Week 60~´´Esta é minha filha amada, ouve-a!´´

Hello! This week I received my new companion! Her name is Sister Neto from Acre. She´s the first person I´ve met from Acre (she gets that a lot). It was pretty funny when we found out we were companions because I asked her if she liked the MTC and she said ´´Uh, yeah.´´ and I said ´´Good, because you´re going to back there.´´ Haha, it must be strange to go from the MTC to the area of the MTC.

This week we had a lot of miracles. We found a family! We taught them this week and marked them for baptism, but unfortunately when we went to pick them up to go to church yesterday, they told us they weren´t ready to be baptized and that if they leave the church they are going to they won´t be able to receive money from them anymore. Buuuuut, we are still going to help them. Also this week out of the blue I had the thought (but of course it was the spirit) to go to Renato´s house. So we went there and out of the blue Renato told us that he is going to get married! He said that it was because of our love as missionaries that he was finally able to understand that this is what he needs to do. But it´s a secret! They´re going to announce it at Lorenzzo´s baptism this upcoming sunday! I was very happy.

As for the area, it´s very large and we still don´t have a good map. I think they are going to put another set of sisters in the ward the next transfer, but we´ll see. That´s about all I have to say of this week! Love you guys!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Week 59 ~I am going to be a Mother (Again)...

Me, Elder Fernandez, Elder Barney, Sister Lozano, Sister de Oliveira 

(I don´t know how I am still this white)

Hello all!

Another day, another dollar! Hah. So

tomorrow is transfer day and looks like I´ll be training again! President Thomas changed A LOT of stuff including our area. The Elder´s area of Casa Verde closed and now I have to take care of it. Which means our area that was once the size of an egg is now very large. But that´s cool, I´ll have some exploring to do. I´m a bit nervous to train here because my companion will be coming straight from the MTC to the area of the MTC. Kind of weird haha. And President Thomas is trying to show all the newbies that trainer is the most important calling on the mission. But it´ll all work out. Pray for me! 

This week we had 2 investigators at church. Victoria came! And she loved it! She is going to start Personal Progress and go to the youth activities. Aleluia! She is so cute and we´re hoping to put her on date this week. Also Renato came to church, what a miracle. He didn´t stay the whole time, but he went to hear his daughter get her patriarchal blessing, so I´m sure that was special for the family. We´re hoping in 2 weeks to baptize Lorenzzo! This kid...haha. Lorenzzo is Renato´s kid. It´ll all work out!

This week I had to renew my visa which was fun. (Not.) But we got to see some missionaries from Mission Curitiba that flew all the way out to São Paulo to renew their visas too. It was pretty interesting. They flew out by themselves, 4 americans, to do everything themselves. I find that pretty funny because we can´t even go to the temple without having to be accompanied. Lol

There´s not much else to say. I killed my companion today (killing= sending home haha) which is kind of sad because it reminds me that I only have four months left....Hey family, how do you feel about living in Brasil?! I don´t want to come home just yet! haha. 

Oh yeah, shoutout to RENAN who found my blog, but does´t even speak english. Google translate works wonders, né? 

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support! As always, until next week!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Zona Perdizes (also known as the dead zone, because everyone´s going home!

Number 1 Lunch

​(From the left) Elder G. Scott, Sister de Oliveira, Elder Costa, Me, Tati, Livia (baby), Renan

Companion, Tati, Livia, Me

Week 58~The Work of Angels

This is me trying to be taller than Emily

Good morning America! 

This week was cool. We got to meet our new mission president and his wife and his daughter this week and wow! They are amazing. President Thomas is the most humblest man I have ever met (other than my dad, awww). And Sister Thomas is so cute and Emily their daughter speaks very good portuguese for being here for a couple of weeks. We had an activity to meet them and they talked a lot about our personal conversion as a missionary. He is also going to let us continue drinking coke. hahaha.

This week was kind of a blur. We found a woman named Paloma this week who seems pretty interested in the church and wants to learn more. When we taught her the Restoration, she said she had never heard anyone claim these things before, but that she would like to know if it´s true. We also found a girl named Victoria who is the daughter of a less active and has some mental issues, but we´re helping her understand how the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help. She is reading the Book of Mormon and her mom said that they will go to church this sunday! When we arrived at her house yesterday, she was crying, and said when we arrived at the door, she was praying to God to send help. I´m really thankful that the Holy Ghost was the Senior companion that day.

Geraldo is getting better with his drinking problem. He didn´t drink 3 days during the week! Iago, his son, is helping us help him now. He said that I´m not allowed to leave this area until Geraldo is baptized.. Hahah so I might be staying here until the end of my mission. We´ll see! 

Let´s see, what else. I stepped in hole and fell again this week, so my knees are pretty banged up. Oh and we did a division with the Sister Training Leaders which was fun. And that´s about all I remember for this week. In one week I´ll be getting a new companion. There´s a brasilian sister in the MTC now who is waiting for her visa to go to the......Raleigh North Carolina Mission! Hahaha! And it´s possible that she will be reassigned to serve in this mission, so that´s really cool.

That´s it for this week! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

​I´m standing on a plank of wood that leads to a house...about15 feet below is a river of sewage... hahah

Week 57~Pants & Unexpected Baptism

Isabella and her family

Hey, ho, let´s go!

This week was pretty awesome. Last P-day we went to Liberdade which is a Japanese bairro (it´s like a neighborhood or city, like Gray´s Creek). It´s the largest Japanese district in the world outside of Japan! It was awesome and ridicuously expensive, so I only bought sushi. Fun fact: the best sushi in the world is made here in Brasil, outside of Japan of course. It was also the day I decided to test out my new pants..hhahahah. I have to say it was pretty great. Actually it didn´t make a difference to me and probably won´t use them much, but I had to say I at least used them once!

Also this week when we went to visit Isabella to say we wouldn´t be visiting much anymore she told us she was going to be baptized Saturday. We actually didn´t believe her, but she showed us that she threw away all of her funk music (it´s a genre of music that isn´t very appropriate) and she is going to start dressing modestly now. She told us that the church will help her be a better person and help her make good decisions. We were pretty impressed. So she was baptized Saturday! 

We also started our English class this week. It´s not as big and great as the class we started in Perdizes, but it´s still fun. There are only two americans in our district, me and Elder Barney (yes, his actual last name is Barney) so it only gives to have one class. Actually funny story: me and my companion got to the church and the elders were running late saturday. The church was unlocked to let the people in, but the only person who entered was a homeless man. We asked him if he was here to join the english class, and he reluctantly said yes. We told him we were going to start in 15 mintes. So he went and started stealing the trash from the church. My companion was like ´´What do we do?´´ and I said to just wait until the elders get here. The elders arrived and we invited him to the class (his name is João, or John). And he joined. Afterwards, we had cookies and he told us how grateful he was for our hospitality. I expect he will return Saturday.

Church was interesting this week. A guy we talked to on the street said he would visit the church this sunday and he did surprisingly (everyone says they´re going to visit, but never do). He has already read the Book of Mórmon all the way throughl, but he never visited the church, because he is very Evangelico. But he came! It was interesting. He bore his testimony during sacrament meeting and participated in Gospel Principles and Priesthood. He even stayed for the baptism afterwards. We´re going to teach him this week, so let´s see how that goes. 

That´s about it for this week! Until the next!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Liberdade

"Pants"

For English Class