October November December 2014

October 29, 2014






So this week was transfers I got transferred to the other side of the river, to Alecrim, I have been called as sister training leader, and who is my companion...Sister Reeve, who just so happened to be my very first companion in the MTC, crazy right? I always joked with her how funny it would be to be comps with her in the field and she would just look at me and say "it´d be like the blind leading the lame, and it´s impossible to be comps with someone who has the same time as you" oh little does she know ha-ha, but it´ll be great I’m excited. So basically what I get to do now is call the sisters, hear their problems and go on divisions with them, and I’ll be going to mission counsel each month. ótimo! Last week sister Gonzales and I went to the aquarium and that was super great:) also Iraci, the lady who was baptized two weeks ago made us lunch this last Sunday.... I never know shrimp could taste so great! I didn’t even know I liked shrimp. All in all that´s about it.... oh I got my birthday present! You´re the best mom! Love you!

Sister Leonard

November 3, 2014

Not much has really changed, like always with transfers, since the last time I emailed. Two sisters came to visit because one was sick and needed to go to the hospital here, so that´s stressful because missionaries aren´t that great as houseguests and because we live where the mission office is we are the go-to house to sleep and everything. Did I tell you there are 10 bunk beds in my house and each one has 3-4 mattresses... there are 50 sisters in the mission.... I’m not excited for the sisters conference in two weeks... but it´ll be great. Life is all good in the hood. Love you!

Sister Leonard

November 10, 2014

Que fubecagem

This week was a good one. Let me just start off describing an event that no one will truly appreciate. I went to McDonalds, it´s been more than 16 months. I know in the states it´s like the lowest grade meal you can get, but here in Brazil it´s kind of a huge deal. I cannot describe how great it was to smell that fast food grease and taste Heinz ketchup. Elder Cansino almost cried and Sister Reeve saved the french-fries cardboard as a souvenir... it´s not pathetic its as magical as Disney... okay not quite but it was delicious. What else happened this week... drama with other sisters... I really was raised as a boy. Sister Reeve doesn’t like drama either, but with this new calling we get to hear all about it.... this is the Lords way of teaching me more patience. Stake conference was this weekend... that was quite the event, I still don’t know who is in our ward because the chapel has been under a reformation, so we have been with another ward in a different building and this week was stake conference so this next week I should finally get to know some of the members woohoo. Maybe we´ll do divisions this week, don’t know yet. But yesterday Larissa was baptized, she´s been going to church for 3 years on and off, but never really felt like she was worthy to make the leap and get baptized. She has changed so much in the last few weeks. Wow I was so happy yesterday to see her baptism; she is a true example of sacrifice for what is right.

got to go

love you all!

Sister Leonard

November 17, 2014

This week

this week was good... well at the beginning it was super stressful, people showed up to sleep at our house on Monday... 10 sisters in one house.... as you can see from the pictures we ate ramen:)  every one was there for mission leader council.... so I don’t know if that makes sense conselho da missão.... but it was great I learned a lot how we need to be examples to help the other missionaries. so we went to the other zones zone meeting this week (all the sisters we take care of live on the other side of the Rio) but we had fun resolving there conflicts. sister Reeve and I laughed a lot this week, which always alleviates some stress, also we made chips and salsa, because we are two Americans in brazil eating Mexican food... that makes sense. But the end of the week was great. We are happy and full of energy... that´s actually a lie, we are dead physically but mentally and spiritually we are awesome, and we smile lots because this is the best work you can do.:)

hope you liked the pics

love Sister Lee

so I don’t trust ramen anymore.... this is what happens when sister Francis visits and leaves her ramen out for a day

yes food does fall from heaven

and we made chips and salsa!!! mmmmm

November  17, 2014

lots of selfies

these are the sisters we take care of:) 

elder torres at the bus stop

Sister Reeve and I

November 24, 2014

Turkey

What a great week. First of all I spent my last p-day making jerry out of newspaper, glue, a balloon, and duct tape (the duct tape saved the day once again). Sister Reeve made monkey bread (have you ever made it with out premade biscuits? we did:)) so Thanksgiving was a hit because there was food and a turkey, and this month sister Reeve and I have been writing on a poster each day what miracle we saw that day, it´s pretty amazing to see how much the Lord has blessed us this month. 

we study Preach my Gospel together

The missionaries with "Jerry"

One thing I LOVE about being here with Sister Reeve is we laugh a lot. We are serious when we need to be but we are really just trying to live it up, every moment we have here on the mission. During ward counsel we were all dying of hunger when all the sudden the ward clerk walked in with juice! We ended up making a leadership pizza night to end our meeting #bestmeetingever.

