Hello Beloved Family! :)
It sounds like you all had a fun week! And a very wet one too! :) :)
As for thinking in my new language, I'm not quite sure what it happening. lol. I still think a lot in english, but yesterday at our lunch appointment when I was talking with some kids they asked me to speak in english and the first things that came out of my mouth were oi!.... I had to stop and laugh at myself for speaking in português. :D It is getting easier to understand people. I noticed this as we were watching the Womens conference on saturday. I understood the entire opening prayer and most of the first two talks. Its difficult when people talk about things I dont understand, but I am learning more and more everyday!
I am super dooper excited for General Conferance this week!! :) :) :) I hope you all are as excited as I am! I was reading this morning in the November 2012 Liahona. I read the talk by M. Russell Ballard, Be Anxiously Engaged. There were three passages that I really liked. I took some Liahonas from the mission office and have been studying in them. I love how much they talk about missionary work. Anyways, these are the paragraphs that I liked; "Remember, honey contains all of the substances necessary to sustain mortal life. And the doctrine and gospel of Christ is the only way to obtain eternal life. Only when our testimony transcends what is in our mind and burrows deep into our heart will our motivation to love and to serve become like unto the Saviour's. It is then, and only then, that we become deeply converted disciples of Christ empowered by the Spirit to redeem the hearts of our fellowmen... How do we make this change? How do we ingrain this love of Christ into our hearts? There is one simple daily practice that can make a difference for every member of the church, including you boys and girls, you young men and you young women , you single adults, and you fathers and mothers. That simple practice is: in your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day with your heart full of faith and love, looking for someone to help. Stay focused, just like the honeybees focus on the flowers from which to gather nectar and pollen. If you do this, your spiritual sensitivities will be enlarged and you will discover opportunities to serve that you never before realized were possible."
I myself and going to start doing this, I invite you to do the same!
:) Quick sidenote, its raining here right now and the power just went out. It make me think of how much I love the rainstorms here. The thunder is earthshaking and the lighting is so bright and it looks so close in the sky. The thunder is also super loud here too!
I also wanted the boys to look up an article in the April 2013 Liahona Titled: How to serve in priesthood callings, by President Thomas S. Monson. I enjoyed his simple words and the power they hold.
I love that the Gardener's little boy said monkeys and bananas! This week we were having lunch at Irma Tereza's place. She had the tiniest bananas I have ever seen! I thought they were the coolest! Later that night when we were walking by, her daughter Veronica who is going to be serving in the Sao Paulo Sul Mission, stopped us and was telling me how she found out that I adored bananas today. (she was not at lunch with us) She asked if I wanted one, of course I said yes and we both laughed. I love bananas so much here because it is the only fruit that we usually get. Everything is pretty expensive here in Flores.
Our companion Sister Pereira left for another area this week, while we have two other sisters with us for a few days before they left for their new area too. It has been busy at our place, but lots of fun getting to know new people and getting to hear how different other areas are!
As for yesterday, that was an eventful Sunday. We were going to our classes as usual, but Sister Freitas was super hungry so during the beginning of Relief Society we stepped into the hall so she could eat her snack. Afterwords she wanted to stop by the bathroom real quick. We noticed a foul smell when we first stepped in and then our eyes beheld an awful mess. Someone had puked all over the bathroom floor and it covered three of the five stalls in the bathroom. I told Sister Freitas that we should clean it... so we did. That was our service for the day!! Although they have a very different way of cleaning here in Brasil. Instead of using a mop we used brooms, and the we used a squeegy thing to drag all the water into the drains. Then Sister Freitas' idea of cleaning the toilets was to pour a bucket of soapy water on them. To say the least I had a very very confused look on my face. Nevertheless, we triumphed over the smell and were grateful for the opportunity to serve! :)
I love you all soo so much!! I really do! I wrote Ryan a quick letter this week and sent it in hopes that he will get it before he leaves for his mission. I am so super excited for him and I can't wait to see where he will serve the Lord!
Remmington, I''m not in an area where there are piranhas, but if I ever get assigned to a jungle area I will be sure to let you know!
Sterling, keep up the good work with you band music. You are a very talented player.
Ahh, you guys should read the definition of Faith in the Bible Dictionary. :) Its superb! I definitely learned a lot.
Whoever wrote mosiah 4 on my sheets was a lifesaver this week! Thank you! I learned so much from this chapter. It definitely increased my desire to serve more!
Cupoaco (the c has a little mark under it) I LOVE THIS STUFF. SO YUMMY!!
Last sunday, our sunday school teacher sang Together Forever to us in Português. I about died of joy that they had Michael Mclean here in Brazil.
Read your scriptures, go to the Temple, invite others to come unto Christ. :) Live the Gospel.
I tried sending pictures this week, but I am at an old computer and it doesnt have a slot for sd cards. I tried plugging it in by the usb cable, but that didnt work either. bummer. Some day I will get to send them to you! I also tried using the wi-fi setting on the camera to send them to email, but all the wi-fi connections here have passwords.
That's all I have to say for now, but I'll stay on for a little bit and if I think of anything else I will tell you! You all should study the April 2013 Liahona together, its really good and I learned a lot of new things. You could do it for family night tonight. Speaking of Family night I really wanted a family to ask us to come to one of their family nights this week. It was one of my silent desires of my heart. We have thought that if we get to know the ward better, that we will begin to see more success in our area, because most of our area is full of less actives. Anyways, yesterday when we were filling our water bottles in the church a family in our ward invited us to come to their family night. They Lord is very kind and He answers all of my prayers all the time. We are beginning to have more chances to meet and talk with the different familys in the ward and I know that this will help us in doing the work of the Lord. Members are crucial for this work. :)
Last night we were handing out invitations to General Conference to some of our investigators. One of them had a sister that needed a priesthood blessing. I have never seen these people at church, but it is amazing to see the peace and joy that these blessings bring in their lives.
Also, we have been teaching Israel. He is getting baptized next week I think... :) It is beautiful to see the changes people make when they accept and live the Gospel. :) :) It reminded me of a quote in Preach My Gospel in the first chapter by Hyrum Smith. In portugues it is on pg 6, so in english it is probably on pg 3..
I love you all so so so much!
Ciao,
Sister Chatwin
All the Brasileiros associate my name with Chata.. I think its funny because sometime I hear Chata and look around. Chata means annoying, and I have no idea if I even spelled the word right. Anyways the members always laugh when I tell them this. :)
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