Olá Amigos

A Picture from the CTM

Hello, everybody. I hope you all had a great week. Sorry but again no pictures. These computers aren´t the highest quality...I´ll try again next week. One exciting thing that happened this week was I finally got to see the General Women´s Conference! Yay! I am very grateful that I we have a living prophet, and that I got to hear him. Also, it’s pretty awesome to hear the choirs in English. It’s always a nice breath of fresh air. Other than watching conference, this week was pretty standard. We walked, talked, invited, cried a little bit, ate yummy food, etc. 

Lindalva and Júlia went to church again this week, and they are awesome!! Júlia is 19 years old and Lindalva is her mãe. We, as missionaries, simply invite people to come closer to Jesus Christ and to learn the truth. It´s when they actually do what we invite them to do that miracles happen. Lindalva has dyslexia, but she has started to read the Book of Mormon. Júlia has already recieved an answer from Heavenly Father that our messages are true, and she wants to be baptized!! And they don´t need to get married first haha yay! It´s really amazing to see people progress in their faith. 

We´re also teaching another Júlia. She´s only 9 years old but she has so much faith. She´s really cute. She´s the granddaughter of some members of our ward. Originally she was going to be baptized this weekend, but some of her family that are not members of the Church told her that she couldn´t dance or play or do anything fun after she was baptized. We got that all sorted out though. As sister missionaries, we´re really popular among the 6 to 10 year old girls and we get lots of little hugs on Sundays. It’s wonderful!

Thanks for your words of encouragement and love. I love you guys! Have an amazing week!

Tchau gente

Sister Herron 

Miracles and Frustration

This week was a good one! We had 7 people go to church this week! YAY! It´s amazing. Satan goes through a lot of effort to keep people from going to church, but this week people overcame. It´s really amazing to hear people you´re teaching say that they really believe the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet because they prayed about it. As missionaries, we don´t convince anyone of anything. We just teach and invite them to find out for themselves. So when people actually do what we invite them to do, miracles happen. 

Last Tuesday, we passed a woman on the street who was crying. We stopped and asked if everything was ok and if there was anything we could do for her. She only accepted a hug, but thanked us for stopping. We didn´t say anything about the church or missionary work or anything like that. just a hug and left. Then, on Friday, she flagged us down and asked if we had any pamphlets or anything she could read because she felt like we were sent from God. :D So we took her address, of course, and marked a time to visit her and teach her. But... we couldn´t find her house. We searched for a good half an hour, but it doesn´t exist. :`(  I have faith that we´ll run into her again, but here is a prime example of missionary life. Big ups and downs. Miracles and frustration.

But tudo bem. Vai dar certo. 

Eu amo vocês. Boa semana!

Sister Herron

I Want Chocolate, But I Don't Have Money

Sister Ferreira, Sister Ortiz, Sister Bouwheis and me

View from their apartment

Boa tarde, gente. This week was transfers, but I´m staying here in Areia Branca 2 with Sister Ferreira. Sister Bouwhuis and Sister Ortiz are staying in Areia Branca 1, too, so all is well. Not a whole changed for me. Sister Ferreira is pretty awesome, so I´m glad that I´m staying with her. One fun thing about being companions with a Brazilian is that she is trying to learn a little bit of English. She has a couple of phrases, "I want chocolate, but I don´t have money," is one of them. She´s fofinha.

I´m really glad that I get to stay in Areia Branca. We have a lot of work to do here. Currently we are trying to teach 29 people, and a lot of them are progressing really well. Our area is small. It´s only 3 little sections of the city of Santos, so we walk everywhere. The only time we ever use the bus is when we need to go to the stake center or another church building outside of our area. The people here are a little more humble than other parts of Santos. Some of the people we are teaching are so ready for baptism, but they don´t have money to get married. It´s hard for them, but like Nephi said, The Lord giveth no commandment save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which He commandeth them.  

This has been a wet couple of weeks. I think it has rained everyday but 1 for at least 2 weeks. But it´s good because it keeps it cool. 

Have a boa semana! Beijo!

Sister Herron

Conferência Geral!!

What a weird week guys! I had my first day of splits, general conference, and my birthday! And I can finally send pictures!! Last Tuesday, I switched companions for the day. Sister Ribera is awesome, and I learned a lot from her. But it was weird to be separated from Sister Ferreira for so long. 

General Conference was amazing! I could listen in English, which was a huuuuge blessing. I learned soo much. And Paula, Jenifer, and Douglas were able to watch it too!! It was a little hard for them because they have young kids but they said they liked it. Paula was able to attend a baptismal service in between the sessions, too, which was really awesome. I´m really excited for them. We have a lot of really good people we´re teaching right now. Honestly we have more people than we can handle sometimes which is the best problem in the world! 

My favorite talk from General Conference was by Elder Soares! It was awesome because he talked about Brasil and missionary work. And members helping in the work! I´m inviting all of you to relisten or read that talk again, and think of something you can do to apply it!! We are really excited for the new temples!!! Salvador Brasil!!! This will be the closest temple for Sister Ferreira when she returns! and the temple in Argentina will be the closest for Sister Ortiz, one of my roommates! Yay!!!!!

Also, so yesterday was my birthday, and it was awesome! Since it was General Conference, my whole Zone was together with nothing to do for half an hour, so they threw me a little surprise party! They´re so sweet!! Also, my companion from the CTM was there too, because she listened to conference in English. It was really, really sweet. And I can send photos of it now! yay! I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Sister Herron

Ps. Yes, I’m wearing makeup in these pictures. No, that is not a normal occurrence. Don’t worry, I´m not changing thaaat much. 

Sister Arrow

Olá, everybody! 

It was a good week this past week. We taught a lot of lessons, and we have 6 new investigators!! One of which, Sandra, went to church!!!! Yay!!! It´s really awesome to be able to watch people grow in their faith! We´re teaching a woman named Tatiane. She is golden and is so ready for baptism, but she hasn´t accepted a date yet. But on Saturday, the sisters of Areia Branca 1 had a baptism, and Tatiane came! She cried a lot, and I think she really felt the spirit. I´m excited for our next lesson with her. 

Another woman we´re teaching is Paula! I love her! She´s awesome, and she really wants to learn and come closer to Christ. Her kids are adorable too. Very talkative. Last Monday, we had the opportunity to have a family home evening with some recent converts, Veronica and Ana Lívia. That was fun. 

A few other exciting things from this week: I saw wild parrots! We talked to a crazy guy on the street who tried to speak English to me because I was having difficulty understanding him, and I didn´t know he was trying to speak English. I tried a new dessert called Romeo and Juliet. It´s pretty much like Guava jam on cheese. It´s really good. Yesterday, for church, I played the piano for Sacrament meeting with only about 1 minute of warning, so that was fun. I may have just gotten myself a calling in this ward :) 

One interesting thing is it´s really hard for everyone to pronounce my name. So I´m learning to respond to Sister Arrow, Sister HHHharon, and everything else in between.  That´s always funny. But it´s great! They try. 

Have a wonderful week everyone! Don´t forget to watch General Conference! It´s going to be awesome!!!!! 

Love you all,

Sister Arrow