Letter from 5/18/2015

Aw guys, this week was absolutely fantastic! We had transfers, and I´m training again and still serving as district leader. It´s super fun and our district is super close and we´re having so much fun with the work! 

My companion´s name is Sister Gusmão, and she´s 31 but doesn´t look like it at all :D She's from the coolest state in Brasil which is Bahia...and we´re having a blast! She´s teaching me so much. Sometimes, when you´re older in the mission, you get into this routine...but she´s throwing me completely out of it! She´s incredible and we´re seeing tons of miracles because of it!

We had 11 people come to church with us, and it was amazing amazing amazing. We went and showed them the baptismal font and the spirit was filling the room. 

7 of the people was a family...We found a LEGALLY MARRIED woman with 6 kids (5 with baptism age) and she went, even though she was sick, and a couple of other investigators. Guys, it was wonderful. Also, Sebastião was there WITH his wife...he kinda scared us, but he walked in just in time for sacrament meetig, and they´re getting ready to get married and baptized. Gosh it was a week full of miracles, and I´m so excited to work with these incredible people. I hope you guys have a lot of amazing experiences and remember to always endure to the end! 

Love you all, have a wonderful week!

Sister Neal

She also sent pictures, but there were no captions.

Letter from 5/11/2015

This is what Sister Neal wrote to me last week after our Skype. It's a payback moment kind of letter...:)

Oh, mom!! Yesterday was so fast that I didn´t even get to say half of what I wanted to!! I gave the message at lunch time to the members, and it was about the importance of mothers. We watched a video, and then I started talking and I cried. Momma I miss you so much! You´re so incredible and I am so thankful for all of the sacrifice you make for us! I didn´t appreciate you as much as I should have at home, but I just want you to know that there is no better woman in the world. You´re amazing and thank you for everything you taught me and are teaching me. Você é incrível, mamãe e quero que você saiba que sempre estarei contigo, que nada possa nos separar e que você é o mellhor exemplo pra mim. Te amo <333 Feliz dia das mães, fique firme e feliz SEMPRE!!

The picture during our Skype call

 She also sent pictures:

A picture with some Elders in our zone

The kids from when I taught English

Landry, he was baptized in my FIRST AREA in the other sister´s branch, and he came to visit me!!

Sanclei, he´s a guy in our ward, he´s super cool

some kiddos that went to church

some people from our ward (because sister almeida´s leaving) :(

ME AND SARA!! She´s Marcelly´s little sister (the girl we baptized) and she wants to be baptized but her mom won´t LET HER. :(

Us and Maxwell in front of the church

Letter from 5/4/2015

*Her camera has been giving her trouble uploading pictures. That's why there haven't been any for a few weeks.

Here is what she responded to my letter since she didn't write to the group this week:

crazy crazy week!! loved it :D HAHAH momma can´t believe you freaked out xD callllm down, everything´ll be alright!!!

YES, people came to church and it was A BLESSING FROM THE LORD. 6 people came, and one will PROBABLY be baptized this Saturday, his name is Sebastião. he´s been going to the other ward for 3 weeks, and said that he´s there for his salvation. we´re visiting him tonight, and we´ll challenge him to baptism for Saturday :D IT´LL BE LOVELY. I love you momma!!!

also

HAPPYPPPPPPYYYY ANNIVERSARY!!!!<333333

Letter from 4/27/2015

hey guys! just an update on the week. You know those weeks where you work super hard, have like 8 people who PROMISED to go to church, and then they don´t? ugh. haha. that happened. but it´s all good. we´re still working hard and loving it here in Satélite. RILEY tell me the miracles! love you guys! have a great week!

