Love and Serve

OI OI OI FAMÍLIA!!!! 

This week was pretty much, well let's just say.....FANTASTIC!!!! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and took some time to reflect why we truly celebrate Easter. I am so grateful for my Savior and His resurrection. I know that because he resurrected, one day each of us will too but with a body perfect and glorified like Him. I love my Savior Jesus Cristo and all He did just for me so that one day I could live with Him and my Heavenly Father again one day along with my family in an endless state of happiness!  

Elia and Granddaughter at her baptism

We worked extra hard this week to prepare one of our investigators, Élia, por batizmo. Élia is a sweet little old lady that we met two weeks ago while knocking on doors one evening in the rain. When we first talked to her, she had one of those scowled looks on her face and to be completely honest we were a bit scared. But she said we could come back another day. So we did. Once we started talking to her, we came to realized that the scowl is nothing to be afraid of. Her husband recently passed away, and since then, her daughter moved in. So as of right now, she lives with her daughter and a ton of grand and great grandchildren. So while we visit, there are always people walking in and out. But back to Élia: she has told us a lot about her life and all the dificuldades she has been through and let's just say she is one special lady. The Lord is protecting her very well. From hearing her stories, my testimony really grew. I know that each of us are here for a purpose and that the Lord will sempre(always) protect us as long as we listen to Him and exercise our fé(faith). The Lord has a plan for each of our lives and with the gospel, we can learn more about this plan each and every day. I can't wait to see where Élia's life goes with the help, direction, and blessings she will receive from the gospel. 

I also hope that those who watched Woman's General Conference enjoyed it! I loved how they all talked about service and that we need to put more focus on others instead of ourselves. It's when we are more concerned about other's well-being other than our own that we will be able to feel the Savior's true and infinite love for that person. I think at times we are too worried about ourselves and what we need/want that when someone else is in need, we don't notice. But when we place others first like the Savior did, our problems will become smaller and will feel more happiness in this life because charity really is the pure love of Christ. I am so grateful for Christ's perfect example in my life and know that as we serve as He did, we will be tremendously blessed. 

 Have a week that is out of this world!!! Love you all! Até mais! 

Love, Sister Hilchie :)   

They have bicycle traffic lights!

Mini CTM

OI FAMÍLIA!!!

 

Having Burger King in Brazil to celebrate 7 and 9 months!

Welp, this week did not get too exciting. Just another normal week in the field that passed by like no other. I am seriously convinced that missionary time passes by a lot faster than when I was home. But we did run around all crazy like to prepare to check on all of our investigators and prepare alguns(others) to be baptized this upcoming week (Janicleide e Hélia)!!! Ah we are super excited for them and know that the gospel will bless their lives so much! 

We also visited all of our investigators that need to get married this week to see how they were doing and their thoughts about casamento(marriage). Most of them realmente want to get married but are, at vezes(times), a little bit lazy to go sign a piece of paper. So we're working on this. We love talking with them about the temple and how they can be sealed to their family for time and all eternity. Their faces just light up when we talk about this and we're hoping that it will motivate them to get married a bit sooner. But it is something that we can't force. They need to have this desire but of course we're there to help discover or encourage this desire. I love working with families because I know that one day they can have an eternal family just like me! 

Saturday our ward combinou(combined) with another ala to do a mini CTM(mission training center) and Sister De Lima and I were able to participate!! So from 9am to noon, the youth se reuniram(gathered) to have a devotional, zone meeting, and then some praticas! Then after lunch, they were divided into duplas(2) and sent out into the field! They were to do 20 street contacts per dupla and visited some menos ativos(less active) to share a message with them. Then at 8pm, they headed home. We only were able to stay for the part of the ctm but talked to some of them afterwards. They said they really enjoyed it but it was a lot harder than they imagined. I think this is a great idea that really helped the youth get a taste of what it will be like to serve a mission. I sure would have liked to have done something like this before but it's a little too late now.   

That's all I got for now. Guys, I love you all so much and am so grateful for all your love and support! Have a superly awesome week!! Até mais! 

Love, 

Sister Hilchie :)  

Teaching

Oi família!!! tudo bem?! 

 

This week completely flew by....can't believe that we're already halfway done with this transfer. Ahh! But this week was really really good! We met some wonderful people and were able to accompany a lot of our investigators.

