Chegei

Good morning, it has been a long time since I’ve stood up here to speak to you all, it was just this week that I got home from my mission. I was serving in the Mississippi Jackson Mission for the first 11 months of my mission, and after that long wait, got my visa to Brazil and served the last 8 months of my mission in the Brazil Salvador South Mission. And on my mission it was a great blessing to see and learn how following Jesus Christ changes lives.

It was hard waiting just short of a year to get to the mission I was originally called to but as President Monson taught us during this last General Conference it’s not so much about where we walk, it’s about how we walk. All of us here today have a purpose in our lives, and this purpose is to follow Christ.

Knowing this purpose and hearing it so often leads us to also ask often… how? How do we follow Jesus Christ?

There is one obvious thing we can do- baptism, we must show that we are willing to follow Christ and take his name upon us until the end of our lives.

The initial reason that anyone is baptized is because they believe it can give them happiness in the life to come, and that it can change something in their lives today, and they are entitled to believe that, it is true, but how and why does this change in our lives take place? The scriptures teach us exactly what to do after baptism to receive what we hope for- Nephi said

I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved

17 Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do

So for a change in our life to take place, we must follow the example of the Savior. Not just on our baptism day, but continually in our lives. One of the most important events that took place in the life of the Savior was not when he healed the ten lepers, or turned water to wine, it was when he established the sacrament. Before his body was broken and blood spilled he broke bread for his disciples, and passed wine for them, and gave them a commandment that they should continue the practice often. When Christ commanded this he commanded that we always remember the example he showed us, and all the suffering he took upon himself in our behalf. Because if we remember his example, we are more likely to follow it, and if we remember his Atonement, we remember that we can only receive the blessings from it, if we are willing to repent, and to change. We must follow Christ in order to change our lives.

Every week as we take the sacrament we should think of this. We are so very privileged to have a chance to be cleansed and start over week by week, and ponder how we can follow Christ more closely in our lives. I have never been so thankful for this building and the opportunity we have to take the sacrament here inside of it because of several months of my mission, where Priesthood holders had to travel an hour by bus just to come and see that we could partake of the sacrament. In this area we generally met inside of a school, only that one week the director decided she had had enough with the Mormons and without telling us, changed the locks. So when we went to set up the school for church and found the locks change we entered into a bit of panic. We ran and ran and did everything we could but could not get in the school, when our Priesthood leader arrived we asked him what we were going to do and he said, “there’s a parking lot not far from the school, with a ledge under a tree that people can sit on, let’s redirect everyone there”. And so we did! It was the strangest church meeting any of us had ever attended. I was mad about it. How? How could the director just lock out people that only wanted to worship the Lord? How could there be no other better place to go?  I was seated on a plastic chair we had borrowed from a bar down the road, and the neighbors were playing irreverent music. But when the bread of the sacrament touched my lips I smiled in victory. It might have looked like Satan won that day from the outside, but I know that he did not. Because despite the circumstances I took the sacrament that day, I did the most important thing I could have done. That day I wasn’t too grateful, but today I am. Because I will never underestimate the importance of taking the sacrament again, and the privilege we have of taking it every week. With it we have the help of the Lord to make the changes necessary in our lives, to become what we need to become, before meeting Him again.

After knowing how to follow Jesus Christ we must also answer the question why. This answer can be different for all of us. A recent convert in Louisiana answered this while having a heated discussion with her daughter. She said, “Do you know how easy it would be to go back to not following Christ? To go back to smoking, go back to drinking?” She said, “I think about going back to my sins everyday but I don’t, you know why? Because NOW I know what God expects of me. Before I didn’t, but now I know.” Wow, that is someone who truly loves God. What she learned during her conversion is that the more we know and learn about God, the less we want to leave him. The more she kept the commandments the less she wanted to break them. The love of God is greater than anything and she learned that and that’s what gave her the courage to follow Christ and continue to live a changed life.   

Some people have more changes to make than others, but for these changes to take place a few things are always required.

Mosiah 3:19 teaches us that to Follow Christ we must “yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and put off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”

In Brazil many people would ask us, “why saints? Aren’t those Catholic?” and we would respond- no, we are Latter Day Saints because we believe that just as this scripture says we are working and striving to become saints. It is our duty to seek to become a saint through the atonement of Christ. I believe to do this we must do as the scripture says and-- become as a child, submissive, meek, humble… In Mississippi my companion and I met a woman named Alice, on the day we met Alice we were simply knocking doors, she said she saw us through the window and had intention to hide, but instead of hiding she yielded to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and opened the door, and listened. The problem was, all she did was listen, she rarely asked any questions, or gave a legitimate response to any of our questions, and one day in confusion we asked, “Alice, do you believe that the things we are taught you today are true?” and she responded, “well you’re telling them to me aren’t you!?” And in that moment we realized, Alice wasn’t slow, she wasn’t just lonely, or just interested, she was a perfect example of being as a little child, and being humble. She didn’t have to make many changes in her life to be baptized but the day she was baptized, while she was getting dressed in the stall she said to my companion and I, “Before I met y’all…” and that was it. The change in this woman was not drastic and to me not very visible, but the Spirit that flowed from her in those few short words testified of the true change that took place in her life as a result of following Jesus Christ more perfectly.

Following Christ perfectly can be hard. He was perfect in everything that he did, which is impossible for us. But I believe to follow him closely the most important ingredient is love. To follow Christ we must love as he did, and this love will surely change the lives of others. The scriptures tell us that “charity never faileth”, therefore if we can master love, our love can mask all our other imperfections. As a missionary, the work is only enjoyable, and we can only have success, when we truly love the people we serve. A mission is the hardest time of your life and the most rewarding. I thought a mission was easy because you are so blessed every day for your sacrifice, but learned that that isn’t true.

