Miracles all Around

Another week full of miracles! this week we found um rapaz named Cesar and he is a missionary for the assembleia but he invited us to come teach him. we were a little worried that he just wanted to bible bash so we told him that we would love to but we also made our purpose very clear and he said that he truly wanted to learn more because he had been taught by the missionaries before and he loved it. The first time we went there he was super excited, we taught him the restoration and he understood but also had many doubts he said that he remebered that lesson from the other missionaries but still didnt understand why there needed to be a restoration so we explained apostasy again and he understood but still had some doubts. we told him that we werent here to convince anyone and that the best way to remove doubts was to pray´and ask Heavenly Father. 

The next time we went there we asked him how his reading went and he told us that he had read the entire Book of Mormon! it was crazy! he said that he started reading at night and he couldnt stop, he didnt sleep all night because he just couldnt stop reading, and he also said he didnt want to because there was a huge feeling of peace he got as he read, he said he had never felt that way before. we were so happy to hear him say that and told him that it was the spirit testifying to him that the book was true. he said that he knew the book was true. it was so amzing but then he talked about how other churches were true as well. so then we taught about authority again and tried to explain it better and he understands but doesnt really accept it. His parents are very firm in their faith and very strict and after talking a while he told us that his worry was to disobey his parents, he is scared that his religion isnt true.  afterwards we just bore our testimony and told him that we dont know of everything but God does, and we told him that he always prepares a way for his childeren. 

His mom really hates us and yelled at us and saidsome bad words because we invited cesar to attend sacrament meeting and he went! He just walked out of his house and started going to church and his mom followed him all the way there and then told us that we were bad people. it was crazy to see Cesar ignore his mother and just walk into church. normally he does exactly everything she tells him ,like our visits were very especific and could only last a certain amount of time and she said he couldnt ever visit our church. 

Cesar liked church very much and thanked us for inviting him and then told us he had to go face his mother ha but we are going to keep teaching him and hopefully his mother will soften her heart. i will update you guys on him next week. 

i also just wanted to bear my testimony to you all that i know without a doubt that this church is true. i love helping people here in Brasil but its incredible because i feel like im the one thats being helped the most. My testimony has grown so much. i know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he restored the church of Christ here on the earth today. i know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. i have no doubt in my mind that it is true and its so amazing becasue through these truths i can feel the love of God for me. I know that i am a daughter of God and that i am so important to him. I have also felt the love he has for all His childeren. its amazing because im begining to see people how i think our Father in Heaven sees them and its just a love so big that you cant even explain. sometimes i just want to run down the street and tell everyone i see about the gospel! sadly i cant run cause i think that would scare people but im so grateful that i get to talk to and teach so many people and tell them about the love God has for them and about how great their potential is.  

eu amo todos vocês! 

Sister Hair

Novas historias só pra vocês

This week was full of excitement and miracles! so a couple weeks ago we ran into Felipe (recent convert) on the street and he was with a friend of his. we asked him if he would like to take the discussions and he said yes and gave us his address, we went there a few times but nobody was ever home. We asked Felipe one day if he could come with us to his friends house and when we all went together we realized we had been going to the wrong house... so that was pretty embarassing haha but the good thing is we figured out where he lived and we were able to teach him and his sister! their names are Luan and Mahara and they are incredible. they were so engaged in the lesson and everytime we go to teach them the spirit is incredibly strong. after the first lesson we did all the compromissos and finally invited them to be baptized the 28th of May. Both of them said that they knew they would recieve an answer from God so they know that they should be baptized. it was just amazing to see their faith and see how they were truly being prepared by the Lord. it was amazing too because when we went to go get them for church at 8:20 they were ready!! (that rarely happens) it was funny because their dad told us that they had been ready since 7:30, a great miracle!

i have more miracles but i will have to save them for next time becasue my time here is up but im doing freat and i love every second of this work and im so greatful to be able to meet and teach the Lords eleitos! 

com amor

Sister Hair 

One More!

So drum roll.... im staying in Itatiaia!! i honestly thought i was going to get transferred because i was born here and ive been here for 5 months now but the Lord is merciful and i get to stay one more!  im so grateful to have the opportunity to see more miracles here and to be able to keep helping the people of Itatiaia.

skype yesterday was great! i loved talkling to all of you and getting to hear your voices it was just amazing and im greatful for that opportunity.

im sorry i didnt have super cool stories i think i was just too excited that everything i wanted to say to you guys i forgot in the moment haha but i will start thinking of some and i will write you guys more haha

i dont have too much to update on cause i feel like i told you guys everything yesterday... but i love all of you and i will write something cool next week! i hope... kkkk

oh and Pedro is in love with Ash.... ahah it was soo funny though cause afterwards he was like nooo i cant be in love with her cause i have to focus on school and a mission haha he said that after his mission he would talk to her haha what a cute patootie.

i love all of you and thanks for skype 

com tudo o meu amor Sister Hair

this ones for you ash

Só Vendo Milagres!

