It's the FINAL COUNT DOWN! 7 days

Dear Family!! 

I´ll keep this email short because I will be home before you can blink your eyes and we can talk in person. 

This week was hard, felt like all of our investigators fled from us, everyone else didn´t want to receive us, and I received news from some of my other recent converts aren´t as dedicated in the church. It´s been hard... but at the same time, I think I have seen one of the biggest miracles on my mission this past week. 

Tuesday was a day where all of our appointments fell through. No one was in there house. We were knocking doors, working, trying to find people. Nada. At night we had a meeting with the Bishop of how we could best help out the ward and if there was anyone in particular that we could visit. Sister Peña and I left feeling a bit uplifted and with a bit more enthusiasm to find the elect people of the Lord. We left there and continued to work. About an hour later, we got this phone call. Sister Penã answered the phone and there was this guy speaking English. She doesn´t speak english so she passed it off to me. There was this guy who had called us. He lives in Canada and is a member of the church. He had an exchange student living with him and his family and she had learned about the church and wants to be baptized. She would be returning to Brasil that week... 

Thursday. Basically, a referral of gold!!! We met this girl, Giovanna, Sunday afternoon. We brought a member with us and taught her about the restoration! She is super excited to be baptized and so full of energy!!! I am SUPER excited!! I know that she won´t be baptized before I leave, but at the same time, it is such a honor to be able to teach her for a little bit before I go. 

Well, considering that this will probably be my last email on my mission that I will send home, I just want to say that I know that this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God and that he received the priesthood authority, the authority to act in God´s name here on the earth. I know that God lives, and that he loves us more than we can possibly imagine. I know that God hears our prayers. If we wait and listen, we can receive answers, personal revelation for our lives. 

Each week we have the opportunity to take the Sacrament and renew our baptismal covenants. Through partaking of the sacrament worthily each week, we can literally feel the difference in our lives. We can feel support, more energy to continue doing the right things that we need to in our lives. 

I am so eternally grateful for this gospel, for my mission, and for all the things I have learned. During my mission, I have had several people ask me why I decided to serve a mission. I would respond that it was because I loved the Lord and felt that he had blessed my life immensely and I wanted to help other people know of the goodness of the gospel for themselves. 

Throughout my mission, I feel like I have received so many more blessings. Blessings that I couldn´t even imagine before my mission. It is so true that when you give the Lord a crumb, he always returns it with a loaf of bread. 

I know that this gospel is true. That Christ lives and that He atoned for our sins. As we use the Atonement daily, we can experience great joy in our lives. True, lasting joy, not something that will fade away with time. 

I love you all VERY much and am so grateful for all of your love, support, and everything that you have done for me. 

Sister Spencer

TWO WEEKS!

Dear Family! 

Well the time is ticking down, 2 weeks left!!!!!!! To be honest though, some days it doesn´t feel like I am actually finishing my mission. Sister Peña and I are still working hard till the VERY end! 

I won´t lie. This past week has been a nice trial of our faith and diligence. We did a lot of walking and had a lot of planned lessons fall through. It is a bit discouraging, but regardless, we are doing the things we need to and are seeing miracles. 

-This week we had one day when all of our plans fall through. It was lovely. NOT. But one small miracle that we did see. We were walking to another apartment complex, talking to people on the way. We ended up running into this couple named Tamirez e Marcos. We had talked to them the week before and were trying to get in contact with them, but it just wasn´t working. It was a miracle for us that we ran into them that day. We set up a time to go and visit them! I am excited to teach them! They have 2 small kids which are adorable! 

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- On Friday we were walking to the bus stop, in a neighborhood that we had already knocked all the doors. In one of the houses, there was a person cutting hair. He yelled out to us and said that he wanted us to teach the gospel to his friend, Lucas (the person getting his hair cut) and for us to return in 20 minutes. We said okay and were SUPER excited! We entered Lucas´ house and taught him the first lesson. When we shared the first vision with him, the spirit was VERY strong. At the end of the lesson we asked if he was willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone who had the authority. He stopped and said that his church -congregação- had the authority. i very simply explained how we know that Joseph Smith received the priesthood, tied it back to the Book of Mormon--if theBook of Mormon is true, then Jospeh Smith is a prophet called of God, Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, and we have the authority on the earth today. the spirit was really strong. I hope that he will choose to act and follow the things that he learned

- We have one couple in our ward that we get along with really well. Only the wife is a member. This week we had planned to go over and teach them. The husband does not believe in God and is very scientific. Sister Peña and i were a bit nervous for this lesson so the day before we decided  that we would fast so that everything would go good. The lesson went well. I don´t think that the husband is quite open right now to accept a few things, but we asked him a few questions about the creation of the world that really got him thinking. i´m grateful for the opportunity to fast and all of the blessings that come from it!

Even though we had a lot of appointments fall through this past week, i know that this is the Lord´s work. Daily SisterPeña and i can see the Lord´s hand and we are VERY blessed. i am grateful to be a missionary!

Well, I love you all tons! i am excited to see/talk to you in TWO WEEKS!!!! The church is true! 

Sister Beth Spencer

28 More Days to GO!

Family!!!! 

