Sister Smith: Week 41

Amazing Reunion!

Week 41—May 2, 2016

Wow! Last week while I was writing you guys I couldn’t stop thinking….next P-day I will be with my new companion!! I am so excited to meet her and help her get to know life in the mission field!

You guys my new companion is sooooo awesome. Her name is Sister Vital, she is Brazilian and from Sao Paulo. She is 24 years old and she is just the sweetest thing. When I met her for the first time she was with her district and they all said she was the mom of their district in the MTC! She is super thoughtful, caring, loving, and SUPER excited about applying all the things she learned in the MTC into our daily missionary work. She is AMAZING to say the least. I just feel so blessed for having the most amazing companions out here (thank you Heavenly Father..you´re great!.) She has never lived away from home before, so this is different and she is super duper close to her parents...sounds like anyone you know??? So this has been an emotional week for her. But she is doing great. All the memories of my first area have been flooding back to me and I’m like trust me girl, I know how it is. Just hang in there, its going get better. Sister Vital is super sweet and easy to love! We have a family that me and Sister Kendell have been working with before transfers and they were at church yesterday and loved it! We have been inviting them to be baptized but they´ve been pushing that question aside. We have been praying and fasting for them and I just know they will be baptized as soon as they are legally married. They have a daughter Rafaela that is 11 and Junior he is 5. They love and are super interested in the Book of Mormon. Patricia hasn’t been to church in awhile because their family has been super sick like every week. We passed by her house yesterday and she invited us over for dinner today, so that will be fun for her to get to know Sister Vital. The whole divorce thing is a mess and has totally stopped, but I have no doubt, one day it will be fixed and Patricia will be baptized.

This week has been super awesome you guys like WOW!! Being a trainer is such an honor and big responsibility. Everything you do and say your companion is watching and observing and learning from you. It hasn’t been easy…that is for sure, but I have been praying more than ever for help and Heavenly Father has been right by my side the whole time. I love this quote and have been reading it all week from Pres. Uchtdorf ``Thou it may seem that you are alone, angels attend to you.`` I have a testimony of this. We are never alone. Heavenly Father sends the spirit to us to help us and angels to watch over us. How cool and comforting is that? We have no need to fear, just have faith!! But I have been teaching her the lessons, how to do contacts in the street, its all so exciting! I am happy she already speaks Portuguese, that makes things a whole lot easier. haahahaha(:

Okay, lets take it back to when I was saying goodbye to Sister Kendell, that was a tough one, the whole ride to Goiania we were talking about our memories and all the things we will do when we return from the mission (we have a Sister bucket list) and we wrote each other notes and we read them...it was special

I had been so excited to go to Goiania to pass by Mauras house, and if we had time to talk to her, (remember she is my Brazilian momma.) I was hoping to see her daughter Stephaney who Sister Matos and I taught when I was in Goiania University and they were both baptized, remember?

When we arrived in Goiania we dropped our stuff off at the Sisters apartment (where I lived before I got transferred to Caldas Novas.) Some Sisters that have been working there in Goiania said “Oh, Sister Smith, are you going to pass by Maura´s house and say hi to her, we told her you might be passing by for transfers and she was freaking out and wants you to stop by!” I was like, YEP we were actually just leaving to say hello to her and Stephaney!! I was so excited the whole time we were walking there (me and Sister Kendell) I was telling her all about Goiania and all the places to eat and buy things, and where the internet café is to email her family! I showed her where some of the members live and telling her all about the members and how she will love it there (because Sister Kendell was transferred there.) I couldn’t wait to get to Maura’s house because this was a complete surprise to Maura, I didn’t tell her I was coming or anything we just ran to her house. I haven’t seen Maura or Stephaney since Christmas when we ate dinner at there home.

When we finally got there, Maura opened the door and got so excited she was talking on the phone and we just started crying and hugging...ahhh. I literally forgot how much I missed Maura it was the greatest thing to hug and talk to her! Stephaney was happy to see me too, she hasn’t changed, still on her cell phone and talking about instagram and all that. We laughed, we cried, and Maura was like ohhh, Joao, he wants to talk to you (her husband who has cancer who wanted to get baptized when I was there but I got transferred.) I went in his room and he was sick in his bed and she was like, he wants to tell you something. He was so sick and weak and thin it was so sad, but he grabbed my hand and said I was baptized after you left. Ahhhh I started crying and he said I have missed you and been thinking about all the times when you and Sister Matos would pass by here and all the good happy times with you two. I love you two, I miss our house being filled with your spirits. It was so special to hear him say all this. We were all crying and we said a prayer together. You guys! I can’t even tell you what joy this gospel is and how happy I am that he was baptized. The spirit was like bursting out of all of us it was the happiest, most perfect reunion with my favorite family (: Maura was like I will make you your favorite strawberry smoothie that you love and the whole time we were talking about all our memories on Christmas. Like making no bake cookies and she said I think I still have the peanut butter in our fridge that you brought over to make them. So me and Sister Kendell ate some peanut butter (they don’t sell peanut butter here in Brazil, a member gave it to us. She received it from her sister who lives in the US). We talked forever and took pictures. Then I said goodbye and that I would pass by again the next transfer. It was so special she said you and Sister Matos are super special to me, other sisters are too but it’s different with you two. I told them they don’t know how good it is to hear that they are still going strong in the church, reading the Book of Mormon everyday and Stephaney and Maura want to serve a mission some day... I love them and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father gave them to me to teach and to baptize. They are my family and are a part of me now, idk it’s something I can’t describe I love them so much!!

Scripture of the week: Alma 29:9

Love you all!

-Sister Smith