Eliza's Mission Adventures in Fortaleza Brazil: 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.