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.
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