Hi, all! This week felt like 70 years. but in a good way.
my week
-we moved to Baepandi
-baptism!
On Tuesday, we finally got to move to our new house. Before we lived in a tiny one room concrete box and now we live in a big concrete box. Neither of which have a.c, but we do have a lot of spiders. but in this house, the spiders have wonderful ability of jumping. Why do spiders jump? That should not be allowed..our new area is so pretty. We have very big steep hills, but once at the top it's so pretty. There is nothing better than working on a big hill in the sun and getting açai after.
I already miss the members from Parque Malwee so much. We don't know a ton of the ones here yet, but I'm sure they're great. We had lunch with a couple our first day here and the wife was from Venezuela. The husband from São Paulo. The husband's son has autism, so he thinks everyone has autism. So, in all seriousness he looks at my companion and says "você tem autismo?" (do you have autism?) he was not joking. I heard batismo, not autismo so I then said sim! yes! whoops. I am still laughing about this as I'm writing it. Sorry Sister Bird.
First baptism! His name is André. I have to give credit to the Elders who were here before because they found him and put him on date. But leading up to his baptism, Sister Bird and I were able to have a couple good lessons, one being about temples. It was such a good lesson. We don't get to teach temples that often either. it was a special experience getting to see someone hear these principles for the first time. We know through temples we can be eternally sealed to our families. I miss the temple, I felt so much peace there. André got emotional during the lesson, and he feels so much peace about the gospel. So happy for him to be baptized! I won't go into details but so much opposition happened before we could baptize him. We literally did not know if it was going to work out until he was actually in the water. Now after having my first baptism as a missionary, I get the hype. There is no better feeling watching one of your friends be baptized and cry tears of joy. I want to baptize every person in the world now.
This week I noticed I could understand basically everything. or at least follow every conversation. We spend hours on hours in the streets visiting people, so I get a lot of practice time with my comp while walking. When speaking I still sound slow, but I don't think that has to do with the Portuguese.
Random
-2 homeless people were on the street and called us over. She already knew a lot about the church and was excited to talk to us. Mid lesson she pulled a pack of cigarettes out of the front of her shirt. She then also pulled a lighter out as well. I had a bis in my bag (Brazil KitKat) and asked if she wanted it. She took the chocolate and put the cigarette down. 😏 did she light it right after she ate the chocolate? Probably, but at least I'll never know.
-having an American comp who is fluent in Português now doesn't allow me to use the American card as an excuse for not being fluent
-some man we had a contact with asked if we were armed, he then said we need to be armed with guns because there is a war. I don't have the internet, so am I missing something? This happened twice actually.
This week was one of the most Spirit-filled yet. I may only have 4 seconds out here but, out of all the weeks this was a good one. I won't ever get to fully explain my experiences or put it all into words especially in an email, but one of the best parts or maybe the best part of being a missionary is how everything is sacred. The streets are sacred, our house, everything we do is in the intention of staying in tune with the Spirit. Because of this, I am slower to anger or, honestly, I'm less sarcastic. (You can't tell in these emails)
more grateful and overall happier
The Spirit is joy
Find more ways to live a Spirit-prone life. The Spirit doesn't dwell where it isn't welcomed. i promise with the Spirit as your companion, you will have comfort and guidance. I also promise if you send me an email you will be blessed. (pls)
At the beginning and even now cutting out things of the world was so uncomfortable for me. music, movies etc. all of which aren't bad or harmful things, but they shouldn't be put over our priority of having the Spirit with us. I'll be the first to say I was never getting in my car and putting on hymns over some Gracie or Taylor. Or praying and reading my scriptures before going on my phone. But now I'm learning I don't want to get too caught up in worldly things so much to where it drowns out the Spirit.(and of course one of the first things I am doing when I get home is listening to Taylor's new album), but now I'm learning I don't want to get too caught up in worldly things so much to where it drowns out the Spirit. Or becomes a higher priority than allowing the Spirit to be with us. The Spirit is sensible and sensitive. I'm hoping to be more mindful of what is important and deserves my attention. but protecting my relationship with the Spirit will always be my number 1.
John 21:15 "Lovest thou me more than these?"
He isn't A priority, He is THE priority. I am learning that I can't and don't want to be casual about the gospel or about my relationship with Christ. It needs to be the number 1 driving factor in my life. He shouldn't be an afterthought, or only important on Sundays. He should be the first place we look to. sempre
sister copeland
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