Well, just about everyone already knows that i only have 28 more days left!!!!!! And I am super super excited to come home. But at the same time, I am working hard and focusing on the work and not being trunky. I only have 28more days to be a representative of Jesus Christ in Brazil and i am going to work hard until the very last day! 

Miracles. This week has been a bit harder, a bit different. But still, this is the work of the Lord, so we´ve seen some miracles! 

- we went to visit an inactive member named Adelia. She´s an interesting lady, but she loves her family a lot. After our visit with her this past week, we asked her if she knew anyone who would be interested in receiving a visit from the missionaries. She passed for a minute and then said yes--her neighbor! Getting a referral from her was a miracle for us!! 

- Our cellphone is out of minutes now and so we´ve been going to the church to make our phone calls. This past week we were trying to get ahold of a member. It was urgent and we had the wrong number. She lives in an apartment complex that is restricted so we couldn´t go and knock on her door. We tried everything possible to contact her but nothing was  a few . We said a prayer and then continued working. That night as we were walking back to our house we found them! The had gone to the grocery store that is in front of our house (far away from their house) to buy a few things. Prayer works!!! 

- One of the missionaries who lives in our house blew out the lights this week. I don´t know if any of you have ever tried to get ready for a special day at 5 in the morning without any light. It doesn´t work out that well. We had multizona this past week and ended up leaving our house at 6 in the morning. When we returned it was 8:30 at night. We were thoroughly tired and it was hard to plan for the day without any light. We said a prayer that we´d be ableto have light again. Not even 5minutes later the lights magically turned on! I don´t know what happened exactly, but it was a miracle!! 

- We´ve been meeting with this less-active family-- Alinio and Isabel. This week Isabel opened up to us and started talking about the small ways that she is starting to see her testimony grow. It was a miracle because so many people dismiss the small ways they see the Lord´s hand, but she didn´t! She recognized!!

I am so very grateful to be a missionary! I know that this church is true and Joseph Smith really did see HeavenlyFather and Jesus Christ. Through reading the Book of Mormon, I know that every person can know this truth for themseves. We are teaching a person named Cristina. She is Espirita. (basically she believes in reincarnation). It is very clear to me that God is a God of order and if we want to know something, we can pray and ask Heavenly Father. And then, through the Holy Ghost, we can receive an answer. 

i love you all so much!!

Much love, 

sister Spencer

3 weekssss 3 weeeeeks 21 daysss 21 daayyysssss!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Sister-in-Law's Mission President's Wife!

Dear Family, 

Well to be perfectly honest it doesn´t really feel like my mission is coming to an end. Sister Peña and I are still working just as hard as ever here, and we have seen a lot of miracles! 

The beginning of this week was pretty hard. it felt like everyone was rejecting us. All of the first lessons that we taught, people flat out told us that we were crazy, that it was impossible for the story of Joseph Smith to be true because no one could see God. in all of these circumstances, we bore our testimonies and told them that we knew that Joseph Smith really was a prophet called of God, that the Book of Mormon is holy Scripture, and if anyone wants to know it for themselves, all they have to do is to ask God. 

During the end part of the week Sister Peña and I were really blessed. We were trying to find new investigators and we found this guy named Diego. We taught him the message of the Restoration, and invited him to be baptized on February 14th. He accepteddddd!!!!!! and it was a miracle!!!!! I am SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER excited about this!!!! We are going back to teach him on Thursdayand have an awesome member to go with us.This is going to be great!

We received a referral this week-- Lenice. We went there with a member to contact her. The lesson was super great. The spirit was SUPER strong. Lenice is super open. She is going through a lot of challenges in her life and really wants to strengthen her relationship with God and do His will. We taught her the message of the Restoration and also marked a baptism for her on the 14th of February! Wow! WHAT BLESSINGS!!! 

And, it doesn´t end there. At church on Sunday, we had 3 random people show up for church. One was a person who was always walking past the church and felt like she should go, so she went!She said she LOVED church and that she will be returning the next week with her husband1!!! The other two were friends of an inactive member. The inactive member decided that he needed to return to church so he brought his two friends with him! Miracles!!!!!!!

Well, I know, without a doubt, that this church is true. That Joseph Smith really is prophet called of God and that the Book of Mormon is Holy scripture. Through keeping the commandments, we can experience true happiness in our lives. 

I love you all tons!!!!

Much love, 

Sister Spencer

35 More DAYS!!!

Dear Family!!!

Wow, the days sure are dwindling down... but don´t worry. I am staying focused and working hard!! Just for a bit of an update of what has happened this past week. My companion Sister Galarza was transferred and so my new companion is now Sister Peña. She is from Ecuador and we get along really great! She helps me out with Portuguse when I need help and I am teaching her english a little bit. It´s pretty fun! I don´t have a ton of time in this area, only 2 weeks so it has sort of been like Sister Peña and I are opening an area. Things are good though. We´ve seen a lot of tiny miracles this week.

This week I thought I would write about some of the miracles that I have seen.

-Sister Peña and I were walking to an appointment. We were about 15 minutes early so we were talking to people on the street that were walking. There was this car driving past that pulled over to the side of the road and the driver started to yell "Sister Sister. I need talk with you" I went over there and started talking to him. Turns out this guy doesn´t speak Portuguese, but speaks English. He is super interested in the church and wants us to vist him! For us, that was a miracle that we really were in the right place at the right time!

