One picture is of the family that we had jantar (dinner) with for New Year's eve. They are super duper nice. They are so supportive of us missionaries in everything! Giving our investigators rides, coming to lessons... I appreciate them so much. New Year's eve was pretty big with parties and fireworks here too. Though since we still went to bed at 10:30 and had to be up at 6:30 the fireworks weren't all that welcome... Haha, I thought about staying up, but I wanted to sleep more. Sleep is so precious here in the mission field!
So here in Brazil (well, at least in Alfenas) there are tons of stray dogs. TONS. They are everywhere all the time. Big dogs, little dogs, cute dogs, scary dogs... you name it, they have it. I have already picked out a good dozen for Christian and Abby. They can come pick them up at their earliest convenience ;) The dogs are always eating out of the trash and cleaning up food that people leave on the streets. But the thing with dogs is that they also leave behind little gifts. Everywhere. You have to be very careful where you walk. It is like a battle field of landmines here! I am pretty pro now at looking around, smiling, talking to people, and avoiding all of these little (or in some cases not so little) landmines. Yet, with the end of 2015 my luck ran out. We were walking up this really steep hill to get to the house of one of our pesquisadores (investigators). It had just rained and so everything was wet. I had the great misfortune of placing my foot on a patch of sidewalk with some mossy growth that made it extra slick. Thus, I slipped, fell and planted my foot directly in a giant pile of fresh dog poop. It was seriously movie perfect. Or imperfect. I wish someone had caught it on film because I think it would be hilarious to watch now. It definitely wasn't so funny in the moment though. On the bright side, I am very grateful for good, waterproof shoes. And judging by what I cleaned of my shoe, my day wasn't nearly as crappy as the dog that left that wonderful gift for me.
2015 may have ended on a crappy note, but 2016 has taken off with a series of miracles. On the 1st, Sister Malta and I decided to open up a new area because none of our investigators wanted to meet with us on the holiday. So we went into a completely new area of the city to meet new people and hopefully find new investigators! The difficulty with that is getting where we need to be. We only have one big map that hangs on the wall in our house and we don't have gps or cellphones with that capability... So we ask for directions A LOT. I try to avoid asking drunk men on the side of the road for directions though. Just a matter of personal safety. And they don't give very good directions anyways. Yet as we were walking down the street, I felt like I should stop and ask this man for directions. I knew we were on the right street and headed in the right direction for the time being, so I didn't really need directions at the moment. Yet for some reason I decided to stop and talk with him. Sis Malta was obviously frustrated with my decision. We didn't need directions and it was clear he was in no state to listen to our message. But I stopped anyways. As we talked with this man, a huge limb on a tree just a little ways down the road spontaneously cracked and came crashing down. I am not talking a little branch here, no a giant limb. Nearly a tree itself. If we had not stopped, I am positive that we would have been directly in the path of that limb. We would have been seriously injured. I know now that it was the spirit prompting me to talk with that man. I am so grateful for the protection of the Lord here as I go about His work. You don't need to worry about me at all, Mom. God's got me covered!
I also experienced another miracle this Sunday. As it was the first Sunday of the month, we were fasting. I was fasting especially that our pesquisadores (investigators) would come to church and feel the spirit there. We had worked really hard all week long and had some great lessons. We had ten people committed to coming to church that week. We had everything arranged with people in the ward picking up older investigators (that's quite the feat when only about five members have cars!) and we had arranged to walk out and accompany the others to church in the morning too. So with that and our fast I was sure that everything would be perfect! Yet by 9:00 Sunday morning, everything fell through. Everything. Our investigators called and cancelled, the families that we walked out to either didn't come to the door, had already left for somewhere else, or just suddenly had other plans. I am embarrassed to admit that I was really frustrated. I had given up food and drink for the past 24 hours (quite the feat when you are hiking around in the hot, humid mountains all day lugging around a bunch of heavy books) and done all in my power, and yet I wasn't seeing any blessings. I felt like my fast was for nothing. So we went through church with no investigators and then went to a member's home for Almoço(lunch), ended our fast and then got back to work. But I should have known better than to doubt the Lord. He never lets us make a sacrifice without receiving more than adequate compensation. The second home that we went to after Almoço(lunch) let us in for a lesson. And let me tell you, they were prepared by the Lord. They are so ready. They ate up everything that we said and excitedly committed to baptism. They are absolutely amazing. The husband is a big smoker. We set a goal with him to diminish five of his 40 cigarettes each day by our next visit. He instead decided to cut it down to half! I am so excited to see this family progress. Their immense faith is amazing. I learned quite the lesson about faith here too. As it says in Ether 12:6, it isn't until after the trial of your faith- or after your fast and sacrifice- that you receive a witness- or a golden family.
Love you!
Sister Emma Maxwell
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| The place I currently call home |
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