The Work Continues

         Marcos, the 14 year old whose Mom we baptized, hasn't been making much progress. It has actually been really difficult to meet up with him. He is always switching between the parent's houses and between that and school, we are having trouble meeting up with him. We were able to schedule a lesson for this week though- so hopefully we can get him back on track! His younger sister and his mom's boyfriend both accepted baptismal dates though! Woohoo! So we are super duper excited for them. i love their family! I think we will Skype from their house for mother's day, so maybe you can meet them quickly- though you all won't be able to communicate too much ;) And my translating just ends up half English half português! 

          This week was wonderful! I am absolutely loving working with Sister Prado. I feel a bit jipped though. This transfer is only 5 weeks long and as I have already been in Alfenas for nearly 6 months, it is pretty certain that I will be transferred. I would love to have more time with her! We made a goal to do secret acts of service this week. It was super fun. We cut out paper hearts and wrote notes for some of our investigators and recent converts and then heart attacked their houses. I think I sent some pictures of that for you. It was great to always be looking for nice things we could do without people noticing. We did get caught a couple times though- but that was alright because the bystanders just ended up becoming contacts and now we are teaching them! Oh, one day this weeks one of the irmãs (Sisters) in the ward agreed to go out with us to teach people. She got back to us only the morning of and so we had planned our day thinking she wasn't going to be able to. In other words, we were working in an area with a whole lot of hills that is on the outskirts of Alfenas. Thus this little 63 year old irmã ended up going on quite the trek with us. Haha, she was quite the trooper though. We definitely went at a much slower pace than normal, but this little old lady managed to scale all of the hills, would not agree to rest or take a break and still managed to testify and contribute marvelously in our lessons. She is awesome. I am sure that she also got a really good nights sleep afterwards ;)

         Yesterday I gave my first talk in português! Everyone seemed to understand what I was saying and the branch president didn't kick me out afterwards- so I think it was a success. I told a story about my first attempt making suco de maracuja (passion fruit juice) here. I explained that we don't have maracuja in the USA and that I had never made juice before. But I figured it couldn't be too complicated and I love suco de maracuja so I decided to give it a go. The only problem was that I didn't know you needed to use sugar and a whole lot of water to make suco... I just used the pulp and a little bit of water. And so my juice was sour and a complete disaster. Luckily, my companion had a lot more experience and wisdom than I did. When I realized that i couldn't make the suco correctly alone, and decided to ask for and follow her directions, I was able to successfully make a sweet, delicious suco de maracuja. I then related this experience to how we need the help and directions of the Savior in our lives. Alone, doing things "our way" we won't end up with the delicious juice that we want. it is only through obeying the commandments and submitting ourselves to the Lord's will that we will find happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. I think my talk was nearly as big of a hit here as Ben's famous waffle talk. I have the feeling that the members are going to be making a lot of suco de maracuja for me in the weeks to come... Good thing I love it! 

I love you all like crazy! 

Sister Emma Maxwell

Magical Powers or Heavenly Blessings

       After five months, I finally have a second companion! Her name is Sister Prado and she is from Curitiba. She has been out for 7 months- only one transfer more than me. She has one brother by blood and five more basically adapted siblings (think Noah, but onto the next level). She is 21 and she doesn't like chocolate. (not a problem, more for me) We have only been together for a few days, but I already love her! She has a sense of humor really similar to mine so we are always joking around. It is wonderful! Everyday is an adventure and we are able to laugh in even the most difficult of moments. Oh, she also has magical powers. I am not kidding about that. She seriously has magical powers or is extremely loved by the Lord. Our first day here in Alfenas she said that she was hungry. Not five minutes later a man that I contacted once on the street stopped us to Bible bash. Great. He started in on us full blow, going on and on. Then out of nowhere he paused, bulled out a bag and offered us pão de queijo (cheese Bread). It was even fresh and warm! We accepted, of course, and he continued on with his rant. When we finished eating the pão de queijo, we thanked him for his opinion and went our way. The next day, as we were walking down the street Sister Prado said she was craving something sweet. A few minutes later we arrived at the house of one of our contacts. The lady living there was not interested in our message at all ( I don't know why people give us their addresses when they really aren't interested). It was very hot though and we were very thirsty, so we asked for some water. Not only did she let us in to refill our water bottles, but she also filled a sack with some candy she had just made and gave it to us before she sent us on our way. The next day on our way to Almoço Sister Prado told me about how much she loved ice cream. As we finished up almoço, what do you know, the irmã brought out a bunch of ice cream for dessert! Like I said, magical powers. I am thinking that we need to put this talent of hers to work and get some pizza or something. Or even better, she needs to start talking about how much she wants baptisms! Needless to say, we are getting along great. The Lord is blessing us immensely and we are loving the work.