- Another experience we had. We were walking to the bus stop. We past this one lady. She was smoking and looked a little sad. We said good afternoon to her and about 10 seconds later she responded. Once we got to the bus stop, about 10 feet from her, I kept getting these thoughts in my head saying "Sister Spencer, you are a representative of Jesus Christ in this area. If Christ were here, he would have talked to that lady. What are you doing?" So, I looked at my watch, looked to see if the bus was coming. It wasn´t and we had time so I went back and talked to her. This girl, Jessica, was having a REALLY hard day. She had gotten kicked out of her house and was feeling all alone. We invited her to go to church and got her address to visit her. For me this was something very simple, but I really did feel like I needed to talk to her... and I am glad that I did!

We´ve had a lot of success in this area working with some less-active members.We are working with a few of them with goals to go to the temple. It is really rewarding to see people progressing and accepting the principles of the gospel in their lives. 

Well I love being a missionary and I love sharing the gospel with other people! I know that this gospel is true and that through following the principles in the gospel and applying them to our lives we can have true happiness and joy. I am so grateful for the chance that I had to serve in Tennessee and especially for this chance to serve in Brasil!! I love Brasil!

Hope you are all doing well! I love you tons!!

Much love, 

Sister Spencer

Happy New Year!

Dear Family!!! 

It was absolutely wonderful, fantastic, and amazing to talk to you on Christmas Day!!! I am unbelievably excited to see you all soon in person!!! But, until then, I have 51 days until I will be home and am trying to do everything that I need to here. 

Just to re-cap a bit, I was transferred to a new area about a week moved to and a half ago. My companion is now Sister Galarza. She is from Argentina and has a very cool story.She was baptized and then one year after that she decided to serve a mission, so she has more time as a missionary, then as a normal member of the church. She has a strong testimony and loves sharing her story with other people, so that is good! We are a bit different, so we´ve had some great opportunities to learn, grow, and be better people. Sure still have a long way to go though. 

Not a lot has happened since I talked to you guys on Thursday. Our main investigator that we had with a baptismal date moved to a different city to get surgery so she is not in our area as a  and can´t accept visits from the missionaries for a little while. :P 

We did find a new family though!! We got a referral the other day so we went to contact it! It was a whole family!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :DWe will be going back on Saturday and I am extremely excited to teach them!!!! 

Sorry this email is so short, but not a lot has happened since I talked to you all! 

Sister Beth Spencer

Camera Card Miracle!

Dear Family!!! 

Well this week has been a bit different, but we´ve seen some miracles as well! I´ll give you a quick update since I don´t have a ton of time. 

We found this new investigator named Bianca. I think that she is 19 years old. We taught the first lesson to her and she said that she wanted to read the Book of Mormon and pray. If she gets an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, she will be baptized on the 3rd of January!!!! 

We made friends with a bus driver and so at night he will give us rides because we are servants of the Lord! It is wonderful and really helps us out!!! I am super excited about this!!!!! :) 

I thought my camera card broke this week and that I lost all of my photos. Boy oh boy was I praying like crazy. I found someone who I trust to fix my camera. I should be able to recover most of the pictures that I had! BLESSING FROM THE LORD!!!! 

Our investigator Priscilla has a baptismal date for January 3rd! She needs to get married first, so we might have to push it back a little bit. :P 

Something funny that happened this week. There was one day where we were trying to do a bunch of contacts. We saw a huge group of people so I decided that I would be brave and go up and talk to them. I had good intentions, but it sure didn´t turn out so well. I said that we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and described where it was using the bus terminal as a reference and asked if they had heard of the church before. There was a moment of silence and then one of them said that I was speaking German. Another said that I was asking for directions to the bus terminal, and then another said that I was asking how to get to the church. Oh boy. I know that I have a ton of room to improve on my Portuguese, but turns out that they were also drunk. My companion and I got a good laugh out of it, and the people did to. Gotta love learning a new language!

8 more weeks to finish out strong!!!

I love you all TONS TONS TONSSSS!!!!! Thank you so much for all of the love and support that you give me. I am ever so grateful for it! 

I know that this church is true. That Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. That He died for us and lived a perfect example so that we can be with our families forever, repent of our sins and be forgiven, and have a hope for a better world. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families, individuals, and the whole word. I am ever so grateful for Jesus Christ and this time that we have to celebrate his birth. 

http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529

All my love! 

Sister Beth Spencer

Moved P-day for the Holidays

Dear Family!

Well it is was sure sad not to have p-day on Monday. It is always nice to have a break in the week to hear from you all. Needless to say, I am VERY grateful for p-day today!! 

This past week we have definitely seen some miracles. This past Sunday we actually had a baptism!! It was for a 10 year old girl named Ana Julia. Her parents were recently baptized and she attends church with them. Ana Julia didn´t want to get baptized earlier because she does not feel like she had received an answer that she should be baptized. She´s quite the diligent little girl though. She reads her scriptures every day and prays. Sister A. Silva and I decided that we would go over there and teach her about the promptings of the Holy Ghost and how she can recognize her answer. Annnndddd then she was baptized on Sunday and it was wonderful!!! 

