This first one is at the ward's Festa Junina! (which means, " little June party." All over Brasil they do these, and they all eat certain kinds of food, dress up and have games and music that is like traditionally a braziliian western type of deal (except that I think these traditions come from the north:)

15 June 2015

3 John 1:13-14

13 I had many things to write, but I will not with ink andpen write unto thee:

 14 But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. 

Greet the friends by name.

Sister Ventura :)

A L E G R I A

June 8, 2015

Weeel, my peeps, like you saw from the pics this was another spirit and joy-filled week:)

My love for the Book of Mormon has grown even more, and my realization of how perfect this Gospel is and the plan that Heavenly Father has for us:)

At our mission conference Pres. M's mission and his wife that talked with us are doing their (his 4th) 3rd mission! They said something that I loved, "in the Church of Jesus Christ there doesn't exist retirment! It's a life-long commitment of service!" I never want to stop serving and growing in the church, I plan on doing 3 more missions too:) Whatever shape or size they may be:)

I love you all and love this Gospel:)

Loooove,

Sister Ventura :)

Yay! Today we went into Curitiba today and it was soo much fun! This City is actually really european looking and very beautiful:)

 We ran into Celso in the middle of Curitiba!! It was the coolest miracle EVER. I asked him how he was doing and he told me that he recieved the Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday! It was such a lovely tender mercy for the end of my mission

Lucia at her baptism on Saturday! I'll tell her story in my letter:)

June 1, 2015

OK, well good thing that I already sent 6,000 words to you guys right??

This week went be sooooo fast, I really cannot believe it! But it was really great:) 

On Saturday we were just out chugging a long and things were going a bit slow but all of a sudden our L.D called and said, hey, our zone is doing a contest, whoever does the most contacts in the next hour is going to win a pizza! GO, GO, GO! Hahah, all of a sudden we kind of woke up, and were motivated as I'll get out! We decided to go the Avenida Paraná, a really busy part of our area, and we all split up (we we could still see each other of course!) And talked to EVERYONE. It was so much fun! People are so hilarious and weird and nice :) It really was such a blast and a good reminder that missionary work is FUN! 

Lucia: I met her when I first got to this area, she's Kelim's and Kelvyn's mom! She's actually the only person on my mission that I felt that I was actually predestined to help, that I for sure knew her before this life. But I didn't know what to do because she was working every single Sunday and wasn't able to go to church every, so I didn't know how I was going to help her! But, this last Sunday we felt that we should return to the Capella to talk with a recent convert and when we got there Lucia was leaving all dressed in Sunday clothes because she had gone to the afternoon ward and told us she had gone there looking for us! I asked her why, and her daughter responded saying, " my mom wants to be bapitzed now, what does she do??!" Oh man! She had quit her job and was looking for another one because she felt that the time had arrived and she couldn't stand not going to church any longer, what a huge step of faith! Wow, she is one of the most incredible women I have ever met, I will have to tell you guys her complete story!!

I love you guys very much! I love being a missionary and the Book of Mormon!

Have a very loverly week,

Looove,

Sister Ventura :) 

Rachel's baptism! She is Vitorias cousin and is also 11 years old:) They are the absolute cutest! They study the B.O.M, Bible and other church books together every day! They are both very smart and understand the importance and simplicity of the decision they made much better than many of us adults:)

-My dear "filhas" and I :) They are really the greatest, both hard workers, humble and we are getting along great! It's actually the best being in a threesome, we have a great time:) Whenever one of us is down there are two more to make things better!

Os Momentos Lindos

May 25, 2015

Well, I don't have very much time left but I wanted to tell you guys about some beautiful moments from our week:)

We had that FHE with Maciana and fam on Teus. that I wrote about and when we there Maciana was telling us how they had submitted the papers on Monday!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh! And they officialy have a date to be married and baptized on June 20th! And then then will be able to be confirmed on the Sunday before I leave! It will be P E R F E C T.  We already talked to the Bishop about it and he's so down too:) He said we can start talking to the ward and get invited everyone and do a recpetion afterwards too:) Everyone's pumped! Anyway, on tuesday when Maciana was telling us this she said that she was going to try and get some family pics taken of them before I left to send with me so that "you will never forget us and know that this family will always stay strong in the Gospel. Because you are the one that saved this family! (Ok, well, we all know that Jesus is the one that saves us,) but you found us and rescued us!" Man, I started crying just realized how very much this family means to me and how much I will miss them! I am SO grateful that I was able to stay here for my last transfer and see all of these miracles!