It is easy to think that just because we follow Jesus Christ, we are entitled to easy living, we are entitled to immediate answers to prayers, complete health, and everything we want. Something that helped me change my perspective on this was meeting a woman in Brazil named Francisca Helena. Her life was everything but easy. She spent her whole life truly striving to do what was right but ended up with a broken heart and family, and while she passed a time of extreme difficulty she had a dream, a dream that is very precious to her. She was in the sky and saw arches forming that made windows and walking across these arches, she saw the Savior. He was walking slowly passing arch by arch, and she felt impressed to count them, she counted 5 and when the Savior came to the fifth arch he finally stopped, and turned, and looked at her, and when they had made eye contact the dream ended. This was about 20 years ago. She was very deeply impressed by this dream, and for 20 years searched the meaning, and even though she could never interpret it, she felt comforted by it, she knew the Lord was with her. And year after year she held on to that, until this July when she was baptized a member of the Church. And one day a few months after being baptized when we went to her house, she sat us down and with tears told this story of this dream, and then with joy told us that she had finally found the meaning to this dream. Before coming in contact with the church she had been a member of 4 churches, Cathoic, Messianic, Spriritualist, and Cademble, but the fifth church she has been a member of is this church, and in the dream the Savior did not pass it, he stopped as if to say, your search is over, and this is where you will find me. And I can testify that she did. Her broken heart and family have not been fully healed, she faces challenges and struggles everyday just as she did before, but within these challenges she has something different, she has the Spirit, one of the greatest gifts of God, she has certainty that she is where she is supposed to be, and she has certainty that the Savior is with her, every step, and that he is watching over her.

It took 20 years, and some seemingly strange pathways, but Christ did change her, and her life. Through the Atonement Christ knows us perfectly; our thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Our doubts, fears, and pains. Therefore he not only knows how to comfort, and counsel us, he knows how to actually bring about a change in us. Francisca Helena is a different person than she was, she has many of the same burdens as she did before but changed in the way she handles and carries them.

As a missionary I experienced the same thing. A trial is a trial, the difference is whether or not you humble yourself sufficiently to trust the Lord, and rely on his divine aid. If there is anyone out there wondering whether or not to serve, my advice is to stop wondering, because when we follow in the footsteps of the Savior we learn to rely on the Lord and there is nothing that will help us more in our lives than that. To rely on him we must know him, Mosiah 5:13 describes how it is that we come to know him. For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?

If we keep ourselves distant from the Lord and his work, if we choose not to follow him, we will never know him, we will never see a positive change in our lives, or have the opportunity to see the change in the lives of others. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father to all I learned the short time I spent serving Him.

From Alice that it doesn’t matter where or how long we follow Him it matters that we follow him with all our heart, mind, and strength, in complete humility before Him.

From Francisca Helena I learned that some change comes soon and some comes later, but for those who follow Jesus Christ, change does come, and so do the blessings.

And personally I learned that the more we follow him, the less we will want do anything less than that. When we follow him, we give him our hearts, and when he has our hearts he can mold and change them. And I know that, because it happened with me, I can assure you all that I am and will be different, and have no intentions to stop following Jesus Christ, because I know that any small change that happened in me happened because of him.

My last week

I guess it's important to finish the things we start, and since I've written every week, my last week deserves a post too. 

Eventful things that happened my last week:

At my last district meeting we ended up singing at a funeral/viewing for a ward members son who had died in a moto accident. It was really special singing for so many people, we sang songs about how Christ conquered death. We could tell it meant a lot for their family. I also got to stand up and recite D&C 4 for the last time at a missionary meeting. That was just a little too sad. 

On the way back from the meeting the day started really getting eventful, after making it 8 months in Brazil sticking out like a sore thumb, I was finally robbed. Luckily he only took the mission cell phone, and we got a new one about 2 days later.

It was actually a pretty normal week, we worked hard. We got Gesse a baptismal interview with the Presidente, our District Leader said he would be good to go for Saturday but it turned out that he still had a couple things to sort out before getting baptized. We were pretty heartbroken and so was he but he also had a contrite spirit to get everything in order as soon as possible to make it happen. I was pretty disappointed at first that my dream to have a baptism on my last day wouldn't work out, but then I remembered how far he had come, and that the Lord was trying just as hard as we were to prepare him for that day. 

On Saturday I had the going away lunch at the Presidents house, it was just for Sister Brimley and I because of our special circumstances having to leave a couple days before everyone else. We had our interviews with President, and it was really special, he said some of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me, and helped me get the spiritual confirmation I needed that my mission was successful and accepted by the Lord. 

Sister Brimley got to come back to Mussurunga with me where she served for 6 months before me. We got to do some street contacts and teach a few last lessons together, it was SO COOL, we got to see how far we had come from the beginning, from the MTC, from our first area, from when we first got to Brazil, all of it. We also got to bare our testimonies in sacrament meeting, everyone bore really nice testimonies too and mentioned us... to the point where the Bishop got up and was like- THEY HAVE TO MOVE ON WITH THEIR LIVES, OK! 

We got to fly from Salvador to Sao Paulo and Sao Paulo to Atlanta! We had more than enough to talk about alllll the way back. Then at the Atlanta airport, the last big miracle of my mission happened... I got to see Tasha, and meet Gwen for the first time, at the airport! She got a gate pass and came back and met me during my layover. I can only describe it as true happiness! 

