Sunday, June 26, 2011

Cordeiropolis

So glad that things are going well with you at home. My life is crazy as ever. It will be nice to have Eric baptize Callen...wish I could be there, seriously. Wow, the family is all growing up. Brynn you look so grown up!

We only had 35 people at church last Sunday because it was the town festival and all the children had to go walk in a parade, and so not one came. We met our new zone. We´re in a zone of 20 missionaries. I was excited, Elder Pedrozo is in the zone, he's one of my best zone leaders EVER!!!!!!!! Oh, and one of the new sisters worked in Nova Veneza after me. That's exciting. She caught me up on the latest of our friends. Edwardo is now the second councilor in the young men's, and THEY BAPTIZED CAMILLA!!! I taught her before I was transferred and then this new sister and S.Monaco were able to finish and baptize her. Wow, I was thrilled. Fatima is the new Relief Society Pres, YES!!!!!!!!! We had an awesome district meeting, E.Tomaz is awesome. It was about being spiritually prepared, about how we need to help others understand the importance of prayer. It was wonderful.

We went walking to a new part of town. We walked 5 miles on a dirt road to meet these people. One was a reference, her son died a year ago and now she´s suffering severe depression. We taught her the plan of Salvation, gave her a book of Mormon and testified that she would see her son again. We then worked and worked and worked, these people live in farms, so soon I will be the Olympic Champion of walking. We worked hard, it rocked.

We are continuing with the visit of less actives in all the wards in the stake. Last week was interesting. We were in Nova Italia and talked to someone who was shouting blasphemy. Problems of pride, money and order...he says he wants a meeting with Thomas S. Monson to change how the church works here in Brasil....good luck.

We got stuck in a rain and wind storm last night, have a tiny cold now. Think that´s it.

S.Stapley

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Cordeiropolis

So, I'm still here in Corderio with Sister Cleise. Transfers came and went. So, my camera should be here on Saturday. Life is good, we´re working hard. Our eternal investigators are still complicated, but what can you do. It´s getting cold here and I finally bought a cheap jacket. My feet are cracking and bloody, but at least I´ve not gotten blisters!! My feet are "apparently" really tough- according to all those with feet problems. My shoes are falling apart, so if you guys could send me some duct tape I can try and mend them from the inside. My comp is suffering with knee problems (she played Soccer, MEGAN- BE CAREFUL) and we´re hoping that physical exercise will help. Have I mentioned that it´s cold? I don´t know how Í´m going to handle Rexburg, Brasil has changed me.

Braganca got opened up again, YEAH. Nova Veneza was closed for Sisters (don´t really understand why.) My old zl is now the assistant.

We´ve been helping out Laila and we´re planning on taking her to the temple. She´s going through a rough time. We decided to make her and the boys a cake. We had to travel to Limera, another city, for most of the day and then came back and went to her house. She didn´t believe that we were really coming. When she saw that we had bought everything to make a cake (cake mix, milk, butter, eggs) as well as nescaf and condensed milk to make the fudge layer, she almost cried. I´m pretty sure this was one of the nicest things we could have done for her and the boys. It felt nice.

Eliza has also become something of the marriage councilor. She´s writing a book about marriage. She says that because of her sickness, she and her husfriend, have learned to appreciate the little stuff. She watched "Proof of Fire", or some evangelical film about marriage and we taught them about talking and communication.

Church is going well. Because the temple is closed for cleaning, we had a few of the temple workers visit us. One of the couples is American and the dear sweet older sister has been here 6 months and does not understand anything. It was quite weird speaking in English. We´ve been teaching the Gospel Principles class for the last few weeks. I taught about baptism. I was thinking of my baptism, of how thankful I am for everything, of the example that I have had my entire life.

I think that´s it for right now. Happy for the boys coming home and the boys leaving. They will all be wonderful. Our two newbies in the zone are from Washington, one from Spokane and one from Wenatchee. Why we can´t have elders from Seattle, I´ll never know. Anyway, I love you all and pray for you guys. Hope that all is well, and thank you all for living the gospel. Take care-

S.Stapley

P.S. Not to be trunky or anything...my first dinner when I get home: salmon, twice baked potatoes, peas, triple chocolate cookies. Yum!