From Alex

So many things to be happy about! Francis (he was in my freshmen ward) got baptized and Andrea is going to be! (I went to high school with her)! I am just so happy!

I am so happy. I love my mission so so much :) And you know what it is so hard and yet I am just so happy! haha Here in Brazil we are in what you call the Month of Holidays. Which means everyday they are celebrating something or the other which means HUGE parties, tons of drinking, and stiff hearts. Which can make our job a little difficult. BUT thats part of the job. haha

This week everything pretty much fell through. But we had so many miracles as well! Dont we always? But I guess I will just give you the sad news first...

Edison- an answer to our prayers happened! He is moving out from his girl friends house but he is moving to recife. :/ haha

Grace- She moved as well and her grandma ended up saying she would go to church but she didnt.

Estilda- She dropped us (which is worst then dropping people) and said she didnt want to read the bom. Which is so sad because we felt the spirit so strong with her.

The only one left is Edivalda :) I love her! She didnt read the BOM or go to church but I just know she will next week!!

So yeah those were our little heart breaks of the week. But we had HUGE miracles this week.

Monday there was a soccer game so we ended up staying inside. BUT WE WON!!! Its so fun to be here! We hear everything! haha when they shoot, miss, foul, everything! haha ITS literally amazing!

Our miracles started tuesday :) Well 1st it started with my clumsy self. haha we were walking to at this restaurant when I ran right into a phone booth, hahaha It was so loud and know I have a huge bruise on my head. dont ask how I did that. Because I have no idea. haha The miracle of this is that I hope it made someone laugh. haha We ended working in the center that day and we were lost (always) So I asked this cute little old man what street we were on. He ended up being so funny and showed us his shop. He asked where we are from and when we said the united states he said he son lived there for like 15 years and said come back tomorrow and teach him and to talk to his son, Antonio. So we went back and guess what?! 1st off the little old man (florisvaldo) is 91 and I totally high fived him. But also we talked to Antonio... He is so amazing! And guess where he lived?! QUEENS!! NYC! ASTORIA! He lived in our mission! I have been there so many times! We are going to teach him more and I just know he will be baptised!! MIRACLE OH MIRACLE!

We ended up look up a lot of less actives... People do your stinkin visiting and home teaching. There is nothing more embarrassing then looking up people and finding out they have been dead for months. You never know what to say really. and you end up saying things like "Its good that hes dead! Hes with God now!"... So please just do it. haha But we ended up encountering a lot of people.

We have been doing FHEs every night about the restoration! Which makes people so excited! There is so much power with the restoration! People want to share the gospel after and they bring people to ward activities!

Our week was so good! But i had so many revelations this week. Its so sad to see some of the things that go on in the world and I realized this week that so many people are going to stand in front of God one day and say that they dont want Him, that they want the things of the world. It will be them that choose not to live with Him, not God. It made me so sad. So many people hear the truth of our message and just dont want to give their life to God. We talked to a former this week and she said she knows the church is true, she knows it is the will of God but she doesnt want it because she doesnt want the life we live, the world sounds easier, more fun, it seems as if it has more happiness. It is not true. We might seem boring, like we dont know how to party (we know how. haha) or that we are weird. But we are happy! We have safety! We have joy! We have joy in the small things and we dont have to fear about something if we are living our life right. Righteousness is happiness. Of course we will have trials, it is not easy but we will want to be with God!! We will want to be there and we will live with Him and ourr families and have happiness! Even if we are thought of as a peculiar people we know how to have fun, we know how to love, and we are becoming more christlike :) we have the fullness of the gospel and we are choosing to live it! Always choose too! Always repent! Always love and always be proud to be a Mormon!

I love you!

Sister Powell