Week 11: 9/24/2024 Templo!!!

 Templo!!!

Olá!! Tudo bem?? This week was kind of weird and I don't really remember a lot that happened but let's see!

Saturday we had a service project which was cool! It was mostly a lot of missionaries helping but we cleaned up a plaza area and repainted the garden box things and the basketball court! That was kind of nice to have a change of things. 

Oh! Thursday we did something called tour of the temple where we go to the temple and then other missionaries call us with the people they are teaching and we talk to them about the temple and show them some pictures of the rooms inside and then invite them to be baptized if they are not already on date! That was super fun to just get to talk to a bunch of people and talk about the temple as well as see all the people other missionaries are teaching! It also strengthened my testimony of the temple! 

Yesterday we had a lesson with someone the elders found for us during a blitz and I invited her to be baptized and she accepted and is going to pray about it so please pray for Eliete! That was my first baptismal invitation that I myself spoke so that was cool! 

Today we got to go to the temple (thats why you're getting this on a Tuesday) which was SO SO GOOD and just what I needed! It felt like a breath of fresh air and I have such a strong testimony that temples are truly the house of God. Even if you just visit the grounds of the temple, I know you will feel closer to God and I invite you to go! 

Spiritual thought: This past week has been such an emotional roller-coaster for me. Somedays it's just really hard to be in a different country learning a different language! But something our mission president talked to us about last week that I have been thinking about a lot and studying about is becoming. We all go through experiences that we don't want to, we don't understand, and that are hard. But in the end, it's about who we choose to become because of those experiences and what we choose to do with them.  Elder Mathias Held said: "Consciously shift your focus and elevate your thoughts to the positive aspects of challenges, because they are undoubtedly always there too! Never forget to be grateful! Choose to believe. Choose to have faith in Jesus Christ. Choose to always trust God." I know that none of this is easy. I'm definitely not good at it yet but I'm trying and I know that God sees our efforts and will magnify them! God is in the details! I see His hand in my life every single day! Love you all so much! 

Tchau, Sister Howard

P-day Temple Trip

Thursday evening at the temple giving "tours" via the phone

At the service project...painting lines

Sister Howard Painting

District or zone pizza making activity

Sister Howard and some cute Brazilian Primary girls

More Pizza!

Week 10: 9/16/2024 God Loves YOU!

 God Loves YOU!

Olá! What's good everyone?? Hopefully lots of things! Hope you all had a good week!

Milagre! Rafael was baptized yesterday!! He is so golden and such a good kid, so it's been so awesome teaching him! He was baptized by his cousin who was baptized recently too so that was also cool to see! Everything went smoothly for the baptism which was such a relief!

Last week consisted of a lot of prep for the baptism and also trying to find new people to teach. It's definitely hard to face the rejection of people not wanting to hear about the gospel. 

On Friday I also ended up having a fever and tried to go out and find people and do missionary work because you always hear the stories about how missionaries went even when they ere sick and found this elect person that they otherwise wouldn't have found... unfortunately that wasn't the case for me and it was a humbling experience. A mission is good for that. Every single day I am made aware of my inadequacies and imperfections whether they be physical, spiritual,  mental, intellectual,  you name it. But through it all, I am also get the wonderful opportunity to see how God can use me despite these imperfections and also greater feel of His love for me and the people here that I have been called to teach. 

A scripture I came across last week was in 2 Corinthians and it says  "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."

I know our God is there in the good and bad times and in Him and Jesus Christ there is true rest from the world and pur trials. I know that He can see all of our potential and all the ways that we can grow through our trials and I know He loves all of you so very much! During our last lesson with Lenita, I could feel a fraction of God's love for her and I can't even understand what she says most of the time! With this brief glimpse, it's hard to truly imagine how much God, who knows and understands us perfectly,  loves us!! I have so much love for you all too and appreciate all of your prayers!!

Tchau tchau,

Sister Howard

Pizza with chocolate filled crust!

Rafael's baptism (baptized by his cousin who recently joined the church)

Rafael with Sister Howard and Sister Reis

Week 9: 9/9/2024 Conferencina Zona e Churrasco

 Conferencina Zona e Churrasco

Oi tudo bem?? Another week has passed on the mission and I've officially been a missionary for 2 months which is crazy!! This week has been full of ups and downs and lots happened so let's get to it!

First of all, Rafael, who came to church for the first time last week, is going to be baptized this Sunday! Please pray for him and Lenita so that they will be given spiritual strength this week in preparation for their baptism!!

Last week we had zone conference!! It was super good to see some other people that speak English and also get some training to be a better missionary! President and Sister Feitosa (my mission leaders) spoke and one thing that really struck me that President said was that each missionary is an instrument in the hands of God. Even if I don't know very much Portuguese, in the hands of God I am an instrument for His work and this was super encouraging for me to hear! 

