First of all, the most exciting part of the week- we are getting a temple in SALVADOR!! Woot woot! When they announced it yesterday in general conference(a worldwide church conference we have every 6 months), everyone went crazy. The closest temple to Aracaju is in Recife, which is an 8 to 10 hour trip and pretty expensive. Salvador, on the other hand, is only 3 hours so everybody here is ecstatic. For those who don’t know, we believe in temples, just as in biblical times, as being holy places. It is where we perform ordinances in place of our ancestors, such as baptism and confirmation, and also where marriages are held that can last not just for time, but all of eternity as well. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, which is why we have many of the same elements of His church that Christ established during His lifetime. It is the same reason we have this conference every 6 months- to listen to our apostles and prophet. We believe in the same structure Christ established and so we have a prophet and 12 apostles who continue to receive revelation and guidance for the church. God has always provided prophets because each period in time has different challenges to face. I am very grateful for our prophet and the opportunity to listen to him and other leaders of the church.
The conference was broadcast here at a chapel about an hour away in Aracaju from 1-3 and 5-7 PM. Most of the missionaries in Aracaju were there so during the 2 hour break everyone brought food and we all talked and ate with the missionaries and other members that were there. After the last session, an older couple in our ward invited us to their house and fed us dinner. They are like our grandparents here and we love them so much!(pictures attached) All of conference was in Portuguese except for the music, but I was able to understand almost everything. I am grateful to have listened to it in another language because I found that I understood the things that I needed to hear, if that makes sense. I was mentally interpreting almost everything, but the Spirit helped me feel and really internalize the parts that were important for me to understand. Definitely a very cool experience. I loved the familiarity of conference and I love that the church is the same in every part of the world. Again, just as Christ established. I have no doubt that He is at the head of this church and again, I am very grateful for that.
This week was a longer one, seeing as we still don’t have anyone really progressing. We had one person, Jailton, come to conference and I am excited to talk to him more about what he felt.
Saddest part of the week was our visit with Lindinalva. We started with a great conversation about the Plan of Salvation and Gods plan for everyone on Earth. She had a lot of questions and we were able to answer all of them. But, when we invited her to conference with us she became quiet all of a sudden and told us that the reason she agreed to meet with us that day was to give us back the Book of Mormon and tell us in person that she didn’t want to meet with us anymore. She gave a lot of reasons and we tried to reach a compromise but she had aready made up her mind. It really was kind of heartbreaking because we saw so much potential in her and were so excited to keep helping her. We can at least take comfort in knowing we did everything we could.
Regardless, we had lots of great experiences this week as well.On Thursday, we were in the same neighborhood as one of the members here in our ward and we felt like we should stop by and see how she was doing. When we got there, it was clear that she was completely overwhelmed and almost at her breaking point. She had been tending 3 of her grandkids the past 2 days and it had turned into a bit of a chaotic situation. After talking and listening to her for a while, we went to work cleaning and playing with the kids. I love kids so it was so fun for me and by the time we left that night, the house was in a much calmer(and cleaner) state. She thanked us for being ^her angels^that day and it was one of those times where I really felt like an instrument in Gods hands. We feel that a lot as missionaries and it is one of the best parts of being here.
Speaking of kids, we always see the same kids playing in the streets here and I started carrying candy in my bag to give to them-so naturally, we are all best friends now Ç) One of them, Lila, insisted on introducing us new friends to her family and we went to meet them. They just moved here and don’t have a church to attend here so we are going to visit this week and hopefully they will be interested. I am excited! Met a lot of other new people and have a busy week which is always encouraging. It is the last week of our transfer so there is a chance it is my last week here in Aracaju but I am pretty sure I will stay at least another 6 weeks. Which means Cruz will probably leave, but we wont talk about that.
Almost forgot to mention the weirdest part of the week- for our personal/preparation day on Monday, we were at the Centro with the other sisters when we ran into a Ukranian who is traveling Brazil alone but doesn’t speak Portuguese. Yeah, not really sure about the logic of that… but he spoke a little English so we were able to communicate and try to help him. Long story short, we ended up buying him a bus ticket to the airport where we are hoping he stayed safe that night. If he had stuck with his plan of staying the night in the centro, he would have been robbed or worse for sure. Again, not much logic, but to each his own, right: Every day an adventure.
Sorry these emails just keep getting longer and longer so I will wrap it up here. I love you guys so much and hope you all had a great conference weekend as well!!
Love,
Sister Lauren Mather
PHOTOS&VIDEOS: Our adventure with our Ukranian friend Viktor // Miranda and all others who knew me at college will fully appreciate this picture and understand how happy I was to find peanut butter // after conference with Meg and Marcos // so very proud of my plant
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