Last Missionary Post!

Well, this is the strangest email I have yet to write. Tomorrow I am on the plane headed home but I still don´t really feel like this is for reals. Let see if it hits me in the airport. I love Brasil with all my heart, and more then that I have loved my mission and love this gospel. I have watched it change the lives of so many people and families in the last year and a half! There really aren´t words that adequately describe this time I have spent. I have learned so much about the love that God has for us and the great plan that has been prepared for our eternities. 

​These last two weeks have been going without a break. I don´t even remember sleeping ha. Everyday we had so much to do and so many people to go and see and teach. First of all, I LOVE my companions. In these last three weeks we have not stopped laughing, I think that is why time went so quickly. We have been so blessed with the families and investigators that we have been finding. Natal is a great time for us because everyone is more willing to talk, listen and share about Christ. It has been even more cool with the campaign that the church has "Ele é O Presente"  (It should be like He is the Present or something in English). Now, when we are doing contacts in the streets we have been finding people who have already watched the video or seen something on YouTube. It makes it easier to start a conversation and helps people be more willing to listen to our message. Also, it seems like the gospel is much easier for our investigators and members to share so we have been getting lots more referrals from members, and teaching much more families together. We are focusing a lot also in helping the members help us in the work. We have been doing our meetings Noite Familiares every 2 weeks of ward missionary work. This last week we watched the ancient first vision. Irmão Claudio has one of those old projectors so we watched it in style! Then we also had our Ward Christmas Party, which was actually just a dinner but it was really yummy so we can´t complain. 

It is cool to see how the gospel comes to people in many ways to help them be prepared to receive the missionaries. This week we had a cool experience finding with the Elders. These last few weeks we have been teaching a really awesome family that we found while we were showing the elders around their area. We had passed by to introduce them to an investigator at her mercadinho that she has in the favela in the elders area. While we were there the Elders started talking to her friend, Edna, who was visiting with her and it turned out that she lives in our area. After her friend started telling her about how our visits were changing her life, she agreed to let us visit her and we marked an appointment. Since the very first lesson, we knew this family was special. She gathered everyone to here the message and we taught literally the entire family (grandkids, son in law, everyone). She lives with her husband, Manuel and her son Igor, but whenever we are there he calls his son and daughter, Vitor and Taína (who live with their mom most of the time in the favela of the elders) to listen as well, so we have been teaching them all these last few weeks and it has been great. This weekend we decided to go to their house (where they live with their mom) to invite them to the ward dinner because they weren´t at ednas when we called. Since we were entering the their area, the elders decided that they wanted to come with us so the whole gang went and hunted down Vitor and Taína´s house. When we got there Taína invited us in and we met her mom and sat and began to talk to them a bit. In the corner of their living room I saw that there was a little Christmas tree. The tree was plainly decorated, with just balls and in the middle  of the tree was a picture of Christ. As I looked closer I realized that it was one of our pass-along cards! As we talked with her I tried my hardest to remember if we had given Taína and Vitor a card but I couldn´t remember ever doing so. Then we asked if we could leave a Christmas message with her, which she accepted. We used her cell phone to pull up "Ele é O Presente," the Christmas video the church released. When the video started playing she said that she had already seen the video, a friend had passed it on to her and she and she had loved it. As we watched it together again a special spirit filled the room. After the video she said, " I had no idea this was your church" I decided to ask her where she had gotten the pass along card and she said that she had found it in her purse. She had been searching for the perfect topper and had come across this one and thought it was just right because it wasn´t a Christmas tree without Christ. Em fim, the Elders marked a return appointment to start teaching her and I can feel that she is going to progress rapido. It is pretty amazing sometimes how Heavenly Father sets up the timing just right, and sets the scene just perfect so that His children receive the gospel in just the right moment that they are needing it and are also ready to accept it. It seems like through out the year she has had lots of contact, without even knowing it, with church so that when we arrived in her home this weekend she was prepared to hear our message and accept our invitation. I know that this is the Lord´s work.

 We had an awesome p-day de zona last week, churrasco and volei and other sports. (That's why I didn´t have time to write a big email last week.) Then ​we had our activities this week too. I am a little tired of writing haha so I will just talk to ya´ll during the week:)  I love you so so so much. Have a good week. See you soon!

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Oi!

Boa tarde! There is so much to write about and so little time, I will try to tell you about the most important things that happened this week. 

