5 month mark!

February 3, 2014

This past week I made 5 months of my mission! Woot! I can´t believe it. Time is a really weird thing in the mission. Sometimes if feels like days since I´ve left and other times it feels like this has been my life forever. Either way, I love being on my mission.:)

This week was pretty low key. On Tuesday we had a zone conference get together with 2 other zones. I loved it because I was able to see my friends from the MTC. Also, President had a bunch of really great things to say. He talked about how easy it is to give out a Book of Mormon. Well, easy for him, because I kind of had a fear of giving out a Book of Mormon. I started to think about why I had that fear and, honestly, I couldn´t come up with a good excuse. The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. It is hard proof that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and that our Heavenly Father still talks to us in this day and age. Not only that, but it testifies of our Savior and we can learn more about Him through the Book of Mormon. I started to think about all the times a scripture from the Book of Mormon has helped me or the happy, light feeling I get after I read it. So really, my fear of handing of copies of the Book of Mormon is selfish. Why should I keep all that happiness to myself? So, this week I tried to hand out more. I´m not perfect yet, but I´m slowly overcoming my sensless fear of handing out BOMs. I´ll keep you updated:)

Which reminds me, the nail biting thing is actually going really well. I did fall off the wagon about a week and a half ago, but it was a good experience. I was super mad at myself for giving into weakness so now, I don´t have the desire to bit my nails at all. It´s been a really great experience and I hope that it will help me relate to our investigators. We still have a boatload with Word of Wisdom problems. 

Speaking of which, I´d like to talk about this family we are teaching. We found this family through a referal from the Elders close to our Area. Their names are Luciana, Rogerio, Camili, and Maria (DuDa is her nickname). Anyway, they are a really golden family. Rogerio loves to read everything we give him and Luciana wants to know everything about the temple (her mom passed away and she´s really interested in work for the dead). The only problem is they aren´t married legally (this is seriously the most annoying problem. GET MARRIED PEOPLE). But, they have the desire to get married. So, hopefully they´ll try the knot soon, because they want to be baptized:) I love teaching them so much and I know that the gospel will bless their family so much! We´ll see what happens.

Fabio still isn´t baptized. It´s starting to get a little annoying. It´s not even funny how prepared he is for baptism. But, he wants to wait until after his divorce is finalized before being baptized. So, for the moment, he is a dry mormon. We´re still working with him a ton, so maybe it will be soon. We´ll see. 

Well, my family and friends, I love you all so much. Thank you for all the prayers and good thoughts. They definitely help:) Have a fantastic week and don´t let stupid fears stop you from sharing the gospel. Don´t be selfish, haha:)

Peace and blessings,

Sister Whitney

This is from an old pday. We got caught in the rain and got completly soaked. It was really fun:)

This one is for gram. A brasilian fabric store. I almost had the desire to make a quilt.

The quality is crappy, but this is my brasilian band. Me, fabio, and a member. We played nearer my god to thee like 3,000 times. 

We matched. It was really special.

We had a zone conference type of thing this past week. It was super fun and I got to see my amigas from the CTM. This is my bestie, Sister Sergent

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU´RE TOTES PRESH TO ME:)))