Week 26~Happy Thanksgiving

Dear family and friends,

Another week has passed and we're that much closer to Christmas! Hooray! Time flies on the mission.

We were able to find Marcelly this week. Turns out Saturday night she decided to skip town for a few days because she was feeling really stressed. She also said she doesn't feel prepared for her baptism which is weird because literally the night before she told us she was excited for her baptism and felt really prepared. Oi pregnant women. We still love her though. I'm not sure how or when her baptism will work out though because she's supposed to be having her baby around the end of this month. So we'll see. 

We're also teaching a young women who is totally prepared for the gospel and was going to be baptized this month, but found out she's going to São Paulo this week and won't return until February....That was a bummer to find out. Thankfully though, we found a family this week! And the parents said they would be more than happy for us to teach their kids. So that was a great miracle. We also got a reference from a member in the ward to go teach her daughter, Sandra. Sandra is very inteligent and knows the Bible very well, so this week I've been really studying the Bible, which is good, because I need to study the Bible more. And I've learned a lot! Truly the Bible and the Book of Mormon complete each other. 

This week we got a call from the Mission President and he told us that on Saturday we would clean the church! That was a fun experience. Cleaning in Brasil is a lot different because everything is tile. So I guess it's easier to clean, but also it gets dirtier faster. But yeah, to clean it, you basically just fill the whole church with water and scrub. It's pretty interesting. Cleaning there reminded me of all the times I told my dad I wasn't going to clean the church hahaha It was fun.

That's really all for this week. This coming week we will have a multi-zone conference so I'll probably have more inspirational stuff to say next week lol Thank you for all your prayers! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Week 25~Don't Worry, Be Happy...

                  Never get tired of this view

Oi gente,

This week was pretty much a rollercoaster. Marcelly had her baptismal interview on Friday and after the interview, Marcelly and our District leader decided to play a joke on us by saying she wasn't prepared and would have to postpone the baptism until December. I thought my companion was going to have a cow! But, thankfully that wasn't the case. Unfortunately however, Marcelly stayed the night at her Dad's house the night before her baptism and told us he was going to give her a ride on Sunday instead of haveing us pick her up. Então, she didn't come yesterday. And she's not answering her phone and wasn't in her house yesterday, so we're hoping everything is okay. I don't know if I mentioned that she's 8 months pregnant, so I don't know if that has anything to do with what happend, but everything will be okay and will work out. If this mission has taught me anything so far it is how to be more calm. Haha just kidding, I've learned a lot more than that. But Brasilians love Bob Marley so it makes sense.

Other than that, there was a soccer game yesterday between São Paulo and Corinthians and Corinthians destroyed São Paulo 6-1 just in case you wanted to know. It's kind of hard not to know here because people go crazy over soccer and throw big parties in the streets. Hahaha

We also had a meeting just for Sister's this week in São Paulo which is very tiring. The bad thing about living in the boonies is that youŕe far away from everything and have to wake up at 5 in the morning to go to the capital. But other than that it's pretty much awesome.

Nothing else to report this week. Just that, missions are hard, but worth it! I've already experienced so many miracles and seen the Lord's hand in this work. Thank you for your prayers!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Resolving companionship issues...

Just kidding...We love each other!

Week 24~Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Dear family and friends,

This week I had my last newbie training! Yay! And this time we didn't get lost! As of today I am officially no longer a ´´newbie´´. Almost 6 months on the mission and I'm finally done with the training program for new missionaries (you start over the training once you get to Brasil), so that's nice. We played jeopardy for the training and all I can say is thank you BYU for your religion classes. Also I've gone from being called Taylor Swift to being called Nerd, which makes more sense to me.

This week we had some major thunderstorms and the power went out 3 times this week, which is fun because we get to light candles, but also not fun because cold showers just aren't that fun. The weather in Caucaia is bipolar because one minute it's hot as hades and the next minute fog rolls in and it's cold and rainy. Ok, done talking about the weather.

This week we marked Marcelly for baptism. Let me tell you about Marcelly. She's awesome. The sisters found her by accident during an exchange. They were trying to find another person who lived nearby and asked her if she knew where the person lived. She didn't but the sisters asked if they could share a message and she said yes. Turns out her husband is a less active member and is excited to come back to church. They're great. And God truly showed his hand in leading us to them.

