Willy Wonka

Sister East and I made some phone calls in the chruch building during the morning and when we finished we decided to stay and watch the primary program in the other Branch.  There was the cutest little boy in the front row with suspenders that was just singing his heart out for every single song!  The music was definitely my favorite part because they didn't have a piano to accompany them, and the children only sang about 3 different notes, so when they sang it sounded like a group of Buddhist monks chanting! hahaha! 

During my time in Guarabira, Sister Blanco and I made a contact with a man who had helped to build the chapel in Sousa.  We marked a day to return and visit with him, but when we returned the house was completely empty!!  We laughed about how he had taken 'running away' from the missionaries to a whole new level - completely moving houses.  Then, this week Sister East and I were waiting for one of our investigators to arrive home after work.  We saw a man sitting in front of his house a little ways down the street and decided to go talk to him.  As we approached him, I recognized him as the man that I had met in Guarabira.  I exclaimed, "Não acredito!!! Marcos!"  (Thank goodness he had an easy name to remember.  Usually the Brazilian names are so difficult that everytime I try to say someone's name it comes out different, heehee).  I don't think Marcos was too excited to see me again, but I thought it was great.  I only wish I could know what he thought when he saw me..."what the what!  How did she find me all the way out here in Sousa, 6 hours away from Guarabira?!  I'm never going to get rid of her!"  haha!  

This past week I've been thinking a lot about the difference between Guarabira and Sousa.  My obedience, my work ethic, my love for the people, and my desire to serve hasn't changed.  Yet, the work seems so much more easy in Sousa.  We have people to teach, we have investigators that are progressing, and this past Sunday we had 11 investigators at church!!!!  If I was doing the exact same things in Guarabira that I am doing now, why didn't I have the same outcome?  As I thought more about this, I decided that sometimes the Gospel is like Willy Wonka's special bubble gum.  The recipe is the same for every person - we all need to read our scriptures daily, go to church, pray daily, have family home evening, keep the commandments, serve one another, pay our tithing, live worthy to enter the temple and attend frequently, etc - however, the outcome (at least right now in this life) won't always be the same for every person.  Just like the children in the movie Willy Wonka each tasted a different flavor, we will each receive different outcomes for our obedience and diligence.  The Lord knows us better than we know ourselves.  He knows what blessings we need and when we need them.  Just because we don't see the expected outcomes of our labors and righteousness, or just because we aren't receiving the same blessings as our neighbor doesn't mean that we have the 'wrong recipe'.  The recipe of the Gospel is correct!!  If we continue to live the principles of the Gospel faithfully, even when it seems hopeless and fruitless, we will be blessed, and we will receive eternal life!!

PS for those who may be interested in sending something for Christmas...I would LOVE to get pictures.  Thanks so much to all those who have written letters.  Every letter means so much to me, and strengthens my spirits!  I love you guys!!

Quentura

The Northeast of Brazil is hot all year round, but during the months of Octuber-December it becomes even hotter - especially when you are in Sousa - a dessert with practically no breeze!  I arrived in Sousa Monday night, and Tuesday Sister East and I were out under the hot, scorching sun teaching and making contacts.  Everytime I drank water I felt like a piece of dry, cracked ground that soaks up water in 2 seconds and looks like you didn't put any water on it.  Our apartment is another adventure in and of itself as well.  It's basically a cave with one window that we can't open...it's refreshing to come home to at night after a long day in the sun (heehee).  Yet, the members and the work in Sousa compensate for the not so chique apartment and the heat stroke inducing climate.  The members here LOVE the missionaries and are always giving us referrels and offering to help us teach our investigators!  Everyday, Sister East and I tell each other, "Sousa é muito abençoado!"  It's always hard to leave an area that you've grown to love and that you've worked so hard to strengthen, but I am excited to see what miracles the Lord will bless us with in Sousa!

