Boa tarde familia!

We are have only a few weeks until Christmas! We are making plans such as THE PHONE CALL and all of this crazy music stuff. We have an ensaio for our choir this today actually all day long and then the Mission Conference is tomorrow! This will be the only time all year that the entire mission will be together. It is kindof a huge deal. The choir is sounding pretty good and I am very excited to be a part of it. Our main big performance will be in the Mission Conference tomorrow but we are also singing in the centro in a park tonight and perhaps with the Stake Choir here in Campos Eliseos some day. I am also accompaining Elder Ruberson who will be singing O Holy Night. It will all around be excellent. I know that the Spirit is present with sacred music and that this is an important part of the work for me right now. I am very grateful for this opportunity and know that God is pleased with our work.

This week em Sexta feira when we came home at the end of the day we walked in to a huge surprise: Sister Huntington and Sister Sperry had boughten Christmas decorations and decorated our house! They have some little teensy Santa ornaments on the wall and actually bought a baby tree with lights. It is so beautiful and is getting me really into the Christmas season. These Sisteres in our casa are really great and encouraging. They always now how to support me and build me up when I´m feeling down. We can´t do this work alone, but with the support of others we can do miracles!

We haven´t been able to do a ton of normal missionary work this week because Sister Jales has been a little sick. We are however teaching a new investigator named Shelly. She is only 11 but has been coming to Church for the past few weeks and has good friends at Church. She is reading the Book of Mormon with her mom and learning a lot. She was also sick this week so we really couldn´t visit her but we will return this next week and talk about baptism. I have high hopes for her! She will be a great example to her family, and we are planning on encouraging her mom especially to start accepting more of the lessons now.

We had divisions with the Sister Training Leaders this week! It was so amazing. I was with Sister Silva. She has such a kind heart and is super great at teaching and contacting and everything. I learned a ton and want to apply all that I learned into our future teaching. It is amazing how much you can get done in one day when you are focused and working hard. We taught lots of good lessons and I am excited to continue here in Campos Eliseos.

One thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is the power of testimony. We bear our testimony, however simple, with everyone that we talk to. I love the power of sincere testimony because it can never be denied and works with every person regardless of their situation. I want to bear my testimony with the world and be bold in the way I declare what I believe. I know that this igreja e evangelho de Cristo is the same organization that Christ established when He was on the earth. I know that this is the only way to neverending happiness and that I am having the wonderful opportunity to teach God´s perfect and eternal Plan of Happiness every day. I know that this is the right thing, and nothing that happens in my life or in the world could change that. I have finally gained a testimony of the Atonement and its power to overcome every obstacle and challenge that we face. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. The Atonement of Christ is very real and will lift us back up as missionaries at times even more than it will help our investigators. This Gospel contains all the truths of the one and only true and living God. He is my leader and Father. With Him, no matter what trials or difficulties I am asked to pass through, I cannot fail. The standard of truth has been erected and no unhallowed hand shall stop the work from progressing. The Truth of God will go forth boldy, nobly, and independent. The Great Jehovah has not yet proclaimed that the work is done, so I will continue to work and fight for Him. We are on the winning team! We will prevail!

Love,

Sister Marchant

P.S. Thanks for all the great emails this week! Shout out to Grandma for her neverending love and support! Yes Grandma I think I am receiving all of your emails and there is another letter on the way to Templeview Drive...I love you all!

Ola Presidente Brum,

Tínhamos divisões esta semana! Foi muito bom. Eu foi com Sister Silva. Eu aprendi MUITO e estou animada sobre a obra de novo. Nós ensinamos muitos lições juntos e encontramos mais novos pesquisadores. Sister Silva deu muita ajuda que eu precisei neste momento. O resto a semana foi um pouco diferente por que tínhamos muitas outras coisas fazer por exemplo o entrevista e os ensaios do coral. A obra está um pouco devagar agora mas temos muitos nomes que vamos visitar em breve. Eu realmente espero que eu posso ajudar mais e fazer todas as coisas de acordo com a vontade do Senhor. Muito obrigada por sua ajuda esta semana. Você fez muito para nós.

Um grande abraço,

Sister Marchant

Hello Hello!

Phew! What a week. It has been a bit of a difficult one, but we have had some really neat experiences as well. To start, Sebastião is doing awesome! He received the Aaronic Priesthood last week and passed the Sacrament for the first time this week. It is neat to see him continually progress. He comes to all the Church activities and makes lots of comments in the church classes. I really think he will stay active in the Church and help build up the ward here in Campos Eliseos. He does not know tons of people in the ward yet but is really starting to become immersed and would be fine without the missionaries there.

We had a really difficult, intense lesson with our other investigators Paula e Anderson this week. They had been avoiding our calls and hadn´t been to Church for the past two weeks. Early this week we showed up at their house one night and Paula told us that they did not find what they were looking for in our Church. She said the people were great and that she liked meeting with us but that she wants to look at other churches to decide first. We were pretty crushed and talked with her for a long time. We tried to emphasize the importance of the Book of Mormon and a personal testimony and she said she would continue to read and study. We bore our testimonies with all of our hearts, and to be honest, I felt the Spirit super strong in that lesson, maybe more than nearly any other lesson we have had with them, and we have had a bunch of spiritual lessons. I am really starting to recognize that one way that always works without fail to invite the Spirit is to bear sincere testimony. Every time I try to start to bear my testimony about something the Spirit helps me with the language, and I know that whatever I say can´t be denied. Others can argue about the doctrine or setup of the Church but they cannot deny when I say that I know something to be true. Testimony is powerful and I always strive to end every lesson with my personal beliefs. So Paula said that she might come back in the future and would keep an open mind. They have had problems trying to quit smoking and to get married and I think that they are scared to make any big changes in their life. Sister Jales and I truly believe that some day they will remember what they have felt in the gospel of Jesus Christ and return to His true fold.

We had a ginormous rainstorm this week again. I should probably stop talking about these because they are going to happen all the time, but this time we were in the thick of it. We were sloshing through the street with rain up past our ankles and it made me think of what many of you are experiencing right now but with snow instead. This is something I have never experienced in my life but it is always quite an adventure and we laugh through it all. There is a man in our ward who loves the American missionaries. He is so awesome and nice and always comes up and talks to me and sometimes gives little gifts. This week he gave me one of those colapsable umbrellas that is the lightest thing I have ever felt and will be perfect to carry around in my bag all day just in case. I am ready to take on the torrents!

I think I mentioned last week that we have a new sister in our house, Sister Sperry. She is amazing. She is super hardworking and always happy. Our home is so much happier and the four of us get along extremely well. It is great to come home after a long day and be able to talk to Sister Sperry and Huntington for a little tiny bit. We can really help and support each other as missionaries. There is no way I could do this alone!

I have been studing a lot about charity and love this week. When it comes down to it, charity really is the greatest attribute of Christ, and when we can gain true charity, all of the other attributes will much easier fall into place. In California I learned how to be strictly obedient and work with every rule to the T. Here I am learning to relax and not be stressed out over everything. I am learning to love every situation no matter what happens and to appreciate the small things. Charity has never been one of my strong abilities but I am learning little by little to gain more of it. Studies have really helped me to see the importance of skills like this and how to better apply them into my work. I have been a lot happier as I can let little things that bother me slide away quickly and to focus on loving the people here individually. Every person we talk to is very improtant and a child of God. I hope they can feel that they are important to him.

Wow, I have also really come to rely on prayer. I pray all the time now whenever I need any help or advice and God answers. Isn´t it amazing? We have a 24 hours a day, free, open line to all the right answers. I am SO grateful for prayer and the help I constantly receive from my Heavenly Father. He never lets me down and is always there to support and love me. I hope and pray I can do the same for others, especially for Sister Jales.

Beijos,

Sister Marchant

P.S. I received a super nice Christmas card from the Milford Ward Primary this week! Thank you so much for your kindness and cuteness! It was greatly appreciated.

Oi Presidente Brum,

Muito obrigado por todas as suas palavras simpáticas. Eu realmente aprecio todo o conselho eu posso receber. Esta semana foi um pouco mais difícil. Quatro de nossos pesquisadores progredindo disserem que não querem receber nenhuma mais lição. Tivemos algumas lições muito tristes com estes pesquisadores, mas nós sabemos que nós fizemos nossa parte. Fizemos tudo que nós pudemos e agora eles têm seu livre arbítrio. Eu me sentia um pouquíssimo do que o Salvador se sente quando os filhos de Deus não aceitar esta mensagem de felicidade. As vezes eu pensa, "como você pode abandonar alguma coisa tão importante e maravilhosa?" Mas eu realmente tenho aprendido amar estas pessoas ainda e saber que Deus ainda as ama mais do que eu. Esta obra é difícil mas com certeza vale a pena. Estou aprendido MUITAS coisas todos os dias, mais do que eu esperava aprenderia. Estou aprendendo habilidades e atributos importantes que eu sei eu nunca poderia aprender alem de uma missão. Esta oportunidade é uma bênção muito grande.

Nossa recém converso Sebastião está progredindo muito ainda. Ele recebeu o Sacerdócio a semana passada e passou o sacramento esta semana pela primeira vez! Estamos muito animadas para ele. Eu amo ver ele cresce. Ele tem muito fé e é muito forte no evangelho.

Muito obrigada por tudo,

Síster Marchant

Oi Oi!!

