Week 45 - Goiana

Dear family and friends,

Happy Thanksgiving!! I'll be thinking about you guys on Thursday when I'm eating my beans and rice haha. Me and Sister Ruiz who is from Texas are planning on making french toast for breakfast to celebrate. I’m excited! The only problem is syrup doesn’t exist here so we're gonna put strawberry and ice cream on top and it will still be good.

Thank you for the pictures of Rae. I like the new jerseys! What is their record now? Who is the coach again I can’t remember? Who are the main players on the team? I want to know everything!!

This week was great! We visited Pedro and his family 3 times. They are doing awesome. Pedro came to church all by himself yesterday! The rest of the family was on the beach. But we were so happy he still came!! He was telling everyone how next week his whole family is going to be there together. This week was Jerlane’s (his wife) birthday. We went and had cake with them. I'll send you pictures! 

We met with Vini the guy who was gonna get baptized last week. He is still reading the Book of Mormon and praying and loves it. However he isn’t coming to church! This week he seemed so serious that he would, but didn't :( He will though!! We took a kid from the ward that’s 15 too with us to the lesson and he was awesome. I love teaching with the members. They are awesome here and are so excited to share their testimonies.

Also Leidianne, I think I’ve talked about her before but I can’t remember. She is married to a less active guy but now he’s starting to come to church again. We passed by her house twice this week, because on Friday she left for a different state and won’t be back until after Christmas!! But she took with her the Book of Mormon and is gonna read and she said the Sunday she gets back she’s coming to church with us.

Also we get to skype in one month! Don’t forget! I think we'll skype in Lidia's house. She served a mission in Las Vegas!! So she speaks English.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! Eat lots of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie for me! Love you guys!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Pretty Brazil

Sister Cariola & Malyssa

The District

 Subway!

 A bug as big as my hand!

Pretty flowers! 

Week 44 - Goiana

Hello everyone!

This week was the best. So many cool things happened!! Ok the first awesome thing...I was going through an iPod of one of the sisters that I live with and I saw in the artists Nicole Sheahan. So obviously I got excited and started listening to her songs. (Note from Malyssa's Mom:  Nicole is Jessica's sister-in-law.)  The first one that played was "I Am His Daughter." I LOVE THAT SONG!!!!!! I have loved it my whole mission and I had no idea that Nicole sings it!!! What the heck I’m still in shock. I’ve literally sung that song a million times, I know all the words! It’s been my favorite here on my mission. And it’s not just me, everyone here is in love with it. Even the people who don’t understand English love it because her voice is so pretty! I've written it out for pretty much everyone that I have lived with so they could sing along to it and then also I’ve translated it a million times too so they can understand what she is singing! Isn’t that coolest thing ever?! Sister Andrade was in love with song! One night she literally listened to it 20 times on repeat. Ahhh I still can’t even believe that this whole time it was Nicole and I didn’t know it!! Every time I heard it before it was on an mp3 player that doesn’t have a screen so I didn’t know who the artist is. I was so happy when I found out that I cried hahaha but it’s just so cool!!

Ok next awesome thing. Remember the family I told you about...Jerlane, Pedro, and Jessica. And the dad is an alcoholic but he’s so funny! Ok so last week President made a mission goal that every companionship baptizes a family before the year ends. So Sister Cariola and I have been praying and thinking about how we can make this happen. This family came through our minds, but we both felt like it was a little impossible because he drinks all day every day for like 30 years now. We’ve been trying to help him but it seemed like nothing changed. Anyways we started to include him in every single one of our prayers. And at night I don’t think I have ever prayed so sincerely that he would not have any more desire to drink. So when we went there last Tuesday, he hadn’t drinken (idk what the right English word is) in 3 days!!!! We kept visiting them throughout the week and he still hadn’t. He came to church with us and his family yesterday and he still hasn’t had a drink!!! Is that not the biggest miracle in the world? Like out of nowhere he said that he doesn’t want to drink anymore because he doesn’t want to die young and he wants to be a better dad and husband. If that’s not an answer to prayers then idk what is!!! I cried again I was so happy!!! haha I’ve been emotional this week.

Ok so idk if you remember but a while ago I think I talked about the baptism that we were going to have on the 16th. So we passed by his house like every day of this week and everything was fine and he was getting excited. He had his interview and everything. While he was getting interviewed we were talking with his dad, who is nice but isn’t really sure about us. More like the church I guess. Anyways yesterday we went to pick him up for church and his dad told us that he’s not prepared for baptism and that he’s not gonna come to church with us. So that was a big bummer, but for sure I think that they still have a lot of potential. We want to try to include the parents more where before we focused more on Vini because he was the only one interested. 

I got a box! The one with the music in it! Thank you so much!!! I love everything!!!! I was so excited!! This area is a lot easier to eat healthy. The members don’t give us food every single night like in Gravata. So that’s good. I’m gonna send a box in a few weeks. I haven’t used the rain coat once so I’m gonna send it home. It is sooooooo hot here. It’s really hard to work in the afternoon. Oh my goodness. It’s so freaking hot. I get headaches from the sun sometimes. We are super motivated to teach someone so we don’t have to be in the sun haha.

President also asked everyone to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover before our Christmas conference on December 17th. I’m reading it in Portuguese. It takes a little longer, but I can understand everything! He asked us to mark all the parts where we see how Christ and His doctrine changes the lives of people. It’s amazing to see how much we can change through Christ and living the gospel. I love the Book of Mormon and everything that it teaches us.

Ok but I think that’s it for this week. Thank you for the pictures. You guys are the best. Love you! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 43 - Goiana

Dear family,

I can’t believe how fast time is going by! It’s so weird when I think about how this year is almost over! And this whole year has been spent as a missionary. It’s definitely been the fastest year of my life. And the best year too.

