Monday, April 27, 2015

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
Tuesday, April 21, 2015

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





Monday, April 13, 2015

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