Week 74 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

Well today is my last p-day. I am sad that it is coming to an end but also excited. It’s a lot of emotions actually! It still hasn’t really set in. I am super grateful for everything that has happened the past year and a half and everything that I’ve learned. I wouldn’t trade my time here for anything.

Today we came to the center of Recife and I bought a few souvenirs. Next Monday I think we have a training for the missionaries going home and then Tuesday I’m going to the temple and then to the airport!

This week has been good because I’ve been so busy that I don’t have any time to worry about anything else besides my work here. We had a zone conference and learned how to make goals and then work to reach those goals. We have to make plans of exactly what we will do to reach our goal. I learned a lot of things that I’ll use for the rest of my life. President Bigelow is so great. I have learned soooooo much from him. I am grateful to serve in his mission. Sister Vasquez and I had to give a training and it went good. We were happy about it. We have been planning the way that President Bigelow taught us and setting goals that make us work hard. I won’t lie I am sooooooo tired. But it’s a good thing.

I’ve been thinking and reflecting a lot about all the things I’ve learned and just how grateful I am to be here. It was the hardest thing ever at times, but also the most rewarding. I love seeing the changes that people make in their life once they come to know Christ. I love seeing the miracles that happen in people’s lives. And I love seeing myself grow and change. I know that Brazil is where I needed to be during this time. I love the scripture in Luke that says "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." And I know that that is so true! I’m excited to apply everything that I’ve learned here once I get home. The last 18 months was just the beginning! I know that the Atonement is real and that change is real! I know that if we have an open heart, he will mold our lives so that we can find real happiness. I just love this gospel!

Love you all! And I can’t wait to see you!!!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 73 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy late birthday Carter!!!! Looks like you had a cool b-day party! I loved the pictures! You are so grown up and cute!!!

About my week--it was really good! We have been getting a lot of references from people going on the church’s site and wanting to know more. The hard part is to find where they live though. We received a reference of a couple and we couldn’t find their road. We walked for forever asking everyone and everyone lead us in a different direction. But finally we found the road and we started looking for the house number. And here there is no order at all in the houses. One house is 4 and the next is 528 and the next is 83. But anyways we looked and looked for their house and we almost gave up. But then we found some houses behind other houses on the road and decided to see if one of them were it and we found it!! They live in a super humble house, but we felt the spirit so strong as we taught them. They were so happy that we actually came to see them. They thought that no one would actually come! But they wanted to know about where the church is and the hours and when they could come and visit! They couldn’t come yesterday because of work, but next Sunday they’ll be there! So that was cool and I’m so glad we didn’t give up.

A, the little boy, is doing good. His baptism date was to be this Saturday but it probably will have to be the 27 now. We still have a lot of things to teach because we can only get through a little bit each lesson. But he is getting better and paying more attention. His attention span grew from 1 minute to 3 minutes maybe haha. But also we have been teaching his less active sister and she has come to church 2 times now and yesterday she got an appointment with Bishop to prepare to go back to the temple! She read about ministering angels in Moroni and told us that she knows that angels led us to her house the day that we found her because now she is a lot happier and excited to come back to church.

This week I did an exchange with Sister Fortes!!!! It was a lot of fun to be with her again after all this time. She said how much I’ve changed and how good my Portuguese is now! She has changed a lot too. It is cool to see how much serving a mission changes people for the better.

I was reading Moroni 7 and I love the part at the end that talks about charity. Christ has so much love for each of us. A perfect love that I can’t even understand fully yet, but I can feel when I read the scriptures and teach others. Verse 48 invites everyone to be filled with that same love. The world would be such a happier place if more people developed this attribute of Christ. I have noticed what a difference it makes in my life when I try to look at others through God’s eyes and not my own. It is a huge perspective change!

I almost forgot! This week I had my final interview with President Bigelow. He is the best!! He helped me out with a lot of things and gave me a lot of talks to study and to start making life goals in 4 categories - education, health, social, and spiritual. We talked about a lot of things but I’ll talk more about that later because I’m running out of time!! 

