December 23, 2009

Well before I forget here´s the info in calling me Christmas Day!! Number: 0011-55-11-4812-6200 It´s going to be a 40 minute phone call this time. I want to talk to everyone but the president of the mission said to talk mostly to my parents. So I will be waiting by the phone at 7 pm for your phone call. I forget the time difference. So hope you can figure it out there. I know I am going to cry a lot when I hear your voices so warning ahead of time to prepare you.So thanks for the money. Yesterday was the Christmas conference of the mission. I realized how many friends I have made here on the mission and how many people love me. A recent convert and some members of my old ward in Campinas came to visit and say hi to me it was great seeing them again. Ying!! Sister Santos was there and we had a conversation that I needed a lot. My mission has changed my life forever. I am more determined to do what´s right and to fight for it too. I am so grateful for my mission. My Presidente is really inspiring and is a man of God. It is always amazing to hear his inspiring words and feel the love he has for us.I am surviving here and I have some great news, I will be coming home the beginning of March. So 2 more months practically. AHHHH!!! Thanks for all of your prayers and support, I love you Mom and Dad and miss you guys a ton!!Love you all and have a very Merry Christmas!!HUGS and Kisses!!!Rachel

December 16, 2009

Hey Mom, It´s good hearing from you. I feel like I neglected some of your questions in the last email about christmas in Brasil. It´s not so big as it is in the US but it´s good. It´s very humble. No one has a real chrsitmas tree. Some houses string up lights and here they don´t have christmas carols. Santa Clause is the same fat old man here. They have a tradition here to spend christmas eve cooking all day a huge feast and when it hits midnight-- they eat and give out presents. It´s cool. Everything is about eating here. Our investigators are progressing towards baptism. One family that is really special to me that has two set of boy twins, one set 11 years old and the other 4. We are planning to take them to the temple and hope they will recongnize an answer to their doubts and be baptized I know they will. We are teaching a couple that are baptists, its´always a long visit with them as the bad talk from their pastor but they are interested in finding the truth. I know they will be baptized too. We are working and sweating a lot. Next week is our Mission Christmas Conference. I can´t wait for packages and cards!! It´ll be great!! My compaion is Brasilian. She is from the northeast like all of my other companions a state called Paraíba. I love you all!!Rachel

December 9, 2009

My dear family, I am doing great here on the mission. It was a suprise transfer last week and fortunately me and my companion weren´t transfered--we stayed put. We have a good group of investigators we are teaching right now and we are fighting with them to stop smoking and drinking coffee and getting married. It´s a stressful job to help people keep the commandments. I really feel like I am in a time warp here on the mission--I don´t remember when it all started and when it is all going to end. It´s hard to remember life before the mission and it´s hard remember all of you. I am in another world, really it is strange. A mission has really helped me see the bigger picture! I understand now what life is all about. I know better than ever before the plan of happiness and the purpose of the atonement--how enormous God´s love is!! Eu sei que Jesus é o Cristo que Ele vive. Ele foi enviado aqui na terra para nos salvar das mortes. Ele tomou sobre si todos os pecados do mundo e Ele ressucitou. Eu sei que é só por causa dele que nós temos esperança para viver de novo com um corpo perfeito sem dores e doenças. Eu sei que Ele nos da a esperança para voltaremos na presença de Deus. Eu sei que Jesus Cristo é o fundamento de nossa vida. Ele é a luz do mundo, nosso Salvador, Redentor, Ele é o Filho de Deus o unico que pode nos regatar. Ele é tudo e poucos sabem isso. Ele cumpriu sua missão para completar o Plano de nosso pai celestial. Sou grata por este conhcecimento. Sou grata pelo grande amor de Deus. This love of God is what brings me here on the mission. The mission really opens our eyes and our ears and gets you on a spiritual level. It puts life in perspective. It´s the little things that matters most. Eternal families, God´s commandments, loving, laughing, living, learning, working, eating beans and rice, doing our part so the Lord can do His. We have the keys, our eternal well-being depends on how we spend our time here on Earth. I want to be better. It´s getting really hard to remember ingles I have to say. It will be really funny trying to talk to all of you at Christmas. Love you all Beijos e abraços!Rachel

