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 :)