Week 25 -Guarulhos, São Paulo - March 23, 2015

What?! Another week has already passed?!  It has been a beautiful cloudy week here in Guarulhos and I have loved it!  When we arrive home tired and sweaty it does not even feel like we were working all day because of how much fun we have together!  I love Sister Andrade so much!  We are perfect for each other :)  I love being a missionary!  Sometimes when I look in the mirror I think... What?  I am in Brasil on a mission?  And it has almost been 6 months since I was at home!! 

Well, last P-day we met up with our district at the Bosque Maia.  It is a really big park here in Guarulhos that has a trail through a mini jungle.  It started to pour rain after like a half an hour so we spent the rest of our P-day in a restaurant. Haha.  It is so much fun to be with all of the missionaries!  Especially now that I can speak Português and actually laugh along!  I love to speak Português and I have seriously seen miracles with the challenge of learning a new language.  

Yesterday Na was baptized!  She is 29 years old and is engaged to a member of the church that lives in Minas.  She has been going to church with us and yesterday we traveled all the way to Continental to join our district for the baptisms.  She is so sweet and sincerely wanted to follow the Savior and be baptized.  Baptisms are so quick and so simple, but there is so much power in this ordinance.  Along with Natalí, a young man in the other ward baptized his parents and he will recieve his mission call so soon.  It was so beautiful!  I love to help the women being baptized in the changing room afterwards and here their responses.  They have beautiful tears and smiling faces afterwards.

We have been teaching N, the husband of a life-long member in our ward.  His heart has finally been softened because of their new baby girl, and he is accepting the gospel wonderfully!  It is so much fun and so amazing to teach part-member families or people who know members in the ward.  I love to hear the members of the famliy bear testimony and help their loved ones come into the Kingdom.  N accepted to look for an answer and be baptized on the 19th of April!  What a beautiful day it will be to see them in the temple one day!!  They seriously have the cutest baby in the world.  Maddy would die.

On Friday, we decided to go crazy and contact everyone that we would meet on a few specific streets and we added in a really cool idea.  We decided to look for a man with a red shirt, jeans, tennis shoes, and no hair (bald).  You guys would never believe how many we found!! We shared our message with all of them!  It was actually really fun, and we will be doing it every week from now on :)  Who knows... maybe one of them will accept the gospel someday!  

I have been really trying to focus on living in the present this week.  Sometimes I focus a lot on the past and what I did not say, did not do, or should have done.  Sometimes I focus too much on what needs to be done and I worry a lot about things to come.  But really I need to focus on the people around me, their needs and what I can do right now to become a better person and more like the Savior.  I challenge all of you to live in the moment this week and focus on the people around you. What are their needs?  What can I do right now to become a better person?  Let us all slow down a little bit and be grateful for all that we have and recognize the hand of God.

I love you all forever and ever and I hope you all have a great week!!



Love, Sister Cordner xoxo