Week 42~Transfers & Birthdays

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, I live in Brazil, but not in a tree. 

I give it an A for effort.

So this week was really good! Andreia is really excited about her baptism and this week she handed over her coffee and cigarettes! When I asked her to give them to me I thought she wouldn´t, because in my experience nobody ever has, but I need to learn to trust my investigators and the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the atonement changes us! 

Also we had a very good lesson with Wagner this week. He told us he needs to read the whole Book of Mormon before being baptized. We gave the analogy of the cake and that you don´t need to eat the whole cake to know it´s good and he liked that analogy, but still insisted. I then shared my experience of the Book of Mormon and almoooost cried when he grabbed my arm and said ´´I know it´s true.´´ We read the first few baptismal questions with him and he passed, but he is still insisting that he needs to read the whole book first. Oh Vagner...

I also found out yesterday I´ve been called to train in Maria Rosa! Kinda sad I´ll be leaving behind everything here, but excited at the same time. It´s Ferreira zone and Ferreira is richer than Perdizes, can you believe it? Buuuut, it´ll all work out.

Also our English class is so awesome! We did an english scavenger hunt and everybody loved it! I´m really grateful for the time I spent here in Perdizes, as hard as it was. We´ve done a lot of good here.

Oh yeah, I almost spent my birthday in the hospital today. I woke up Saturday morningthrowing up and spent the whole day trying not to die and finally went to the hospital and it turns out I have a little infection in my stomach and my left side is a little enlarged for some reason. But everything´s okay mom! That´s why they invented drugs.

Thank you all for your love and support! Until next week!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Week 41~You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile...

Hey everyone! This week was kind of a doozey, but great!

So we have been visiting Andreia, an ex-investigator who went to rehabilitation because of drinking, and we taught her the Restoration this week. The other sisters already taught her the lesson so she remembered about Joseph Smith and basically everything. At the end I was thinking of what to say next when Andreia said ´´I think Jesus is going to return soon.´´ That was a little surprising. So I asked her how she was going to prepare for his return. And she said stop smoking, go to church, and be baptized! What?! So we told her we wanted to help her by making a goal of April 2 as the day of her and her daughter´s baptism. She accepted and told Beatrice to put it on the calendar! That was just one miracle for this week.

So around comes Sunday and we had Stake Conference this week which is basically the worst for a mission to try and bring investigators. But we were able to have a member take Andreia and Beatrice to the stake center and we had to take a bus there. So we get there and it turns out Andreia and Beatrice decided to leave to go buy a cellphone and get something to eat. So you can imagine here I am freaking out because we lost our investigators and we called them many times and each time they said they were coming but never arrived. In the end, we went back to the stake center and I was really sad because I didn´t even know where they were. But after the meeting, we found them sitting in the big chapel (because we were in a small room). So after everything was said and done, everything worked out. What. A. Blessing.

Also yesterday we took the wrong bus back to our area and ended up in another mission. Let´s just say, that we finally made it back and wow I don´t ever want to take another bus again. 

I just want to say how thankful I am for the gospel. Our mission is studying Doctrine and Covenants until April and I read a scripture this week that said ´´the thing that will be of the most worth to you will be to delcare repentance unto this people.´´ which made me think of the importance of our calling as a missionary. This time is one of a kind!

Thanks for all the support, until next week!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Week 40~Another Multizona & 9 Months...What?

I'm going to keep it short this week, but here´s a summary of what happened this week:

This week we had a Multi-zone conference which was really good. Apparently we received a new mission counselor and he gave an excellent talk on faith and he talked about some faith promoting stories he had on his mission. One thing I thought of when he gave his talk was when Alma in the Book of Mormon says that they made miracles happen. They didn´t wait around for miracles to happen. That part I already knew, but what I learned is that us missionaries make miracles happen when we promise specific blessings. Ding! Lightbulb. I need to be better at that, because I can promise the general blessings, but it requires faith to promise a specific blessing, and faith precedes the miracle.

