Hello there!

These weeks are zooming by! I cannot believe it is already almost the end of this transfer! It has been fabulous working with Sister Hoggan. I hope we never get transfered.

This week we had a neat experience on Sunday. As you know we have been having lots of problems with getting investigators to come to Church. Sister Hoggan and I did a special fast this week to try to help some specific investigators we have been working with have the motivation and drive to attend Sacrament Meeting this week. We had some great lessons and felt the Spirit strong. A few of our investigators promised to come and we were getting excited. We also have been working a lot with less actives and were able to help a few of them get the motivation to come back to Church. After a bit of a funny morning (we forgot about daylight savings time and woke up at 5:30 instead of 6:30! We got all ready for Church and almost left the house before we realized it. Oops!), we woke up one menos ativo (se chama Christiane. She is awesome and has a super strong testimony) to help her come to Church and made it exactly on time. It turned out that none of our investigators were there, and we were pretty beat. But then after the meetings we had this mini meeting with Bispo Fabio (who is absolutely amazing and does everything wonderfully to make our life great! Basically our one and only link to the ward, but a rock solid link). He had written down the names of every single less active/investigator who came to Church today who usually doesn´t come. It turns out there were two teenage girls who slipped in who we didn´t know about, and also two casals who are part member families. Our ward had 6 investigators in total (1 from the elderes) at Church! It was a huge blessing. It came to teach me to never ever doubt the Lord. He works in mysterious ways and will grant unto us every righteous desire that we have. Our prays and fasting may not be answered exactly how we expect, but they will be answered. I truly believe that our other investigators will start coming in the next few weeks as well. The Lord is watching over us.

We also had a neat experience with a new investigator, Deborah. She is our one faithful aluno de nosso aula de Inglês. It has been going on once a week for about two months now. She is super sweet and has a strong Christian background. She used to sing in her evangelical Church and has an AMAZING voice (that means a lot here too because most Brazilians don´t know how to sing much). She basically has been preparing to be a member of the Church all her life because she doesn´t smoke or drink and is married and wants to pay tithing. When she was younger  (like high school age) she said she didn´t fit in very well because she wanted to have good standards and not have tons of boyfriends. People like Deborah are hard to find! She is a very special soul and I know how much the gospel can bless her life and her family.

I have felt the Spirit super strong this week. He has really led our lessons and helped me to know what to say when I do not know. I few times this week Sister Hoggan or I have opened to a scripture or asked a question that we hadn´t planned beforehand that the other was thinking about saying in the same moment. It is so neat to see the Spirit work strong in our lessons and planning. We are loving serving together and learning a lot. I feel a lot more confident and bold after this transfer and can see my Portuguese improving little by little. I love being a missionary! Campos Eliseos is the best area in the world.

Love you forever,

Sister Marchant

P.S. A few of you have sent me some poems that are really great. Thanks so much for your extra time and service of thinking of me with funny poetry.  :)

Olá Presidente!

Estas semanas estão apressando demais! Não acredito que já seja a última semana da transferência! Campos Eliseos está muito bom e nós estamos trabalhando com felicidade todos os dias. Sister Hoggan é ótima e uma bênção grande em minha vida. Eu tenho aprendido muitas coisas dela inclui como ser mais ousada e feliz em todos os momentos. Ela é uma missionária muito boa e muito dedicada. Espero que eu posso ensinar e trabalhar mais como ela.

Esta semana tivemos algumas lições muito boas. Temos estado estudando sobre o Espírito Santo muito esta semana e eu realmente posso ver o poder do Espírito muito mais. Eu posso reconhecer os sussurros do Espírito mais e acho que isto está liderando nossas lições melhor. Sister Hoggan e eu somos muito unidas e tínhamos ideias semelhantes em muitos momentos. Eu aprecio a importância de seguir o Espírito mais agora e quero ter este poder comigo por minha missão inteira e depois. Nós podemos ter muitos esforços e poderes com o Espírito do Senhor em nosso lado.

Tudo mais está bem e tranquilo. Nós duas somos saudáveis e fortes. Nosso bispo, Bispo Fabio, é absolutamente maravilhosa e está ajudando todos os dias. Tinha muitos mais pessoas na igreja esta semana graças o trabalho dele combinado com nosso com menos ativos. Ao trabalharmos juntos, eu posso ver muitos milagres na nossa ala. Temos muito trabalho fazer! Temos muitas pessoas visitar e estamos muito ocupadas. Eu amo esta obra!

Um abraço,

Sister Marchant