How my mission has changed me.

October 27, 2014

This was an awesome week. There were some HUGE bummers but also tons of miracles as always. The Young Womens asked me to help them make "cookies americanas" aka chocolate chip cookies. It was way fun. 

We also had a Seventh Day Adventist come to church for the first time and the lesson in Gospel Principles was about keeping the Sabbath Day... so that was interesting! 

Dad wrote me last week and wanted me to think about how my mission has changed me. That thought is just a little overwhelming but I was thinking about how one of my favorite things about the mission is the chance to develop Christlike attributes. 

Faith. I learned a lot about faith this week when this lady we´ve been teaching for a while and who has had a ton of contact with the church decided she didn't want anything more to do with any of it... she even tried to give us the Book of Mormon back. It was one of the saddest times of my life. It was a make it or break it lesson and we used the scriptures and had her all convinced to baptism, but her sister for the first time decided to sit in with us.... and told her it was way too soon and that she wasn't ready, and that she needed to keep learning, and that this isn't what she wanted. When we left my companion said, wow the devil really used his tools well tonight, but so did we! I was all upset thinking, how is it that the devil won? But then I realized that he didn't win, it was nothing but a lack of faith on her part. The Lords power really is WAY stronger than the adversary. But the Lords power only works according to our own faith. That night we found out she had been praying to know the truth but with 0 sincerity, with 0 intent to ACT, therefore although she loves the Lord a lot, she has 0 faith. 

Hope. Hope is more than knowing that something CAN happen, it´s believing that it will. When we really have hope we do everything in our power to gain promised blessings of the Lord. When we have hope, we will face challenges still, but our lives will only get better. 

Charity and Love. I have really learned on the mission that if you dont love the people you serve, you wont have success. Elder Zwick told us that with pure discipleship we will be accepted, because when we really follow the Lord, we love the people around us. Ive never been one to have a ton of compassion, but I know I have come a looong way on my mission. We have so much more capability to love than we know! and that means so much more capability to serve! 

Patience. After waiting 15 months for my visa I really learned the meaning of patience. Patience is trusting in the Lords plan for us. Trusting him completely. We have to trust that we are exactly where he wants us, and that we have a purpose there. If we dont, we dont trust that he loves us! Which is the first and most important thing we can understand about our Heavenly Father. If we can learn to be patient, we can be happy even in our afflictions. 

Knowledge. Well, I think Ive talked enough about my love for the scriptures for this one. Even though Ive seen so many miracles and other things that have strengthened my faith. It is my knowledge that has really deepened my testimony, and given power and authority to my calling. 

Virtue. Key to having the spirit! Which means key to having success! One of the best moments on the mission was when I walked into a recent converts house that was always playing something kinda sketchy, and she was watching BYU tv! She learned the importance of virtue. 

Humility. Where do I start. When I told people I was going on a mission. A lot of them said- You have to understand... a mission is hard. And I was always like- HA, I can do anything! But what I continue to learn, is that I cant do anything! Its the Lord. I learned that he really can turn our weaknesses into strengths. He`s willing to too, we just have to give him the glory. This work does not depend on us or on our goodness or on our love or power. It depends on HIS. 

Diligence. I learned that being away from the apartment 8 hours, is not diligence. Neither is walking really fast. Diligence is realizing that everything you do brings you closer or farther from your objective. Being diligent is a sacrifice, but its worth it! If you WORK all day, all your days, to bring one soul to Him, how great will be your joy! 

Obedience. I remember the first letter I wrote home was about how I was sick of all the lectures about obedience, Mom replied and said, "just think of it as living an obedient life for a while..." Now when I think of that I laugh. Because now I understand that obedience is the FIRST law of heaven. It is everything. It helped me learn the importance of the Atonement. Maybe before thinking about what we hope or expect of God we should think of what he hopes or expects of us! And we can be sure the commandments and words of the prophets will answer that perfectly. What a blessing. To know exactly what the Lord expects of us! That means we know exactly what we need to do to return to him and to be HAPPY! 

I LOVE YOU ALL. 

THANK YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH for you support and prayers and love. 

Seester Stevens 

A God of Miracles

October 20,2014

FELIZ ANIVERSARIO KEELLLLYYYY! 

This week i have no time to write but I will do my best. 

Val had an interview for baptism and passed which is good. Now we just have to get him excited for baptism because he´s really not in a hurry:/. But it was a miracle that the Elder who did the interview got him to understand about the Priesthood and need to be baptized again.  Thats an obstacle we´ve been needing to cross for a while. The bad news is we got him to not go to the other church Saturday but then he didnt go to ours Sunday even after seeing how good his week was after going last Sunday! PEOPLE. 

I had a one day notice to give a training on Wednesday and i pulled out my notebooks and started looking at all the things I've learned on my mission and compiled it the best I could, and shared the best with everyone. It was mostly  stuff from mission and zone conferences. I just have learned so much I want to leave it behind somehow! It will still be important, but not like right now. 

One cool miracle this week was when I was feeling pretty down because we didnt get very much help this week and also our baptisms arent as sure as we would like but we were following up with a man and as we were leaving a woman ran out of the house and called us back. So we went back and met her mom and she explained how she had cancer and we were able to testify of the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement and to be able to do that was just a huge tender mercy in our week, because we preached and preached and preached and lacked service. 