After zone conference I switched places with another sister for a divisão so I went to her area and was in a trio there! That was cool to have a change of scenery and meet some new people that are being taught there! 

Friday was a long hard day for me but it ended in a really awesome way! We had a going away ward party for a missionary here and several people bore their testimonies about missions and he did too and I could truly feel the spirit tell me that this is where I need to be right now doing the work of the Lord. 

Also a little miracle there was a boy there that spoke enough English to have a conversation with me! I know that was God looking out for me and helping me that day.

We also had a churrasco on Saturday with the ward so we got to eat a lot of really good meat! It was a nice change from eating so much rice and beans normally! There were also two people there that we taught and one was probably on drugs but the other one was super interested and very elect and accepted the invitation to be baptized! He's not in our area so other missionaries will continue to teach him! 

This morning I was reading a talk titled Jesus Christ at the Center of Our Lives and it talked about the scripture Matthew 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This is a guaranteed and promise from the Savior that as we bring our burdens to Him, we will receive rest. I know that Jesus Christ is the only way we can receive rest from the world and it can sometimes require humility on out part to lay our struggles at the feet of thr Savior. This is something I am working on and I have such a real testimony that there is peace and rest in Christ and He is waiting for us to come unto Him. I love you all so much and am praying for you!!

Tchau tchau,

Sister Howard

Photos from zone conference and meeting other sister missionaries. And then the photo of me and her both wearing our matching dresses on the same Sunday without planning it. <3

Week 8: 9/2/2024

Week 2 Out!!! Is that really Portuguese?

Olá! Bom dia família! Happy Labor Day!! How's life?? I love hearing updates from everyone and sorry that I don't always have time to respond but its so fun to hear from you!!

Out here in Brasil I'm getting a little more used to things!! I have actually been able to teach a little bit in lessons rather than just bear testimony at the end and people mostly understand me I think so that's been encouraging!! But if they ask a question, I just look at Sister Reis and let her take it because sometimes it actually just sounds like people are speaking Mandarin or something i dont know what kind of accent they have here haha but I can kind of understand some people so I have hope.

Right now, we are teaching a 15 year old girl and she is on date to be baptized in two weeks so please pray with us that that will happen!! She's awesome!! A lot of youth join the church here because they just start coming with their friends to activities and things and then they want to be baptized which is so cool! Tuesday - Lanica is the name of the 15 yo friend. She agreed to be baptized and wants to join the church cuz it is the closest church to her house. She has been to church 1x and needs to go 2more x before getting baptized. There is one boy, Gabriel, who was recently baptized and we were teaching his mom and she was just saying how she has really seen a lot of positive changes in him since being baptized which was so good to hear and see how the gospel changes people for the good! A cool experience was when Eliza was bearing testimony about the Book of Mormon at the end of the lesson with Gabriel's mom and she could feel the spirit very strongly and could also tell that others were feeling the spirit strongly too.

Oh also a story I almost forgot to share. We had found this lady to teach knocking doors and when we had come back and were teaching here, something felt pretty weird and come to find out she was a witch or something and would communicate with evil spirits. Really terrible and I also couldn't understand anything because those words are not ones they teach at the CTM (they should maybe consider it so that missionaries know when to run away) so I found this out afterwards when Sister Reis put into google translate she's a witch. I felt really awful  because we definitely could not feel the Holy Spirit in her house but afterwards at the church building the elders gave me a priesthood blessing and I felt so much more peace. I know that God's power is so much greater than that of Satan's and that we have power over Satan as children of God here on earth, so never forget that you have power over the enemy!! We were at the church building cuz the youth have seminary in the evening so we went there to talk to the youth.

If there is one thing that I am constantly learning on my mission, that is gratitude. Every day here, I experience things that make me so grateful for the life that I have been given, the opportunity to grow up in the United States, to live comfortably, to know my Savior and His gospel and not have to wonder about my purpose in this life. Although I don't get to solve every problem that people have here, I do get to bring them to joy of the gospel and as President Nelson said, "The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. When the focus of our lives is on ... Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening- or not happening-in our lives."

As I already have seen here, people don't have the comforts of life that we are used to, but they have joy because of their Savior. So many kids here live in areas with a lot of drinking and drugs but they have found the joy and hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ! So I am so grateful for all the knowledge that I have of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that I get to bring more joy to people's lives!

Love you all!!

Tchau tchau,

Sister Howard

P.S.