This past week it has been so easy to see how the Lord answers prayers for the little things. We had two experiences this past week that I thought were pretty cool. The first was that we were headed over to a member´s house. The connection on the phone was awful, we couldn´t hear what she was saying, and she couldn´t hear us, and then the phone call died. We couldn´t really wait any longer because we had commitments later on in the day so we decided to get on the bus and call her like crazy. We got on the bus with the other set of sisters in our ward. One sister was calling over and over trying to get a connection, and the rest of us were just praying that it would all work out. Well, the phone call finally went through after 20 minutes and it was the perfect timing. The very next stop was the one that we needed to get off. I know that that phone call going through was an answer to all of the prayers that we were saying. 

Another experience that we had with prayer was right after district meeting. We were talking to our leaders about dessert and how we really wanted a dessert. One of the people pulled out his planner and asked what we wanted. I said sorvete and my companion said Mousse de limão. He wrote those two things down and said that he would pray for us. I didn´t really think too much of it till we got to our lunch appointment for the day. Guess what we had for dessert.... sorvete, with the flavor of mouse de limão. Specific prayers sure do work!!

This week has been a bit hard with the fact knwoing that I had the chance to come home in a week and I decided to stay, but I things are still going good. My companion and I get along really well so that is good!

I know that this church is true and that our Savior lives. I know that this is His church and that everyone can pray and receive an answer through the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful for this Christmas season and that I can remember that only through my Savior and Redeemer can I be with my family forever, overcome the difficulties in life, and have hope for a better world.

I love you all tons and am so grateful for you! 

I´m in JUNDIAÌ!

Dear Family!! 

Well, we had transfers this week and I am now in Jundiaí.My ward is called Novo Horisante. It is about an hour away from Campinas. My companion is Sister A. Silva. She is from Brasil and is absolutely wonderful!! I love being her companion. We are currently white-washing an area and it is definitely a bit of a challenge. The missionaries that were in this area previously did not keep the area book updated (area book is where missionaries are supposed to put all the information about investigators, members, areas to go, maps, etc). So, this week has been a bit difficult trying to find people to work with. We´ve taught a bunch of first lessons to people, but we are habing trouble finding people with real intent. Either the people don´t want to read, aren´t willing to pray, or they just don´t care. Blahhhh! Super frustrating! 

As for Thanksgiving. Well that was a bit of an interesting day. Since I from America, me and another Sister (Sister Acevedo... also American) had to go to this school and teach everyone about American traditions for Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, don´t get me wrong, but it is hard to talk about Thanksgiving for 45 minutes in English with people who are learning English. The school had a bunch of questions for us to answer, thank goodness... but at the same time, there were a lot of questions that I did not know. For example, one of the questions was: Why does the president pardon the turkey. It was my turn to answer the question, I said that I didn´t know, but assumed it was because the president had the authority to do so and he wanted to let one turkey live..... yeah. sure was interesting. But that was it. Ate normal Brasilian food for Thanksgiving... and no, I am not tired of it... yet. :) 

Cool part about the week: President gave permission to Sister A. Silva and I to go to the baptism of Allan.... It was really special because we both had the chance to teach him! We left our house at 4 in the afternoon and just barely made it on time for the baptism at 8 o´clock... gotta love efficient transportation!

Well sorry this letter is a bit shorter today... not a ton of things have happened this week... we are mostly working on trying to find new people to work with and get to know are area more. I love you all TONSSSSSS!!!! 

I am praying for you! 

MUCH LOVE, 

Sister Spencer

Last Week's Post . . . Pre-Thanksgiving!

Dear Family!! 

Wow, what a week! It has just flown by and it has been an AWESOME week. So many things have happened so I´ll just tell you some of the highlights. 

ALLAN WILL BE BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!!! Yeah, it´s happenning and I am SUPER excited for him. He has really put forth a lot of effort to get to this point and I know that he will continue to grow and to learn. His son, Natan will baptize him. Without a doubt it will be a VERY special moment. 

Evans is still preparing for batism on the 6 of December. He is reading and praying daily. Even with the language barrier, he is just diong great! He understands what we say, thinks about it, and then comes back with real constructive questions. It really shows that he has real intent and a sincere heart. It is so great!! 

One thing that Sister Mitchell and I have been trying to do is to follow all of the good thoughts that we have. With this, we saw one miracle in particular this week. We were going to contact a less active member of the ward that lived in an apartment complex. When we got there, a woman came to the gate and we asked if she could go knock on this member´s door and see if we could visit. She did, and came back and said that he was sleeping and immediately turned around and started to walk away. We had this thought that we needed to talk to her, so we called her back and started up a conversation. Because we followed this small thought, we found out that she was a member of the church, baptized 6 years ago, but hadn´t gone for 4 years. We got her information and will be going to visit her. She isn´t quite to the point of wanting to go to church yet, but we did invite her to an English class that we have and she seemed SUPER interested in it. This was definitely a miracle and a blessing. Always follow the small thoughts! 

