Buffalo Wings and Carpet

Well oi familia e amigos! 

This week not a whole lot happened, but I will share what I can. 

So last Pday we went to Big, which is a store owned by Walmart, which is basically just a mini walmart in Brazil with a different name. HOLY COW!!! We stayed there for like 3 hours and it was SOOO FUN. We walked up and down every aisle looking for what they did and didn´t have that American Walmart has. It was soooo weird, but so wonderful! And it is pretty cheap! And they have clothes...so we took a little shopping spree. haha. SO FUN!!! :) 

Bruna and Robson we seriously visited 4 or 5 times this week. Haha!!! We had lessons about the Plan of Salvation, the Word of Wisdom, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are learning super fast and they really understand. When we talked about the Word of Wisdom we weren´t even planning on having a lesson and Bruna just asked about coffee, so we sat down and had the whole lesson. It went really well. They smoke, but from the moment we talked about it they haven´t smoked a single cigarette!!! They are praying for help and Sister Ogle and I were both shocked when they told us that they had just stopped, that it was difficult, but they hadn´t smoked at all again. WHAT?! :) And they are super excited about it! They love to tell people they are addiction free and that they stopped smoking! We had to move their baptism date to April 16 because they aren´t married and the marriage process here is kind of really long...45 days. So we are waiting for their documents and everything to go through. But they are super excited about their baptisms and they are already trying to share the gospel and telling people that they belong to our church! It is amazing to see how much they have already changed!!! 

WE HAD AMERICAN FOOD FOR LUNCH YESTERDAY!!! :) There is an Irmão in the ward who served in Salt Lake and he made Buffalo wings!!! They were so good! AHHH soooo good. Although, they didn´t have a lot of heat in them and I was dying...I don´t know how I am going to eat spicy food when I get back haha. And they had carpet in their house!!! THE FIRST TIME I HAVE SEEN CARPET IN 7.5 MONTHS!!!! :) It was wonderful!!!

This week we found out that one of our less actives passed away. We had been trying to call her and such and she wasn´t answering, which is not normal. We were at lunch with a counselor in the Relief Society presidency and I had the feeling to ask about the less-active and she let us know that she had passed away the last couple days in February. She was such a fun, happy, funny little lady that I will miss visiting. But I know that one day I will see her again and she will be even happier and funnier there :)

This week I was reading the conference talk about ponderizing. I hope all of you that resolved to do this challenge to ponderize a scripture once a week are doing better than I did. I restarted this week. And I realized how important it is. It is only one scripture. 80% pondering, 20% memorization. You do not have to memorize the scripture word for word. Just know where it is and what it talks about, the key phrases. And the Spirit will help you to use that scripture, to remember it in times of need!!! What a great way to learn the scriptures!!! :) Enos 1:4-that was mine this week. What was yours?

Well, we got a call from the AP on Friday because we are going to have a general authority visiting our mission next week. He asked me and Sister Ogle to sing. So we are going to sing....yup please pray for us. We need it. I think it is going to be a group of about 10 of us..please pray. We need help. haha

Well, that is about it for this week. 

I love you all and hope that things are well! 

Sister Wilkins

 

"The Spirit was literally attacking him!"

OLA FAMILIA E AMIGOS!!! 

I hope you all had a great week! Mine was absolutely fabulous! 

Monday night we had a cool experience. There is a member, Marcio, who works on a road we walk down a lot. We were introduced to him our first day here. Sister Ogle remembered where he works and always waves when we walk by. Monday night we didn´t have any appointments scheduled, she waved, and before I knew it I was walking into his work. We sat and chatted for a while. And he gave us two referrals. One of which we met and marked for the next day and the other for Sunday. Which is where the miracles started happening. 

This week we had a little adventure to Itajaí (the Elders´ area) to get some documentation stuff done. It was super cool! Super fun, super pretty! I had pictures that I was really excited to send from there, but my camera started erasing pictures...in short it´s having issues, and I don´t have the pics any more... 

Later that day, when we got back we had the lesson with the first referral, Bruna and Robson. They wanted to know more about Marcio´s church and they knew that the church likes families a lot so they were really interested in that. We went and had the first lesson, and Robson has been searching for a really good church his whole life. We talked about prophets, and how there are prophets here on the earth today. They really liked it and invited us back on Saturday. And were already planning on coming to church Sunday.

Wednesday we had interviews with President. We got a training and talked about the Atonement a little and what the Atonement can do for us, so that was pretty cool. We talked a lot that day with the American Elders. They are absolutely hilarious and we just sat there laughing with them for like 4 hours straight. It was so fun! My interview with President went really good. Apparently I was in there for 20 minutes. But he helped me understand how I can be a little better, and it really made me realize how important Mission Presidents are and that they are really just here to help us.

The American Crew from the day we had interviews with President Silva

Marcio called us with another referral, and we went and met him the next day.