In other news, we had to cut Carol this week, because she won´t wake up to come to church. So that was sad. Also, our chosen family that we had lots of miracles with decided to cut us too, which kind of broke my heart. And Vagner won´t accept a baptism date because he thinks he needs to pay for his sins first. No, Vagner. Jesus Christ already did that. You just need to repent. But he´s a stubborn one. But he still comes to church every Sunday without our help so that´s something. Also, Andreia came to church this week, that one investigator we found who happily let us into her house. So that was good, but she has some serious mental problems, so I don´t think we will be able to progress with her. We did find a house full of people that accept us, but no one is married. It´s always the humble people that accept us. I really feel like Alma admist the Zoramites here. It´s equal.

So that is about it for this week. Oh yeah I´m nine months old now? What? Everything passes so fast now! I finally feel like I´m just geting started! Haha. Here some pictures. Love you all! 

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Week 39~Tchau Piolho

My Maxine...We met over skype in the MTC for TRC!!

Oi gente, another week gone, another week to go. This week was pretty good, except that I found out that I have lice. I´ve come to find that it isn´t fun to have lice. So if you ever want to know what it´s like to have lice, imagine bugs crawling on your head, because that´s exactly what it is.

This week we went through our list of contacts in our Area Book and decided to contact everyone who lives on one of the roads in our area. So the first person we went to visit was out on the street and she saw us and told us ´´Enter! Enter! Please!´´ Turns out the other Sisters used to teach her, but she had a terrible drinking problem and was out on the street a lot and after was intermitted into like one of those Rehabilitation places so they lost contact with her. Now she doesn´t drink and has almost quit smoking and she loves the missionaries. She told us ´Yeah, I remember we went to church a few times with the Sisters, maybe we can do that again!´´ and we were like ´´Yeah!!!´´ So that was a miracle for this week.l

Update on Vagner: Vagner Vagner loves the church, but is waiting fo his answer about the Book of Mormon. He told us this week when we taught him that he thought we weren´t going to come because we were annoyed with him or something so he was praying that we would come and when he finished his prayer we showed up at the door. He came to church this Sunday and wanted to stay for a baptism in the other ward, but his wife showed up at the church and said that he had to leave. His wife always told us that she was okay with him choosing his own path, but I guess not. We´ll see this week.

As for Carol, we always mark her for baptism, but it always drops because she won´t stop smoking or drinking. This week we had a spiritual lesson with her about baptism and we tried to remark her, but this time she said that she wants to be certain that she won´t break any commandments such as drinking and smoking and going to church after baptism bcause it´s something serious. Hoorah! She gets it! She told us to give her a month. Normally I guess we would be sad, but Carol was a mess when we found her and she has progressed a lot and is turning her life around. So I feel really good about our work with her.

As for other things, we´re going to be getting a new bishop soon in the ward because the current bishop is moving to Tennessee. Also our English class is going great and we might start teaching in a school now because a ecent convet in our ward is a big shot here and is helping us out a lot with missionary work. And that´s about it for this week! 

Love,

Sister Lockhat

​My Bahian...got her visa to serve in Fort Lauderdale, FL!

Week 38~High Times, Low Times...

Hey people! 

This week has been a little crazy. Where to begin?

So we had an emergency transfer this week because President del Guerso said that another american sister isn´t progressing like she should so she´s here now with me in Perdizes and Sister Haggard was transferred to Taboão. Actually it was kind of funny when President picked up Sister Haggard because he told me the new sister doesn´t understand very well so if we encounter a situation where neither of us are understanding anything, good luck to us. Ohhhh President......

But yeah this will be a great learning and serving opportunity. Before the transfer we had exchanges with sister training leaders and we had to go visit Ana Laura (that girl who was baptized when I passed here in Perdizes!!). The problem is Ana Laura lives in the Elders´ area and the only time I went there was when I was only 3 weeks old in Brasil. So we got very lost after we visited her and took the wrong buses, but we finally made it back in the area around 7:30..... But like I said, it´s a great learning opportunity. 

