Week of Miracles!

Oi familia e amigos! 

This week was crazy!!! well, really not the week. Just these past three days. We had a crazy time trying to help one of our  investigators get baptized. 

Cleiton is super awesome. he is now the only member in his family because he was baptized on Saturday!!!! 

We went there and first miracle, we were able to finish teaching everything. We almost weren´t able to because he had some activities and wasn´t able to meet with us everyday. The day of his interview we lost the church keys and a member went and picked Cleiton up and then let us use their house for the interview. We didn´t have the keys to go and check on the font to see if it would fill up because the last couple baptisms there has been a lack of water and it was really difficult to baptize people. But we were able to borrow some keys and I spent almost an hour cleaning a baptismal font for the first time in my life. It was gross.

Then the day of the baptism, we left early to fill up the font, praying with all our hearts that we wouldn´t run out of water. The font filled up in ONE HOUR and could have kept going!!! It was amazing! And our bishop showed up to fill up the font because he didn´t know that we were planning on coming! So we went to lunch, and then went to Cleiton´s because we needed his mom´s signature so that he could be baptized....except that she wasn´t home! Of course not right, everything bad that can happen to prevent a baptism will happen. We got a member to drive us with Cleiton to where we thought that his mom was and then had to call her and ask her to come out! BUT we got the signature! We thought everything was good....and then we showed up to the church. Cleiton was already there, and so were a couple of members. But the friend that was supposed to baptize Cleiton, from another ward still hadn´t shown up. We called him and he wasn´t planning on coming. He said he didn´t know when it was or where it was and we were just like WHAT?! But another member went and picked him up, and in the end....CLEITON WAS BAPTIZED!!! :) 

So...moral of the story. I am very grateful for the members here in our ward and that they are super willing to help us out and give us rides, pick up investigators and friends, and also for offering their houses for our baptismal interviews. BE MEMBER MISSIONARIES!!! :) Love you all! 

And then the confirmation....the member who was supposed to confirm Cleiton didn´t show up. But it´s ok! He was confirmed. 

It really was a week of miracles! 

Well, other than that, I learned how to be a better missionary, our trio gave a training in district meeting and we are all really tired from the craziness of the last three days. But yup, love this area, love the members, love the people and love all of you! 

Hope you are all doing well. 

And if any of you would like to write me letters...I promise to write back! Ask my mom for the address! LOVE YOU! :) 

Have a wonderful week! 

This is my Lion King moment with the Book of Mormon in front of a ship in the Historic Center of our city

Remember who you are and what you stand for! 

1 Peter 2:21

Sister Wilkins

EMAIL ADDRESS:  madalyn.wilkins@myldsmail.net

MAILING ADDRESS:

Sister Madalyn Wilkins

Brazil Florianopolis Mission

R. Felicianos Nunes Pires, 42 Centro

88015-220

Florianopolis-SC Brazil

Cleiton's Baptism

We went to a musuem.  This is how they made sugar...I think.

Keyboard trouble......

Hey fam e amigos! 

Well, having a little keyboard trouble today and not a whole lot to say, so it´ll be pretty short. 

This week was good, we have a lot of work. We have one young man we are teaching, Cleiton. He has been coming to church for 3 months and he can finally be baptized! We taught him 4 lessons in 1 this week, which was seriously a miracle. But it was so cool! He´s so awesome and understands really well. And he is really excited about his baptism! 

We are still teaching the kids, 8 and 11 years old, and they are so awesome. We taught them about prophets and asked them to pray and ask if Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet and they both did and both said that they knew that he was a true prophet and it was so cool! We also taught the first vision and they were both really happy to know that the true church is on the earth! 

I am amazed by children. 

Also yesterday we went to church and had 5 investigators and 7 less actives there. MIRACLES!!! Every less active we visited this week came and it was amazing!!!! I am so grateful for the help that this ward is giving us to get the people we are teaching to church. 

Well, things here are good. Hope you are all doing well! 

Love you all! 

Sister Wilkins

Check out these Churros!

Our district

Ocean selfie

Happy Late Mother's Day

Oi família e amigos! 

I hope you are all doing well and that all you mothers out there were treated well yesterday! Happy (belated) Mother´s Day. Thank you, Mothers for always supporting your children and for giving up your time and dedicating your energy to helping us. 

