O Maior Felicidade!

January 26, 2015

Hello meu povo! Wow, it's incredible, I knew this whole week that you guys were on a cruise bumming around, doing who knows what (apparently being bit by jelly fish, sweeet!) But still, I didn't have any desire to be on a cruise instead of right here in Piraquara doing exactly what I'm doing:) 

There's a part of our call letter that says that doing this work will bring the greatest happiness that I have ever known, as I strive to work with all of my heart, might, mind and strength serving the Lord and bringing His children unto Him.

Let me tell you all about the greatest part of my week and how I really saw this part of my letter being fulfilled. So I think it was Tuesday night that Sis. Dias and I were planning for our day on Wednesday. We were talking about which Recent Convert we thougth we should visit in the morning and I said Celso. A little bit earlier we had talked about who we had as a possibility to be baptized this week because we hadn't had any investigators at chuch last week. When we were talking about Celso I rememberd his nephew that lives with him that we had already taken to church and taught and even invited to be baptized. It turns out that he passed the interview but ran away the morning of the baptism not feeling worthy etc. A little bit later he was taught by some others sisters and he did the exact same thing. When I thought of him I thought, " yeah, but I don't really think he has any chance, he'll just do the same thing again." We planned to visit him if he was there but I honestly didn't have very much hope-like any actually. The next mornig our DL called saying that the night before he had thought of a young man that he had interviewed but was never baptized. Wow!  Sis Dias told him that I had thought about him the night before too. . . . When we got there the next day he was there but didn't even want to talk to us and just stayed in his room. We taught the lesson to Celso but were teaching Luiz (his name) at the same time,knowing that he was listening. We finished and left, I was thinking, " I knew nothing was going to come of that." After about 5 min. of walking someone said something behind us, he was following us! We ended up kind of giving him a lesson while walking and told him that Heavenly Father was giving him LOTS of chances in not very much time and that we were here again to help him be baptized if he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. He said he wanted to prepare. Wahoo!! I was still really skeptical because I knew what had happened the last couple of times and that he had lots of difficulties, with addictions, bad friends etc. and didn't know if he was lying to us about his situation now etc. Anway, everyone was all excited and I was just having a hard time and was pretty doubtful. The next morning for personal study I was studying for scriptures that we could share with him and I read in Mosiah 26.  And because thou hast inquired of me concerning thetransgressor, thou art blessed.

 20 Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalthave eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in myname, and shalt gather together my sheep.

 21 And he that will hear my voice shall be my sheep; and himshall ye receive into the church, and him will I also receive.

 22 For behold, this is my church; whosoever is baptized shall bebaptized unto repentance. And whomsoever ye receive shallbelieve in my name; and him will I freely forgive.

 23 For it is I that taketh upon me the sins of the world; for it is Ithat hath created them; and it is I that granteth unto him thatbelieveth unto the end a place at my right hand.

 24 For behold, in my name are they called; and if they know me they shall come forth, and shall have a place eternally at my right hand.

And then: 

30 Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.

WOw. When I read this I knew that it was for me! I felt the Spirit confirm to my soul that this young man had truly been prepared this time, that he was ready and we were there to help him progress!

I cannot describe how cool it has been to see him change over these last couple of days. Even before he was baptized he was changing, a little bit better every single day. He told us the reason he wants to be baptized is because he wants more peace in his life, he wants to change and improve is life. Perfect. That is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Peace. Hope. Change. He knows so little doctrinely speaking but he knows what he has he feels, and that is what matters. 

When he was baptized yesterday he left the water looking kind of shocked and out of it, (I personaly thought he got water up his nose and was thinking what a bummer that was) But he told us that he felt that there was a heaviness that had left his chest, that he felt, light and happy. Yaaaay!

I love being a missionary. With all of my heart. Sometimes when I read my call letter about having more happiness than I have ever experienced and I'm sick or sad or discouraged I wonder what the letter is talking about. . . but then I have experiences like this (and many times they are much smaller, just little, lovely moments:) and the happiness makes up for whatever pain or sadness I experienced.

This truly is the Lord's work. He wants us to change, it is so possible! He's there just waiting, waiting! And sometimes he  puts 3 sets of missionaries in our paths to show us!