This is the first line of the chorus of our mission song. And boy did it rain this week! One day it was raining so hard it flooded the streets and the sidewalks and started coming up onto the porch of the member´s home we were out. Luckily by the time we were done having almoço it had slowed down a lot so that we could go out and keep working, but phew! I have never seen so much rain in my life. We were watching out of their front door the whole time. It made me think of how you must be having snow covered roads really high right now. Almost the same thing.

Transfers are here! Sister Jales and I are officially staying the same in Campos Eliseos! This is what I expected so it is not a huge surprise. We did get a new Sister in our apartment though named Sister Sperry. She is an American too and will be with Sister Huntington. Elder Worthin left our ward as well and was replaced by Elder Lewis. He will be our new District Leader. Sister Jales is a little concerned because she will be sorounded by Americans all the time now, but this is a good opportunity for her to learn more English and for me to practice remembering to always speak in Portuguese, especially with other Americans. I´ve heard great things about these two missionaries and I think they will be really hard working and help our areas. I know that our Mission President is inspired to bless us with these changes.

The Elders here had another baptism yesterday! It was the daughter of Mariana who was baptized last week. She was so excited and seems really commited to the Church. The actual baptism was a little different. They had it right after Church (because she had other plans on Saturday), which actually turned out really great because lots of people stayed to support. When we went over to the baptismal font, a lot of the water had drained out during Church unknowingly! It only came up a little past the knees of Elder Worthin. They tried to do the ordinance like normal but she didn´t get all the way under the water, so they actually did it kneeling down. I have never seen that before but I guess it works too and she made it all the way the second time. She is only 12 and was pretty scared but did great and we are very happy for her. We also had two investigators at Sacrament Meeting this week who stayed for the baptism! They are both young girls and we have only taught them once, but they seemed to like Church so we have high hopes for them. Getting investigators to come to Church is sometimes the hardest part for people so this was a big step.

Mariana is a super chef as well and made us cake afterwards which was too good. All the food here is too good and I eat way too much. But we are running every morning so and pretty much only eat lunch so hopefully I´ll be alright.

The piano lessons turned out really well this week. I had forgotten how much I love to teach. The two girls have actually taken piano in the past so they have lots of books to use (Bastien piano basics and Um Doze por Dia (a Dozen a day!), I might add) so I think it will go really well. I am excited that I will get to stay in Campos Eliseos and teach a little longer. Our English class this week was also awesome. It is amazing to watch someone grasp a new concept or idea and watch it finally make sense to them. I am seeing that in our teaching lessons as well. I love teaching people who really listen and want to learn, especially about the Plan of Salvation that is so new in many ways. We had a few great lessons this week and were very happy all week working together. Sister Jales has had some health problems but they are clearing up and I think all will be well. We have a lot of things to do still in this area and are looking forward to this new transfer to try to reach new goals.

I am very excited to hear all the news of my great family! Congrats to Nate on your job offer and good luck with starting a great new family! I´m also excited to hear about all the trips you all are taking across the country for the different holidays. Thanks for keeping me updated! They sound super fun. I think a normal phone call will work fine for Christmas. It will be a little sad not to see all of your beautiful faces, but I think it will be more reliable and definitely worth it to hear from everyone.

Keep up the good work and eat lots of leftover pie for me! I almost forgot it was Thanksgiving, it came up so quick. But don´t worry we did go out to a buffet place to have a mini celebration with the other Americans here. It was a very delicious mix of rice, beans, and meat. Not the traditional Thanksgiving feast, but a feast nonetheless. Life is good the Brazilian way! I am learning and changing lots.

Beijos,

Sister Marchant

Olá Presidente!

Primeiro, tivemos um batismo em nossa aula esta semana! Um dos pesquisadores dos Elderes foi batizado em Domingo. Ela estava muito animada e total foi bem. É emocionante para mim ver estas pessoas especiais achegaram-se a Cristo e observar as maneiras que o evangelho está mudando suas vidas. Minha parte preferida da missão agora está olhando alguém aprender alguma coisa sobre o evangelho que é maravilhosa (qual é mais ou menos tudo que nós ensinamos como missionários de Cristo) que nunca tem ouvido antes. Esta obra está com certeza mudando minha vida também mais do que eu já imaginei. Estou aprendendo um pouco mais como reconhecer e seguir os sussurros do Espírito, e nossas lições estão melhorando pouco por pouco. Sou grata pela oportunidade servir com Sister Jales de novo esta transferência por que eu sei que ainda há muitas coisas que eu posso aprender dela e muitas maneiras que eu quero ajudar nossa aula. Vamos continuar trabalhar douro.

Nossos contatos estão melhorando e estamos ensinando mais especificamente para as necessidades individuais de cada pessoa. Ontem fomos uma praça e falamos com muitos pessoas. Ensinamos duas lições muito boas lá e tivemos experiencias legais. Também tivemos duas lições com Sebastião esta semana. Ele tem um testemunho muito forte agora do evangelho e especialmente do Livro de Mórmon. Ele sempre está lendo fora sua porta quando passamos a casa dele, e todas as vezes que nós o encontramos, ele sempre está muito feliz. Ele também recebeu o Sacerdócio na Reunião Sacramental esta semana! Ele provavelmente vai passar o sacramento a próxima semana e talvez vai receber um chamado em breve. Sebastião é um exemplo para mim de fé muito forte e a disposição fazer tudo que o Senhor pede.

Todas as outras coisas são bem para mim! Uma missão é muito difícil mas muito vale a pena. Eu amo as coisas sobre a igreja que estou aprendendo e a maneira que eu posso aplicar estas coisas imediatamente em minha obra. Eu espero que eu vou sempre aprender e crescer por toda a parte de minha missão e começar amar as pessoas aqui ainda mais. Com a ajuda do Senhor todos meus desejos justos são possíveis.

Obrigado por tudo e especialmente sua inspiração sobre as transferências,

Síster Marchant

Olá! Tudo bem?

This week went fast and was great. Time is a funny thing. I never know where it goes, but at the same time I kindof feel like I´ve been in Brazil for years. This week I officially reached my 1 month mark in Brazil! Crazy stuff. And we find out about transfers this week as well. Sister Jales and I are thinking we will very likely stay together here in Campos Eliseos since we are still in 12 week training, but you never know. Sister Jales has been in this area for her whole mission. She may not be here for long.

This week the mother of Ana Furlam (a 19 girl in our ward) passed away. She had had some kind of heart problem for a long time and had actually been bed-ridden for 12 years. Ana is an only child and her parents are divorced so this hit her pretty hard. It is interesting the way they do funerals here. Her mom died late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning they had the body ready to go and flowers all set up in the Church. Then members and friends came and stayed all day at the Church talking and supporting the Furlams. We spent a long time there are tried to help Ana the best we could. Since we are pretty much the only other people there her age I think we were able to make more of a difference. That afternoon she was buried in the huge cemetary in our town. It was all finished in one day, no huge preparations or ceremonies or talks or anything. I liked the way the do not mourn and think about the burial and death for weeks. It was a neat experience to see the different cultural ways of doing things.

On the other hand, we also had two births this week. Two of the Elders´ investigators were baptized on Saturday! They are awesome and have huge testimonies. They are Mariana and Nezia. Mariana loves the missionaries and had actually already had us over for almoço twice this week with the Elders. She is a super chef and reminds me of your amazing cooking mom. Just not quite as good as you. So the baptisms went really well and they were both very happy. My favorite part of batisms is always when they walk in the room all dressed in white! The Spirit is so strong and they look so clean and new. Baptisms are such happy times.

We had another clean sweep of our Area Book this week, even more than before. Since we do 140 contacts every week, we always have tons of addresses and names to make return visits to. Previously none of thes Potential Investigators were organized at all and it was basically impossible to the to figure out were they live and who lives close to who etc. This week we organized them all by street and sent off lots of names as referrals for other areas. It was very successful and I feel more like I know how to work successfully in this area.

Sebastião is on fire! I have never seen someone so dedicated to this gospel who is so new to it and has no family supporting him to do this. He lives alone but faithfully comes to Church every week and is willing and ready to have us come visit and teach a lesson even with only a few hours of notice. He likes to talk a lot so our lessons are always pretty long but he is really soaking up the gospel and gaining a strong testimony. I think he reads the Book of Mormon more than I do. I believe he will be one who will never fall away.

Last week I forgot to say that I gave my first talk in Sacrament Meeting! I was pretty nervous and gave a very simple, but heartfelt talk on prayer. It was a bit crazy because it was the same day as Sebastião´s baptism and they asked me to speak 30 minutes into the first hour (we have Relief Society, then Sunday School, then Sacrament Meeting) so I had a lot of things running through my mind. Luckily, they asked me last minute last week too but it happened to be the Primary Program so I didn´t speak then. I prepared a sketchy layout of a talk last week just in case they asked me again, and yes they did. It was interesting though, I´ve found with talks now that I am always nervous before I go up there but once I start talking there is no turning back and I generally am more calm during the talk. It went well and a member told me that they felt the Spirit strongly during my testimony which is all I really wanted. First talk down!

My music is going crazy. They like to ask you to do a lot of things here last minute actually. I played for the baptism and Elder Ruberson sang a musical number. We also did a musical number the next day in Sacrament Meeting and I played for Sacrament Meeting. A few of the hymns have a little different rhythms with the different words in Portuguese so I have to be careful and really read the music! I am very grateful for the chance I had to play at home during Church lots of times to prepare me for this day. The hardest part actually is listening really carefully to hear the number of the hymn that is coming up. They don´t use programs and my high numbers in Portuguese still aren´t the best so I have to pay attention really carefully! Oh and a strong member of the ward (Paola and Fabio (the first second councilor in the bishopric)) asked me to teach piano lessons to their two girls for our hour of service so they can learn the hymns. The only music we have is the hymnbook and I´m pretty sure they are not quite ready for that so I´m going to have to be creative. We start this week and we´ll see how it goes.

