Week 42-Transferred to Joao Pessoa-new companion Sister Adelman

Oi familia e amigons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SOOOOO GUESS WHAT?! I was TRANSFERRED!!!!!!!!! haha  I am now in Mangbeira 2 with Sister Adelman!!!!! She is from Texas and is a student at BYU- IDAHO! haha so cool! This is her 3 month in the mission field! I am so excited! I am excited this area is HUGE too. And in the southern part of the city Joao Pessoa! The sun is hot and the wind is powerful! I am excited!!!! hahahaha WE HAVE THE BEACH IN OUR AREA!!!!  I took a 2.5 hour bus ride to get here and when I arrived there where already ward members waiting for me. It was so nice! I really felt loved and they invited us over for dinner tonight. I am SOOOO excited!!!! I also found out the meals here are amazing and all the sisters gain weight here. I WILL NOT. haha oh I hope not! haha  Well I have to go! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ate mais! Sister Wheatley

Week 41 Baptism-short letter

OI FAMILIA!

This week will be a little shorter than normal because the internet is acting up in all of GUARABIRA!

SO transfers are this weekl. And it looks like I will be leaving. I am not sure how I feel about that. But we will find out Sunday night!!!!!!!! I love Guarabira. I love all the work we have to do here. I love staying busy!

We had a baptism this week! It is the granddaughter of Maria and Ramos. Her name is Eduarda!!! It was so special. We are also teaching their son. It was extremely special to see Joao - Maria- Ramos- and all their grandchildren at the baptism. I really feel blessed to be apart of this families story. They we be able to live together forever. They are preparing for the temple. I am SO EXCITED!!!! (took lots of pictures that I will try to send! if not this week- next week)

This week (last p-day) Sister Araya had 16 MONTHS. So we had a sweet 16 for her! It was so much fun! We put all our beds in the living room, watched movies (little mermaid and Aladdin (we are allowed to here) ), painted our nails (which we had to take off the next day because we are not allowed to have colored nails outside of our apartment haha), and eat POPCORN and M&MS. WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!! <3 We slept there too! The next day was crazy putting everything up in time to study, BUT WE DID IT! hehe (:

I love you all so much! Thank you for the LOVE and support!!! 

ATE MAIS!!!!!!!

Week 40 Half Way! 9 months! Another baptism -Jose Roberto

OI FAMILIA E AMIGOS!!!!!!!! <3 

THIS WEEK I COMPLETED 9 MESES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HALF-WAY mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Wow time goes by soooo fast!!!!!!!!!! haha Here in our mission when you have 9 months we take photos (a photo shoot) acting like we are pregnant. haha It was so much fun! I have already created 4 bellies and now it was my turn! I will try to send LOTS of photos. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! And afterwards we went and had pizza at Pedros Pizzaria! And he made me a chocolate pizza with a number 9 on top with STRAWBERRIES!!!!! It was sooo yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha

SO many of you asked about Easter and sorry I didn't really have time to respond last week. 

SO Easter is the exactly the same- except they do not hide plastic eggs. They hide HUGE chocolate eggs!!!!!!! You buy HUGE EGGS and give them to other people. The picture I sent last week was me with one of a smaller sized chocolate egg! It was soooo YUMMY! (:These eggs could be so chocolate or have presents in side. It is really cool. 

I also had a batismo this week!!!!!!!!!!!!! He name is Jose Roberto! I do not have much time to tell you his whole story. But he really was a miracle; We had been working all week to find one new person to teach, but couldn't find anyone. And a Saturday at 8:45pm we meet Jose and we invited him to come to church that Sunday; (the next day 9am.) He arrived at church 8:30am and stayed to watch a baptism. And after the baptism he told us that he wanted to be baptized. We knew him for 3 hours and he knew this was the church of God. It was amazing. After that we began preparing him and he was BAPTIZED yesterday. We asked him if you wanted to wait until after conference. But he wanted this sunday so we had a batismo after the priesthood session Sunday morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we had 15 members of the quorum there. And Pedro gave the talk on baptism and Pedrinho and Joao gave the opening and closing prayers. It was a very special day.

Week 39 Baptism of Maria and Ramos -Great example of faith!! -lots of new pictures

Oi familia e amigons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehehe

Hope everyone had an AMAZING EASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

FELIZ PASCOA!!!!!!!!!

Easter has become my new favorite day of the year. It is a day of miracles and I learned so much about the true meaning of the atonement and our saviors sacrifice!!!!

Yesterday! We had a baptism!!!!!!!!!!!! A family! (couple) haha Maria and Ramos!!!!!!!!!!! They have been married for about 33 years and I have never meet two people with more faith than this couple. I love them so much! They taught me so much about the many of sacrifice.

Maria is the sister of my recent-convert Joao! He invited her to his baptism and she came to see him receive the Holy Ghost. That day she stayed to watch a baptism. And it was like a child of christmas, she knew the church was true and wanted to be baptized. She invited us to her house and the next day we met Ramos. Maria had told him EVERYTHING and before we could even say our names he told us that he wanted to visit the church the following Sunday! haha

After that we began to teach them and their grandaughter Edwarda. We are also teaching their son Marcos. As we were teaching them Ramos began to have serious problems in his back and legs. These problems create a huge amount of pain when he stays in one spot for to long. But every Sunday he sat through all the meetings and if he could stand the pain (he stands up in the back); but he never left. He wanted to be baptized so bad but he was scared to death that he would not get better and would not be able to make it to church. But everyweek he pushed through. The faith this man has makes me cry just thinking about how he suffers.

Yesterday- He really showed his faith and desire to be baptized. Saturday night (the day before his baptism) he was in such pain that he was in the hospital all night. And he returned home 7am in the morning. Maria told him that she would be baptized and that he could wait for another Sunday, but he told her no I will be baptized today. And he took a shower and went to church 9 am. And he stayed in all of the meetings; all three. And he was in so much pain he began to throw up in the bathroom. But he knew this was the only true church and the only way to salvation: that he stayed and did not tell anyone. (We found out all of this hours after the baptism.) And when the baptism came (12 o'clock) He hadn't eaten, was in extreme pain hadn't slept, and was completely sick to his stomach. He waited patiently for his turn and I have never seen such joy. His smile brought tears to my eyes. And in that moment I didn't know of the pain he was in, I just saw the joy in his eyes. He was a new Ramos, he was clean, and he knew it. He knew and knows that he is following the example of his Savior. He didn't complain and he didn't rush any minute. He showed me - the true value of this gospel. What are you willing to sacrifice to be clean? 

I know that God guides this church and that the gospel is the only way the only path. I never have an excuse to not go to church again. That is where I need to be every week. That is where we all need to be. Ramos showed me that. Maria and Ramos showed me the importance of faith, sacrifice, and commitment to God. They do not know how to read and so everything they do is on faith alone- and the knowledge they have from prayer and the spirit!

I love you all so much! Feliz Pascoa! Happy Easter. A time of new beginnings and a time to remember our Lord and Savior. He sacrificed his life for us and he experienced all our pains. Its now our turn!

Sister Wheatley