La Cucharacha

Summer is in full bloom here in São Paulo...

This week was CRAZY!!!!! 

I think I got a sunburn 6 of the 7 days this week...

On New Year´s there were SOOOO many fireworks right outside of or window... and while trying to sleep a firework landed on our house... It was pretty intense.. I thought that I was in a war zone. I think Brazil should think about revising their laws about firework use. 

Cockroaches are just having the time of their life... Funny story. We were teaching José this week and he had bug bombed his work office about 2 hours before we got there and there were COCKROACHES EVERYWHERE... I would say I saw at least 100. My companion killed about 20 while we were teaching... Let´s just say it was a hard lesson to get through... and that I may or may not have screamed during the first vision because of a cockroach on my foot.... José is the cutest old man I have ever met in my life.. He just kept laughing and killing them before they got to me.. 

Me and Sister Peart worked HARD this week and though we may have not seen immediate success we are starting to up our pool of investigators :) 

Tomorrow we are going to the Temple as a mission and I am SUPER excited. Me and Sister Peart read a talk by Elder Holland about missionaries and covenants and I loved this quote maybe it will help you Franny and Michael.

It is when an entire mission is united by the strength of every missionary’s integrity, every 
 missionary’s personal covenant keeping,that we move mountains. When there is such unity  
and power, an endowment from heaven, coming to every individual in the mission, nothing can
 “stop the work from progressing.” It is in this way that the“truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, 
 and independent.”

Congratulations Annika and Keith.. I would love to see some pictures ASAP!!!!! Now that Keith is a part of the family someone should tell me his email so I can add him to the list... 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Vila Esperança

This week was pretty good. I am finally getting used to my new area and my new companion, Sister Peart. I still miss Vila Prudente and Sister Oborn, but I know that I am going to really learn how to love Vila Esperança. This week our ward made a lot of PROGRESS. 

My companion and her old companion had met a family before I got here and had been working with them. They have a really complicated situation. Raquel, the mom is a single mom. She has 4 kids. So it´s really hectic there. Her daughters boyfriend lives in the same house because his dad is a drug addict and kicked him out on the street and he had no where to go. But they are great people and we worked hard to prepare them for their baptism. Saturday was the big day and it ended up being a really special baptism. They aren´t perfect and they need a lot of help, but I am confident that Heavenly Father will bless them SOO much because of the faith that they have. I also know that the gospel can cure ANY problem. I am hoping that we can continue helping them have less fights and more strong family bonding moments. 

We also have been working with a family that just moved here from the state of Bahia here in Brazil. They are super awesome. They are here in São Paulo looking for a better way of life. In the Bahia it is super hard to sustain a family. They were walking around last sunday looking for a house when they saw the church and saw that the sign said Visitors Welcome and felt like maybe that Jesus Christ was the help that they needed in their lives. And they loved the church and the members loved them. The bishop gave Alison, the husband, (yes its a boy name here) a job at his construction company and Vanubia (the mom) has been hired to help a lot of the members clean their houses. We started teaching them and they have already accepted baptism. But first they need to get married, and of course they accepted as well!!! We are super excited for them. We just hope that the marriage papers will pass soon so we can be here when they get married and baptized!!!!!!! They have two daughters one that is 10 and one that is 2. It makes me happy to know that the gospel is helping them and I hope to be able to teach with the spirit so that they can truly become converted. 

This week we are going to work to find a lot of new investigators especially families, and continue working to help our ward grow and become more united.  

Hope everyone has a good week!!!! Continue sharing the gospel the best you know how.  

Desi