A Letter from Sister Francis

9-1-13

Dear Bro & Sis Leonard,

Oi!  I’m Sister Francis, one of your daughter’s companions here at the MTC!  We both thought it would be fun for me to write you a letter.  I don’t know what she’s told you about me, but I like writing letters, and thought it would be good to report on her.

You’ll be glad to hear that Sister Leonard is an awesome companion!  She’s hilarious – you have a very funny daughter and I love her.  The other night, when we were in the bathroom getting ready for bed, I said, “My foot itches.”  She said, “I’m on it” and came and started scratching my elbow.  Another time, not long after we got here, we were standing in the doorway of a classroom waiting for our other companion Sister Reeve, who was talking to a friend. I said, “Man am I tired all of a sudden!  It just hit me.” And she without hesitation turned and hit me in the face.  Good thing she’s fluent in sign language because I think she may have a hearing problem.  At least I know she’ll always be there for me if my elbow itches or if I need someone to hit me!

We have a lot of fun together. The MTC is a wonderful place, but it can get boring sometimes, so it’s good to have a companion like her to liven things up.  Sometimes we’re perhaps a little too lively, but we also work well together as we study, plan and teach.

She’s probably told you, but we’re doing really well here and we are very happy.  It’s impossible to be anything but happy for more than 30 seconds because the spirit is so strong.  I know it was hard for her when she found out about the death of her friend, but she really handled it well.  I’m grateful to have such a strong and faithful companion, and I think it would be awesome if we could be companions later in the field!

What else…?  Sister Leonard is always cheerful, even when things are hard.  Her Portuguese is coming along great too!  Anyways, good job on being good parents and raising such a good girl.  I’m sure it was a challenge, but congratulations—your perseverance and hard work have paid off.  I hope you had all your family are well and happy.  I’ll meet you in about a year and a half when I come to her sealing to Elder Wood, and I look forward to it!  I hear a lot of great things about Texas and I can’t wait to go there myself after the mission. 

I love this work and I know that this church is true.  I feel privileged to be able to serve the Lord fulltime, and I know that He is there to help all of us, no mater what our needs are.  Turn to him and you cannot fail!  The Lord loves you and so do Sister Leonard and I J

Sister Sydney Francis

I GOT MY VISA!

So i got my visa today. So no reassignment for me, because I’m the only person who wanted to be reassigned but not my will be done... I leave on Monday Sept. 9th (which is the day I was scheduled which is the day i was scheduled to leave the MTC anyway.) so I’ll go SLC to ALT, GA to São Paulo to Natal. woohoo strait to the field. I'll email more tomorrow for P-day but that is my exciting news:) 11ish days left at the MTC

Mom can you tell Sarah M to email me or give me her email. Also could you sent a camera case for my camera, So I can protect it or get Chan to get me one. Thanks you’re the best.

Sister Leonard

Halfway

It's official i am halfway done with the MTC. Our district has a goal to be speaking 100% Portuguese as of last Wednesday. I’m at like 80% which is much better than i expected:) umm not too much to report this week... we got two more investigators this week. Ben and calihan, they are roommates. Mateus is out of town so we will teach him more next week. Stepherson has agreed to come to church with us on Sunday, so that's really exciting, he seems much more open and willing to listen to what we have to say:). What else to write... it's rained the past two days, which is really great! Sprite came out my nose a dinner one day because i laughed too much. Oh Bob Dole was at the MTC on Sunday... i think that's how you spell it. Apparently people don’t know who he is... i really only know because Doug had that weird fascination with him when he was younger. Also sister Reeve is a fainting goat. If you startle her she collapses to the ground... kind of really funny:) i have a video I’ll try to send you a video i got of her in action. Umm Portuguese really messes up my English so mom, if you want to rewrite this and make it sound like my week was really exciting that's be great:) also half the time i don’t know what you want to know so if you want you can send questions... that's be cool. Well i love the work and i love being here:) love you lots:)

Tchau

Sister Leonard

 

