Olá meus amores, espero que vocês estejam bem. First I want to mention the new youth theme for 2024. It’s “I am a disciple of Jesus Christ” 3 Nephi 5:13, which just so happens to be my mission scripture. In case you’re wondering, yes I am the inspiration. I’m taking it as a sign that 2024 will be a good year on the mission for me!

This week was incredible and stressful. We had the wedding and baptism of a family: Elaine, Eduardo, and Lavínia.  I’ve been teaching them for 7 weeks now. Here in Bom Conselho, they have 1 day every month where you can go and get legally married. So although this couple was prepared and desired baptism since the end of September, they had to wait until November 1 to get married. Then on Saturday, they and their daughter were baptized. 

The baptism was supposed to start at 2 pm. We arrived at 1:30 to prepare and set things up.  For the next 2 hours, people slowly started to trickle in until almost the entire ward was there. The bishop, who was asked to give a marriage blessing, showed up last at 3:45. Everything went well but there were two very angry, and very exhausted sister missionaries in attendance. Luckily there were no problems with the confirmations on Sunday and the family has been well received into the ward.

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting.  Our friend, who was marked for baptism two weeks ago but ultimately fell through, bore his testimony. He told everyone how grateful he was for the missionaries and the church, and that we welcomed him in. We took this as a very good sign and went to visit him later that evening. We talked about his testimony and baptism and asked him what was holding him back. Why did he feel like he needed to wait? He didn’t really have an answer so we finished up the lesson and were about to leave when his entire demeanor changed in an instant. 

I’ve never met anyone possessed before but in that moment, I thought I had. He started yelling, going off about how life after death is nothing but a filthy lie. That the Bible is perfect and our church is wrong for saying otherwise. That the Book of Mormon is nothing but a fantasy and we have no evidence for any of it. He kept pointing at me and saying that of course the American would defend this book, and he wasn’t going to be convinced. What was so strange was 1 week ago he told us he knew for certain that this church was true. Yet obviously, he didn’t. Without a testimony of the Book of Mormon, you can’t know that this church is true. 

We got out of there as soon as we could and just sat on a street corner thinking. This man has been coming to church for 30 years, his brother is a return missionary, and all his nieces and nephews are active members. His situation taught me a lot about waiting. He has been waiting to believe for a long time and still hasn’t figured out that believing is a choice. 

There is a difference between patience and stubborn persistence. Waiting for answers with faith and sincerity will bring hope and truth. Just holding on to the iron rod without a desire to move our feet or position on the path will get us nowhere. We need to walk, we need to move, we need to show we are willing to go and find the answers. I’ve experienced and witnessed a lot of waiting these last 2 months and it’s hard when the immediate future is nothing but fog. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel and joy along the path. Choose to follow, believe, and let the power of the Atonement into your life. 

That’s all folks, Tchau tchau for now!

Ame, 

Sister Alyssa Grace

Bom Conselho, Brasil 

BOM DIA!!! This week was rough, tough, and long enough that I was practically praying for P-day. But it was also a great week for learning, bonding with my companion, and growing closer to my Savior.

About 3 weeks ago, we ate lunch in the house of the Bishop. It was during an exchange with Sister Souza and she was asking lots of questions about the area and the ward. The Bishop was telling her that the ward was incredible, the area was growing, and that before Sister Grace got here they had a baptism almost every week. The Bishop didn’t mean anything by this statement, my arrival was just a point of reference he gave. But to me, it felt like the lack of baptisms for the last 2 months was my fault.

I tried not to let this bother me and in the beginning, it was easy with the transfer and new companion I couldn’t afford to waste my focus. This week, however, it felt like everything was bringing my shortcomings into the spotlight. On Tuesday we had another friend marked for baptism give up, and what was really frustrating was he really believed. We asked him if he had prayed about the truth of the church and Book of Mormon and he said, “I know for certain that this church is true.” But there are commitments that he is not quite ready to fulfill right now so his baptism is in the air. I know a few weeks ago I wrote about how hard it was to hear no to the invitation for baptism but now I prefer it to this pattern of teaching, developing relationships with people, and building up all this hope and excitement, just for it all to come crumbling down. 