Changes

Friday night the branch had an activity to involve new members and investigators.  We played basketball, UNO, and watched the movie about Joseph Smith's life.  While we were shooting around with the basketball, a group of 4 boys who weren't members were playing on the other side of the court (the branch always lets people from the surrounding neighborhoods come play basketball or soccer in the court the Chapel has outside).  As we were going in to watch the movie, on of the boys asked me if I wanted to play basketball with them.  I kindly declined because we had an investigator with us and I figured that I should probably watch the movie with them.  However, about 10 minutes into the film, the Elders came into the chapel and motioned for me to come to the door.  "Sister Fernelius," they said, "you have to come play basketball, those boys out there are begging for you to come play!"  I looked back at the movie and then down at my skirt, "alright," I said, "let's go!"  When I exited the church, the boys playing basketball let out a cheer! hahaha!  I felt so honored!  For the next 30 minutes, with skirt and dorky, rubber sandals, I played some intense basketball with two Elders and 4 Brazilian teenage boys!  I think I slept the whole night with a smile on my face!

After many weeks of hard work, we were finally able to see a beautiful daughter of God enter the waters of baptism!!  We began to teach Thalyne and her family about 4 weeks ago, but her mother and siblings all rejected our message and became very hostile toward the Church.  We continued to visit Thalyne because she expressed to us that she wanted to be baptized, and if someone is willing to fight for the Gospel, then there is nothing in this world that is going to stop me from fighting right alongside of them!  Thalyne is truly an elect daughter of God!  She is 12 years old and wants nothing else but to follow every commandment that we taught her.  After we taught her about modesty, she altered all of her clothes to make them more modest.  After we taught her about 'not dating before 16' she ended her relationship with her boyfriend.  There was nothing that was going to keep her from being baptized...except for her mother.  In order to get a feel for what her mother is like, I will tell a brief story about an interaction I had with her.  During one of our lessons with Thalyne, her younger brother wanted to see me do some push ups.  So, I showed him how to do a proper push up.  Thalyne's mother was sitting in the other room and must have overheard what we were doing because after we finished teaching Thalyne's sister came out and told me that her mom wanted to arm wrestle me.  (I'm already terrified of this woman, but I figured if I arm wrestled her and won she'd be more willing to let Thalyne get baptized)  So, I headed back to the other room with the thought, "this fight is for Thalyne!"  The two of us sat across the table from each other and grasped each other's hand.  She looked me straight in the eyes with a piercing look that clearly told me that she was confident that she would win.  I stared calmly back at her and began to apply pressure.  After a few seconds I wanted to ask her if she had begun, I thought that might not be the wisest thing to say. hahaha!  As you can imagine, I won our little arm wrestling match!  As soon as I won, she looked at me with clear dislike, and said, "Voce e muito forte, mas minha fe e mais forte que sua."  (You are very strong, but my faith is stronger than yours)!  I let out a nervous giggle and replied, "Que bom!" stood up from the table and walked out of the room.  Awkward!!!!  Naturally, when the day arrived to ask Thalyne's mom to sign the baptism papers I was extremely nervous!!  Sister Blanco had fasted and prayed muito that Thalyne's mom would sign the papers without causing too much trouble.  We went to the house with Thalyne and Thalyne's cousin, who is also a member.  The cousin thought it would be better if she talked with Thalyne's mom, so Sister Blanco and I sat in the other room listening to them talk in loud, emotional voices about the baptism.  Sister Blanco and I just looked at each other with the gut wrenching feeling that the mom was never going to allow Thalyne to be baptized.  After some moments, the cousin came out of the room.  I was sitting in a chair, hunched over, looking at the floor. Ryassa, the cousin, showed me the baptism papers and to my utter surprise, there at the bottom of the page was the mom's signature!!!!  We had conquered!!!!  I looked up at Thalyne and the smile on her face was radiant!!!  She was going to be baptized!!!  

Sunday morning, the day of the baptism, Sister Blanco and I were studying when our cell phone rang; it was Elder Welch, the assistant to the President.  "Sister Fernelius," he said, "I have some news for you.  You will be transferred to Sousa tomorrow morning.  We want you and Sister Blanco in the Escritorio tomorrow morning at 9:00."  I couldn't believe what I was hearing, transferred...yet, I felt extremely grateful that the Lord had allowed me to stay in Guarabira long enough to see Thalyne be baptized. 

