Sister Lillie Haggard: September 2015

September 1, 2015 First Baptism!

Weekly update,

This week went by very fast. Last Monday we made a cake for Sister Mejia and said goodbye!This week had two days tha were cold and rainy, but yesterday and today were hot! We also recieved our new roommates, there are now 4 Sisters in the apartment- Sister Garcia who is a newbie and Sister Tesser, both are from Brazil. We divided our area, which is hard because the area wasn´t big to begin with because there are many apartment complexes in the area of Maria Rosa. Apartments are hard because you make a contact and then you have to inter phone up through the security at the portaria, so it´s difficult to enter and teach sometimes. But we helped the new Sisters a lot this week,. We gave them some great investigators and contacts and we had a miny division Wendesday, I showed Sister Tesser the area and Sister D. Sousa show Sister Garcia around.

We are teaching Cristiani and Igor as well as Mateus and we are hoping and praying for their baptisms this month, we will see!

This week was also very special because I had my first baptism, Maria! 87 years old! Never too old to change! We showed her the font again and assured her the water was "Bem quente". After she was baptized Sister Tesser and I gave a little talk about the Atonement and Baptism. After Maria redressed, Sister Tesser, Garcia, and D. Sousa sang the Children´s hymn "When I am baptized" and I sang the last verse and chorus solo in English seque. Cristiani and Igor came and watched the baptism. We will teach Cristiani today about the importance authority has in Baptism. The Church of Jesus Christ is the only Church that has this authority, so when we are baptized in His Church, our sins are truly wiped clean and we can recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost!

Today was also P day at the Temple, which was really nice.

It was Sister Mejia's last day of her mission, so we made her a cake and said tchau!

Maria's baptism! She's 87 years old!

New Sisters

First P Day at the Temple

August 24, 2015

Weekly Update:

Last Sunday we had a difficult day, but we met Cristiani and her sobrino Allison ( A boy´s name here) and her son Igor. This family is a miracle. We met them because we made a contact with her mom, but Cristiani was home when we interphoined up to the apartment. This week we brought them to a church activity- "Improve Night". I´m not particularly fond of this activity in English none the less Portuguese haha. We were also the first to arrive at the Church, so I was kind of freakining out internally because this was their first experience with the Church and I wanted it to be a good one! We gave them a tour of the Church and it was really good. When the activity started not many people were there, but it worked. Sisiter D. Sousa and I participated in one activity where we spoke "Chinese" and two other volunteers translated what we said in Portuguese. For me this was particullarly funny because I didn´t understand the Chinese sounding words or "translated"version or the translated version in Portuguese because I was focusing so hard to come up with words in Chinese! But it ended up being good and Cristiani came with us to Church and liked it! I was able to bear my testimony that the good feelings she felt there was the Holy Ghost.I love Church, especially as a missionary because the classes teach the people what we will teach. I know that Church lessons are inspiried because this week the lesson was specifically what 3 people in the class needed to hear. We are also continuing to teach sweet Maria, her baptism is this Saturday! WOO!

This week was Sister Mejia´s last, which is sad. She is so wonderful. She will return to Peru and continue medical school.

This week we also had training of the new missionaries, which was super fun because I got to see Sister Covey!

Also, tomorrow we will be getting another dupla of sisters in our apartment and area! I´m super excited! It will be a newb and a trainor.

This week was really special because we were blessed to hear the words of the Apostle Neil L. Anderson. Before our meeting a member- Mirriam and Jussario- offered to take us out to lunch close to the temple and church building. They are super cool and nice.

Elder Anderson talked about the Attonement. I have been thinking a lot about the Atonement. Every single person needs to study the Atonement. Jesus Christ is not soley a moment on the Cross. He lives! We can feel him in our lives and feel the healing power of him when we apply the Atonement in our lives. And we do that when we repent and change. This change is the power of the Atonement and through becoming better mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, siblings, workers, citizens, friends, people we can have true happiness now and joy for eternity when we are able to live with our Father in Heaven forever. If every person understood the Atonement, everyone would want to be baptized! That is why I´m here to share and teach people that God loves them and to give people more happiness. Sister Anderson also said we need to be honest. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are beings of perfect honesty. We cannot give ourselves the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is granted to us by Heavenly Father and he cannot lie and so if we are living how God wants us to live, we will have the Holy Ghost in our lives. But if we are dishonest we are cheating ourselves of the blessings the Holy Ghost brings becasue we can only have Him with us when we are worthy. When we live how God wants us to and are obedient, we are happy!

Last district meeting with Sister Mejia

Treinamento dos novos e Sister Covey

Sister Covey and Sister Haggard

Mirriam and Jussano

From left: Sister D Sousa, Sister Mejia :), Sister Haggard, Sister Carovana

with Sister D Sousa

With Sister Covey (I look real bad in that pic, but se la)

with Sister Carovana

Yesterday a member gave us bags of dolces!

August 17, 2015

This week was intresting! Last Monday I was able to visit the Sanz family! Their house is beautiful and we ate a ton- a ton- of Brazilian BBQ, it was awesome. The Sanz family lives only 10 minutes away from where we live by car. Crazy. The Sanz family is super nice and funny. They have 4 boys and they remind me of my family, very funny and they joke around with each other a lot. It is super fun seeing Ricardo. He is teaching English and will start college, and at the end of the year serve his mission, he is hoping for Japan!

Our message we shared with them was about the commandments. I love sharing this example. People here like to fly kites. Sometimes children want to cut the string of the kite thinking the string restricts the kite and the kite will soar higher without the string. However when the string is cut the kite will fall. We are the kite and the commandments are the string. Sometimes we think we do not need the commandments in our lives, that they restrict us. However this is not reality. The commandments maintain us and connect us to God. They protect us and guide us in our lives, and enable us to soar and reach happiness in our lives. I have a strong testimony that God only gives commandments so he can bless us and he never asks us to do anything without prepairing a way for us to complete the things asked. We made a little kite and put a magnet on the back so they can put it on their fridge!

This week we had a division and I stayed in Maria Rosa and Sister Carovana came here. We had some good appointments and it was intresting because I was able to lead Sister C around! Sister Carrovana is from Argentina and is super awesome.

This week we also had some difficulties. It remided me that I need patience! If I work hard and do the best I can the Lord will do his part in his time.

Also! Next week I have trainging with the noobies with the President and the assistantes so I get to see Sister Covey! I´m pumped, I want to speak Portuguese really well haha. Also Elder Anderson, an apostle and quorum of the 12, is coming the 22nd to give a talk to the mission! I´m very excited!