Well, this week Sister Mitchell and I got burned from mango milk. Who would have thought, right?? So you know how if you put lemon juice on your skin and then walk in the sun it burns your skin so you get a blister?? Well it´s the same thing with mango milk. This week for one of our dinner hours Sister Mitchell and I decided that we wanted to collect mangos to eat later on in the week. So, we found a lovely park with mango trees and began the process of collecting a mountain of mangos to eat later. Brilliant, right? Yeah, I still think so. Well, with all of those mangos fresh plucked from the tree, some of the juice from the stems got on our skin and when we walked in the sun, well.... we got burned and then found out later that night. Regardless though, I still am VERY excited to eat the mangos. 

One of our recent converts, Almir, is really an example to me of a member missionary. He was baptized about a month ago, but he is just on fire!! He talks with everyone about the gospel and defends the church right and left! This past week he gave us a referral for the person who cuts his hair! Wow, when i return from my mission, I sure hope that I can continue to talk to everyone about the gospel in small ways like this! 

Well with all of this great work and all of the things that I have learned in this area, I found out yesterday that I will be transferred. I´m a bit sad about leaving.... but I know that my new area will be good for me! 

I love you all tons!!!

100 More Days!

Dear Family!!!

Well, This week has just FLOWN by!! A lot has happened so I will try to sum it up the best that I can. We started to teach a guy named Felipe. And the lesson was awesome. The spirit was really strong and  I know that he felt that. We are preparing him for baptism right now. We want him to be baptized on the 29th of November! If he keeps going like he is going now, I am pretty sure that he will serve a mission!!

This past week our stake put on the huge activity. They had all of this free stuff to offer. Like free hair cuts, counseling, health advice, you name it and they had it! It was really cool. As missionaries we were told about it the night before and that we were just to show up and help the people that were there. It was meant to have a ton of people there, but in reality, none of the members invited their friends so hardly anyone showed up. So, our job turned into going and talking to everyone in the streets that we could find and inviting them to the activity. Not a ton of success. I was thinking about how sad it was though. A ton of people put in all this work, and there was not a ton of success simply because members didn´t invite their friends.

Things are progressing well with our investigators for the most part. This week we will start to teach two new people who came to church. They are super open! We are hoping that they will be baptized soon. Their names our Rodrigo and Evans.

This week I have become convinced that I can control the weather through my actions. If I forgot to bring an umbrella with me, without a doubt we will receive a TON of rain, even if it doesn´t look like it will rain in the morning. If I forget to put on sunscreen, without a doubt it will be a hot, sunny day. I guess that as missionaries we are given many gifts and talents. I´ll be interested to see if this gift sticks with me when I come home!

Oh, by the way. Did you realize that today I have exactly 100 days more on my mission!!! And then, after that I will be coming home!! Yeah, I am excited!! I am excited for the work that I can do here, for how much better I can learn Portuguese, and then when the time is up, to see you all! 

Sister Beth Spencer

And Life Continues!

Dear Family!!! 

Well I am so excited to email!! This week has been pretty normal... full of ups and downs. I´ll fill ya in a bit with things that have happened with our investigators! 

Almir was confirmed on Sunday and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost! I am SUPER excited! I know that Almir will stay true to the things that we have taught him. He is still reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and doing all of the small things! It is Awesome!!! 

Visited Josey and Nelsey this week. That was sure interesting. Nelsey pretty much told us that she already knew everything that we were saying and didn´t think that the Book of Mormon could add anything to the extensive knowledge that she already has. We bore our testimonies and invited her to read the book and promissed her that it would change her life. She asked us right then to show her something in the book that would change her life. Long story short, She isn´t open. Her husband is open however, but I am not quite sure how to handle the situation. We´ll see what happens! 

Found a new investigator this week-- Alexandre. He has a baptismal date for 29 of November. I am not quite sure if he is truly interested in the message. He kept commenting on how blue our eyes were. The next visit we have with him, we will decide what we want to do. 

Pretty sure we are going to have to drop Ivan. He´s not really progressing. Ugh. It´s lame, but we gotta find the peole who are truly ready. 

Other than that, other things: 

This past week I was walking down the street under some trees. i felt something land on my head. Didn´t really think much of it. Leafs fall on our heads all the time. I went to brush it off and it was wet, slimy, gross, bloody bird poop. Disgusting. So gross. I didn´t give my companion an option, we returned to our apartment super fast so that I could get it out of my hair. Needless to say, I have been avoiding the trees that have a ton of birds in them. 

Funny thing: In Brazil it is really cool to speak English and to wear t-shirts that have english words or phrases on them... however, most of the time, people don´t always know what they say... so they are quite hilarious. Here are a few of the ones that we´ve seen: 

-Look out, Floor ahead

-Im an 60´s star

-Gils from space (with 3 lovely pineapples stamped on as well)

-I need someone

-you´re not good you´re super

-I get my looks from mum

-nice guys finish last

-your girlfriend hates my alarm clock

All day long we walk in the sun, so in turn it makes our hair a bit lighter. Well, in the case of my hair, it has made the red in my hair come out... a LOT! like, I am pretty much a red-head now. Everyone comments on my blue eyes and red hair... :-P

The language is coming along REALLY well. the Lord is really helping me out. Each week I can see a difference in my ability to speak. I feel so VERY blessed!! Thank you so much for all of your prayers!! 

Sister Spencer

The Work Progresses :)

Dear Familia!

Puxa! This week has sure been full of things! I don´t even know where to start!