As for our golden Vagner, he was progressing very well and he loves the church and we marked hmi for the 5th of March, but he was talking to his brother-in-law who lives in Salt Lake, but isn´t a member, and he said in order to be a member you have to pay tithing. And he kind of didn´t like that because he thinks tithing is of man and not of God  So he told us he would still meet with us and go to church, but to hold off on the baptism. That really was a bummer. So our focus this week is to find a lot more people. The Lord is really trying our faith because this area hasn´t had a baptism in 6 months, but God is a God of miracles, I know that much.

I think that´s about it for this week. Thank you for your prayers! Until next week!

-Sister Lockhart

Week 37~Welcome to English Class

Hello my dear friends and family, 

It's only been about 4 days, but here I am again!

So these past four days we´ve actually had a lot happen. We started our english class this week and it was great! We had about 15 people there on Saturday, but a lot of people called and said they wouldn´t be able to make it this time, but the next time for sure! It was really neat actually, a lot of people came up afterward and asked when we have church meetings and were able to get a couple addresses in our area to visit. Oh sidenote: we were teaching estar, ser, and ficar, which is the equivalent of ´´I am´´ and I tried to make a joke about Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, you know, like, ´´I am Groot´´,  but it didn´t really work out and only two people laughed because they felt sorry for me. But, other than that it went very well!

Also this week we had a miracle! I made a contact with some guy on the street and he talked with us for about half an hour about Mormons and stuff and he had so many questions and we were running late so we gave him three pamphlets and invited him to church on Sunday and also to the english class. So we were at the church on Saturday getting things set up and he (his name is Wagner) walks in and asks us where are the gold plates lol so we gave him a Book of Mormon and he told us he read all the pamphlets we gave him and that they answered his questions. So we thought he came to stay for the English class, but after we gave him a Book of Mormon he kind of ran away. But Sunday rolled around and he came! And he was very excited with lots of questions, he´s a little crazy, but very inteligent. And he kept saying ´´Us Mormons believe...´´ What?! We have yet to have a real lesson with him because he just talks and talks and after runs away, but he told us he felt really good at church. But apparently his wife is anti-mormon, but we´ll see this week!

That´s it for this week! Thank you for everything!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Avacados are huge here

We ate a really cheap but quality churrascaria

Week 36~Week of Carnival

Museum of Art of Sao Paulo

Hey folks, 

it´s thursday after Carnaval, which might actually be worse than Carnaval itself in terms of the work because everyone is traveling. Rich people. But the good news is, Julia and Rafael, the family we are working with, probably won´t go to there other house this weekend so they can go to church! Pray everything works out!

This week we had transfers and our little house stayed the same, but the zone changed completely. Another zone, Casa Verde, which is located next to the MTC here in Brasil, closed and they are in our zone now. So we have a total of 20 missionaries, which is interesting, but fun. Really this past transfer FLEW by, which is kind of scary because they say it passes much quicker the longer your on the mission. Ahhhh! I need more time! Lol!

This week we found Regiani and Wellington coming home from work, our investigators who came to church one week, but didn´t want to come back. Regiani has been searching for a job and told us that she decided to pray to God to help her and the following week she found a job! She told us too that she finally started reading the Book of Mormon too! But this week they moved to another city closer to work and in a house that is located in a safer area. But we are very happy for them, and this is just a miracle that testifies to me the blessings of the gospel! 

Nothing much else happened this week so I´ll just share one of my favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon. It´s 1 Nefi 11: 16-17 when the angel is showing the prophet Nefi all the things that his father saw. 16 And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescensionof God?

 17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children;nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.  Anyway, I love this scripture because, I, like Nephi, don´t know everything, especially when it comes to portuguese sometimes, but I know God loves all of his children. That´s why he calls prophets to guide us, that´s why he gave us the Plan of salvation, so that we can live with our families forever, and that´s why he gave us His Son, so that we can be purified of our sins and live with Him again. All because of the love of a Father. Just food for thought.