Umm one more thing, On Satruday we were visisting Luciano (who was baptized last week, remember?!) And he was telling us that he didn't have any food but was very grateful and happy and we were reading the B.O.M with him and took a bunch of pictures of Jesus to hang up in his house and he loved them! When we were getting ready to leave he told us to wait and came back all excited with 2 little bananas for each of us that he took from the little banana tree that he has behind his house. It was so very sweet. It reminded me of the Widow and the Mite. The very little that he DOES have he gave willingly and happily with no other intention than to serve, he was expecting nothing in return!

Let us all try and be a little more like that every day:)

I love you all very much and am so grateful for all of the opportuniites to love and learn that my mission is giving to me :)

Looove,

Sister Ventura :) 

Minhas Companheiras! 

Once a mom always a mom. . . .

May 18, 2015

So Tuesday we went to Transfers and they hadn't told me that I was going to be training so I thought my last companion would be someone with a little more time in the mish, idk. I went to ask the Assistents who would be my next comp? "Ummm let me see, Sister Ventura. . . Umm yeah, so you'll be getting a new American sister who just got here today and another (Wait, another? I,could you repeat that??) sister who has one transfer, so you'll be in a trio and be training both of them!"   Uhhhhhhhhhhhh. . . . . . . . . 

It's probably better that I didn't know about this before hand so I didn't have time to get myself all worked up and freak out. Haha Their names are Sister Lyndstrom (from Orem Utah!) and Sister Barros from Pernambuco (the north of Brazil.) They are both really great sisters, we have a really good time together, it's fun to be in a trio, there's more energy and ideas and the possibility for more revelation:)

It's pretty hard but it's also awesome. I'm surprised that Heavenly Father gave me this much responsibility but also really grateful, I know that this means that I can do it:) I always said that I never wanted to train an American haha. . .but it's good because I remember how frustrating it is, how helpless and stupid you feel. I'm trying to not speak English with her as much as possible, I don't want the fact that I CAN speak english to be a crutch for her. I remember when I got here and see Sister Cox whom I lived with and being awed at the fact that she seemed more Brazilian than American, it was more natural for her to talk and laugh and do everything in Portuguese than English, now I'm in the same position! Last night Sister Lyndstrom said, "I want to be able to speak and teach like you!" But she said it in Portuguese haha :) I want to do everything I can do help them before I leave, I want to leave them ready to take over the area if they need to be the time I leave-it's going to be awesome:)

It's kind of hard because they are 2 different people with very differnet needs and at different levels of learning so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this. .. Man I don't think I have every prayed so much in my life! It's so great to know that Heavenly father trusts me with so many of His children and that He's always there to help me because He knows that I do and will need SO much help:)

I'm also grateful that I'm going to be kept super busy this last transfer:) Sister Ribeiro and I were thinking that it would have been just too great to have stayed together this last transfer but Heavenly Father knows best, because that would

have been just too easy! Sister Ribeirto was already set to go, we had a great transfer together and came to love each other so very much! She got sent to Ponta Grossa which is a part of the mission that is farther away and which means that I won't be able to see her again. . . As she was getting into the van I was thinking how as a "mom" I gave her all of the knowledge that I could in the little time we had together and really learned so much from her in the process but she was ready to go and learn more in another place where she'll have even more responsibility and experiences that she needs. Just seeing how much she's already learned I know that she's going to end up so much better than me, which makes me happy:) Maybe this sounds a little bit cheesy but it's not! I really love her a lot and am so grateful that I was able to learn from and with her :) 