One other exciting event of the week is that I taught two full lessons by myself! The first one was a contact that turned into a street Restoration lesson. Sister Jales left me hanging out to dry and didn´t say anything. It was really hard but I know it was important to training and I feel more comfortable and confident in my teaching now. I can get the point across more or less. Then yesterday we were teaching a past investigator of a woman and her mom. Sister Jales started talking to the investigator and I started talking to her mom and they turned into two different lessons. I actually had a good back and forth conversation with her for 20-30ish minutes and it was a really cool experience. Portuguese is awesome! I want to learn every word in this language.

I love you all! Thanks so much for all of your love!

Sister Marchant

P.S. Congrats dad on all of your hard work!

P.P.S. Sorry I don´t really respond to your emails. I will do this in letters when I have more time.

P.P.P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!

Olá Presidente!

Foi uma semana muito boa. Eu me sinto como se esteja crescendo e aprendendo mais com cada dia. A linguá é mais fácil agora e as vezes eu estou pensando e orando em Português sem perceber. Síster Jales e eu estamos tornando-nos boas amigas e estamos trabalhando melhor juntos. Nossas números esta semana não foi muito bom, mas fizemos outros coisas importantes por exemplo ajudando Ana Furlan com a funeral de sua mãe e arrumando nosso livro de área ainda mais. Eu me sinto muito mais organizada agora e tipo eu sei mais do que expectar com cada dia.

Sebastião continua crescer muito desde seu batismo. Ele ama a igreja e tem muito fé. Ele fez muitos comentários na igreja ontem e disse que agora ele sabe sem duvida que o Livro de Mórmon é completamente verdadeiro. Ele está mais feliz cada vez que nós o vemos, e ele continua aceitar tudo da igreja. É uma bênção para ensinar um homem tão pronto e disposto aprender. Esta semana ensinamos sobre o sacerdócio e ele está preparando receber o Sacerdócio Aarônico. Ele é ótimo!

Também ensinamos Paula e Anderson e sua filha Carol esta semana. Estão tendo umas poucas dificuldades, especialmente com a Palavra de Sabedoria. Vamos continuar os apoiar e convidamos focalizar no Livro de Mórmon para orientação. Eu tenho fé que eles poderão conquistar todos seus tentações e provações. O Senhor vai mandar milagres.

Eu já tenho um mês no Brasil! Foi muito rápido e eu já me sinto como uma pessoa completamente diferente. Esta obra é difícil, mas eu a amo e eu sei que isto está mudando minha vida. Eu sempre quero ser a missionária que o Senhor quer que seja.

Obrigado por tudo,

Síster Marchant

Hello fam!

We had our first baptism this week!!!!!!!!!! WWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a kindof crazy but very exciting day. So we were planning on having it on Saturday but then we couldn´t get a member of the bishopric to come so we had to reschedule for Sunday before Church. It was going to start at 8:00, but you know Brazilians, no one comes to anything on time so by 8:30 people started to slowly show up. Then somehow the keys to the main closet were lost so we couldn´t get a jumpsuit ready for him! I don´t really know exactly what happened, but we eventually found the keys and ended up having the baptism actually during the second hour before Gospel Doctrine. It worked out well because all of the other investigators who were at Church were able to watch and there was a lot of support. It was hard however because we had a whole program planned out but were unable to do most of it. All is well though, the ordinance is all that really matters and that went great. Sebastião was still able to be confirmed in Sacrament Meeting so he is now officially a member of the Church! It has been so rewarding to watch him grow in the gospel over the last few weeks. He has changed a lot and continues to learn and yearn for the scriptures. It is an honor to have the privilege of teaching him.

On Friday we had a practice for this Christmas choir coming up. It was all day long so Sister Jales went on splits with another missionary. It was really fun and felt awesome to be a part of a good choir again. We still have a lot of work to do but I have a feeling it will go really well. After the practice we all went over to the ice cream shop across the street and bought açai. It is super delicious. It is the blended up berry in kind of like ice cream form with chopped bananas, granola, sweetened condensed milk, and this sweet powdered milk stuff on top. Heaven in my month. And only about 4 dollars for all of that! Totally worth it, and we can pretend it´s healthy because it is a berry. :)

We got caught in my first major rainstorm this week! The rain here is kindof crazy because it comes out of nowhere. In the morning it is sunny and clear so I do not bring my umbrella out as often as i should (it is kind of heavy to carry around in my bag every day). Then at night it comes on with a vengence. We got super soaked one night this week but we still had a few contacts to do so we went for it strong! It was pretty crazy.

Speaking of contacts, we had a few different days this week with that choir practice and Sister Jales had to go to the doctor one day (but we got everything figured out and she is going to be fine, don´t worry), so we were unable to get many contacts a few days. We somehow managed to get 81 on Saturday! I know that the Lord is helping us in whatsoever we need.

The biggest challenge of this week was the culture. The language is actually coming along pretty well. I am starting to really understand people, especially at Church. When we are talking to people on the street I almost always have somewhat of an idea about what we are talking about. The very free, laid back schedule has been a little difficult for me to get used to though. In California everything was extremely straitlaced (kind of like my whole life has been) and we were exactly obedient in every way. Here everything is a little more carefree so it will take me a while to relax and go with the flow. But I am starting to love Brazil more every day and the people we are teaching are really getting into my heart. This is exactly where I need to be! The Lord is teaching me things I never thought I would learn. Life is good.

Sorry this email is not very long today. I took a long time sending pictures in different emails this week. I hope they all came through!

Beijos,

Sister Marchant

P.S. At the beginning of my time here in Brazil I had an interview with the President and he said I could write to him in English for a while because he reads it well and it would be a lot faster for me. This week I will officially reach my 1 month mark (woo!) of time in Brazil so I wanted to start writing in Português. Let me know if this is a problem or if you want me to translate for you. I will hopefully be able to write more in my email to you all now however. (just not this week...)

Olá Presidente!

Esta semana faz uma mês que está no Brasil! Eu quero tentar escrever em Português agora. Meus emails vão ser mais corto mas seria bom para mim começar escrevendo mais em Português.

A semana passado estávamos muito ocupadas e fizemos muitas coisas diferentes. O mais importante, tivemos um batismo! Sebastião (quem você conhece) foi batizado e confirmado ontem. Foi um pouco ocupado por que temos igreja o mesmo tempo, mas ainda foi muito espiritual. Sebastião estava feliz e tinha paz durante todas as reuniões ontem. Os membros foram muito simpáticos também e a experiencia foi muito bom para todo mundo. Foi o primeiro batismo de ambos Síster Jales e eu. Estamos muito felizes para ele e sabemos que ele vai continuar progredir no evangelho.

Estou animado para o coral também! Acho que depois de um pouco mais ensaios será muito bom.

Estou começando acostumar à cultura de Brasil. É um pouco diferente para mim mas estou aprendendo mais todos os dias e estou amando as pessoas aqui mais cada dia. Eu quero amar as pessoas aqui e esta missão com todo minha coração. Eu quero servir exatamente como Deus quer para mim. Eu O ama e eu ama o evangelho. Jesus Cristo faz que tudo que nós experienciamos aqui numa missão vale a pena!

Muito obrigada por responder meus emails. Ainda umas poucas palavras significa muito para mim.

Obrigada!

Síster Marchant

Tomara que você possa entender este email!

Ola Familia!

It has been quite the week. Yep, it is definitely feeling like summer here! We had a few days of rain actually which was very nice but then four days in a row of super super hot. It is only just beginning but I don´t think I have ever been this hot in my life. The good thing is that there are always tons of people at the ice cream shops to talk to. :)

We had an area 70 come to visit this week! It was Elder Mazagardi (I think that´s how you spell it...). He gave us three zones a two hour training about the mission. I understood bits and pieces here and there but I really felt the Spirit and was rejuvinated to work hard again. Some of the things he encouraged us to do are to read from Preach My Gopsel every day, read 2 Nephi 31 every day, practice a baptismal invite every day in companionship study, to make our contacts more varied and exciting, and to try making contacts with people who live near the Church (and super lucky for us, the Conference was held in Ribeirão Preto in our chapel!). I learned a lot and we have a lot of things to work towards. I played for a small choir who sang the classic, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". They sang only one verse in Portuguese (I didn´t have the translation for any more) and I think it went pretty well. After the Conference they also had these auditions for a choir to sing in the streets at Christmas time. I tryed out and made it for altos! There are 16 of us and it is led by a missionary (Elder Ruberson) who is singing opera at BYU. He has a super good voice. I am excited to be a part of this group and to share some Christmas love in this happy, busy city.

Our weekly planning was truly a miracle. I´m the kind of person who really likes to be organized so I was excited to get everything straightened out (see below). I sometimes feel like I have no idea what is going on here, but I am now starting to get a little bit more into the groove. I know more of what to expect in different situations like almoços and Church and contacts. It is a lot to take in, especially when you cannot really explain how you are feeling but we are working through everything and finding great success. I am really excited for our investigators and to find a lot more of these people. It is ridiculous how trusting people are here. Nearly every other contact we make is willing to give us their name, address, and phone number after just a minute of talking to us. That would never happen in the states! I think it was hard and happy in both California and Brazil, but just a different hard and happy. We teach a lot more lessons here and I feel like we are doing more actual missionary work, but it takes more of a toll on your body. Preparation days every week always get me rejuvinated for the rest of the week though and I think I will be fine!