I saw Hildemar 2 times this week, which always makes me happy he is strong in the church and happy:)

Transfers is next week I’ll be on Wednesday.

I’m grateful I am here:) love you all:)

Sister Leonard

oh yeah, we made monkey bread

December 10, 2014

Caicó

So I got transferred again. Transfers week is kind of ridiculous when you live in the mission home. Monday night we have to go to the bus station to get the Sisters who have been called to train. Tuesday our house is full of lots of people who don’t respect space or anything. Then at 930 Tuesday night you get a nice little call saying who has been transferred, you then have to stay up till 1 in the morning organizing all of your stuff and packing again, only to wake up at 630, go back to the bus stop and get on a bus for 4 hours which turns into 6 when the tire gets a flat... and there isnt a/c... but all in all its been a good transfer. I’m in Caicó which is the only city that I was lacking to be able to say I have served in all the cities that are part of the mission. 

But backing up: last week Marcelo was baptized he is really funny, he just has a really innocent way about him. Like we were reviewing the baptismal interview questions and we asked if he had any doubts or questions. He asks "if you own a bar, but don´t drink, would you have to sell your bar to be baptized"... "Marcelo, do you own a bar?" "No"... "do you plan on owning a bar" "no" alright then you don’t need to worry about it. He is really great and just wants to do the best he can:)

After his baptism we had a ward potluck, break the fast. It was really great to unify the ward a bit more. 

Then transfers happened and now I’m in Caicó. I’m with Sister Baker, she´s from Charlotte North Carolina. We will be going home the same day ha-ha, she is awesome. We live with Sister Algayer and Sister Rios! minha filha amada! This transfer is going to be even funnier than the last two, I am so excited. I was a bit sad to leave Alecrim so fast, and I did have a blast with Sister Reeve again, I’m sad to leave every area actually, that´s what happens when you love the people. But I’m excited to be here. I know it´s the Lord who sends us where we are needed.

love you all. stay classy

Love Sister Leonard

December 15, 2014

So it´s been a whole 3 days right? Since we last talked. Sister Baker is really cool, we get along great. It´s always a pleasure learning your way around a new town. it´s nice that here is pretty much on the grid system, but its hard to know which street is which because it all looks the same, so that´s not cool. Right every email that I ever sent saying it was hot here was a lie, Caicó translates to be "the gates of hell are open" it is so hot! Also Caicó doesn’t really mean that. like the other areas were hot but when you stepped into the shade, there was a little breeze that made it bearable, here when there is a bit of wind its like a hair dryer on super hot that just hits you in the face and makes you want to cry.  This week will be fun because we have our Christmas conference, which will be way better than last year because this year I have friends.

awkward family Christmas fotos

Also this morning our house flooded, I’m pretty sure it´s still flooding, I kind of just left the problem, I couldn’t fix it with duct tape. Our pipes don’t drain, only one does, and it´s clogged and my redneck fix it skills were inadequate to fix it, so we called someone and they´ll pass by this afternoon. I’ll send a pic. love you all. Until next week:)

Sister Leonard

Dec 22, 2014

If I tell you everything that happened this week I wont have anything to say on Thursday. But basically this week was our Christmas conference, and it was really great. It was super fun to see everyone. The whole mission (literally) got sick, because there was some bad chicken in our lunch, but we all survived. Actually everyone I live with is sick... except me, but it´s unrelated to the chicken. This week was better than the past two; we are going to start to do a bunch of divisions these next four weeks. Should be fun. it´s all good in the hood.

 love you all, until I see you in three days:)

Sister Leonard

Dec 29, 2014

This week was a good one. It was good to see the fam bam for christmas. for my birthday I worked, I actually gave a talk yesterday, almost no one was at church because it is the end of the year, and here in Brazil they don’t just have Christmas break but this is also their summer break right now. so basically everyone is out of town until the end of carnival, in Feb. but it´s all good. last night we went to Rogerio and Suénia´s house to east cake:) and everyone sang parabéns to me:) I got two snickers and a nice floral perfume from the sisters who live with me (i think its to mask the sweaty smell, it works) all in all it was a good birthday.

love you all. happy new year. make goals that are actually possible to meet, set plans to reach your goals, love you all.

Sister Leonard

Dear faithful reader...

Please pardon our sideways pictures.  Somehow the missionary has sent the images sideways, and after 3 tries and deleting my post.  I give up.  

