Week 52~Wonderful Feeling-Wonderful Day...

Hey everyone! Today we had our farewell for President Del Guerso which was the bomb. It was really emotional because he´s just like our dad. And we all got to give him a hug at the end. So sad. BUT, we skyped our new President and his wife and he´s so cute! Her too! She doesn´t speak portuguese and President Thomas is remembering, with a strong American accent, but he seems like a dad too. It´ll be exciting to get to know him and his wife.

This week was Rita´s baptism!! It almost didn´t happen because she didn´t want to pay tithing, but we told her to pray about it and a miracle happened. To make a long story short, Maria, our recent convert who was going to have to move out because she didn´t have money to pay rent, moved into a better house and we saw the hand of the Lord bless her and her family. We arrived the next day and Rita said she would pay tithing. What a blessing. What a miracle!

We also found Claudenise finally. The whole family was lying about where she was at, but we found her on the holiday and she said she hasn´t given up and she still wants to be baptized, but that she wants to wait until June because her mom got really sick and her husband still doesn´t want her to be baptized. So it´s all in her time. 

We also had our last Multizone conference with President wednesday too. Afterward we went to the temple with him to do a session and we all went to the Celestial Room and wow was the spirit so strong. One of the happiest moments I´ve experienced. I have a strong testimony of the Plan of Salvation, which is a plan of happiness. I also like that scripture in Doctrine and Covenants that says ´´how great will be your joy if ye bring one soul unto me.´´ Because if you want to be happy, help other people! 

Until next week my people!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Me, Sister Haggard, and Sister Cannon

MAXINY!!! I swear she is a wizard because she pops up out of nowhere

Sister Melo, Me, Sister Gomes, Sister Cannon, Sister Benevides

(unfortunately the people were rushing the baptism

 that we didn´t get a good photo :/ 

Week 51~I LOVE PARAISOPOLIS...

Hey people, this week was pretty cool. Let me give you the rundown. 

This week our whole zone got to go to Paraisópolis to help the people there who lost there home in a recent fire that destroyed about 10,000 people´s homes and killed about 5 people. So we spent two days doing service there to help the people. It reminded me of the good old days of doing service as a youth. We folded clothes, sorted shoes, worked in like a soup kitchen, etc. It was a great opportunity. Paraisópolis is the second largest favela in all of Brasil with about 100,000 people, which is ridiculous. I´ll put in a picture of what it looks like. But yeah, Paraisópolis is pretty famous that there´s a soap opera here in Brasil called ´´I Love Paraisópolis´´ hence the title. But don´t worry, we were completely safe

This week had it´s ups and downs too. We can´t get in contact with Claudenise because her family basically hates us. Her mom got sick so she´s been passing time there. One day we got to her house and her husband said she was at her mom´s house and that he was leaving to drop off his son. So after I was all like ´´We´ve got to go find her. Let´s go knock on doors.´´ I remembered more or less what road her mom lived on because one time she mentioned it briefly. So we said a prayer and went on faith and we knocked on doors. We were actually going in the wrong direction, but by a miracle we found the house in 10 minutes!! what?! But then we got there and the son answered and was mean to us and told us she wasn´t there. Whatever. Buuuuut it´s not over yet. 

But yeah other than that it´s just been really cold and rainy and apparently we can use pants now? That´s a little confusing. But actually I don´t think our mission is included in that. As for as I know, Dengue and Zica isn´t as big of a problem here as it is in other parts of Brasil.

Those are the highlights of this week! I´ll just send pics now. Thanks all for everything!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

We were asked to write one word

 that describes our mission president and his wife (disciples)

Family home evening with Paloma, Stefani, Fátima, and Cézar

​Rain, rain go away!

Just in case you wanted to see
 the inequality difference between Paraisópolis and Morumbi

Week 50~"Don't Worry, Be Happy"

Hey everyone, another week down, many more to go! Did you know every body here likes Bob Marley? This week was great! We had Stefani´s baptism which was awesome! Sister Cannon and I sang ´´Come Thou Fount´´ in english because Stefani speaks english. It actually worked out really well and we didn´t biff it. Haha! But yeah everything worked out and was a stress-free baptism which is kind of a first hahah. 