Thursday: the new referral´s name was also Robson. Sister Ogle and I call him Robson 2. He wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon because Marcio had told him about how this book talks about the Aztecs and the Mayans and Incans. He wanted to buy it, but he looked up how to and it said to contact the missionaries. So we went in and gave him the whole restoration lesson. He has been looking for a church for 26 years and hasn´t found one he likes, he feels like there is a void in his life, and so much other stuff that was super awesome. Before we gave the First vision we talked about how the Spirit works, and for him he gets some weird tightening of a muscle or something. I don´t know how to explain it. We talked about the first vision, and how we have a prophet on the earth today and he was feeling the spirit so strongly, that when we walked out of the lesson Sister Ogle described it as "The Spirit was literally attacking him!" But Honestly, it was one of the most spiritual lessons I have been in. The spirit was testifying as much to me as it was to him. Robson 1 came and joined the lesson as we explained the Book of Mormon. We left a copy with each of them and challenged them to read and pray. They were both really excited about it. It was awesome. 

Saturday: We went back to Bruna´s and Robson´s. He had read, prayed, received a very strong answer, and knew the Book of Mormon was true and was hinting at baptism. Bruna had also prayed and knew that what we had taught the first time was true. We taught the rest of the Restoration, with the help of Robson haha. And left the challenge to read and pray with Bruna. It went really well. We invited them to get baptized at the end of the lesson and THEY BOTH ACCEPTED!!!! And are really excited about it!!!! Only thing is they aren´t married yet. Please pray that they can get everything in order they need to so that they can get married! They really want to!

Sunday, they came to church!!! And all the lessons were about prophets! Robson even participated! It was amazing! They loved church and are really excited about it!!! And they feel like this is the right path for their family. I cannot even begin to explain how natural it felt to have them at church, like they had been there with us for years! I am so excited for them! 

Well, that was really my week in a nutshell! 

Have a wonderful week! Love you all! 

Sister Wilkins

There was a baptism this week

Matching!

Hairballs and Floods

Oi querida família e queridos amigos! Como estão?!

Well, this week we had a lot of rain. Like a lot lot lot of rain. Three day there were parts of or whole streets flooded and we came home wet. So that was super fun! The worst one was on Saturday. We got on the ônibus right as it started pouring. And then it dumped for probably almost 45 minutes. We were pulling into the bus station, but all the cars in front of us were turning around and we couldn´t see why, until we reached the intersection. The four-way stop was literally full of water. In the deepest part there was probably a foot and a half-two feet of water. And the bus went for it! We made it through just fine, but it was crazy! And then a road behind our apartment flooded up to people´s knees! It was crazy stuff! It made me grateful for the road we live on and that we don´t really have to deal with it too bad. But man, there was a lightning storm while it was raining and it was legit. I was watching it the whole time in the bus and then for like half an hour at home. I tried to take a video of it, and I got a couple good ones, but my camera had a meltdown and deleted some of them...sorry, no cool lightning videos.

Yesterday we had two of our less actives at church with us!!!! One of them we had basically given up on visiting because she wasn´t keeping any of her commitments, but she came to church!!! Crazy stuff!! And the other is Ygor, the young man we have been working with. He had a member asking him about a mission, and we are trying so hard to help him get ready to serve...not sure if he wants to yet or not, but we are trying.

What else...well, Alvaro, our "atheist" investigator turned out to not be so atheist. We went and taught him and his family yesterday about God, and it was actually a really good, really awesome lesson. We started by asking everyone who they thought God is and then they started asking us questions like where He is. We asked them what sort of state they thought he was in...physical body, spirit, energy, etc. We got the answer energy/spirit from them. We had the chance to explain using Genesis 1:26-27 that man was created in the image of God, which must mean that God has a body of flesh and bone. And now they believe in God, that we are His children, that we are created in His image, that He has a body of flesh and bones, and that the Godhead are three separate beings!!! It was so cool! And Alvaro prayed at the end of the lesson! And it was such a beautiful prayer and the spirit was so strong. It was seriously amazing! And he and the young man said they would come to church on Sunday! 

So...I am not a fan of knocking on doors. It has not been effective for me so far and I feel lke our time could be used better or more effectively a lot of the times...so I avoid it. Which is awful. Learn from my mistakes. I have repented haha, but seriously,  I don´t like doing it. But we made a goal this transfer to knock on ten doors a day. We are tryng our best, but we don´t always get to it. But one day this week, we had a huge gap of time with nothing to do, so we went and knocked four streets of doors. We made 13 contacts. And I realized that knocking doors can be fun! You might not enter every house you knock on, but you are planting seeds, and I have begun to realize how important that is in missionary work. 