A special thanks to my mom, who is the greatest mother I know and who has helped me more than she knows. Thank you for your example and for helping me to get to where I am today. Love you mom! 

Well, I am in this new area, Fazenda do Max, which translated literally means Max´s Farm. And that's about what it is. Our area is really pretty small compared with what I am used to. We have a couple small family-owned markets and bakeries close to our house, but I don´t think that there is a real market here. And there is only one lanhouse with five computers in the whole area. There´s really not a lot here. There´s about 5,000 dogs and everyone here seems to know everyone just about. But it is really pretty. There are mountains all around us and there are huge hills that we literally have to hike up to get to our investigators, but it is really awesome here. The ward is awesome and they are helping us a lot and it´s good stuff. 

Well, we had a zone training this week, our first with this new zone. And it was kind of really sad. Our other zone was really unified and everybody was friends and we laughed and joked like the whole time. We got here and I literally knew like 4 people. And it´s really quiet and pretty awkward. But the training we got was good. We learned that we need to jump off the boat. We have to get out of our comfort zone and do more and keep working harder to get the results that we want, so that was cool. 

Well, we have some pretty cool investigators here. We are teaching a couple of kids and I am in shock at how much they know and how pure and innocent they are, how much they want to learn about God and Jesus and how willing they are to keep commitments, unlike a lot of the adults here. So that is super awesome! 

Well, that´s about it. I really don´t have much to say to ya´ll cuz I just talked to my fam yesterday and they heard most of the stories, so not really sure what else there is to say. 

Hope you are all doing well! 

Love you! 

Sister Wilkins

The famous Floripa bridge.  It's legit!

A huge hill we walk in the new area.  MUCH bigger than it looks.

New Comps

Legendary Missionary: Put off Emergency Transfer for 4 Days

Hey family and friends, 

Boy do I got a lot to say...maybe the subject of the message shows a little bit of that. This week was absolutely insane. 

So the beginning of the week we were prepping Mauro for baptism, and he was completely ready. He didn´t have a single problem, and our new ward mission leader came to every single lesson we had with him. It was awesome! 

Wednesday the need for cardigans arose. We barely slept it was so cold. And it literally just dropped. From like 30 degrees celcius to about 15 overnight. And now we are cold. Although  during the day it really isn´t too bad with the sun. But cardigans are necessary a lot of the time. 

Well, we told ya´ll that we were staying in Balneario and we told all of our investigators and less actives too. We weren´t lying. 

Thursday morning we were getting ready to leave, like 11 in the morning. And the phone started ringing, I was in the middle of brushing my teeth and Sister ogle was in the bathroom. And it was president. I ran and spit everything out as I answered the phone. President asked where we were and if we were both listening, which is never a good sign. Then he said he had a challenge for us. He said that we were going to be emergency transferred. He asked if we accepted. I didn´t understand that we were going together until like two minutes later. He said there was a sister who got sick and had to go home, and we needed to be companions with the sister who was still here on the mission. He wanted us to leave on Friday. Almost in tears we told him that we had a baptism marked for Saturday and the interview marked for Friday and HE LET US STAY!!!!!! THAT was LITERALLY the biggest miracle of this week. But the rest of the next four days was a lot of tears as we had to go back and tell everyone that we were in deed leaving. It was awful. 

I cannot even begin to explain how much I learned and grew in Balneario. I am so grateful for the time that I got to spend there. It was amazing. And I sure hope that one day I can go back and finish up some of the work I started there. 

Well, MAURO WAS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!!! I have never seen anyone with such a big smile on their face as they came out of the font. He was so happy and the Spirit was so strong. There was so much that should have happened that the baptism shouldn´t have been possible, but Heavenly Father gave us a lot of miracles and EVERYTHING worked out. We got to sing "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" in  English, Spanish, and Portuguese and it was amazing. I was almost in tears. holy cow. It´s been a really emotional week. 

Mauro!!!

Well, we put off an emergency transfer for 4 days and so now everyone in the escritorio (mission office) knows who we are....but we couldn´t put it off any longer. And so today we traveled to Floripa, and yes, there were more tears saying goodbye to the sweet sisters that have been through so much with us, and then we got our new companion. We will be a trio. Sister Ogle, Sister Branco, and I. Sister Branco is Brazilian, and is super sweet. We are really excited now that we are here, and we think that it will be good. And we are in an area close to Floripa called Fazenda do Max, in the city of São José. It´s a lot smaller than what we are used to...so we´ll see how it goes.

