FABULOUS WEEK

Hey everyone!

My time is SO short today. I was super busy replying to all the birthday emails and everything this week. Can I just say how BEYOND blessed I feel for having such great friends and family? You are all so amazing and I feel your love and prayers every single day! Thank you thank you thank you!

So my email today might be a little short, but I will do my best to include everything here! My birthday was PERFECT. Oh my word. Loved it more than anything. We had a HUGE activity with all the young women in the ward and a ton of our investigators. We had a super spiritual lesson on the Restoration and what it truly means to have the gospel of Christ on the earth again. Then, a bunch of the girls and leaders stood up and bore their testimonies of the gospel and the standards that we have. I was in tears just thinking about how strong these girls are and how much of a desire they have to truly live the gospel. It doesn't matter what the world thinks. These girls are going to live the gospel and do their very best every single day. It was honestly the best birthday that I have ever had. 

Afterwards, I kept thinking about how important that is. We need to teach our youth these standards so that they can truly become who they need to be. I saw such a difference in the young women after that activity. There is so much more love and unity because of the things that took place that night. We had young women calling our investigators, who are also young women, inviting them to seminary and different activities. We saw them truly doing their part in this work. And because of that, WE HAD A BAPTISM ON SATURDAY.

Gabriele, Marcilene's (one of the women we baptized in April) daughter, was coming to church and different activities and had already heard all of the lessons. She just had a few doubts about being baptized and she didn't feel as if she was ready. And she said that because of that activity we had on my birthday, she knew that she had to be baptized. She said, "I just feel like Heavenly Father really is my Father and that He wants what is best for me. I feel like I am His princess, and the only way that I will find that happiness that I need is to be baptized. I know that you Sisters really care for me and want what is best for me as well. So I decided that I will be baptized!" So we marked her baptism to be on Saturday and everything went perfectly! She is SUCH a huge example to me. She honestly is so perfect. What an incredible day. I feel SO blessed and so thankful to have been a part of her conversion.

We also have another baptism on Wednesday!!! AH. José, who has been coming to church for the past three months! His dad finally said yes to baptism!!! We are so thrilled. So so so thrilled. 

This week was absolutely perfect. I feel more and more blessed every day. I truly can't believe how happy I am each day. This gospel is so perfect and I can't express how much I love it.

I am so grateful for you all and for the examples that you are to me. I know that because of the help that each of you have given me, I am where I am today. I love you all so much and miss you like crazy. Thank you for everything you have done for me. I LOVE YOU.

Have a great week (:

Sister Card

xoxo

Gabriele's baptism

Eating lunch with some of the Sisters going home... ): SO sad. I love these girlies way too much.

Marcilene's wedding (: (: (:

Picture from FOREVER ago that I never sent haha.

Birthdayyyyyy. I love these people more than I can explain. Sweetest things in the world.

Where did the year go?

Hey everyone!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes and the cards and the presents and all. Y'all all the sweetest. Thank you thank you thank you. I am so blessed (:

So yeah, it happened. I finally became a real-life, legal adult. It's the weirdest feeling in the world. I still feel 17, so yeah. Anyway... Feeling super lucky that my birthday fell on P-day this year! Wanna know how I'm going to celebrate it? I think I'll be taking a nap and then I'll be studying and preparing for a training that I'm giving tomorrow in Zone Conference (: Hahaha. But for real. No, we are going to do a lot of fun things. We're going out to lunch, and then tonight, we are having a big noite familiar at a member's house. We'll have some of our investigators there and a few less-actives! It's going to be great (: I still can't believe that it has already been a year since my last birthday. Talk about the fastest year of my life. And the best year as well (:

It was such a great week. Filled with A LOT of things. But since I am short on time, I will only be able to write about a few of them. Sorry that I'm so terrible.

In Santa Maria, I got to see one of the members from São Gabriel named Paloma. I cried like a baby. I love those people more than words can describe. It was so good to see her and be able to talk to her about the things that are going on there. I forgot how much I truly love São Gabriel.

Things with Sister Ponce are PERFECT. Wow. We got right back into the swing of things. It's hard to believe that it has already been 7 1/2 months away from each other, because seriously, when we got back into it, it was like nothing had ever changed. Well, we are much better teachers of course now! Haha. So yeah, the work is exploding. Seriously.

That family that we baptized last week - I just want you all to know how much I seriously love them. I have seen the biggest difference in them, just in this short time we have spent with them. They are absolutely incredible. They are now having family prayer and family scripture study every single night. They haven't missed once since we talked about the importance of it all. I think I cry every day STILL because of how much I love them.

We have a few new people that we are working with that are going to be baptized this month (: One of our new investigators is Shayani. She's 14, and the cutest thing in the world. She's so loving and already has a bunch of friends in the church. She talks about baptism every time we go visit her. She is so excited about it all. In church, she was in tears almost all day, just because she felt the Spirit so strongly, like this is where she needs to be.

One of our other investigators, Juninho, is just waiting for his dad to let him be baptized. His dad said that he needed to keep going to church for three months to make sure that this is still what he wants, and then he would be able to be baptized. July makes it three months (: Yesterday, he bore his testimony about the truthfulness of the gospel and how much he loves it when the Sisters come over to help him learn more about the church. Aww. What a sweetie. It was SO fabulous.

So many good things are happening. I feel more and more grateful every single day. I truly love this work. I love this gospel. I love being a missionary. I feel like now I am truly the missionary that I have always wanted to become. Of course there is still much to learn and much to better, but I'm just enjoying life. I'm just enjoying my time here as a missionary. I feel as if I have truly dedicated myself to this work, and there is no better feeling in the entire world. I'm giving it my all. I have to, right? It's the very least I could do for the One who has given it all to me. I'll be coming home without a single regret (:

 I love you all so much! Thank you for everything! You are all such incredible examples to me (: Loves.

Sister Card
xoxo

PS - my pictures aren't sending today... Bummer. I'll try to send them off next week. LOVE YOU.