Helping Hands

OI FAMÍLIA!!!  HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!! Hope you guys are celebrating will BBQ and loads of fireworks. Wow I can't believe it's already July....but anyways this week was super crazy. Mas a good kind of crazy. We ran around all week trying to get ready for a baptism of an outstanding young woman named Pamela.  Sister Curcino and Sister Hubert were already working with her beforehand for a couple weeks then I swooped and finished it all with Sister Curcino. Pamela has 18 years and lives with her mom, two brothers, grandparents, aunt, and cousins (in all she lives with 11 other pessoas). She came to know about the church through a friend who just got back from his mission in Belém. Brasil a couple months ago. He had already talked about the church with her and she had already gone to church with him and loved it so he sent us her endereço(address). From the beginning (when I started teaching her), you could tell that she was a great person and wanted to know everything she could about the gospel. After we had taught her about the word of wisdom, she told us that durante that week, she shared what she had learned with everyone she talked to. Friends. Random strangers. Her fam. Everyone. She also enjoys reading the Book of Mórmon and when we're not there and has a question, she looks it up on the church websites. This friend of hers, Denis, is a great help também. He doesn't live here in Parque Bristol but came all the way down to baptize her. Her baptism was pretty special too. You could feel the spirit really strong and after she came out of the water, she was laughing and smiling because she felt so good. Then on Sunday, after she received the gift of the Holy Ghost, she told us that she had never felt better.  This Saturday, our stake participated in a Mão que Ajudam (Helping Hands) project to collect winter clothes for children and others who don't have any. Fun fact: Helping Hands started in Brasil and that's why the shirt is yellow with blue and green hands! Anyways, we collected a lot of clothes. And I mean a lot. I should have taken a pic but forgot...but it was awesome to see how many people were willing to help and donated. Even those who didn't have a lot gave something. After collecting all the clothes, we separated them and got it all ready for the Red Cross to come pick it up afterwards. Pamela came and was so excited about it that she invited a friend to come along. It was great because she was able to meet some young woman her age and made some new friends with the ward.  We also taught a great family this week. We were talking to people in the street when we talked to the mom. Her name is Elisangela and she lives with her two boys, Luciano (15 years) and Kaio (12 years). They moved to Parque Bristol a little under a week ago and are a bit lost. So we helped them out and taught them about the church. Afterwards, they seemed pretty excited about learning more and this week we are going to visit with the relief society president for Elisangela to get to know some people.  One last thing. This week once again we were talking to random people in the rua when we met a father and son, Osvaldo e Gabriel. We started to talk to them and asked if we could pass by another day to share a message with them. Gabriel said that he works and studies the whole day (he leaves home at 7am and doesn't get home until 1am....) throughout the week and Osvaldo too works pretty late but that Saturday/Sunday is better. Well seeing that it would be harder to visit them, we invited them to church Sunday. They said they would and asked if we could pass by to pick them up. We told them of course and grabbed their number to call beforehand to make sure they actually would. Saturday night we called and they said everything was set to go and that they were excited to visit the church. So yesterday we dropped by to pick them up and just like they said, they were ready to go. And with yesterday being fast Sunday and all, during sacrament meeting, everyone bore their testimonies. Everyone including Gabriel. As he was seeing everyone else go up and bear testimony, he felt the desire to too so asked if he could. We told him to go right ahead and he went up there and told how grateful he was for meeting the missionaries and how he loved his family. He was short and simple but brought the spirit. It was pretty awesome! Afterwards when we asked it he liked church, he responded that he loved it!!! It's going to be a bit challenging to catch him home but we're not going to let them go that easily!   That's all for this week folks. Hope you all are enjoying the sun and vacation time! Love you all so much!! Have the most wonderful week ever!  Love, Sister Hilchie