I love you all, I hope that you are making it a priority to read the Book of Mormon every single day so that Heavenly Father can communicate with you like He wants to:)

Loooove,

Sister Ventura

p.s-last Sunday Irma Teca asked me, "Sister, sister, do you really almost have 9 months here?" Yup:) "Hmmm, do you think that your President forgot about you here??!" hahha and every Sunday about 4 members ask me if I think that President will let me finish my mission here. . . . Prooobably not, but hey! Who knows!

p.p.s Well, The guy at this lanhouse is being way less than helpful so I will have to send pics of Natlahy, and Luiz and my new comp next week! it will happen!

Solzão

19 January 2015

Hello my people. Ok, can I just say that if I EVER thought I knew what it was to be dying of heat I was sadly, sadly mistaken? All of a sudden (well a few weeks ago) the summer started. Wow. 7:00 in the morning it's already suuper hot without a cloud in the sky and you just start to sweat and don't ever stop until you take a cold shower, and when you get out of the shower you start sweating again! (and no one has air conditioning!) It's nuts. So that has been fun. I hope you're all enjoying the snow. . . .

This week was transfers and we thought we were going to get two more sisters her in Piraquara but we just got one, so we're STILL in a trio! And dad, you were probably joking when you asked what my knew comp has. . . .but really she is getting her kidney stones taken out tomorrow. . . . Gah!

This last week we were working with a 13 year girl named Natalie who has been living with her  cousins who are a married couple and have been helping her because her parents basically abandoned her. Every time we would go over she had read the part we left with her in the B.O.M, and had talked with her cousins about everything. She has been so open and willing! It's amazing how much you can come to love and know  people in such a short time:) We had to call her crazy mom to get permission for her to be baptized and had to record her giving permission to be able to send to Salt Lake, it was an interesting experience because the connection was bad and I think she was drunk but Natalie had already called her days before asking for permission, without us even telling her she needed to! She was baptized yesterday and it was awesome:) She was really excited and is already making friends in the ward with the other Y.W ( that part is SO important!) In our first lesson with her Sis. Dias was saying the First Vision and I just felt the  Spirit so strongly bear witness to me that this is true! I love that, As I am seeking Heavenly Father is constantly bearing witness to me through His Spirit that the things that I am teaching and doing are true. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost! It was very cool :)

Another cool experience was almoço with a member who is a recent convert of about years and who's son left on a mission just about a month ago. It is amazing to see the cange in her and her family. All of a sudden her willingess to help us is so much greater, she's happier, her testimony is already much stronger and she is SO excited about what her son is doing! It's really amazing the impact that this work can have on so many people. It gave me hope because sometimes when you're walking on a long dirt road and feel like you're going to die or you question what you are doing, or no one wants to listen, or all of your recent converts don't show up on the same Sunday etc. etc. you wonder if you are making a difference. So it's so beautiful to see the change in this family after just one month of having a full-time missionary out:)

I want you guys to know that I KNOW that this Gospel is true, was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and is the only way to live with our Heavenly Father again. The little things every single day are so very important, we need spiritualy sustenance  to keep us going every day, various times per day-https://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#daily-bread-experience

I love you guys! Thank you for the prayers!

Looove,

Sister Ventura 

Super p-day last week!!  Wahoo, normal clothes! This is with sister Fabian who stayed with us in a trio for 2 weeks, she's going home this Wednesday! Crazy! SO many people are going home!

 We were able to go to the Temple this past Wednesday with Sister Frisbie!! ( She's going home today ) She only stayed with us for 1 week but I truly love her so very much. She has to go home a little bit early because of a surgery she had to do here that went really wrong so she has to go home and do everything again. I have never met someone so strong and positive and still able to laugh and joke around with circumstances so rough. And she has a pretty rough situation waiting for her at home too, she's taught me a lot in a very short time. I love serving a mission and meeting such great people! 

With my dear Sister Dias!