I hope you have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 72 - Camaragibe

Dear Family,

How is it already p-day again?! The time has been going by so fast. I can’t believe that this transfer is already half way done. This week has been great and we were able to do lots of things. We are teaching a lot of great new people. The first few weeks of the transfers we knocked a lot of doors and were blessed to find people that have a lot of desire to learn. This week we set a baptism date for A, the 9 year-old boy, to be baptized on the 20^th, and also a woman named M for the 27th-I’ll talk more about her after!

A has made a lot of improvements. He is starting to gain his own little testimony, it’s so cute! Yesterday in church he sat on the bench the whole time and was more quiet than the last time so that was good. And also he came to church all by himself! He lives close to the church, but his older sister was still sleeping when it was time for him to leave, so he just went by himself. And also this time he sat with other members and not us, so I think that helped him pay more attention. He says some of the funniest things, it makes it hard to be serious haha. But it is super rewarding to see the growth in him after just a little bit of time.

M and her cousin C (who doesn’t have a baptism date yet) we met knocking doors. It’s actually a weird story that I still don’t understand. So they immediately let us in their house and they said that they have heard of our church before. And they asked if it was the same church that had the young men with a white shirt and tie and a name tag and we told them that it was. And then they said that just the week before two tall blonde elders knocked on their door and asked them for water and then talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon and then went away. Ok and the weird thing is that there isn’t 2 Americans together as a companionship in our whole zone! And even if there was, they would have to leave their area and come into our area (which you aren’t allowed to do) and then take a bus for like 30 minutes to find her house. We have no idea who it was. Sister Vasquez is convinced that they were angels...who knows!! But anyways it was a good thing because they were already a little familiar and prepared for us to start teaching them. M understands the restoration perfectly and has been reading the Book of Mormon. She was telling us how everything makes so much more sense now. We are super excited about her!

We are teaching a lot of other great people too and have been working with a few less actives that are starting to come back to church!! This week we had a leadership meeting with President. It was really good. I always learn soooo much with him. Sister Vasquez and I have to give a training in my last zone conference next week!! That will be fun. But I think those are the main highlights of the week.

This week I gained more appreciation of the Savior and everything that he did for us. We were teaching a less active and he was talking about how when he was active he had to wake up at 6 and go to church meetings and pick people up to go to church and then after church he had to visit people and didn’t get home till late. It was an opportunity for me to share my testimony that we will never be able to do more for God than what He has done for us. We can pass our whole life serving Him and we will still be in debt. It is an honor to wake up at 6:30 and serve until 10:30 at night. I love being able to serve all day and try to live as Jesus lived. There isn’t a better way to understand and know our Savior than dedicated service to Him.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all and I am excited to see and talk with you soon!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 71 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for the emails and pictures. I am sad to hear about Grandma Louise. But I am glad to know about eternal families and understand God’s plan for us. I read some of moms talk and I’m going to print it off to finish the rest at home. It is so good and I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know! She is such a great person.

This week we started teaching a lot more new people again. We have been finding so many people that are searching for the truth. It is great. Yesterday we taught an older lady and I felt like we were in a movie because she was like the perfect investigator. Everything that we taught she had a perfect question that led us to our next topic. She became so interested. The gospel is so perfect and answers any question that a person could have.

We also have been teaching a less active and her little brother who isn’t a member. And he wants to be baptized! He is nine years old, and he has a very short attention span.  It is the biggest challenge in the world to try to teach him. But so far after like 4 lessons I think he has learned that God is our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ is our older brother and that we are all brother and sisters. That part really caught his attention and he likes us to call him Brother Allison now haha. And oh my gosh he came to church yesterday and would not sit still or stop talking!!! It’s hard to be serious with him because he is really funny, but if we start laughing then he does even more crazy things. I think we are learning a lot of patience though.

