Week 29 - Gravatá

Hello everyone! I loved your letters and all the pictures. It looks like you guys had a great vacation. All the pictures are so pretty! Thanks for always writing and sending pictures! I still feel included even though I’m in a different country. You guys are the best :)

I’m still in Gravatá!! Phew I wasn’t ready to leave. Only two people from my zone got transferred...Elder Benitez our district leader and Sister Dana :( I was so sad she got transferred!! I’m gonna miss having her around the house so much. She is such a good missionary, I learned so much from her. We weren’t expecting her to be transferred because she only has one more transfer left before she goes home. There were a lot of tears last night between the four of us girls haha. But her parents are coming to pick her up and they’ll come visit Gravatá, so I’ll see her in 6 weeks and also she’ll go to BYU. We will definitely be friends after our missions!

We had interviews with President this week. I really, really like President Bigelow. He was so easy to talk to and had a lot of great advice. His family is awesome too. He was excited to hear that I like basketball and volleyball. His 15 year old daughter loves to play sports too. He said that if I’m ever serving in Recife closer to where they live that we will have to get together on p-days and I can pepper with his daughter and play basketball. That would be so much fun! I think the kids are doing a little better than last time I talked to them too. They seem happier at least.

We had some great lessons this week. Idk how much I’ve told you about Jô before. She’s someone that Sister Fortes and I started teaching a long time ago. It’s hard for her to go to church because her husband only has one leg and she does pretty much everything for him. But she wants to come!! She is on date to be baptized on the 17th. We taught her the word of wisdom yesterday and she loved it. She drinks coffee sometimes but said she’ll have no problem stopping since it’s a commandment of God. Aww I love people who are so willing to change to follow the commandments. Also we talked to Kaio yesterday. He is sooo cute!! He reminds me of Carter. He has been reading his Liahona and everything. Alana is doing great too. She is looking for a job where she doesn’t have to work on Sundays!!!! She is awesome!!! Also this week we taught a mom and daughter who are so great. They have extended families that are members. They listen so intently to everything we say. We are going back there on Wednesday.

I’ve been reading Preach my Gospel a lot during study time this week. I love that book! It is perfect! I’ve been reading the Christ-like attributes section. Right now I am working on having more charity. I think when you truly have charity you also have a lot of the other attributes it talks about in that section. I like how it says that when you have charity you will feel a stronger desire to share the gospel with everyone you see because you want them to have the same blessings of the gospel. Also it says that charity is a gift from God and only those who honestly seek and pray for it will receive it. I have a goal for this transfer and the rest of my mission really to be able to develop this gift and charity for everyone that I serve.

Yesterday in church we had a lot of less active people that we´ve been teaching. I love that! For me I’m just as excited as having an investigator there!

I don’t have any pictures I don’t think! I had a lot on Sister Andrade’s camera but it’s not working. I need to take more pictures!! I hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Sister Bedke