That's really all for this week. Here's some pictures finally. Thank you for all your prayers, they truly help!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

                          "I spy with my little eye two gringos..."

Week 23~People at Church:)

(Jess couldn't share a picture this week, so this is from a mission conference~Beth)

Oi gente! 

I've gotten lazy with my titles so I hope you'll forgive me, but this week we had a huge miracle! We had people come to church! And some came without us having to pick them up! I'm still in shock.

Yesterday we picked up Marcelly and Nilda. This ward is great because the members drive us on Sunday to pick up our investigators instead of making us walk to pick up everyone. It's great! Anyway, that was a miracle in itself because the husband of Marcelly was working when we called her and she didn't want to come without him, but she ended comng with us anyway. Miracle. And Nilda was sleeping when we went to pick her up, but she decided to come with us anyway. Miracle. But the greatest thing is that two of our investigators who said they weren´t going to come, came anyway! Without our help! And they loved it! WHich is great because it´s been a while since we´ve had people at church!

I can´t send photos again this week because the place we usually go to is closed and this internet place is dumb and doesn´t let us send photos. SO until next week yet again,

Sister Lockhart

Week 22~Week of Miracles...

Dear family and friends,

This week truly has been a week of miracles. We went on exchanges this week with the sisters who live with us and I went with Sister Cellularle to her area for the day. Here´s just a few of the miracles:

1) We got 2 rides in one day from members!! (rides rarely happen)

2) We found an investigator who has been really hard to find, but is solid on wanting an eternal family

3) We visited an investigator who wants to get baptized, but his ´´wife´´ doesn´t want to get married. And we talked about some stuff and he got up and got down on one knee and asked her to marry him right in front of us what!?? She said she´d think about it....

Aside from the miracles in the other area, we´ve had miracles in our area as well. We´ve found two families that are married in cartório!! You see, the problem here in Brazil isn´t always finding people who want to be baptized, it´s finding people who are married legally. Because for some reason Brazil makes it really hard to get married. But these two families are incredible! We have been very blessed here. 

That´s all for this week. This week we will be going on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and I will be staying in the area to take over. This is going to be very interesting.....

Until next week,

Sister Lockhart

Week 21~The Holy Ghost Carries the Message

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.´´

Good morning everyone!

The beginning of this week started off really good with lots of lessons and contacts, but then died down at the end of the week due to the weather. It's been rainy and cold for the past few days, so no one goes outside and the people we want to see say that they are sick. All well. Today is finally sunny, so that's good.

This week we had a very good lesson with one of our new investigators, Erix. His daughter, Keila, is a recent convert and is awesome. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and Jesus Christ and the spirit was strong. And he said he would come to church with us, but his family went out of town, but he is really awesome. 

We also met a woman on the street one night while we were contacting this week and she started crying when we started talking to her because she said God sent us to her. It really amazes me sometimes how spiritual these people are. Anyway, this week we are going to see her, which is good, because all of our investigators have been flakey up until this point.

Last night we had family home evening with a recent convert family and the dad talked about having the spirit when we teach. Because, you can teach a lesson perfectly, but the spirit is what testifies that something is true. And I know that to be true, because I don't teach lessons perfectly, but the Holy Ghost is what carries the message.

Until next week,

Sister Lockhart

                                             My Friend

​A Site of the Church (James E. Faust)

Week 20~First Baptism...

Hello all!

This week was sweet! We had the baptism of Nataly this week and everything went smoothly. It was a great experience for everyone there. She was really, really nervous for her interview and was probably overprepared haha but she is awesome.

We also painted a house this week for a service project!!! Unfortunately, my camera died that day so the pictures are on other peopleś cameras, so Iĺl have to see if I can get those next week. It was really cool though because the Elder's area is beautiful.

We have had a lot of miracles this week marking people for baptism. Unfortunately, no one wants to come to church with us. So that's kind of a problem. But it'll be better next week.

Don't have a lot of time to write this week, but thank you all for your prayers and emails! Love you!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Family Home Evening Nite

No Coment...

Week 19~Sião...

Bom dia everyone!

