Now we're up to date!

So, tell me honestly: In the past week, how many times have you written “2008” ??jkAnyway, So here I am, chilling in Janaúba. This week has been awesome! It started off with a family home evening at the branch president’s house. The snack afterwards was a hotdog something or other, and so he made me an egg. It was SO cute. He came out with a plate, especially for me, with this grin, like he was so proud of himself! I love our branch president, he´s so sweet. The other cool thing about it was that a less active member, Rita came. It was hard though, because I LOVE Rita. She’s SO so sweet, and she just stopped going to church one day, and started going to the church she use to go to. BUT she came to the FHE, and we talked to her a LOT. She didn’t however, go to church on Sunday : ( But the rest of the week went well. We had 2 other fhe´s in member’s houses. And they were FaNTASTIC! It was such a cool experience. I was assigned to give the lesson at the first one. I planned a lesson from a Liahona that I had recently received, but once I was there, and we were about to start I felt like I needed to re-evaluate the lesson. So I skimmed through the liahona REALLY fast, and stopped at a page that talked “defeating our own goliath’s” so, I stood up and just let the spirit teach this family about defeating their goliath’s. The reason why it was so interesting, was this:I had planned to teach Maria (alves), Erica and possibly Nilde. But it was raining like CRAZY that day. And I mean, CRAZY (and I would know, seeing as I walked there from planalto to veredas- 5 neighborhood’s away). And because of the rain, ALL of Maria’s kids were there. (so, what I had planned PLUS: 3 or 4 guys from ages 18-23. )And they all LOVED the lesson, and the games we played after- so much that they came to the family home evening at Maurina´s house the next night! And Nilde- who on Sunday had said she wasn’t going to go to our church anymore (even though she got baptized a little over 3 months ago) has decided she DOES want to go to church. Yeah, the guidance of the Holy Ghost is pretty much the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. Ever. Another awesome part about this week was Sunday morning. We had EIGHT people come to church!! In Janaúba- this is a miracle! They were all rad people too. There is this 17 kid we´re teaching, and he´s so cool- he was explaining to us what he understood about life after death, and pretty much taught us the whole 2nd lesson, and THEN some (like deeper doctrine about what´ll happen in the millennium. It was so cool!) We marked a baptismal date with him-And then he told us he´s leaving TOMORROW on a month long vacation to go visit his mom in the bahia. Bummer for us, but I´m sure when he get´s back he´ll finish being taught by the sisters here and be BAPTIZED!! His cousin and sister are being taught too, but yesterday we were only able to catch him at his house.
I´d like to say happy birthday to lisa carter- woo! Yay for birthdays!
This week´s awesome quotes:
“Are you one of those in the “I hate to” family?How often one hears people use that phrase. If you are guilty of using it, try to break yourself of the habit. It doesn´t reflect a strong, healthy, vigorous mental attitude. IT suggests pettiness, querulousness*, a lack of the “I will” spirit. The way to conquer a disposition to “hate” so many things is to cultivate a cheerful, resolute, beneficial frame of mind. If you fill your heart with love of your fellow mortals and are possessed of a consuming desire to be of a service in the world, you will have little room left in you for “hating” this, that, and the next thing or person. The forceful person, animated by the right motives, starts more sentences with the words “I like to” than “ I hate to.”Get this thought into your mind. If you are constantly “hating,” the cause lies within yourself.” – B.C. Forbes
"This is the true test of love- to respect and serve those who can be of no use to us at all." - Anonymous**Wrap your brain around that one a little bit**
“The trouble with an opportunity is that is always comes disguised as hard work.” – Will Rogers
“Many of live´s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” –Thomas Alves Edson
“Work is the true elixir of life. The busiest man is the happiest man. Excellence in any art or profession is attained only by hard and persistent work. Never believe that you are perfect. When a man imagines, even after years of striving, that he has attained perfection, his decline begins.” –Sir Theodore Martin
“The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated” – William James **This one really struck me, because I thought to myself “Wow, that is so true.” Thinking of myself, and then I realized that every SINGLE person around me is looking –in some way or another- to be appreciated. So if one wants to make their home a more peaceful place, to make their ward or neighborhood more united, to make the WORLD a better place- strive to help the people around you feel appreciated. It´s the little things that make a huge difference. The big things do too though… But all in all, it´s not the size of the item or time, it’s the amount of heart you put into it. So go on. Share some love with the world.**
But my ALL time favorite- I LOVE this quote, I just pray that SOMEONE catches the meaning in a deep-life-changing way
“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year, while another gets a full year’s value out of a week.”- Charles Richards
Anyway, I wanted to apologize for writing “Even though most of you don’t write me...” I had just found out something that put me in a very bad mood, and I took it out on the faceless “you”È verdade, sinto muito falta de muitas de vocês, mas isso não quer dizer que NINGUÈM me escreve. Ontém recebi uma carta de Sister Underwood! E minhas irmãs me escrevem, e minha mãe nunca falta. Então, quero pedir desculpa porque fui out of line.. I don´t know how to say out of line in portuguêse. I suppose it´d be something like “mal educado” or something like that. Anyway point is, sorry, that was immature and stupid. Just because there are some people that I´d LOVE to hear from that I HAVEN´T, doesn´t mean that NO one is writing me. I appreciate those of you who have written, and I´d like to say, I know how it is- it´s hard to find time to sit down and write. But on the other hand, I´d like to say that it´s NOT easy for me to write either.I understand everyone has their busy schedule, but please do try to squeeze in 5 or 10 minutes in your week to scribble me a note. At the bus stop, in between classes, while you´re chilling, watching tv, or instead of 10 minutes of facebook/myspace.. (Yes you. You know who I´m talking to.) missionary.com is pretty sweet, the way I understand it, you just send it like an email and they mail it FOR you. None of that sealing the envelope, finding a stamp or the right postage nonsense- just throw in the addy, and probably some form of payment for the postage!
anyway, I’m really tired, so I’m going to go now. But I’m grateful for this gospel. I haven’t a single doubt that it is true. My testimony of the Book of Mormon and its veracity grows daily. I invite every single one of you- whether you’ve done it countless times, or not enough to even count once- to read a chapter and ask God if it’s true. I’m grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who never ceases to communicate with His children. I´m grateful for my amazing family- and for the ONES THAT ARE ON THE WAY!!! WOO!! *cough* I mean, you know… there in the future..(I´m praying someone has twins sometime soon, cause that would just be rad. A boy and a girl. Name them Gabriel and Gabriella.. lol.. actually I really love those names.. DIBS!)
TCHÃO! Com amor -sb