Sister Sarah Elizabeth Crofts: Campos Novos--Week 77--Last Week!

Oiii

My last week in Campos Novos was amazing. I did not want my life as a missionary to end! We had the busiest week ever, and Sister Howell and I felt like because we were working our tails off, The Lord was blessing us immensely.
Here are some highlights from this week:

On Pday Sister Howell and I did some last minute shopping (snacks and such) and we got our nails done. But the lady that did our nails, accidentally cut into my toe, and it made it infected, and swollen for a few days. I thought that I had an ingrown toenail, so Sister Barbosa helped me by digging in with a little knife. Which only made it worse, because I did not indeed have an ingrown toenail. Haha!
We had lots of success with Lisiane and Julian. We taught them the restoration and the plan of Salvation. And they told us that they believe it! Lisiane said when we asked her if she prayed about the restoration, and she said she did. And she feels it's truth.
We also spent the week with Amanda trying to prepare her for Baptism. She was very hesitant. And was not sure if she wanted to give up worldly things. But in the end she decided that she wanted to make that commitment with Jesus Christ to be baptized. We had her baptism after church on Sunday, and it was the most amazing thing ever. It was 1.5 hours before we had to go to Floripa to finish our missions, so we really did go out with a Bang!
We had a goodbye dinner with Simone and Jaison that week, and marked everything for their wedding date.
We also had the amazing opportunity of going to the local high school and talking about the church and our missions, and America, for an hour in front of 200 kids! It was amazing, and we definitely planted some good seeds there.
Sister Howell and I on our last Sunday were able to bear our testimonies on the last fast Sunday, and we both cried. And felt such sadness to be done with our missions. We took a 10 hour bus ride to Florianopolis, and made a contact on the bus.
When we got there the elders were there waiting for us, and we went to the sisters house. We went to bed super late, organizing and packing.
That morning I woke up after only 2 hours of sleep, sick to my stomach, and threw up in the toilet, sister howell gave me lime water, and we took our ubers to the mission office where we had our last training.
We were called by our first names in the training which was so weird.

I am writing this as I have been home from my mission for 4 months. And not a day passes that I don't miss it. That I don't miss the people, the place, serving The Lord. I know this is his church. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And my mission has prepared me for my life ahead of enduring to the end, and holding on to the Iron rod.