It felt like Praying to be spared when  Hurricane is Raging all around you.

Dear Loved Ones,

     This week has been so crazy! Wahaha! Actually every week is so crazy, so that doesn´t mean much. A lot of days this week we didn´t have too many people to teach. All of our appointments fell through and we spent a lot of time walking long distances, but some great miracles happened. 

     We met Siovana (sounds like Silvana when you say in Brazilian)! She is a very cool Christian lady who we met when we were lost. Sister Farias always says "a missionary is never lost." This is entirely true. We always meet someone when we are having a difficult time finding another person. My companion asked her what she expected from missionaries and she started crying. She said she expected that we would share a good word and that we would comfort her, because she has been feeling so alone. She works from home and is in the part of life where her children are growing up and spend most of their time away from home. She has a strong belief in God and has been praying a lot and reading the Bible looking for comfort and peace. She knows God answers prayers and that´s when we arrived! Our first lesson with her was good, but it was so hard. Everything went wrong, like the adversary knew that if she felt the spirit, he would be losing the battle. I had the hardest time speaking Portuguese during the lesson and when it came to the account of Joseph Smith´s frist vision, we were interrupted so much. I started five times and finally my companion told me to keep going even if someone was yelling or knocking on the door or whatever else they could do. I finished and she really liked it and wants to pray to find out if it is true. She is willing to change if she knows from God that it is the right thing to do. At the end of the lesson, we asked her to pray and we got down on our knees. She shut the front door so that no one would interrupt us. Her 6 year old son was outside and gets mad if she shuts the door. She didn´t even lock it, but he started crying and screaming and banging on the door and holding down the buzzer, but she just kept praying. I don´t know what she said. I couldn´t understand it through all the noise, but my companion said it was powerful. It felt like praying to be spared when a hurricane is raging all around you. She rearranged her plans for Sunday so she could come to church, and she really liked it. At the end of all the meetings, we took a big group picture with everyone that was walking out. It was so fun! 

     We also had a sad experience this week. We´ve been teaching a married couple (the man who used to bring our water and his wife), but we had to let them go, because they liked our visits, but didn´t want to change. This is a sad part of missionary work. You get to really love people, but we are here to help people come unto Christ, and if they don´t want to, we have to move on. Of course, they can always find us in the church. In our last visit, we explained this to the wife. The husband at this point I think was avoiding us. The wife is such a sweet woman with a lot of character. She suffered a stroke four years ago. She can´t use her right hand or foot and has difficulty speaking. Our communication is interesting. It involves a lot of charades and tracing words on the couch, but we understand each other pretty well.

     After we told her we wouldn´t be returning to visit all the time, I felt I should ask her if she remembered the day she prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true. She had told us that she cried and cried and didn´t  know why. She said she cried, because while she was reading she felt her two sons (who have passed on) kiss her on her cheeks. We asked her if she thought this could have been her answer. She said yes and that she knows the church is true and the Book of Mormon is true, but she doesn´t know if she wants to change. I know that the gospel would have so much power in her life to help her feel comfort and be healed . It´s so sad to see someone reject this when they know it too.

     Overall, it was a good week. I don´t have much time left, so I have to go! I love you!!!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Arthur