So. Cool story. My comp has crutches right? ( Just until this Friday!) So we try to avoid long walking distances at all costs. When we have district meeting every Tuesday the onibus stops in front of this huge shopping market ( do we say that??) and we have to walk all the way across this ginormous parking lot to get to the church. Well, this last Tuesday was the second time we did this haha. The first time we got off the bus, looked around at our resouces and then at each other. .. we knew what needed to happen. She was kind of embarrassed ( I don't know why. . . .;) and was hoping that none of the other missionaries would see us. On the way there-not a problem. After the meeting? All of a sudden a huge group of elders emerged from behind some cars and started taking pictures and laughing their heads off. . . poor thing! Now they always ask us, " Sis. Ventura, you're going to push her back in the shopping cart right??" Hahah it's great :)

Let's just say that this was a contact on the bus done right:) Hahah We were on the onibus returning to Piraquara and I talked with the lady that was sitting next to me the whole way. I had started the conversation asking about the roses, turns out a bride had left them at the hotel that she works at and so they were up for grab. When I was about to get off she said she wanted to give me one but when I went to leave she handed me the whole bouquet! I told here that one was good and that she should keep them etc. but she wouldn't have it. She asked me to please pray for her family and that she wanted to give these to me from the bottom of her heart. Ok. not always, but sometimes a perk of being a missionary is getting a lovely bouquet of red roses :) <3 I took this pic and the we gave them to the lady for our next appointment and she was sooo happy. She said it had been so long since the last time that someone had given her a roses:) Lovely, lovely.

The touch of the fish=9 (whoever figures this riddle out wins!)

12 January 2015

Well, hello my dears! So not a lot to say this time but the pictures make up for it right? Right.

So, we found out about transfers this week annnnnd (get ready for it!) I'm staying here! Wow. I am literally going to serve 1/2 of my mission right here pin Piraquara! I can't believe it! But I'm really happy about it:) It's going to be great, our chapel is finally going to be done at the end of this month and we won't have to drive 1/2 to get to church anymore, it's going to increase the attendance so much!! And we got a new ward mission leader who is so excited about the work and is really willing to work hard and do what it takes to work with the ward and improve etc. But sadly Sis. Dias and I aren't going to stay together:( We're staying in the same house though, so that will be a party, but we're both going to get new comps tomorrow. The WORST part is waiting and wondering about who your new companion is going to be! 

Like you know from the pictures that we sent we were able to go the Temple this past week! It was so very lovely! It was such a little miracle too because ever since I became companions with Sister Garcia I was SO excited that I would be able to go with her and then was too sick. When Sis. Dias and I became companions we wanted to go to the Temple together but it never worked out. About 2 weeks ago I started praying that somehow I would be able to go to the Temple with Sis. Dias. A week ago, we got Sis. Frisbie and she found out she would have to go home early and so President told her that she could go in this group of departing missionaries! So we all went to the Temple together! Wow, being able to go to the Temple is such a blessing and a privilege, I cannot believe how blessed we are to have one here just about an hour away and at home just 5 minutes away! Take advantage of the Temple!

This little experience was another reminder that Heavenly Father DOES answer our prayers. He WANTS to give us the righteous desires of our hearts no matter how small. When He can, just like an earthly parent, He grants us these desires simply because He loves us and wants us to be happy. Our part? We have to ask! I've been learning a lot about that lately, how so many times we don't have all of the blessings that are available to us simply because we haven't asked specifically! (Mosiah 23: 20-29)

I love you guys! I love Piraquara! I love Brazil! I love being a missionary, I love this Gospel and I love my Savior:)

Have a splendid week!

Loooove,

Sister Ventura :)

P.S Thursday was my 1 year mark and Sis. Frisbie made us a fun dinner of yum

This picture was posted by someone in Brazil and tagged on Adrienne's facebook page.  It is lovely to occasionally get a sneak peak in to her life there.  

Same story with this one.  Apparently, they eat like this at member's houses every day.  Wow.  Maybe this will make up for the bug-bite scars on her ankles . . .

Christmas present from Diner! ( our awesome, recent convert:) There were so many sweet members that gave us little Christmas presents, and they were all food! Aaah! This is called a Panettone. It's this cylinder loaf of bread thing that everyone eats only during Christmas and Easter. They have kinds with little pieces of fruit that I think looks nasty but others with chocolate and all sorts of good stuff. It's pretty tasty. I wanted to send one to you guys in the package that I didn't send! Don't worry, i ate plenty for you ;)

The last ornament of the 12 days of Christmas! Thanks so much for that package Mom, it was so fun :)

One of my favorite families! Their son is serving a mission right now too! They gave us cookies and milk for Christmas :) Krey man, that kid behind me is the one i told you about, My brazillian brotha :) 

O Maior Presente

5 January 2015

Well hello my dear ones! I am writing to you in the year 2015! How crazy is that? I wanted to tell you guys a little bit about how I spent Christmas and New Year's here, because it was awesome!