Another miracle is how we found this rapaz on one of the first nights of Sister Andrade. We were in this narrow alleyway trying to leave this particular neighborhood, but hadnt done very much that day and I really wanted ooone more new investigator. So when I saw this scawny kid walking towards us I thought why not? I stopped him and we committed him to coming to church and being baptized. We finally got into contact with him this week. He got an answer to his prayer, he LOVES the Joseph Smith story. When he explained the response he got it was that he remembered and just knew that God was a God of miracles, and I was like THANK YOU that is exactly the message of the Restauration. That is exactly how I feel too when i see people getting answers to their prayers and discovering the fulness of the gospel. It was an Alma 29:10 moment. We got him to church yesterday too! 

We were looking for people until 10:30 (church starts at 9) and my companion didn't like that, she was like, we have to go to church! We´re missionaries! and I explained how the 99 are already there! and we cant forget that as representatives of Christ we have to go find the ones missing. We can never forget  this. 

LOVE YOU ALL! 

Seester Scheevens 

18 Meses!

October 13, 2014

This week was really good! We worked a whole lot, never stopped for dinner and hardly even talked normally because we were talking to other people, or about our investigators! I am dead tired so that's why I'm writing early today, its been too long since I took a nap.

This week was weiiirrd because we were walking with this member- Carol to an appointment and she asked how much time I had on the mission and I stopped to think and was like- OXENTE hoje eu fiz 18 meses de missão! I had forgotten that it was so close. Its weird to have already served the full 18 months. I am just so glad that I'm still here and can keep working one more month. Everyday is more and more terrifying because every day is closer! But I really don't think too much about it, just at the end of the day when I think- ohhh nooooo one more day already passed. I'm not scared of going home I'm just scared of how close it is now. 

I know you are all anxious to hear about church since I said it was a strugg and I have good news! Our prayers were answered! This week we worked a lot with a man named Roseval. He is about 34 and smart but doesn't know how to read. So that's hard. But he already went to church once with his daughter, hes to the point that he believes Joseph Smith was a prophet but still believes that his baptism was enough... Last week he didn't go to conference, so this week we talked about church allll week to make sure he would go because we would have to drop him if he didn't. Saturday we stopped by just to remind him and he was like- well now i have to work tomorrow, I'm the father of my family ya know? i hardly made any money this week, i have to provide. I tried to stay calm and started explaining to him about the Sabbath day, and promised him that he would have way more success this week if he was put God first and went to church on Sunday. He looked at the sky and said- if it rains again tomorrow (becuase he sells ice cream by the beach) I'll go to church. We took it as a deal, and reminded him of the blessings we had promised. 

Sunday we were soooo happy because we woke up and it was raining! But when we passed his house to make sure he was awake and coming no one came to the door. Also everyone we looked for that had given us their word that they would go had excuses because it was Children's Day (yeah, a ridiculous national holiday!) or weren't there. So we went to church real sad. But about 20 minutes later Roseval showed up and just went into the Elders quorum all by himself! Then when we went down to the chapel, another investigator had come all by himself! And then a member brought her little brother so we had another! It was a lot of miracles one after the other, and now we have more people to work with. It's really humbling that we called and looked for at least 20 people and showed up with no one.. But the Lord brought 4 all by himself. It really is allll in his hands, I cant learn that enough. 

The other interesting thing that happened is I convinced Afonso to bear his testimony! But he got up there and started and then said- I cant do this and almost fell down and limped out of the chapel looking like he was in a lot of pain and about to pass out. Considering he has had 5 strokes I was really worried! He was ok but having real problems with his legs and hadn't eaten or taken his medicine so he was having issues with blood pressure :(. It was really touching how concerned everyone was. I think nowww the ward will help him have food to eat. His family later that day wasn't concerned either, some even laughed about what happened.

Well. kind of a sad note to leave off on but on a happier note i thank the Lord everyday for having a family that supports me so much. Thank you soo much everyone for helping me be here. 

AMO VOCES!!!!

Seester Stevens 

ps heres a pic of me on my 18 month mark with a goiaba beiju yummm 

Training!

October 6, 2014

 WOW! What a week. Shortly after emailing on Monday I got a phonecall from the AP telling me that I would be training this transfer! I did NOT expect that. I was really happy with sticking with Sister Palma here and just finishing off strong but NO. I was actually pretty disappointed at first because everyone here in this area loves Sister Palma a whole lot and it felt like more hers than mine, and she was suuuuper sad but we got over it. The area is awesome. There was only one Sister coming to the mission so that was sweet that President wanted me out of all the Sisters to train her.

The next day President came to pick me up at 6 30 to take me to the mission home with the other Elder who is training too. It´s actually pretty sweet. They treat you like a queen when youre a trainer. Its just us and the Andrezzos, the APs and office elders (that was weird not to have a companion). We had a huuuuge breakfast with a bunch of fruit and pancakes with syrup and peanut butter, and cinnamon rolls, and frosted flakes! 

Then we get a talk from Pres, then a training on how to train from the APs, and then our companions came! Sister Andrade is awesome! She is from Manaus, and is 25. I waited all day just sitting in the mission house while she had a bunch of training and stuff, oh and a huuuuge lunch. It was way cool I love her already. She is super humble, to the point of being gullable, I can tell her anything and she just trusts me! Good thing Im trustworthy. She´s also way committed to the mission and being obedient and helping people be baptized! She is going to help me finish off the mission strong for sure. I love obedient companions! 

