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.
That’s all folks, Tchau tchau for now!
Com amor,
Sister Alyssa Grace
Arcoverde, Brasil
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