I´ll start with our investigators first. Almir was baptized yesterday! It turned out really well! A lot of the ward members showed up to support him. I know that he will be such a strong member in the church!! He was reading in 2nd Nephi the other day in the Isaiah chapters and didn´t understand them so he decided to start them over again. We were talking to him the other day and he mentioned how he was just loving the Isaiah chapters. Can´t say that I know too many people who would say that, so way to go for him!!! 

We found a new investigator this week named Véra! She had missionaries come over in the past, but didn´t really understand the Book of Mormon and thought that we worshipped Joseph Smith. We taught her the message of the Restoration and she understood everything really well! She agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to find out if it is true... and if it is true, she will be baptized!!!! Sad thing though is that she will be out of town for a week or so. Why do people need to take vacations anyways?? jk!

I gave a talk on Sunday in church! i think it went over pretty well. I felt like I said what I was supposed to. I thought it was sort of funny though, all of the speakers after me cried in their talks, and I´m not really that much of a crier. All is good though! People said that they could understand what I said and that I am improving quite a bit in Portuguese! i feel like the Lord is helping me out so much with this language! I feel so blessed!! 

The strength of the members in this ward always inspires me. There is this lady who is married to a man who is anti-mormon. Her marriage isn´t the best, her and her husband get in fights a lot, and he is constantly bashing her for what she believes. Yet, every Sunday, she gets ready and brings herself and her daughter to church regardless of all of the rude comments and other things that happen to her. I was thinking about all of the small things that this member does to keep her testimony strong. Putting myself in her shoes, I imagine that she receives a LOT of strength from the Lord through reading her scriptures, praying, going to church, and doing the small things to have the spirit  with her. 

 Other than investigators, the next biggest thing that happened is that I got a letter from one of our investigators. He pretty much said that he wanted to marry me. I think he was a bit nervous that I wouldn´t understand the Portugues, so he wrote it in English and Portuguese for me.... oh man. It blindsided Sister Mitchell and I... both of us did not pick up on this one tiny bit. I had to tell him that as missionaries, we need to focus ALL of our time on the Lord. Goodness, how awkward!!! Things are all better though and he knows why we are there. 

Love you all TONS!!!

Highlights from Brazil

Dear Family!! 

Well the weeks go by SUPER fast here. There is a lot to get done. This past week was a bit interesting. 

On Saturday, we were asked by our Stake President to teach 2 English classes... for two hours each. Boy, that was sure interesting. The people in the class were Brazilians who were trying to learn English and had been studying for about 3 months. So in other words, they didn't know any English. It really turned out being we say a sentence in English, see if anyone knows any of the words that we said. If the knew the words they got chocolate, if not, we translated into Portuguese. We tried to make it interactive and include games, but it was hard. From that experience, I can sure say that I do not want to be a teacher in a classroom setting.

Do you remember a few weeks back when I mentioned how we found this guy named Walter. Well hopefully you do. We were finally able to get in contact with him this week! And it was great!! After talking to him for a half an hour, he said that he knew that he needed to get back to church. He gave us all of his information to move his records! We have an appointment with him on Wednesday with the Bishop and then he said that he would go to church on Sunday. I really believe that he will go! I am SUPER excited for this! 

We did not end up having the baptism for Almir this week. It felt like we were just rushing the lessons a little too fast. He will be baptized on Saturday at 7 pm. I feel a lot better about this date and I know that he does as well! I am excited to see Almir baptized. I know that he will be such a GREAT addition to the ward here and a solid member. 

For the other people that we are working with: Marina! MARINA CAME TO CHURCH!!! This is huge! She loved church and all of the people there! I am really hopeful that she will go back the next Sunday! It is a bit harder for her because she is having a few problems with her husband and doesn't really have the support. We introduced her to a few members that she should connect really well with! Antonio Marcus! I don´t know if I have mentioned this before, but he is a pastor. He believes completely in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. His hang-up is that he doesn't feel like he needs to be baptized again. We asked him to pray about it, and he said that he did and that he got the answer that he does not need to. I personally feel like he got that answer because I am not sure if he is ready to leave his church and completely join this church. We had a super spiritual lesson with him though and asked him to pray again about the date November 2nd to be baptized. I am praying like crazy that he will accept that date! 

Every day my Portuguese improves a little bit. Right now I sleep in a room with 3 other missionaries. I was talking with one of them who is from Brazil and she said that the other night I was talking in my sleep in Portuguese and that she could understand me!! I thought that was pretty great!! As of right now, I am confusing the words inverno and inferno. The first means winter and the second means hell. Kind of a big difference. Poor Almir. This past week he was asking about hell and I tried to tell him that I knew that God wanted us to go to the Celestial Kingdom and for me, any other kingdom would be hell because I would get to live with God forever.... yeah, well, I used the wrong word. Poor guy was confused for a bit, but we got a good laugh out of it. 

It is REALLY hot here. I have heard that I am in the hottest area. There are a ton of buildings and cars and that traps the heat in a bit. Yesterday people said that it got up to what is the equivalent of 104 degrees. I think I am going to die. It´s just spring here. If I come home as a baked potato, please love me still! 

I love you all tons!! Thank you for all that you do for me! 

Brazil!

Dear Family!! 