By Thursday she was already stopping people on the street to do contacts! I was so happy! I was way scared of getting someone super quiet and shy, but she just loves and connects with everyone! I just know already her testimony is going to help a lot of people here. The only hard thing is shes not really accustomed to walking a whole lot, she was like the Elders in Manaus complain about walking so far but our area is way bigger than any of theirs! They also complain about the heat but Salvador is even hotter than Manaus! Yeah, summer is starting it was even HOTTER this week, apparently hotter than the amazon rain forest. So Im just getting used to walking slow. Also she doesnt like to be on the street at night, which is rough because Im not one to just go in early because its late. She´ll get more comfortable with it, I just have to get scheduled appointments every night.

OH remember Diego from Beurarema, one of the Elders who was alllways there came here to be in my district and he gave be all the news, including that Diego stopped smoking and got baptized!!!!!! YYAYYY sooo many  hours and lessons and phonecalls and fasting and prayer and I stayed like sooo happy for a good 2 days after he told me that. 

Im running out of time I dont even have time to talk about conference but conference was soooo goooood. I got to watch almost all of it. It was so cool how people gave talks in their native languages, when the guy who gave it in Portuguese started all the missionaries in the english speaking room looked at eachother and were like- what are we doing here! and ran into the cultural hall to listen, loved it. I think the Saturday sessions rocked it, I was so spiritually exhausted after. I have just never been happier to be called to repentance so many times in the same day! It was way cool how they focused on the church and following the Prophet, and being followers of Christ. They made it really clear, if you dont have a testimony... get one! I loved Elder Bednars story about why we share the gospel, he nailed it with how when the little boy found a source of relief from his wounds and pain, it was a natural instinct to want to give that same relief to other people. 

Love you family! Thank you for your prayers, I feel them every day. (If you are tired of praying for the same thing my whole mission and want to know our biggest difficulty.. here, its getting people to church.)

Seester Stevens

Happy!

September 29, 2014

I cant believe it was the last week of the transfer! Where did the transfer go!? 

This week was awesome. 

Tuesday was the rainiest day Ive had so far in Mussurunga so that was too bad because we had a whooole lot of finding planned. But we did see a miracle, a Jehovas Witness of 15 years who has never accepted missionaries from a different church since being baptized there let us in! She didnt commit to anything really but its a good sign, because she loved our visit

We had another miracle too! So our recent convert has a son in law who was in church on Sunday! Apparently he went one other time but it was the first time I had seen him there, it was a miracle because we didnt even invite him and we never have an opportunity to teach or talk to him. He lost his job the other week and now has one where he will be home a lot more and has every other Domingo off. On Wednesday we were there and he came home and I invited him to sit with us for a message... and he accepted! Which he never does! I had to teach english class in like 5 minutes but the Spirit was like- this is more important. So we had the best lesson about the Gospel and he opened up and he wants to be baptized! The hard part is that he wants to wait until Otavio is ready and be baptized with him (remember the one who sold drugs and got shot in the head, its his Dad). It was so good, he talked about how he never felt ready or had much desire until now and has really been repenting. Now we just have to convince him that its better to set the example for Otavio than to wait to him. Never know what Satan will think of while you wait. This can apply to us too, we cant wait and wait for answers or wait to do something that we know is good, because its clear in the scriptures whats good, and if we wait, Satan will try to convince us otherwise. 

It has been kinda rough because yet again we are working really hard and it seems like no one is keeping their commitments, reading the Book of Mormon, praying, going to Church... Its not hard to keep going or to have faith that people really are ready its just hard to see soooo many people not accept our invitations to have SO MANY BLESSINGS in their lives. It just hurts to love everyone and know with certainty that God sent us because he wants to bless them and they just dont get it, they choose to continue miserable and try to do everything by themselves.But it does say in the Missionary of Success section of Preach My Gospel that one of our central purposes is to warn people of the consequences of sin. One of the purposes of the earth and of Christ himself is to separate the righteous from the wicked, and Im not any better than him so I just keep going, with faith that theres some righteous people who will accept the message too. 

We had our Zone Conference on Friday, it was sooooo gooood. President talked for wayyy longer than he has talked at any other but it was all so important and so spiritual. I had to give my goodbye so that was the worst! It was so weird being at the same pulpit I was 6 months ago giving my welcome testimony. The difference in my Portuguese was maybe the best part. My voice was shaking as always and I really thought I was going to cry but I just kept smiling! Because it is so good to bear my testimony and everything that I testify of make me so happy! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! 

até a semana que vem! quem sabe onde estarei... 

amoooo voces 

Seester Scheevens

Sister Palma, HEY!

September 22, 2014

Uhhh this week was awesome, I dont even remember what happened but its one of those weeks where it feels like its been a month since I wrote! 

Tuesday we had an exchange with Sister Gomes, she is the one who trained me when I first came! So that was sooo cool to teach with her again, we both have improved so much! She was always awesome, like a really powerful missionary, I always wanted to add my testimony and teach with her but never could very well, most of the time I just listened to her and learned... But now I teach and testify and we just rocked it TOGETHER like I always wished we could when I first came. We found a bunch of new people to teach! She has the power of persuasion big time, Im trying to work on that one. Missionaries in this mission are so different, all about dont take no for answer. This Sunday I fought with a lot of people on the doorstep, "Não você via! Vai lá se arrumar, e nós vamos esperar você aqui." It didnt work that, but that really is how everyone else does it! We did get at least 2 families to church. 

We also entered this neighborhood that used to be worked a toooon when the mission was baptizing 80% children, so there are a buuunch of kids there that are members. They asked us our names and since mine is too hard they started chanting and following us clapping their hands and shouting, "Sister Palma, HEY, Sister Palma, HEY!" hahahah it was so funny, I started chanting with them, Sister Palma loves that attention. 