I have been meaning to tell you about the other two Sisteres in our apartment. Our apartment is actually really big with five rooms and extra beds to make space for other Sisteres to stay with us when they are visiting from out of town for big mission Conferences (like this week, we had just two extra Sisteres stay the night). There are two other Sisteres who live there as well, Sister Huntington (American) and Sister Amorim (Brazilian). Sister Huntington arrived from the states from me, and Sister Amorim has been out for 5 transfers. It is pretty fun to have roommates. Having an American there to speak to in my language and culture at night also helps to keep my spirits up. They are very nice and hard working. They work in the area right next to us (Imparanga) but we pretty much only see them in the morning and after we come home at night. We actually share the ward with another pair of Elderes as well. None of us actually live in the area we are working in (the other pairs have to take the bus every day), but luckily Sister Jales and I live close enough that we can walk. The other Elders are Elder Worthin and Elder Ruberson. They are both Americans and Elder Worthin has been in Brazil for 6 months and Elder Ruberson for three. The members serve all four of us lunch every day, and it is very helpful to have someone to translate if I miss something important. We work together with the ward a lot and are able to help each others´ inverstigators sometimes. I believe that the more missionaries we have out in the world, the easier it will be for us! It is great to have the support of all of these Elders and Sisters who are working towards the same goal and are having similar experiences.

I am gaining a huge testimony of prayer. God really does answer every prayer and is willing to give you any righteous desire of your heart. No matter the trial, God wants to help us and give us support, we must only be humble and come to Him. I am also learning the importance of patience in times of trial and how to give up everything to Him. We can do all things in the strength of the Lord! He has done everthing for us and yet still is willing to give us more. This Church is so true! Everthing will be worth it.

I love you all! Thanks for all the support!

Sister Marchant

P.S. If you ever get a letter from me, please send me a quick little note or email back saying you have recieved it because I never know how reliable the mailing system is. Thanks so much!





Oi Presidente!
We have done a lot of hard work this week. It has been really hot and we have been feeling a little bit sick but I think we are over it now and are better. (don´t worry mom, today I feel great) I have really come to know and appreciate the enabling power of the Atonement and the importance of prayer this week. I know that we can do all things with Christ. He wants to help us and is 100% in charge of this work. What have we to worry about? We are doing great things for the Lord!
This week we had an amazing weekly planning session. We took the time to really go through our Area Book and straighten things out. It had been unorganized and needed a thorough inspection. We found a lot of new names of people we need to visit and of different things we want to do with this area. There really are so many people to teach here! I did not fully realize until this week how much work there is for us to do. I was remotivated about the work and am excited to keep going strong.
We had also had some great lessons with Sebastião and with Paula and Anderson this week. Sebastião loves the scriptures and always shows us something he has read when we come. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he really liked the 5 steps of the gospel. He talks about them every time we see him now as well. We committed him to be baptized this Saturday! He was a little unsure at first and thinks that he is not quite ready yet, but we talked him through a lot of his concerns and I have faith that he can make it. He is still working on giving up coffee but if he can do this I think he will be ready to enter the waters.
Paula and Anderson are making major steps forward. They are living together unmarried and this week we taught them the law of chastity. At our next lesson they said they had thought about it a lot and agreed to work towards getting married! They also made detailed plans to overcome addictions to smoking and drinking coffee and beer. They still have a little ways to go, but they are making huge improvement. They always come to Church and have such strong faith. Their family is truly an inspiration to me. Their daughter, Carol, is also investigating the Church. She comes every Sunday as well and has great friends there. She usually sits in on the lessons, but we are going to really try to focus more on her this week. She is only 11 but has a great desire to learn more and I think she could be ready to join the Church as well in just a few weeks.
We have had some great miracles this week! The people of Ribeirão Preto are very open and willing to talk to us. We had some awesome contacts and are working hard to keep everything organized. We are reaching many of our goals and are striving to work as hard as we can together. It is hard work, but it is very worth it. I know the Lord can help me do all things that he needs me to do.

Obrigada,
Síster Marchant

Oi Familia!
I am here! I am here! This is the happiest place on earth. Disney World doesn´t have a chance. Things are going great and I am learning a ton.

I found out that I had received my visa on Sunday morning and then I left early Monday morning. I traveled from California to NY to Sao Paulo to Ribeirao Preto. It was a long journey and I am just barely overcoming the lack of sleep, but all is well. The journey went wonderfully and I didn´t have any problems at all. It was quite a blessing. I flew alone until I got to Sao Paulo where I met up with about 10 other missionaries going to Ribeirao Preto as well. Elder Oxendine and Elder Wooley from my MTC district were there. It was good to see some familiar faces after two days of being so alone! As a missionary that is something that I never experience.

When we arrived in Ribeirao Preto the mission president and his wife met us at the airport and then we went to the mission home for dinner. It was a very delicious Brazilian spread with rice and beans and this chicken stroganoff stuff and maracuja moose for sobremesa. Every meal here is pretty much the same with rice and beans and lots of greasy meat. The meal we had with the Bradfords really is quite correct. We are fed for lunch every single day and if the members that signed up don´t want to make food they straight up give us money. We also usually eat with a set of Elders that are also serving in our ward (Campos Elisies, Brazil). They are both American so they can always help if I don´t understand something. Don´t worry Mom, we are very much taken care of, I just might come back looking a little wider because we never eat anything healthy! I mentioned to Sister Jales that I liked fruit and broccoli and now with everyone we eat with she says, "Ela é saudável!"

Speaking of which, we new companion is Sister Jales. She is a Brazilian from Fortaleza, Brazil. She speaks no English, but not for long. She has been out for three months just like me and is so cute and happy all of them. Some of things I do she thinks are really funny and some of the things they do I would never think of doing (like eating cough drops like candy...) so we always have a lot to laugh at each other about. Although it is sometimes difficult to communicate, I know having a Brazilian companion is a huge blessing. I can pretty much understand everything she is saying now. Not any of the other Brazilians that we talk to, but her I can. She is a hard worker and strives to reach our goals. We will do great work together!

This week I invited two people to be baptized and yesterday did a contact completely by myself! I am learning quickly with Sister Jales´s patient help. This is the best place in the world. Sorry, I really wish I could write more, but we always run out of time at emails! You have to pay by the minute here too and I don´t think I can print out my emails anymore so if you want to send letters instead I could peer over them longer. They say it only takes 1 to 2 weeks to receive letters from the U.S. Talk to you soon! I love you all!

Beijos,
Sister Marchant

Oi Presidente Brum!
It has been a great week. I love the people and culture here already! The people are so happy here, especially Sister Jales. She is a wonderful trainer and is always smiling. Nothing will bring her down, which makes me happy all the time too! She is very patient with my Portuguese and helping me adjust to this new missionary life. I am very blessed to have her as a trainer. I love working with her.

We had a lesson with Sebastiao, Sandoval and Claudia, and Paula and Anderson.
Sabastiao´s lesson was right before stake conference on Saturday. He had a bunch of questions about 2 Nephi 2 so we reread that chapter with him and we, or rather Sister Jales answered all of his questions and covered all of his doubts. She is an excellent, bold teacher and is confident in what she says. I understood almost all of that lesson actually, but said very little. I did invite him to be baptized though and he said probably for the 9th of November. We called him yesterday though and he was saying that might be a little too soon so we will have to talk with him more about it. He went to the Priesthood Session of Stake Conference though and stayed for the night session afterwards. That is a lot of church in one day! I have faith he can reach the waters of baptism if he keeps praying and reading. His big concern is that he wants to finish reading the Book of Mormon before he prays about it. We are trying to help him see that God answers prayers at all times in our lives and at all steps of our conversion.

We taught Sandoval and Claudia a little bit about baptism and invited them to Stake Conference. Unfortunately, they were surprising out of town this weekend, and Claudia works every Sunday in the mornings when we usually have Church. They do not fully grasp the importance of attending Church, but if we can overcome that hurdle, and don´t think that there would be anything else holding them back from baptism. They know the Book of Mormon is true, but are not yet willing to sacrafice for it.

Our lesson with Paula and Anderson was about Os Tres Maneiras para Tornarse a Familia Mais Feliz. They accepted our lesson well and had lots of comments. We are helping them overcome some family arguments right now and are planning to set them with a baptismal date at our next lesson. They are very kind and want to become better together.

As far as I know these lessons went really well! I can´t understand much of what the Brazilians we teach are saying, but I can now understand most of what Sister Jales says. I am learning a ton everyday and Sister Jales is very helpful. She is learning some English too! I love sharing this work with her.

We also reached our goal of 140 contatos por semana! Even though we were not able to make any contatos the first few days of the week since I arrived later, we were still able to reach our goal. Yesterday after Stake Conference we still needed over 20 contacts. Then the thunderstorm started up and I honestly didn´t think we would be able to do it. Sister Jales and I said a prayer to ask for the help of the Lord to find people in the ruas to talk to. We started walking farther and were able to get all of the contatos we needed in only half an hour! We offered another prayer of thanks to God. Right when we finished the rain stopped. We were then able to achieve 9 over our goal. It was a miracle to me and strengthened my testimony in the power of prayer. Prayer is such a huge blessing. The first few days were a little difficult for me to adjust with jetlag from the plane, but I know that through prayer God helped me through it. I know that God answers every single prayer I offer. He is so good to me.

