Well what a week it was, full of miracles, trials, and opportunities to grow and learn! And in the end, transfers are tomorrow, and I am pretty sure I am leaving my beloved Vista Verde. I know that my time here was difficult, but I have a family here, and saying goodbye to that....it is hard. I can look back on the 4 months I spent here and see that I have grown. I can't really put a finger on anything specific, but I know that I have grown and changed here, and all the experiences, even the less than awesome ones, were for my benefit. I was talking about this with one of my Zone Leaders who was here in this zone since I got here, and he commented on how this time here was good for me. And it was. The call hasn't come yet about transfers; that'll happen tonight...but we had interviews with President on Thursday, and he said I'd be leaving the area. Oh how it was wonderful to have interviews with him! (Even though we had to get up at 4:30am to get there at 6am) Anyway, we'll find out tonight where I'll go, who I'll be with, etc. It sure will be interesting.
Other miracles that happened this week...remember Jil, from like 2 months ago? Remember how she moved? Anyway, last week, I was thinking about her and her family, wondering how they were doing. I think I may have mentioned this, that we ran into Francymar, her husband, on the way to church last week. We went to teach him this week, but he never showed up. Randomly on Friday night, we saw one of the kids walking down the street, so we asked him where he lives, and we went there to visit Francymar...and he finally went to church yesterday! It was so wonderful to have him at church! And he loved it, and he really wants to change his life! Oh I am so excited for this! Sister Gubler will keep me posted on him... :)
More miracles. We were scheduled to baptize Mayara and Aline yesterday. Thursday we were going to their house, but no one was there, so we left. On the return trip, we found their little brother, Valtinho (yup, one of the others I already taught)...and we asked him if he wanted to be baptized with his sisters! So, Friday was the interviews, and we almost missed the interview with Valtinho, because he decided to play in the street, but we caught up to him as we were leaving. The three of them passed their interviews, we got the signature of their father without a problem, and all was looking good. Mayara and Aline were solid, but we were a little worried that the baptism of Valtinho would fall through. In the end...yesterday was the longest day I think I have ever had, but that is normal with a baptism. In the end, though, Mayara and Aline wanted to push back their baptism one more week, saying they weren't prepared. We said everything we could, and even prayed with them, but they just weren't baptized yesterday...but Valtinho was!!! And here are some more miracles with this baptism....he was baptized by Tiago, who became a priest just 2 or 3 weeks ago, and this is the first baptism of him. One of the witnesses was Mauro, a fairly recent convert who has only had the priesthood for about a month, and we fought a ton for him to get the priesthood....oh wow. What a miraculous baptism!!! And as usual, despite all the stress and things that went wrong and baptisms cancelled, the Spirit was so strong in the baptism...it was a wonderful experience.
We also had our musical fireside last night, finally. It was fantastic! Everyone sang so well, and we had a family sing Families can be Together Forever as the opening hymn....a family of 2 kids and the parents, where the kids are 8 and 5 I think. It was SO CUTE!!!!!! I got to play the piano a ton, which was fantastic. We ended up taking a ton of pictures with a ton of the ward members last night. Tonight we have an FHE at Néia's house, which'll be great...it sounds like there will be a ton of people there.
Anyway, that's about it. I'm closing the chapter of Vista Verde of my life. It's kinda weird...I feel like this is my home now. This ward is so precious to me, and all the people I have taught here. I hope that I have helped make a difference in someone's life. And I completely trust in the Lord to put me in a place and with people he needs me to be. This is, after all, His mission, not my own.
Love,
Karen
Other miracles that happened this week...remember Jil, from like 2 months ago? Remember how she moved? Anyway, last week, I was thinking about her and her family, wondering how they were doing. I think I may have mentioned this, that we ran into Francymar, her husband, on the way to church last week. We went to teach him this week, but he never showed up. Randomly on Friday night, we saw one of the kids walking down the street, so we asked him where he lives, and we went there to visit Francymar...and he finally went to church yesterday! It was so wonderful to have him at church! And he loved it, and he really wants to change his life! Oh I am so excited for this! Sister Gubler will keep me posted on him... :)
More miracles. We were scheduled to baptize Mayara and Aline yesterday. Thursday we were going to their house, but no one was there, so we left. On the return trip, we found their little brother, Valtinho (yup, one of the others I already taught)...and we asked him if he wanted to be baptized with his sisters! So, Friday was the interviews, and we almost missed the interview with Valtinho, because he decided to play in the street, but we caught up to him as we were leaving. The three of them passed their interviews, we got the signature of their father without a problem, and all was looking good. Mayara and Aline were solid, but we were a little worried that the baptism of Valtinho would fall through. In the end...yesterday was the longest day I think I have ever had, but that is normal with a baptism. In the end, though, Mayara and Aline wanted to push back their baptism one more week, saying they weren't prepared. We said everything we could, and even prayed with them, but they just weren't baptized yesterday...but Valtinho was!!! And here are some more miracles with this baptism....he was baptized by Tiago, who became a priest just 2 or 3 weeks ago, and this is the first baptism of him. One of the witnesses was Mauro, a fairly recent convert who has only had the priesthood for about a month, and we fought a ton for him to get the priesthood....oh wow. What a miraculous baptism!!! And as usual, despite all the stress and things that went wrong and baptisms cancelled, the Spirit was so strong in the baptism...it was a wonderful experience.
We also had our musical fireside last night, finally. It was fantastic! Everyone sang so well, and we had a family sing Families can be Together Forever as the opening hymn....a family of 2 kids and the parents, where the kids are 8 and 5 I think. It was SO CUTE!!!!!! I got to play the piano a ton, which was fantastic. We ended up taking a ton of pictures with a ton of the ward members last night. Tonight we have an FHE at Néia's house, which'll be great...it sounds like there will be a ton of people there.
Anyway, that's about it. I'm closing the chapter of Vista Verde of my life. It's kinda weird...I feel like this is my home now. This ward is so precious to me, and all the people I have taught here. I hope that I have helped make a difference in someone's life. And I completely trust in the Lord to put me in a place and with people he needs me to be. This is, after all, His mission, not my own.
Love,
Karen
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