One of the best moments of the week was going into church and seeing Afonso in a white shirt and tie and he shaved his beard! All because he´s a Priesthood holder now, what a champ! 

Last thing, IM FAT. Its a lot because of this awesome recent convert that Ive already talked about Francisca Helena, she is the ultimate bohemian grandma queen. She made lunch with every kind of meat you could imagine and 2 salads and potatoes and rice and juice that was basically a smoothy, adn then she brought out the cake and i just almost died. Then when we went last night she had made the same cake! And shes the type that puts in on your plate and makes you eat it. For real. Well last night she put 4 slices on my plate! Anyways... this week she said she received a revelation that she said she would only share in the next testimony meeting at church. Naturally we were curious, and more than curious, really worried! Because shes really into mystical stuff, and was part of all sorts of religions. Thanks to her being really emotionally drained and damaged (her grandkids stole all the money she had worked for that week to buy cocaine) last night we convinced her to tell us. She said that 20 years ago she had a dream that she saw Christ walking and he was walking past these windows, and she got the feeling that she should count the windows, and she counted 5 windows, and at the fifth he stopped, and looked at her. WOW, sometimes when people tell us these things I think they are crazy, but the spirit confirmed that it was legit. Then she said something last week reminded her of that dream and told her to try and interpret it. She said that she decided to count all the churches that she has been a part of and sure enough, she was part of 4 before, Catholic, Spiritismo, Messianic, and Candomblei (sp?) and number 5... The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! 

Wow. So amazing, the Lord started preparing her 20 years ago to receive the fulness of the gospel. 

We are seeing miracles every day! I am loving it here! So sad that this is week 6 already! 

LOVE YOU 

Seeester Steeevens 

ps i wrote this to dad and thought you guys might have the same question. 

yes my companion is from sao paolo, she doesnt speak english but wants to so i spend a lot of time during language study and while we walk teaching her and helping her practice. shes really patient and helps me work out the kinks in my portuguese. its awesome. 

I'll give it all I've got!

September 15, 2014

I cant believe Ive already been here for 4 weeks! 

This week was not very eventful, we walked SO MUCH! I think I say that every week but it was ridiculous. 

Last p day we hit up some sand dunes, because its a mission rule that we cant walk on sand buuut this sand doesnt have a beach so we got it approved. It was sooo fun! We hiked wayyy back up and down the dunes and discovered that there is a beach! Just really far away- I attached a pic. The funny thing was that there are a ton of church preachers and people that go there and climb to the top and just start screeaaming, "O SANGUE DE JESUS TEM PODER, jekajgidkjajdh" for like hours, i dont know how their voices do it. Also people lie in the sand and they pray and dance over them, I was like uhhh is this an indian ritual or a prayer to Jesus? It was ridiculous and a little frightening. But the best day playing in the sand. My companion has never been to the beach so it was a new experience. 

All we did all week was look for new people to teach and take care of our recent converts. The taking care of the recent converts paid off when Afonso, and Sandro received the Priesthood on Sunday! woo! 

And finding is always fun because when you dedicate yourself to finding the elect, the Lord puts them in your path! and you see miracles. 

I am freaking out a littttle bit about having less than two months, but on the morning of less than 2 months I read an article and Elder Holland talks about how missionaries say, "'I´ll give it all I´ve got for 2 years (MONTHS)', and that´s all a missionary has to do!" It was so cool when I read it I didnt even realize it said 2 years, my brain just switched it to months and it was really comforting. All I have to do is give it all my heart ], might, mind and strength and it will be enough, and my mission will be served faithfully. 

I was also studing about sacrifice the other day and read a really cool quote about how Joseph Smith said that a church that doesnt require its members to give up everything will never give its members the faith they need to gain exaltation. Sacrifice is a blessing, there is nothing worth more than it to the Lord. No other church or group or anything requires so much as the Lord requires of us, but no one receives such great promises and blessing and one day exaltation any other way. 

AMO VOCÊS! 

Seester Scheevens 

Sandro's Baptism

September 8, 2014

We had the craziest week of miracles with the baptism of Sandro. 

I told a little bit of his story last week but Im gonna do a summary of it all again. 

So we have a recent convert who´s been having a really hard time with her husband and when we went to visit her last Saturday night, he was there, and they were arguing. So I shared a scripture and Sister Palma (being obedient to the training booklet) asked him- the head of the household to offer the kneeling prayer at the end. It was surprisingly a really powerful and sincere prayer, not a fluent prayer and not a long wordy prayer. A simple, honest, prayer where he talked to God about how he wants to change. The next day he was in church! And said that he really prayed for the first time and that he received an answer too, and that was the reason he was in church. (If the other Sisters that served here knew that after inviting him to church for like 4 months they would just die.) So when we went there on Tuesday he was sitting there reading his scriptures! And marking his scriptures! He said that before he had tried taking the Book of Mormon and the Bible and reading but that he just couldnt understand the BOM, only the Bible. But that when he picked it up and started reading where his cousin suggested it all made sense! We were like do you have any questions and he was like no, it makes perfect sense... That night we challenged him to pray about a baptism date. When we went back the next day he hadnt.. but that he was willing to do whatever the Lord asked of him at this point. Did I mention his whole countenance and temperance changed after that Saturday?  Since he was there a few months ago and had already had the discussions too, we were like well... Will you be baptised this Saturday? And he was like- well there´s no reason to delay. So we interviewed him, but he had a problem with question 4, about more serious sins so the next day our Zone Leader interviewed him, and the next day President came and interviewed him, and Saturday, was the baptism! I gave the thought and congradutated him for having sufficient faith to see such a great miracle. The baptism was really good, and right after the elders had a baptism and he didnt even want to leave, he stayed for it too. He is like a legit latter day Alma the Younger. He used to fight about the missionaries about the Book of Mormon and really was not the best guy, but now, is a real disciple of Christ, you can see it in his eyes and feel it when he prays. What a great day! 

