Scary stuff in Brazil

December 4, 2013

So i´ll start this letter out with shout out to the cousins. Mainly Mar. thanks for the letter Mar:) 

This letter i think should be for Kendall Rapier but i don’t have his email and i´ll discuss the same things so if Becky reads this let Kendall know its for him.

The one piece of advice... if you could call it advice from my dear cousin was`the world is really wicked´ I thought to my self `umm thanks for that´ but this week has been hard... really hard. Disclaimer I’m fine no worries. 

I'll start with happy things. We went to Natal last week for a conference for the sisters in the mission. We have 35 sisters (38 now i think with this transfer) it was awesome President Soares is an inspired man! After that we had a baptism this sunday. Bia is the cutest thing since puppies. Then things kinda go down hill... one of our investigators has been in a relationship that isn't healthy. This week things came to a breaking point. She was inspired to say in the middle of being beaten that the sisters were knocking at the door. He let her check the door and she literally ran for her life. The Lord inspired her to use us as a tool to save her life. She's better now at her brothers house, but i feel really bad for her.

The next day we made our rounds looking for people to teach, after a few lessons the member that was with us needed to return home, so we decided to stop by in our house to grab another book of mormon and eat something. so we have a lock on the door for at night that can only be locked from the inside. when its locked you cant even turn the key to get it... that was the first clue. I pushed on the door to jolt it and managed to unlock the door. but it was locked with the latched lock. then I noticed the front window open. Anyway we called the other sisters to see if they had passed by earlier and left the window open. ya, no so we went to Bishops, he called for other men in the ward to come over. (the police are kinda a huge joke here) anyway they brought flash lights and saw the back door open (sister m silva and i both double checked that it was locked when we left) no one was inside. a neighbor actually saw the guy jump over our fence with a small back of things and then he left... so  he left all the money all our cards and documents, he took my camera/memory card :( and our dvd player for training, with The District still inside.... so we´re hoping he decides to watch the district and will come back asking to be baptized... also he left the charger for my camera so jokes on him it´ll die in a day or two. so we are looking for a new place to live, in the mean time we´re living with bishop´s mom, she's the sweetest old lady, she reminds me of Honey... don’t worry mom we do all the dishes and sweep and clean up after ourselves. So ya the world is wicked, I feel like I understand that phrase a little more now. I can only try to imagine a small part of how the Lord feels when people do bad things to others. But we´re still smiling... we´ll at least i am, my sick sense of humor is at it´s all time best;)  so ya that´s my update of the week. oh I didn't get transferred so 6 more weeks in Abolição! woohoo! Loving the work and the people.  Oh ya i got my christmas present mom thanks! Im really impressed you remembered! Anyway we´re having fun as always. The lord is protecting us, thanks for all the prayers and love.

love sister Leonard:)

Record breaking attendance!

November 25, 2013

This week was good. we set a goal to have a record breaking attendance at church. mainly because the members here have been waiting four years for their chapel and it was in jeopardy. like usually we have 100 people at church, which is really just a big house remodeled into a church. anyway if we didn't bring up our numbers the members would have to wait another four years. anyway lots and lots of prayers, lots of walking, lots of talking and testifying. we had 186 people at church yesterday. 18 investigators! and it was packed! foi ótimo! umm we sometimes have days where everything falls through and we end up walking a lot and not teaching a lot. e aì, this happened one day so we sat on the curb and we prayed. this isn´t the first time we´ve done this and it sure wont be the last. but we prayed hard, and decided to start our day from the beginning, revisit all the people that weren't home. we had an awesome day after that prayer we taught a lot of people the first vision and the Spirit was just awesome como sempre. 

I've been reading more and more conference talks lately... still don’t have october but eventually I will. And just figuring out how God works and what he wants us to do. Anyway here are a few things I’ve learned. He really does have our best interest in mind. He wants us to be happy in this life and the life to come. He has given us a map and a guide to show us how to do that. He sent his son to show us how to return to his presence and he has given us commandments for our safety and when we obey with exactness we are blessed. But we are never blessed in the way we want and its never according to our timing. When we really stop to count all the little blessings in our lives, we have so much to be grateful for.

Until next time :) 

Lots of love and lots of prayers de me:)

love sister Leonard

There are two of her

So she's been gone for 3 months, and I finally managed to get flat Sister Leonard put where she belongs.  I've missed seeing her face.  Now I will place her right next to the back door and scare myself each time I walk in.

Sister Leonard is in the corner!