Things are going well and I am learning a lot! I love being a missionary! Brazil and Sister Jales make me so happy. I want to serve with all my heart, might, mind, and strength to bring these people unto Christ and to bring honor to my God. "In the strength of the Lord I can do all things."

Thank you Presidente,
Sister Marchant

Hello Familia!

MASON CAME TO CHURCH!!! Okay, I know you have never heard of Mason before because we actually just met him this week, but he is officially our first real investigator that Sister Cusick and I started teaching that has come to Church. He is so golden and has such a desire to learn more. See below for more details but just know that he is the man.

I gave a my first talk as a missionary this week! It was on inviting others to come unto Christ, very appropriate for missionary work. It went pretty well and it is a relief to be finished. I was nervous but not as nervous as I usually am once I started talking. Doing missionary work can really help you in all aspects of your life. There is no doubt to me that this Church is true and that the Lord is hastening His work. I love sharing this good news with everyone we meet.

I had some neat studies today during personal study. I was studying from Jesus the Christ. I have wondered for a long time why we say that Jesus is the Christ and what this title really means. In the introduction of this book it says "The solemn testimonies of millions dead and of millions living unite in proclaiming Him as divine, the Son of the Living God, the Redeemer and Savior of the human race, the Eternal Judge of the souls of men, the Chosen and Anointed of the Father--in short, the Christ." All of those wonderful descriptions are all included in the title of Christ. It means a lot more to me and I appreciate the respect we use in this Church related the Savior, by always referring to Jesus as the Christ or Lord of all. He is the leader of our work as full-time missionaries and in all aspects of the Church. I love bearing His name every day.

I don't have a lot of time because I have had computer problems today, but just know that all is well in Zion! There is no news on the visa yet but I could care less because Sister Cusick and I are getting into the groove. We work well together and are very open with each other and happy. I am so blessed to have her as my trainer. Even through any opposition, she is a rock in the gospel and in missionary work.

 

I love you all lots! Have a fantastic, missionary-filled week,

Sister Marchant

 

 

 

Dear President Castro,******
It has been a great week. We have had some wonderful lessons and met some great people. This has really been a week of growth and cleansing. Sister Cusick is a great teacher and I continue to learn a ton from her. She trains with charity and patience at my pace and helps me know what to improve. I am very blessed to have her as a companion.
This week we taught lessons to Mason, Paul, Noah and Gabe Ruiz, Sister Johnston, and Constantine.

Mason!! We are so excited about him. He is 23 and has a tender heart. We met him knocking this week. We were actually knocking a lot further down his street when one of his neighbors referred us to him. There is no way we would have gotten to his house if it wasn't for this referral. When we knocked on his door, he immediately opened and said "hold on a second, I want to talk to you." He grabbed some chairs and we taught him the entire Restoration on his porch. He was very receptive and had some great questions. He had been an atheist for all his life until a few years ago when he started to attend a Protestant Church. After moving to San Luis however, he hadn't gone to church for about a year and has been meaning to go back. He was praying to know which religion to join this past week. When we came to his door he said he felt like it was an answer to his prayers! We set up another appointment for Thursday of that week and invited him to institute and church. We taught him the Plan of Salvation on Thursday and he soaked it up like a sponge. He really liked the idea of having to know evil to appreciate good and also the three degrees of glory. He was really excited to attend Church and said he would be willing to be baptized when he learned more and came to know this was true for himself. Then on Sunday a member of the YSA Ward picked him up for Church and he stayed all three hours! He even commented in class and said that he really felt the Spirit. The ward really took him in and I know that is where he needs to be. On Sunday was passed his teaching over the the YSA Elders, Elder Wilson and Elder Bostrum. We are very excited to hear how he will progress. It was amazing to teach him the first two lessonsand to watch everything make sense to him and the light of Christ to enter deeper into his life. We definitely saw miracles through Mason this week.
We taught Paul a short lesson with parts of Mosiah 14 on Thursday. We bore our  testimonies of Jesus Christ and the Atonement. He has not been keeping commitments and has little desire to learn more or read the Book of Mormon. We gave him our number and invited him to call us when he wants to meet with us again, but as of now we dropped him. We hope that he will be able to see the difference of not having the gospel in his life and will want to come back.
We also taught Noah and Gabe this week about the Holy Ghost. It has been hard to get in contact with their family at a time when they are all available for a lesson, but we have been able to see Noah and Gabe more often. They are progressing and we have a lesson with them on Wednesday at the Church. We are planning on teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and recommiting them with a baptismal date. If we can help them to come to Church more consistently, I think they will be on the road to baptism.
Sister Johnston (RC/LA) has a great desire to improve. She is still greatly struggling with smoking, drugs, and has been sick the past week, but she reads her scriptures when she can and is working towards quitting smoking. She is excited to take the temple bus this week to visit the Temple Visitor's Center. We are really hoping and praying that her health will be good enough that she will be able to do this. We taught her a short lesson on patiently enduring trials through the love of Christ and looking to our leaders for guidance. She has been watching a lot of General Conference and learned a lot from the prophet and apostles words. We are trying to help her to rely more on her Priesthood leaders and the members of the ward because she is more under their stewardship in her trials, but we are still praying often for her.
Finally, we had a lesson with Constantine (60s) about the Book of Mormon. He moved from Romania a few years ago and has worked hard to transition into the culture and language of this country. We actually ordered a Romanian Book of Mormon for him and gave it to him this week. It was a really neat experience and he was so excited to get one in his native language. He promised to read it and we set another appointment with him for next week. He has been Catholic all of his life so it may be hard for him to change, but we are ready to teach him from the Book of Mormon to bring him closer to Christ.
We are working hard in this area! We are learning a lot and coming closer to Christ ourselves. I have found my personal studies to have been a lot more effective than they were at the beginning of my mission and I truly cherish all of the hours of study in the morning. I am also getting more used to all of the responsibilities of missionary work. Things are going great! Missionary work is always happy.

Thank you,
Sister Marchant

Hello there everyone!

 Wow, what an awesome week. General Conference was amazing. I loved hearing their wonderful words of wisdom and learning about the gospel with a deeper focus. After studying the gospel all day every day, the words of prophets meant so much more to me. I am excited to try to apply their teachings to my everyday work. Some of the themes that I noticed in Conference this year was becoming converted, enduring to the end, and of course :) missionary work! It was really exciting and helpful to hear so much emphasis on member missionary work, and helped a lot with preparing a talk I am going to give in Sacrament Meeting this next Sunday. The Spirit was strong and it was easier to stay focused this year. And...we had three investigators come to the Sunday Afternoon Session! (I'll leave you in suspense until you read further below...).

My favorite talks were probably Elder Nelson's on the amazing human body and self-mastery, David M McConkie (SS Presidency) on teaching with power and authority, and Elder Holland's on overcoming hardship and depression. A few little quotes from others that I really liked as well are, "tithing brings significant but subtle blessings", "when the Holy Ghost confirms that a principle is true, that is where true conversion takes place", "doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith", and the question "shall I falter, or shall I finish?". Overall I just felt super happy at the end of Conference. There is so much goodness and peace found through this Church and through Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and that the prophets and apostles are called through the inspiration of God.

The work is going well. The others missionaries in our district here in San Luis are hard working and we make a good team. We are always passing referrals around between us and learning and growing. This week in district meeting we talked a lot about meditation. It was something I always thought was kind of weird and have never really appreciated it, but this gave me a new view on meditating and how just a few minutes of thinking and contemplating to yourself can calm you down and help you organize your thoughts. We don't really have much extra time at all as missionaries, but with those few minutes after dinner or before bed I might take a little time to myself more often. I would highly recommend taking some time to slow down and enjoy the little things of life every once and a while.

Keep up the great work and be happy! Life is great!

 

I love you all!

Sister Marchant

 

 

Hello President Castro!******
It has been a fantastic week. There have been lots of miracles this week! We found some new investigators and had a few really great lessons. We also had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders which changed my life. They were so helpful and encouraging. And then to finish it all off Conference was wonderful. I have never been so excited for General Conference and it has never flown by so quickly. I learned so much this year. It was neat to have a different perspective on all of the talks as I was focused on applying each talk to missionary work and our investigators. Every talk in some way included inviting others to come unto Christ and to gain a testimony of Him. Even more than before I now know that we have a modern day prophet who speaks directly to God and has been divinely appointed. Their council is real and if we follow it we will be able to endure into the eternities in happiness.