Well it hasn´t been very long since I last emailed, but it has been a good week! The best thing that has happened this week is that Silvia was baptized on Sunday!! It was super cool. When she came up from the water, you could just see how free she felt. It was an amazing experience. What was also good was that her son Philipe attended the baptism as well and we are going to start to teach him! I am super excited for this! Hopefully we can start to teach him and get him with a baptismal date for the next few weeks. I´ll keep yáll posted on what happens! 

On Saturday our ward had a fast for the missionary work in the area. I feel like that will help out a lot for us to find new investigators and those who are prepared for baptism. I´m excited to see what happens this next week as we work and try to find new investigators!! I know that fasting is a principle that brings a ton of blessings and has a ton of power. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to fast. 

Marina is progressing well. If you remember her, she is the mother of the family that we found. I´m not sure if we will continue teaching her for much longer. Either she will have to start keeping some more commitments or we´ll have to stop visiting her. Kind of sad. Will see what happens. I pray that we can contine to visit her!!!

 

One of the people that i am most excited about is Almir. He is progressing SUPER great!!!! He has a baptismal date for this Sunday. He is so excited about the gospel and keeping all of the commandments. On Saturday when we had our activity, he went up to the Bishop and said "I know that I am not a member yet, but I want to pay my tithing. So here is the money." The Bishop didn´t know what to do,  but was super excited! It´s really awesome to find people who are so prepared to accept the gospel!! 

We had the transfer call yesterday and I will be staying in this area with my companio, Sister Mitchell. One transfer goes by really fast! I´m excited to see the difference that we can make in one transfer!! 

The language is still hard. Believe it or not. But things continue to get better. I was asked to give a talk on October 26th. i won´t lie, I am super nervous for it, but I know that everything will be fine. One of the hardest parts for me is talking on the phone. Everyone sounds way different...aka completely uncomprehensible. Maybe one day I will understand them. My companion likes to put me on the spot a lot by asking me to do the phone calls. I guess it is a good learning experience for me. 

Well, sorry this email is shorter... Guess I don´t have a whole lot to report especially since our last p-day was Thursday. I love you all tons and am praying for you tons!! 

Mmmkay, well I love you all tons! 

Sister Spencer

Brazil, Week #2!

Dear Family!!!

Well what a week. It´s been so long since I´ve emailed and I´ve missed you all sooo sooo much!!! It´s been a crazy week and a half, but my companion and I, Sister Mitchell, have been having a ton of success. This Sunday one of our investigators, Silivia will be baptized!! She is super excited for baptism and I think that all will go well. Next week I´ll send a picture home of that! 

The best experience that I had this week was when we were walking home from this place called the Taquaral. Normally we cross this bridge to get home, but for some reason, that night we felt like we shouldn´t. So, we took the long way around... add another 20 minutes of walking time. On our way home, we passed this man and started talking to him. After talking to him for a bit, he told us that he was a member and had been baptized about 20 years ago and had been through the temple with his wife. A bunch of things happened and his wife left him, so in turn, he left the church. We were able to invite him to conference and everything! If we had not followed the spirit, we would not have found him. The man hardly ever leaves his house, only for food and to go to work. Miracle that we found him! 

We have started teaching this man named Almir! Two weeks ago he randomly came to church. We started teaching him. On the very first lesson that we had with him, we committed him to be baptized on the 19th of October!!!! It´s crazy how open and receptive he is. After the first lesson, we got a phone call from him. He was wondering what beverages he could drink and how to pay tithing. ( At this point, we hadn´t mentioned tithing or anything to him). And, Almir came to all of the sessions of conference! So awesome!!! It´s really awesome teaching Almir. I can´t speak perfectly, but I feel like he can understand me and feel the spirit. It truly is amazing!!! 

We walk a ton here. SO much! In all honesty, I love it!!! The food is great too!!! We eat a lot of rice and beans, and fruit. The fruit is amazing and tastes like unother I have ever tasted in the world. SO GOOD! The language is difficult. I´ve made a lot of mistakes this past week, but I am learning and improving! I´ve said a lot of funny things. For example, this past week we were contacting a few people on the street. I was trying to give this one lady a pass along card that had a picture of Jesus on it. Well, in Portuguese, the word for picture is cuadro. I was still trying to learn that word, and didn´t quite say it right. What I ended up using was the word quarta which means fourth. So instead of saying we have a picture of Jesus for you, I ended up saying we have a fourth of Jesus for you. Poor lady was a bit confused....

Things are improving here. It is a bit hard, but every day things get better!! 

I love you all and miss you so much!!! 

Sorry the notes are so short today!! I love you all TONS though!!! 

After 14 Months of Waiting . . . I made it to Brazil!

Dear Family!!! 

Thank heavens for english! I´m grateful that we all know english and that we can communicate. Sorry I didn´t write last week. I didn´t get a p-day. I left for Campinas on Tuesday and the p-days here are on Monday.

One of the best things that happened in the past two weeks is that I got to go to the temple since being in the Provo MTC. Man, that brought so much peace and comfort. We went to the Sao Paulo temple. (This is when I was still in the MTC). We got to watch the session in English. After not being able to go to the temple for about a year, it was so nice! I can´t even begin to describe how nice that was for me!! 