The next day we had a meeting with all of us missionaries in our second transfer. It was to get us all excited about finishing training after this transfer and to remind us of our purpose. At one point they asked for miracles that we’ve witnessed because of our obedience and diligence and almost everybody commented. I say almost everyone because I didn’t share anything. In that moment, the comment of the Bishop came into my mind and I began to question my worth and worthiness as a missionary. Over and over again I heard that obedience and diligence bring miracles but I wasn’t seeing any. I asked myself, “Am I being obedient? Am I being diligent?” The honest answer to these questions is “yes.” So where were the miracles?

I talked with President and Sister Martins later that day because my companion was really worried about me. We talked a lot and we discovered that the problem was with my mindset. Life, before mission life, was comfortable for me because I knew how it worked. My effort was always equal to the results. If I studied and worked hard, I got good grades and reaped my rewards. Somewhere along the line, I began measuring my effort by the results. If I did well on something, it was because I worked hard to earn it. If I didn’t do so well, I must not have been working hard enough and need to improve for next time. 

Here in the mission, this mindset is almost fatal. I took a look at what I wasn’t seeing, (baptisms, people progressing, strong ward members) and decided it all resulted from my lack of effort. Every day I was trying harder and harder and still getting nowhere. I started to “run faster than [I] had strength” (Mosiah 4:27) and ended up running straight into the wall of hopelessness. Luckily, I have a companion and mission leaders who helped pick me back up. They taught me about a little something called “Livre Arbítrio” which means “Free Agency.” In the life before the mission, everything was solely dependent on me, but here, in the real world, hardly anything depends on my efforts alone. Everybody can choose and has to choose for themselves whether to follow Christ or not. My job is to invite them and then respect their decision, even if I know they are choosing the worst path for their lives.

The end of the week was so much better because of the lessons I learned in the beginning and I felt the prayers of my friends and family powerfully. I love this opportunity I have to teach and although I’m still learning how to do it, I know that I will always have the support of my Savior. If I could give advice to anybody out there struggling with something right now (which is all of you), I would say to pray more often and with real intent, find the “pleasing … word which healeth the wounded soul” (Jacob 2:8) in the scriptures, and remember that Christ cares about how you feel and who you are. 

That’s all folks, Tchau tchau for now!

Love, 

Sister Alyssa Grace

Bom Conselho, Brasil 

Oi, como vai? In case you were wondering, no I did not end up playing a musical number for President Ballard. I did play a musical number and was the pianist for our last Zone Conference with Elder Eddy of the Seventy, but for whatever reason Elder Ballard wasn’t there. I’d blame it on a misunderstanding of the President’s email from last week, but my companion also read that he would come, so maybe it wasn’t a language barrier.

This week I want to tell you all a little story about my new friend Manuel Batista. About a month ago, when I was with Sister Perri, we found this older senhor, Manuel Batista, who was just walking the streets of Bom Conselho and we gave him a quick little message and an invitation to come to church. Later that week, we found him again on another street corner and did the same thing. To our surprise, when we walked into church on that Sunday, he was already there. 

That Sunday was fast Sunday and Manuel stood up and gave a simple and powerful testimony about Christ being our leader and teacher. It was quite epic and we immediately tried to get his information after that meeting to try and make visits in his home. My last week with Sister Perri, we tried to find his house, because on Sunday he gave us a general location. However, we never found it and we also didn’t encounter him in the street again.

We assumed that would be the end of Manuel Batista. When Sister Leopoldes and I walked into church after a week of not being in Bom Conselho, I was surprised again to find Manuel already sitting there ready. We tried getting his information again, he gave us a new address which normally would be a bit suspicious but he’s an older senhor and we thought he had memory problems. 

We went to the address he gave us, which was not his house but was the house of a part-member family that was inactive. They were really receptive and interested in coming back to church. Luckily, they were also friends with Manuel and helped us find his real address. In the first lesson in his house, we invited him to be baptized and he agreed.

All of last week we visited and taught Manuel. Although Manuel can’t read, he has a great memory for scriptures and can recite almost anything in the Bible. When we were teaching about the Word of Wisdom, he stopped us and told us that he read in the Bible that drinking coffee was a sin and he stopped years ago. Sister Leopoldes was obviously very pleased but also very curious because every missionary wants better scriptures for the Word of Wisdom. We assumed that Manuel was just one of God’s elects and was blessed with an incredible ability to understand the will of God for him.

