Sunday, June 19, 2011

Another Week (from 6/13/11)

DEAR FAMILY! This week has been wonderful. I have learned so many lessons and have seen so many miracles. We are working hard everyday and are learning the importance of planning. We have so much work to do, and it is important that we plan well so that we can make the most of our time with our investigators. I have learned many a lesson while being a missionary, but one thing that I am still learning is that with faith we really can do anything. When I was in Alabama I was in a ward that hadn`t had a baptism in nearly a year. I came into the area oblivious to that fact, and my companion and I made goals that seemed a little far fetched at first. But everyday we went out, did our best, and depended on the Lord to make up the rest. I learned an important lesson then- our goals affect the results we have at the end of the week. If we prayerfully make a goal and have the faith that the Lord will help us meet that goal if we do all in our power to make it happen, it will happen. By the time I left, the I had met my goal that at the time seemed crazy, and Sister Bee was well on her way to meeting hers. I am learning that lesson all over again in my area by putting it to test here. I have loved working with both Sister Cunha and Sister Nicascio. They are both willing to make goals that push us and then to do all they can to reach those goals. I am learning so much from them, and we are having fun doing it. They push me to do things that make me uncomfortable- divisions, taking the lead in lessons, talking and sharing my ideas. Since being with them I have not only improved drastically in the language, but as a missionary as well. They are great missionaries with great faith and work ethic, and the Lord is working miracles through them and as result through me as well. But that isn`t all! We are working with so many people that next week we will have bus pick up all our investigators...a bus (one of the perks f having a bus driver as a branch president). And it is all because we made a goal, work harder than I have ever worked in my life, try our best to be as obedient as possible, and then have the faith that lord will help us meet our goal. There are so many people with dates that we are often doing divisions so that we can teach all our investigators. Whenever I leave the side of my companions I have a slight heartattack, but it has been good to see that I am capable of teaching (english and portuguese) and speaking in portugugese. I have a lot of room for imporvement....a lot of room, but each day is a little better. It has been a struggle at times...a lot of times. It has been a humbling couple of months, but I have loved every minute of it. If there is one thing I have learned about myself while being a missionary, that it is my mind that limits what I do, but with faith in the Lord I really can do anything if I push myself to go out and do it. I have so much to learn, and I know that it is my lack of faith that keeps me from accomplishing more. I look forward to another week here to try to be a little better. I LOVE YA`LL! Sister Powell SPIRITUAL moment for President, but I will send it to ya`ll as well. Love you. It is hard to pick one miracle or spiritual experience that I have witnessed on my mission here in Brazil. One thing I love about being a missionary, is that everyday we see miracles if we are looking for them. Sometimes, they are so small that they are hard to take notice, but if we continue to be aware of the little daily miracles, we can one day come to see something truly remarkable. Usually, those little miracles are seen with the people we teach. The person that stands out to me the most this week is Marcelino. The first time we met him, I didn`t want to go back. He was strange and his mother, Maria, was even stranger. The house wreaked of smoke and beer to the point that it was hard to breathe. We quickly gave a rushed version of the first lesson so that we could leave before Sister Nicascio passed out from the smell. We committed to them to pray, and were about to leave without making a return appointment when Marcelino asked if we could come back the next day. When we came back the next day, we already had in mind that we would most likely be dropping them. I never will think that again about an investigator. Marcelino and Maria had both prayed, they both had received an answer, they both wanted to be baptized, and they wanted us to come back the next day. We continued to visit them daily and they continually agreed to make the necessary changes to be baptized. Each day the house smelled a little bit better, and each day they looked a little bit happier. The gospel was working miracles with them before our eyes little by little. One day while we were teaching, Marcelino left the room for a moment and came back with a very large container of water. He told us that before he met us this would have been the normal amount of alcohol he would drink in a day, but since meeting us his desire to drink had disapeared. I will never forget that moment. He was a new person, and it was not because of anything we did. I know it was nothing I did. It was the Spirit that we brought into his home, and who he invited in everynight when he read the passages in the Book of Mormon we left him. It was the miracle of the Atonement. It was the love of a Heavenly Father who never lost sight of who Marcelino really was and the potential he had to become. It was a miracle that I almost missed the chance to wittness. There are miracles everyday in this work. The Lord is changing lives, and he is using us, his far from perfect servants, to help in that work.

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