Sometimes I worry about me... When Flat David lived in that spot, I went out one day to carry in some case goods.  It was very bright and sunny.  I put on my sunglasses and grabbed a case of soup and brought it in the house, where it was dark.  As I got in, I saw a person in my house, I screamed and dropped all my soup on my feet.  Realizing it was Flat David, I laughed at myself and went out to get the other case of soup, and did the exact same thing a second time.  Yeah, having Aleah in the house is going to be fun!

Oi!

This week was awesome. A few things that Sister M. Silva and i did this week were: 

Interrupt a soccer game to preach the gospel, we make lots of contacts everyday and i have to shame talking to random people... probably because i really don't know what I’m saying and we´ll i saw a lot of people who needed to hear about the Gospel so i called a time out and invited everyone to church... no one came to church... probably because i interrupted their soccer game but still it was really cool:)

i related the gospel to a brownie, I’m sure you´re wondering how that can be... we´ll in my mom´s special top secret brownie recipe it has 5 ingredients... surprising how something so amazing can be so simple but it is... just like the Gospel:) also we have 5 very simple steps to achieve happiness in this life and joy in the life to come. We need faith, when we have faith and we know God exists and loves us it makes us want to repent so we can be like him, only way we can truly be forgiven of all our sins is to be baptized, and after that live worthy of the gift God gives us which is the holy ghost, after that is endure to the end, do all the little things, pray daily, read your scriptures, go to church and be made clean again. easy:)

 we invited bandits to our Halloween party, our Halloween party was awesome!:) We had lots of fun and no one was hurt the whole ward dressed up... I’ll send pictures:)

 We had an activity in a `park´ really a dirt field, and got over 30 references for the other sisters (their area) but we are going to do the same activity in our area also at the end of the month:) we have lots of people to teach:) thanks for the love and prayers. hopefully this week we´ll get beds! if not tudo bem:)

All and all a great week.

love sister Leonard

Awesome Halloween Cake

Me and one of my buds

Twin costumes!  (We are Minnie Mouse!)

Beautiful Friends

Letter from Brazil

7 Nov 2013

Dear Mom & Dad

I’m still alive :-)  Thanks for all the prayed & love & support. Thanks for always pushing for family home evening and daily/nightly scripture study and family prayer.  I didn’t really see it’s importance but being here where the church is still pretty young and many families don’t do these things I see how much of a difference these things make.  For example we have a Grandma who lives on our street, she’s actually the Bishops mom and she takes care of two of her 9 year old twin grand daughters. Her mental health has been declining.  You can only imagine the situation.  Their mom didn’t want them so she dumped them with grandma-don’t know where dad is, and grandmas house is supposed to be fun - old people aren’t fun for really long periods of time ‘ that’s why eventually they die.  Especially for little-kids, we stop by often to help clean the house, wash the dishes, read the scriptures (they have an awesome picture book of mormon) and we’ve started doing weekly family nights.  Basically family night forces you to enjoy each others company, its great and it makes you work out your problems (crazy enough, everyone has problems with the bathroom, not just our family!)  WE’ve noticed a ute change in the atmosphere there is great!

Another family we are teaching is another example of this.  Francimar & Elivania.  She is less-active, he’s not a member yet.  She is still married to another man so they are waiting for her divorce so they can get married so he can be baptized.  Anyway we've taught them for longer than I’ve been here… which means they’ve received every lesson, full of detail, many many times, so we still visit them but we don’t teach the lessons just read with them and answers questions.  They have an 11 year old who asks the strangest questions like “can I name my son Jesus”  This last week we went over there and they were all gathered together, this cute little family and they were singing hymns, and they have a little calendar of what scriptures to read every sand and it was just so cute to see their little family growing in the gospel and he’s not even baptized yet.

All is well with me:-)  I learn new things everyday also I’m teaching my companion English.  Important things like “badonk-a-donk” and “Elder Thomas (our district leader) today a little boy bit me”, and she teaches me portuguese.  We laugh a lot and we do crazy things like interrupt soccer games to preach the gospel.  I won’t tell you all the dangerous things we do, suffice otto say that angels truly walk with us and we see the Lord’s hand protect and guide us every day.  

Your prayers are working.  Mom, remember how when I’d practice portuguese, I basically just said everything with an Italian accent?  So everyone thinks I’m italian.  It’s cool :-)  If you haven’t sent me a christmas present, I probably won’t get it till January.

You all write me

Love

Sister Aleah Leonard

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