This week we had lessons with Sister Johnston, Leonard, and the Ruiz Family.
Sister Johnston is the recent convert who is trying to quit smoking and become active every week again in the Church. She has a huge desire to become reconverted to Christ and has an amazing testimony of the Holy Ghost. She can clearly identify when the Holy Ghost is with her and when it is not. This is something that is helping her to leave behind her addictions and to try to raise her daughter in the correct values of God. She has had many medical problems recently but is working to take care of herself and her family. I know she can overcome her challenges because of her great drive to do what God wants her to do. We helped her unpack some boxes this week (she recently moved into a new apartment) and taught her a lesson on scripture study. She knows the power of the scriptures and prayer. She also came to General Conference for Saturday Afternoon Session and said she has a greater appreciation for the role of the prophet. We are praying a lot for her because she is going through a lot right now.
I taught Leonard this week with Sister Burwell during exchanges. He is quiet and it is sometimes difficult to know if he is understanding what we teach, but he is very respectful and always willing to have us come back. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week and taught a lot about baptism. Brother Griffith, one of our ward service missionaries, was also present at the lesson. I think this helped show Leonard that there are a lot of different people in our Church and that there are definitely people he could relate to. We taught a lot more about baptism as well. He said he has prayed a little bit but hasn't received an answer yet. He doesn't fully understand why he needs to get rebaptized since he was already baptized as a baby in the Catholic Church. We will try to reteach him the Restoration with emphasis on the loss and then restoration of the priesthood.
We taught the Ruiz Family our first lesson with them last Wednesday! It went super great. At first when we came they were doing some major house cleaning so we thought we wouldn't be able to have a lesson, but then Rihanna (17) said we could pull a few chairs outside and talk for a little bit. One by one the other members of the family started to come out and join the lesson. We taught about prophets and the Book of Mormon. We also explained the purpose of General Conference and invited the whole family to come. They listened intently and had good questions. Then for the Sunday Afternoon Session, Noah (19) and Gabe (23) came to the Church for Conference! It was a great experience. They said they felt the Spirit and felt peaceful and happy. Gabe said the speakers expressed the way he had been feeling in ways that he himself could not explain. We are very excited to teach them more and to get their whole family more involved in coming together to Church. They are such happy people and are always ready to learn with open ears and hearts.
We also met a man named Vance this week while street contacting. He happened to be a former investigator in Tennessee who had almost been baptized but had been offended and stopped coming to Church. We answered a lot of his questions about the Church here and the organization of the Church. We invited him to General Conference...and he also came to the Sunday Afternoon Session! It was definitely a miracle that we found him only a few days before Conference began. He had to leave soon after it was over so we couldn't talk to him long, but he said he liked Conference and appreciated the excellent music of the Tabernachle Choir (he was a music teacher). We will try to contact him this week to start teaching him the lessons once again. He has a good heart and already believes a lot of what we teach is true.
Exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders was amazing! I was with Sister Burwell and learned SO much. She is a very bold and brave missionary. I learned not to be timid about talking to anyone and that you never know who will want to listen. Sister Burwell also was very straight forward and said the truth of the gospel how it is. I need to be more bold in my declarations and to try to keep conversations going longer on the doorstep. We also worked a lot on transitioning anything that someone says into the Restoration. Anything they say really can highlight a resored truth and allow us to teach and testify. I am confident at testifying what I know to be true but have had a hard time connecting getting to know people with the doctrine. Sister Burwell helped a lot and taught me skills that I can use in not only declaring but also teaching. Our lesson with Leonard went really well and I learned how to explain the doctrine a lot more simply and clearly. Sister Burwell and Sister Bennett also talked a lot about trusting in the Lord and not getting down on yourself for any reason. We talked about how damaging self-depricating thoughts are and how they are all from Satan. Sister Burwell taught that discouragment will only bring you down and that this is not what we should feel as instruments of the Lord. I have a greater determination to always be bold, happy, and excited to spread the word. I am learning missionary skills slowly, but I am learning, and little by little I will become the missionary I want to be.
I received a lot of great guidance from General Conference this week. Overall I felt an enormous amount of love from our leaders and thought that all of their ultimate goals was to teach us things that will make us happier. That is what the doctrine and gospel of Christ is all about! It is the good news of happiness that will lead us to neverending happiness in the world to come. I love learning so much about this great work!
Thank you President,
Sister Marchant

Hey hey hey familia!

The week are zooming by! California is a great place to be and I am learning a lot. Sorry, there is especially not a lot of time this week for emails, but just know I love the work, I love Sister Cusick, and I love the Lord! Things are going well.

Our mission goal for the month of September was 40 baptisms. We found out today that we reached 38! We know that all of our many prayers do not go unanswered and that we could not have found that many without the help of the Lord. The goal for October is also 40 so we will be working extra hard again to try to reach this goal.

One of our zone goals is also to search out and find people wearing a specific color each week. It is kindof fun to keep our eyes out for this throughout the week. We can better recognize those who are prepared. This week was pink and we actually found a new investigator this week through it. Our zone leaders are the best.

One thing that I have really learned this week through teaching and through my studies is how connected everything in the gospel is. Everything relates back to Christ and is all so interwoved and interrelated. Things such as faith, hope, and charity. Or repentence, faith, and prayer. Everything builds upon each other and testifies of the other truths that are in the gospel. How cool is that?! I can have faith that the entirety of the gospel is true because all of the pieces fit together and point to the Savior. I love my Redeemer Jesus Christ and know that He is the Son of God. Because of Him, everything we do as missionaries will be worth it. I am working to see all of the people I teach and talk to as he does, and it makes a huge difference. The work is great! Every day is a great day as a missionary.

 

Love,

Sister Marchant

 

 

Hello President Castro!******
It has been a great week. Thank you so much for your council and love at Mission President Interviews. I felt the Spirit so strong throughout the hours we were being trained by you and the Sister Training Leaders. We have such great leaders in this mission and I am always rejuvinated and encouraged when I hear from all of them. Thank you so much for believing in us and supporting us through all of our efforts. Together we can do miracles for the Lord!
Every week seems to go faster and faster. I cannot believe it is already Preparation Day again! The days are zooming by.
This week we taught our investigator Leonard, Lauren, Paul, the Ruiz family, and a recent convert, Sister Johnston.
Leonard is doing well. We had a lesson planned with him earlier in the week that fell through. We came back later in the week to visit him again. It was a miracle that we found him because we actually had to change our plans a little bit and visited him later than planned. He was not home but we saw him walking home from work as we were leaving his trailer park. I know that God is in this work because we would not have found him if we had done what we wanted to do originally! We had a great lesson with him and planned another one where we will teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ later on next week. We asked him how he was feeling about his baptism that is planned for a few weeks and he said he hasn't received a firm answer yet but that he is very willing to pray and ponder on it this week. He has a good heart and I know that the power of the gospel can really bless his life.
We met Lauren while knocking last week. She has been through some rough times and right now has an unstable relationship with her family. We taught her the Restoration this week and she had a lot of sincere questions. She has not been very religious for a long time but now has realized that she needs God's help in her life and is willing to come to Him. I can tell she has real intent and really wants to become better. We think she can go really far, but the only problem is that she is moving to Las Vegas next week. We exchanged phone numbers and will hopefully be able to refer her to missionaries in her new area when we find out exactly where she will be living.
We taught Paul a lesson on prayer again this week. He is having some bad pressure from his family to stop meeting with us and is wavering on his testimony. He will not tell us much, but he did pray this week and is still searching for answers. Paul has been taught a long time and we might drop him after our next lesson if he will not act or keep his commitments. This week Sister Johnston came to our lesson. She was a HUGE help and really related to him so much better than we could. I have really seen the power of member-present lessons this week. They can make all the difference.
We finally met the Ruiz family! Wahoo! They are so great. There was actually a wrong address listed in our area book and they were not returning calls, so we had trouble finding where they lived. But this week we decided to knock around close to where their address was listed and we knocked into them! They are such a kind and happy family. Rihanna (17) is excited about the gospel and really wants to learn more. Paul and Sandy (dad and mom) and their sons Gabe and Noah are also willing to hear our message and I think they could become progressing investigators very soon. We will be praying a lot for them this week. We are teaching a lesson on following the prophet and inviting them to come to General Conference this weekend. I think this could really be a turning point in their understanding and acceptance of the gospel. We also found a member couple to come with us to their lesson this week who we think will be a really great fit for them. Our Heavenly Father is helping make it possible for us to meet and teach his prepared children. I have really come to know that everyone we teach is important to Him.
We have started to create a very trusting relationship with Sister Johnston. She has been through just about everything difficult possible in this life, but now has a true desire to repent and change. I love hearing her extremely strong testimony of the truth of this gospel and of the Holy Ghost. She can recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost strongly in her life and is striving with all of her heart to come closer to God. She came to the Relief Society Broadcast last Saturday and is excited to come to General Conference this week. She is also planning on officially quitting smoking again this weekend. I know this will be extremely difficult for her, but I also know that huge blessings come from following the prophet and keeping the commandments. I believe that this weekend will be a weekend of miracles for her and for all of our investigators who are touched and taught by the messages of Conference.
Speaking of which, I have never been more excited to go to General Conference in my life! After teaching about the Restoration of modern-day revelation and prophets for the past month, hearing the words of our prophet and apostles means so much more to me. I never want to miss a session of Conference for as long as live, for I now appreciate a lot more the importance of their words and how much they can bless our lives. This Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is inspired and directed by God Himself. I know we will be greatly strengthened this weekend.

Thank you President!
Sister Marchant

Hello Hello Hello!!!

This week went by pretty quick. It took me a while to transition into the missionary schedule last week so that I wasn't tired all the time but now I am feeling great. We walk a lot without having a car all the time and are getting pretty tan and buff. I am slowly trying to get ready for the super sun of Brazil.

The weather of this town is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. It is pretty much perfect every day with lots of sun and just a few little wispy clouds, but this wind is ridiculous! I have never felt so much wind every single day in my life. Last night we were woken up multiple times by this huge storm, but no, there wasn't any rain or thunder or anything, just super loud wind shaking our little apartment. Wierd stuff. But it makes walking easy because we never have to take an umbrella or jacket. I can see why California is such a desirable place to live.