Yesterday, Manuel came to the church again and we presented him to the Bishop saying that he would be baptized this Saturday. Bishop welcomed him and started getting his information to fill out the baptism form while we went to the secretary’s office to print some things. 10 minutes later the Bishop walks in and says “Sisters, I’ve got some bad news.” He then proceeds to show us a baptism record from the year 1995 for a Manuel Batista. Bishop explained that all the information matched our Manuel and that unfortunately, but fortunately, our new friend was already a member of almost 30 years.

Later that day we went to Manuel’s house to try and figure out the situation. In our previous contacts, Manuel had never mentioned anything about already being a member. He told us he had never heard of the Book of Mormon, or ever spoken to missionaries before. When we talked to him yesterday after church we asked Manuel what he remembers about the year 1995, to which he said “Nothing”. We then explained that we have a record of his baptism in our church from the year 1995. He suddenly got a huge smile on his face and exclaimed “Now, I remember”. Turns out, Manuel actually does have a memory problem and sometime within the last 30 years just woke up one day and forgot that he was a member. 

Although we were a little disappointed that we lost a baptism, we were so much more excited that we helped find this lost sheep and brought him back to the flock. He has good friends in the ward now so if he should wake up tomorrow forgetting everything, he won’t be lost for long this time. He also led us to another family that we are helping now which we probably would not have found without his help. 

“But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not. 

For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me” – 1 Nephi 21:14-16

Christ cannot and will not forget us. No matter how many times we may forget him, he is continually watching over us just waiting to show us that he’s there. Don’t let the world convince you that He’s abandoned you because he hasn’t and he won’t.

That’s all folks, tchau tchau for now!

Ame, 

Sister Alyssa Grace

Bom Conselho, Brasil

Oii, Boa Tarde!

I’ve had an awesome week of learning and struggling in 2 areas with 5 companions. What I’ve learned is, hard can be fun and even relaxing as long as it breaks up the normal, everyday mundane hard.

For example, the majority of this week I worked in Garanhuns. I was with another greenie, who not only doesn’t speak my language but is also learning the mission language. We were in an area completely foreign to me with people whose needs and stories I don’t understand. But it ended up being so much fun. I loved getting to explore a new area, and seeing a different approach to teaching, and Sister Murillo and I laughed over a couple of moments of just complete confusion because of the language. 

Then on Friday, I was put in a trio for 6 hours with Sister Santos and Sister Fuller. We didn’t have any lessons as a trio because Friday is the day we plan our week and make goals. By the time we finished with all this it was time to pick up my new companion. But for those 6 hours I got to talk, express some of my fears and frustration, and receive some good advice from a very powerful companionship of Sisters. 

When I finally got back to Bom Conselho, I was with my new trainer, Sister Leopoldes. She is from Rio Grande do Sul, speaks solely Portuguese, and was Sister Perri’s first trainer. So my mom’s mom, my grandma, is also my mom. It’s been a little stressful trying to show the area, and explain the needs of our friends here, all the while, I am still learning and trying to figure things out too.

We’ve already begun to see the miracles though. Saturday, I planned our day and as you may recall, our plans hardly ever happen exactly the way we want them to. But on this day, everything happened. I planned our day to the minute and we were able to follow that plan to the minute. It was a great blessing and a great boost of confidence for me. 

But then yesterday I got us lost for 45 minutes so I guess I got prideful too quick and needed to be humbled. We also met and invited a new friend to be baptized yesterday. His name is Moses, and he literally just walked into church all on his own. I find it strange, and frustrating, that we’ll find people in the streets, teach them several lessons, receive several promises of sacrament meeting attendance, and yet the only people that show up are ones we haven’t even met. That’s just a lesson about agency I guess.

I’ll finish up with some big news for this week. We have Elder Eddy, a member of the 70 coming here on a mission tour on Wednesday. I was asked to help participate in a musical number for his arrival which I am really excited about but I only have today and tomorrow to practice. We also found out yesterday that President M. Russell Ballard will be joining Elder Eddy on this tour so I’ll be performing a musical number, with only two days of practice, for the acting president of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. What’s even better is we get to wake up at 3:30 the morning of to get to the conference on time. For this reason, I will be sleeping the rest of P-day.

That’s all folks, Tchau tchau for now!

Love, 

Sister Alyssa Grace

Bom Conselho, Brasil