Showing posts with label Lago Norte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lago Norte. Show all posts

Monday, December 1, 2014

Coincidences and a Pit Stop in Águas Claras

Well this week was sooo good!!! And I am officially staying here in Asa Norte with Sister Brito :) We are extremely happy!

First off I’ll start with Eduarda! We set the date for baptism last week then ended up visiting her on Tuesday. We didn’t have her planned in our visits but we just thought we’d stop by really quickly and see how she was doing and finish teaching her the lessons. It was funny because right as we were walking to the door of the apartments, she was walking out to walk the dog, the first coincidence. Turns out she was having some major doubts. She had stopped reading the Book of Mormon and was afraid of all the changes that were going to take place in her life. So we walked with her for a bit and right as we were up to an apartment building it started to pour so we quickly ran underneath it and talked to her some more. It turned out to be so perfect for her. We were able to answer all of her questions and help her feel more comfortable about things. And because of the rain, our FHE for that night got cancelled so we were able to spend more time with Eduarda. Second coincidence. Her baptism was Saturday and it was absolutely beautiful! We were afraid that people wouldn’t come and support her but people ended up coming and it was so great! She was so happy and excited! The spirit was so strong and it was a really good meeting :)

This week we also came across a girl named Julianna. But first I will tell about our lesson with President Lundgren. We hopped on the bus to Lago Norte and got talking to people on where we needed to get off because we still haven’t worked a whole lot in Lago so we don’t know the area very well still. But we found a girl who just happened to need the same stop as us to we stuck with her and she helped us out. So we arrived in the president’s house and then headed to his friend’s house. It was a really good meeting with them, ha. I guess you would call it a meeting because it wasn’t really a lesson. But we got there and got to know them for a little bit. Their names are Roberto and Silvia. They are both super smart and have the biggest hearts. And he sure loves to talk! So we talked about a whole lot of things and just got to know them. It was really good and he wants us to return! So we will be returning there with the president! I’m not exactly sure when yet because he is super busy with work right now but we will return! But after our visit with them, president gave us the address of his mission president so we walked to go meet him. On our way there I had to use the bathroom really bad! Typical.... So we made a quick stop in the gas station. We gave one of the workers a pass along card and as we were walking away a girl said to us, "hey I’m a member of your church.... Julianna". So we met Julianna Wednesday night. She has been less active for many years now. So we sat there in the parking lot and talked to her for a while and she told us her whole life story, ha. She was a ballerina in the USA for a while and studied at Julian arts, got baptized there, married, divorced and returned. She now is here as an event manager. But it was so good to meet her and she has such a strong desire to return back to the church! So we are going to start working with her. And she happened to give us a ride to the president’s house :)

So we had a nice little trip to Aguas Claras yesterday, ha. As of right now I haven’t been in my apartment for 28 hours, ha. So during one of our lessons here in Asa Norte yesterday it started to rain really hard. So after we headed to the bus stop. As we were walking across the road we saw a bus sideways and one part of the road was completely flooded. So none of the buses were able to pass by. We had no idea what to do. But a lady on the other side of the road asked for help so we went and talked to her and she ended up giving us a ride. So we ended up in Aguas Claras for the night because that’s where she lived. So we stayed there for the night and returned this morning to Asa Sol for the transfers. So it was crazy but we are happy we made it here this morning safely and that we are staying here in Asa Norte. The Lord truly watches over us and puts things in our path for a reason. I know for a fact that everything happens for a reason. We just have to take it as it comes and trust in the lord.

I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week! As you’re preparing for the holidays, remember the reason for the season and help spread the true love of Christ to everyone!
Sister Steadman

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

5 Months Down!

Well another week has come and gone here in the Beautiful Asa Norte! The work is continuing on! 

Monday: Sister Brito and I spent the afternoon in our house. It was really nice to just relax and bit. We watched the few church movies that we have and we made microwave brownies.... ha it was good :)