-Christmas-here Christmas isn't really nearly as big of deal especially 25 of December, it's basically just another break from work. Most of the celebrating happens on 24 of December at night. We went to Irma Teca's house for Jantar (dinner) and were able to stay out until 11:00 waaaaahoooo! It was crazy, they had all of thery kids and spouses over and it was just nuts. This family is like a Brazillian version of the Mackley family. ... hhaha except that Brazillians are just crazier in general and it was so great! And we just ate and ate! Here eating is really a huge part of the culture, except not in the Parisian sense but just in the sense that they love to eat and they eat a lot ( all of that etiquette stuff? Who needs it?) They also do tons of fireworks here on Christmas Eve and New Years and we had a grand time of it trying to sleep that night. . . . New Years we had to be in our house by the normal time, 9:30,and so we just stayed outside on our doorstep until 10:00 watching the fireworks annnnnd I'm going to be honest it was pretty. .... yes the word would be unexciting haha. Then we tried to sleep with fireworks continually going off and I finally managed to at like 11:30 ( sister Dias never did!) and then at midnight it was like the whole world was celebrating the beginning of a new year or something and there was no chance of sleeping. We tried to watch the fireworks out of our bedroom window but there happend to be a giant wall behind our house. ... bummer sauce! Oh well! And theeeen I went back to sleep.

But I wanted to talk a little bit more about my Christmas. I don't remember If I already said this but, spiritually speaking, really remembering and celebrating the TRUE meaning of Christmas this was my best one. I think because it was almost without gifts and shopping and decorations but it was full of Christ's love, shown to me by others and felt by me for others.:) I think it was Christmas day that Sis. Dias and i were watching a Christmas DVD that we have and it was showing some scenes from Christ's life and I just felt such a feeling of grattitude and closeness to my Savior. I realized how much closer I've grown to Him this last year of my life. I remembered that when I was still in N.Y there was an Elder that would bear His testimony a lot and always say at the end, " I KNOW that Christ lives, that He is my Savior." I remember thinking, "how can he say that, that he KNOWS something like that??" And I remember that I was a little bit annoyed and wondered if I would ever be able to say something like that. And then when I was watching that movie and thinking about my Christmas I realized that now I can say that, I KNOW that Christ lives! I just know it! I know that He is a living person, a perfect person that knows us and loves us too! I don't know when I came to know but I that is something that I've gained from serving a mission:)

Speaking of serving a mission, when we were realizing how crazy it is that a whole year has already passed, I was thinking about how nuts it is that I spent the entire year as a missionary! So surreal! Definitely the year of my life where I have learned and grown the most in the shortest amount of time. I don't know if the learning curve will ever be as steep again! Wow!

Something else that I've gained from my mission-a knowledge of the power of the Book of Mormon. I wanted to talk to you guys about it when we skyped but forgot, gah! I hope that every single one of you is reading it every single day indiviudally and as a family. We NEED the peace, protection and answers that come from that book. There have been so many times when I was discouraged or confused etc. and I had a thought to just read and I just kept reading and stuyding until I found answers;because they always come:)

-So it's Summer here right? It's weird, all of they kids are on Summer break, it's hot and veeery humind and we're just over here eating peaches, corn, watermelon and srawberries! It's pretty sweet!  Something that's crazy about Summer here is that it rains more than anyother time of the year! It's so crazy. The day can start out with blue skies and sunshine and then out of nowhere it will just start POURING, like the crazieset rain ever that doesn't even exist in Utah and then it just rains so crazy hard for like 15 minutes and they it stops and it's more humid and muggy than before it rains and you're completely wet because when you left the house the last thing you thought of grabbing was an umbrella and then the sun comes out and smiles at you like nothing ever happened. And then if you're lucky it might do the same thing later in the day:) 

Well, that's it for this week folks, I love you! I love you all dearly andl think that you're the bee's knees!

Love,

Sister Ventura