Happy birthday to me...:)

This week was the first week of transfers, and it was a little interesting to say the least!  I'll explain a little.

First off, me AND my companion both had our birthdays last week which was cool.  We had to do lots of divisions with the other sisters’ because me and another sister were sick all week! My 20th birthday is definitely one I'll never forget!! 

There honestly isn't much to say this week, because I wasn't able to do much, but I love you all and I hope that you have the best week!

Blue popsicle: President calling me to wish me a happy birthday!

Brooke O's cute cousin got here!

My zone did a surprise "bday party" for me. SUPER FUN

Zone selfie

My ballerinas made me cake

I was woken up with a surprise from my cute house comps

Another surprise cake from some members

HAPPY EASTER:)

First things first - Easter here is bigger than Christmas so it was a good time! I hope you were all able to feel the happy feeling of Easter, and remember how great our Savior is. He is literally everything. Brazil is such a cool place because so many people know that.  We saw a cool show about Christ’s life this week called "Paixão de Cristo"  (Passion of Christ) to celebrate Easter, and it was honestly amazing... I am so grateful for Him. This week was really, really good!!!! 

This week we had Gabriel's baptism, which was so great!  Looking back from the beginning, we can see God's hand every step of the way. From the beginning it was just an every day contact, knocking doors, talking to everyone and hoping someone would accept the message that we have. We met his brother, Maicon, who was so excited because he had just been feeling a new urge to find a church to join, and he accepted our invitation to come back another day. If we hadn't talked to that young man sitting outside of his house on his phone, there wouldn’t have been a start of this miracle. 

Later we got to know these brothers better and found out about some legal difficulties they had with their mom, and also with smoking.  But not a week later Maicon, the older brother, gained rights to be the "legal guardian" of his brother, Gabriel. This miracle made it so Maicon could sign his baptismal document (second miracle). We then challenged them to stop smoking and a few days later found out that Gabriel had completely stopped, and started going into his bedroom with his Book of Mormon while his friends were continuing to do the wrong things. He distanced himself from them.

Gabriel was marking the scriptures we left with him, writing down thoughts, and basically teaching his older brother when he wasn't able to be with us during the lessons. God put the timing of this contact and baptism into motion, and I don't doubt that for a second. Gabriel is now being prepared to receive the priesthood and his brother will be baptized here in a few weeks as well... hopefully by Gabriel. God is so good, guys... He is just simply so good to us. 

That's basically it this week. I am so grateful to be a missionary, we got transfers and I am staying here for one more transfer, and a cute Brazilian is gonna come be my new comp:) I am super excited to keep working here!! Please keep praying for us<3 I thank you all for your love and support. 

Blue popsicle: A member giving us the coolest Easter eggs I have ever seen. 

"Love note": God is just so good I can't even think of only one... He is everything and I hope we never forget that. 

Me and my wonderful companion.. she's leaving me:(

Our super cool easter eggs:)

My zone.. SIÃO

Just appreciate my bravery... please... that's all.

GABRIEL BATISMOOOOOO

Just a cool pic for y'all

Semana de milagres

So this week was full of little miracles, and that's what my subject line says "Week of miracles." I will just share a couple stories with y'all:)

First off, we were looking for someone that we met a few weeks ago but never got the chance to talk to again.  Her name is Sol. She gave us her address, but when we looked for it we weren't able to find it. We later found out that she had moved.  

I saw a car drive by that looked like the car she had driven when she had been our UBER ride.  We decided to ask around to see if someone knew where the driver of that car was, and we ended up finding her!  She is AMAZING!! She met the missionaries years and years ago… like 26 years ago when she was a kid, and she started remembering all kinds of things as we taught the first lesson. It was so interesting! She is an eleita com certeza! I am super excited to see her progress.

My next story is a similar situation.  The sisters from Vila Sônia met a young man (Leonardo) who gave his address to them, but again it was the wrong address. So we called him to get the right address, and our phone died. Perfect timing right? So we then decided to just keep finding novos (new people), and call him at home to go another day. 

We saw a guy sitting on the sidewalk in front of his house and shared a convite (invitation) with him. His friend then came out of the house and said "Hi, my name is Leonardo." So... we sat there for a second, looked at each other and asked him... "Será que a gente acabou de falar contigo agora??" (Did we just barely talk to you?), and he said "Foi vocês!?" (It was you)! We were amazed at the way that God put us on the right path again!  Without the guidance of the spirit we would not have found either of those two people. God is so good!!  

My “blue popsicle” from this week is that it literally got so cold that I had to sleep with sweats, a sweatshirt, and socks.... I am so happy!!!

My “love note” has got to be the way that God so perfectly put my companion and me on the right path to find these people.  Without the spirit... it would have been impossible. I love God! 

Please pray for 3 people... Gabriel, Maicon, and Fabrício. Thank you all:) <3

Another really good cake that we made:)

Today in UBER. I love uber 

We made a cool block tower with Augusto

CONFERENCE and 9 MONTHS!

This week was full of fun things!! Again I don't have much time, but I will include lots of pictures:) 

We did splits with some sisters and had to travel to get there, which was fun! The divisions were cool because we watched Coco!! We use that movie to explain family history:) It was a good time.

This week was a little more complicated work wise. The mission comes with ups and downs like we all know, and this week was a little interesting finding-wise. 

A very cool thing happened this week.  THIS IS A MUST READ! Definitely a huge miracle. My companion lost her planner and was not able to find it for 2 days. She had dumped her bag out, called people, ripped her bed apart, she had done everything to find it and had finally just given up and started using paper to write out our plans.

So on Friday we were sitting on the sidewalk with some pesquisadores and one of them has the cutest little brother, who has Downs Syndrome. He kept wanting to open my companion’s bag and so she knelt down next to him and let him open it. He reached his hand inside her bag, and when he pulled his hand back out, he had her planner in his hand. We were completely stunned! God used one of his greatest angels on this earth to answer our prayers, and to find the planner full of numbers, addresses, and appointments that seemed like a lost hope at that point. I witnessed a miracle this week, and I am so very grateful for the way that our Father in heaven answers our prayers. 

Blue Popsicle: Rain. I love rain! 

"Love note": General conference. Huge love note, but I am so grateful for the guidance that we have today. I hope you all take advantage of their words and use this knowledge every day. 

I love you all very much. Thank you for the love, support, and prayers!

Travel day



Ice cream with the sisters when we did splits :)

Our bus left us right before we almost got on

I hit 9 months!!! This is what they do when we hit 9 months (Haha!)

Rain storm

SISTER VARGAS