Sister Sarah Elizabeth Crofts: Imbituba, Week 11

Oi! Feliz Dia de Acoes de Gracas! (Happy Thanksgiving)

This has been one heck of a good week!

Here are some highlights:

-Pday! We taught some lessons in the morning (People that we could only teach then) then walked on the beach, ran errands, then our recent convert Thaina painted our nails, and our friend Bia did my makeup! Then we went to Dom Joao Pizza. OH. My. GOSH. I died. It was the best Pizza ever! Basically they go around with different pizzas every few minutes (sweet and savory) and they offer you a piece, you decide if you want it, then they dish it up. Then they have a plate in the middle to discard if you didn't like it or just wanted to try it. AMAZING. I honest to goodness probably ate over 18 pieces.

-English class!Had two investigators come!

-Bug pasta: I bought a bag of pasta noodles to cook for lunch, and so Sister Kener and I cooked them, and while we cooked them we found little bugs floating around in the water. We checked the bag and there were bugs everywhere within. We were starving though...so Sis Kener said it was protein and we still ate the noodles. In my prayer blessing the food I said, "Please bless this food, that there won't be any bugs in it. If there are, please bless me not to see them." Heavenly Father answered my prayer! hee hee

-Thanksgiving! I wanted to do something semi special, so I moved part of my study desk to the kitchen, and set up a "fancy" table with name plates and everything for thanksgiving! Then we made mashed potatoes and broccoli, and for desert made homemade apple pie pastels! A real Brazilian thanksgiving. Then we went and knocked doors (found some great people!) then went to Florianopolis for Zone conference!

-We stayed the night, and the next day was so much fun! We got to be with over 100 other missionaries and hear some inspirational things from President, and eat great food!

-We got packages and letters! I LOVE getting letters, and would love to hear from you guys through letter!!

-I met my sister! (My "mom" aka trainer trained her)

-After we got home from Floripa, we went to a member's wedding! It was so great and sweet, lots of good food, and we had investigators come which was great!

-Saturday we had soo many people to visit, we visited with two people that now have Batismal Dates!!!!!!! One is Luiz. He talks A LOT. usually I get really tired because it is Portuguese, and it takes brain power to listen to that much, but ever since our English class something has changed! He used to live in Utah, and so he usually talks about that the entire lesson, but this time he right away wanted to pray, discuss the scriptures, and hear our lesson! I just saw a change in his face, in his countenance. It was amazing the change. We set a date for him, the 22nd of December!I know God has prepared him for a long time for this.

The other is Maycon, he is the 11 year old we teach, and he has a date should be this week or next week! Waiting on his mom.

-Blessing: We have been receiving so much extra food from these events, which is a BLESSING because our lunches have fallen through pretty much every day for the last two weeks...Haha!

Spiritual experiences:

-I pray for the ability to testify with power, with the spirit! My Portuguese is definitely not clear sometimes, but the spirit testifies to and through our hearts. I have felt SO often this week the spirit powerfully testify of Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, the truthfulness of this Gospel. One time this week we finished testifying, and the man said, "That feels right." I love when I see it click with people, when you can just feel with all your heart the spirit testify of verdade (truth).

[I am giving a talk on Christlike service in church in a couple weeks and asked Sarah to share with me an experience she has had with this. This is what she shared:] Brazilians here have a lot of pride. They don't really want help with anything, even if they need it. We always ask and they never want it! On Saturday it was raining really hard. We had three umbrellas, and were still getting soaked. We knocked at a door, and this old man we have taught before came out. We were talking through the fence, and started teaching him a lesson. He was standing in the rain and I realized without asking it would be more important for him to be dry than for me and my bag to be, so I held the umbrella over his head the entire time. I was wet after, but realized that that is what the Savior would do, he would be the first to give us his coat, his umbrella, to put others before himself. We also need to be the kind of people to be humble enough to except help, to let others show their love, and express gratitude. So many people refused the savior, his love and care. When we are serving we are being representatives of Christ. When someone does something for you it is like Christ and God doing it for you. Accept it, be grateful and pass on the love! Simple, small acts of service make all the difference

Spiritual thought:

In the New Testament, after his Resurrection, Jesus is talking to Peter after he found him gone back to fishing. And he asks peter if he loves him. And peter says, "Yes, thou knowest that I love thee." and Christ says, "well then feed my sheep." This repeats 3 times to make it clear to Peter that as soon as he became a disciple, he couldn't go back to his old life anymore. The same goes for us, when we are baptized we become disciples of Jesus Christ, we promise to exemplify him in all we do. We promise to Feed his sheep. That is the ultimate way of showing our love for our savior, is helping, serving, uplifting others around you. Just as Christ did. Show your love for him, don't go back to the old life. Feed his sheep, exemplify Christ! You will never be happier.

Love you all lots and lots! Send letters and emails! I pray for you all!

Love,

Sister Sarah Crofts

Brazil Florianópolis Mission