In my mission we don't have Facebook or Messenger and also only one person takes there phone out of the house which is the senior companion so sorry I don't have many pics:(

Notes from our phone call today: (in italics above and below)

On Wednesday - district meeting and 3/6 of the missionaries speak English but it is pretty much all in Portuguese

On Thursday - they went out with 2 members who showed them around the area and told them which streets are safe and which streets they are likely to get robbed on

On Friday - taught Carlos Alberto (?) the new member lesson and his cousin was there and listening so now they are hopefully going to start teaching him

Saturday - lunch with a member at a restaurant and got to eat some yummy meat

Sunday - Church and then lunch at a members and got home at 3:00!!! too much time spent at lunch!!! Eliza is the pianist and is accompanying her companion who will be singing on Sunday and the youth who will be singing at ward conference. They are happy she plays the piano and can play prelude and postlude (and i know it is good therapy for Eliza). 

She said the mornings they usually spend trying to find less active members in the ward but the address is usually wrong so that isn't working out so well

Frustrated cuz companion is thinking a lot about going home and not into "training" or doing all the things they should be doing so not working as hard as Eliza would like to

Says she knows she is being blessed with the energy she needs even though she is getting way less sleep than she usually needs/got pre-mission

The food is still all delicious

Some of her wants: camera, Portuguese scriptures (nice ones to mark up), a few more garments

Lesson she has learned: You are not supposed to put toilet paper in the toilet. It has to go in the trash can or the toilet will get backed up. Oops!

Language seems to be coming along. Says she can understand pretty much everything at church and can even contribute to lessons, she has been teaching parts of the lessons with friends, she is saying lots of prayers at meetings and lessons since she can do that well. I say that is pretty much a miracle!

She seemed much more at peace this phone call, still a few tears cuz it is not easy but she is strong and pushing through.

Looking forward to this week: Zone conference, Exchanges (hoping to get paired up with a really hard working sister!), ward party for a member who was baptized last year and is leaving soon for a mission in Angola and Saturday the ward is having a meat grilling party. 

Last week's P-day

I may have forgotten to put sunscreen on my back

Attempt at pancakes with no measuring cups or spatula with Doce leite 

Also pday- there's a boujee mall in our area with McD's

More Photos from the MTC

 

Week 7: 8/26/2024

Oi!!! After a quick 3.5 hour flight on Wednsday I made it to Fortaleza! The last few days before that at the CTM were so good and I'm so grateful for my time there and all the people but it was time to get to the real stuff!

When I got here I met President and Sister Feitosa at the airport. I arrived with about 12 other elders. We went to their house and ate lunch and then went to the temple and came back, got some training things, and then met our trainers! My trainer is Sister Reis and this is her last transfer, so I will have a different trainer for my second half of training. She's from Manauss, Brazil so a lot of our conversations consist of her speaking Portuguese to me and me smiling and hoping that I understood correctly haha but she wants to learn English and knows a little bit so we're working with what we've got!

The night I got here we then took an uber out to our area which is right by the airport so the planes are super loud, but it was pretty late so we didn't got out.

The following days after have defintely been a mix of really hard and good! I can't say very much but I can usually understand generally what people are saying, which I know has definitely only been possible through the power of God. We had a lesson with Abraao on Friday and I was able to talk a little bit about the Book of Mormon. We're hoping that this week he commits to beng baptized because he was excited about everything we were teaching!

On Saturday night we went out to find new people to teach and I got to choose the doors we knocked on and give our introduction and purpose! The first one was scary but then the lady was like yeah I want to hear your message and then the two other doors I picked that answered also wanted to hear more so we are going back this week! That was defintely a blessing and it was so cool to see how the Spirit works even in just choosing a door to knock at!

One talk I was studying this week was from Elder Kearon called He is Risen With Healing in His Wings. He lists some of the promises that God gives to us in the scriptures that I wanted to share:

"Fear not. I know your sorrows, and I have come to deliver you. I will not leave you. My name is upon you, and my angels have charge over you." There are many more promises God gives us and these are just a few, but they are so comforting! I know that no matter what we are going through in the ups and downs of life, God is there for us. If we bring our trials to Him and to our Savior Jesus Christ and leave them at His feet, we can feel His power in our lives and receive His comfort and deliverance. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of the gospel and the comfort it brings me!! Love you all!!

Tchau tchau,

Sister Howard

Brazilian pizza--pizza on top with chocolate crust. 1st meal in Fortaleza Apt

Fortaleza Temple

1st companion in Fortaleza, Sister Rais

Last photo at CTM with district and Portuguese teacher

Week 6: 8/16/24

Olá! Bom dia!! After today, I only have 4 days left at the CTM which is crazy!! It feels like I've been here forever and also for no time at all!! It's honestly pretty scary to think that I'll be out there in the field next week (I leave Wednesday) trying to talk to people and teach them in my very very limited portuguese, but I am also so so excited to do real missionary work!!

