Crazy Week, Hugs from Heavenly Father

Well, oiiiii família e amigos! 

This week was crazy! So much happened!! I´ll try to get it all in for ya..

Well, we got two new Sisters here, both Hispanic, and one is a Sister I was in the CTM with, who flew out to the mission with me! She is super sweet! And the other is straight from the CTM, in training right now. She´s from Peru! 

We got to eat a wonderful churrasco (barbeque) this week-because of Carnaval everyone was at home and they wanted to celebrate the day off. I learned how to make Linguiça the Brazilian way! It´s so good! 

Cooking linguiza

at Churrasco

Tuesday was the craziest day. It was super duper hot in the morning, so I didn´t bring an umbrella and neither did Sister Ogle. And then while we were walking in the afternoon it started POURING. And we were stuck walking in the rain. We were wet and I am sure we looked gross, but we had four people stop us, knowing we were sisters. The last two who stopped us were Italian!!! I TALKED TO TWO ITALIANS!!! :) Who said I couldn´t serve in Italy? ;) It was so cool though! One of them didn´t speak Portuguese and spoke little English, so they talked in Italian to each other and that was the coolest. But the one came up and started talking in English to us and it was super weird, but so cool! They even taught me a couple words in Italian, and told us we were pretty, even though our hair was plastered to our foreheads and our makeup was all messed up from walking in the rain for 25-30 minutes. But ya, I talked to Italians. That was legit. 

So remember that girl I told you about who is the daughter of a less-active? well her name is Roberta. We had a lesson with her Friday night and we invited her to be baptized and SHE ACCEPTED!!!! But she wasn´t at church...we are visiting again tonight!!! so excited!!! 

On the way to church.  Proud of this selfie!

And then last night we had a lesson with another couple we are teaching...the first couple that I have taught on the mission. They were even more receptive and the husband participated more in this lesson. WE taught the Restoration and the First Vision and the Spirit was so strong!!! We invited them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and they said they would do it together!!! So excited again! 

Well, this week I had the opportunity to teach a man who doesn´t believe in God...so that was interesting. Definitely the last thing I thought I would encounter coming to Brazil. So we sat down, his wife is Evangelical and started saying that he was Atheist. But he defended himself. He doesn´t believe in God, but he believes in an energy....I don´t know how to explain it. It was kind of confusing. But he believes in the Bible. So we talked a little bit about God, but we only had time for like a five minute lesson. We are going back this week and we are going to establish who God is. So that´s going to be interesting. Please pray that he will understand and have a belief in God after the lesson. We need the help.

This week I also had the opportunity to do a Helping Hands service project with the ward. We were helping raise awareness about a mosquito here that carries a sickness and some diseases that are really dangerous. We were passing out pamphlets that talked about how to get rid of the mosquitoes and what the community can do to help. So that was super fun :) 

Well, that´s really what happened this week. It was a crazy week, but it was good! 

This week I have learned the importance of listening to the Spirit, as we have studied a little bit about it. The Spirit can help us to learn what we need to change and how we can do it. He has helped me in lessons to know what to say, or speaks through me so that others can hear the things they need to. He has helped me to know that we need to continue the lesson or redirect because of the situation. The Spirit is such a cool guy. He seriously will help us so much. The hard part is learning to listen to and heed the promptings of that still small voice. I have learned this week more of how to recognize him, more of how he works, and how he works with other people, and it is so cool. It really is a testimony to me that God lives and that He knows us personally. Because of this He sends the Spirit to help us, in a way that we will understand, that we will recognize, and that makes sense to us. In the MTC I learned that when we feel the Spirit, it is like getting a hug from Heavenly Father. We all feel different when we hug someone, and it´s the same with Heavenly Father...so now when we feel the Spirit it is like we are getting a hug from Heaven, we are remembering a little bit of what it is like to be in our Heavenly Father´s presence. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Love you! 

Sister Wilkins