I have been reading a lot from the conference talks and I have learned so much about the importance of families. I feel so blessed to have been raised in my family with the parents that I have. You guys are the best! I am excited to see you guys soon and share so much more stories with you guys! I hope you all have a great week. Love you!

Love,

Sister Bedke

 Domino's Pizza

Dress Up

Week 70 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for all the pictures and letters!! I love all the pictures you sent. I can’t believe how tall Emma is!! She is almost the same height as Rae!! They are the cutest little friends together :)

This week has been the best. I have felt like a true instrument in God’s hands and it is the best feeling. I think that everyday just gets happier and happier. We have been knocking a lot of doors and contacting a lot of references and looking for less active families and we have seen a lot of miracles happening. We have been praying a lot to be led to the right people who are prepared for the Gospel and God has been answering our prayers. We worked in a new area that we’ve never been to before and met so many great people. We taught everyone about the Book of Mormon but every lesson was different. I think it is amazing how the Book of Mormon can answer all the questions that anyone could have. And since everyone has different needs we were able to teach about the Book of Mormon but according to their needs. We felt so guided in each lesson, it was awesome. We even taught the wife of a pastor of a really big church here about the Book of Mormon and she agreed to read a chapter and let us come back to teach more. And that is the biggest miracle of all because in 16 months I’ve never taught someone from this church that is open to learning more!!

I am so grateful to be serving a mission. Lately I have been feeling more love for the people that I serve. When we think of everyone has God’s children- as we literally are- it is so much easier to want to serve and help them know the restored gospel. I love getting to know so many people and hearing their stories, dreams, goals, and life experiences. Everyone has a different story and always no matter what their circumstance, the restored gospel will bless their lives.

I love you all!!! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Bedke

 Olá Poochy!

 Pretty Brazilian Sunset

Week 69 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for all the cool pictures! Happy birthday to Rae! That is so weird that she is 16!! Is she going to get a car?? I sent her an email last week but idk if she got it because she didn't respond :´(  Also dad and Cart's pictures were cool from Camp Crosley!  Did Carter do the talent show?  Did dad get some sleep this time? haha Glad you guys had a good time!

Today is the first day of my last transfer. I’m super excited for the next six weeks, They are going to be the best yet. I’m staying in Camaragibe, and also I’m staying with Sister Vasquez!!! Which is like a miracle because I've never seen two people stay together for four transfers! But it’s good because we work well together and she is a super dedicated missionary. We have a lot of goals for this transfer. We have both been feeling like this one part of our area that we have never been to before has a lot of people waiting for us, so we are going to start working there a lot and we just need to find a lot of new people. We are super excited!

Yesterday before church was D and R’s baptism finally!! It was worth the wait though. It was super special and they both were so happy. S baptized them which also was really special. It was cute how he got emotional to be baptizing his two daughters. They both got Faith in God books and are excited to start working on that. And also R was already assigned to give a prayer in primary and D a talk. They’re already a part of the ward :)  It was so cute, after they were confirmed they came skipping down from the stand back to their seats haha. Today I will finally be able to send pictures so you can see!!

Other than that this week was pretty normal. I did two companion exchanges which I love doing! It is a lot of fun to work with other missionaries. I always learn so much every time. I have a lot of pictures to send this week!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

 Banana Farm

 The District

 Happy (late) Mother's Day!

 What does a cool accent get you?  Free sushi!

 The baptism

Week 68 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

It was so good to see and talk to you guys yesterday! Idk how it was for you, but for me the time went by so fast. I have so much more to tell you. When I get home I’ll tell you guys about everything and I want to know everything that has happened there too. Everett is so cute! It was awesome to see him! I’m glad that everything worked out with the 3-way skype. The Irma was doing like a 6-way skype with her nephew who is a missionary and her sisters. It was awesome! Everyone said that we have a beautiful family. They liked seeing you guys!

This week was good! I don’t have much to say because I told you guys most of it yesterday. We have been talking with a lot of people.  Yesterday before skype we were knocking doors close to the member’s house and we met a young lady. Her name is Karol. We taught her about the plan of salvation and it was a really good lesson. We will see! 

