o melhor districto do mundo

perfect investigator is perfect

we got the calls about transfers last night and I literally almost cried because I GOT ANOTHER 6 WEEKS HERE IN SANTOS DUMONT WITH SISTER GANUZA. Literally almost cried. I thought for sure I was out and like, I'm tired of getting new companions I just wanted sOME PEACE and since Jesus me ama, we're still together :)

So. Last monday we went back to teach Rafael's mom, and his cousin was there. J listened to the whole restoration and told us that she'd strayed from God a little bit and now her faith was pretty small, but that she would pray and ask for an answer. And I'll admit, at first I didnt really think anything would come out of teaching her. I saw a silly teenage girl with several lip piercings and thought "she doesnt look like a momon, so whatever"

BUT THEN. We went back 2 days later and she was comPLETELY different. She'd already prayed and said she'd recieved an answer that it was all true, so we gave her a book of mormon and she got super excited. Adn when we went back friday-again to teach her aunt-she was super cute and got really excited to show us her book which was completely highlighted and she said "I was marking the things I found the most touching or important, but I ended up marking almost the whole book!!" and she'd already read like, the whole thing. Ok, not the whole thing but  A TONNNN.

So we wanted to teach her again but she didnt want to go to her house because people were drinking and she felt uncomfortable with that, so we took her to the church and showed her the chapel, and by chance like, all the youth were there so she got to meet everyone! So when she went on sunday, she already knew Julia and Rafaela (and I think Rafaela will help her a lot because she's a recent convert who joined the church without her family) and basically everyone 

And since sunday was transfers I was soooo scared that I'd have to leave her, and she was nearly crying thanking us for bringing her to church and helping her and telling us how already in a week she feels a million times better and literally i have never seen such a big change in someone so quickly but its not even surprising because THE GOSPEL WORKS MIRACLES and oh goodness from what she's told us this girl deserves some miracles.

so. basically I just want to talk about her today. We were having a dry spell-2 months without baptisms, almost no one is going to church on sunday, and I was getting really frustrated and then this girl just fell from the skies and I remembered why I'm here. I'm here because the gospel changes lives and helps people put their lives back together and gives them the strength to carry on.

Sister Ganuza fell that Sister Steele might be (2 taylor 2:27)

SO. First of all, thank you all for finding my last email entertaining. I too am literally still laughing about it.

So this week we didnt manage to teach Rafael again, but we met his mom and his aunt and it turns out that they were almmmmmost baptised already but never were, and they were exinvestigators in a different area so we never would have found them without this whole mess since theyre not in our area book and basically god works in mysterious ways. SUPER. MYSTERIOUS. WAYS.

Also wednesday was literally the perfect day EVER. 5 lessons with members present, and we grabbed adresses of 15 people in the street aND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM PROMISED TO GO ON SUNDAY AND ALL OF THEM WERE SUPER INTERESTED??? that doesnt happen. also all of them were also with a less active friend when we talked to them-who then said please come to my house and we were like 'of course??!?'. perfect.

but then #mylife sister ganuza fell and hurt herself, like the ugliest knee ive ever seen in my life, and it started getting swollen and she couldnt walk well so I got scared that she'd like, actually hurt herself not just scraped, and so i called the president's wife and she says "go to the doctor' and i was like ok sure and then she says "and your heath? how are you?" and i was like "well my stomach's been hurting this week but i think its just stress whatever" and she was like "go to the doctor" and so the sister training leaders called and took us to the doctor and i spent the entire time saying that i didnt need to go because it was just stress and then it turned out that i've got an intestinal infection #woohoo so i guess its good i went to the doctor?

in short, sister ganuza fell so that i would call sister gomes and go to the doctor. thank you sister ganuza.

and yeah thats all i have to say this week #wedidntworkhalftheweek #thehospitaltookforever

what the heck

The past two weeks have literally been the weirdest two weeks of my life.

So I literally didnt even send an email last week SORRY. ]

So. I was debating on whether or not to tell this first story but like I HAVE TO. Don't worry mom. I'm safe.

So. Last week we invited Lucas to go out with us to get a feel for the mission and test his skills, right? And the poor kid was so excited to use what he's been studying in the mini mtc and....well...

so it was his first time doing street contacting. and this man called out to us and was like "are you guys jehovah's witnesses?" and we were like "nah we're the mormons" and Lucas stops to talk to him a little-just to explain who we are. But when he stopped, the man (Fernando) started crying and said we were sent by God to talk with him because he was needing help really badly and was feeling hopeless and lots of stuff, and invited us in. And Lucas was like "dude we're going to baptize this guy I can feel it."

So we sit down and he's still crying a little, and we start trying to talk to him about how the message we wanted to share with him could help him with whatever his problem-and he tells us that his wife is cheating on him. So we try to tell him about how we can help him with the pain that's causing, but he doesnt let us talk! Lucas was getting really frustrated until he told us he was thinking about killing himself, at which point we tried reaaaaally hard to tell him that we wanted to help him and we know how if he'll let us....at which point he told us he was thinking of killing his wife.

