Week 50 - Jundiapeba, São Paulo - September 14, 2015 - hey fam!!

Óla meu povo! Tudo bem com vocês?!!  Hello my people!  How are you? I am doing just great and I am excited to tell all of you how our week has been.  We have been getting A LOT of rain, and I have been walking in wet shoes for three days.  In the humidity nothing dries, so our toes turn into such raisins by the end of the day!  Yuck.  Many great things happened this week!  I was able to do divisions with a great woman, Sister Nogueira.  I went back to my first area, Suzano!  Her and her comp were new in the area so I was able to show many of our ancient investigators for her and her comp to teach!  It was so amazing to see H, E, and a few less actives that just showed up on the street. Little miracles. Who knows if they will be able to touch their hearts and remind them of how they felt when we taught them!  While we were there, the biggest storm hit.  It was so calm for a few minutes, but we saw the biggest mama clouds comin in... it hit hard.  All of a sudden everything turned dark and we ran into a little shop and we chatted with a few old folks... it was crazy!!  

That night all of the sisters in our zone came to the house in Suzano and we all slept together because we were going to wake up at 3:30 am to go to our mission conference.  It was the biggest ruckus.  I had pretty much 4 square feet on the ground to sleep, but it was necessary because it is really dangerous to travel that early in the morning.  Our whole zone piled into a little van and we headed to São José dos Campos again!  Okay pretty much everyone got so car sick and some of the elders were gagging, almost throwing up...okay I was laughing so hard.  It was terrible!!  We were able to meet Elder Mazzegardi, the first counelor in the Brasil Area Presidency.  He is amazing.  I have never met a more intelligent or spiritual man in my life.  We spent the whole day listening to his amazing stories, and his advice for our daily work.  The biggest thing that I learned is how much I need to have a clean life.  Vida limpa.  Every time he said these words, the more and more I wanted to be so clean!!  He taught us great ways to work with the members, and we read 2 Nefi 31 all together.  He has the Book of Mormon pretty much memorized, and we were able to understand and see things in this chapter that we had never seen before.  I can not even explain how amazing it was.  There was such a light in the room, and the spirit testified to me of every single thing he was saying.

Well we are in a trio now... Me, Sister Pereira, and Sister Nogueira.  Her companion had to go home because of problems with her knees, and we are all getting along great!  It is a little difficult to teach with three people, just because it is the first time we have had to do it, but with practice, all will be well :)  We were all set to see eleven people at church, investigators and less actives, but even though we were running all around Jundiapeba Sunday morning to wake them all up, no one was willing to go.  E (I think this is the man that had the dream about the LDS church steeple) is doing awesome.  He is so excited about the gospel!  We taught the Word of Wisdom to him and he accepted the commandment like a home-made chocolate cake!  He really has such a light in his eyes.  His life has not been easy, and still has many problems in his family, but I KNOW he wants to change.  He wants to be the example for his wife and his sons.  Even though many people here in Jundiapeba do not want to change, God always prepares those who need to right now.  He has been prepared.  

OKAY Funny story:  There is a homeless woman here that DOES NOT like me.  I do not know what I did to her, but every single time we pass her, she stops, waits until I smile and starts screaming at us and aproaching us... I can not help it!!!  I have to smile!!!  How can I be a representative of Jesus Christ and not smile?!  (haha!  this cracks me up. The picture I have in mind of this happening is priceless) Well, she has done this several times, and when I was in Suzano this week, poor little Sister Pereira and Sister Marthier were walking calmly when she saw them and started running after them!  She is a big, tall woman with two dogs, and she almost hit Sister Marthier in the head!  They ran as fast as they could, and got away in time.  But I am just so glad I was not there...I think she would have killed me!  I seriously am so scared of her!! haha but we are so protected :)

Thank you for reading this email, for your prayers, and your support.  I love this work with all of my heart.  I love the Brazilian people.  I love the members.  I love my companion.  I know with all of my heart that the Book of Mormon is a book of God.  It gives me power every single day of my life.  I believe in its promise.  I know God answers our prayers.  Have a wonderful week!!

Sister Cordner xoxo

Every single corner has one of these phone booth things.

The pizza we ate at Family Night.