We had a leadership meeting this week with President Bigelow. He taught us how we can teach better about prophets. A lot of people here think that if you believe in God then you are a prophet. Or they think that we are prophets! He showed us a lot of scriptures in the Bible that we can use to help people better understand that there is only one prophet on the earth at a time that has the keys and authority. While I was writing about that I just remembered something funny that happened a few weeks ago. We met the funniest/weirdest man on the street. I don’t know if he was drunk or if he is just really weird. But he saw that we are missionaries so he came up to us and started telling us how he is a prophet and all the things that God has told him to do and a whole bunch of random stuff. He talked for forever and then we had to cut him off to be able to leave but he was like "nooooo please don’t leave!! I’m gonna go with you guys. With 3 of us God will be with us more strongly. Let me walk with you till the light pole!" and by this point I was laughing so hard because he was being so funny! He was saying so much random stuff and then added in your pretty! and then continued on with his sermon. Idk how to explain it very well you just had to be there. But he finally did go away. I hope to see him again someday, because he made our day!

I have a lot of pictures to send! I hope you all have a great week! Love you all! Thank you for everything!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 67 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

Everything is going great here in Brazil. We have had a really good week. Yes the baptisms are still on for Mother’s Day. They are super excited. D is always telling us how she is tired of being a visitor and is ready to be a member! haha She is so funny. I think she is the most mature and serious 11 year ever. Yesterday in testimony meeting Sv and Sl shared their testimonies!! It was a proud moment as a missionary :) Sv talked about how grateful he is to know that God lives. And Sl was sooo nervous I thought she was going to pass out!! At the end she said "this prayer".  And then D who was sitting with us said very loudly "prayer?!!! Nooooooo!!! It’s a testimony!!!" hahaha It was so funny.

We are teaching an awesome guy named R! He was a reference from a member that lives in a different ward, but we were never able to get ahold of him and he lives in a part of our area that we’ve never been too--it’s like a 45 minute bus ride away. But finally we were able to talk to him and he is awesome!! He has been trying to get in contact for a while now and was super excited to start meeting with us. He watched General Conference last October with his friend and loved it. And then watched it again in April on the internet in his house. So he has been super curious and interested for a while now. But yesterday he came to church and we were able to talk to him for a while afterwards and answer some of his questions. We are excited about him!

This week we did a comp exchange. I went to a different area called Várzia. It’s cool getting to know different areas, members, investigators and work with other people. I love it! Oh and also this week Elder Whitney L Clayton and his wife came to Recife! We had a mission conference with them and it was awesome. They are perfect and I learned so much. I really liked especially Sister Clayton. She was like an angel! I want to be as sweet as she is.

Thank you so much for your emails and the pics! Love you guys! Talk to you soon!!!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 66 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

How are you guys? It looks super cold there! I’m a little jealous to be honest.  haha  I miss the cold! Congrats on the track meets Rae and Cart and thanks for the pictures!

This week has gone by super, super fast. I have learned to have more patience and to put myself in others shoes. Two girls we're teaching were all ready to be baptized on Sunday, but it didn’t end up happening. The whole week they were back and forth about the baptism and I still don’t understand completely why. D was sooo excited for it and was crying because she was so sad that they were wanting to wait a little more. We finally figured out the holdup is because a lot of their extended family have been saying things and that they are forcing the girls to join the church too etc. Especially S's mom is super sad because before D always went to church with her and she feels left out. We didn’t really know how best to help them, but we were reading in the Ensign and we both loved the talk from President Monson about having courage. I love that message! So we shared it with them and they all loved it as well. And they actually all talked with the grandma and invited her to come to church with them and they explained how they felt about the Gospel and everything calmed down. So as of now their baptism will be on May 10--Mother’s Day!!

