Nice and Normal

Hey hey,

This week was good. Nice and normal, it's crazy how fast time passes out here... tomorrow I will have 5 months in the mission. It's so weird to think that almost 1/3 of my time here is over. Let's not think about that. :)

This week me and Sister Miranda stayed after almoço with Irmã Francisca, and for our service project of the week we helped her make pizza crusts for her to sell at the fair. She makes pizzas every week to sell there... it was super fun. We wore those hilarious hairnets. :)

Andreia is still going strong, feeling prepared to be baptized on the 22nd... she told me and Sister Miranda that when she was taking her English course she had to sing a song in English, and she sang I'm Yours by Jason Mraz... so we decided that we're going to take the guitar over there sometime this week and play and sing with her. Gonna be fun. :)

We found a young woman this week named Hellem (say it like 'Ellen'). She's only 14, but she's strong Adventista (Reformada) like the rest of her family. She's the youngest of 3 siblings in her family. We found her in the street with her brother Lucas. We visited her and the siblings (mom wasn't home) on Saturday, taught the Restoration... she was incredible. Payed attention the whole time, commented, showed so much interest in the message of the restored gospel... she asked US about coming to church on Sunday, as we had mentioned it before. We planned to have a member pick her up for Church Sunday morning.

And she came! She was ready when we got to the door. She loved it in the YW's, already has a friend, and is planning to go on a camping trip that the youth are going to take for Carnaval.

Adailton also came to church this week!!!!! For as long as we've been teaching him, it was honestly a miracle. We planned to meet him at the bus stop close to the chapel, he would walk halfway and we would meet him there... we were nervous when we got there at the assigned time and he wasn't there. But when we saw him walking it gave us such hope in him... we're excited for him to be baptized on the 22nd too. He's awesome and loved his first time in Church.

We had a training with the Sister Trainers this morning... it was awesome. We learned so much. I learned a lot about how us as missionaries have an authority that we are here to call people to repentance. Like the prophets of every dispensation have done since the beginning of time.

I love a devotional by Elder Holland where he said that the missionaries of the Church are in the same race as the apostles and the prophet in this day. 24/7, every second, our GOAL is to bring others to Christ. Every second, that is our goal! That is our purpose!!!! I'm grateful for my purpose as a missionary.

I know that it doesn't matter how long we walk away from our Father in Heaven... it will never matter to Him how far we run from Him, how bad we are, how many times we've messed up over and over and over... He will ALWAYS love us. He will ALWAYS let us turn back to Him. Because of our Savior, because of the blood that He shed for us... we can repent.

I used to think that Christ was what made mercy and justice possible... but I realized that that isn't how it is at all. It's like this:

God is justice. He is a just God, He always will work this way.

Christ paid the price. Because of Christ, we have mercy.

But how do mercy and justice work together?

REPENTANCE.

Repentance is key.

Because if we don't repent, is mercy in vain?

I'm grateful that we can repent.

"Salvation was never easy."

I hope you are all having a good February... pray for a missionary experience this week!

I love you all. <3

Muito amor,

Sister Hill :*