Then on Sunday we were really upset because we put out a HUGE effort to get people to church we called a million and went to a million houses Saturday and Sunday morning and no one came! WHAT!? yikes. no one. I was shocked and embarrassed and upset but then Sandro received the Holy Ghost and bore his testimony of the change that took place in him and remembered how blessed I was this week, and was happy. 

Just loving the work! Out of time! 

Seester Scheevens

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot!

September 1, 2014

Im just here loving Mussurunga. 

Im gonna go backwards with the week. 

Today we went to Pelourinho because all the newbs in the zone always want to visit. We rode the Lacerda Elevator, saw macumbas, capoeira, and lots of rasta stuff. Always a sweet adventure. So pretty, but SO HOT there. 

This whole week was hot, and all of our lunches were in the Elders area! So we walked and walked and walked.... and sweated A LOT. 

One of our lunched was with Irma Tita, she makes shirts in mass amounts and the Catholic church had ordered 2000 and she was behind so we stayed after lunched and slaved in her brazillian sweatshop for a few hours to help her get the order done. It was good to finally do some service. 

This week we had a ton of help from 2 members! We even did exchanges twice! It was way cool, Ive done that like maybe once on the mish and it was a fail so this was the greatest. We got a ton of work done and were able to follow up with all of our previsions too! I just love love love working in a ward where the members want to help you. I cant even explain how good it is. Because when you teach a full lesson its gonna take a while, so when one of us can teach a full lesson and the other one find new people to teach we double in effectiveness. Our LMA takes his calling so seriously, sometimes its funny- this week he asked the ward missionaries how many contacts they had made individually. They were like, uhhh all the contacts we made were when we were with the missionaries, and he was like- no, next week I need you to start counting your own. 

This week we had the baptism of Afonso! Dont ask why I baptize all the old men... It was awesome, we had scheduled for him to come with the LMA but nope he walked there all by himself and was stoked. Loved that. He was so funny, after I was like how do you feel and he was like-- bem.... afogado.. 

We had like 10 members there so that was good and before was a little stressful because the water got cut the other night so we had to fill the font with giant buckets and all the other faucets in the church. 

One of the best miracles was on Sunday, we were real stressed about getting peeps to church... its rough here, city life everyone has work or stuff to do on Sundays.  But the night before we had visited a recent-convert-less-active member and she was discussing some things with her husband that she's been seperated from.... You could feel the tension right away, so that was real awkward real quick. We tried to lighten the mood a little and just shared an all around good scripture e fizemos uma oração de joelhos, we asked him to do it, and the spirit was really strong, and it was the most sincere prayer! Then on Sunday, he came to church all by himself! And so did she! Which was awk sauce again but reaaaally good. In Gospel Principles he raised his hand and was like- the missionaries were in my house last night and I felt something really different, and got an answer to my prayer, and thats why im here. It was just so good because we can be tools in the Lords hands even when we dont have the most powerful lesson and everything. 

Other than thaaat there is a church that opened RIGHT next to our church, like the walls are 3 feet apart, and it has a HUGE banner that says Missionary Church of Mercy and Peace..... MISSIONARY CHURCH!? Oh boy... I hope that doesnt confuse too many people when they are looking for our church or when we explain where it is... 

WEEEELLLPPP LOVE YOU ALL!!!! 

Seester Scheevens :) 

Moo-soo-doo-nga

August 25, 2014

SO MUCH CHANGE!

I finally got the t-call at 6 30 on monday. I then I packed my bags and said goodbyes Tuesday, rode an overnight bus, and here I am in Mussurunga (moo-soo-doo-nga) with my new comp Sister Palma- I finally got a black companion!!!! Sister Brimley was training her for the last 6 weeks and now Im gonna finish training her for the next 6 weeks. Now Sister Brimley and I have 2 daughters! HA 

Mussurunga is awesome. First of all it is HUGE! and a city! Wayyy different. There is a ward here! We have a bishop and a ward mission leader and almoço! And our apartment is chique de mais! que felicidades. We live like 10 steps from the "chapel" really its an old school thats white and yellow and orange tile, with a huge sign of the church it is so funny. Also the baptismal font is like built into the side of where we have sacrament meeting, soooo funny. We share the ward with the Zone Leaders which is a little intimidating but also awesome because they help us a lot! 

Ok the only thing about a Mussurunga that is a little unfortunate is that it is HILL CITY. Like death hills. Everyone walks in zig zags to get up these hills that are EVERYWHERE. But at least it will help me not get too much fatter with these almoços. 

We have this investigator that the Sisters had only been teaching for about a week named Afonso. He's gonna get baptized this Saturday, he is sooo funny! Like the funniest old man I've ever met. We always have to say, "aqui Afonso! agoro eu vou falar Afonso, preste atenção Afonso!" When the bread for sacrament was passed he said-- and next comes the feijoada é? and then the water-- they dont have soda é? Yiiiiikes but he is golden nonetheless. 