And now something funny: I was teaching a Sister in the ward piano this week and she wants to learn how to just play hymns, but I´m trying to teach her to read music too and she told me ´´I´m not paying to see music, I´m paying to hear music!!´´ and I was like ´´Irmã, you´re not paying me at all!´´ LOL I died.

That´s all for this week! Until Monday! Love, Sister Lockhart 

Whoop!

My Planner

says... "Do what needs to be done, make any sacrifice that is necessary in order to serve a mission." 

~Elder Costa

Week 35~It's Tuesday Again...

"I ❤️ to see the temple"

Hey y´all! 

It´s Tuesday again which is strange. This week our P-day got switched to Tuesday because we got to go to the temple today! Yay! 

So this week was kind of a blur! I´m trying to remember all that happened this week, but it happened so fast! Maybe it´s that Carnival spirit. Hahah just kidding.

Let´s see, we´ve been workig a lot with one of our investigators, Carol, who has a lot of problems, but really wants to change her life. We´ve been having a lot of help from the members and we´ve had an AWESOME lesson with the bishop, but unfortunately she didn´t come to church this Sunday. Sad. But there´s still hope! As for that other family we found, they weren´t able to come to church either, but we meet with them and the bishop tomorrow! Praying everything goes swell!

Other than that, not much has happened because Carnival is starting. Here in Brasil instead of Valentine´s day, we have Carnival. I don´t know which is worse hahaha Carnival in the city is actually terrible because everyone gets drunk so we have to return to our house a bit earlier for precaution because of all the parties on the street. But never fear! The force, I mean the Spirit, is with us. Wow, that was a bad joke.

Just that for this week. Our zone has been focusing on the attributes of Christ, specifically faith for this week. One thing I have learned is that true faith leads us to act. If we have true faith, we will repent and keep the commandments because faith is a principle of action. And that´s why faith in Jesus Christ produces salvation!

Thank you all for everything! Next week I´ll be writing on Thursday because everything will be closed for Carnival! Até!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Perdizes

Another Park...<3

"As we touch the temple and love the temple, our lives will reflect our faith..." ~Thomas S Monson

Week 34~"São Paulo Oueste, missão essencial"

Hello my friends!

First off, sorry for not writing yesterday. Yesterday was a holiday because São Paulo celebrated it´s 462nd year of being a city! So naturally, everything was closed. But never fear, I am here!

This week was a week of miracles! We found a couple who appear to be eleitas! Rafael and Julia. We did a contact with Rafael a while ago, but everytime we tried to contact them, they were always traveling or working. But this week we met with them and taught the Plan of Salvation and eternal families. Everyone cried and the spirit was strong. Afterwards, they told us that it was eactly what they needed because apparently they have been having some troubles in the family, but that they liked the spirit that we bring in their home. We taught them the Restoration a few days ago which was great too because they told us what a coincedence it was that we found them because they had been discussing about looking fo one religion for the whole family. Unfortunately they couldn´t come to church this week because Julie went to the United States to work for the week, but! they said that they would come this week! Whoo!

We also brought Regiani and Wellington to church this week. Regiani is the sister of Clebson that I think I talked about last week. They´re not married, but they have been talking about marriage, so we´ll see with them!

This week we also had a broadcast for all the missionaries in the world. It was pretty cool. We heard from Elder Bednar and Sister Oscarson and a few other people whose names I can´t remember. They talked about how we need to teach repentance and baptized converts, which is kind of a problem here in Brasil because eveyone gets baptized, but then goes inactive. But the good news is that our mission, São Paulo Oueste, has the most preisthood holders in all of Brasil! Whoop!

Let´s see what else? Looks like we are going to start this english class after all starting the 13th of February! I´m also teaching piano to a lady in the ward here which is kind of fun. 

Until next week,

Sister Lockhart

...These pictures are from a cool park we went to for P-day which is actually in the mission São Paulo Interlagos (don´t worry we got permission)

Week 33~Bom Dia Brasil!

