Só mais uma semana!?

Wow this week flew by!! I only have one more week of training, and of this transfer!! It was a good week. I  had interviews with President, and he answered so many little prayers with just a few words..."You are here to leave foot steps, make a change and raise the tide, not just to pass the time, and you need to know that."  It made me feel more excited about the work and about my purpose here!

Now about the work a little... the work has slowed a little like I said last week.  We went from finding 18 new people to teach in a week, to only 2 now... the members are stepping up to help, which is good.  We have to work together in faith to get this area moving again. We need to find those elites.. cause they're out there!!! PRAY FOR THIS AREA!!!! 

I wish I could say more but time passes quick here at the Lan House.... so here are pictures:)

Blue Popsicle moment: P´day with the zone!! SUCH A FUN DAY!!

McDonald's again (lol!)

Happy Halloween:)

Churrasco:):):)

A pretty sun set. So so pretty!

Walking with zone (Pretty Area)

THE ZONE... we can´t swim

Week 16

So this week my comp and I decided that the enemy is working very hard on our area.. The progress has slowed because nobody can make it to church. Either they wake up with a headache, or the bus doesn't come, or the alarm doesn't go off... and if they can´t come to church they can´t be baptized. It's tough. Keep my area in your prayers; that the people here who are accepting the messages and missionaries will find a way to continue to progress!!

My mind is racing right now so I think I will probably forget a lot of things, but the pictures will make up for it!  This week we strengthened a lot of our relationships within the ward. The members here are amazing and we are going to start working much more with them! Yesterday there was an event in the park near our house with books and music, and there were thousands of people there, so we did some contacting and it was way fun to be in such an energetic environment! This area is amazing really! 

Now for some specific people... we have Maria. She´s progressing but has had some trouble with some of the commandments! I wanna ask y'all to pray for her to have strength from the spirit. The family that cut us off, Paulo and Giselda... please pray that they will feel what they're missing in their lives. Also Ray and Manoel, that they will seek to be married and baptized, and that their family will continue to search for God daily. Also Gabriel and Wilson, that they will finally take that step to set a baptismal date and stick with it! We have dozens of investigators but these are the few that really need some extra faith and power! 

I love you all so much and hope you all have the best week!!

Sister Walstad

Me and Sis Maydana got ice cream at the best place;) 

When i remember that I can´t call mom 

HUGE FIRE! HOLY COW!  A lab caught fire and so all the medicine and chemicals kept it burning forever... 

There´s a pretty lake here and we cut across it...felt a little like a beach

Emily again (pray for her family as well, for peace and health)

Super heroes at that festival in the park

Baixos e altos

This week was good.. we had divisions with the leader sister leaders..? sister training leaders... I think that´s right. And we had pizza that day. Also, we had multi zone and that´s always fun! President is awesome and I was able to get a blessing from my zone leader. The priesthood is so amazing, in the fact that a person I barely know was able to say exactly what I needed to hear. Those of you who have that authority... use it!

We had a day where we worked from 8:30 am until after 9 pm. We were literally out walking and working for more than 12 hours. We had to leave early because we had an early commitment. I got SO sunburned, holy cow!! But it was a good day. 

We worked with the son of the bishop who recently returned from Portugal. By recent I mean 6 days ago recent. He served in the same mission as Tanner (James) Smith! So cool huh!!? When Tanner came home one year ago (right?) he had been serving in the same mission as the son of my first bishop in the mission. I had a connection with my first area before I even knew it! Cool huh?

We marked 4 baptisms this week, which made 5 for day 20 and 27 of the month. But the husband of a family that we had 3 marked for baptism, called and cut us off. We don´t know why, and will pass by this week to see what happened.  But wow that was hard. We have so many pesquisadores here. It´s so great, but way tough. Our area is HUGE! We don´t know how to cover it all.  Haha! It´s seriously so big, and all by foot. But it´s good because we eat a ton. 