Sisters Reeve & Francis & I at the temple

At the Marriott Center for Sunday Devotional

Irmao Godoy (Who was Elder Wood's favorite teacher/ the funniest teacher at the MTC)

The Girls and I

progressing in the portuguese

Alrighty so much to tell. This week Sisters Reeve, Francis, and I 'tracted' into two people. One on Monday named Stepherson and another on Tuesday named Mateus. Mateus is great, his brother is a member and he wants to strengthen his faith and relationship with God. Stepherson is kinda of hard to read. We aren't 100% sure what he needs, he seems a little disinterested which hurts because we know how important this gospel is. He does however really like the idea that he can live with his family for all eternity:). So that's who we are teaching right now. 

The language is coming haha. My district is very dedicated to learning portuguese! We try to start our days (till lunch or so) only in portuguese. This has resulted in remarks from teachers and other districts asking if we've gotten our reassignments yet. (because we talk like we've been here for 5-6 weeks) Nope this is still just week 3. So while I still feel like I cant speak portuguese I have to give myself a little credit i can successfully make it through a lesson without encouraging my investigator to ‘defecate’. Dad asked what we do to learn the language here. Basically you have no other option. Everyone speaks portuguese all the time and if you speak english back they look at you like you have a third eye. Fun Fact: Rosetta Stone is based off of the language learning practices taught at the MTC.

Anyway I am feeling very positive this week. On Sunday we had a devotional from Richard I Heaton (administrative director of the MTC) then we listened to old conference talks from Thomas S Monson and Richard G Scott.  Some things learned:

~My purpose is to help others be reconciled to God and help them feel the love God has for them

~New generations crucify Christ a new by modifying miracles or defying His divinity.

-- On Tuesday Richard G Scott came to give a devotional...WOW! it was similar to the talk given on Sunday but way better because it was live and I was just sitting there at the feet of an apostle 

~Heavenly Father wants to hear from you. He wants to help you. Just talk, there isn't ANYTHING he doesn't want to know.

~ Learn to ask the right questions, SEEK HIS WILL, don't ask for what you want but what He wants for you. He will do what is expedient for you. he knows what we can become and will help us achieve our potential.

~when it seems like he hasn't answered your prayers its because he wants us to grow, but he will answer when the time is right (on His time not yours)

~"To reach a goal never before obtained you must do things you have never done"

~"refuse to be discouraged" -- yes it is a choice.

Then Elder Scott invoked his apostolic blessing not once but twice on us. He said that we will be given the gift of tongues, receive guidance from the lord and be able to build relationships of trust, according to our faith.

So that's really amazing! I definitely need that. Today is Friday so i get to go to the temple for the first time since being here. I'm super stoked! 

Other than living the gospel 24/7 I also enjoy reigning as queen of foursquare. The elders have started a "dark covenant" against me haha it's all fun :) 

remember dearelder.com is a great way to send letters:) 

te amo

tchau

Sister Leonard

my entire district

because the top of the closet is a good place for a photo op

the ladies of the tripod Sisters Reeve, Francis and Leonard

The homegirls from HV Texas! Sisters Riding and Leonard

test one two

Checking out the new feed burner deliver for email....

2nd lesson mishap

Mom & Dad

So basically there is no time to email...like I have an hour but that's not enough time to squeeze 10 days worth of stuff into.  I figured I'd write my email to let those beyond the MTC fence know I am okay. I am surprised how okay I am.

Wednesday was pretty tough/hard to hold it together, but I received  a blessing of comfort and I talked to Elder Cole who gave me a little more insight into why our friend might have made the decision that he did.  My district is amazing and have helped a lot.

