The Secret to Being Rich

This week flew by soo fast, but I feel like this is one of the weeks that I learned the most and that I grew the most as well! Heavenly Father is so perfect! He knows me so well!

The week started out with a lot of walking..... in the hot sun. Its soooo hot here! But we use the heat as an excuse to talk to people and enter the houses so it’s been a blessing as well :) We are starting to get more comfortable with our area now. We have also been able to get to know the members a little bit more this week and help strengthen their testimonies. We have started doing personal progress with some of the young women here and they were so excited to start! The elders had a baptism yesterday of another young women! So we are super excited to get working with them :)

But this week was full of miracles! We have been working so hard trying to find the people that the Lord has prepared for us to teach! And in the beginning it was a little tough. But this week, we felt like the Lord was really blessing us for our efforts. So first we met Rosa. Who was just a contact we made on the street one night. So we went to her house and visited her. And it was a very simple, short lesson. But the spirit was so sweet. And she had the look in her eyes that she was feeling something. That something would be the spirit :) I love watching the spirit work with our investigators!

But, it gets better. Then the next night we met Isabella; another contact in the street. One night we were looking for an address and ran into her. So we went and visited her Saturday morning. And I´ll tell ya, the devil definitely didn´t want us to visit her. He was working really hard with us that day. First off we almost forgot about our appointment with her because we were busy doing some planning. So then we hurried and ran to her house (its a good thing that she lives close to us). We missed her husband by a couple of minutes, but we were able to teach her. And once again, we had such a good sweet spirit during the lesson. But Isabella has visited many churches but still hasn’t found what she is looking for (this is probably one of my most favorite things to hear!!!!) But she doesn’t exactly know what she is looking for. But she is a very spiritual woman. So we started the lesson. And it was going really well. We shared the restoration with her. And first off her son kept walking in and interrupting us. Then her sister showed up but luckily her sister joined in on the lesson. Then her dad came, and think of a man who likes to talk!!! I´ll tell ya, some of these Brasilians just like to hear themselves talk! But we were able to get back to the lesson and he was able to hear a bit of it. Then the Elders called us (I forgot to put our phone on silence). But the part that was amazing to me was that every time we went back to teaching, the spirit came back and he taught the lesson. It was so cool to feel that! Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to go to church yesterday because she had to take care of her siblings. Because her mom died of cancer recently and she has a brother in the hospital with a broken knee. But, she is super excited for our next lesson. And so are we :)

Then, yesterday we had another cool experience! So during the week we were just walking down the street and saw a lady in front of the store and we felt like talking to her. So we went up and started talking to her and ended up visiting her yesterday. Her name is Eridan. So when we showed up at her house she was surprised because she didn’t think we would actually visit her because she lives kind of far away. But she was so excited! Like super excited, ha. But it was really cool to get to know her! She told us that she has already visited many churches but felt like none of them were true. So now she just visits the churches close to her house but she is super excited to visit our church! We had just a very simple lesson with her where we talked about faith and repentance. And she really loved it. She kind of had a wake up call during the lesson because when we talked about faith we said that we have to act upon our faith and do things to strengthen our faith. And she was like, wow that’s what I need to do. Just sitting here at home reading and praying isn’t enough. I need to go to church. So it was super good with her :)

Well sadly, this week I received the death call. The call where the Elders call and asked me what airport I will be landing in when I go home........ sadly, all good things must come to an end. But they come to an end to better things can happen! But it was really weird.

This week I was reading a lot of conference talks from conference in April and I feel like I have learned so much. I’ve also been studying a lot in 2 Nephi and I love the BOM! It seriously is the best! But this week I feel like I really understood what it takes to have a successful future. And this week I read a lot about Nephi and the blessings he receives and the blessings he is promised. The lord constantly tells him that if he is obedient, he will prosper. And what does prosper mean? Its means that he will be blessed spiritually and materially. And it is the same thing for us today. If we really do our best to obey, give it our all. The Lord will bless us. And we see this so many times in the BOM. When the people were obedient, they were blessed and had many riches. But the moment they became prideful, the Lord took it all away. But it all depends on our obedience. If we want to be successful, we need to obey. Just trust in the Lord and obey.

Well I hope you all have a fabulous week! Prepare for conference! But don’t tell me anything because I wont be watching it this weekend. Only the next. But prepare! Remember to always read your scriptures and say your prayers! Love you all!

Com Amor,

Sister Steadman

Raining Miracles

Well today we woke up to a little bit of rain and I couldn’t be happier! I love it when it rains! Monday was Independence Day here in Brasil so we switched our P-Day to yesterday. We spent the day in the apartment building of a member just hanging out, ate lunch then went bowling! It was a lot of fun, :) But this past week has been such a wonderful week! It was such a testimony builder! So here’s what happened.....

First I will start with Ian. So about a week ago we got a referral from the mission of man whose father received a pass-along card of the BOM. So he called and asked for one. So we stopped by his house and no one was home. So during a split, Sister Alves stopped by, met a girl there who didn’t know the man we were looking for but she marked a day to return. Due to our busy life here we weren’t able to stop by the day that we planned but on this Sunday Ian called us and he was a little mad, ha. He was mad because when my comp stopped by and talked to the girl she just left a pamphlet of the restoration and not a BOM, ha. So we stopped by Monday morning and we had the wonderful opportunity to teach him. Ian is a man with 27 years. He saw this pass-along card with a book that was another testament of Christ and became curious so he called. He told us that he has already visited many churches but he still hasn’t found what he was looking for (seriously so perfect!!!) Then he saw the pamphlet of the restoration and read it and answered the questions in the back!! Nobody does this!!! So I was soooo excited! So we sat down in front of his house and taught him and it was such a good lesson! We invited him to be baptized on October 4th and he accepted. After we invited him he said, “I sure hope this church is true”, ha. Oh he is so perfect! So we are super excited about him!!!!!!