I’m getting adjusted here in my new area. I still don’t think I could find my way around by myself. Some places I could but a lot I don’t think I could yet. I have a problem of not paying attention when we are walking! I always am thinking about something or talking with my companion and then when we get there I’m like how did we just get here?! I need to pay better attention in case my companion gets transferred so I’m not lost!!

This week we found some new people to teach that are awesome! We visited a guy who is less active and his wife who isn’t a member. At first the wife was kinda cold and acted annoyed that we were there. But at the end she loved us!! She told us more than once how much she liked us and apologized for how she acted when we got there. We taught them about how we do family home evenings and asked if we could do one with them and she was so excited! She said she’s going to make us lasagna. She also loved when we explained the Book of Mormon and said she’s going to read! She didn’t come to church yesterday, but her husband came! The members are awesome and everyone was super excited to see him there again.

We also found a girl named Karol when we were knocking on doors. She is awesome! She is 13 and when we found her, her parents weren’t home so we don’t know them yet. But her older sister was there and her cousin so we had a lesson with all of them. She told us that she was crying earlier that day because she doesn’t have any friends and she thinks that no one likes her. She told us how happy she was when we got there! She was like "dude I was sad and lonely and then you guys got here and you’re not even from here but now I’m so happy!!" haha She’s really cute! She likes to sing and sang a song for us! She wanted to go to church so bad but was busy in the morning, but she went to choir practice later that night and made a lot of friends with the members! She said she loved it! We are going back to meet her parents this week, hopefully they are as awesome as she is!

We had an FHE yesterday with a family that is less active. We read in Luke the part where Peter denies that he knows Christ 3 times. When I first read that part I kind of judged Peter and I remember I thought how could he do that when he was an apostle?! We talked about how we all have weaknesses and will make mistakes.  But forgiveness is available to all those who want it. We talked about how Peter didn’t let this turn into another sin and another sin and so on. But he let this experience change him and be a better person. The family really liked the message. They were all commenting and sharing experiences. It was awesome. We felt really good about it!

Those are some of the highlights of this week :) I think that MAYBE I’ll get one of your boxes today. Today the Elders are getting our letters, and hopefully a box has arrived!! I’ll let you know! Thank you for everything! I love and miss you guys! Talk you next week.

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 42 - Goiana

Dear family and friends,

I love this area!! I'm so happy to be here in Goiana. The people are awesome! We had a great week this week! Yesterday was great. I got to meet a lot of the members at church. I don’t know why it’s a branch because it’s at least double the size of Boa Vista which is a ward! We are in the branch with the two other sisters that we live with. And then there is another branch in this city and it has two elders in that area. I still am pretty lost and I don’t think I could find many places on my own, but it’s getting better. My area has a Subway!!!!! I think we are going to eat there today. Also there is a lady in the ward that makes dresses really cute for all the sisters and she said she'll make one for me! And then also there is an artist in the ward. His paintings are amazing!! I want to buy one because he lowers the price a lot for the missionaries, I just don’t know how I would get it home. I think I want one anyways! Let me know if you guys know how or if I could take it on a plane.

About some of the people we are teaching…  We are teaching a family of three. The parents aren’t married yet and they have a 15 year old son. His name is Vinicius and he is on date to be baptized on the 16th. He is awesome - super smart and creative! He makes decorations for their house and they are awesome. I think I’m gonna try to make some of them actually when I get home. His mom has lupus--which I actually don’t really know what that is. What is that? I just know that it’s a sickness. They are super fun to teach because they have lots of good questions and super attentive.

Another family--Jerlane, Pedro, and Jessica. Pedro is the dad and he has problems with drinking. We’ve made goals with him and he is trying to stop drinking. He says he has a desire to stop anyways. They’ve been to church one time. They are an awesome family and have lots of potential! I don’t really have any experience at all helping someone with an addiction. I’ll be learning a lot!

And the last one that sticks out is Rosinha. She was a member like ten years ago but wants to come back. She’s been coming to church for the past month or so I think. She has three kids that are all active in the church. We visited her this week and she told us how she’s reading the Book of Mormon again and she cried telling us all the differences she is seeing in her life again. We read from Alma 7 with her about the atonement and how Christ can change us if we let Him. She’s definitely changing!

One of the sisters that I live with, Sister Roig, served in Boa Vista as her first area too. She was the one that taught Irma Rosa, Roberta, Thais and Emerson. Idk if you remember me talking about them. I’ll send a picture of them today. But anyways Irma Rosa is going to the temple to do her endowments this month and Sister Roig gets to go with her. I’m gonna call president and ask if I can go with her and my comp and her comp stay together here in Goiania. I think he'll let me! I’m so excited! I’ll get to see a lot of people from Boa Vista again including Alisom the guy who’s going to Georgia on his mission. He’s going through for the first time too. It will be a lot of fun!

One verse that stuck out to me this week in Alma 5:19... "I say unto you, can you look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?" The whole chapter is awesome, but this verse made me stop and think. I want to be able to look to God on that day without any regrets. I want to have a pure heart and to really know Him. Not just have talked about Him sometimes and have thought about Him a few times, but have actually served Him my whole life and know Him personally. I am so grateful for the scriptures and the Gospel that gives me that guidance in my life and that helps me have a stronger relationship with my Savior. And also I’m so grateful for the Atonement that allows us to change and be better every single day.

I have sooooo many pictures but not any from Goiana yet. I’ll take pictures this week and send them next p-day. Thanks for the pictures! I can’t believe Rae cut her hair!! But it looks really cute. I hope you all have a great week. Love and miss you guys!

Love,

Sister Bedke