Luciana's Baptism

Yesterday we had Luciana's baptism, it was such a wonderful thing because in just a little over 2 weeks she has been preparing and preparing, she is so amazing and we had so much faith in her and even more than that, she believed in herself and truly used the Atonement of Jesus Christ in her life.

Truly seeing the change in her was such a testimony to me of Heavenly Father's love for us.

Sister Gimenez leaves me today  and at the beginning of this transfer we had so many goals to baptize tons of people, even though we were opening the area together... and I'll be honest, 2 Sundays ago when I was playing the piano in sacrament meeting during the sacrament I couldn't help but cry because we were doing everything in our power to bring our investigators to church and we had 0 people in church that week.

But yesterday, reflecting on everything we passed through together these past 5 weeks, I felt that Luciana was our miracle.

ONE soul.

This week I've been pondering Alma 29 over and over and over again... because it got to a point that we had walked a ways to visit an investigator who flaked out on our appointment (about the billionth time that this happens #southamerica) and as we were walking to the other side of town I just looked up at the sky and asked 'Why don't they get it'.

Alma 29:1-2:

 1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

 2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth. 

I believe that in this moment, this is how I was feeling.

But Alma continues, in verse 9:

this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.  

For us this transfer, Luciana was that 'some soul'. And seeing her pass through the repentance process was something wonderful to me. So wonderful to me.

Sister Gimenez has been an amazing example to me, and here in 3 hours we'll be at the bus station sending her off to Brasília which makes me super sad, Sister Pariona (Peruvian) will be leaving me too as she has also finished her mission... and as I'm sad that they'll be leaving me I know that the next month and a half will be wonderful as this is my last transfer of the mission  For now, I'll be here with Sister Fernandes (brazilian<3) and we'll be working together this last week until next week when we pick up our new companions.

As I've been reflecting these days, I've been reflecting on how much I've changed and how I'm still changing every day that I spend here in the mission... and I've never felt so grateful for anything in my entire life than I feel about my mission. I'm so grateful for how my Savior has refined me, molded me, used me as an instrument in His hands to do amazing things that I never thought I was capable of doing... and more than that I've become a person that I never thought I was capable of becoming.

I thank my Heavenly Father every night in prayers for this incredible experience that HAS NOT BEEN EASY but has the best thing that I've ever done in my life.

These next 7 weeks are gonna be awesome.

I love you, THANK YOU for the support and the prayers and everything that every one of you has done for me to help me. Amo cada um de vocês com um amor imenso.

Até mais um pouco 

Sister Hill