Headed to Floripa!

Our District for a week

Saying Goodbye to our Apartment

But it has been really hard, and if it isn´t too much to ask a few prayers our way would be much appreciated. 

Matt. 14:28-30. keep your gaze fixed on the Lord. The second we let it drop to the world, we fall, But the Savior is there and he will catch us. Just like happened with Peter. 

Love you all! 

Have a great week! 

Sister Wilkins

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle, The Lion Roars Tonight....

Hello família e amigos! 

Tudo bem?!

Nine Months!   With Sister Mesias

Jorgy, our lizard friend (see post titled Facebbok referral)

Last night with Bruna and Robson

Well, transfers are in, and I am sticking around with Sister Ogle again! We weren´t expecting that one! Not really a whole lot of changes going on with transfers. Our district is expanding and we are going to have two more Elders, and one of them will be our new district leader, so that will be fun! 

Last P-day we took a little adventure to...the ZOO!!!! :) Holy cow it was super fun! There was a tiger like ten feet away from us. His mouth is bigger than my head! And next to him were a bunch of lions. There were a ridiculous amount of birds and monkeys, but that´s Brazil for ya! It was almost deserted and it was soooo fun! There was a RIDICULOUS amount of mosquitoes though, and being me with my super sweet blood, I got home that night with what looked like Chicken pox on my legs. It was awful! But the zoo was so worth it! 

We have a new ward mission leader, who I think is really going to help us a lot. As I have been in this area, we have had a lot of difficulty with working with some of the leadership and getting the help that we need because we opened the area, as a third companionship. But this new Irmão is awesome and really wants to help and is already helping us a ton! 

Don´t know if you remember Judy, the teenage less-active we are teaching. She has been to church the last two weeks and is working to get her patriarchal blessing! And she just basically showed up and asked for an interview!!! Miracles are real people! Heavenly Father does touch hearts, sometimes we just have to wait a little to see the results. 

This week I tried some new stuff...yup Sushi and raw salmon. And I learned how to make sushi haha. Well, the sushi wasn´t awful but it was kind of weird. And the salmon, well I actually thought it was good. The texture was a little funny though. But it was a pretty big step for me. Day 1 in the field I said I would never eat sushi again...never say never. That is a really important lesson to learn haha. 

Well, I am really lucky right now to be teaching a man who found the church through Facebook, knew the Book of Mormon was true the moment he saw it and felt like he was always missing something in his life, like there was an emptiness inside. Mauro, this investigator, has loved God his whole life and always strived to keep the commandments, but even still he felt something was missing. This week he told us that that something was the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and now that emptiness is gone and is full of love and happiness. He is sharing this message with others already and is very excited for Saturday, when he will be baptized, and even more excited to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost this Sunday. I am so grateful for the example he is setting for me. It has been an amazing experience watching him become increasingly more happy every time we see him. 

Well, that´s about it for my week! 

Hope you are all doing well! 

Love you! 

Sister Wilkins

THE TIGER!!! :)

I think these are turtles-for you mom!

On the bus to the zoo.

We decided that I am a little like an emu because of my really long legs...so here is my emu face. Please enjoy haha

And this is me as a wolf...haha just for kicks

9 Months and a Long Way to Go....

Well, hey fam! And amigos! 

This week was good! 

Sadly, Bruna and Robson moved this week back to their home city. Good news is it is in our mission and is an area with Sisters. There is a chance I can see them again during my mission as baptized members of the church!!! :) Heavenly Father is so good. 

We had an investigator that we have only been able to visit once before this week. His name is Juneval. He is dating a less active, Laura. We talked about the Book of Mormon with the two of them this week and it went really well. We invited them both to read and pray about it and they said they would. Juneval has been reallly interested in the fact that we have living apostles and prophets and doesn´t believe that no one told him about this before. He was really excited to learn about it and asks a lot of really good questions. We asked him at the end of that lesson to be baptized when he knows the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and he accepted!!! Laura said that his mom might not like it though. She is really Catholic and wants Juneval to get married in the Catholic church. He doesn´t want anything to do with it haha. 

Our less active, Judy, came to church yesterday! She turned 18 recently so she got to join us in Relief Society! It was awesome, the Relief Society welcomed her in and I think it really helped. And then after sacrament meeting she came up to us and said that she wanted to talk to the Bishop about getting her patriarchal blessing!!! Miracles! She will be interviewed for the recommend next week! We are super excited for her! 