~The Editor

 October 6, 2014

so this week was full of... you guessed it conferences. so on tuesday we had zones conference with all the zones here in Natal. it was really great because i got to see lots of friends but more importantly we talked about the book of mormon. it was great. and i love the book of mormon. the whole mission is going to read the whole book cover to cover before our next conference in december for christmas.which has been great because i have Laman and Lemuel on the mind. general conference was amazing! love it with all my heart. i love the inspired messages that truly testify how much God loves us and wants us to return to his presence and that is why we have a prophet and apostles today. so after the conferences there were a few people that commented ´wow they were really burning us werent they´... i thought about nephi´s older brothers and how they took instructions from their father the prophet. they said the things he said were hard for them, but it wasnt hard for Nephi, why? because he asked for his personal witness. we should remember these messages are to help us improve, if it seems hard ask God for help to be able to do what he is asking. i know he has a plan for us and it´s to help us become like him, and we can do that using the atonement. :) also this week Adson was baptized inbetween sessions.so all in all it was an amazing weekend. 

love you all

love sister leonard

mom did you get my message wishing you a happy birthday?

elderas

 October 13, 2014

So this week was good. I laughed a lot. So last night while I was passing out numbers for our DL my wonderful companion stamped my forehead... so i locked her out of our room. also this week I found a lizard in our house, and stole a papaya from mãinha .... the other foto with the lady. is mãinha:) she´s awesome. we did a service project at her house this week... today actually. i think im just going to be sending lots of photos ... i dont really have much to say... as my brothers say a pic is worth a thousand words.

 October 20, 2014

this week was a blessing and a half. we are working on another wedding. So I ran all over Natal to find all the right documents... at least I've done this before and i know what to do, more or less. so that took up a good amount of time, but there two kids were baptized this weekend, it was so great, and the parents are super excited for their baptisms next month. also Felipe was baptized. he is a friend of a recent convert, the elders found him for us. we are also teaching his parents but they need to get married too.... yay! "mawage is what brings us together today, love true love..." -princess bride. also Iraci got baptized!!!! that was a big surprize.... we´ve been teaching her for a while and she didnt want to get baptized because she recently was baptized in a baptist church... on saturday we talked about family history and temples... congrats to my family who is doing family history... i had quite the family tree to show off to them;)  then the husband, Arlindo, who is a member asked "if i go to church for the full year doing every single thing right, can i still be sealed to my wife even if she´s not a member?" :( i was so sad to say no.... but on sunday she came to church and said "I brought my towel can i be baptized today?" .... YES! i still cant believe how blessed we have been, we have been fasting and praying like crazy:) and the Lord has really been blessing us. iI love where I am and the opportunity I have to serve these people. love you all:)

sister Leonard

 cleaning the baptisimal font

flavio gissele jr gabriele fernanda

everyone

 arlindo and iraci

felipe and maria josé (mãe)

July, August, September

July 21, 2014

This week was good. We continued a really fun branch activity on saturday... I'm part of the primary because you cant leave the primary by themselves so, basically we earn points for ever activity we win, like bobbing for apples, scripture chases, we had a scavenger hunt and played pictionary. Also for every investigator or less active you bring to church you get 20 points... so all in all the primary is winning. We are working hard here, it´s starting to get hot because winter is ending... There never was winter here. but anyway i´ll send photos

love you mean it,

Sister Leonard 

July 28, 2014

One Year

This Thursday marks one year of being on the mission. Crazy how time flies when you´re having fun. This past weekend President and Sister Soares were here in Cajazeiras to do interviews. It was great to talk with them. Sister J and are kinda sorta opening a new area, we aren´t allowed to proselyte but we can work through references, there are two members that live there, we are going to try to start up family home evening with the missionaries, so one day each week we are going to start visiting São João Rio do Peixe... what a name. St. John River of Fish... there isn´t even a river or fish there. Transfers are next week so I wont be on until Wednesday. Just as a fun reminder. Also lunches have been falling a bit lately.... So if you could send me some recipes of things that are quick and easy and inexpensive to make that´d be a blessing and a half. All in all that´s about it for my week. I'm trying to think like the energizer bunny and just keep going, these past two weeks I've been pretty low on energy, but that just shows I'm working lots right? Well, it started raining here.... that’s a huge surprise/miracle. Hope all is well with yáll. 

