Give Said the Little Stream

(So this weeks entry starts out with a portion of a letter that I sent to Lauren talking about how she handles hard things on her mission.)

 I wanted to let you know that I KNOW you have had crappy hard things that you have gone though and I am proud of how you have handled them. I know you don't tell us about them, but I have always known that this isn't easy for you. I pray for you to have the skills and tools necessary to not just move forward, but to triumph and kick A! Lauren, you are not just a good missionary, but an extraordinary one because of your work ethic and desire to move forward according to the Lords plan.

Lauren:And yes, crappy things happen here, but they really don´t affect me because I love it. It´s my only time to be in Brasil on a mission and I´m going to enjoy the good stuff as well as the bad stuff:) Missions are the best!

This week was fabulus! 

We worked so hard this week and we saw many blessing from it. First off, during fast sunday, I prayed and fasted that we would find more people to teach. Well, walking in the hot sun of Brasil without water totally paid off. We have 12 new investigators! 12! I seriously can´t believe it and I am so excited to teach them more about the gospel. It is the best thing ever!

Out of our new teaching pool, I really really like this one family. Luciana, Rogerio, Camile,and Maria. Our first lesson with them was great. Luciana and Rogerio aren´t married (that´s normal in Brasil), but when we started talking about baptism Rogerio said that he knows he needs to get married before he can be baptized. We didn´t even say anything about marriage and he already knew he needs to get married. So great!  Plus, he always asks for more scriptures or pamphlets to read. They are an awesome family and I know the Lord has prepared them to receive the gospel in their lives:)

Our other investigators are doing well. We have some flakey ones, but that´s ok. And for some reason we have a ton of people with word of wisdom problems. To better understand how to overcome an addiction, I dicided to stop biting my nails. Oh my gosh is it hard! I never even realized that I had a problem until I tried to quit gnawin on my nails. It was just something I did without thinking. I also noticed that when we´re in a hurry, we´re late, or I´m stressed out are the times when I more want to bite my nails. So I´ve tried to stay calm and whenever I want to bite my nails I sing "give said the little stream". I´m not sure why I chose that song, but there it is. So far I´ve gone 2 days without biting my nails. I´m not 100% sure how I´m going to turn this experience into help for our investigators, but I think that it is a good thing to try. 

Another great part of this week was that David, our recent convert, received the Aaronic Priesthood. When the Bishop gave David a blessing and conferred the priesthood, I felt the Spirit so strongly and you could tell that there was a special power in the room. I am so grateful for the Priesthood. When you think about it, if we didn´t have the preisthood, we wouldn´t have anything. Baptism would be like taking a bath, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost would be just a bunch of guys touching somebody´s head, and the gift of eternal families wouldn´t exist. I am sooo grateful for the priesthood and the blessings that I have received in my life because of it:)

Well, I hope that you all have a great week. And if you are trying to overcome and addiction, like bitting your nails, I hope you make it. Sing "give said the little stream" and then it will be better:) Also pray, haha:)

Love, Sister Whitney