August 10, 2015

Weekly Update

This week flew by. We are continuing to teach Adriano and he´s pretty cool! We also started to teach Maria! She is 87 and so cute! We teach very simply and with pictures, I asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said "topo tudo". There is a lot of work here in Maria Rosa! The family of Marriam and Jossario is super cool. They are recent converts and have a son Arthur who is 9 and isn´t baptized so we set a date for him and will start teaching him this week! This week I learned the importance of gaining investigator´s trust. When they relate to you and tell you about themselves it really makes the relationship so much better, and the people are easier to love because you can understand where they are coming from. We need to love all of the people here so our teaching is affective and how God wants it to be. The same thing with forgiving someone, if you can put yourself in their shoes it is easy to love. Arthur needed a TV for his school for a culture fair, but Marriam didn´t have time because she works and so we made the TV and it was "shique" and we grew closer to the family. Service is great!

This week we followed up on a reference we received from the ward for a member´s neighbors. They are a couple who are super super friendly and nice. They asked great questions and appreciated the Books of Mormon we gave them. And very special, they gave us flowers! They are very pretty. Tomorrow we have another divison! This time I will stay in Maria Rosa and Sister Caravanus an Aregtinian and our other Sister Training leader will come here. She is super nice I´m excited, but also very nervous because I will be guiding her around the area to our appointments etc. The Portuguese is still coming which is good, everyone tells me I speak well, but I´m not too sure about that haha. A new fancy bakery opened up by our apartment and this week some members are unable to have us over for lunch, so they gave us money instead and so now we can try it out! Yesterday and tooday my compainion and I are a little sick so we made drinks with lemon and ginger and water to boost that immune system (no honey because we are cheap) and I hope it works because it is not the most pleasant taste in the world haha! All is well and I´m excited to continue to teach! 

Abraços e beijos,

Sister Haggard 

Flores!

TV

Doentes!

August 3, 2015

Weekly Update 

I recieved pictures and my other glasses from my mom in the begining of the week, the pictures made me so happy!! Also Alexis Vielstich sent me the cutest letter from Japan @_@ it was awesome Obrigada Voçê!

Wow a lot happened this week!! This week I invited and set my first baptismal date! This week we marked two guys for baptism! Raphael- 18 yrs and Adriano 27 yrs. Setting the date is the easy part, but I´m pretty excited. We also have been teaching an awesome lady named Dalva who is so kind. We taught her about the Restoration and she said she believes in Joseph Smith and she reads the Book of Mormon! Also, one time we taught her I was really wanting some pão de queijo and we entered her house and I could smell it and at the end of the lesson she offered us pão de queijo, miracles! She is really awesome we can´t set a date yet for her because she is having a surgery, but she´s awesome. This week we also had interviews with the president of the mission- Del Guerso. He is so so nice and his wife is really animated and funny. She taught us to teaach in a fun and enthusiastic way. Today we found an awesome bakery that is cheap too! we noticed it is always busy although the outside looks a little rundown. I love it! The food here is still good, this week I ate more northern Brazilian food which is more extreme. For example the feijolada of the north has the pig ears and feet in there, but if you avoid those parts it´s pretty good! My companion is from the North and likes this kind of food. We would describe it as ´bem forte´and ´bem diferente´ haha. This week we also got to work at the Temple! We stood out front and made contacts and references it was really fun, I made 51 contacts! This week we also had the opportunity to talk to some really smart people. One of our investigators Kauá- 17, really likes to learn about religions and one of the contacts I made outside the temple was with a man named Melk Zedek who was really smart and asked awesome questions. I really love this becasue it is a testimony to me that the more knowledge we have and the more we learn, only increases our faith! Also this week we found people who are just waiting to be baptised. One of these people is Maria who is 85 yrs old and really nice. Her daughter attends church every Sunday with her boyfriend and Maria, and she wants Maria to be baptized. However the daughter of Maria is not baptized along with the boyfriend because they are not married. They have kids together who are members and they attend church every Sunday, but they won´t get married and therfore baptized becasue if they get married due to a law of Brazil they will have to give up one of three apartments they have. They have three apartments for themselves and their kids who are adults. I taught them about the widow of Zarapta and how she had to give up all the food she had to be blessed and be blessed more than she could imagine. We really have to be careful not to look at the material things we have, but put our faith in God trusting that he knows what is best for us now and in the long run and he will bless us! I know God is waiting waiting for US to show our faith and obey the comandments so he can bless us. 

This Sunday was my first fast Sunday in the field! I bore my testimony with my rough Portuguese. Also........RICARDO came and visited my ward!!! It was such a surprise, I did a double take! He lives in a neighboring area only about 5 miles away from the church, it is pretty crazy. Maybe on P day we will get authorization to have lunch with the Sanz. It was really special to get to see the Sanz :) Yesterday we taught a really cool girl, Victoria -17, about the Restoration and I´m excited to teach her more. Yesterday we also had dinner with the family of Irmõa Jossario. They are just reaching their one year anniversary of their baptism, they are supercool. There were also other members from the ward there as well, so it was pretty neat. Today marks 2 months I´m been here in Brazil! I can´t believe it. The first couple weeks in the field have been hard because  we're opening an area, but we are finally starting to really find people to teach. This next week will be very busy and exciting. 

first package!

I loved the pictures!

Irma Correa!!!!!!!

A girl we met on the street and talked with in the waiting room.  We gave her a Book of Mormon!

Ricky Sanz (our exchange student) and his family gave me a surprise visit at my ward!!!!!

Ricky Sanz!

Ricky Sanz!

my ward is great!

my apartment!

salgado

yummy!

July 27, 2015

Weekly Update,

This morning I made oatmeal with apples and cinamon, it was pretty good. This week was pretty good! I had my first division, which is when my companion and I switch companions for sister training leader. It was really fun. I went to the area Florinoplois which is very chique and nice. My companheira was Sisiter Meijia who is from Peru, 27 years old, studying to be a doctor, and only has a month left of her mission. She was super spunky and very very nice. We taught a bunch of lessons and it was very fun. I learned a lot. This week we got to know more members. The ward here is just so awesome. We went over to a recent converts house and I got to talk about Personal Progress which was really nice. Yesterday for lunch we ate at Dani´s house with her family. They were very funny. I also saw a picture of Dani on her mission with Irmã Correa! Correa was her trainadora! People here  will live together for many many years but aren´t married. You have to ask when and where they wre married to find out if they are actually married because people here say they´re married and wear a ring if they´ve lived together for a long time. We started to teach a women and her mom who are super awesome and I´m excited to continue to teach them. My Portuguese is pretty rough but I can communicate! I know a lot of words, but the grammar is tricky. Last Sunday Nilton was confirmd and his son wants to be baptized! I´m not sure how it will go but I´m excited. The food here is still awesome :)