This week I transferred to Caucaia which hasn´t had Sister missionaries in over twenty years! There´s a less active here who has lived here for over 50 years and she has photos to prove it! It´s pretty crazy. So naturally, everyone is stoked that we are here.

This area is basically Zion. Ok, that´s a bit of an exaggeration, but I´ve taught more lessons here in just one week than I did six weeks in my last area! And we already have someone who will be baptized this week! Her name is Natali and she´s thirteen years old and is awesome. Her uncle is a recent convert and he´s the bomb too. But yeah, there´s a running joke here that we´re going to baptize the monkeys haha There are a lot of horses and forests here which reminds me of the good ol´ Carolina and I love it. Oh and the accent here is different. I think it´s the equivalent of a southern accent in the United States. It´s really tranquil here and the people are a lot friendlier. Anyway, I had a lot more to say about this week, but I forgot already...

Week 18~Four Months...

Taboao Zone

Bom dia everyone

I hope you all had a week full of great things. As of Saturday, I´ve hit my  4 month mark, woah!

I´ll start off with the big news first: I´m getting transferred! What? Apparently our area here is closing again because the numbers are low and probably because I still haven´t taught any of the 5 lessons, but hey, I still learned a lot here. My new area will be Caucaia, which is very far away from where I am now and very different apparently. It´s called the interior, which just means not the city I think. I´m not sure. But there´s lots of forests and cows and chickens and it´s more calm and tranquil with less people, so that´ll be both fun and interesting. I´m really excited. Also I´ll be getting a new companion because Sister de Oliveira was called as a Sister Training leader for this area. My new companion will be Sister Oliveira. No joke. Hahaha.And we will be pinkwashing the area, which means we will be replacing the Elders in that area. And Caucaia hasn´t had Sisters before. This´ll be a fun experience.

This week we also had training for the new missionaries. Here´s a story: we (sister Hall, sister Valdera, and I) were on the bus going to the church and we got off at the wrong stop halfway there and had to walk about thirty minutes to get to the place because we were lost. But, we made it! Late of course, but we made it in time for the food haha

And of course we had General Conference this week which was sweet! I was able to watch half of it in Portuguese and half in English. Sister Hall´s uncle (Elder Haynie) spoke and also Elder Costa who I´ve met a couple times here. I don´t know who´s talk was my favorite, but enjoy Elder Bednar´s talk about sustaining the Apostles and the Prophet. I have a grand testimony that God has called a living prophet today because He loves his children yesterday, today, and forever. 

Now I´m going to bombard you with pictures. To be honest, I´m going to miss Jardim Celeste, it was charming. But that´s mission life. Thank you all for everything!

Until next week,

Sister Lockhart

The Only American Sisters in the Whole Mission

Goodbye Mr. Magoo Pizza (aka Diabetes)

​Pitanga: a weird fruit we pick off the trees that is really interesting but good

at the São Paulo Temple

Week 17~"Com Esperanca Vamos Batizar"

"Hey... Look who I found :)"

Dear Friends and Family,

This week I returned to my area and things have been going pretty swell. This transfer is almost coming to a close which is nice because that means I´m halfway done with training which very redunant at the moment since it´s the same training I had in Utah. All well, only 7 more weeks of it...

This week we received a reference from a member in the ward about a boy who wants to be baptized. His mom is a less active member and gave permission for him to be baptized! He turns 8 the 1st of october and he will be baptized sometime this month! Yay!

We´ve also been working with a brother and a sister who both have been baptized, but the brother is a less active member. They are probably my favorite people here because they actually talk to me and I can talk to them easier than anyone else for some reason. But that´s usually how it goes. The children are the best people to talk to and it´s fun.

A little miracle that happened this week: my companion and I had finished contacting one day and we were about to turn around and go home for some reason, but I said let´s just do 5 more. And by the third contact we talked to this college student who asked if we were Mormons and what we believed and she wanted a Book of Mormon to read so we gave her one and I don´t think I´ve ever met anyone so excited during contacting. It turns out she lives in the Elder´s area so they´ll be the ones teaching her, but it´s the small things that count right? 

Don´t really have anything else to report on this week. I still haven´t taught the Restoration or actually any of the lessons for that matter, which can get discouraging, but I am definitely learning a lot of patience here, which I need. Thank you for all your support and prayers, they are appreciated!