Macian, Daniel and Vitoria are doing awesome, I love them so, so much!! We did a great FHE last Monday with the Pres. of the Primary and her family and The R.S President and her fam and everyone had a great time! Another family invited them to an FHE last night too:) They're going to submit all of their papers to the Cartorio this week to start the 30 days that they have to wait so that they can be married and baptized the Saturday before I leave! Oh my goodness, I want to see this happen sooooooo bad! Please pray for them! They are doing awesome :)  

This week I wasn't able to do my regular scripture study very often because of transfers and some other meetings and such and I was really feeling the difference it made in my day/week. An Elder shared something that Pres. Montiero said to him. Sometime we really only have time to read for 5 minutes, but we can ALWAYS learn from what we read and take strength for our day. He said to take away at least one question that you will apply during the day and think about during the day. For example, today from just one verse in Alma 63:2  ( 2 And he was a just man, and he did walk uprightlybefore God; and he did observe to do good continually, tokeep the commandments of the Lord his God; and also didhis brother.

I asked myself," Am I walking uprightly in the Eyes of Heavenly or am I too worried about what others think of me? Am I constantly trying to keep the commandments?Am I doing a little bit better today??

I love the Book of Mormon and the strength that it gives me! I love being here and being a missionary of Jesus Christ!

Have a lovely week!

Looove,

Sister Ventura :)

The Lord is in Command

May 4, 2015

This week was another great one, it passed by soooo fast, I cannot believe it! OK, so There's a part in Preach My Gospel in that talks about how to find new investigators and there's a section that in entitled, "Talk to Everyone!" Pres. M has really been stressing thes the last couple of conferencias and our Zone too lately. So Sister R. and I have really been putting it into practice this week, and it has been soo cool! Our leaders were asking everyone to keep track of the numbers of contacts made per day, one day we talked to 70 people! I was remembering how at the beginning of my mission that this was one of the hardest, if not the hardest thing for me, talking to strangers on the road, the onibus, the store-everywhere! But now, it's just like second nature! I have such a testimony of Ether 12:27, Only the Savior Jesus Christ can turn our weakest points into our strongest-it's incredicle what He does with us when we let Him mold us, even a little bit:)

The other day for almoço, we had "breakfast for lunch!" But it was really legit! This familiy lived in the U.S for a quite a while and they speak English really, really well. She made pancakes and bacon and eggs and maple syrup and orange juice, and I didn't realize how much I missed eating brekfast like that! It was pretty fun:) Remember our little family?? Yes, Mom, they have made a lot of progress haha:) Vitoria was getting so excited about everything and asked us last Sunday after church " how does this whole baptism thing work?" We felt to invite her to be baptized and she accepted jumping for joy:) This week helping her prepare and seeing her excitment and that of her parents has been such a blessing! One day when we visited them Macian ( the mom) had bought Vitoria a brand new dress for the bapstims and church, it was so beautiful! I will try to send pics of all of this:) On Friday morning apparently she woke up talking in her sleep asking her mom when they were going to leave to go to the church haha:) We took the President of the Primary to visit the family with us on Saturday and it was great:) We gave Vitoria a bunch of invites and she remembered every single member that she had already and wanted to invited all of them so we visited some members with her delivering invites, so was sooo excited and it was so beautiful to see! During all of these the parents are learning to pray, reading the book of Mormon togethere and asking us when we can visit the Temple together and how they can do FHE. .. . Yay! Please keep praying for this family, we love them so, so much!

Friday was another feriado (holiday) O Dia do trabalhador, so NO ONE was working, and everyone was in their houses with their famillies so Pres. M told everyone to leave at 8:00am. . . woo, that day was quite a doozy! No one worked except us who worked more than normal  haha :) We met some interesting folks, for example, there was this old man who told us he didn't want anything to do with crentes (or super religious people) or people talking about Jesus and then just sat in the doorway and stuck he feet out so we could only see his feet. .. hahah antoher older lady told us she was busy watching her soap opera when we knocked, when we asked if we could just enter for a few minutes to say a prayer for her she kind of thought for a mintue and then said, " no I don't think so, I have to watch my soap opera." And then just walked away, so that was classic haha. Another lady who is the mom of a less-active that we taught asked why I talked so funny and they asked sister R., "You left everything in Rio do Janeiro to come here and walk around with her??" Hahah. Yup.

