It’s Never Too Late For A Miracle

This week truly was amazing!! It started out really good with the baptism of Luiz and just continued from there. We spent a lot of time with Jose this week. So Tuesday night we just stopped by his house really quick to see if he was home and to see how he was doing. And as we were talking to him he asked, “So can we have a baptism this Saturday?”, and we were like “Ya!”... then he said, “Well then let’s have a baptism. I’ll be baptized.”, and he said it all calmly. I seriously almost freaked out! For moment I almost didn’t believe him! It was truly a miracle! So he was baptized this past Saturday and it was such a great baptism!!! He was so happy and cute! But it was absolutely amazing to see the light in his eyes. Never before have I seen the light in someone’s eyes change so quickly. It was like the light inside of him was waiting for so long that it just couldn’t wait anymore! It was amazing! As soon has he made the decision to be baptized, his appearance changed completely! He looked so much happier! It was truly amazing!

Jose's Baptism

Teaching Luiz this week was wonderful as well. He also has such a bright light in his eyes now! But we got talking to him about the priesthood and he was absolutely amazed! He was so impressed that he was going to have the opportunity to have the same power that Jesus Christ had here on the earth. It was truly amazing to watch him. We were also able to teach all of his family together...... FINALLY!!!!! And it was so good! We taught them the first message and they all committed to baptism! The spirit was so strong! It was such a cool experience!

Well transfers were today and....... I got transferred! It’s sad leaving Asa Norte, but I am extremely excited for my new area! I’m opening up a new area in Cristalina! My new comp is Sister de Paula who I lived with up in Palmas! But this area is a pretty small city in Goiás. It doesn’t even have a ward, ha. Maybe only 20 members. But I’m super excited to help this area grow and help them progress in this gospel!!

I’m so excited! I absolutely love this work! I am so grateful to be a part of this wonderful work and helping others come unto Christ! It truly is an amazing experience! Remember that your Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you! He knows you personally and wants to hear from you. Make sure to take the time to sit down with him and talk to him. Tell him about your day and all of your problems. He will help you :)
I 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  

Another Week in Aza Norte

This week was really good! We were able to contact a lot of people and have some awesome investigators now! Nothing too exciting happened but I’ll talk about the few investigators that we have :)

Jose: We came across him our first week here and he has really been progressing! He reads all the pamphlets we leave with him and he started to read the Book of Mormon! The only thing we are really struggling with him is having him pray with us. But we finally got him a little bit more excited for his baptism and he is starting to feel more comfortable with things. This week we taught him the word of wisdom and it was so funny! He was so surprised to figure out that coffee is actually bad for our bodies, like so surprised but he jumped right on board and agreed to stop drinking it! We talked about having him come to church with us and our first lesson with him this week he said he would. But when we returned to visit him again he said he couldn't come to church with us because he had to go to the fair in another city. He could only go on Sunday because he works all the other days and doesn't want to go at night because he likes to ride his bike there. So we reminded him about keeping the Sabbath day holy and the importance of going to church. And sure enough he was at church with us yesterday :) it was so perfect! For Sunday School it was only him, us missionaries and the teacher, so we were really able to focus on him and the instructor helped him out a lot! And we got him to say the closing prayer! He really is progressing so well and I am so excited for him!

Ingrid: We found Ingrid in the area book and she is a young girl about 19 years old. She is awesome! She does a lot with her religion so I was a little nervous going into teaching her but she is so receptive! She asks a lot of really good questions and really understands everything so well! We weren't able to get her to come to church with us this week but I think she has great potential. One of the young women in our ward made visits with us yesterday and happens to know Ingrid and was surprised to hear that she was receiving our lessons and was reading the Book of Mormon. So I’m hoping that’s a good sign!!

Cleide: She was a reference from the elders and contacted her this week. She is and older lady and works as a maid in one of the houses right by the church. We started talking about the plan of salvation with her and she opened right up. She told us that she smokes but has tried to stop two times with no success but she is confident by learning more about this gospel she will be able to stop. She also told us a lot about the family she works for and asked if we could help them as well. She loved our message. WE spent a lot of time talking about the atonement and our life here on earth. She was sooo receptive and accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 30th of this month. We weren’t able to visit her again because she wasn't home, but we are hoping to visit her again this week!

This week we visited some other people again and they actually were improving! Our first week here we visited a woman named Maria Madalena and she wasn't too interested. Then we stopped by her house again this week and taught her the restoration and it was totally different. She had a different look in her eyes and actually paid attention.

This week we also visited a nursing home. One of the Elders passed a reference for a man in the home so we visited him. Fransico is his name. We walked in and he instantly took us on a tour. He showed us all the bedrooms and introduced us to everyone. It was a pretty small house with maybe 16 people living there but it was fun! We got to the activity room and he made me play the piano for him... ha I don’t know anything without music in front of me so it was a little hard but I played a little bit and he started dancing then got mad when I stopped ha. At the end we gave him a pass along card and told him he could call the number on the back and receive a free DVD about Christ. So we ran to the phone and called the number ha. It was really fun!

Well that’s it for this week. We are just trying to help these people progress and come to know who they really are. I love teaching them and am so honored to be here. Sometimes I think to myself how lucky I really am. Every lesson I teach, every person I share this gospel with, my testimony is strengthened. As I share my testimony, the spirit testifies to me that these things are true. I know this church is true. I love this gospel. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be a part of this great work. I am so grateful that the Lord has trusted me with his children.

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

Sister Steadman

District Meeting.  Sister Brito dropped her name tag in the font.

Sister Oliveira made her 9 month mark here in the mish and so this is what us sisters do ha. We had fun with it:)

This is what our companionship study consisted of one of the days this week ha. Sister Brito was trying to be Mia off of princess diaries.

Me and Sister Brito