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

Week 15~"Oh My Darling Clementine..."

Hello all, 

I don´t have a lot of time to email today because I will be changing areas in about an hour for the week! 

This week was very rainy and very cold! We got to go to the devotional at the Brasil MTC and it was great! We have both the MTC and the São Paulo temple in our mission so we are very lucky. That also means we have a lot of general authorities come here! Sweet.

Alright, time for some funny stories. This week I got to work at the temple which means we just stand outside the temple and contact as many people as possible and try to get addresses for people in the mission. Anyway, I´m not very good at contacts. Or at the time I wasn´t, I still don´t understand everything people tell me. So I gave this guy one of the Because He Lives cards and he told me something like he had already found Jesus or something and I didn´t know how to respond so we just kind of stared at each other awkwardly until he started asking me if I was okay and I told him I don´t speak Portuguese very well and he kept talking and I was just nodding my head because what else am I supposed to do, my companion is not even helping me. So finally he leaves and then he comes back about 10 minutes later and hands me his cellphone to talk to his son in english and he is asking me if I need any money or whatever and I´m just like..No, no I´m a missionary blah blah and afterwards the guy just tells me that he is concerned for me and the moral of this story is it is very different here hahah but at least I got an adress out of it so that´s something right?

Ok another story about contacting, we were contacting last night (which by the way isn´t very fun on Sunday night because everyone is going to church and is mean) and this really really old guy comes up to us and starts talking about how Sister Tesser (another Sister in this mission who was in this area) came to his house today and invited him to church, which didn´t actually happen because Sister Tesser was transferred 3 weeks ago. So we get his address and he leaves. Then he comes back about 15 minutes later and comes up to me and starts singing ´´Oh my Darling Clementine´´ in english and goes on this long rant about how he can read in English or something. It was pretty funny.

So those are the highlights of this week. Today we had a P-day with the president because our zone and a couple of others won some contest for something. I don´t really know all that goes on here yet. But I will eventually. Hopefully. We had 2 investigators come to church this week! And that´s about it for this week. 

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Week 14~The Week I Biffed It...

Oi gente!

All I can say about this week is that I hope things get better! Last Sunday we were walking home from eating lunch at a member´s home and I stepped in a pothole or something and rolled my foot which hurt a lot. So I wobbled home and wasn´t able to walk until Tuesday when it started to finally feel better. But Sister del Guerso, the mission president´s wife, wanted to take me to the hospital anyway and they x-rayed my foot to make sure it wasn´t broken. Thankfully it wasn´t broken, but for some reason they wanted to put a cast on it anyway, and I had to wear the cast until yesterday. As if I didn´t already feel useless enough. All in all, I can´t exactly say I´ve had a very productive week.

So instead I guess I can tell you a little bit about Brazil.

For one, we are serving in the interior which I think is like the outskirts of the central city. I´m not sure. Anyway, everybody lives in a gated garage? I don´t really know how to explain it. And everyone and their dog has a dog. hah. Lots of dogs. I´m pretty sure I´ve stepped in some dog crap at night, but don´t really know because it´s too dark to tell. Oh, and when you use the bathroom, you don´t flush the toilet paper, you throw it away in the trash can. I guess you could say we´re not in Utah anymore. Hahaha.

Thankfully the ward here is very awesome. There are lots of returned sister missionaries who are just so awesome. And the bishop is great too. But it is hard being the little white girl who doesn´t understand anything. Actually, I can understand a lot, I just can´t speak it, which is frustrating. But everyone keeps saying it will come. I hope so!

While I was bed-ridden this week I read a talk by Elder Holland called ´´Cast Away Not Therefore Your Confidence´´ which talks about how right beore we make a big decision in our lives or encounter miracles we are more often than not faced with adversity. Like what happened to Joseph Smith right before he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ.. But it´s good to remember that we are never alone where ever we are and when bad things happen, we are still loved.

Thank you for all your prayers. Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Outside My Bedroom

My Companion Sister De Oliviera

Week 13~Brasil!!!

Oi,
I do'nt even know where to begin with this email. So I will just start from the beginning. Also I am using a portuguese keyboard so please bear with me.