V, a girl we've been working with for a while now, came to church yesterday! Yesterday was Stake Conference so it wasn’t the normal thing, but it was great. The talks were perfect and she said that she really liked it and was planning on coming back. All the visitors got a free DVD and Ensign too so she thought that was so cool haha.

M's mom, S, has made a lot of progress recently. She still doesn’t completely understand apostasy and the difference between our church and others, but she is getting there. We read a lot from the Book of Mormon with her.  She loves it. She already has a testimony that it is a true book from God. She told us that she is scared to pray because she knows that she'll receive an answer and have to change haha. So that’s the only thing that is holding her up is being scared of the unknown. But she has opened up a lot since the first time we started teaching her!

Something that I learned this week in my personal study as I was reading in the Bible and in John 5:30 made me stop and think...."I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which hath sent me." (see also John 6:38 and 4:34) I love these scriptures. Jesus was always the perfect example of humility and obedience. He was perfect and had so sins, but yet He always sought the will of Heavenly Father. He knew His purpose here and followed with exactness everything that Heavenly Father commanded. So when we have a choice to make, we can know that our "judgment is just" if we just follow Gods will. Sometimes it’s hard because we want what we want, but I know that when we do God’s will we will always be the happiest. Jesus was the perfect instrument in God’s hands because He always sought and did God’s will and never His own.

Thanks for everything! Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 65 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for the pictures!!! Congrats on your track meets Rae and Cart! I didn’t know Carter was doing track. What events does he run?

This was the happiest week of my mission. The wedding happened on Saturday and it was perfect. The ward is so great and everyone did a little and it turned out super nice. Someone make a big cake, someone made other refreshments, Bishop and his wife decorated everything, someone made her a bocque (sp?), the relief society president found a dress for her and did her hair and makeup. Everyone helped! They weren’t expecting anything big and it was simple, but beautiful. They were both super grateful. I have lots of pictures to send. They were baptized Sunday before church and it was even more special. They both agreed that the baptism was the best part of the weekend. And then they were confirmed during church and after he received the priesthood. Big weekend for them!! The best part was last night when we went there to visit them. We entered their house and there was a different feeling there! I felt so much peace sitting there on their couch as they told us about how happy they are. They are already looking forward to going to the temple in a year and being sealed as a family. He said the prayer before we left and I felt so so so happy that we both walked home crying haha. They are completely different from when we first met them. The Gospel truly changes lives. This Saturday the Dad will baptize R and E.

Other things that happend this week. We've been teaching M's mom for about 3 weeks now, and she came to church yesterday!! She loved church yesterday. She is super firm in her church, but M is the best missionary for her and has been helping a lot. We have family home evening with them tonight!  Also a few members brought friends to church yesterday and introduced them to us. So this week we already have a few more new people to teach. Missionary work is so much better when the members are involved!

I have been learning a lot this week about the power of prayer. I think Heavenly Father is trying to teach me to rely more on Him. I have learned how a simple prayer can completely change my attitude and perspective on things. It’s great!

I am so happy to be here. It is the best! I hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 64 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you so much for the pictures. Everett is the cutest thing ever. I’m so excited to meet him. Rae and Carter look so cute with him. I loved that picture of the 5 generations with Grandma Weeze. That is so neat!