I have more peeps here to help stop smoking. MAN it's a hard one. One is a recent converts grandson, some idiot told him that to stop doing drugs it was best to start smoking so that he could have something else to do for a feel good and stay occupied. This was after he took two bullets to the head by some dealers... But he cried this week when we committed him, he really does want it.

We did a lot of door knocking in Buerarema to find people to teach but here its alllll street contacts, so different! Everything is! I feel like Im learning to do missionary work all over again... again. But I am just so happy to be here and part of the work and that the Lord had this in the plan for me.

EU AMO VOCES, ATÉ SEMANA QUE VEM! 

Seester Scheevens

ps also I taught my first English class on Wednesday too! It was way fun! 

Priesthood Power

August 18, 2014

Oiiii famiiilia. 

Eu finalmente tem uma resposta sobre a data que vou voltar. A Primeira Presidência disse que não posso ter mais tempo, nem um dia mais! :( Então minha data oficial para voar a casa é dia 9 de Novembro. 

This week was good, I remember that I didnt agradecer very much for the package I got, so again THANK YOU. My ears are happy with the motab, my feet are happy with the chacos, and my face is finally clean again thanks to the face wash!

Good news, that lady Carla was out of bed all week! When we visited her this week it felt so much better entering the house than before. She has been normal ever since the Elders did the blessing there. AND her Mom was so grateful and impressed that she came to church yesterday! (we've been inviting her forever.) GO PRIESTHOOD.

Speaking of Priesthood, Diego got a blessing yesterday, he has been having a reeaal hard time putting it down for good. Everyday I tell him- Go, Diego go! haha. We caught him smoking in the street this week and he was reeeaaal embarrassed. But he needed it. The next day we had an awesome come unto Jesus lesson and I made him imagine that it was us that found him smoking in the street but Christ who found him smoking. We read Mosiah 3:19 and he said it scared him, but it was in a good way. He hasn't smoked since. 

We're really hoping he can make it to Saturday so he can finally be baptized. The problem here is that we have a bunch of people that need to get married or have a Word of Wisdom problem that want to be baptized but cant. But at the same time a bunch of people that dont have any problems now but dont want to get baptized! I wish it was possible to give them that desire but its not... so we're doing all we can. Praying, and trying to teach them about God's love for them. They just dont get the Atonement! 

Speaking of the atonement, yesterday at church the Bishop asked me to talk a few minutes before sacrament meeting started.... I put together a talk about 3 blessing Heavenly Father has given us, the plan of salvation, gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Restauration. I connected each one to the atonement. How it is central in God's plan, and in our lives, how we apply it through the gospel, and how it is only thanks to the restauration that we can apply it fully. I held up a pic of Michelles wedding with the whooole fam as I talked about how thanks to the atonement and restauration- as familias poderão ser eternas. Got a liiittle choked up, congrats, only you guys can make me choke up. I was glad I got to talk because I think it was probs my last Sunday here. just 5 more hours till we get our t-call.... 

This morning was the best because one of the investigators of the other Sisters used to teach Capoeira and every morning this past week Sister Goodwin and I have been running to his house to help him stop smoking maconha because he always used to do it first thing in the morning. We pass by and make sure he's reading the Book of Mormon and that he's already prayed. But this morning he met us all at a field and gave us a Capoeira lesson! (Like fight dancing) It was the best! He said, "Raaaapaaaz esta menina tem sangue de negro!" So that was the best compliment ever. I attached a pic of us.

Love you all a lot, and really love this work, dont forget to be a part of it too. 

Seester Scheevens

Doida Beurarema

August 11, 2014

Well I dont have much time so Im just gonna start right off. On Wednesday the most ridiculous thing happened. We were on our way to our district meeting and our onibus just stopped... and like 15 minutes later people started getting agitated, theres never traffic on the highway... but finally someone passed by and said there was a protest up the road, so about half the people left the bus and started to walk to Itabuna! It was a good 3 miles to the chapel and we had to pass the protest, they were burning a bunch of tires in the middle of the road. We had to run and jump when we got close to it(or add a bunch of distance walking around). It was reeeaaal warm on the side of my body of the fire but I was needing the adventure. We walked around the crowds of people and finally got to our meeting. 

This week has been kinda rough because everyone has been anti-ing our members and investigators. Whyyyy is it so easy to convince people that we are a cult? Or that we still practice polygamy? Or thatSaturday is really still the Sabbath. We lost some investigators and a member but I think they'll want the spirit back in their lives with time. 

Everyone we are teaching right now smokes, first we found everyone in Buerarema that needs to get married and then everyone who needs to quit smoking. Addictions are the worst! 

This week an Elder asked me if I was gaining weight recently. The answer is yes. I dont know how that works because we dont even get fed here! 

We have a member here who got a blessing from the Elders last Sunday for her health because when we saw her she was curled up on her bed crying and her mom said she had been like that for days. She was skinny to start out with but she was like skin and bone, it looked like there was nothing under the blanket! We have been having to pass by to help her eat, she only takes milk or mingau from her mom and so we go and make her eat beans and rice and stuff. It is a struggle getting her out of bed and to eat but we somehow convince her every time. We finally found out she had some macumba done on her a few years back and there's a spirit that follows her and tells her she's going to die and not to eat and not to sleep. After that it made sense why she would only talk and eat when we were there. So we sent the elders again to bless the house this time and I think it will be good now. 

Thats pretty much it in doida Beurarema, gotta love every minute, it's real bittersweet that transfers are next week... gonna be interesting! 

Obrigada por tudo familia! Te amo! 

Seester Scheevens 

PS finally got my bday package!!! the bad news is my feet are full of blisters.