Hey so everything is normal in the same not-normal sort of way! I am happy and my companion is still awesome as ever. She is definitely getting acustomed to everything and it is way fun to have an American at my side who understands my homeland. We are working a lot with the members and yesterday I talked in church about how the members can help move the work along! It was awesome (if I may say so) they cried, they laughed, and now they will work (I hope :)). I used the talk from Elder Ballard (put your trust in the Lord... I think) from conference last year and talked about two things that might stop members from sharing the gospel. The first is fear, and the second is simply not knowing how! So I shared some stories/experiences from my life that have helped me and might be able to help someone else as well.
First I talked about cookies and how much I love them! haha I love baking them as much as eating them! I had everyone think about something else in their life that they love and then imagine that thing without someone to share it with... all of a sudden that thing that you love isn´t so great! So imagine the gospel! The greatest thing in the world! We want to share it, we want to bless the lives of those around us and in so doing we also become happier and enjoy more of the blessings for ourselves as well! It is a promise that if we just open our mouths then God will put in our minds the very words that we need to say and this has happened to me so many times! I remember when I got here to Brazil and could hardly understand or hardly speak and I was so afraid to say the wrong thing but I would pray my heart out and open my mouth and some how God helped me to be able to say something that helped someone understand a little more about Christ, it truly was a miracle every time! I have had huge regrets for not sharing the gospél with those in my life and I am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to serve now and to change and gain the desire and the courage to talk to everyone because I never again want to feel the guilt of not helping someone come closer to Christ and realizing after that it is too late. If we just pray for opportunites to share the gospel, the Lord will answer our prayers. He was enable us to recognize the opportunities and then to talk, to share, to bless.
We are working our butts of here and the work is moving along. Yesterday we had a bunch of less actives and recent converts in church along with investigators so that was great!
Missing you all soooo much but so happy to be here!
This week Sister Ray and I surprised the other sisters so that when they came home at night the house was all decorated and there is a little christmas tree! Everyone is getting in the mood (even if we are still sweating in the sun when it is supposed to snow).
Love you!!
Sister Westover
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