This week has been the best. So many miracles happened! I know I always talk about the family we are working with, but they are the pride and joy of my mission!! I am just so happy for them. It has been a battle, but I think that now everything is organized and yesterday we met with them and the Bishop and I think everyone is on the same page. Their wedding and baptism is gonna be this Saturday. Their oldest son who has been a member for a year is going to baptize them. Then on Sunday they’ll be confirmed and the Father will get the priesthood and then the next Saturday he can baptize his two daughters. We wanted it all on the same day, because it isn’t recommended this way. But the Bishop brought up this idea and then they got all excited and didn’t want it any other way. But everything will work out fine. Last night we were over there and it’s getting hard to teach them because the whole time everyone likes to share what they are learning, how much they are loving church, what they read from the Book of Mormon, and just everything! They teach us the whole time haha. D--who was super against the idea of being baptized two weeks ago--shared her testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting!!! She is 11 years old and she went up there by herself to share her testimony. It was the cutest thing ever. Sister Vasquez and I were about in tears. Every single one of them have changed and made so much progress that sometimes I can’t even believe it. It just makes me so happy and grateful to be here. Heavenly Father truly hears and answers prayers, and the Gospel changes lives. I am a witness of those two things! One more thing...yesterday the Mother was in doubt if she wanted to do the wedding and baptism on the same day because of her hair and makeup and that it would be super rushed. We were trying to tell her how everything would be fine and to not worry about it but she still wasn’t super excited about the whole thing. But then D takes out her journal where she took notes for conference and reads what one of the apostles said, "don’t put off for tomorrow the things that you can do today." hahaha It was so funny because her mother was just like "wow that was a slap in the face. Ok fine we can do it all on the same day!"

Yesterday was transfer calls. Sister Vasquez and I are staying together again!!! You guys will get to meet her on Mother’s Day!! I can’t even believe that today I started my second to last transfer. Crazy!! I hope that I get to stay here the rest of my mission. This transfer is only 5 weeks. Idk why but it’s gonna go by so fast. I’m starting to freak out. It’s just going by sooooo fast!!

This week I had an interview with President Bigelow. He is the best. I’m so glad that I get to know him better with a leadership position. I have learned soooooo much from him. He helped me so much. He said that my last transfer we will have another interview and we'll talk more about my future and my life after. He has some talks for me to read and we'll make goals in four parts of life: physical, social, mental, and espiritual. and I’ll be able to leave here and continue progressing and enduring to the end.

Ok I think that’s it for this week. Thank you so much for the pictures. I loved them all! I hope you all have a great week! Love you!!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 63 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

How are you guys? Are you still all at g’mas house? How is everyone? Thank you for the pictures of Everett!! He is the cutest!  Jessica don’t worry about sending too much! I love all of them and you can send me all you want! This computer is being dumb and I can’t watch the video, but still send me videos because usually I can watch!! He is so chubby and cute. I can’t wait to meet him. Does he cry a lot? Does he have a lot of clothes? How is he with everyone at g’mas house? Is Jess nervous about everyone holding him? Tell me everything! How was the Easter egg hunt? Did Rae and Carter find anything with money? Tell Aunt Leslie thank you for the email! I will try to email back this week but I’m a little behind after all the birthday wishes from last week haha.

My Easter here was great. A tradition here is to eat fish and things with coconut. At lunch the family that we ate with made sooooo much fish and it looked so good. Well I made the mistake of telling them that I am a little allergic to fish and they didn’t even let me try a little bit!! I’m not even allergic anymore I don’t think. Ugh so I didn’t get to try the fish salad or the fried coconut fish. And it looked sooooooo good! I was sad. She made me chicken though. But I did get to try coconut beans and it was really good. I’ve gotten a lot of chocolate eggs and bunnies too. I think I’ve came to the conclusion that a diet is impossible here. Only if you get sick haha.

Conference was awesome!! I watched it in Portuguese again and wow it was so much easier this time. I didn’t think that I improved that much, but for sure there was a big difference from last time. I’m still looking forward to watching in English again though and understanding everything easily haha. I loved the last session the best. I really liked the talk about enduring to the end and the 6 things to do to endure to the end. It was perfect for me. He answered a lot of my questions and things I’ve been thinking about lately. I like when he said the hanging in there isn’t a gospel principle. There is a big difference between hanging in there and enduring to the end. When we are doing our part and really living the gospel we won’t have to just hang in there, but we can live happily and righteously. I liked the emphasis he gave on reading the Book of Mormon everyday, everyday, everyday!! I can’t remember exactly or if this is just my imagination but I think he even talked specifically to missionaries to not go home and stop doing the things we learned here on the mission. He said true followers of Christ search to have the company of the Spirit every single day. I also like Elder Anderson and Pres Eyring in the Women´s session. Who were your favorites?