love sister Leonard 

August 6, 2014

so the good thing about transfers is it delays p-day so there is always a lot to tell, it´s just that there is too much to tell now. sister J and I will stay together one more transfer here in Cajazeiras. Recently its been heating up... which i though was impossible, its like hell with a turbo heater. But´s its better than being freezing right?  So last week I celebrated 1 year on the mission that´s kinda weird. The elders here mock me because I'm from Texas... so they got me a cowboy hat and a cord to be my lasso.... it was pretty funny. Then we went to eat chinese food because I'm my mothers daughter. Right, the phrase at the top `gotta think positive` is something the people here say a lot, especially when they are making promises. Speaking of promises I promised this old man that we are teaching that I´d help him reconnect with his daughter... His name is F, when we first met him he told me his daughter and grandson live in Texas. but he didn't remember the city. Yesterday when we were there he showed me an envelope that he received from her a couple years ago... you´ll never guess where she lives. Highland Village.  So your project this week is to find R S (pretty sure that´s the last name) she lives at***************. maybe you could send the missionaries there and teach her the gospel as well. It’s been a couple years since they've written, and F misses her a lot. If you could just pass by there and tell her to write or something that´d be awesome. This is my project:small world. But ya I’ll send a pic for you as proof that we are teaching her father, you can show it to her or something. Let me know how it goes. Love you all:)

Sister Leonard 

August 11, 2014

I don't really have too much to write about this week. but I'm alive I'm well. It’s starting to heat up here (i didn't even know that was possible). We are working hard to build Zion here... we are starting to season of holidays ( pretty sure Brazil is the country with the most holidays ever) I'm  pretty sure I wrote about this last year when I got here... basically until the end of the year every weekend has a holiday, it starts more in Oct, but depending on which state you are in it can start in sept/aug. Thanks for finding the S.  F will love the picture. 

Love you mean it:)

August 18

Catchy title here

How weird that everyone is starting to come home from the mission and get married... sorry to  here about Dan Goodman... he was a good man. I remember y'all talking about him and I´d probably recognize a pic. But what a blessing we have the plan of salvation and we know it´ll all work out in the end. This week was good. We had lots of people at church, we are working hard to help this branch grow. We had a great  zone conference and learned lots of great things:) I made your brownies and maybe gave out the recipe to some elders... its like the gospel you just have to share. F loved the picture of little M, thanks for that. This week i´m going to do a division... I think in the states it´s called exchanges... with sister C, I'm excited it´ll be a party.... a very spiritually enlightening, reverent party:) So there is my quick update for you. love you all

Sister Leonard

August 25, 2014


Oh Cajazeiras

This week was awesome. We did divisions, so i was with Sister C (lived with her in Natal) she´s awesome, love her. Anyway she helped a lot, I learned a lot. Yesterday we baptized Diego and Francisco, they are brothers, basically  Dan and Doug as far as personality. They are awesome. We met them through their younger brother, who doesn't have much interest in the church yet, but we met him on the street about 3 months ago and he gave us his address but said the wrong street (it wasn't on purpose, the roads here are whack.) Then we met him again on the street and got a better reference point, when we stopped by to visit his brothers happened to be home, which is a miracle because they work a ton and are nearly never at home. But they are amazing and received the message of the gospel really well. Their baptism was beautiful and everyone is happy;). That's about it for now. We are still teaching english every saturday. Oh this week the city celebrated 151 years, so there was a huge party/parade it was pretty special i´ll try to send pics and i took some videos.

love you

sister Leonard

September 1, 2014

All good in the hood

This week was a good one, full of lots of work and lots of sweat. we have been working on finding lots of families to teach, this week was cool because we had 3 people contact us saying ´hey pass by in my house i want to learn about Jesus´ we are working on helping the members be good missionaries too, we've started the missionary month. Each week we do a little training on how to contact people and how to teach a little bit of the lessons, stuff like that.They have little name tags and companionships and everything. there is a point system and the companionship that wins will win a trip to get their patriarchal blessings. which is a pretty big deal. All in all I'm good, how can you not be happy with Jesus by your side... :)

love you all

Sister Leonard

September 8, 2014

This week was good. Williane got baptized on tuesday. She was a reference from another branch. Her cousin is a member and she went to church one day with her and liked it and wanted to be apart of it, who wouldn't want to be a part of this church? she is awesome, she stared doing personal progress before we even finished teaching her everything. 

This is the last week of the transfer so I wont be on until wednesday or Thursday next week, just as a reminder. that´s about it for this week.... mom everyone says you are behind on letters... please up date my blog.:) thanks I’ll send pics

love sister Leonard