Alyssa with Sisters Fuller and Brewer take a selfie on the street
Cookies, popcorn, and other goodies
Sister Brewer takes a selfie of Alyssa, and herself and Sister Fuller in their beds by the Christmas tree
Alyssa and Sister Leopoldes with Laura and Dario on their baptism day
FELIZ NATAL!! Hope all your holiday wishes came true and that you all took time to remember the reason behind the season. Because of the holiday, this will be another quick write.
On Saturday we had the baptism of Dario and Laura (grandfather and granddaughter). They were so happy the whole week leading up to it; they bought new clothes and everything. Dario was so happy after his baptism he tried swimming in the font! Moments like these are what missionaries live for.
Christmas here for me is very different, very unusual, and very good. I’m sweating, covered in mosquito bites, and looking at a very Charlie Brown-ish Christmas tree. But I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now. How great it is that I literally have Christmas every day since Jesus Christ is the center of every day for me!
“Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do.”
Alyssa and Sister Leopoldes with Books of Mormon in the shape of hearts
A selfie of Alyssa and Sister Leopoldes
E aí pessoal! We have a special Christmas P-day today so that’s why I didn’t write on Monday. Don’t worry, I’m not breaking my steak yet.
I’m struggling to remember what happened this week and there are lots of activities to do so I’ll just share a quick little message and be on my merry way (get it? Cause it’s like Merry Christmas).
Yesterday, we were walking and I went to look down at my watch to check the time and discovered that the face of my watch was totally shattered. I don’t know what I did or when I did it but Relógio Gringo I is busted. It’s broken to the point that you can’t even read the time normally anymore. The only way that I can see through the broken glass is when I use the light button to make it shine from the inside out.
Sometimes we are like broken watches. We are hard to read, hard to understand and appear too complicated to solve. But Christ is the light within all of us. He looks past our broken parts and makes hope and healing possible. Some people have a harder time than others letting Christ shine through them. We all make mistakes, have our moments of weakness, or we let pride block Him out. Christmas is the time to think about new beginnings and to let ourselves make more room for Him. This Christmas, how will you let His light shine in and through you?
“He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.” Mosiah 16:9
Children Dressed as Angels Sing a Christmas Song from the Second Floor
Alyssa’s zone during the December 2023 zone conferenceAlyssa and Sister Leopoldes selfieAlyssa and Sister Leopoldes finger heart at sunsetA yellow, flowering tree in Arcoverde
5 Meses da Missão! That’s a little bit bonkers considering there are still a lot of things I feel like I have yet to do and accomplish out here and the time is literally slipping away from me. I’m really focusing on the things that I want from my mission and the things that Christ wants me to do now.
This week was good. We had Zone Conference which was really fun, Sister Leopoldes, Sister Fuller, Sister Brewer, and I got to spend the night in a hotel which was a blast! We ordered pizza and had a movie night (we watched the Restoration video). At Zone Conference, we stressed the importance of the season and all made goals for what our gift to Christ is going to be.
The more bizarre part of my week was the weekend. I met the reincarnated Jesus Christ, learned a song from a homeless man about how Jesus is a door, and invited a dog who attended sacrament meeting to be baptized.
On Friday morning, we were sitting in the park making a few phone calls trying to contact our media references. It was my day to make the calls so I was distracted and didn’t notice the man who came and sat down next to us on the bench. He started talking to the Sister and I really wasn’t paying attention until she grabbed my arm and I looked over. Sister Leopoldes asked him to repeat his name for me and he said “Some call me ‘man of war’ but I’m better known as the Son of Joseph and Mary the Mother of Jesus.”
He then went on to explain that he is everything for everyone. “I am the Messiah to the Jews, Christ for the Christians, and Allah for the Muslims.” I just sat there smiling, trying not to laugh, but Sister Leopoldes tried telling him that we didn’t believe in reincarnation. Mr. Man of War wasn’t bothered at all by that instead he said “Yeah, you guys were confused the last time we talked too.” He explained that he’s talked to us in all our previous lives but that we keep forgetting him. He also explained where we could find all the reincarnated characters from the Bible. Apparently, Amos is a pharmacist now so that’s cool.