Yesterday was Vitoria's baptism!! Everyone that she invited was there including 2 families that aren't members that want to learn more! What a little missionary! We didn't even mean to but we both did french braids in our hair yesterday and everyone kept saying that we looked like sisters! I'll send pics, my little Brasilian sister:) Boo-bear, I thought that it was cool that her baptism was yesterdy on your birthday because she reminds me a lot of you:) A little smarty pants, super excited about all of the details and wanting everyting and everyone to go just right, and it did, sounds like your birthday was the same! When Vitoria entered the water I was there watching and felt so darn happy that I thought that I was going to burst! I had a strong impression that there were many people on the other side rejoicing with us, Vitoria's ancestors and future family-I know they they were just happy as can be too:) 

Yesterday in Fast and Testimony meeting someone quoted the general authority that was here last week for Stake Conference and he said, The Lord is in command, He just expects us to do our small part and He does all of the rest." I really loved that and am so grateful to have a captain that is so perfect and patient and wise.

I love this Gospel and am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to share it with people every single day:)

I love you people! Talk to you soon!

Loooove,

Sister Ventura :)




Opa, Obrigada Tira dente!

27 April 2015

So this last Tuesday was a holiday where everything was closed and it's the day of Tira Dente (which means to take out teeth!) This dude was from Minas Gerias and was a dentist (hence the nick name) who was also a guy that worked for the Brazilain army but he started helping the state Minas Gerais gain it's independence and so was killed for being a traitor to the goverment but now he has his own day! Or something like that. . .. sister Dias, I need a refresher! 

I'm loving being a "mom" I think in just a small way it's good prep for being a real mom one day, you have to sacrifice your time and things you would like to do to help someone who is new at everything. And actually you don't have to sacrifice but you choose to because you love your daughter! She's doing really great, she's a really hard worker, I really admire that, I know that I wasn't this motivated/willing to work this hard when I started my mission, but like they say, the kids have to be even better than their parents! ( I don't know who says that but,I know I've heard it before. .. )

Well, there's this family (like a mom and dad and daughter family!!) That we found about a week and a half ago that are from Forteleza and are sooo cool and are really loving the church, the weren't going to any church when we found them but were feeling a desire to start going to  a church together, Vitoria, the daughter, is 11 and LOVES the church and the primary and already wants to be baptized! Awesome right? Except that they aren't married legally, just in the Catholic church but not in the cartorio (I don't know what that would be. . . ) and here to be baptized you have to be married in the cartorio. . . but they really want to get married and have already started the process! It takes a little while, like a month but there's still time before I leave and that is our goal! PLEASE pray for this beautiful little family! My companion and I can just imagine this family getting baptized and in one year entering the Temple to be sealed for time and eternity! Wahooooo

Ummm the 2 baianos aren't married legally and aren't really progressing so that's a bummer. . ..but they're still a hoot.

On Friday we had a mission conference that was really good, but weird now that so many people keep leaving!

Oh, a great adventure we had this week: The Elders had baptismos in our area and so asked us to fill up the baptism font for them. Alright, n o problem! So we got there, successfully unlocked the portão but the success stopped after that. ... let me just tell you that my difficulty with keys and the complexity of the church doors made for quite a good 1/2 hour struggling and struggling! We finally got in then remember we had to disarm the alarm before it went off and everyone knew there were missionaries breaking into the church. In a moment of panic I could not remember where the little code box was and was freaking out. But we got that figured out too. Then we went to fill the font up and the water from the last baptism had never drained all of the way and it was dirty and cold so we had to use buckets to take the water out and then cleaned the font because I think it's been quite a while. . . and the water heater is broken so the water is pretty cold. . . our feet just about died but it helped us have empathy for the people who get baptized! Hahah all in everything turned out great but it was such a funny little story because you would never guess that something as simple as fillng up the baptismal font would be so complicated!  Haha

Yesterday was our Stake Conference and it was sooo good! A member of the 70 spoke named John Grau he said some really great things,

-negativity NEVER helps a situation!

-Come what may,eu adoro meu Pai Celestial, He knows what He is doing, I will continue to endure to the end, hope and have patience!