Letter from 4/20/2015

Heyyy guys! This week was ridiculous!!! We were preparing William to get baptized on the 18th, so we had to go to his house every single day. So, that´s what we did on Monday. Then on Tuesday, we had to go to Belém because Sister Almeida had a doctor´s appointment. Usually it would only take about 45 minutes to get there by bus, but NOOO, coming back took 2 dumb hours, and we only got back in time to talk to one man who went to church last week (Who´s name is Jesus and I just think that´s fantastic. The baptism invite was great. ´Will you follow your example, being baptized?´ HAHA it was funny to us xD) And then we went and talked to William. Great. Wednesday, we had to go on dumb splits. I went to another Sister´s area to get to know her investigators, and EVERYTHING fell through in her area and in mine where I´d left Sister Almeida. Satan works, ugh. But, it´s okay. Then, Thursday. A LOVELY training meeting in BELÉM AGAIN that was SUPPOSED to end at lunch time but went until about 5:30...ugh....at least it was a good meeting...but still. We got back into our area and ONLY had time to talk to William again. Friday. WORKWORKWORKWORK. We were running to get people at church and no one was wanting to commit. Typical. Then William. All good for baptism. Saturday BATISMO. Everything went well, I wish I could send you guys pictures, he was so incredibly happy. William´s a 15 year old kid who lived in another state, but came here to live with his cousins. He started using drugs when he was 10 years old, he´s full of tattoos, and his ear guages are crazy. When we saw him, we didn´t see a lot of potential...but he accepted baptism and got excited really fast. He loved church and was baptized on the date we gave him. He was glowing :) Sunday had NO ONE confirmed to go to church...but Marcelly, the girl who was  baptized in March, brought her little sister. We put a date on her sister and she´s excited to get baptized...but the only problem is her mom doesn´t wanna accept it. But we´ll work with her. SO, that was our week!! Other things must have happened, but it´s easy to forget. LOVE YOU GUYS, have a fantastic week!!

Sister Neal

Letter from 4/13/2015

I asked her how missionary life was going and then she responded to what I wrote to her:

Missionary life´s good. I´m content and happy now. Nope, we´re not...they´re hard to find. But you remember Pérola? We´re working a TON with her family. There´s a bunch of people who could be baptized there...and we´re working with her cousin, William, for getting baptized this Saturday. Yes, I get LOTS of food, they don´t let us be hungry here in this ward. :) We were sick last week because EVERYONE in the ward got a virus...but we´re all good now :)

I heard about the funeral, what a sad thing, but I know they´ll be helped and made stronger because of it. 

Our house never stops being stressful, haha.

Dumb computer. 

I´m glad you´re eating healthy!! I´ll start that when I get back home :D

Thanks for everything momma!!! I love you!!!!!

Nicole

Letter from 4/6/2015

*I asked if she was going to send a letter this week, and this is what I got:

nah, not really feeling it...hahaha...laziness. just know that we started a new transfer today, I stayed with my sister almeida<333 and everything´s going well!! we are so happy here and are super pumped and well and loved the conference. nothing too crazy happened this week...but more stuff´ll come. loveya

Letter from 3/30/2015

Hey super fast!!

We were out last week on pday and we went and visited a lady who went to church last week. We talked to her, and then found out that her little girl had already been to church tons of times and was begging to be baptized. Score. So we baptized her and her parents are preparing to be baptized this month! Just gotta quit smoking. WOOOHOOO :D I wish I could send pictures. But yeah. You know. Pará. TCHAU, GENTE. Have a fantastic week and an amazing Easter! Christ lives!!! <3 

Love,

Sister Neal

Letter from 3/23/2015

Heeeey, Marcelly got BAPTIZED! Wooohoooo :D Gosh she´s adorable. We followed up this whole week, went and got her mom´s signature, and it was like the most relaxed baptism ever! We got there early to get everything ready, and when Marcelly came in she was in a fit of tears. She said she didn´t know why, but as she got closer to the chapel she couldn´t help but cry. She´s already all set up to go out with us this week, and she´s basically already a sister. She´s fantastic. 

The ward we´re in is amazing. I don´t remember if I told you guys, but there are like 3 or 4 big families in the ward who are members for less than a year, and they´re super excited about missionary work. The others who have been members for longer are excited about the work too. They give us referrals like crazy and help us out and are super concerned about us. I´ve never been in a ward who loves missionaries so much, and the support we get is fantastic. I could finish my mission here and be SUPER happy. 

This week I was thinking more about how important Sacrament meeting is. Like, basically my whole entire life I just sat quietly through sacrament just thinking about nothing. But in the mission I´ve made it a goal to actually think about the meaning of the sacrament, think about the hymns and really feel the spirit and it´s been incredible. I´ve found that I´ve learned so much more about our Savior just by doing that simple thing. My testimony of the Atonement grows every day, and I am so thankful for it and our Savior´s love for us. He gave us His life and the perfect example of how we can go back to the Father´s presence, and He asks us to do what? Have faith, have hope, live like Him and help others on their way. I know that He lives!!

I love you guys!

Sister Neal

Hey guys...forgot pictures again. Heh. Toma.

Also, here´s a little bunny.

Marcelly´s such a PRINCESS. :D

Letter from 3/16/2015

Photo with Elder Cook!! GUYS I´M BETWEEN HIM AND HIS WIFE. Cool right? Yeah.

