E aí, another week, another email.

This week was a pretty drastic shift from last week. Whereas everything last week worked out miraculously, this week was rough and frustrating but we still had miracles.

First, on Tuesday we were told we could go to the temple if we had a recent convert to go for the first time. I haven’t even seen a temple in person for 7 months so I was literally working on super mode and praying every 5 minutes to get to have this opportunity. Unfortunately, of the 4 recent converts in this area, 1 has already gone, 1 is only 9 years old, 1 was sick, and the other one has some difficulties we weren’t aware of so they don’t have a temple recommend. We were not allowed to go and spent the rest of the night bitterly and sadly doing our references.

On Saturday, we had everything ready for Lia’s baptism!! Only that it started to rain and the dirt road outside her house made her want to cancel and reschedule. With a little time the rain let up and we made it to the church. It was a beautiful baptism set up with all the Relief Society there. But they all forgot to bring their husbands so we had no one there to actually perform the baptism. After another hour and a half, she was finally baptized.

Sunday morning we woke up to a text saying she won’t make it to church to get confirmed and the stress continued. We finally were able to bring her to the bishopric meeting that night and get her confirmed but it was definitely one of the more stressful baptisms I’ve had and not one of the most joyful.

But through all that, God was there. When I was stressing out thinking it wasn’t going to happen and that it would all fall apart, my companion reminded me that the bolo (cake) was on the table. Let me explain.

We had received lots of promises this week from mission leaders, members, and God that everything would work out. I was stressed cause it wasn’t happening in my time or the way I believed would be best. But God was at our side the whole time showing us that is was happening and it was working out. Maybe I was stressing about a missing bishopric, but I could’ve been rejoicing that we already had cake and refreshments to celebrate. Hopefully, somebody somewhere understands what I’m trying to say because I know it sounds strange but there is a spiritual lesson to be learned.

Better days are ahead for all of us, and just remember the bolo is on the table!!

That’s all folks, Tchau tchau for now!

Com amor, 

Sister Alyssa Grace

Jaboatão Dos Guararapes, Brasil

Bom Dia Pessoal! I hope you are all well and loving life ’cause that’s what we are doing out here. This week was very, very different from what I’ve been doing every other week until now but, it was a blessed week nonetheless. 

We had our references training on Wednesday which consisted of just 7 missionaries on a Zoom call, all trying to think of the best way to do this new calling. After about 30 mins we decided to just try and get started. Sometimes I feel like a receptionist scheduling doctor’s appointments but other times I realize I really am giving eternally saving opportunities for hundreds of people every day. I don’t like getting hung up on or receiving rude voice messages, but I love finding people who say they have been waiting for a chance to meet someone to help them know Jesus Christ.

As for the work in our area, it was also surprisingly awesome. With only 5 hours every day to work, we somehow got 7 people to church when we normally average 4 people on a good week. What is also great is that 2 of them have dates for baptism, 1 accepted and just needs a date, 3 just need to be invited, and 1 called us asking to schedule his baptism! Domingo de Milagres!! 

Something I’ve noticed now that I’ve been out here a little longer is how powerful the Spirit is. When I started, I felt I was convincing people to be baptized, that I had to prepare an argumentative essay just to show why baptism was actually something they wanted and needed. This week, I’ve felt so much relief and peace in making baptismal invites because I’m not relying on myself. The doctrine, scriptures, and spirit, all speak for themselves, I’m just here to present them to God’s children and let the Light of Christ within them decide. 

On Saturday, we explained fasting to a recent convert using this scripture in Helaman. 

“Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.” – Helaman 3:35

I love this scripture because after explaining what fasting is I always ask, “How did they ‘wax stronger’ when they chose not to eat or nourish their bodies for a period?” The answers I get are varied but can be summed up in one line. “When we rely completely in our Savior, His strength works through us and makes us enough.” 

Sometimes, we unintentionally prevent the Spirit from working fully because we rely on our own strength, words, teaching styles, and automatic responses. If we were to let ourselves go, and feel for just a moment more vulnerable, God will have the chance to make us more. Being made stronger in Christ is being made strong enough to do everything He asks of us.

That’s all folks, Tchau tchau for now!

Com amor, 

Sister Alyssa Grace

Jaboatão Dos Guararapes, Brasil

Alyssa Feeds a Turtle Under the Fence

Good morning!! Today is a rather special episode because it’s an aniversário (birthday/anniversary) week.

First, we had General Conference which started on April 6. In case you didn’t know, 194 years ago on April 6, 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was officially founded and the Restoration of the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was underway. I hope everyone had a chance to watch conference and even if you didn’t, you can always go back and watch it again. Personally, I only got to watch about 2 hours total cause we were running down friends to watch with us but oh well. I was there for the most important part…

The announcement of the Lehi, Utah Temple!!!!! I’m considering it my personal birthday gift from President Russell M. Nelson. 10 years ago I planned a beautiful Lehi Temple, the design for which was not delivered successfully to then Pres. Thomas S. Monson and thus the delay in announcement. But here I am 10 years later, 10 years older, and the day before my 20th birthday, a prophet is blessing me with a temple in my city.

That brings us to today, my birthday. Here I am 20 years old in Brazil doing the Lord’s work. It’s a little crazy and a little hard but we are loving it and feeling blessed every minute. My mission President decided to give me a birthday present too. He called me to be a secretary of social media references. Now, in the first half of every day, I will be doing online missionary work. Contacting people who watched church videos or liked church posts trying to see if they have interest meeting in person with the missionaries. I set up the appointments and pray that these people progress. It’s very different from what I’m used to and don’t know how well I’ll handle being inside for so long but I’m excited for a new challenge.

That brings us to the last of the aniversários which is tomorrow my 9 months in the mission. I’m halfway through the most spiritually enriching and demanding opportunity of my life. It’s been hard and it’s been rewarding and it’s only gonna get harder and better from here on out. There’s a lot I have yet to learn and experience but I’m here to see it out through to the end and beyond into my everyday life.

Go to the temple for me! 💕

That’s all folks, Tchau tchau for now!

Com amor, 

Sister Alyssa Grace

Jaboatão Dos Guararapes, Brasil

Hey y’all! So I’m really busy right now and don’t have much time so here’s a recap:

• We had one last baptism with Sister Zurita in Candelária of our best friend Mateus who is so cool we wore sunglasses to the baptism.

• I got transferred. I’m in an area called Jardim América with Sister Tadje who is from Tooele. Our area and ward is one of the smallest in the mission but that just means everybody is gonna know who we are by the time we’re through here.

• My new house has 4 sisters and we’re all American which means our Portuguese practice is kinda flying out the window but I’ll keep trying.

• Our mission had 144 baptisms in March so we had an all-day p-day with our half of the mission to celebrate. It meant over-eating and volei-ball (volleyball) all day.

• Some guy told me I was a cat in a past life yesterday because he saw a ginger cat once with blue eyes.

That’s all folks, tchau tchau for now!

Com amor,

Sister Alyssa Grace

Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Brasil