Well, this week I officiallly hit my 9 month mark. Yup, that was weird. We ate pizza for lunch, made chocolate chip cookies and that was about it to celebrate. It was Dstrict meeting day too and the elders made a cake for all of us. It was super delicious.

So, recently I have been struggling a bit...or a lot a bit...with feeling like I have been a successful missionary. I have been watching friends have tons of baptisms and here I am in the area with the most success with baptisms in the mission and I´ve got nothing. 

I started studying the other day,  don´t even remember what I was studying, but I started learning about how numbers are not what is important to the Lord. Yes He wants us to help His children, yes He wants them baptized. But us having those numbers is not what is important. Our purpose here is to help others come unto Christ. A lot of the times that means planting seeds. We aren´t always going to have the rewards right here right now because our timing is not perfect, but the Lord´s is. He knows all, His plan is perfect, He knows what He is doing. And sometimes we have to be humble enough to submit to His will and understand that this life is not always going to be the way that we want it. It doesn´t matter if we have baptisms here on the mission, as long as we are doing our part. There is a scripture that talks about how we will reap the rewards if we work really hard. It doesn´t say when. Those results could be in 3 days, 3 months, 3 years, during the mission, after, or even after this life. The fact is we don´t know when, so it is important to do what is right and work hard here now so that one day we can see the fruits of our labors. 

I am so grateful to be here on a mission. To be able to serve others every day. To be ale to talk to my Savior and about Him on a daily basis and draw closer to Him. I am grateful for all of the experiences here. President Silva sent us a message last week talking about the parable of the Butterfly and how we ask for patience, we are sent trials that will develop that quality. We ask for a job, the Lord gives us the health to work hard. We ask for anything...we always get what we ask for, just not always the way we want it, but in the way the Lord knows we need it. I know that His plan is perfect and will get us through. He will not give us anything we cannot handle. 1 nephi 3:7

I love you all! 

Facebook Referral!

Hey fam! 

Well this week was kind of crazy.

We got a new investigator. His name is Mauro. He found the church through Facebook and requested a Book of Mormon, so we went and took him one this week. He was super excited and knew that this path is right for him. He came to church on Sunday and asked us when he could get baptized, so we are going to work really really hard and he´ll be baptized next Saturday! We are so excited! He is hilarious! He is literally like a character out of an animated film, or pixar or something...I keep thinking like Monsters Inc, but I am not sure why. He is super funny though. 

I gave another training in District meeting about how important the spirit is and how we don´t have to be crying or shaking to feel the Spirit, in fact we should feel the spirit every day and those are feelings we aren´t necessarily going to feel every day. It didn´t go how  I had planned, but everyone said it was good. I have learned that it is extremely important to be attentive to the Spirit and willing to change what you want to say so that others can hear the things that they need. 

We found a lizard in the church during district meeting. We named him Jorgy. He was super cute. He pooped in my hand when I picked him up and we almost accidentally killed him, but then found out that he was just playing dead, and then he escaped. But we had a little lizard friend for a while. 

We found out Bruna and Robson are probably moving back to Caçador, which is super duper sad. We don´t know for sure, but we will find out tonight. They haven´t started their marriage papers because they found out that they might be moving, so we aren´t totally sure what´s going on yet. 

This week I learned a lot about service. They talked about service a lot in general conference and I received the inspiration that I need to serve more. So I started serving in as many ways as I could find this week. And oh my goodness, the blessings of serving are real. I cleaned a lot of the house and I was so happy, and I hate cleaning our apartment because it just gets dirty ten seconds later. And I just kept wanting to find ways to serve. I was able to catch up on a lot of things that I personally needed to do as I put aside my time for me to help others. I know that service brings us closer to Christ and makes us happy. It can also impact the life of another for good. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here and to serve and for all those of you back at home and on missions who helped me to get to this point today. I love this gospel, and as I once said to a group of youth I will say it again and again, there is no better way to serve than to share your testimony of the gospel with others. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to do just that. 

I love you all! 

Have a wonderful week! 

Easter!

Elder Reis (old DL)

Jake's Mission Call!

Mini Cristo Luz

Mission Tour

We found the Statue of Liberty!

Sister Child!!!!!