        The other new Sister in our house is an American fresh from the CTM (Missionary Training Center). I did not realize how far my português has progressed until she arrived here. Though I think my português was a bit better than hers when I first entered the field. She is not understanding much of anything right now. I do remember those first few weeks in the field- feeling so inadequate and useless. I still feel pretty inadequate for this great work, but I am so grateful that I can speak and understand the language now. I have a ton to learn, but I feel like I am making a difference now. Haha, her arrival also made me realize how bad my English is getting. Once I get talking or writing it's alright, but switching between the two is really difficult. Her trainer, Sister Sandrine doesn't speak any English. So occasionally she will ask me to translate or explain something in English for Sister Graham. I will start to talk to her to explain something only to realize that I am still speaking português! Then as I try to switch over to English words in português slip into my sentences and sometimes I can't think of the right word in English at all. Haha, how cool is that?! Sister Prado teases me and says that i am going to need my português- English dictionary to talk with you all on Mother's day. I think once we get started with the English I will remember again and we'll be able to communicate just fine ;) 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week and keep being missionaries :)

Sister Emma Maxwell

General Conference and Miracles

         I will answer your questions first so I don't forget or run out of time! First off, transfers! I am actually not being transferred. I get to stay here in Alfenas for another transfer! Woohoo! I love it here, so I am glad that I don't have to pack up and head out. I feel like I still have more to do here too. We have been making really good progress with Laudo's family and Luciana's family. I don't want to leave until I can see them all baptized! Sister Malta, however is being transferred. So I will have a new companion. Her name is Sister Prado. I haven't met her yet and don't know anything more than that really. I will head out to Varginha tonight to meet her. Sister O'Reilly is also being transferred. It has been really fun to be with her so long. A day hasn't gone by that I haven't seen her since I arrived in the airport in Georgia! But I knew that wouldn't last. So I am sad to see her and Sister Malta go, but I am excited for a new companion and adventure! 

          The pizza we bought even before we knew who would be transferred and what not. We find out about that Monday morning. Basically she was craving a sweet pizza and I had never tried one, so we splurged and bought it to celebrate our last week together. It was super duper good! One part was banana and cinnamon and the rest was chocolate and coconut. Holy moly, heaven in a slice of pizza! The symbols on the box represent baptism (the water) and confirmation (the circle or head) 

         So now onto my week- and what a week it was! We had a zone conference with President Cascardi on Tuesday, splits with the Sister Training leaders on Wednesday and General Conference Saturday and Sunday. Yet even with all of this, we managed to have one of the best weeks out of all of our time together here in Alfenas. I think we had more lessons this week than ever before- which is crazy because we had less time to actually be out working and teaching. We were basically running from one lesson to another in order to keep up with everything! It was amazing. We had set a goal for this week to meet all of the mission standards of excellence. The mission standards are so high that it is nearly impossible to meet all of them in one week alone. It is very, very rare. We really wanted to though. So we worked and prayed like crazy! As we did all that we possibly could, we were able to see the Lord take over and work miracles. When our lessons fell through, the neighbors let us in to teach. When members canceled on us for lessons, we happened to run into another member on the street who was willing to teach with us. Everything just came together perfectly. We were able to meet all of the standards of excellence!! It was amazing.

          General Conference was also amazing. Friday night felt like Christmas Eve! We were all so excited to hear from the prophet and apostles the next morning. I did get to see all of the sessions of conference. We watched the women's session Saturday morning. I do have to admit that I missed all of our traditions from home. This conference there was no tent, there were no nachos, there was no puzzle, we didn't have a candy bar, or eggs Benedict and I couldn't wear my pjs... yet the spirit was as strong as ever. The inspired words of those men and women, called of God, is what really makes conference amazing. I was thinking that conference would be a relaxing, spiritual renewal. Haha, it was exhausting though! I have never had so many things to think about during conference. This time I wasn't just thinking about how the counsel applied to me, but also for each of my pesquisadores, their families, my branch, my companionship, and all of you back home too! Then to top it off they were all speaking in Português very quickly with an elevated vocabulary! For some reason they wouldn't stop and let me ask questions either ;) It was mentally exhausting. But although it wasn't exactly "relaxing" as I thought it would be, it was definitely spiritually renewing. It was fun to know that you were all doing the exact same thing that i was at the exact same time. It made me feel closer to home and all of you. I hope that you all loved conference as much as I did! Oh and Mom, I too was teaching lessons in between the conference sessions! We may be on different continents, but we are in this work together!

          To top off a marvelous week of hard work and inspired counsel, the Lord blessed us with a "Conference Miracle". During the last session of conference on Sunday, a young man came into the chapel to watch. At the end of the session we went over to meet him. It turns out that he had visited the church about a year back. A member he knows mentioned conference and so he decided to come. He proceeded to explain that he felt so happy and at peace there in the church. He loved everything he had heard during conference. I asked him about his religion and he said he was Catholic but that he decided during conference he wants to be baptized here. Wait... what?! I was definitely caught by surprise with that comment. My mouth probably dropped open. As I stood there in stunned silence he then proceeded to explain that he felt he had a purpose in life that he needed to fulfill. When he met us, the missionaries, he felt like he had finally figured out what that purpose was. He needed to serve a mission. So in two minutes we met went from complete strangers to ready to be baptized and serve a mission. Now that is what i call effective missionary work ;) Haha, though it was absolutely nothing we did! I think Heavenly Father wanted to show me that if I truly give this work all that I have, He will take that meager offering and work miracles. 

Oh how grateful I am to be a missionary and share the message of this wonderful gospel with the people of Brasil! I know that we truly have a living prophet and twelve apostles- just as Jesus Christ established when he was here on the Earth. And most importantly, I know that Heavenly Father knows me, loves me, and is cheering me on. 

I love you all! Have a marvelous week!

Sister Emma Maxwell