I love you all so much and one of my comps from the CTM had this subject for her email this week: "Warheads are like serving a mission."  It is so true.. and honestly I´m still tasting some of that almost unbearable, painful sour but the sweet is starting to come through little by little. The mission has already taught me lessons I know I could never have learned at home. Keep praying every day. God wants to talk to you. He wants to hear from you. Don´t keep quiet...

Sister Walstad

pizza com sisters

Some of the elders that I arrived with

My cute emily:) ballet girl

 My "blue popsicle": Popcorn that tasted like DISNEYLAND

Made a friend I promise he´s very nice

CONFERENCE IS THE BEST

This week went a little quicker than last week,  but I also feel like I emailed 5 years ago.  But anyway, we have A LOT going on here in the area! Tons of pesquisadores - and lots of potential converts! We met a reference named Carlos who requested to receive a Book of Mormon on the church website, and he will be baptized, I know it. Elite sent from heaven sabe? Also, there are 3 of the 5 five family members we are teaching that are accepting the lessons and they've been reading the BofM and attending church! It´s been good.  The work moves forward here in INTERLAGOS SIÃO!

Also me and my comp have been running and exercising in the park this week and it´s the best! I actually like running now, and dance last week was, I think, the best thing to happen to me so far on the mission. I get to dance again today and I am beyond excited:):):) I LOVE DANCE!

Now about conference.  Why haven´t I ever wanted to sit and just listen to all 4 sessions before?  All 8 hours and  all of the messages... literally it was the most amazing thing! And how cool is it that we have these people, and a prophet to guide us today? Imagine a life without him, the scriptures, this gospel.  Imagine how lost and confused we would all be. I am so grateful for our latter-day prophet and the apostles. Loved every moment of conference. The only thing that stunk was not watching it with my family. Hearing the choir made me lose it. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Today we had a fun day with the Zone leaders.  Sister Maydana and I and the zone leaders were invited to eat cake by a member in our ward. Then we got açai and it was a good time! P-day is the best honestly:)

I challenge you all to study the words of our Modern day prophet and apostles when their talks come out. I know for me I am stoked and literally so excited to study those modern day scriptures!! Scriptures are the best thing ever. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

When I danced on Monday :) 

 A dog :)

A chicken :)

COOLEST WATER BOTTLES EVER 

Feet of a chicken........

On the way to conference!!!

oi outubro!

Setembro já passou!

So I feel like the first day of Setembro was yesterday but also these past few weeks crawled... crawled people.  I mean craaaawwwlleeeddd by. BUT my new comp is great and I have SO MUCH hope for this transfer!

My companion has almost 8 months in the mission. She´ll reach 8 the day after I reach 3. Yeah I've only been gone 3 months.  I know it´s crazy. It feels like 10 years... but nope only 3 months! But this week honestly was why I´m on a mission 100%. My comp loves to work and she is good at it too. She´s way fun!  I think we´ll be buddies at the end of this transfer:)

We found 13 new pesquisadores and I have a quick story about one. Her name is Marcia. She was at the house of another pesquisador and she was going on an on about how all churches are "bull crap" (excuse my language), and nobody knows the truth and she´s sick of all the different claims on religion.  So I told her about the differences in our church and we went back and forth like this:

 "Your church is not different" 

"It is Marcia"

"It´s not"

"It is"

"It´s not"

"It is"

"It´s not"

"It is"

"..........ok"

Everyone, yes... I won the "fight" and she is gonna be baptized- I know it!!!!

Also, we had 12 pesquisadores at church yesterday including a family of 5 with a lot of promise. We are really hopeful for these people! Bishop is too.  He said, "I have a good feeling about you 2... you guys will baptize and grow our ward this transfer." Keep us in your prayers! And our people we are teaching! Change is hard.

Last thing, We have a pesquisador with a daughter doing ballet, and I will be going to the ballet class tonight and I am so excited!! I want to dance so so bad it´ll be fun!

I almost forgot... my "blue popsicle" is A puppy I played with on the roof of a members house!:)