Week 20 - Guarulhos, São Paulo - February 16, 2015

So many members give us food here, it is amazing! One awesome member gave us a Dragon Fruit and it was so delicious! It tasted so much like a kiwi. Strange!

Oh what a wonderful week it has been here in Guarulhos!  I have felt uplifted by your prayers and your faith! Thank you all for your loving words of encouragement that I recieve every single week.  Our investigators are progressing and we are helping them be prepared for this Sunday! A Noite Azul (Blue Night) will be legendary in our zone and so many people will enter into the Kingdom of the Lord!

This week we had divisions with the other sisters in our zone.  I spent the day and night with Sis. F. Alves in Vila Galvão, and it was amazing!  Although all of our appointments fell through we were able to teach so many people on the road; people that the Lord put in our path.  One little woman named Sophia stopped us on the sidewalk.  She was so frail, barely had any teeth and was carrying a heavy load.  She immediatley recognized that we were representatives of the Savior and began to spill out her entire life of hardship and trial to us.  She was weeping and trying to express to us how much she loves our Savior and our Heavenly Father.  I have never felt in my life the way that I did then.  Sis. F. Alves held her in her arms as she cried and I could see and feel so clearly how much Christ loved that little, frail woman and how he sent us to her that day to help her carry her load to help take care of His little girl in her time of need.  I do not think that we understand how much the Savior understands us and loves us.  He knows how to help us better than anyone.  He knows exactly who we need in our lives, what experiences we would be able to learn from and where we need to be.  We must trust in Him with all things!

I want to share a miracle with all of you.  I have come to know that at the end of the day when we are wet from the rain, our legs are aching and the Português side of my brain is fried, we need to rely on the Lord the most.  Throughout the day He tries our faith, He sees if we will listen to the spirit and talk to those that He sends and if we do this, we see miracles at the end of the day.  Our most amazing lessons are at the end of a hot and tiring day.  Last week we were trying to contact a reference from a member.  We only knew the name of the road and that he was a cook at a Churrascaria (helpful na?).  We stopped at a restaraunt and asked a young man if he knew where we could look.  He did not know how to help us, but he said that he had been baptized in our church when he was 12 years old and that he works a lot and would not be able to meet with us any time soon.  He pointed us in the direction of his home to maybe talk with his mother.  We headed to his humble little home and there was his mother.  She talked with us and wept about her son and the life that he has chosen.  He is into drugs and drinking now and she does not know what to do.  We shared with her the joyful message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  She accepted all of it including the Book of Mormon with such an open heart and with such faith.  She has accepted baptism and hopes that with her example she will help her son return as well.  During every single day we never know who we will run into, who will need to talk to us or who the Lord will send.  It has been incredible to see how detailed and how personal Heavenly Father is.  This work is truly His and it is an honor to see how it is being brought to pass.  

We have almost made it through Carnaval here in São Paulo and it will be even more of a holiday for us missionaries when it ends!  Every person in this city seems to love to smoke, drink all day and not get married!  Haha surely the difference between those at the tree of life and those in the great and spacious building will increase and is increasing very rappidly!  We must cling to the Iron Rod, the scriptures, prayer, the temple, our covenants with all of our might, mind and strength in order to keep on the path in this fallen world.  It is possible to have peace and true happiness in this world today but only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!! 

With SOOOO much love, 

Sister Cordner xoxo

I know a lot of you are wondering what the rain situation is in Sao Paulo.  This is just a little update she sent me on the side.

We have not heard anything about water yet.  The past week the water level was at 2% yikes!! But this week it has rained a lot and has risen to 7%... hopefully it will keep raining! I love you so much, we are working so hard here! I love this work, I love being a missionary and sharing what I have with others.  This church is true. I know with every fiber of my being that it is true.  I love you so much!!

PRAY FOR RAIN IN SAO PAULO!!