Feliz Natal!!

Feliz Natal, everybody!!! I have a lot to share today!

1) Júlia, Lindalva, Sane, and Pedro got baptized! They are all people that I taught in Areia Branca, but I didn´t get to see their baptism. When I heard they were baptized, I cried here in the internet cafe. It is such a blessing to really see people´s lives change, and I am sooooo happy for them!

2) This morning, Sister Ortiz and I went with a new member, Erika, to a cool little cliff thing that overlooks the ocean. It was really nice to do something a little different. The beach here in Enseada is really beautiful. Also, I saw a sea turtle!!!!!! And to top off the morning, we bought coconuts. It was better than I expected, so yay. 

3) Yesterday morning, before church, we climbed a little morro hill thing to wake up/bring Messias to church. While we were there, our phone fell and opened and the battery fell out. We looked for the battery for about half an hour, but couldn't find it. We said a prayer, and still couldn´t find it. Later in the afternoon, we climbed the morro again, and we found the battery in about 5 seconds. It was a little miracle. It´s interesting how the Lord really hears all our prayers, but He doesn´t always respond the way that we think He should. But tudo bem, we need to learn patience.

4) Last week, we bought a big bag of peanuts and tried to make peanut butter. It kind of worked....

5) I heard English Christmas music from the tabernacle choir, and I cried a little bit. I don´t know why, but Christmas music isn´t really a big thing here. Only a little. And half the time it´s in English. 

But overall, it was a great week! We´re very excited for Christmas, even though we won´t have presents or music or family because really, the most important part of Christmas is Christ. And of all the different things here in Brazil, Jesus Christ is the same. 

Feliz Natal! Eu amo vocês!

Sister Herron

Juliana foi batizada!!!

Bom dia, gente! This week was awesome, stressful, and tiring! Juliana was baptized on Saturday! Yay! The service was sooo beautiful, and the spirit was so strong. After she was baptized, we helped her a little in the bathroom, and she just cried tears of gratitude. She is amazing. In order to be baptized, people need to live the commandments to a standard and that requires sacrifice sometimes. Juliana, like quase todos aqui, never married her husband. In order to baptized, they needed to either get married or separate. And Juliana actually changed her life, and separated. Not because we told her she had to, but because she knew it was the right thing to do. It was incredible to be part of her conversion even if I only had a small part. Saturday evening at the baptism was wonderful, but the rest of the day, it was apparent that Satan wanted us to give up.  A lot of really frustrating things happened on Saturday to discourage us, but we overcame the day! Yay! 

Other notable things from this week:

A baby bird flew into our ceiling fan, but didn´t die.

Our ward has 5 missionaries right now. Sister Ortiz and I, and 3 elders. Our ward also has an English and Spanish class every Thursday, taught by the missionaries. Nobody told us about it last week, but this week I taught the English portion without any warning or preparation....mas tudo bem. 

Sister Ortiz and I made a banana cake without any sugar and it turned out really ugly but really good too. But we forgot to take a picture...sorry. 

That´s all! Have an ótima semana!!!

Tchau,

Sister Herron

Enseada 1!

 The New District

The View at Lunch

Sister Ortiz and Sister Herron at the Service Activity

Bom dia, gente! It´s been a great week! We got to do a lot of good stuff here in Enseada. It´s a little difficult because we don´t know the area or the people here very well yet, but we were still able to do a lot. This area is a bit bigger than my last area, but my last area was tiny so its ok. It´s all along the beach, and the praias here are really really beautiful. So, this area is a bit richer too. There are some really nice houses and apartments here, but that’s not generally where we find the most success. We had lunch in a house up on a hill overlooking the ocean, and the lunch was made by a servant because the owners don´t generally live there. It was kind of strange but really cool. We have less people that we´re teaching here, but the people we are teaching are awesome. One of them, Juliana, is going to get baptized this week! Yay!

Outras coisas: 

Here, I was called Sister Harry Potter. That was a first. 

We had a service activity on Saturday where we painting a school and that was fun.

My new district has two Americans who have less experience than me, so my Portuguese isn´t the worst anymore! Yay

Sister Ortiz and I are the only sisters in all of Guarujá, which is kinda different, but tudo bem. 

Ok, I´m out of time. Have a good week everyone. Love you all!

Sister Herron