Last Monday we got on a plan headed for Brasil! And a cool experience happened while we were in the Atlanta airport. We met this other missionary who just came from the MTC and was going to the São Paulo Norte Mission. Anyway, he goes over and starts talking to these Brazilians in Portuguese. Turns out they were members of the church and so we just started talking to him. (The only advice he gave us was to never go back to Brazil and marry someone you baptized lol) Anyway, I saw this other Brazilian who was listening to our conversation so I went over there to talk to him. Apparently he was doing an exchange student program in Canada and was just coming home after being there a year. So we talked and he asked a few questions about what we do as missionaries. We asked him if he went to church and he said not really because there are many churches in Brasil and it is very confusing. He said he wants to feel that something is true. Well whatya know. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and I bore my testimony of when I felt it was true and he said he might want to have missionaries over. But get this. It turns out he lives in this very mission! So we are going to try and send the Elders over to that area. Pretty cool.

So yeah, Brasil is very different to say the least. When you greet someone you kiss them on the cheek, except as missionaries we can~t do that to someone of the opposite gender which can be pretty awkward sometimes when you think they are leaning in to tell you something and then your companion freaks out because they know what is up. Hahaha yeah that happened. It´s pretty fun though. My companion is Sister de Oliveira and she is very sweet. We just opened up a new area. That is hard. We haven´t taught very many lessons. And no one really wants to talk to us. Also no one can pronounce my name so I am officially going by Sister Loki because that is how they say my name. Haha.

The members here are so awesome. They are crazy, but fun. It is kind of hard because everybody thinks I am just stupid and so they try to speak english to me, but I have never met a more loud people. I can´t wait for they olympics hahah we work with the bishop a lot and the seminary kids who are just insane, but cool. I was able to convince one of them that I was from Brasil hehe but all in all, great people, hard life.

I will try to write more next week! I forgot to bring my camera so no pictures :( we aren´t supposed to carry it around because we would get jumped, no joke. 

Thank you for everything! Love you all.

Love,

Sister Lockhart

Week 12~She's There...

Week 12~On Her Way...

Last Day in Bountiful Utah

Mom's Note...

Jessica called us yesterday from the Salt Lake airport.  She flew to Atlanta and then on to São Paulo getting there early this morning.  Her phone call was upbeat even though she said "I'm probably not going to understand anything they say to me" can't wait to hear from her.  She's a brave young woman. 

Week 11~My Nickname is Casper...

Oi everyone! 

This week I was told "You have the whitest skin I've ever seen!!!" 

#storyofmylife

Anyway, Sister Fletcher went home on Wednesday so it's kind of weird just the two of us. It's nice though because now I actually get to talk during lessons. That'll probably change again here soon in Brazil. 

Nothing too exciting happened this week. We were supposed to have a baptism this Saturday with Trinity, but she talked to her dad and he agreed that she can be baptized in September. So it looks like I won't be having having any baptisms here in Bountiful, but that's okay. I've helped a lot of people in other ways. We did have a little miracle though. We were returning late for a lesson and we weren't going to be able to make it home on time. So Sister Ursaga said a prayer out loud and after I said that no one is probably going to stop because it's dark and no one will see us. But what do you know not 5 minutes later a sister pulls up next to us and gives us a ride home. We made it home 2 minutes before we were supposed to be inside. The Lord takes care of his missionaries. I haven't learned much from my trainer about teaching, but she has taught me a lot about being grateful. When we're walking on really hot days she will say something like "Thank you Heavenly Father for this wind on a very hot day." Stuff I don't even think about. She's very good like that. 

Since I probably won't be able to email next week (because I'll be on a plane to Brazil!!) I'll just tell you everything that will happen this week. On Wednesday we have a mission tour with a few members of the seventy which should be way cool. Then on Thursday, Elder Evans is coming and we are going with him and the stake presidency to visit less active people. I'll try to get a picture with him. Then on Friday we get to go to the temple! It's going to be awesome. Then on Sunday I'll go to the departing devotional and Monday I'll leave. I would go into more detail, but the people next to me are quoting SpongeBob episodes very loudly and I can't concentrate. But I'll have plenty to talk about next week.

 Thank you for all your prayers and support. Love you all!