At this point I was thinking "maybe I didn't understand him right" but lucas looks at me and says in english "keep calm" and I'm like oh no.

And then he told us "when she gets home, I'll stop her in the middle of the street in front of a bus and grab her by the neck and cut her into itty bitty pieces and let the bus run over the rest" followed by "I dont want it to happen, but IT WILL."

And lucas was like "sister steele, what should i say?" and I was like "bye??? lets leave??"

at which point his wife came home. holding hands with another man. and fernando started throwing a temper tantrum and it was all very scary so we said bye and ran away very quickly (but not before sister benevente tried to give him a lesson on "its not nice to kill people")

so that was interesting....we stopped working on that street now. but the good news is we havent heard anything about a death like that, so we think Sister Benevente's words "brother, you cant! dont do that!" touched his heart. So that's good!

So. that was the scary crazy of these past two weeks. but the weird crazy was the Rafael story.

We were walking around not knowing where to go because all our appointments fell through when a super old lady stopped us and asked if we knew her grandson Rafael, and we said no, and she cried a little and said "I heard that he hit his head pretty bad and I just want to know that he's ok, but I cant walk there because my legs hurt, can you find him for me?" and we said sure and asked where he lived and she said "on this street i dont know where" and so we went off, a little confused, and decided to just ask around for a Rafael. 

So we find this little boy and we ask him if he knows Rafael and he says "that's my brother! lets go to my house." and we're like "well ok" and follow him. and we ask him "your brother hit his head?" and the boy turned white and was like "...how did you know??"

Arriving at his house, he meet Rafael and his mother, and we say to Rafael "we were talking with your grandma, and she wants to talk to you!" and he and his mom both look suuuuper scared and he's like "my grandma???? you...you were talking to my grandma???" and we're like "yeah, she's worried about you because you hit your head and she told us to come talk to you" and he gets even more scared and he's like "my grandma told you I hit my head?" and we nod and he says "my grandma is dead!" 

so long story short, we discover that the old lady (Maria José) heard that a Rafael hit his head and thought it was HER Rafael but it actually wasnt, and Rafael her grandson is a less active member we'd been lookng for who'd moved so we never managed to find him, and now the Rafael that hit his head and his family are our investigators?? Also we met the other Rafael's sister and her family and we're going to teach them too?? AND it turns out that Maria José is an inactive member too??!?

Other than that, our week was pretty normal. Carol's dad still doesnt want to let her be baptised, nor does he want to return to church any time soon. Jaqueline is the dream investigator because we left a book of mormon with her and the next day she'd read the introduction, all the testimonies at the beginning, the chapter we left her, the first 2-3 chapters of 1st nephi, AND the scriptures in the back of the pamphlet we left her. M and J are making plans to get married so they can be baptised. Yesterday I felt prompted to return to talk with a SUPER COMPLICATED investigator so we'll see how that goes.

its starting to rain so much that my bible has no hope of surviving. Sister Ganuza said it'll only take 5 times of getting caught in the pouring rain for us to learn our lesson and carry an umbrella the whole time

also I discovered this week that I have an alergy-but im not sure of what...we just know that I broke out in hives yesterday after sitting on the floor in a member's house. So either her rug was made of something weird that I'd never seen before, or I've spontaneously develped an alergy of dogs. Who knows? I'm still itchy. I've taken 3 showers since then and I'm still itchy. Pray for me.

-Sister Steele

Hearts of Gold and Thighs of Steel(e)

ohhhh my goodness

so I forgot my outline so again, this week will be short but OH MY GOODNESS IVE NEVER BEEN SO TIRED IN MY LIFE

this week EVERY REFERRAL WE GOT WAS UPHILL. Like super uphill. Like you stand at the bottom of the hill and look straight up and cry a little and it takes a million years to get to the top. and then you get to the top and the house is actually down hill from there...which means on the return ITS STILL UPHILL. Oh my goodness. Every day me and Sister Ganuza get home-and we live on the 2nd floor so there's stairs there too-and just collapse on the floor like NEVER AGAIN WILL WE MOVE and then we get more referrals and oh look theyre still uphill lets do it again WOOHOO.

my companion is in the field 2 months and this week she got THREE CARE PACKAGES and EIGHT LETTERS and everyone in our zone was like "I'm already here a year and in one day you got more than I have in my whole mission". Thankfully she's sharing her reese's with me. I already ate mine....

An investigator taught us to make dream catchers this week! I made two. Just waiting to make a third because I figure my sisters won't like it if one of them doesnt get one...

This week as well we got suuuper lost trying to go to a doctor downtown. we took the wrong bus and a ride that should have been 15 minutes took TWO HOURS. So that was fun. Busses are fun.

Next week I promise to take fun pictures and talk more...IM GIVING A TALK NEXT SUNDAY. I bet this one will go better than the one in the mtc. Or in my first month in the field. I think it'll be much better. #progressopesoal

tchaauuu

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