tudo bem tudo bem

tudo bem tudo bem

November 4, 2013

This week was fun, as it always is in the mission field. Lots and lots and lots of walking, it was hot, but I think its better than being cold:) still don't have a bed but at least I don't have to sleep on the ground:) we found lots of new people to teach this week.wahoo work! I'm officially hilarious in two languages now:) my companion tells me everyday how funny i am. Sister M. Silva is pretty funny too, everyday we practice a new phrase to say in English for Elder Tomas, our district leader. on Thursday it was "Elder today a little boy bit me!" and Friday it was "Elder, today the same little boy bit my companion" both are true statements. umm Sister Francis and i celebrated 3 months of the mission on the 31st, we also decorated for Halloween, this week we'll have our Ala-ween party (ala means ward. Its funny I promise...you have to know Portuguese) so ya all is well in Mossoró. hope all is well in your part of the world:)

Love sister Leonard

We found a great spot for a group photo

We found a horse

Siser m.S

Not too much to Report

Not too much to report

October 28, 2013

Basically we gave all of my investigators to the new companionship, and we don't have anyone to teach yet but this week will be more productive. my Portuguese has improved a lot now that i am with a Brazilian now sister m. silva. she´s great, for the most part i can understand most everything she´s saying. the other dupla here is Sister Adriane and Sister Francis, they´re great, it´s always a party after planning, they try to speak English and we try to speak Portuguese, the gift of tongues is real. it´s starting to really feel like summer here (that´s a joke because its always really hot here, all year around.) umm ya i walk a lot still, i love work, the members here are great and help enormously with the work. i´ve really felt your prayers working. but ive learned specific prayers are the best...so if you could pray that I get a bed soon that´d be cool. Although I enjoy my rede (pronounced headgy) (hammock) it´d be nice to sleep in a bed:) love you all

Sister Leonard

I got hit in the face with a Bat!

This week has honestly been ridiculous. 

So the animals here are crazy. We were on splits last Thursday and I was ducking under a tree to get to this house and a bat ran into my face, I can mark that off the bucket list.

Barataphobia: so you know the movie arachnophobia when all the spiders try to get in the house...so we have a lot of cockroaches here, que benção, so we bought this poison from a member in another ward...i swear it was strait drugs, the roaches started freaking out after eating it, and they all started climing in our windows and running across our porch, i have no idea why they wanted to get in the house so bad, but as soon as they´d get in they´d curl up and twitch ferociously.

What´s been happening:

sister Johnson and i have been planning a Halloween party for the past month, it will be this saturday.we get two new sisters in our ward today, which means there will be 2 duplas in Abolição. so we’ve been rearranging the house as well. and we are splitting the area for the new sisters...any way I'm saying all this because we have been planning all these things and making preparations and last night we got the call that sister Johnson would be transferred. may i remind you that i have only been here 6 weeks and i now have to show 3 new sisters the area and i have a Halloween party to do and a new area to open with a brand new Brazilian companion. on the bright side sister francis(MTC comp) is going to be living with me, so at least someone will speak English, que benção. so ya if you have a moment in your prayers don't forget the sister in Brazil trying to survive. Love you all, I’m relying on the Lord.

Love sister Leonard

How many sisters live in this house?  And this isn't all the shoes either...

Heartbroken

So we met a guy on the street this week, which really means we were walking down the street and he calls for us to come to him. His name is Lucas, we talked for a little and marked to visit him the next day. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he accepted baptism, and we left him with a Book of Mormon. The following day when we went back to follow up. I asked him if he read the Book of Mormon.. He had. (we marked for him to read 2 ne 31). He read that, and then started at the beginning of 1 nephi and read until jacob 5! Please go pick up a book and look at how much Lucas read in one night. The next day we covered the plan of salvation, and we arranged everything for Church the next day. He said the closing prayer and said `Deus Eu sai que esta Livro é verdadeiro!´ (God I know this book is TRUE!)  So Sunday morning we grabbed a ride to pick up Lucas. And that´s when he started giving us excuses, and finally Sister J asks `are you drunk´ sadly he was... He didn't come to church, we were really sad and it gave us a little taste of what our Heavenly Father feels when we break commandments or when we choose not to go to church... but now we know what we will teach today. the word of wisdom:) ... another cool story, we were stopped on the street by some 16 year old girls, they were actually kinda following us, they are in an English class and are doing a project for class and need people who speak English for extra credit, so we made a deal with them if they come to church we will help by going to class, they actually came, and really seemed to enjoy young women's. All in all a good week. Oh Caio received the Holy Ghost! Parabens!

love you all,

Siste Leonard

my new bug bites

me with a cute little family of chickens

Sister J and I

Conference

Mom we had a party for your birthday at conference!

Sister J and I in our little english room watching conference.  Everyone else showed up later

It was Sister Oliveira´s birthday.  Sister J and I got a Brazilian cake recipe from Carol.  Turned out DELICIOUS!! Super fun! Us and our zone missionaries.

Baptismo!

Caio got baptized yesterday! que benção! Seriously Sister J says that was the absolute easiest baptism of her mission... Everything went right! we must be doing something right! And was conference not just the best thing in the word? It was. What i picked up most on was covenants and how we need to make them, keep them, and help others do the same. I am excited for these next couple weeks to continue working with the members and having lots of success. Thanks for all the prayers and keep them coming!

Sister Leonard

After the Baptism

Everyone who was baptized yesterday

Caio with his family (Mom, Aunt & Uncle)

Milagres!

So this week was hard, and great. I love my companion she is an angel. Anyway this week i want to talk about Caio (Kyle) He´s 13 his is the nephew of some of our recent converts, basically super ready for the Gospel in his life. We´d actually seen him at church quite a few times before and we were not sure if he was a member or not. He loves church he loves all the things we teach him, in one of our lessons when we were explaining enduring to the end we said `you know you do the little stuff every day like praying and reading scriptures...´I told him it doesn´t have to be long just 5 min. His response was “well i get home from school at 12 and don't have to work till 3 so that's three whole hours i can read the book of Mormon...” wow what a stellar kid. So we are really excited for him, and really excited for General conference this upcoming weekend!!!! Sister Johnson and I are also planning a Halloween ward party... if you have any ideas of games/ activities we could do that´d be great! 

Oh and happy birthday mom this year i called Tommy, he said he´ll speak the day after your birthday!

Love you all

Sister Leonard

Sister J and I with Salviano, who we had lunch with.  He made this cake. He's hilarious because he knows a little english and says funny things at random times.

 

These are my language tutors.  Emily (left) is an investigator,
Stella and Igor correct my grammar...