We had a zone meeting this week! I swear half of our zone is Americans, which is super fun! But it was so good. We talked about How to Begin Teaching, and I learned so stinking much! The way you begin teaching is everything as a missionary. Your first few minutes with an investigator are the most important, and it is so true! Even as a member. The example we set as members is so important because people will reflect the way we act on the church. The impression they have of us will bias the impression they have of the church almost every single time. 

What else...random tidbits. I met a german this week. And could barely understand him when he first started talking..he was speaking Spanish, but by the end I could understand him almost perfectly. 

So...I had a fun experience this week. With a massive hairball. 

I was taking a shower and the shower was not draining well at all. I waited until the water left and then went in to try and unclog it with a fork. The cap of the drain came off and the water inside was black. Waited some more for the water go down, put a plastic grocery sack over my hand and arm and got to stick my arm down the drain. I pulled out a wad of hair literally the size of the mini soccer balls and volleyballs that are meant for display...roughly the size of a double fist. It was awful and the smell was terrible. I think that was the first time I ever unclogged a drain...I was gagging. Ah it was terrible...but Sister Ogle thinks it will help me later in life when I am a mom..hahaha.

Well, what else can I tell you? 

I had a cool experience in church yesterday. I had been thinking about the song I stand all amazed and we ended up singing it in Sacrament, but the words are different and have a bit of a different meaning than they do in English. It still talks about how Christ gave His life for us, but it made me think about it in a different way, made me understand the humility of the act a little more. sorry this probably doesn´t make a lot of sense. I will have to translate it into English for you one day. 

Well, sorry for my scatterbrainedness. But that´s kind of how my week was, scattered, and random, and crazy! 

Hope things are going well with all of you! 

Love you all! 

Sister Wilkins

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

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!)

Pictures from last week (vultures and more)

I had trouble uploading the photos for last week's email.   Here they are.

VULTURES!

Some members took us to the beach at night.  Paradise!  

My bed is the bottom bunk

 

My room with our new furniture

Subway

More of the beach in the evening

Bus Rides and Miracles

Hi family and friends!!! 

Mexican popsicles

MilkShakes

At the bus stop...in the rain

Bus Rides!

Selfies

Well really not a whole lot happened this week....so I don´t have a whole lot to say. 

Monday night we went and visited Evaneta, the lady we found tracting. She basically told us for 20-30 minutes why she couldn´t continue meeting with us. I asked if we could finish out last lesson with her. We taught her about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. After we finished she said she needed to pray and ask God for guidance about which church to join because she didn´t know. She wasn´t at church yesterday, so I don´t know what happened. BUT I do know that there is power in the Restoration and that when we share it people´s hearts will be touched. 

We have one less active who we visited twice. She likes to cook. We broke the ice with her talking a lot about food, and now I will get to learn to cook a little bit!!! And her husband isn´t a member, so we are going to try to teach him!

We were trying to find more people to teach this week and Heavenly Father blessed us a lot. We had to take the bus a lot this week. And for a long time too. One day we were going to lunch, which was about 40 minutes by bus and this lady behind us said Sisters, and started talking to us. She´s a member, but hasn´t been to church in four years. She has four daughters, but only two are baptized. One of the others is 12 and wants to be baptized!!! and the other is 3. So we started teaching Roberta the first lesson!!! :) So awesome! That same day we visited them, we were sitting waiting for the bus and we made a contact with this guy who seemed interested and we set up to meet with him. And we went to the lesson and it was raining, he lives in almost the middle of nowhere. And we got in the house and it literally started DUMPING BUCKETS. It was crazy. And then his mom fed us and his sister gave us a ride home. Sound like a perfect investigator? I think so haha. 

Well, that´s really about all that happened this week.

however, I did want to share one little thing I found during personal study saturday. So I was reading the Book of Mormon, and I got to that part where Nephi is quoting Isaiah. I wasn´t paying a whole lot of attention, and then realized I wasn´t and tried to really start understanding what he was saying. He was talking about the Atonement. And I found this little verse that I love: 

1 Nephi 21:16

"Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." 

This simple verse of scripture has so much meaning for me. our Savior literally suffered and died on the cross for us. He loves us so much. Our pains, our sufferings, sicknesses, afflictions, trials, everything is engraven in two prints in His hands, where two nails were driven through his palms that He could be nailed to the cross. Those marks are reminders to Him of our suffering. He is suffering there with us. He will never leave us alone. He knows each one of us individually because of those marks. And because of those marks, we are literally in His hands, and we can put our burdens and our sins on Him, we can give him our hurt and pain so that we don´t have to deal with it any more. And He will take it from us, He is begging us to hand it over, we only have to let Him take it. 

I love the atonement. I am so grateful for the sacrifice our Savior made so that I can become better, so that one day I can live with my family again, and so that I can share this happy message here with these people in Brazil. 

I love you all! 

Have a wonderful week! 

Sister Wilkins