September 21, 2015

First things first a couple weeks ago I got a letter from Sister Boatman! I loved it thank you! Also I got a couple letters and some very chique brazilian flip flops from Camila! I love them!

This week flew by. Last Monday we had a Family Home Evening with Irmã Zilda (everyone goes by their first name here) and her husband, sister and niece who aren´t members. We brought the Lambert family too and played a game about prophets, it was good! At the end when we were eating the refreshments, the little girl Monique Lambert puked everywhere! Everybody helped and continued eating! It made for a memorable Family home evening :)

This week Sister D. Sousa and I worked hard! I love spending every minute working and finding new people to teach! Dennise and Maria Rita came to church again and so they are on track for their baptisms this Domingo as well as Arthur! We ate lunch with Dennise this week too. Her house is fun because there is always a different neighbor kid there every visit from the street. We had a lesson with the Bishop with them and he said he really enjoyed coming out with us. This next week will be very busy with preparing for their baptisms and finishing teaching, but we´re so excited, they really are a miracle. People are really being prepaired for the Restored Gospel! 

This week was also MultiZona which was really fun. Our President of the mission is really the best. He is funny and very very very smart. He´s a lawyer and I can see it. He gave a talk about the Sabbath day and a conference talk given last general conference by Elder Russel M. Nelson about the Sabbath. It was intresting because as Missionaries we still work, especially in the morning rounding people up for church, but The Sabbath Day and keeping it Holy is so important. We really want to find, teach, and help families and keeping the Sabbath Day Holy will bless families so so much. 

Sister Del Guerso also gave a talk about having a mind like Christ and the process of becoming better. 

Also, the stake president of Ferreira- President Leite gave a really good talk and after he sang! He gave an example that missionary work sometimes appears like we are pushing against a huge rock that doesn´t move and has no effect. But, when we push against the rock with all our strength even if the rock doesn´t move our muscles are strenghthened! We become stronger better people and this is something I´m strivng for everyday too. 

This next week Sister Garcia will go to a different area and sis Tesser D Sousa and I will be a trio- this will be interesting!

Beijos e abraços

Sister Haggard 

Camila sent me chique havaianas! Amei!

Multi Zona

September 14, 2015

This past Tuesday our mission returned to the CTM! Elder Costa, the general authority of Brazil, gave a talk for missionaries, but the focus was for people deciding or preparing to go on a mission. It will be shown in every stake here in Brazil and the Brazilian wards in the United States. Pretty cool. I was in the second row woo hoo.  It was very good and really fun to return to the CTM for a little bit. This past week was very rainy and cold! But this week is supposed to get hot so I will miss the cold. Today we had p day with the President because our specified group of zones reached a goal of baptisms, so we went downtown to Parque Vira Lobos to talk, play volleyball, and ride bikes! Our President is really the best. In two days we also have Multe Zona- zone conference, so muito corrido which is fun. 

A couple weeks ago while walking down a really big hill I saw a girl sitting on the terrace of a house and I stopped. Sister D. Sousa and me made a contact- introduced ourselves and made an invitation to the church. She said she didn't live there, but her friend´s mom did and we got a reference. When we followed up this week, we met the reference- Dennise who is a single mom with an 11 year old and a 1 year old. She said her mom had passed away 3 months before. We taught her the Restoration and marked a date for baptism.She asked us which version of the Bible we used and brought her Bible down. Her mom had given Dennise her Bible and when we opened the Bible, there were a few photos and on top of the photos was a message card we pass out and on the other side was Sister D. Sousa´s handwritting with the church address and hours! It was a shock! Dennise started crying and showed us a picture of her mom. She looked very familiar, but I think we arrived in Maria Rosa right after she passsed away. Maybe the first contact we made put the card there, I don´t know, but it was pretty cool and we know we are supposed to teach Dennise.

 I think if we do our part we will find the Lord has already done his!

Also this week we had a day where all the appointments at an apartment we had fell through. As we were walking back we passed the house of Mateus, which is in the same street. We have been praying and fasting so that we can meet with the father of Mateus because Mateus´s mom is a recent convert, but the dad still doesn´t know and we can´t move forward until his dad knows about the church and us.But every time we are at the house he isn´t home or upstairs and because of the situation we have to be patient and subtle. And who did we see leaving the house but Senhor José himself! We introduced ourselves and he was super nice. We made a compromisso to talk with him more this week!

Only 3 more weeks in this transfer! This second transfer has gone by super fast. I will probably stay in Maria Rosa and get a different companion. But you never know transfers are exciting! 

Beijos e abraços,

Sister Haggard 

I forgot! This week I also had a division with Sister Carovana in Ferreira! She is really so awesome! She only has three weeks left in her mission! Ferriera is a very shique area!

Almoco antes o CTM

In front of the metro

Sister Covey

Parque Vira Lobos

Sister Carovana

our Zone

September 8, 2015

I don't have time to write an update now we are going to the CTM agiain today!! A 70 is coming to give a talk and we'll bus it over there. Im excited, never thought ´d return to the CTM! São Paulo West mission is really blessed because we have the São Paulo temple and headquarters and CTM in our mission. So if an apostle or leader of the church visited Brazili its highly likly to be in our mission and we get to hear talks! I´m emailing today because today is our p day because of the talk and yesterday was Brazil´s independance day so internet places weren´t open. 

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!

muito carne!!!

professional!

with Ricky Sanz

Ricardo's mom is the best!

Look at all that yummy food!!!!!!!

A feast!

Ricky Sanz

Thank you for a great p day!!!