This week went by so fast it's hard to really remember much, but yesterday we got to go to the temple for our last time altogether! It was really nice and peaceful, so I'm super glad we got to go. 

The night before we were up a little late because a girl on our floor got the cotton tip of a q-tip lodged in her ear drum and ended up needing to go to the hospital to get it out so we got to help figure that out which made our lives a little more interesting. Luckily it was a pretty quick fix. 

It has also been pretty cold here! It's hard to remember that it's winter because usually the weather is super nice, but yesterday was the first real warm day we've had since almost Wednesday of last week I think, so I got probably my last bit of cold weather for the next year and a half. 

Other than that, this week has been pretty much same as usual filled with going to meals, going to class, studying, and trying to learn Portuguese, although this week Sister Wudel and Sister Bulleigh, our American friends on our floor, left to the field! It was sad for us because they kept us entertained but exciting for them! Now we get to try and practice our Portuguese with the girls in our hall, which one of them is our instructor's younger sister so she is super sweet but doesn't speak English, so yeah our conversations are definitely interesting haha.

One super cool thing from this week though was on Wednsday night for our devotional, it was a broadcast to all the MTCs from Elder Bednar, an apostle, who was speaking in the Provo MTC. It was SO GOOD and also so nice because it was in English. He talked about the Book of Mormon and he just gets so fired up and energetic talking about it that it just made me love the Book of Mormon even more and helped me to feel that same energy for it. Reading the Book of Mormon as a missionary is so cool for me because I am reading it with a whole new lense and seeing so many more things in it. But one thing that continues to stick out to me again and again is how much it testifies of Jesus Christ and of His Atoning Sacrifice and love for us. In the Book of Mormon, it promises in Moroni 10:4 "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if hese things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of t unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." Elder Bednar invited us to test this promise if we have not already and to continue to do it every time we read the Book of Mormon, that we can know the truth of it and the truth of all that it teaches about our loving Heavenly Father and our Savior. I know that I have received an answer as I have done this and I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true! If you haven't prayed about it, do it! The Spirit will testify to you in your heart that it is true! I love the Book of Mormon and all that I have learned from reading its pages and I am so excited to share it with the people of Fortaleza! Love you all so much! I love hearing from you, so never hesitate to reach out!!

Tchau, tchau,

Sister Howard

Temple

Last Sunday with Sister Wudel and Bulleigh

Acai for last week p-day

Pretty sunset temple photo

District!!!

Week 5: 8/9/2024

Bom dia! Another week here at the CTM! Time really is going by pretty fast. Wednsday officially marked one month of being set apart as a missionary! The other American Sisters on our hall are leaving on Wednsday and they got here the week before us, so it's pretty crazy that that will be me soon!

This week was off to a good start of a 24-hour fast on Sunday so we started after lunch on Saturday and didn't eat until Sunday lunch after church, but it was so much easier to fast as a missionary and I know that blessings come from fasting as we do it with intention and prayer! 

Something kind of funny this week was that we were playing volleyball and one of the Brazilian elders spiked it right on me as I went up for it and then proceeded to flex with the stare down. I was just laughing about it because it was just a funny situation but the elders in my district thought that was pretty crazy. They wanted me to do the same thing back to him when I hit it, but I thought that might not be very Christlike so I didn't. But volleyball has been really fun and we also like to do a juggle circle with the volleyball because there's no soccer allowed at the CTM, so my juggle skills may be improving very slowly.

In doctrine class this week, something we decided to do was a gospel song tournament to see whose is the best. Our turn is tonight but me ad Sister Christensen chose Follow by Ashley Hess, which is on the Sacred Music App and is probably my favorite song to listen to right now so you should all definitely listen to it!

Spiritual thought: Something we were learning about earlier this week was how to teach people how to pray. This just has made me think more about the power of prayer and how as we make it intentional, we truly can communicate with our Heavenly Father and become closer to Him as well as receive more blessings. Alma 34:18 is a small scripture about prayer but it says "Yea, cry unto him for mercy, for he is mighty to save." I know that when we pray, God hears us and He will always answer, even if it is not the answer we want. I read a cool quote from President Nelson that said something along the lines of we ask for things from our mortal perspective, but God answers with our eternity in mind which was just a good reminder that He knows what is best for us better than we do. This week I had a really cool experience praying for someone as a whole district and the Spirit was so strong and it felt so good! I am so grateful for the opportunity we have to pray each day and to talk with God and receive His power and blessings from it!

I love you all and I love getting emails from you! Even if I don't have time to respond, I always read them and it makes my day so thank you!!

Tchau tchau,

Sister Howard