Twinning with Sister Hall

Bom dia America! 

So this week was kind of interesting!

​

First off, I talked about Pedro already and how the sisters have been teaching them for about 2 years, but he couldn´t go to church because of his job. Anyway he told us he got a new job and all that so we went to his house to have a lesson with a member and he told us that he would be leaving for Salvador the day after and would stay there for a month because that new job he got he didn´t like and is now working for events. So that was a bummer.

In other news, a recent convert in our ward, Duke, asked for Mario´s number (our investigator who´s mom told us not to come by anymore) so that he could keep in contact with him. Turns out Duke called him up and offered him to live with him and offered him a job so that he could work. What?? We were very surprised when the Elders called us up and told us what happened. I don´t know if Mario will accept, but we´ll see!

We found a lot of new people to teach this week, but none of them are married unfortunately. We started teaching Pedro´s neighbors and we taught them the Restoration. After we explained the great apostasy, one of girls asked ´´Wait, does this church exist today?´´ which made me feel good inside. After, we explained the restoration and the spirit was strong, and afterwards Clebson said ´´We´ll go to church tomorrow´´ But when we stopped by there everyone was sleeping and Clebson went to Osasco to work. Phooey. But there´s always next week!

What else? Oh it looks like we´re actually going to do this english class thing. They want to start it at the end of January, but I´m going to try and convince them to wait until after Carnival, since no one is going to be here during that week. But it should be fun! 

Thank you for everything! Until next week!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

We made a cake 'cause us three have seven months!

Week 32~Ready, Set, Go!

Perdizes

Oi gente!

This week we worked our tails off! We made a list of all the members who live in our area and showed it to the bishop. Turns out that almost all the members that live in our area (which isn´t a ton) are less active, so we have been trying to contact them to find some new people to teach. We also talked to the bishop about starting a geneology class or center in the church that people can go to to learn more about how to find their ancestors. It´s really cool here in São Paulo because there are a lot of immigrants here so people like that kind of stuff. Hopefully it´s something we will actually do and not just say we´re gonna do lol

In other news, our investigator Pedro has been meeting with the missionaries for two years. He LOVES the Book of Mormon, but the problem is he always works on Sundays so he could never go to church. But this past week he told us he found a new job that allows him to work only Monday through Fridays and that he would be able to go to church now! Yeah! He also told us he wants to bring his friend and that her dad wants to come too! 

Also this week we found Mario who is 24 years old. We taught him the Restoration and he doesn´t understand a lot, but we marked him for baptism and everything was find until he told his mom about it. She didn´t like that. But the two came to church with us and Mario loved it, but after church they told us to give them some time and that maybe they´ll visit the church some other time. Sad.

We also found a really cool family who´s dad is a member but less active and his two daughters. They´re awesome. The dad produces music from artists and the one daughter is going to study music and sings like no other. Unfortunately, Natalia (the daughter) was throwing up this week so they couldn´t make it to church. But one thing I´ve learned here is that you just have to give it your all and do your part and the Lord does the rest.

That´s about all for this week. This area is really good for Americans because the whole world wants to speak english with us so its easier for us to get addresses. It´s also strange because Americans live in our ward haha but I actually really like it here because it gives us a chance to be creative in finding people. Thankyou all for everything! Love you!

Love,
Sister Lockhart

Cool Park

New Year's Eve Festa

Week 31~Ano Novo!

Happy New Year!

Hello people!

 I´m in my new area now and it looks like I´m here to stay! It´s pretty cool to be here since I already passed 2 weeks here, so it´s easier to develop a relationship with the members which is kind of essential here. Perdizes is RICH. Everybody lives in sky high apartments and think they don´t need Jesus because they have money. So it´s kind of hard to find new investigators here. Also this area might be the biggest area in the mission other than Ibiuna, so we do a lot of walking which is probably good since I probably need to lose the 40 pounds I gained in Caucaia. Hahah, just kidding.

