my comp made a backup list of a bunch of people we could visit. But as the day went on, no one was home. And it was cold and rainy, ha. But she was a super good trooper about it all so it still was a good day, :)

We visited Jefferson this week a little bit and explained the temple for him and he really liked that! Makes me really miss the temple, ha. But he is still going to church and reading the book of Mormon. Yesterday in church he stayed in all three meetings for the first time!!!! We were super happy, :)

This week we also met a young couple, Everaldo and Tainará. They were super interested in the Plan of Salvation and we taught the first part of the first lesson. We will be visiting them again tonight. So I´m pretty excited about them!!

This week we also met a less active family. The mom and her two daughters are members but her husband and his son aren’t. So we got to know them a little bit and just casually invited them all to church. And yesterday in church they showed up! It was a huge surprise to us and we were super excited!!!

Friday, we did another split but this time we both went to the city of the sisters because it was so far away. So we traveled to Cabeceiras. It’s a little small town and it reminded me so much of Cristalina, :) I loved it, :) ha, but at one point we took a one hour bus ride into the town and it was so full of people that we had to stand the whole time and hold onto the railing on the ceiling. For a missionary this is no big deal. But about half way through the trip Sister Alves turned to me and was like, ya know, the atonement pays for this as well. Ha, it made me laugh but it definitely got me thinking. The atonement really pays for every little pain and affliction we go through in this life. I feel like this is something we all forget too easily.

This week I was thinking a lot about our testimonies. As human beings we have a tendency to want to know the whys and because of everything that happens. But when it all comes down to it, our faith is what matters most. As we see in the past and even today, we as human beings are not perfect. Every single one of us makes mistakes. Including leaders of our countries and church. But this should not change how we feel. We must always trust in the Lord and the faith that we have. I know that one day, everything will make sense. One day we will receive our explanations, but as for right now these things just aren’t important. I know the Lord has a plan for every single one of us. But we must stay firm in our faith and stay on the right path.

Well I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week! Remember to always read your scriptures and say your prayers!!!

Love,
Sister Steadman