To all of you who watched Conference and heard the change in ages for missionaries, I have one thing to say, GO GO GO GO GO GO!!!!!!!!!!!  This is the Lord's work and I feel so blessed to be a part of it!!!!

Buchada!!!

I'm always looking for what adventures I can have, so when a less active member told us that she would make Buchada for us to try, I was all over that idea!!  For those who don't know, Buchada is all of the delicious inside parts of a goat (intestines, heart, blood, and other goodness), cooked inside the stomach of the goat!  The Elders and Sister Blanco weren't too excited to try it, but they were kind enough to not rain on my parade (heehee).  The Buchada didn't look all that strange, so I took a big spoonful (because I wanted to get the full effect and not just a baby bite of intestines) and started chewing...to be quite honest, it tasted like, well, like meat!  It wasn't disgusting and I didn't have instant gag reflex!  I was able to finish eating everything and if I was offered Buchada again, I'd probably eat it!  Adventure Buchada - check!

During another lunch with a member, we had the wonderful opportunity to hear an amazing story.  This member had found a pass along card in a box that she had received for Natal.  It was a simple pass along card with a picture of Jesus on the front.  However, the card had such a powerful effect on her that she traveled to São Paulo two times to try and find The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She never called the number on the card because she wanted to find the church itself.  Needless to say, she never found the church, but she kept the pass along card.  Ten years later, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints constructed a chapel directly in front of her house!  This member had been praying for a church to be built near her home because she wanted to have a church to go to.  She attended the open house for the chapel, and was baptized two weeks later...still not realizing that this church was the same exact church as the pass along card that she had.  Now, one year after her baptism, she received another pass along card at a FHE activity, the same exact pass along card that she had received 10 years ago!  When she saw the same picture on the front, she went to her Bible and pulled out the 10-year-old pass along card, faded with time, and almost falling apart.  The two cards were identical!  She had at last found the church that she had been searching for all these years!!!  So COOL!!!  After hearing that story, I starting passing out pamphlets to every person we talked to on the street!  haha!  Who knows, talvez in 15-20 years the pamphlet I gave to someone will help bring them or another person into the Gospel!  No effort to share the Gospel will be wasted!! 

This past week we had interviews with President Hall.  As I talked with him, he told me, "I know at times you get frustrated with the work.  You may think you're all alone out there in Guarabira not accomplishing anything, but your efforts to be an obedient and righteous missionary are blessing the other missionaries in this mission.  Because of your diligence and faith, this mission, and all the other missions in the world are blessed!"  As I thought about his advice, I realized that this is something we all need to consider.  Sometimes we may think, "I'm the only one in........that wants to follow the Savior; do my efforts to be righteous really matter?"  The answer is easy, 'YES'!!!  Every effort to follow the Savior adds more light to this world and more strength to our fellow brothers and sisters to choose the right as well.  This Gospel is true!  The scriptures really, truly give us strength and power to make it through are challenges and difficulties.  The Atonement is real!  And most important, we have loving Heavenly Father who will never...NEVER abandon us!!

Election Rallies...Brazilian Style

This week has been pretty exciting with the elections in Guarabira!  The actual day of voting is October 7th, but the people are already getting pumped up.  Every week, the two main candidates have one day where they can basically have a big party/riot in the streets to increase their number of supporters.  Friday night, the four of us missionaries had a family home evening activity at the church.  Sister Blanco and I brought four of our investigators (four kids 12, 11, 11, and 9), so naturally we needed to walk them back home after the activity.  It was just a normal walk on the streets of Guarabira until we turned a corner and saw a mass of people running through the streets!!  The four kids got really excited and started running too.  Luckily the Elders had come with us, so each of us grabbed a kid by the hand and merged in with the crazy, swarm of singing, shouting, jumping, running people in the street.  Mixed in with the crowd of people were the cars and trucks that blare their candidates music.  People were on the top of these cars singing and jumping as well.  It was quite the experience, and I was glad when we got the kids to their house safely.  Apparently the actual day of elections is even more wild!!  I can't wait!... 

