Staying in Paradise!

HI FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!! 

Hope you are all doing well! 

I really don´t have much to say this week, sorry. it´ll be kinda short.

Well, here we got transfers through email this week. And that was super weird and different. I didn´t get an email, which means that I am staying here, in paradise, training, with Sister Ogle for six more weeks! I am so excited!!! 

We had very few lessons this week because it is the last week of  summer vacation here as well as the beginning of Carnaval, so not a whole lot of people were home. 

But we had a couple lessons with less actives who want temple recommends!!! That seriously made me happier than I can express! Sometimes I wonder if what we are doing actually helps, and it is in moments like that that I know it is!! 

I had to give the training in district meeting this week. That was a little nerve wracking. But I think it went good. It was about teaching to understand or something like that...which is funny because I still have a limited vocabulary in Portuguese, so my lessons are slightly more advanced than beginning but still, it´s pretty simple. But I also learned about how it is important to have a testimony before we can convert others. So that was cool.

Well, as I said Carnaval started, and here it is not nearly the Party it is in  São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, but because we are close to a beach there are areas we have to avoid. Nothing to serious, and we have to come home a little earlier at night. But there are a lot of drunk people in the street. Sometimes it is really funny. Last night a lady was walking her dog that had sunglasses on and asking everyone if her dog was cute. Kind of funny.

More Mexican popsicles

Sister Abreu (she's leaving here)

Well, that is about it. 

Yesterday I learned a cool lesson. I was fasting for a couple different reasons personally, one of which was that I could be a better misisonary and a better trainer and know what I needed to do to be better. I had been thinking a lot about prayer this week as well and knew my prayers needed improvement, but I wasn´t exactly sure how. And we came home after lunch yesterday to work on the training program, 12 weeks, and half of what we talked about was prayer. There is a section in Preach My Gospel that tells us what we should be praying for and it lists a lot of stuff. It also talks about what will happen when we pray. One of the parts I liked a lot said "An effective prayer requires a great effort" (sorry if it isn´t exact, I translated). But I love this because it is so true. Prayer is so important, it shouldn´t be a lackadaisical thing. We should be on our knees, begging our Heavenly Father for His help and His guidance. We should be praying more fervently and with more dilligence. Our prayers should require effort. We should spend time thinking about what we are saying and what we  want our Heavenly Father to know. Prayers should be heartfelt and meaningful. And when we have prayers like this, our relationship with our Heavenly Father will grow. We will be happier, and we will better know our Father. I am so grateful for prayer and the opportunity I have to pray to my Heavenly Father. 

It was very cool to me to see that Heavenly Father answered my prayer so quickly. I know that He answers prayers and that He hears every word. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Love you! 

Sister Wilkins

Mady sent the following video: (hope this works!)