Last week I think I forgot to tell you that we are actually whitewashing this area. It has been interesting trying to get to know everyone and get in contact with all of our investigators (that has been one of the hardest parts of getting started. Lots of the sisters' previous investigators will not answer their phones ever or return calls. Hopefully that will change this week), especially since we are both relatively new missionaries. But we are working hard and getting to know names and faces little by little. The ward is still super supportive even though they do not know us and loved the last sisters that just left.

We were able to go a baptism this week!!! It was for a man named Vince Long who is going to the Singles Ward now so he was baptized by the elders over the third ward. He was actually knocked into weeks ago by Sister Cusick herself so this was a pretty big event for her. I felt the Spirit stronger there I might say than I have the whole time I have been out in the field. It gave us something exciting to work towards and showed me just how much joy can come from this gospel. The Church is so true! I love watching people learn about these things and working with them to help them change. The other missionaries in our district are all great and hardworking, and I know with this army of missionaries we can do miracles.

 

I love you all,

 Sister Marchant

 

 P.S. Thanks so much to Emma and Aunt Marty for your great letters! I got them last Saturday. Also thanks for all of the wonderful emails I recieved from the fam and especially Grandma! You are the bestest.

 

 

Hello President Castro,****** (these stars mean how many times we exercised this week)
It has been a wonderful week. Sister Cusick and I are working hard together and the time is going by fast. I feel much more accostumed to the jobs and schedule of missionary life. There is a lot to take in but Sister Cusick is very helpful and is teaching me well. She is a great missionary.

This week we had a few really great lessons. We are still teaching Leonard who is a older single man. We taught him the Plan of Salvation this week and set him with a baptismal date! He still seems a little bit unsure but accepts what we teach and is willing to learn more. This was my first time teaching the Plan of Salvation in the mission field so it was really helpful to me. There is so much wonderful knowledge in that lesson that I often take for granted because I have known it all my life. I am grateful for the chance to teach the basics and relearn all of these fundamental doctrines along with our investigators.
We also taught Paul again about prayer and a little about tithing. He is struggling to keep commitments and we are worried he is losing his motivation to learn. He is having problems with the Word of Wisdom and with pressure from his family not to meet with us. We will continue to try to help him stay strong and pray that he will regain his desire he once had to come closer to Christ. We will see him again on Friday and hopefully be able to sort everything out.
We had our first lesson with our new investigator Frankie this week. He is also an older, single man but has a lot of support from his two daughters and grandkids. We met him street contacting and then came back to his house on Friday to teach the Restoration. He seemed to accept it all well except he doesn't think he has the ability to pray with us. We will continue to teach him about prayer and about its importance in receiving a testimony. He liked the idea of there being prophets all throughout time. He also told us that he feels like he can be as spiritual as he needs to be at home and feels no need to come to church. He has a very strong connection with his family so I think when we teach him the Plan of Salvation this week he will be more receptive to us and see the importance of the gospel to his life. We are trying to change our lesson plans and have been EDPEPing to apply especially to him, and I think this will help us to be able to teach more to his needs.
We also had a lesson with Jose and his family this week! This lesson went really well and we are excited to teach them again. Jose, his wife Maria, their daughter, and their friend were all there for most of the lesson. We taught about prophets a lot and about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. Jose had been meeting with the Jehovah Witnesses in the past and said he was willing to discuss religion but that they couldn't answer all of his questions. I think it will be comparatively easier to make return appointments with them than with some of our other investigators because they are very open and are still searching for which church is right for them. Maria and her daughter are going to a Christian church in the area and are really pushing for Jose to come to any church as well. Jose doesn't go to church and is still trying to decide if he even believes God exists. Our lesson with them this week went really well and they asked some great questions. We are planning on teaching them again soon to teach a lot from the Book of Mormon and to hopefully commit them to baptism. Of all of our investigators we have so far, I am most excited about this family. We do not know them super well yet but I believe that they can change.
We had a lesson with a recent convert, Michelle Johnston, yesterday. She hasn't been coming to church in a while and has had some really difficult problems going on in her personal life the past few weeks, but we finally got a hold of her this week and she is starting on the path back to reactivity. She relapsed into coffee and smoking recently after going a long time without it. She has such a strong desire to change and wants to do what is best for her daughter. She is receiving a lot of pressure and grief from her extended family that is making it hard for her to stay focused, but she is definitely making some very important steps to come back to the church. She received a blessing yesterday, and talked to us a lot about her needs and how she could tell a huge difference when she had the Spirit versus when she feels when she is smoking. We know she can change and are trying to help her in every way possible to get her life back on track. We know she can do it.
We are slowly starting to get to know this area now! We found a few new investigators this week and are getting to know the members better. It was a little frustrating for me at the beginning because it was a lot to take in and I am bad at remembering names, but as we are having dinners with members and interacting more with the ward I am starting to feel more comfortable. Sister Cusick and I are also becoming closer as a companionship and working better in unity. She teaches me every day and I know it was inspired to have us serve together. Everything else is going great! We were able to go to the baptism of Vince Long this week which was a super spiritual experience and was great to see the major happiness that can come from doing this work. We are ready to continue to work hard and find more people to bring to the waters of baptism. This gospel is so true! My testimony has definitely grown of the importance of this work this week and the wonderful blessings that can come from it.
Thanks for all you do,
Sister Marchant

Hello My Wonderful Family!!!

I am here in California!!! I have never seen a more beautiful place. It is perfect, sunny weather every day and there are more flowers than I have ever seen in my life growing everywhere. Every day is a good day in the California Ventura Mission. Before I tell you anything else, here is my mailing information. If you feel so inclined, please mail everything to the mission home address here and then they will forward it on to our apartment address in San Luis Obispo the same day. Also for packages, please send them in by US mail (first class or priority) not through UPS or any other carrier or we have to wait until transfers to pick them up. Also they have asked that anything you send is addressed with our full names (Sister Eliza Marchant).

 

California Ventura Mission

3301 West Gonzales Road

Oxnard, CA 93036

 

Ok, thanks for getting all of that down. Now for the good stuff: I am serving in the San Luis Obispo 2nd Ward with none other than Sister Cusick! (She knows one of the Sisters in my district in the MTC (Sister Vanhoven) and also lived in Frankford, Kentucky for a few years. Does that name ring a bell Andersons? We figured out that we apparently played games in the basement of the Andersons together at Ben's Farewell. Who knew our lives would cross so much again? The Lord works in mysterious ways and has a sense of humor) Sister Cusick is from St. Augustine, Florida and actually worked in the San Luis Obispo 1st ward for the last two transfers, so she knows many of the people there. She has been out for three months and is an excellent tranier. I love working with her so much! She is a great example at being extremely obedient to all of the mission rules and schedule. She is very hard-working and patient with me with any questions or concerns that I have. We have been doing a lot of EDPEPing (Explain, Demonstrate, Practice, Evaluate, and rePractice (aka roleplaying)) lately, especially as part of the 12-week training program. It has been very helpful and I feel like I am learning a ton from Sister Cusick everyday.

We only have half an hour to email here so I can't write much but I will attach my letter to our Mission President, President Castro. He is softspoken but very kind and I know he will lead us in righteousness. I also will try to send pictures next week if I can. There is no news on the visa but apparently as soon as I get it I will be leaving to Brazil the same week. I'll definitely keep you updated. Sorry I really want to write more but really have to go! Feel free to ask me any questions you might have, and if you want me to answer anything in the same week please bold or highlight them in your weekly emails (I usually just print off your emails and read them later). I love you all and love being a missionary!

 

Love,

Sister Marchant

 

 

Hello President Castro! 