December 2, 2009

It´s great to be on the mission. It´s super hot and it´s really sweaty but life could be worse. It´s going to be sweet coming home tan while everyone else is pasty white. Hahaha. So I am pretty much loving the mission right now. The language is getting better and better and I am loving serving here in Campo Limpo. We are teaching some pretty special people right now. I just want them to be baptized. Why people are so scared I do not know. We invited a young guy to be baptized this Sunday and his eyes sparkled as he accepted--it was neat; it´s everything this kid wants. He´s 18 years old and has been through a lot already in his life. His sister will be baptized with him too.It will be a very speical day.Is everyone just counting down the weeks before I am home or what? My companions call me Brasilian that I was born in the wrong country it´s funny. I can´t beleive it´s December already !! Why does the time seem to escape me now that I am on the final lap? Love you tons and tons--I want a hug. OOOOOOORachel

November 18, 2009

So we are running after people to help them keep the commandments and be baptized. I am the tannest I have ever been in my life but doesn’t seem like it because I am always around someone darker. I think I’ll be able to see the difference when I come home. I hope dad’s recuperation is going good. Give him a hug for me. I love you guys. I miss being a part of my family. I know this is where I am supposed to be and that a lot of people depend on me. I am seeing a lot of miracles and blessings that a mission has brought me in my life, family, and my friends and ward family. I am so happy to be able to serve the Lord. I am learning a ton. We had an ex-mission president talk to us that a mission is preparing us to be better husbands and wives and fathers and mothers. It´s all centered on family so we can have an eternal marriage and help to raise children to obtain the same. We learn what the word sacrifice means and God’s plan for us, His children. I am so grateful to be serving a mission. It has definitely helped me put my life in perspective. A life of service is a life fulfilled. Jesus Christ really was the perfect example in all things. He showed us how to obtain true happiness by putting our lives aside to help another. People get so distracted with a fancy car and house, graduating from a fancy university with a fancy degree and having a fancy job. But all this won’t matter in the end. It’s who you help, its how you keep the commandments, it is how you raise your family, and help make a difference in the lives of others. It’s how you magnify your church callings and help others grow in testimony and stay strong and presevering in the way of the Lord. Love, Rachel

November 11, 2009

So this place, Campo Limpo, english Lean Field... haha. The place reminds me kind of home. It´s the greenest place I´ve yet to see here on the mission. I feel like I am back into the Amazon Jungle in Ecuador but of course it´s a lot more modernized. So it is SUPER HOT!! Here it´s a tropical paradise. And it´s all uphill. I feel like a BIG city girl entering the country. It´s funny feeling. The church has a place rented here close to our house. It´s different. The Church has already bought land to start building the chapel, they already have a picture of what it´s going to look like but they are waiting for the ward to have more firmness in members attending church. We found a family really cool last week, Jucilene is her name and she is a woman of power. She has 2 sets of twin boys, one set is 11 years old and the other 4. She has been praying for God to show her the truth and that's when we popped up. She doesn´t have a baptism date yet but I have lots of faith she will soon. The members are cool. A lot of them are great examples of service and dedication to convenants they´ve made in the temple. I am shocked to say I have found someone, the only person I have yet to meet in my life that reminds me of dad, Brother Marcelo. He is an amazing person. He is our leader here in the ward, ward mission leader. So he is fatter than dad. He is really creative and we had our first meeting with him yesterday at his house. We are in charge of a christmas activity we are planning here Dec. 20 in the vacant spot where the chapel will be built. It is going to be Great. I remember an activity similar where dad was a wise man. But this ward mission leader is the faithfulest member I have yet to meet in my life. He has four daughters. 2 have special needs and 2 are healthy. The oldest with special needs died. Which makes Marclo fight to keep his convenants of the temple to be sealed to his family and to see his daughter again. If every member had as much determination to serve and magnify their calling like Bro. Marcel the church would be much bigger!! His family reminds me of ours. Always have a billion things to do and he is always putting the things of the Lord in first place. It´s amazing to see. I already love this place and the people that help us in the Lord´s work. It´s amazing to be a part of a ward family; I am loving my time here as a missionary. There are a ton of people that are waiting for us to hear about the Church. LOVE You all,Rachel