So this week was great. we worked hard and found an eleita! her name is Maria Eduarda, she is just amazing. we taught her the restoration and left her with a passage in the Book of Mormon and when we went back to follow up and teach her again she said that she couldnt put down the BOM. she said that she really identified herself with Joseph Smith, she is 14 and she said she had the same question about which church was the true church. she said that she had been to many but never felt good in any of them and that she was very confused until she attended our church! she said that she was well recieved and that she felt a peace and happiness that she couldnt even explain. she also said that after she prayed about the BOM she felt that it was true and she says that now she knows without a doubt that it is true! 

its so amazing to see how the Lord works in peoples lives. everytime i see someone else gain a testimony of this gospel it strengthens mine even more. 

i also want to challenge all you guys to pray about the BOM and Joseph Smith again. its amazing to be able to recieve a confirmation that these things are true and i know without a doubt that it will strengthen your testimony. 

Com muito amor 

Sister Hair

Woohoo!

This week was incredible!! ok to be honest the week itself was incredibly trying, we had a lot of things go wrong and a lot of things fell through BUT Felipe was baptized!! it was the most incredible thing! i always feel joy and happiness when someone chooses to be baptized but this time was sooo special, i think it was because Felipe was hard work haha when we first met him, he told us he was a satan worshipper which was actually really scary ha but then we found out that he really wasnt he just liked to tell people that. but he was incredibly lost in the world and he always said that he wasnt prepared to leave it, then miraculously one day he said i want to be baptized and i want to change. in one week he had no more addictions and was baptized. it was so amazing, i have never seen anyone have so many addictions one day and the next have none. he says that he has no need for any drugs or alcohol anymore its amazing, he truly used the atonement of Jesus Christ and it was such a testimony builder to me and all the people around him. also yesterday, the first sunday as a member, he paid his tithing! it was so amazing, he is so dedicated and firm. i know that this is the Lords work, and i am so grateful i get to be a tool in His hands 

i love you all 

Sister Hair

Adventures, Baptism and Companion

I'm just a tool in His hands

oi! so this week has been full of miracles! we found a boy named Edgar and we contacted him and got his address so that we could go teach him but when we got there he wasnt home and his grandma talked with us for a loong time but she didnt want to hear an actual lesson and we started getting a little frustrated because we really had to go toanother lesson. after a while she finally let us go and when we walked outside of her house her son was coming home (Edgar´s dad) and when he saw us he was happy and ran inside his house and came out with a BOM and a restoration pamphlet from 1996! it was crazy, he said he had been taught by two young men and that he really admired them and was so happy to hear of the church again, he said that the reason he wasnt baptized was because he doesnt believe in just one religion but he believes that all of the churches lead to heaven. we are going back to teach him tomorrow and we are going to teach the restoration and teach apostasy really well haha i know that it wasnt just chance that Edgars grandma talked forever it was truly a miracle that we were able to find Carlos and i have no doubt that he is an eleito of the Lord. 

another miracle this week was Moacyr, he heard about the church when he was 14 and he says that he loved it and constantly went to church but he doesnt remember why he didnt get baptized. we gave him a BOM and he got very happy and told us that we could come back and teach him more.

Outro is that we have had an investigator for a while his name is Felipe he was a contact we made on the street and we taought him a little bit but then he told us that he didnt want to know if the BOM was true because he didnt need religion in his life. we got really sad and told him that our time was valuable so we werent going to be able to visit him as frequently. a few weeks passed and he showed up at church which was a miracle and then sister nascimento and i felt that we should start teaching him again so we did and it was amazing he said that he loved reading the book of mormon and that he had prayed and he knew that the book was true it was so amazing to see him progress. then two days before his baptism he said that he couldnt get baptized because he couldnt live with all the rules of the church, he had some troubles with drugs and he wasnt willing to give them up. it was probably one of the saddest moments in all my life. although we didnt go back there anymore, because again he wasnt going to progess and also because we thought it would be good for him to know what its like without the gospel in his life, i kept feeling like i couldnt give up on him and that we needed to go back there. finally after a couple weeks we went back and we started teaching him once again. this week he told us that he knew now what was truly important and that he wanted to leave the world and be baptized! it was the greatest miracle. his baptism is set for this saturday and he is doing well so far with no drugs and im just so greatful to be a part of this incredible work. the Lord truly does work in mysterious ways and everything is in His time. i know that im just a tool in His hands and i am so greatful for that. Being a representative of Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing anyone could have.

i dont have time to write anymore but i love all of you guys and if you could pray for felipe and moacyr and carlos it woud be much appreciated! 

com todo meu amor 

Sister Hair

This is my new comp. Sister Suzy and a cute member 

 Felipe on his birthday

Milagres!