It has been a great week in the San Luis Obispo 2nd Ward! I feel so blessed to be assigned to this mission and this area. Sis. Cusick is an amazing trainer. She is so kind and patient. Our 12-week training program is going really well, and I know I am learning new things every day. We have been doing a lot of EDPEPs and praciticing with our investigators in mind. Our personal and companionship studies have been very investigator focused as well. This is something I was not very good at at the MTC but that I am really learning to apply. My studies have been increasingly more meaningful throughout the week. We also have been doing Portuguese language studies. I have been reviewing a lot of what we studied at the beginning of the MTC and it is encouraging to know that I still remember almost everything. Overall we have been working hard each day. Sister Cusick is a great example of following all of the mission schedule and rules with exactness. I feel very safe and obedient when I work with her. I love learning and talking with people with Sister Cusick.
We have found a few new investigators this week! We have been doing a lot of knocking and done multiple doorstep Restoration lessons. Something I have really been working on is moving straight into the Restoration and teaching the entire lesson when we first meet people. The doctrine in the Restoration of the gospel is so powerful! I feel the Spirit with us every time we teach that lesson and I know that when we teach with our whole souls, the Spirit will carry the message into the hearts of those we teach.
We had a short lesson with Paul Berry this week. He has been investigating the church for a long time and has been taught by multiple missionaries. We taught him about the law of tithing and invited him to read 2 Nephi 32. He is concerned that he cannot afford to pay tithing and I do not think he understands the blessings he can receive from it. He seems to be at a standstill right now in his testimony, but we are praying for him and continuing to visit him often to see how things are going. We have another lesson with him on Thursday and will hopefully try to stop in one more time earlier in the week.
We are also teaching Lu. He has a baptismal date for the 28th of September and is doing well! He came to church yesterday and was looking great (according to our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Abbott, he was looking better than ever before). He just quit smoking cold turkey last week and we are going to visit him tomorrow to see how that is going and if he is still on the mark for his baptism. We have high hopes for Lu and believe he can do it. We have a few of the commandments left to teach him, but I think he will be able to accept them because he believes that this gospel is true.
We also had our first lesson with Lori this week. She is a friend and coworker of the Krafts, who are strong members in our ward. She had been taught the Restoration a few weeks ago by the previous Sisters, so we were planning on teaching the Plan of Salvation, but when we got there she said she did not remember most of any of it so we retaught the Restoration. She does not seem to understand well the need to pray for an answer about the Book of Mormon, but we explained the power of prayer the best we could and invited her to try to pray again this week with all of her heart. We also invited her to read Moroni 10. She wasn't available to meet with us for another two weeks but we set up another appointment and we are praying that she will feel the Spirit as she reads the Book of Mormon between now and then.
Overall the work is going well. We are working hard and coming home exhausted every night. We worked out with the other Sisters in San Luis Obispo 1st Ward to switch off with the car every other day. That is going well and we are able to accomplish everything we need to. We sent around a calandar this week in Relief Society to ask for rides from the members and they were very willing to help us in this aspect. I know it will work out and we will be stronger because of it. The members in this ward are great. The Ward Mission Plan is amazing. They have called about 15 ward missionaries and then have also called a third of the Ward for four months to be "Ward Mission Families." These families are striving to be more aware of missionary opportunities in their day to day lives and have set a specific date for missionary work. They are praying and searching to find someone to refer to us to teach by that date. This is a relatively new system for their ward but I am excited about it and really think that we will find great success through the help of the members. They are so supportive and have accepted both Sister Cusick and I right into their ward. We will be relying on the members a lot in our teaching and finding goals.
My goals for this next week is to have more effective personal study, and to be braver in street contacting. I could definitely talk to more people as we travel between appointments. Our companionship goals are to invite more people to be baptized and to discuss in more detail how we did after all lessons and declarations. I know that through the help of the Lord we will be able to come closer in our companship and to work better in unity. I know we can teach with more power and authority and we can find more people to teach. I am excited to keep working so that I can teach more effectively and that I can help our lessons flow better. There is so much to learn on a mission! I am so grateful that I was assigned to work with Sister Cusick because she can teach me everything that is important for me to know and do in this work. More than ever before, I know that this is the work of God and that I am exactly where I am meant to be at this exact time of my life. The Lord is in complete control and will lead us to those who are prepared to hear His word!

Thanks for all that you do,
Sister Marchant

Oi minha família!

I hope things are going well for all of you! Life at the MTC is as good as ever. Every day seems to go faster and faster. I have officially been a missionary for a full month! Where does all the time go?

Last Tuesday for devotional Elder Anderson came! He spoke on love and sacrifice. He said "you sacrifice for the things you love the most, and you love the things you sacrifice the most for." That is so true. One of my favorite quotes has always been "nothing worth having comes easy", and this is ever so true as a missionary. The most life changing moments and experiences take a lot of work on your part. This week has been especially inspirational for me. I have been thinking a lot about my relationship with God and how I can better follow His will for me. I am working to sanctify myself and be completely worthy for whatever the Lord would have me do. It is a long work in progress, but I am slowly starting to become the missionary I want to be. The MTC prepares you so well. This is the best schooling I have ever had. It will be hard to leave this holy, wonderful place.

After the devotional they held us over for about 20 minutes because there was a thunderstorm going on outside. It made me very happy and reminded me of home:). Eventually they just let us loose and we all ran from the Marriott Center back to campus. It was pretty funny to see all these missionaries running around like crazy and getting soaked. If we can't go to Brazil, Brazil will come to us! This is only the beginning of being completely soaked with no where to go put straight into the rain. Bring on Brazil!

Speaking of which, no news on the visa yet. We get our reassignments (or visas) on Friday! I won't know anything until then about where I'll be for the next few months. I will most likely be reassigned somewhere stateside and leave on Monday, but some people have been leaving as early as Saturday. There is so much suspense! I am really excited to find out. It's like receiving another mission call. I will get to have one more preparation day the day before I leave so I will let you know all the details as soon as possible. Who knows, maybe I'll be seeing some of you soon...I could go anywhere in the whole US!

We had the chance to actually skype with a Brazilian this week! His camera wasn't working so we couldn't see him, but we could hear him and he could see us. That was an interesting experience. Real Brazilian Portuguese is very different that MTC Portuguese. We didn't understand very much of what he said, but we did get a few words here and there. It was still a good experience and sweet to talk to an actual native. He was from São Paulo and is a life-long member. It was definitely motivating to make me want to study as hard as I can to learn this language. It is so beautiful and I want to get it down so I can teach from my heart. What a better motivation to learn a language than to teach others the gospel of the Lord! He is helping us through this and blessing us with the gift of tongues. It is coming slowly, but I love it to death. I can at least understand pretty much everything our teachers say in class now. They speak a lot of the lessons entirely in Portuguese now, and I love sitting back and listening to them speak. I learn so much just from hearing them. And big news: we received a new teacher this week! Irmao Chamberlain had to drop a district this week because school started. We are going to miss him a lot. We are especially going to miss teaching Vander! He was doing so great and is supposed to be baptized this week. He keeps all of his commitments like you would not believe. This week for one of our lessons we taught him about tithing. When we showed him a tithing slip he asked if he could have it, and took out money and filled it out right during the lesson! I could not ask for a more committed, loyal investigator. He soaked up everything we taught him and didn't really have problems with anything. I wish all investigators were that receptive! When we told him we were being transferred, if you will, he was super sad and said he would miss us a lot. We had a little mini testimony meeting during that last lesson. He told us this neat story how after going to his mom's church and being offended how the Spirit felt wrong there, he had prayed and the next day we showed up. These investigators that we teach now are real investigators that our teachers once had on their missions, so it was neat to think of how that must of really happened and how it must have felt to be in those missionaries' shoes. What an awesome experience! Vander is the man, and it was such a blessing to teach him.

Our new teacher is named Irmão Rodriguez. He hasn't taught us yet but he came in to meet us yesterday. He is actually a Brazilian from São Paulo. It will be way helpful to be taught by him since he knows all the little details of Portuguese and the Brazilian culture. I hope we can learn as much as possible from him.

This week a lot of new faces came in. I ran into Elder Ayer the other day, and Elder Marchant's (the 18 year old that used to be in Montgomery Ward) classroom is actually at the end of our hall. I have also seen Elder Bryant a bunch of times. He is in the same Brazilian building as us too. There are so many amazing people here right now! It is fun to see so many familiar faces.

Sundays are always the best. This week was Fast Sunday so we had a big Mission Conference in the morning. Most of the MTC Presidency spoke. They talked a lot about obedience and repentance. It was one of the best meetings for me since we've been here. I have really found that I am so much more effective and have the Spirit with me stronger when I am obedient. We can't teach without the Spirit and we will not have the Spirit with us if we are disobedient. I made a new goal this week to follow all the mission rules and commandments of God to the best of my ability, and like they said in one of their talks, to "be more obedient than you think you need to be". The Spirit filled me right up so that I wasn't even very hungry all day. That doesn't happen to me very often on Fast Sundays! In Sacrament Meeting I shared my testimony in Portuguese! That was a neat first-time experience. I could actually do it! Then to top it off we went and watched Character of Christ again for our Sunday Night Video. It couldn't have been a much better Sabbath.

So on to all of my music events of the week. I found out in the mail that I will be playing my piano solo tomorrow for the New Missionary Meeting. This is the first meeting any of the newcomers have as soon as they come to the MTC. I'm a little nervous because I'll be playing for hundreds of people, but I think it's ready. What an amazing opportunity! I played the accompaniment to the EFY Medley for the departing district last week in Sacrament Meeting, and this week our district and one other that is leaving is singing Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing for our musical number. That is one of my favorite songs ever and it is coming along pretty well. We have a lot of good singers among the 22 of us. It's fun to be doing this with so many other missionaries. Last Sunday I was also called to be the Branch Music Coordinator! It's a little silly because it is only for two Sundays, but it was still a pretty neat job to have. (I was called last week and will be released this week! Shortest calling ever). I basically just pick the hymns, chorister, and pianist. Even if it is for such a short time, it still gives me the excuse to get to play the piano a few more times:).

One quick funny story: So my companion Sister Shipp is really quiet and pretty much everything she does is cute, so the sisters in our district have been calling her Sister Bonitinha for the past three weeks. The word for cute in Portuguese is bonitinha according to our dictionaries...but apparently not in real life. We called her that one time in class and our teacher was like, I don't think that means what you think it means. He explained that bonitinha is used for someone who is usually ugly but in this rare occasion happened to do something cute. I don't know how that much information can get into one word, but then there's a lot about Portuguese that I still don't understand. I about died from laughing so hard. Needless to say, Sister Shipp is no longer Sister Bonitinha.

One scripture I've been thinking a lot about lately is Matthew 7:16-23. We really have to show forth the fruits through our actions. To really have faith, we have to act on it. To say we are "active" members of the church, we have to be acting on what we believe 24 hours a day. I hope I can be a good example to the people I teach through righteous actions, regardless of what situation I'm put in.

Well, the days are zooming by! Before I know it I'll be in the mission field! Everything is working out great and like a member of our bishopric says, everything is happy, happy, happy! There are so many great people here who teach me so many valuable lessons. I love this school!

I miss and love you,

Síster Marchant