The other week, I was thinking about the mission and how we really are in a war!   As missionaries, we are on the front lines of the battle.  We are literally fighting against Satan and 1/3 of the hosts of heaven!  (And for this reason I think the mission can be so bipolar as vezes.  One moment you couldn't be more happy, and the next moment you courldn't be more sad and discouraged.)  If the missionaries are the active troops in battle that means that the members are the reserve troops.  The members get called into active duty when we ask them to help us or they do member missionary work with friends and family members.  Then, the Lord's angels are our back up troops.  When we've done all we can on the front lines, but seem to be fighting a loosing battle, that's when we call in the reserve troops!  (in reality, the reserve troops are always fighting at our side)!  Yet, it gives me great courage and comfort to know that ultimately, this battle has already been won, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  As Shirley Temple would say, 'oh goody, we're on the winning team already!!'

Family Home Evenings in Brazil

Ramo Guarabira has some of the best family home evenings that I've participated in!!  Every Sunday, we all meet in a different members home. Someone teaches a lesson, we play a game, and then of course we eat food (it wouldn't be FHE without the treat)!!  Yesterday, we had FHE on a member's farm.  The Elders and Sister Blanco and I rode the 15 minutes out to the farm in the back of a member's truck!  Then, when we got to the farm they had wooden benches set up outside so that we could have the lesson outside!  It felt a lot like girls camp, and I had the urge to start singing camp songs...and I may or may not have actually sang a few! heehee ;)  As I was sitting on a wooden bench, surrounded by faithful Brazilian members, dogs curled up in the dirt at my side, and the dark nigh sky cheio de estrellas above my head, I couldn't help but realize how important these moments are.  We need to create positive experiences and spiritual moments for our children, for our families, and for our ward families.  It's those memories that are made with FHE, youth activities, ward activities, and other creative activies that we'll remember and will strengthen us when the going gets rough.  It's always worth the effort to create such spiritual and positive experiences to strengthen our testimonies and the testimonies of those we love!

As Sister Blanco and I were leaving an appointment this week, I made the comment, "the responsibility to save the souls of men is difficult when the souls of men don't want to be saved!" After I made this comment, I began to think about agency.  Satan promised that he would save every soul, but no one would have their agency to choose.  Helaman 14:30-31 talks about how we each have the power to choose, and that the Lord has given us the knowledge and the power.  But, many people in today's world "are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it" (D&C 123:12-16).  Our responsibility as members and missionaries, is to show people where they can find the truth.  Often, it takes more than one invitation to break through the clouds of confusion, deception, and life-long traditions, but by small and simple things the Lord bringeth to pass the salvation of many souls. An invitation as simple as coming to a church activity, or coming to a church meeting could be all that someone needs to find the truth!  Even if someone rejects your invitation, never stop inviting!  Sometimes it takes more than one invitation to break throught those clouds of darkness!  I know that this Gospel is true!!  The Lord is pouring out blessings upon us everyday.  He wants us to be happy and He wants us to be the best that we can be.  If we trust in Him, we will never go astray! 

Beans & Blessings

For some time now, I've been suffering from a bloated stomach every single day.  At first I fust figured it was the large quantity of food that we eat for lunch and then walking in the hot sun.  Yet, after I complained enough about 'just wanting to feel like a normal human being again' my companin told me to try and stop eating the beans during lunch.  This entire week I have only eaten rice, noodles, lettuce, and chicken.  Surprisingly, it worked!  I should have remembered that my stomach has a thing against beans after I went on a homemade refried bean kick and ate my own refried beans with tortillas everyday and just about destroyed my intestines...buuut I guess it takes me a few more bloated stomachs to learn that no matter how badly my head wants to love and eat beans, my stomach and intestines are not willing to make a compromise on this one! heehee

