Week 74~"The Book is Blue, The Church is True..."

Hello my people, this week certainly had its ups and downs, but we know that in our times of trial is the time of great learning.

This week we went to the temple with Beatriz, our investigator who was supposed to baptized on Sunday. We went and had a lesson there which was really spiritual and we left her in the waiting room in the temple to read the Book of Mormon and search for her answer. When we returned she said that she had gotten her answer and would be baptized. What a miracle! But it just so happens that Satan also has angels and works hard too and Beatriz got scared to make the decision and so her baptism has been put off for now. But the book is blue and the church is true.

Other than that, we´ve been working a lot with Luan´s brother who is progressing really well. He downloaded the Gospel Library app and has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday. And now he´s been asking about the Commandments so that he doesn´t sin in ignorance. I have a real testimony of the Book of Mormon in conversion. 

We´ll be having interviews with President this week which will be great. We´ve been reactivating less active families which is awesome. And we´ve been handing out candy to people when we do contacts in the spirit of halloween which might seem creepy, but people like it. Haha. That´s it for this week. Until the next, 

Love,

Sister Lockhart

At the temple with Beatriz (her son Igor was bit by a dog)

Isaiah 40:31

Luan received the priesthood and blessed the sacrament this week

Week 73~Order and Progress...

São Paulo is full of hills that are trying to kill me...

Hi everyone, another day another dollar! 

This week we worked a lot with our investigators who are preparing to be baptized. They are having a lot of progress so that´s great. Unfortunately Beatriz wasn´t home on sunday so she didn´t go to church. She was supposed to be baptized this Saturday, but we feel that she needs a bit more time to prepare herself. But she´s doing great too. Priscila was able to come on sunday, but it´s a bit complicated situation with the dad of the kid´s. But we are working with the bishopbric to work everything out. Also, we brought two young women to church, Sara and Samara. They are from Rio de Janeiro and have a strong accent. They are really shy so that´s why their mom is all like ´´Please take them to church and have them make friends!!!´´ They are going to come with us tomorrow to the English Class at the church too.

But other than, we have been finding less-active families too. We found a family whose just great. We left them with a message and one of the ladies said ´´I had a feeling you Sisters were going to come today and invite us to church and I´ve been touched by your message that I´ll go to church!´´ And the miracle is that she actually came! They are an awesome family really.

But that´s really about it for this week. Just working until the end. Here´s just one picture.

Love you all!

Sister Lockhart

Week 72~God's not Dead...

Family Home Evening with Rita

(the great thing about returning to an old area

 is that you get to visit the people you taught)

Hello people!

 The time is passing by really fast, but let me give you a rundown of the week.

So we have been following up on Luan´s brother, Junior, and we talked to him yesterday about baptism. He said that he is seeing the change in his life because he used to not believe in God, but now he believes. And he is going to church and reading the Book of Mórmon which is just great! We made a goal to baptize him in the beginning of November. He said if he feels he should, he will. 

Also this past wednesday was Children´s Day and there was a neat activity at the church. We brought our investigator Bea who is progressing well. We went with her and her little two year old and it was nice and also awkward because we couldn´t like pick up the children. But there was a ball pit and trampoline and little Igor (Bea´s son) was very content. 

Priscila also came to church this week and accepted a date to be baptized. Priscila is the first investigator that I can remember who drove to the church in her car. She is passing through some trials, but she is a strong woman who wants to change her life and knows that something was missing from it. And that´s when we called by accident and she said she wanted to know more about the church. God works in mysterious ways. 

That´s all I´m going to write for this week. Love you all and stay safe!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Sara and Rafael are returning to the Church and they bought us pizza

Week 71~Probably the Busiest Week of my Mission...

Me, Sister Perez, Luan, Felipe

Hello all! I heard about the hurricane that passed through the Carolinas. I hope everyone is safe and okay! You´re in my prayers.

But as for this week, this week was probably one of the busiest weeks of my mission. First of all, on thursday we went to accompany Luan with his Book of Mormon reading, but instead we had ´´real talk´´ with him about baptism and why he didn´t want to be baptized. During the middle of the conversation he said ´´Well, it´s not that I don´t want to be baptized, I do...´´ and he told us that he was afraid to make a big mistake after baptism. So we explained the Atonement more in depth and he said ´´Ok, so when am I going to be baptized?´´ !!! Remember that this is on thursday and his mom was going to get a day off saturday, but Luan felt it would be too soon, but his mom wouldn´t be able to stay on sunday if the baptism were sunday and also he didn´t want to have to wait another week to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So Luan was baptized Saturday. 

On Saturday we went to the temple with a family we are working with to be sealed. There daughter isn´t baptized yet, and we felt the spirit really strong in the waiting room of the temple.She knows she needs to be baptized, but she doesn´t feel prepared, but she seems to be changing.

After the temple we were invited to an english school to help students practice their english. Me and another american Elder sat up in the front and answered the student´s questions that they had prepared, but they started asking questions about our work and about why we decided to do this and it turned into a very special, spritual moment and I know that we left a good impression there. I felt like I was on the Ellen show or something, it was awesome.

Luan´s baptism went great, President Thomas and Sister Thomas came! It was very special. Luan bore his testimony and made everyone cry haha. Afterwards he received the gift of the Holy Ghost on sunday and his brother and cousin came. After church we went to visit him, but he went to say goodbye to our district leader so we talked to his brother Junior and his cousin Rafael. Junior said that when Luan bore his testimony, he felt something. Junior is atheist like Luan was, but he said he noted the big difference in Luan now that he is interested in knowing for himself if these things are true and he´s going to read the Book of Mormon. Rafael is evangelical, and his dad is pastor so he heard a lot of bad things about the church, but at the baptism and at church he said he knows that the stuff he heard isn´t true and asked for a Book of Mormon to read when he goes back home (he lives in the interior) . The missionaries there are going to visit him! Hoorah!

This week was just a great week full of miracles. Know that I love you all and Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Prepare yourselves for photos

Last District Meeting of the Transfer

At the Temple

Let"s Speak English

Rafael, Junior, Luan,Felipe, Valeria

After Church

Week 70~Sing a Little Louder, Sing a Little Prouder...

Hello everyone! Thiss week was great! I hope everyone had a great general conference. General conference is pretty stressful for missionaries here because we have to get rides for all of our investigators, but everything worked out in the end. We had 3 investigators at church, including Luan. The others were Bea and Odete. We hope to progress with them this week.

This past week we had a Multi-zone conference which was great. I gave my parting testimony which was a surprise because I still got 2 months left, but whatever, it was nice. Sou muito grata pela missão! President changed a lot of stuff that we are going to be doing on the mission now so everybody has to adjust. He also made everyone feel guilty for not doing contacts on the bus. So when we were returning home I told my companion let´s sing some hymns. So we started singing and one dude started filming us and started mocking us so I told the greenie to sing louder. Maybe that´s why people think Mormons are annoying, but I´m proud to be one of those. From now on when we ride the bus, we are going to sing a hymn and pass out pass-along-cards. It´s great!

I really liked Elder Ucthdorf´s talk on faith during the Women´s Session in general conference. ´´Faith isn´t to change the will of the Lord, but it is to act in line of his will.´´ (something like that) I also liked that one guy´s talk (my notes are at home) about the 12-year old girl and her conversion to the Book of Mormon. It´s true! It really is! Thank you all for your prayers and support! Until next week!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

President took all the zones out to lunch

We're cool...

No, we're all crazy