Ola tudo bem??‏

Things are going well here! I had my very first baptism last week! It was wonderful. Aline is super legal and Im very excited for her. Of course I dont feel like I did much in the way of her conversion as she was already contacted and taught before I showed up but it was still a blessing to be a part of it! We also have a baptism this week too. Camila. She is 9 and her family is less active. But since my comp and the sister before me visited them, the family has been coming back to church and are so excited for camila!! Its SO great! I love love love them!!! What a blessing it is to see how the gospel changes lives. It makes me want to work so hard every day to try and make at least a little difference in someones life! The temperature here is SO perfect! For them its winter, which is SO funny cuz it is absolutely beautiful. Its like 70 degrees and all the Brasilians are freezing!!! It makes me very worried for summer because I already get hot NOW! But I feel very blessed that I only have to endure one and I get two winters!! YAY!

By the way I have been teaching Sister Ribeiro how to make GUACAMOLE! The avacados here are as big as my face and SO good. But Brasilians eat theirs with sugar! bleh...so I taught her the true way and she loves it!! She is an excellent cook so hopefully I can learn a thing or two from her before I come home. Since I set the smoke alarm off dishing up ice cream normally (heh...heh) She wants to know how to make cookies tho! haha isnt that funny?? Mom do you think you could send me a basic recepie for chocolate chip cookies so I can pretend like I know how to make cookies? thanks!

So I had a humbling experience on Sunday. We invited tons of investigators to go to church with us all week long and I was a little worried cuz they all lived all over town! We told each of them wed stop by and "pick them up", without a car its a little difficult. Anyway we did the best we could and left extra early. Well long story short all of them fell through. Everyone was either sleeping or busy so that was discouraging. We had one person left, a little old man named Jose who lived all the way on the other end of town. We were already a half hour late for church and we only talked to him on the street for about 5 minutes the day before. The chances of him going to church seemed pretty slim. I suggested we just go to church and then go visit him after. But Sister R. said we could ask a member to take us. Well we found a member but he was a man, so we needed another girl. Okay we find a young woman and head off. Wed never even been to his house so we were driving around trying to find it. Could you tell I was discouraged and had ZERO faith? I felt lke we were wasting everyones time including the Lords but I humbled myself and listend to my senior companion. When we got on the right road, I knew his house immediately because there was Jose dressed in his Sunday best waiting for us!! Oh my gosh I was so happy but felt instant guilt as well. I had such little faith. But I appreciated the lesson I learned. What would have happened if we had listened to me and not gone to get him before church? We would have been missionaries who dont keep their commitments and dont receive blessings. I know the Lord rewards you for obedience cuz once we got to church a less active member we contacted the day before showed up to church without us even inviting him!!! Amazing. Jose stayed all three hours, loved it, and we are now teaching him and his son. Again Im so grateful for the lesson in patience that I learned. I am learning so much out here and trying my best to be a better person. I want to be the best servant of the Lord I can be so I can bring about the most good, but I know that will take a lot of effort on my part!! We should never lose faith!!! Even if the chances seem pretty slim! Anyway thats my little experience I wanted to share. I hope everyone is just peachy!!! I send my love and want to leave my testimony that I know this church is true!! I am honored to be a part of this work and wouldnt be here doign what Im doing if I didnt know it was true. This is a portion of my testimony I leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.