In other news our investigator, Rita, who is Maria´s friend will hopefully be baptized 29th of May. She is trying to stop smoking and is actually doing really well because she doesn´t have anymore money to buy cigarettes. Cigarettes are really cheap hear. In dollars it would be about 1.50 or something like that. No wonder everybody smokes here. 

Claudenise is also marked for the 29th of May. She isn´t receiving a lot of support from her family, but she has a lot of support from the ward and says she is determined to be baptized. She is amazing really. She wants to give us missionaries lunch and also bake bread for the sacrament! She´s so sweet. 

That´s about it for this week. The next few weeks will be cool because we have the Multi-zone conference and P-day with the President before he leaves. It´s weird to think he leaves the next transfer. Love you all! Until next week! 

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Week 49~Miracles Happen

The Warriors of Maria Rosa

Happy Mother´s Day to all those great moms out there! I had the great opportunity to talk to my family on Sunday without any problems this time, thank goodness. And it was awesome. And now we´re back to work.

Stefani is all prepared for her baptism this Sunday; it´s going to be great. I can´t express the joy I´ve felt in this area. I remember someone told me before the mission that we are sent to our missions to find at least one person in particular and I believe that´s true. Hurrah for Israel!

Unfortunatey, Claudenise won´t be baptized this week because her husband is totally against it. She says she is determined to baptized, but we are here to bring families together and not break them up so it´s sad. :/ But miracles happen. 

We are also working with a friend of our recent convert Maria. Her name is Rita and she had a dream after she read the Book of Mormon of her eating bread and there being lots of water. We marked her for baptism n the 29th of May, but she has a problem with smoking and coffee. But she went to church and loved it and Maria told us she is smoking a lot less now. Miracles happen.

I don´t have much else to say. Everything is pretty much normal now. It feels like this is the first time everything is normal, which will probably change now that I´ve said that. Oh if you want to hear the funny story of a contact I did this week, just ask. 

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Louca 
(nobody can say my name and when they try it comes out as "louca" which means crazy lol)

Sister Melo & Me

Zona Ferreira

~Week 49 Mother's Day Skype Call...

Mom's Note... Had a wonderful call from Jessica.  She was in good spirits and is anxiously engaged in the work of the Lord, so much so that she was having a real hard time speaking in English.

We also got to hear her sing "Israel, Israel  God is calling" with a very sweet family that lives next door.  Jess says it's her favorite hymn.  

What a wonderful Mother's Day...

Week 48~Winter is Here...

Winter has arrived. Need I say more? Basically, it´s really, really cold. Whoever said it doesn´t get cold in Brasil (or São Paulo for that matter) was really wrong. I thought I´d never say it, but I actually prefer the heat. At least it hasn´t been raining. But that´s enough about the weather. 

ALRIGHTY let´s get down to it. Paloma was confirmed this week and Stefani and Danilo came to church. Man, I just love this family. We had heart to heart with Stefani this week and she bore her testimony to us and it´s these moments that remind us why we do missionary work. The gospel changes lives! The church is true! You don´t have to yell it out your window, but you can invite someone to church! Anyway. Stefani will be baptized the 15th of May :D We´re still working with Danilo who did not want to come to church because there was a big soccer game that would be missing, but Stefani got him to come so that was great.

Also, Claudenise, Victor´s mom, wants to be baptized as well. I´ve never met anyone such an eleita(?) I don´t know this word in english and google translate says elected, but I think it´s more like chosen. Whatever, but she´s incredible. After we taught the Restoration she started to read the Book of Mormon and in one week she was ready to be baptized. She will hopefully be baptized the 15th of May too, but her husband isn´t too supportive. But she said she´s determined to be baptized. She´s the kind of person that Doctrine and Covenants talk about ´´that they are kept from the truth only because they know not where to find it´´. The Lord really does prepare his people.

What else? Maria and Isabele are doing great, coming to church every Sunday. Thankfully, she has an amazing visiting teacher who is taking great care of her. We had lunch with all of them this Sunday and I´ve really learned the importance of home teaching and visiting teaching. It´s really important, I´ll just say that.

That´s pretty much it. I´m in a great area with great members and great investigators and a great companion, who could ask for more? Thank you all for your prayers! Until next week!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Getting my daily intake of water with the best

​Maria Rosa