Hey!  This week was good...you know. Awesome. Full of awesome stuff that I can never tell right. We found an incredible woman who is so ready and wanting to be baptized, but we just gotta marry her. Her name´s Mari and she loves the church and wants to do everything she can to be saved. Marcely, the girl I talked about last week, wasn´t able to get baptized this week because of some little problems...but she´s getting ready for this week, so please pray for these two! They´re amazing, just needing some prayer. The members here are amazing and they love us and we love them and we´re actually able to work together. I don´t know...nothing that awesome happened this week...

But I´m so thankful to be here on the mission. I know that this is the work of the Lord and that if members and missionaries work together to build the ward, the kingdom of God will be built as well, and we´ll be helping God with His purpose. I know that Christ lives and suffered for all of us. I know that He made the perfect path for us to follow. I know that we have a prophet who lives today and who guides us and tells us what God wants us to be told. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and was written for us in our day. I know that this Gospel is perfect and the the Lord is always with us, always helping us, and always loving us.

Have a fantastic week!

Sister Neal

I forgot pictures....

The Sister trainers before we picked up our companions, the new kids, me super red with s. almeida, some catholic guy gave me a saint and then randomly all the catholics let us in, s. almeida and i with our somos loucos por jesus sticker. yeah. that´s about it, love you guys!

Letter from 3/9/2015

GUYS this week rocked. don´t have much time, but basically we had no one to be baptized on the 14th and the zone leaders were like HEY, GO FIND PEOPLE TO GET BAPTIZED. so...we did. we found a girl named Marcely, who is SUPER ELECT. like think about someone who is already reading the BOM, searching REALLY for her salvation and wants to get baptized. of course, we were THRILLED. sorry for all the caps, i´m just so happy! also, we were looking in our area book and found a lady who wasn't baptized cause she couldn't ditch coffee...and we went there and she was like, oh, how good that you guys passed by, i stopped drinking coffee!! We´re gonna baptize them and we´re sooo happy!! also, one investigator went to church this week ALL by herself and LOVED it. IN THE RAIN. WITH HER NEWBORN BABY. gente. i´m so happy! I know that this is the work of the Lord. This church is true. We have a prophet. I love you guys so much.

Have a wonderful, semana milagrosa!!!

Sister Neal!

Letter from 3/2/2015

WOOHOO :D I got my new companion, Sister Almeida, and I´m super excited!! I was transferred again, so we´re opening the area, and we´re super ready to see what Satélite has waiting for us! I don´t have a lot of time, so I´m just gonna write about the experience I had while seeing Elder Cook last week.

SO, he said a lot of fantastic things about how we´re supposed to be better ward builders, and how we need to be better examples. He told us that we need to have more faith. Then he answered a bunch of questions that we had, and we learned a lot. He answered a bunch of questions that I was personally thinking about during his talk, too. But the part that marked me most was when he left his blessing with us. You know how in the scriptures those parts that kind of annoy us because they just say something like ´yeah, we can´t describe what was said because the words were so incredible...but i can tell you that the spirit was REALLY strong.´ Yeah, well, that happened. He left his blessing on us...and I remember that he said such simple things...but the spirit I felt was the strongest I´d ever felt in my life. The spirit was testifying of the things he was saying, and there is no denying that he is an Apostle of God. I can´t describe what he said...but I know what I felt and it was exactly what we needed. 

I know that Christ lives! He died for us and showed us the way. We need to hold on to the rod with all we have and FOLLOW Him! Everything´s been prepared for us. He loves us, and we really can go back home. There are prophets on the Earth today. Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the Book of Mormon is true. There´s no denying it. I love this Gospel, and I love all of you, have a wonderful week!!

Sister Neal

(pictures next week, this cyber´s ruim)

Letter from 2/23/2015

This week was fantastic here in Icoaraci. There was this holiday in the middle of the week called Carnaval...yeah there was tons of drinking and men dressed as women and huge parades. It´s called the Babylon Week here. It was definitely entertaining, but we lost a day of work. But it´s okay everything ended up going great. There are TONS of investigators here who have been going to church for a long time and a bunch of others who went this week and are getting testimonies. We were super blessed this week with a bunch of miracles, our zone had a miracle baptism, and we were able to get 8 people at the church who loved it. We´re super excited for the work to get going here and to see more miracles happen. I hope you guys have a fantastic week!

Sister Neal

Also, I made one year in the mission....and there´s a cat that enters and pees in our house...and my shoes died.