October 6, 2014
Ok, dear family, I have a lot to say this week, so I hope that I can
say it all. None of you will be getting personalized letters:( Soooooory, But i
really want all of you to read THIS letter! I'll do better next week, and
please know that I appreciate your letters ever so much! Coltran buddy, I LOVED
your purple letter with a Brazillian flag, it was the best! I'll write back
next week!
adVENTURA=adventure in Portuguese right? Well, for good reason:)
This past Tuesday we had the craziest adventure ever! So we were headed to this
part of our area that is like 20 minutes away driving so we always take th is
shortcut that is like hiking up and across a bunch of muddiness, more or
less,and some train tracks and the freeway. .. . So we headed off at about 4:00
in the afternoon. Straight into a bunch of evil looking storm clouds. (Yes,
there was a predicted rain storm.. . . )When we were about 1/2 of the way there
(our app.) It started pouring. I have never seen anything like it in my life! I
had my little polk a dot umbrella and Sis. Cox had nothing. Cara. Within about
1 minute or less we were absolutely, soaking wet. I am not exagerrating my
friends. EVERYTHING. but we were already 1/2 there and really far away from our
house. . . . .so we kept going, there wasn't anything else to do! We were
screaming, laughing, and crying at the same time as we climbed up a giant hill
and across the freeway. We finally got to our app. ringing out our clothes with
mascara dripping faces. Those poor people. The lady insisted that we switch
into a dry skirt at least so that was nice of her. It was like 6:00 so we still
had 3 hours before we could go home and were too far away to go home and swith
clothes a little bit. So what did we do? Taught lessons of course! It finally
got to be 9:00 and we went to the only member's house in that area and they weren't
home. . . so we decided to call for someone else to come and get us. Credito
acabou. . . . . (we ran out of credit!) Seriously, we were still dripping wet,
and didn't know what to do. .. . so with chattering teeth we asked our newest
friend Joao Beuno if we could borrow his little wooden bench to sit and wait
for a miracle. So we sat, and dripped and planned for the next day. . . and
waiiiited. And then at 9:20 that member drove by! Miracle! Man, I wish you guys
could have seen me! It was so crazy!
Alright so "classic Mun" moment here: So, noses in
portuguese= narizes right? And Nuts in portuguese=nozes right? Yes, weeeel, no
matter how hard you try does narizes=nozes in portuguese! This has gotten me
into trouble many times and always makes for everyone laughing their heads off.
For example: A member family was asking my what kinds of cakes I do and don't
like ( for my b-day) me," Yeah, well, the only kinds of cakes I don't like
are cakes with coconut and narizes." *silence* everyone,
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH! Me," hahah. ha." Hahahah oh man. I have to stop and
think every time I want to talk about nozes now;)
Remember all of my stories about these crying suffering woment that
we have found exactly at the right moment? Well, here's # 5: Saturday morning we
were running around trying to gather people for Conference and our apt had
fallen through. We were left with 10 minutes before we needed to head off for
almoço and we didn't have anything to do. We had returned to a road because I
had seen a family I wanted to talk to, they weren't there. Hmmm. We just
stood there in the middle of the road a bit frustrated. I saw 2 women outside a
house. " Vamos la sister?" So we went with the idea of just inviting
them to conference. They didn't really want to talk and I thought, "Ok, so
much for that idea." Sis Cox asked if everything was ok? The only lady
told us that her aunt had just passed away that night, and because of this her
mom was outside crying. Sis Cox asked if we could just enter and say a prayer?
She let us in, we walked in a few steps and I don't really know how but before
I knew it the crying sister was in my arms, holding on to me and sobbing
uncontrollably. Wow. In these situations I feel so unexperience and so
inadequate. But I know that Heavnely places us there with His suffereing
children because he trusts us and that He will use me in spite of my
inexperience and inadequecies. We were able to tell here where her sister is,
and comfort her, and of course invite her and her family to conference promising
them that they would find peace. They didn't show up wich is really sad:( But
I'm glad we were able to help a little bit:)
OK, CONFERENCE!!!! They fixed a little room for the missionaries and
it was awesome:) I loved how they had the different languages and that I could
just switch and listen to the talk in Portuguese! All of our recent converts
were there and 2 investigators:) This is what Conference did for me on a
general scale: Strengthened my KNOWLEDGE that this Gosple is true. I know
it without a shadow of a doubt. I have really gained a very strong testimony in
these past 9 months, i could not have said that before my mission. I love this
church! This time passed soooooo fast. Seriously, I could not believe it! I
felt so close to you guys knowing that you were doing the exact same thing at
the exact same time! I could just hear you mom, saying how "it's true, we
need to do better at morning prayers," and dad saying, " it's pretty
cool that Mun can understand this guy too huh?!" I cannot say a favorit
talk or anything becuase it was all so good but I loved Elder Scott's talk
about the 4 things we need to do every single day to truly understand the
Atonement and have the promised peace and power necessary for these days. Daily
personal and family prayer, scripture STUDY ( "take time!") and
weekly FHE,and going to the Temple frequently. He promised peace and power if
we will do these things, I loved it!
Well, I love you guys! I will write personal letters next week and
the big letterl won't be so long:)
Keep keepin' on!!
Love,
Sister Ventura
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