Esta semana foi cheia de milagres! this week we had a zone conference it was incredible and i learned so much! the only thing that was a little worrying was that we left segunda(monday) got back on quinta(thursday) so we werent going to have much time to workd in our area, but we prayed and were determined to do our best and the Lord provided so many miracles! we didnt have a baptisimal date this week because the data we had fell but while we were on our way back from volta redonda our LMA(ward mission leader) called and said that Oseias (eternal investigator) said he wanted to be baptized! it was amazing because we had been teaching him a little and we found out that he has known the church since he was 12 years old and he loved it, he loved going and participating and he had a testimony but he thought he wasnt ready to be baptized. the sunday before we left for zone conference we had a lesson and told him that the time to come unto Christ was now, after that he told us that he thought a lot about what we said and he felt in his heart that he should be baptized! and he was! it was truly a miracle and just another evidence that this is all the Lords work and its all in His time. Every day i realize more and more that i dont do anything, im really just an instrument in His hands i personally am nothing and have no power to convert anyone, its only through the spirit that we can be instruments in the Lords hands to help people come unto Christ.

com muito amor

Sister Hair

Is it my fault?

oi! this week was very rough, we had four datas that fell. the hardest one was of un rapaz that is 23 years old and he was so prepared, he truly has a testimony of this gospel and he knows this is the only true church but he isn't willing to give up marijuana. it was very hard to hear that and to see someone fall away from the path that will lead them to happiness. at first i thought that i did something wrong, maybe i didn't have enough faith or i didn't teach him correctly, or i wasn't being exactly obedient, but then i was reading in Enos and he talks about how the nephites taught with all diligence to the lamanites but they didn't listen and they remained in their iniquity. i know that i can always do better, always improve but after reading Enos i felt comforted and i realized that you can teach someone a million times but they will always have their agency. i know that i put my whole heart and strength into teaching Felipe and its so sad to see him like this but i know that the Lord is good and just, he gives people never ending chances and i have complete faith that one day Felipe will have the courage to leave the things of the world and be baptized. although this week was very hard i learned so many things. i learned that you always have to have trust in the Lord, not just during the good times but also the rough times, and the Lord also has his own timetable i have to be humble and realize that i don't know the plans of the Lord and i just have to have faith that everything will work out. i'm so grateful for the opportunity to be serving here and im grateful for the trials that help me grow, i'm also grateful for the immense sadness that i felt because that is how i know i am loving the people.

***Info for sending packages***

Customs taxes in Juiz de Fora (From mission president)

 As many of you are aware there is a risk of paying a tax when receiving a 

packages from outside Brazil. In an attempt to help those of you who will be receiving 

future packages I would like to explain a way that could help to avoid paying the 

customs tax. The following will explain how and why they take the packages. 

Explanation: The package upon arriving in Brazil is weighed and determined if the 

value of the packages is correct, if anything suspicious Is detected the packages will be 

opened and examined to evaluate the true value of the objects within. When the 

package is examined and a certain object of high value is not declared on the 

box/package, the package will be taxed and the recipient will have to pay the allotted 

value in “Real” to receive it. 

The following precautions should be taken to avoid paying the taxes. Do not 

forget to explain to your families the process in order to avoid this problem in the 

future.     

Precautions:

1. The receipts of all items placed inside the box should be saved until the 

missionary has received the package. All other items that were not bought in a 

store, should be declared as the store price on the package.   

2. A photo should be taken of all the items that will be sent inside the package, it 

should include all the items in a single photo.

3. All items inside the package should be declared when sending it. If an item with 

high value is not declared and the package is taxed, the tax will almost always 

be at a very high price.  

4. If a package is sent at a high price, it has a bigger chance of getting held by the 

Correios. (Brazilan post office). In order to avoid this a smaller package would 

be cheaper and less likely to be held by the Correios.  

If a package is held, the mission office will contact the missionary and advise him how 

much it will be to take it out. The missionary should be in contact on the next P-day 

and ask the family the value of the items inside the package.

If the packages continue to arrive with a high customs fee we can show them that the 

tax is too high and the package will be given to the missionary for free.