Love, 

Sister Lockhart

Sister Hall and I at Sister Fletcher's Farewell Party

Marylou & I... 

Her grandfather was Abraham Smoot
 who has a building and a statue named after him at BYU

Week 10~I'm Famous...

Morgan, Me & Trinity

who will be baptized on August 22

Hey everyone!

This week was rather uneventful, but 3 people said I look like Taylor Swift, 1 person said I look like Analeigh Tipton, and another said I look like one of the chicks off of Orange is the New Black. I find it funny because none of them even look alike. But hey, I'll take it. 

The baptism we were supposed to have on Saturday ended up falling through. He said he didn't feel ready and that he might be ready in September. Except, he's been saying that for the past twelve years, so we'll see. Our other baptism for August 22 is still on, but now her parents are making it harder for that to happen. This girl is an awesome 12 year old girl, who prayed about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and knows that it is true. She doesn't know a whole lot about the church, except that she knows what she felt and really wants to be baptized. She's awesome. 

In other news, a new Brazilian family moved into one of our wards and they're super cool. They said they would feed us Brazilian food before I leave, which better be soon because I leave in exactly two weeks!! Whoop! Let's see, what else? We got one of our returning members on the stop smoking program! He's really into it and really wants to quit. He's awesome to teach because he's so humble. And so is his brother. His brother just sat in for one of our lessons a bout reading the scriptures and he said he wanted a Book of Mormon so he could start reading it! Unfortunately he's not in our area, so we handed him off to the stinky Elders (kidding duh, Elders are great too). But they're great people. 

Alright prepare for kind of a nerd tangent. So we were in a lesson and the investigator we were with has a hard time with certain doctrines of the church, and the member said it was because of his perspective of the doctrine. He said each mathematical system in the world is based on the root of ten, which makes sense because everyone in the world has ten fingers. But if an alien race with only 8 fingers came to earth, they wouldn't understand our system of 10 because their system would be based on a root of 8. That doesn't mean either system is wrong, it just has to do with your perspective. And if you truly want to understand the system (or in this case, the doctrine), you have to go back to the root. Our investigator really liked that. And I really, really liked that. Okay nerd tangent over. 

Ok since I didn't send pictures last week, here they are. 

Have a great week!! Miss you all!

Love,

Sister Lockhart

My Zone

If you have enough faith

 you can see my eyebrows...hee, hee

Weèk 9~Bingo!

Dearest family and friends,

This week went by so fast! I can hardly remember what happened. 

This week I was able to do exchanges. I was able to go to another area and spend the day with another Sister Missionary. It was fun. We were able to go to the Care Center which is basically an old folk's home and we got to teach the gospel principals class. I was able to meet this little old man named Albert who was baptized a few months ago at age 92. He told the class that he prayed to God to help him win Bingo and he won six times. The Branch President didn't know how to respond to that hahah

We have 2 investigators with a baptismal date this month! One of them just kind of fell out of the sky. A 12 year old girl announced in church she was going to be baptized of the 8th, but didn't tell anyone about it till then. We found out about this on Saturday morning. Also she's going to girl's camp this week which means we would've only been able to teach her all 5 lessons in 3 days. Thankfully she moved the date to the 22nd so her grandpa can baptize her. 

The other baptismal date is with a man who has been investigating the church for 12 years. He's an intellectual who overthinks everything, but one of the nicest people I've met here. We were able to share a tender moment this past week. He was being stubborn as usual, so I asked him why he thought missionaries were different (he had mentioned it in a previous lesson) and he said they seem just so pure and good. I was able to explain that that pureness and light comes from Jesus Christ. And it's true. That "Mormon glow" comes from Jesus Christ. He said "I am the light of the world." (John 8:12, Mosiah 16:9). Anyway, at our next lesson he said life could really be like he Matrix and really this is all a dream and we might be hooked up to tubes and stuff. Oy vey. 

We also had a very awesome zone conference this week. It was about consecrating ourselves. There is a really good talk on it called "Consecrate thy Performance" by Neal A. Maxwell if you want to read it. It applies to everyone, not just missionaries. But one thing that was said at the conference I really liked is that we should always be happy and never content. Meaning we should always be happy, but always improving and progressing. 

Until next week,

Sister Lockhart