As well we found a woman named Ana. This past week we spent Tuesday and Wednesday with a young women Diane who is preparing to serve a mission so she spent the two days with us and it was a lot of fun! But she was the one who actually found Ana for us. We just found her in a bakery as we were buying a snack. Sister Alves always says that our stomachs lead us to the best people and that is so true! We always find good people to teach at the bakery, haha. But we went and visited this woman, started talking about the plan of salvation and she told us the story of how her father died. I just thought it was super cool because we knew nothing of her father but felt like we needed to talk about the plan. Another cool experience:) But we also invited her to be baptized on the 26th of this month and she accepted. Unfortunately she wasn’t in church Sunday but we will visit her this week :)

Then there´s Edivaldo. So one night all of our visits fell through so we decided to turn to the Lord to see what we should do. So we pulled out a list of names that we had prayed, and looked at the list. The first name I saw was Edivaldo so we went to visit him. He is an older gentleman. The first time we visited him I think he was a little drunk so we marked another day to visit him. Then when we stopped by the second time he didn’t want to let us in because his wife wasn’t there. But the third time, his wife still wasn’t there but we taught him anyways. We taught him the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a really good lesson! We left a Book of Mormon with him and he was so excited to receive a BOM. He told us that he didn’t think he deserved it but he took it anyways. We invited him to be baptized and he looked at us and said, "I think I’ve reached the point in my life where I need to make and change. And I think now is my moment. So if I know this is right I will be baptized." I was sooo excited I just sat there and smiled. I was so happy! So he went to church on Sunday and he loved it! The members received him so well! I was so happy about that!

This week has been full of little miracles. I am so grateful to be a part of this work. This week has been proof to me that the Lord is aware of everything little thing that happens in our lives. He loves each and every one of us dearly and if we turn to him in sincere prayer, he will give us the blessings and help that we need. I am so eternally grateful for my Savior. Without Him, none of this would be possible. In our lives, we pass through so many hardships, but through him we can overcome everything. We can see the sunlight again. We can feel at peace again. We can be happy. Never in my life have I been happier. I am so grateful for this gospel. I don´t know where I would be without it. I know that this church is true. I know that today we have a living prophet and that he receives revelations from God. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and I love Him.

I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week. Remember to always read your scriptures and say your prayers because He is waiting to hear from you :)

Com Amor,
Sister Steadman

Splits this week.

Irmã Edina

Picture taken right before I got hit with a wave of water.

:)

I´ll apologize right now because this email may not be very long because I don´t remember a whole lot of what happened this week but I will do my best,:) 

First off, I´ll start with Eduardo......... This week was a little tough with him. We spent a lot of time going over the restoration because he had a lot of questions and was super confused. So we had a lot of lessons with the members with him which helped him out a lot. But he still had the other pastor visiting him a lot because the other church is literally right in front of his house..... tough to compete with. But Eduardo has a very strong testimony of the BOM. So we are focusing a lot on that. But I´m almost 100% positive that he was baptized in the other church last night. We haven’t had a chance to visit him yet but we are going to continue to visit him because he really wants to know which church really is true. So wish us luck and keep him in your prayers!

This week we didn’t see Raimundo at all. He was working a lot and wasn’t home. But he called us a couple of times during the week so that was good. We visited him yesterday and he is still reading the BOM and everything and still wants to be baptized. He just needs a little bit more time. So we set another goal with him to be baptized on the 29th! So cross your fingers that everything will go right!!! 

This week we tried really hard to find some new investigators but we didn’t have much luck. But, we found a ton of less active members!! We really did see some miracles this week finding these people. My highlight of the week would probably finding Irmã Edina, :) So one day we were just walking down the street trying to find some people to teach and we had made a list of less active members and ex-investigators to try and visit. So as we were searching for a house this man walked by and we decided to make a contact with him and talk to him. So we got talking to him and he started saying, "Ya, I know about your church. The men would pass by my house all the time and my wife used to make lunch for them!" I turned to my comp and kind of gave her the look of well this isn’t normal. So we asked if we could meet his wife. So he took us to his house. On the way he explained to us that his wife has lived here for about a year. He still lives in the other city for work. But she moved here about a year ago because she had a stroke and came here for treatment. So we walked in and introduced ourselves to her and she just started crying. She was so happy to see two missionaries in her house! So she explained her situation to us and that she hasn’t been to church since she moved here because it’s too far for her to walk. So we were instantly like well we can have a sister pass by here on Sunday to give you a ride to church. She agreed to that and was so happy that she started to cry again! But then we got talking a bit and my comp was talking to her husband when she turned to me and was like, "How did you find my husband?" So I just explained to her that we were searching for some people close to her house and met him in the street. Then she turned to me and said, "Well, you found who you were looking for." And I lost it. We were all in tears at that point. We truly found who we were supposed to find. The spirit was so strong in her house. It truly was a miracle for us. Up to this point it has been a little difficult for us here in Guará. It’s a richer area so it’s harder finding people who are open to our message. So we haven’t been having a ton of success and vie been really questioning if I have been doing my part and if I am making a difference here. And in that moment with Edina, I knew that it would be ok. I knew that we were doing our part and the lord will put people into our paths. Just my tender mercy of the week, :)

This week I also got to see some of the members that I met while I was in Cristalina so that was really cool! We also went to the old area of Sister Alves and she got to watch one of her old investigators get baptized so that was also really cool! Well that’s about it for this week! Love you all! Hope you all have an awesome week! Remember to always read your scriptures and say your prayers!

Com Amor, 

Sister Steadman