January 13, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

What a wonderful week! I am serving with Sister Bargas and literally couldn’t have a better companion. She is from Goiânia (dentro um outro estado do Brasil). I can’t explain it, but my desire to serve has grown so much and I know it is because of our obedience. Obedience really does bring miracles. The spirit when teaching with Sister Vargas is so tender and I often find myself wanting to just sit and soak in the pure joy we get to share. This week we set a ton of high goals. I was super nervous to start serving as senior comp just because the situation of the area is a good measure of the work of the missionaries especially senior. (and knowing how I am a perfectionist, I was nervous). Our area really struggled last transfer and I was nervous to start this transfer the same way. So we set tons of goals, fast and prayed more this week than ever. Then we hit the ground running. Miracles happened this week! We achieved every goal we set and some we had to set even higher. We have started teaching amazing people and I feel so much amor, paz, e alegria puro! This is the true purpose of missions. To bring others to the joy and giving your all to the Lord. One girl we have started teaching, Tiane, sat with me in church yesterday. It was a miracle she was at church, because half of the members were not at church because of a crazy rain storm. We called a member to give her a ride, but somehow a different member had picked her up already. We couldn’t figure out who had given her a ride. It ended up being the ward mission leader. He had woken up Sunday morning and felt like he should call her and offer a ride. It was perfect. Then during sacrament meeting, she became very emotional during one of the talks and couldn’t explain why. I was able to talk to her about the spirit and she was just overwhelmed with joy and excitement. She was so happy and started begging Sister Vargas and me to stay here in Cidade Nova forever and keep teaching her. It was such a tender moment, but her joy really touched my heart. She is super excited to be baptized on the 25th :) This gospel is true, and I know without a doubt that it changes lives. It is through o evangelho de Cristo cada um de nós pode ficar mais perto de Cristo! Eu sei que esse trabalho é verdadeiro e que Cristo vive! Eu amo cada um de vocês! 

 

Até próxima semana!! 

 

Com Amor,

Sister Sender

 

PS: 

It was downpouring rain all day yesterday and 75.... freezing!! I pulled out my sweater for the first time since July!! 

 

Cultural:

It is normal to have dreams about things that will happen in our lives... one 20 year old Member had a dream that our lunch app fell through. He called the elders the next day, and it had fallen through and he ended up making lunch for us 4 missionaries. really cool!