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My Hands are in a Permanent State of "Cold"

Hellloooooooooooooooooooooo family!


So guess what. This weekend was so full of miracles, I can hardly remember the rest of the week. Seriously. It was amazing. Miracles happen in this work, every single day, and some days are more full of them than others. :)
First of all, last week I received a bunch of letters, which was great! We also had our last district meeting of the transfer last week, and three people from our zone are going home tomorrow...it's crazy. One of our ZL's, Elder Sell, as well as Sister Ribeiro, and one of the secretaries, Elder Fonseca. So it was good to see them all one more time last week, take a bunch of pictures, sign notebooks, etc. I've only been here a short time, but already I have made some pretty good friends! After the meeting, Sister Frame and I ate lunch with the secretaries at a rodizio...so if any of you talk to Elton Luz on facebook, let him know that I've already done as he asked me to, and eaten at a rodizio. :) It was the first time I've eaten at one here in Brazil, so that was pretty cool. And of course the food was delicious..I love the food here! I'm still a bit frightened by feijoada, because that's where all the weird stuff (ears, etc) is dumped. So...fortunately, no one has made it yet since being here in the field, and if they do...I'll just eat the beans and now the other stuff. :) There's a solution to everything, haha!

The rest of the week, we taught and ate and slept a little, and walked a ton. This week, our numbers were again fairly low...but this week, we had a baptism! Let me tell you all about this weekend, full of miracles!

Saturday was the baptism of Maria Lucia. Wednesday, we were teaching her, and tired of inviting her to be baptized to have her say she needs more time, we just said "so Saturday for your baptism, what time works for you?" And went from there. Problem solved. This was after Sister Frame promised, in the name of Jesus Christ, that Maria Lucia would be healed entirely from this illness she's had for a couple weeks, if she would be baptized this weekend. Wow...that was powerful, and to think that we have the authority to do that when it is right, that is amazing. And guess what...she's entirely back to normal. Look at that power of the Lord! It is amazing. Anyway, there weren't many people at her baptism, but it was an amazing experience anyway. Bishop was there, as well as Cléo, one of the counselors in RS. Selem was there (she's 18) because her boyfriend, Hugo, was the one who performed the baptism. And of course there were the four of us missionaries and Maria Lucia. It was cool to see Hugo baptize our dear Maria Lucia...he himself was just baptized a few months ago, and is working toward a mission next year...he just received the Melchezidek Priesthood last Sunday. And Maria Lucia was just beaming, the whole time she was at the Church. Sister Frame and I sang as part of the program (yeah...I actually sang where people could hear me, and where it was only me and one other person...this in itself is a miracle!!!), and it actually sounded good!

Sunday, yesterday, was fantastic. Saturday night, we had talked with Cristina, a woman who lives near us who we ran into a few weeks ago...the one we helped move stuff with, if I ever told you that story. Anyway, we talked with her Saturday night, and invited her to Church on Sunday, but I didn't have high hopes, because we invite a ton of people to church, and usually none of them show up. SO...Sunday rolled around, and we have church backwards than at home, with Sacrament meeting last. Before the Sacrament, Maria Lucia was confirmed, and she was SO HAPPY! Afterwards. she stood up and gave Hugo a HUGE hug, as he was standing in the circle. It was so cool!

Then, Morgana, who was sitting behind us, pointed out a young woman and her son, sitting across the chapel from us, and asked us who they were. We didn't know, and neither did the Elders. So Sister Frame went and talked to her, to find out who she was and to introduce herself. And then someone came and got S. Frame, and she never showed up again in our bench. I turned around a few minutes later, to see her sitting in the back with Cristina! And they were both all smiles! And yesterday was testimony meeting, and it was a REALLY good one...the Spirit was so strong there. And then, miracle of miracles (cuz they just kept coming yesterday), Cristina got up and bore HER testimony and talked about how wonderful we missionaries are, and then after that, everyone bore testimony of missionary work. And a few minutes later...the other lady (Eliane) who no one knew got up and tearfully bore HER testimony too!

Wow. And so much more. We had a good afternoon, walking and teaching with the Elders, and then last night, we went and visited Eliane and Felipe, her 13-year old son. She told us how happy she felt in church, how she's going to go back every week, and how she had told Felipe that he had to go once to see what it was like, and now he wants to go back every week too. And she wants him to go, because of the good influence of the church on him. And THEN...she told us how her brother passed away last year, and wanted to know how she could baptize him!!!!! HOLY MOLY!!!! And she already had a Book of Mormon someone had given her, but she'd never read it. So we marked some parts for her, gave her the pamphlet on the Plan of Salvation, and she is eager to read, be taught, keep going to church, and basically be baptized! And she already introduced her neighbor to us and invited her neighbor to church. She's a miracle.

And THAT, was our week. Whoever says miracles have ceased to exist, should live my life for a day here in Sao Paulo.
As for other random things...everyone like to feed us! Lunch, dinner, in between...you name it, people give us food. Eliane already wants to have us over for lunch some Sunday. And the World Cup began on Friday. US and England played on Saturday, and i heard that it was a tie, but I don't know for sure, since we can't watch it. Tomorrow is Brazil's first game, which puts us in our house for a few hours. Tomorrow is also Pday and transfers, though, so no huge change. Brazil's next game after tomorrow is Sunday afternoon, which kills our Sunday entirely, but gives us a few HOURS to study whatever we want, which I am super excited about. Everyone here watched the World Cup...it's crazy already. Also, it's gotten pretty chilly, and without heat, it stays pretty cold. Fortunately, we have warm blankets. So just my hands stay pretty cold during the day...you can't wear a ton of layers walking around, because you really do get hot. So that's been interesting. :) But it's all good!

Welp, I probably had more I wanted to say, but I am going to send some pictures now, so if I remember, I will put it in that email. I love you all! Don't ever forget that you are children of God, and that you are special, and that He loves you more than you can imagine. It is amazing. We have this amazing gift of knowing the truth of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ; let's not forget that.

Love,
Karen

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