A Crazy Week

Well this week sure flew by so fast! So many things happened! But, best of all it was so good to talk to my family :) But here’s a load down of my week here in Cristalina :)

Last Monday we did an activity for our district here. We planned on walking to a club that has a beach so we could visit it and take some pics. Well in the end, it turned out to be about 12 kilometers away so we ended up walking for six hours that day! We were all dead and by the end we could even walk straight, ha. But we spend the night in a pizza place and ate a good dinner, ha. 

Wednesday morning I set up an interview for Maciele and Elder Todt (leader of my district) because we really felt like she just needed to talk to him to feel better. So we sat there while they had the interview and she came out and was like well, if I’m going to get baptized I’ve got to be baptized soon! So she was like let me grab my planner. So she grabbed her planner and looked at us and said, "Can I be baptized today at 4:30?" haha, we said of course! So we hurried and ran home and got everything ready! It was so cool! 

This week my comp wasn’t feeling too good so we took it a little slower so she could recover. Friday night we were in our house making some cookies for a surprise birthday party for one of the Elders when she got super sick. The Elders started freaking out and told me that I had to run her to the hospital because they thought she had dengue. So I ran her to the hospital and we ended up staying there for 7 hours...... until 1 in the morning. But in the end she just has a little cold. So we’ve been laying low so she could get better and she is doing a lot better now :)

Saturday I got to talk to my family!!!! And Nivaldo was baptized that night! Ha, he was so scared to go under the water but it all worked out! He only has one leg so he was super nervous about that but two elders helped him. But when he came up from the water he freaked out because he was so scared, ha! But he was so happy after :)

Well today is the transfer and I’ll be staying here with Sister Costancio and we only have one Elder that was transferred. The new Elder is Elder Barker, I worked with him when I was in Asa Norte so I already know him a little bit! But we are all super excited! And this next transfer is going to be great :)

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep reading the scriptures and saying your prayers! Love you all! 

Love,

Sister Steadman

Nivaldo's Baptism

What is Faith?

Well it sure has felt like this week has flown by!! So crazy! And this transfer! This transfer was a little different because it was only five weeks so it flew by way too fast! And I’m basically 100% sure that I will be transferred next week. So I’m working as hard as I can to leave everything set and ready for the next sister :) But this week was a really good week! 

On Monday, Alessandra and Edson finally got married!!! Investigators of the Elderes. But they have been waiting for months now! So they were finally able to get married and then they were baptized that night! It was so exciting!!! 

Our investigator Nivaldo is progressing so well!!! He seriously was so prepared by the Lord! This week we taught him the word of wisdom and at first he was a little nervous because he drank a lot of coffee throughout the day, ha! But we gave him cevada (it’s like coffee but a lot healthier and it’s not against the commandment) and he’s been drinking it every day! He said he’s had a few headaches but by the end of the weekend he was perfectly fine! So this week we are just going to finish teaching him everything and he will be baptized this Saturday!!!!! We are extremely excited!! Also, the other day when we were teaching him his friend walked in and we could tell that he had drunken a few.... so Nivaldo started teaching him why it was bad to drink, haha it was so funny! But we are extremely happy with him :)

We weren’t able to visit our family as much as we wanted to this past week but they aren’t progressing as well as we expected. They weren’t in church yesterday and one of the girls is avoiding us.... So we will see what happens this week. 

We were able to find a couple of new investigators that we think have a lot of potential so hopefully things work out this week! Also Thursday night we had a surprise birthday party for one of our members, Mariano, who helps us with everything! 

But today I had a little bit of time to reflect on my time here in Cristalina and it has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have been so amazed by the members and I have learned so much. But one thing that I am so impressed with is the Faith of these members. Faith. It’s a simple word. Just five letters. But it’s a word with so much power. It’s a word we here often, but do we truly understand the meaning of faith. But through the scriptures we learn that faith is believing in things we can’t see. Faith is having hope, and faith is acting upon what we believe. Through faith, we can have miracles in our lives. Through faith we can accomplish just about anything we want, as long as it is according to the Lords will. But, this short amount of time I’ve had here in Cristalina, I’ve learned more about faith then I ever have in my life. The people here have so much faith. But it’s easy to tell who really believes and who just says that they believe. Those that have faith are in church every single Sunday. Our church may be small and simple, In fact it’s just a little house with a few benches and chairs, but they people who really believe and have faith, are there every Sunday to learn more and to renew their covenants with the Lord. These are the people that amaze me. The pathway of the Lord isn’t an easy pathway. Its straight and narrow. It’s full of hardships and trials. But it’s the only pathway that will give us true happiness and that will lead us to our Heavenly Father. The members here now this. They know it’s not easy. They tell us all the time that the pathway of the world is a whole lot easier. But that’s not where they find true happiness. That’s not where we will receive blessings. The world may say it has many promises and wonderful things, but they are only temporary. The pathway of the Lord has blessing and promises much greater than anything else this world has to offer. And the only way we can stay on this pathway is through our faith. By walking with our eyes of faith.

I am so extremely grateful for this gospel in my life. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and everything he has prepared for me. I love this church and this work.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! And happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful Mothers out there! And a special shout out to my wonderful mother! If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be where I am today! But seriously... If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be here on the earth, hahaha. But I love you so much mom! Thank you for everything! And Happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful sisters and sister in law! I love you all so much and am very grateful for your examples! I can’t wait to talk to you guys on Saturday! Have a Fabulous week!

Love,

Sister Steadman

"Crystals" in Cristalina.

This week was super good for me and my companion!!! This past weekend we were able to have a baptism! The brother of one of our members was baptized and he got to baptize his brother! Well.....it was an interesting baptism, haha. 

This week, finally in my mission, we found a family!!! We are soooo extremely excited! And this family is so perfect! It’s a Mom, Maria Eunice, and her four kids, Camila, Veronica, Victor and Rafael. They are the cutest! As soon as we met them they were super interested! They have been reading the Book of Mormon and read all the pamphlets that we give them! Maria Eunice was telling us that her two little boys are always reminding her that they need to read and they were so excited to go to church! They are progressing so well! Last night we stopped by their house to see how they liked church and we ended up marking a date with them! So they will be baptized on May 9th! We are super excited!!!! If you couldn’t tell, ha.

Also we have another investigator preparing for baptism on May 9th, Nivaldo. He is an older gentleman who lives alone. It was funny in the beginning with him because he had the hardest time understanding us! He was so focused on our accents that he didn’t pay attention to our message. But it’s better now. In the beginning he would always ask us, "does your church only have people like you guys?", haha but we reassured him and told him it’s full of Brazilians, ha. But he has been in church the past two Sundays and loves it! He’s really understanding everything and is progressing so well! We are super excited for him!

This week we also found some other people who I think have a lot of potential! So we will see how this week goes with them, :)

I’m sure loving it here in Cristalina! This city is full of Crystals!!  This city has soo much potential! I can’t wait for the day to hear that this town will have a ward! It’s so cool to see how far they have come. From only 6 members and having meeting in one of the members’ house, to now having almost 60 people in church every Sunday! It’s the coolest thing! I love this church!!!

Well I hope you all have a fabulous week! Keep reading the scriptures! I love you all!

Com Amor

Sister Steadman