The people in Brazil are much different from the people in TN. They are much, much more open! On the very first day that I got here, we went street contacting and we were told to invite people to be baptized. So, on my very first day out in the field in Brazil, I committed a lady with a small daughter to be baptized. Yeah, super legit!! 

This past week we saw another miracle. We were out trying to contact a person, and she wasn´t home, so we decided to go down the street and see who was home. From that, we found this family. Marina and Mauro with 3 daughters (all grown, only the daughter Rafeala lives at home). We were able to teach them the Restoration this week. It was my first time teaching the REstoration in Portuguese in the field!! Man, it was so great. I got to share the first vision, and the spirit was so strong. My Portuguese wasn´t perfect, but I´m pretty sure that I made sense. This is the first family that I have gotten to teach on my mission and I am super excited about them!! 

We have two other investigators with a baptismal date right now. Silvia and Ivan. Silvia is going to be baptized on the 12th of October and Ivan on the 19th of October. I don´t really know a whole lot about them now, but I am learning and things are good!! 

Language. Oh boy is it difficult sometimes. My companion is extremely patient with me thank heavens!!! This past week she was saying something, I didn´t catch all of it, but from what I understood, she said "Eu preciso colocar torta em tambem".... which, from what I know, means "I need to put the pie in as well." I couldn´t figure out for the life of me what she was talking about! We got a good laugh out of that though.... I have a lot of those moments, but each day things get better. For me it is simple, when I feel the spirit, I can understand what people are saying for the most part. When I don´t, things are a lot more difficult. I find though that the Lord has blessed me SO MUCH for doing my language study in TN. As of right now, I think I can understand about 65-70% of what people say...needless to say, miracles exist on the earth today!!! 

Also, we walk a ton!! Thank goodness for bandaids. I have a few blisters on my heels, but those should go away this next week I am hoping!! 

My companion is Sister Mitchell from Maryland. She´s super nice and patient!!! Thank heavens for that! I really like being companions with her. Turns out that we were in the MTC at the same time in Provo. I´ll be out in the mission longer than her though since I will most likely be extending for another month. We´ll see what happens though! 

Brazil does have some weird things that I am not quite used to. 

Well, I love you all tons!!! 

I have some píctures to send home, so I´ll do that now! 

BRaZiL! - MTC Round 2

Dear Family!!!

So in I'm Brazil and I absolutely love it!!!! I still can't believe that I am actually here. It surprises me a bit to be honest... seems like I have been waiting for it for so long, and now that I am here, it is just amazing! Things here are going really well in the MTC. I can say that I am definitely grateful for all of the practice and the diligence that I put into studying Portuguese before my mission. Without a doubt, it has definitely paid off and I am receiving a TON of help from Heavenly Father with the language. The Gift of Tongues is defintiely a real thing... and I am SO grateful for it. Also, thank you for all of your prayers in my behalf. I have definitely felt them and I know that it it is making a huge difference.

On Saturday we were allowed to get out of this place... I think we went to the Teatro Minicipal... don't quote me on that though... anyways, we got to hand out Book of Mormons. Man, can I just say that Heavenly Father really helped me out with that. I was actually able to understand about 65% of what people said to me. Definitely a miracle!! It's bit intimidating being around people that you don't fully understand and trying to talk to them about Christ and the Restored Gospel and then they say something and you have absolutely no idea what to say back because you don't know what they said. But really, things turn out okay. This truly is God's work!!

Theatro Municipal - Brazil (http://www.culturalexchange-br.nl/sites/default/files/Josine/Theatro%20Municipal%20do%20Rio%20de%20Janeiro.jpg)

As for the food here. Except for breakfast, I have had beans and rice for every meal. It's a good thing I like beans and rice because I have a feeling that I am going to have that a lot of it in Brazil... The food is pretty good though. They don't have a ton of variety, but that's okay. I think I've only had one or two things that I couldn't quite get myself to eat... one of them was a squid and rice dish... yeah, no thank you. I'll pass on that.

I get along with my companion, Sister Garnett, very well! She is super nice and has a desire to work hard, which I am VERY grateful for. My district is okay. To be honest, sometimes it is hard. They are all pretty much teenage boys and goof off a lot of the time. They don't really like to talk in Portuguese, and it is hard to always be speaking in Portuguese when everyone else in the room is talking in english. I'm taking things one day at a time though and just keeping in mind that I will soon be out of the MTC. I think it's interesting that some people here have the attitute that they don't need to be here because they already know how to be a missionary and that this is a waste of their time. The MTC is a lot different from the field, but I am enjoying it!

This past week I was called as a Sister Training Leader... that's basically just a person who watches over the other Sisters and makes sure that they are keeping the rules and everything. It's pretty great because I get to talk to the other sisters and get to know them a bit. Thank heavens none of them have trouble following the rules. :)

Well, I'd say that that is pretty much it. All day I pretty much sit in a classroom and learn how to speak Portuguese better. My teachers are pretty great. They don't really speak English at all so sometimes we have no idea what they are saying so we just smile and say "sim" (yes) and then that appeases them so they go away. 9\10 I know what they are saying though, so that is good! From what I have experienced about Brazil, it feels like a home away from home!

Interesting thing I learned this week: hashtag in portuguese =jogodevelhas= game of the old. y'all= gente.

I love y'all tons!!!!!