The family we are teaching is doing great. They came and watched all the sessions on Sunday. It was so cute the daughters were taking notes during conference. I saw E looking over to see what I wrote and then she would write the same thing too. :) It made me smile. They said that they learned a lot. One setback...they took a while to get all the paperwork organized for the wedding and now are going to get married on the 18th one week later. Which is fine, but we have transfers on the 12th, so probably either me or Sister Vasquez won’t get to be there for the wedding and baptism :(:( super sad! But as long as it happens that’s all that matters. I would love to be there though. Who knows maybe we will stay together another transfer. It could happen!

I can’t send pictures this week because this computer is bad, but I’ll send more next week. Thank you for all the pictures! I love all of them! I hope you have a great week out west. Love you guys!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 62 - Camaragibe

Hello!!!

I am so happy!! Everett is the cutest most perfect thing I’ve ever seen. I already love him. I’m crying over here! I cant wait to meet him. Keep sending pictures every week of him. I’m so happy for Jess and Scott. Congrats congrats congrats! He is perfect! 

Thank you everyone for the emails! Sorry I don’t think I’ll have time to email everyone back this week, but I’ll try my best! I feel so blessed to have such great friends and family.

I don’t have much time this week because I’ve already spent like 45 minutes just looking at the pictures of my nephew :):):) haha but I’ll tell you real quick about yesterday. I had such a great birthday. Seriously it was the best. We did a family home evening with the family we are teaching and it was perfect. We shared a lesson about building your foundation on Christ from Helaman 5:12. We did like an object lesson where we had 3 cups. One represented praying, the other going to church, and the other reading scriptures. And then showed that when we do these simple things we have a foundation strong enough we will be able to withstand temptations etc.  Maybe a little cheesy...idk how to explain it, but they really understood and they made a goal to always have family scripture study and prayer. It is just the most rewarding thing ever to help this family. I know how much of a difference it made in our family and how our family is so much closer because of family home evening. We taught the father how it is his responsibility to direct the meeting and choose who will pray and all that stuff. He was a little nervous because he didn’t know if he was doing it right (I don’t think there exists a wrong way) haha but it was the cutest thing ever. I was just sitting there at the end when we were singing  "Families Can Be Together Forever" thinking that there aren’t many things better than this--helping others have their eternal family. It was the best night. And then at the end the mom made a pineapple cake!!! Fresh pineapple from Brazil! It was so good!!

Sorry this letter is quick! I love you guys. Thank you so much for everything.

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 61 - Camaragibe

Dear Family and Friends,

Congrats Rae on your track meet! You are a beast. What events did she run? Why was it already a state track meet? Thanks for the pics! Tell Rae to send me an email!!

This has been a good week. We have been keeping busy and we went to some different parts of our area that we didn’t know before and found some awesome people to teach. We met a woman that works at a kiosk and we stopped to ask her for directions but ended up teaching her about the Book of Mormon and she loved it. She told us how she’s been praying for answers and for direction ever since she left her church that she attended before. She is recently divorced and has a young daughter and just barely moved here. We gave her a Book of Mormon and went back the next day and she had already read a good portion and told us everything that she had learned and had some great questions for us. It was exciting :)

The wedding plans are going good. We went to the wedding office--I don’t know the name in English haha--and got all the information and today they are going there to pay and sign some papers. Last night Bishop went there to talk and plan with them the actual day of the wedding. I hope everything can seriously turn out how we want. At least organized and that it can be a special day for them. They are the best and deserve it. I feel like they are my family here in Brasil. The mom treats us like her daughters.

We did a companion exchange this week and I stayed with a sister missionary from Mexico. It was cool. I want to travel to Mexico someday. It seemed awesome all the things she told me. I could relate a lot with her, her family, her childhood. So it was a lot of fun. I have pictures but I’ll have to send them next week because I don’t have my adapter to send pictures.

Well I love you all and thank you for the email! I hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Sister Bedke