 

 Alright so I would like to tell you all about Janicleide. She is a mom of two children (a 16 year old daughter and a 3 year old son) and is separated from her husband. This past Tuesday was the first time we taught her. She was really receptive and loves learning about the gospel. Her life right now is not the easiest and was trying to look for some peace and comfort and that's when we showed up! We were able to help her feel that and while she said the closing prayer, she thanked our Father in Heaven for us and that we came to visit her. I felt so honored to have been able to help her and bring a bit more light into her life. We also came back and visited her two more times after the first and left a Book of Mórmon with here the second time. When we came back a few days later, she had already the part we marked two times and some other parts. She said she loved reading it and knows it's true. She said it is kind of like a guide that is helping her know what she should do here in her life to find peace and joy. And she is absolutely right! I know that as we study and apply what we study in our lives, we will be able to find peace during this life because we will be applying the gospel of Jesus Cristo in our lives which brings us happiness without end. We have a baptismal date (26 de Março), which she is super excited for!

 

So a couple weeks ago, we talked with a menos ativo(less active) and his family in the road and marked a date to go visit them. So we went this past week but she (Semi) had to leave to go to the doctor's so we marked for another day. When we returned, she wasn't home.....only the husband (Samuel) was home. So we marked for another day and guess what happened?! No one was home. So we thought that they really just didn't want us to visit them and were trying to avoid us. So we went on our way and who did we see in the street?! Semi and Samuel. So once again, we marked to visit them Sunday. This past Sunday we went there and they were home!!! We started to talk to them and Semi said she really wants to be baptized and become a part of the church family. She told us about a dream she had which was pretty awesome: so it was the end of the world and everyone was running around like nothing else not knowing what to do. She was in the midst of them all and started to think why she hadn't been baptized already? She wasn't ready for the world to end but in the middle of it all she saw a huge white building. So she started to walk toward it and when she entered, she felt a calm, peaceful feeling (then it ended). Well if this isn't a response I don't know what is. She is determined to be baptized after this but needs to get married to Samuel. Ah Samuel is not all that excited to get married but we are going to work real hard with him so they can have an eternal family! 

 

This week também we had uma conferência with Presidente Broadbent!! It was really good and inspired me to become an even better missionary and work my tail off to bring as many souls as I can back to our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a missionary and for all the people I am meeting each and every day!

 

 I love you all so much and am grateful for all your support! Have the best week ever and don't forget to smile! 

 

Love, Sister Hilchie :) 

Working Hard

OI FAMÍLIA!!!!  This week was pretty awesome! It is finally starting to cool down a little bit and we had rain practically this whole week. It was a nice change from the heat I've been treading through for the past three/four months. Fall is coming! And we are excited!  Welp, this week we found a lot more new investigators so we have a good amount of people to teach now, which is great because for a while we didn't have very many. We are finding a lot of families to teach! I love teaching families! It's awesome to see the reactions on their faces when we talk about how their family can be together forever. I am so grateful that I will not only have my family here on earth but also in the life to come. I get to be with the ones I love the most for all eternity! This is a huge blessing the gospel has to offer and I am so grateful that I get to help others have this blessing também!  We also had a divisão(splits) this week. Since Sister De Lima is a sister líder, we will be having one every week and I will get to work with the companion of the other sister líder. So this week, we worked in her area, which is a lot different than my area. There it is mainly just houses....well actually only houses smacked right next to each other and a lot of little shops. But there weren't as many hills which is always a plus. But it was nice to come back to my small (but not really) area of Santo André.  Also we taught this older man named Arnaldo. He has already heard about the church and used to go to church with his uncle when he was younger. He liked it a lot but then moved and never went back. So we taught him about Christ and how He is our example in all things and how he showed us how we should be baptized. Afterwards, he said he wanted to be baptized, but he smokes.....but the good news is that he has a strong desire to quit. He already tried once and stopped for six months but then one day got really stressed and started back up again. So we're going to work really hard with him to quit so he can be baptized.  Also remember Osvaldo? Well this Sunday not only did he come to church but also his wife and daughter! Ahhhh! We were super duper excited to see them! Also I don't know if I already said this but the last time we were at their house, Osvaldo said that he noticed that the irmãos (Elders) wear white shirts and ties and asked if he could too even though he wasn't a member yet. We told him to go right ahead and this Sunday he was there, white shirt and all! They seemed to really enjoy church and we're going to visit them this week and see what they thought. They are an awesome family and are definitely ready for the gospel!  That's about it for this week! I love you all so much and hope you guys have a week that is beyond this world! Até mais!  Love, Sister Hilchie :)

Chaco tan!!