Anyway on a lighter note, I am able to focus on the work, I find so much joy in the service of our Lord.  I mentioned briefly Dayane who is our investigator, or was.  So on the second day here they have you teach a lesson in portuguese. Sister Reeve took french in High School so half the time she can fake her way through.  So the first lesson we confused her with "restoration":-)  whoops!  On the next day, the 2nd lesson, the spirit truly filled my mouth with words, until I tried to have her read the last paragraph of the introduction to the Book of Mormon.  I pointed to the wrong paragraph, then corrected myself.  Dayane (in portuguese) "Well why can't I read those too?" Me (in my head) "Well you can if you want", but not knowing the portuguese word for "want" but having learned "desire" I attempted to say "you can if you desire" but what I actually said was "You can if you deficate".  We successfully caused our investigator to break character.  She laughed for a solid 5 minutes, and even shed a few tears and said in English (which never happens) "I'm sorry, I don't know where this is going!" so I turned to Sister Reeve, she and I were both laughing, not knowing what I had said and told her to testify... She invited us back which is a miracle!  Anyway we finished teaching her.  She didn't get baptized because she doesn't understand why her previous baptism wasn't valid.  We tried to explain it to her but our portuguese was inadequate and the Spirit told us it was time to go.  It was a very cool learning experience though!

We (Sister Francis, Reeve and I) have two new investigators starting Monday though so this should be great!


I hope all is well at home.


P.S. you can write me for free & daily using DearElder.com :-)


Love you both

Sister Aleah Leonard

mom: remind everyone dear elder is free and it's same day delivery. mail is like gold... you can send me free gold! sister Aleah Leonard BRA-NAT sept 10 #285 2011N 900E Provo ut 84604. also can you send me my 4 generation pedigree chart and stories about my ancestors? they are the ones who will be protecting me out here on the mission and it'd be nice to get to know them.

Oi como vai????

There is a saying here " the MTC is like drinking out of a firehose" so true but its like a firehose full of TANG...it's so great and i cant get enough! Umm each day changes so dramatically that i don't even know where to begin. Well i'll start at the day that caused me to actually cry and build my way up from there.

I was in utter shock to here about Nick's death, really surprising. He was a really sweet kid, with a brilliant mind, and a lot of potential. His family is in mine, and my districts prayers. I’m not quite sure how everyone is taking it back home but I can share a few thoughts that have brought me great comfort. On Sunday we watched a devotional entitled "The Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar, this literally changed my life! He talked about how the Savior always turns out to help others. When he is the garden taking upon Him all the sins in the world he came out to find that his apostles couldn't even stay awake with him, and another apostle betrayed him with a kiss. when the guards come to take him away and Peter slices off his ear the Savior does not say "hey give me a break I'm trying to save you right now..." instead He heals the guard. even when He is on the cross just moments away from his death, He is not worrying about his own life, but rather is making sure his mother will be taken care of, and forgiving those who are putting him on the cross, He even gives comforting words to the men who hang next to him saying, “soon we will be in the presence of God.” As I listened and learned I thought:  WAY later in life when things get rough I want to be able to turn out to help others and not be focused on myself, but I wasn't sure how I could develop these traits. It turns out that missionaries are not impervious to trials and hardships on the mission. It is hard to comprehend that Nick is no longer with us but I take comfort in knowing that he is with a Heavenly Father who loves him dearly. God's judgement is just, but more important it is merciful. He loves all his children and does everything He can to ease the suffering of them. I can only imagine the heart break and confusion Nick's mother and family must be feeling, but I know that Christ knows EXACTLY how they are feeling, He willingly suffered so that He could know how to succor His people perfectly (alma 7:11-12)

The mission is a wonderful place! I would not be able to recover and handle all the changes if not for the Spirit that is here aiding me in all my efforts and solidifying my testimony of the truthfulness of His Gospel.

Sister Reeve, Sister Francis and I are in a Tricompanieroship.... or a tripod:)  and they are AMAZING! We get along great. We’ve already taught our first pesquestador (investigator), Dayane, all in Portuguese. we have learned so much about the importance of the Spirit. I am truly amazed at how well the language is coming. We have been working diligently. 4 people from my district have already received their visas... and everyone expects I will be the next to go because I went through the Houston consulate. Oh! Elder Wood got his visa yesterday which is awesome! 

My last words of advice are "obedience brings blessing, exact obedience brings miracles"

I'd love to hear from all of you!

Sister Aleah Leonard

The sisters in my district

Brazil, Natal Mission 

More of my district