I am Going to be a Mom!! (missionary lingo)

HEYYY FAMÍLIA!!!!  Courtney's Zone Welp this week was the last of the transfer and yesterday we received the news....Sister De Lima is leaving Santo André and guess what?! I'm staying!! Woohoo! I love this area and am so grateful that I have another opportunity to work here for another transfer. But my new companion is a newbee! I am going to be a mom! Woo to tell the truth I am a bit nervous but the Lord knows I am capable to do this so I just need to have more confidence in myself and go at it! I am really excited though be get to teach another sister all that I know and share the joy that I get from sharing this gospel with others. I know I will learn and grow a lot from this experience and am grateful that in this life the Lord gives us challenges. Because without these challenges, who would be today?  An Easter Treat Last Tuesday I hit the 8 month mark. Wow. Time is flying by.  But more importantly, I hope you all had an opportunity to watch General Conference. If not, I would highly encourage you to. The talks were amazing and it is always awesome to hear from our prophet and apostles. I know that they are truly inspired in everything they say and when we remember o que we learned and felt, we can have a happier life and make the changes necessary to do so. But one talk I really loved was the one given by Elder Hallstrom. He talked about how we really truly are children of a loving Heavenly Father. I know this to be true. He talked about how hoje em dia(nowadays), we are classified by our native language, race, where we were born, class but this classification really shouldn't matter to us. We need to remember that our classification is that of a child of God. We need to remember who we truly are. At times in this crazy world we live in, we can forget who we really are. But never ever do this. You will never not be a beloved child of a loving Heavenly Father. He will never abandon us. He is always there and willing to help as long as we go to Him. I know this to be true. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who is constantly looking out for us. I know He hears our prayers and wants us to always feel this love. I know that we are all children of God.  Courtney's apartment building is the tall red one That's all I got for this week folks. I hope you all have the best week ever!!! Love you all!  Love, Sister Hilchie :)

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 :)