Tough Week

this week was a pretty tough week and it seemed like everything was going wrong and no one wanted to listen to us. some of our recent converts were starting to have doubts and also some our investigators that have baptisimal dates werent wanting to go to church, things were just looking bleak. my companion and i decided that we needed to fast so we did and it was amazing.

after we fasted things got much better, the people didnt necessarily change but i think that we did, we had more spirit with us and we were able to teach more effectively. i think that we were kind of losing faith because everything seemed to be going wrong but i realized that the enemy works hard but we cant let it get to us, we have to work harder and remember that the Lord is on our side. He is constantly with us, we just need to have faith. through faith all things are possible, but we also need to remember that faith without works is dead. it doesnt suffice to say that we beleive, we also have to show through our actions that we beleive. 

i have such strong faith in my Savior, and although sometimes my faith wavers He is always there to help me strengthen it. im so greatful to be here sharing the joy of this Gospel with others, and im greatful that i can learn so much in each day, im truly being edified by my Savior. i know the hand of the Lord is in our lives everyday, we just have to recognize it, and we can do that by being obedient so that we may be able to be sensitive to the spirit.

eu amo vocês muito

Sister Hair

Attributes of Christ

This transfer I've been focusing on the attributes of Christ, I've been studying one each week and practicing them throughout the week and this week was patience, as i was studying i realized that all these attributes of Christ come when you love your proximo (neighbor). the greatest commandment is to love God above anything else and the second is to love your neighbor as thyself, i think i always knew that everything we do comes from these two commandments but i think that now i truly understand that when we love our Heavenly Father and our Savior we will want to keep the commandments and obey, and not just because its right but because you truly love them. Its amazing too because Christ loved all of us so much and all his attributes came from that love, so when we learn to love our neighbors as ourselves those attributes will start to come naturally  and we will start to more fully follow the example of our Savior.

I think that if i had to describe missionary work in one word i would use love, because that is the start of everything and its love that motivates us to serve our Father in Heaven. i cant explain to you how much i love the people here, i never knew i could love so many people that i just met, but when you serve them and truly love them you begin to see them as our Heavenly Father would and you begin to see their potential and its the greatest blessing in the world to be able to be participating in the Lord´s work.

i hope that all of you are doing well and striving to be better each day.

com muito amor 

Sister Hair

in this pic were wearing rain coats haha its been raining a lot lately and when it rains its like all of heaven is coming down haha 

Tiago! Baptism

Esta semana was the best! for a long time it felt like sister nascimento and i were working hard and not much was happening but this week we had a baptism! it was a miracle! tiago was an old investigator that backed out on the day of his baptism but we started teaching him again and he was so receptive, and he told us that he was finally willing to let go the thinges of the world to be baptized! his baptism was one of the happiest days! it was amazing to see a son of God be baptized and start a new life!

missionary work is very hard but theres no other feeling in the world like helping people recieve the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. im so grateful with my Heavenly Father for allowing me to be here serving in Itatiaia and teaching His Childeren. 

Another great thing that happened this week is that we are teaching um rapaz (young man) that we had to stop teaching becasue he said that he wasn´t interested in finding out if the Book of Mormon was true, it was very sad because he knew that if he prayed he would recieve and answer and that is why he wouldn´t pray. so we had to tell him that we couldn´t go to his house with as much frequency. but then a miracle! He has started going to church and he was friends with Tiago so he went to his baptism and he said he felt the spirit! he is still a little hesitant on having a baptismal date but we are working with him. its amazing how his heart has changed and how the Lord is preparing him! 

im so grateful to be serving the Lord and im so greatful for each of you in my life, i love all of you and you have all been an example to me in my life. remember to always keep the comandments of the Lord and then everything in your life will fall into place. 

eu amo vocês muito!! 

Sister Hair

the one in the army shirt and beanie is Felipe!

Batismo!

hola! esta semana foi uma semana de milagres! we have a pesquisador that had a baptism date and a an interview and everything andthen he backed out on the day of his baptism, we have been reteaching him and we found out that he was scared to be baptized and then sin again. we taught him about the atonement and about having faith in Christ and how he will also have the gift of the Holy Ghost after he is baptized. he is now getting baptized on saturday and he said he was really comitted this time and that he knew the Lord was going to help him. it was incredible cause he also went to the bar where he drinks at and paid everything he owed and said that he wouldnt be coming back because he was changing his life. it was incredible, definitely a miracle. also on sunday a member brought his cousin to church for the first time and his cousin wants to be baptized! just going to church he said he knew it was what the Lord wanted! so he has a data for march 5th and we are going to teach him and help him to get ready! its so amazing to see the Lord at work, i love this gospel and im so grateful that i get to be a part of building up Gods kingdom 

im so grateful for all you in my life, each of you has helped me in so many ways i love all of you and i know that true happiness can only come through the gospel of Jesus Christ. remember to always put Him first in your life and then everything else will fall into place.

com muito amor 

Sister Hair

Sister Leader Trainadoras

A member that feeds us a lot!

We found a bus so we had to take funny pictures

Fofinha! (cutie)

When I got my Christmas package!

Meu Distrito

Shoe tan line