Tuesday: We had a lesson with Jose, turns out he is 80 years old ha. He’s a funny old man. But we’ve been struggling a bit with him lately and he finally opened up a little bit more and explained some stuff to us. He has told us about his old church he would listen to on the radio but his radio broke so he hasn’t been able to hear more, this happened right before we met him and started teaching him, if this wasn’t a sign I don’t know what it was ha. But he would keep talking about this church and we didn’t understand why. But he finally told us why. He has a desire to be baptized and wants to, but he first wants to write a letter to this church in São Paulo, saying that he is going to switch churches and he wants to tell them all about us missionaries ha. But hey, whatever works for him. The only problem is that he still hasn’t written this letter and won’t let us help him write it. And he still is drinking coffee...... A bit of a struggle for him. He is willing to stop, he just wants to buy sevada first but hasn’t been able to find it. Sevada is like coffee but its church approved ha. We’ve learned we have to be very blunt with him in order for him to understand why. So now he understands, we are just waiting for him to act. So me and Sister Brito and searching for sevada in every store we pass ha. But he was in church yesterday! He has a date set for this Saturday for his baptism but says he isn’t ready yet. So please keep him in your prayers!

We were also able to teach Lucia today. She is a mom and definitely thinks very differently about things ha. She loves to talk about the profound things of the gospel and asks a lot of questions. But I really enjoy teaching her. She is so curious! We still haven’t been able to really sit down and teach her the lessons yet though. Every time we set an appointment with her she ends up calling and canceling, but she still is going to church. So hopefully this week we can help her a little more :)

Wednesday: We started teaching a women named Dilci and our first lesson with her was so good! She was so receptive and loved it! So I went into our second lesson so excited, all pumped and ready to teach her about the plan of salvation. But turns out she talked to some pastors of other churches and they confused her soooo much. We were so sad to hear this. She didn’t read the Book of Mormon because they all told her it was bad and of the devil. We explained to her the importance of trusting in god when it comes to things of god. And we told her people will talk bad about our church because it is different and they don’t know anything about it. We read part of the Book of Mormon to her and she was surprised. She said she liked the message and felt like it was from god. And not the devil. She realized it really contains the truth and is a good book and said she would read it and pray about it. But she didn’t go to church Sunday so we are going to try to visit her this week and see what happened.

Thursday: We have an investigator named Ingrid and she is interesting ha. She told us she has fear of finding out the truth. So we talked to her about this a bit and helped her understand that she doesn’t need to have fear.

We talked to her about sincerely praying and asking God. But she understands things a little better so hopefully this will help.

Friday: We got caught in the rain today ha. It’s been raining quite a bit here but today it poured! We were in Lago Norte, which is a huge area and is kind of far from everything else, and as missionaries we like to save our money and walk everywhere instead of taking the bus ha. So we got poured on. We were looking for a house and weren’t really sure where to go so we were just walking in the pouring rain. I got the feeling that we needed to stop looking, turn around and catch a bus. We were starting to approach a part that from what I’ve heard is a little dangerous. So we turned around and started to head to the bus stop. It started to rain even harder, but we got so lucky. A member pulled up and gave us a ride. Turns out he was headed exactly to the same area we were headed towards. Truly a miracle because then we were able to arrive in our area and teach some more instead of waiting forever for a bus. Lots of little miracle happened with the rain this week. It’s almost like the Lord was waiting for us to take shelter, then the rain would pour. This happened several times this week.

Saturday: We had an activity in the area of our district leader. So all the missionaries in our zone participated. We all went out proselyting in their area and gave them a lot of references. It was awesome! We met an old lady in the street and got talking to her. She told us that she was sick and her sister was super sick as well. So we went in and met them and Sister Brito had the feeling that she needed a blessing. So we had the elders come and give her a blessing. It was such a cool experience. I'm so grateful for the priesthood!

Sunday: I walked into church and the first person I saw was the mom of Sister Mercer ha! Crazy!! But I was so happy to see her :) We also had Jose come to church with us and it was really good! That night was a baptism of the dad of one of the members in our ward. The assistants of our mission taught him because his daughter wanted him to be taught by elders first then have us teach him after a few lessons with the elders. He’s super sick so president had him be baptized on Sunday. We missed the actually baptism part but it was cool to talk to him after. He was so happy. Now we just have to teach his wife ha. From what we were told, she is going to be a little bit harder. She is extremely catholic but president tells me every time I see him that we need to teach her and baptize her. So I’m hoping and praying that we will be able to say something that will touch her heart.

Monday: Yesterday we spent the day in Granja Torta. We finally got to meet some people that we have been trying to meet! So it was really good. There are some great members that live there so we are going to try to work with them more and get them to make more visits with us!

We’ve sure got a lot of work to do and I’m so excited! Things are starting to progress and the work is continuing! Thanks for all the love and support :) I hope you all have a good week :)

Love,
Sister Steadman