week 56

The Move

Week 56—August 15, 2016

This week was a roller-coaster ride for me!!  It had some ups and some downs.  But there’s always those tender mercies that keep me going and keep me thanking God for all the strength he gives me everyday.  

Just so you all know I loooove being a missionary because every Fast Sunday we have an excuse to get up in fast and testimony meeting and bare our testimonies!  There hasn’t been one Fast Sunday on my mission that I haven´t shared my testimony. (:  I think its sooo cool and such a good goal to keep up for the rest of my mission!....and maybe after my mission, we´ll see. (;

Tuesday was an awesome day because I had my first interview with President Bührer!!!  Woot woot!  Right before my interview we had a zone meeting and they showed us a video on the atonement of Jesus Christ...the video is soooo good!  The video got me super emotional.  So when I talked to President I was sitting there crying, expressing to him how much I love our Savior!  Then he talked about our Savior and how amazing he is and about Joseph Smith!  It was super special!  I asked him for advice regarding my calling and he said to just keep doing what your doing and follow the promptings of the spirit and the Lord will tell me what I need to do!(:  He talked to me about a conversation he had with President Uchdorf and that he said “showing is more important than telling.”  So it’s more important that we are examples and not just tell people what to do.  We need to show them through our actions, everyday of our lives.

I went on splits with a sweet sister from Peru this week.  She is just the cutest! (:  She´s been having a hard time with the language and so her companion wanted me to help give advice.  (It sounds like a common problem with us foreigners.)  So I gave her advice and taught her what I do to study the language.  Then I told her when people don’t understand what I’m saying, I talk slower.  I explained to her that we have strong accents to the Brazilians. Haha (:  I think things went well with her.

So when I got back to my area, my companion said that Fatima (the one who’s suppose to get baptized this weekend) has been super stressed because the lady that owns her house said she’s going to call the police on her if she doesn’t move out!  Fatima hasn’t been able to pay the rent because she lost her job. :(  Fatima doesn’t have money to get someone to take all her stuff and move it to the other house she found.  Because of all this she hasn’t been worried or even thinking about her baptism this weekend.  So we talked to her and said that we would try to find someone in the ward to help her move Saturday (it was Friday).  So I called the guy who helps the missionaries (I forgot his name in English) and he´s like look, if we would have known like a week ago, yes, but idk how we can find someone by tomorrow to help.  I was super stressed out because we had told Fatima we would find her help and well, we weren’t finding any.  On top of that, other things started happening and you know when tons of things start building on one another and you want to explode! haha!  So sister and I were praying and praying that a miracle would happen, that we would be able to find a truck or something to put all of her stuff in aaaand.....Heavenly Father saved us again!  The guy in the ward found someone last minute to move Fatima Saturday morning!  We got all her stuff in the truck in one load! Ahhh  I wish I would have taken a photo of the truck to show you all....it was jam packed with all her stuff on this little trailer.  (I wasn’t worried about taking pictures in that moment.)  But anyway, we moved all of her stuff into her new house, so that was awesome!  So next week, Fatima will be baptized, and her 2 girls!  (Pray that everything goes okay!!)

Joana is going strong!  She is reading the Book of Mormon and is LOVING IT!!  We taught her about prophets and she was so amazed and happy to hear that God loves us enough that he gave us prophets on earth TODAY!!!!(:  I love seeing the reaction of people when you tell them we have a living prophet on the earth, leading and guiding us for the second coming of our Savior!  They get so happy and excited!  God is sooo awesome!  I love him and feel so grateful for all he helps me with. (: 

GOD LOVES YOU GUYS!  Keep showing him you love him,  and are grateful for what you have by keeping the commandments and living a righteous life. (: 

- Sister Jessica Jaynie Smithie