Question: How is it that my companion and I can find people at home, make an initial contact with them, and schedule a time to return and teach them more, but everytime we return we can never seem to find them at home again?...it's strange how people's lives just all of sudden become so busy.  My favorite response is when a family member tells us, 'it was just good luck that you caught him home that one time because normally he's never home'...suuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrreee :)

Saturday had been a day full of these kinds of experiences.  All of our teaching appointments fell through and we had numerous rejections in our street contacting.  We had literally passed by the house of every possible investigator and walked the length of our whole area twice by the time it was 7:30.  At this point in the night, my companion and I had just left the house of an investiator who had made up some excuse not to talk to us, and we were aimlessly walking down the street.  Finally, I just stopped in the middle of the street and said, 'Sister, I don't know where we're going or what we're doing; can we say a prayer?'  We moved away from the center of the street and said a short prayer.  After the prayer we both scoped out our various options of streets, paying attention to how we felt as we looked in each direction.  Almost at the same exact moment, we both looked at the street in front of us and said, 'that way, we need to walk down that street.'  The feeling was so strong that we needed to go that direction, that I got shivers.  Someone who needed our message was waiting for us, and the Lord was going to lead us to them.  As we walked down the street, the member who was with us commented that a woman who came to our English class one time lived nearby.  We decided that it wouldn't hurt to pass by her home.  When we arrived, Sister Blanco and I recognized it as the home of a woman who we've tried to teach, but she works a lot and never came to church.  I almost didn't want to knock on the door, but as I looked through the window, I saw her husband sitting on the couch.  'We've never talked to him before', I thought.  The husband came to the door and started talking to us.  He was really unreceptive, and we were on the verge of just leaving when I decided to ask one more question, 'What importance does religion have in your life?'  He responded that he didn't think religion played a very big role in his life because it was too difficult to know which one was correct, and he felt deceived by all religions.  Needless to say, he let us in his house, and we continued talking.  As we listened and asked more questions, this man shared  with us his desires to follow the Savior, and his frustrations with how confusing religion is in today's world.  Sister Blanco and I both felt prompted to share the story of Joseph Smith's frustrations and search for the truth.  After we had recounted the whole story, the man asked with total sincerity, 'Do you think God would answer my prayer if I asked the same question?'  (It's so hard to stay cool, calm, and collected when you're actually teaching someone with desires to know the truth!  I can control my outside expressions, but on the inside you can bet there's a mini festa going on with a pinata and Forró music!!)  We left a Book of Mormon with him and the invitation to read and pray.  As we left, the man commented, 'who knows, maybe your lives are a part of the answer to my prayers.'  The first few moments after we left the man's home were silent, and then my companion asked, 'What just happened?'  I smiled and replied, 'A miracle!'  Like Nephi, we had been led by the spirit, not knowing beforehand where we should go, and because we followed the spirit, we were led to this man who was honestly seeking for the truth!!

As I've pondered the importance of baptism in our lives, I've come to realize that it is through baptism that we can 'apply the atoning blood of Christ' and 'become a saint through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.'  Our purpose in this life is to become like our Heavenly Father; to reach our full potentioal of becoming gods and goddesses.  Covenants (the first of these being baptism) are what help us to reach this potential.  When we make a covenant with God, we promise to either stop doing certain things or start doing certain things in order to live a higher standardç a more God-like standard.  The baptismal covenant is outlined in a variety of scriptures, Mosiah 5:2,5,8; Mosiah 18:8-10; and D&C 20:37.  Something that I found very interesting is that each of these scriptures mention something about enduring to the end.  When we are baptized, we promise the Lord that we will stick with Him through thick and thin, the good times and the bad times.  In return, the Lord promises to bless us with His spirit, the refining fire that will help us take those experiences in our lives and help us become more like our Savior.  The process of 'becoming a saint' won't be a ride through chocolate world, but if we stick with it to the very end the free chocolate (or eternal life and salvation) is a guarantee!!!  'I say unto you, he that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life...I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation.' (Mosiah 4:6-7)