My new companion is Sister Haggard, an american! My first american companion. We have the same amount of time on the mission except she got her visa on time so she´s actually been in Brasil longer.And I´m also living with Sister Hall, my companion from the MTC. I literally don´t know what the Mission President was thinking when he made that decision. Her companion is brasilian and is waiting for her visa to serve in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It´s pretty great.

On New Year´s I got to talk to my family, yay! Everything worked out, thank goodness. New Year´s day was unique in itself. Literally no one was in their house and no one was on the streets because everyone is traveling. So we just walked and walked and walked. Then it started to rain, but we forgot our umbrellas and I don´t think it´s ever rained that hard since I´ve been here. We got soaked!!!!!!! I found it pretty funny actually. 

Those are pretty much the highlights for this week. We did have a miracle yesterday. We struggled this week to find new investigators so we said a prayer that we would be able to find one of the contacts we made in their house. So we went ther, but she told us she was leaving. But I had to use the bathroom really bad so I rang someone´s doorbell and we met a woman named Maria who let us in which was a miracle because we knocked on many doors that day and no one let us in. She received us warmly! After that we found another person who let us teach him, but he was kind of strange because he told us he doesn´t have faith in Christ, but he has faith in Christ´s faith. Also that we are actually equal to God because we can take away lives. So that was kind of weird. But it turns out he´s already read all of the Book of Mormon and he believes it so yeah. I´ve found that miracles never really come in the way we expect.

I forgot my camera today so no pictures :( Até próxima semana!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Week 16~Making it BIG in Brazil...

Oi gente!

Where do I even begin? This week has been crazy, but it has been my best week in Brasil! I´ve been in a new area, Perdizes, for a week with a different Sister because her companion went home, but I will be going back to my area today. This area is very different because it´s where all the rich people live so it´s hard to find new investigators because everyone lives in apartments an won´t let us in. But it´s very chique. 

First of all, we had a baptism here! Her name is Ana Laura and even though I didn´t teach her, it was still a special experience, since I still haven´t had a baptism, let alone a new investigator to teach. Anyway, she stayed in Salt Lake for a month to learn English and she met somene in her group that was LDS and they are dating now and that´s how she found the church. Now their next stop is to be married in the temple! Yay! We also interviewed another Sister for baptism and she will be baptized on Saturday! Hurrah for Israel!

Also this week we had a Multi-Zone conference which was fun. Let me tell you, Brasilians are loud and crazy and I love it. But it´s also weird because these people feel the Spirit differently and so you have to teach them differently. I am still getting used to it. 

Yesterday a few zones, including the one I´m staying in now, got to go sing for some political event for São Paulo. We sang some primary songs and the Americans sang the American National Anthem and then everyone sang the Hymn of Brasil. It was pretty big. Also I got to be on TV, again. (The other time was when we went to the CTM devotional and they asked a few Elders and Sisters to preten to walk into the room. So basically you got to see my back). Anyway, I guess you could say I´m famous in Brasil haha But really, at least every other day I get told ´´Você parece Taylor Swift!!!´´(You look like Taylor Swift). I also get told that I´m white and need to wear sunscreen.

I also forgot to mention a spiritual experience that happened a few weeks ago when I was on exchanges with the Sister Training Leader. We went and visisted a less active member and I was sitting on the other side of the room because there was nowhere to sit and I couldn´t hear (or understand) anything that they were saying so I just kind of sat there trying to figure outh what they were talking about. Anyway, Sister Granados asked me to share a scripture and I chose one and we prayed, but I kept getting the impression to change it so I turned to a different scripture and shared Moroni 7:41 in the Book of Mormon which talks about hope in Jesus Christ and the Ressurrection. Then they both just stared at me and Bruna said something and later I found out that her friend had passed away and she asked Sister Granados how I knew that scripture was exactly what she needed to hear. And she said it was the Spirit. This experience just testifies to me the power of the Holy Ghost in this work, especially when trying to learn a new language.

Thank you again, as always for your prayers. Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Ana Laura´s baptism

At some political thingy