At the same time this conversation was happening, a homeless man on the other side of the park began singing “Jesus é a porta,” which means “Jesus is the door,” as loud as he possibly could. He actually is a pretty good singer but he needs to work on his lyrics because he literally was only singing that one phrase for over 20 minutes.
Finally, on Sunday, a stray dog wandered into the chapel about 15 minutes before the sacrament. A few members tried getting him to leave but he kept coming back so eventually they gave up. He stayed in the back quietly during the whole meeting and even went to Relief Society. Afterward, he waited in the hallway with us while we were talking with members and investigators who came. We wanted to close the chapel but he wouldn’t leave no matter what we tried. Finally, I jokingly asked the dog if he had the desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. It worked and he left but it was actually a sad reflection of a lot of our human investigators here🥲
After all these events the phrase that kept coming to mind was “Que Apostasia!” The Great or General Apostasy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was a time of darkness and fear. Pure light and truth were lost and people didn’t know where to turn. One scripture that I’ve loved all week comes from Come, Follow Me and is 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” Just as Christ came and taught the boy Joseph Smith and restored perfect love and the gospel again on the earth, He will come in our darkest moments to lift us up into his light. This Christmas, and every day, we can be the means of spreading this perfect love. We can remove doubt, fear, and distrust, and restore what has been lost through Jesus Christ.
President and Sister Martins Visit with Alyssa and Sisters Leopoldes, Fuller, and Brewer
Alyssa, Sisters Fuller and Brewer with some people outside
Alyssa and Sisters Fuller and Brewer with some milkshakes
Alyssa with Sisters Fuller and Brewer and some pizza
Alyssa and Sister Leopoldes outside
The four sister missionaries at English Class
Olá, it’s me again! This week was fun and full of discovery as we learned more about the area where we are serving and the people here. It was also a very different week with me being in a trio for 2 days and having a surprise dinner with President and Sister Martins.
Sister Leopoldes received a calling this transfer of LTS (Sister Training Leader) which is basically a Zone Leader but for Sisters. On Monday, we learned that she would be in Recife attending a leadership meeting. Originally we thought this meant a road trip and the two of us would have a 6-hour bus ride to President’s house. But, plans changed at the last minute and I ended up staying with Sister Fuller and Sister Brewer here in Arcoverde. It was really fun being a little trio of Americans who all only have 4 months of experience together for two days. We each had moments where we knew that the gift of tongues was real. But we also had lessons where afterward we were all like “I have no idea what they were saying, I just kept nodding my head and smiling, occasionally throwing in an ‘exatamente’.” It was all good though and we even found some new friends that accepted a date for baptism!
On Friday morning, President sent us a message and said that he and Sister Martins would be coming to Arcoverde and eating dinner in our house on Saturday. We were both very concerned wondering, “What did we do? Are we in trouble?” We spent all of Friday night and Saturday morning cleaning everything as best we could and even came home just a few minutes early to shower after a full day of walking in 90° weather. Everything went really well though and I had a lot of fun. It turns out, he was just passing through Arcoverde for a meeting in another area. He bought us pizza and soda and invited the other sisters too. It was one big party!
Nothing else really exciting happened last week. Just walking, getting lost, burning, and sweating. Tonight we have to leave for Zone Conference which is tomorrow and should be really good. President is going to teach us all how to sing because he wants us to dedicate a part of our teaching hours every day to go caroling Christmas hymns. Sister Leopoldes isn’t too happy about it, she says that’s a strictly “American thing.” But I’ll find some way to make her love it!
One thing that we’ve been doing as a mission is studying a different miracle of Christ every day until Christmas. We started with turning the water into wine. Going into this study I had the mindset that this was one of the “small” or “easy” miracles. But as I studied I realized that it really isn’t. He did something that should not have been possible. There is nothing “small” or “easy” about it. In our lives, we experience many miracles but sometimes we’re just looking too high to see them. We should have just as much gratitude for the “small” miracles in our lives as we have for the “big” ones. I know that this is something I definitely need to work on as a missionary but in everyday life too. I challenge all of you to think of and look for “a miracle of Christ” in your life.