-The Gospel is like a giant umbrella, whatever truth that doesn't fit under this "umbrella," or that contradicts a gospel truth is a great lie.

Some little nuggets that are out of context but still are really great:) I too am trying to devleop more patience and trust in my Savior and Heavenly Father and know that I just have to look at all of the experiences that I've already had to rely on the fact hat he is always there for me and always has my best interest in mind:) I am so grateful for the chance to be a missionary, so very, very grateful:) I love This perfect church and my Savior and the Book of Mormon. 

I love you guys!

Loove

Sister Ventura :)




These are advocados! Here they usually only eat them doce (sweet) Like with milk and sugar for a smoothie, I have yet to try it and now I finally can! Everyone thinks I'm weird when I tell them we only like to eat advocados with salt haha

Here is just one more. .. so you won't think that I've changed too much . . . ;)

A part of our beautiful area and my beautiful Brazil!!

Opa

20 April 2015

I don't know why I've never written this word ^ as a subject for an e-mail before. .. it's so applicable to basically everything and one of my favorite Portuguese words! People use it for pretty much any situation, it's like when you don't have anything else to say . ... but if you look it up you might find a better explanation haha:)

This week was. ... well just the continued fight, it was a pretty long week, and if I was to describe it (which I will right now. . . ) It was a LOT  of walking, a LOT of knocking doors and a LOT of rejection. That really was our week but that doesn't mean it was bad or that it wasn't interesting or that we didn't learn a LOT!  I just don't really feel like there is a lot more to say when I think about what happened this week.

But hmm. .. It's cool, when I think about this week and how hard it was I'm really grateful for it, (and even more now that it's over haha :) I feel a lot closer to my Savior and my Heavenly Father because of how much we had to search for them. :) I think that there was something said in General Conference about how there is never, NEVER, growth in the confort zone! If we're just humming along minding our business but never pass through difficult times, weeks or months, we don't grow! It's like it says in 2 Nephi 2, there has to be an opposition in ALL things! It's so true, Because of sickness we can appreciate health so much more etc. etc. 

My companion is writing a letter to Pres. Montiero right now and was joking that she was going to tell him all about our week, it was like this: I was seriously just about run over, but miraculously just had a few bruises- it was definitely a miracle! The same day our baptism fell through, he all of a sudden didn't want anything to do with us or the church and said some sad things :( Lot's of drunk men contacted us in the road, and every time we got excited that it was someone that wanted to go to church or something,hahah but one tried to kiss me, one wanted to hug us and one wanted to tell us why he would never go to our church and that he doesn't need it and didn't like me because I'm American. . .. ^_^ Whoo! It was quite the adventure! Through all of these experience and some others I've had in the mish I know that there are spirits on both sides that are actually very involved in this work. It makes me realize how much I need to be constantly fortifying my testimony and pesquisadores but also makes me excited to do some family history work when I get home and find out who they are :)

Yesterday my comp and I and our ward missions leader were asked to give talks on the "obra missionaria" Which you would think would be easy for a missionary right? I didn't really know what route I was going to take until I got up there and started talking, but it was fun, I actually like giving talks-especially in portuguese! I learned a lot and it was sooo cool to see how many members offered to help us after church! Walking to almoço we found one of our Recen-conversos (Kelvyn)  that hadn't gone to church in the morning and we felt that we should go with him to the other ward in the afternoon. When we got there there were 2 men visiting and I sat by them and started getting to know them, turns out they live in our area and it was their first time and they really liked the church! It was such a blessing! We had worked all week really hard inviting people to church and no one ended up going! But becuase we followed a very subtle prompting we went to the other ward and met these 2 guys! They're from the Bahia and are cousins and work in a bakery. .. .we definitely hoping to score some free bread or something ;) We'll see how it goes with them tomorrow :)

Welp, I studied a lot about the Holy Ghost this week and I'm really trying to improve my ability to recognize the prompintgs of the Spirit in everything I do. It's such a wonderful gift we recieve as members of the church! 

I love you fam bam and friends:) Thank you all for the letters of support and love:)

Loooove,

Sister Ventura :)