First: Transfers! My new companions are Sister Durães (I already knew about her) and Sister T. Souza. Sister Durães was born in the Bahia  (the nordeste) and raised here in the interior of the state São Paulo and Sister T. Souza was born in raised in the Bahia and then with 18 years came to live in the interior of São Paulo as well. It is funny because sometimes we tell people that we are all from the Bahia and no one even doubts a little bit. Then I start talking haha and they figure out that something isn´t quite right. This transfer is going to be so good I can already tell! They both Samba ridiculously well (Sis T. Souza professionally) and so they are teaching me ha.  I already loved Sister Durães because we have spent the last two transfers together here in SA 4. With Sister T Souza here it is almost too fun to be fair. We have spent the last week dying laughing every day. We also received two new Elders in our ward (they took over Sister Durães´old area): Elder Andrade from Manaus and Elder Martins from Recife. They are pretty cool which is lucky because we have to eat with them every day haha. Elder Martins arrived right now in the mission so he is all fresh and new and we make him do everything.. not really but we joke about it. It has finally started to rain here and oh man is it coming down! About two weeks ago all of the church in all of Brasil did a fast for a solution to the water problems that the country is having. Well the prayers and fasting are being answered and it is coming down in bucket! So we have spent a lot of time jumping in puddles.... and working of course! Which brings me to the best news of the week Irmão Rafael got BAPTIZED!!!!!!! It really was a huge surprise and an even huger miracle. 

We started teaching him about 4 months ago when I arrived in the area but he had already been coming to church weekly for more then 3 years! His wife is a faithful member of 24 years and his daughter, who is 9, was baptized last year. He has been for sure one of the hardest investigators that I have had during all of my mission. Many times we felt lost, like we had no idea how to help him. He is one of the most prayed for people during my time here. These last weeks we had all but given up.. only following up about once a week and more to help his family stay strong. 

Last week we had a lesson on Sunday so that Sister V could say goodbye. I felt that we needed to invite him to be interviewed for baptism again. This time he agreed but as more of a chance to talk to other missionaries to see if they knew what was best to do next. Wednesday we had the interview with the Zone Leaders. It lasted 2 and a half hours but when he came out, Elder Freeman said that he could be baptized if/when he wanted. Rafael said he would pray about it. The next night we went back to their house to follow up and he said he knew he would be baptized but wanted to wait for more of an answer. Sunday, when we got to the church he said that he was still feeling reserved. This week the ward had a baptism of 4 children in the primary, so the font was being filled during the meetings. We decided to take him into the room with the font to invite him one last time. When we got there we talked about Christ and had him look at a painting of Christ´s baptism. Then we showed him the baptismal jump suit that would be his and talked about the purity that he would have. Lastly we all knelt together and said a prayer asking for Heavenly Father to take away his fear and help him make this important decision. We read one last scripture and then without saying anything else went to Sacrament meeting. At the end of the meeting the Elders went to ask him if he was going to participate in the baptism and if he would like some help getting ready. He looked at us, then his wife, then the Elders and said "Eu vou" (I will). I was done for! Never had I imagined that it would happen like that, but we made it and he was baptized! His daughter cried and jumped into his arms when she saw him in white and didn´t let him go for like 5 minutes. It was such a beautiful and wonderful day! I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and responds to our fasts! We could have never ever had this baptism if it wasn´t for the promptings of the Spirit that we received. I am sure that when we have the faith, miracles happen. And when we don´t have the faith necessary we can ask for it!

I am out of time. I love you all so much. Have a great week! 

Beijos,

Sister Seagraves

Last Transfer!

Oi! Tudo Bem!!

TRANSFERS

It has been a great week but full of goodbyes. We have transfers tomorrow and we knew that someone was leaving for sure this week so we have been working in extra force to strengthen the investigators that we have and prepare them for the changes that were coming up. We got the calls for transfers this Saturday. The news is... Sister Lazelle is going home after 18 months of hard work :) My companion, Sister Vasconcelos is leaving the area. Sister Durães (who has been serving in the same ward as me but in the other companionship) will come and be my companion!!!! and we are getting one more sister.. yay trios again haha. And lastly, they are closing Sister Durãe​s area for sisters and will be sending two elders to work with us in the ward instead. Lots of changes! It will be sad to see the Sisters go but we are also super excited because Sister Durães already knows a lot of our investigators so the transition will be easier. Now for what we have been up to for the last few weeks.

An update on our recent converts, Sheila and Edson. They are both doing great spiritually! Haven´t missed a Sunday since they were baptized. Edson is getting ready to move so he will probably have to leave our ward, but we aren´t too worried. I think that he will be strong where ever he goes. He has been more of a blessing to us then we have to him. For his firmness in the faith he is being very blessed. Last week he received the priesthood and is he sticks around we will try to have him baptize the next convert :) Sheila is doing well as well. She has been getting more comfortable with the people at church which is so cool to see. She has started making comments and sharing testimonies that bring such a special spirit to the classes. It makes me tears when I see the strength of those we teach helping others. Sometimes I feel like a proud mother watching her children grow, even though these people we teach are all much older then me haha.

This week we had our second ward mission activity. We are trying to do one at least every two weeks to help the people in the ward get more excited. So far, I think it is really working. This week was a `bolo macho.`Which means that the men in the ward make cakes and the people eat them and vote on the best decorated, yummiest etc. It was pretty fun. Kids ate wayyy too much cake haha, but we aren´t their parents so we just kept serving. Less people came then we would have hoped but those that were there had a good time! For our message we talked about how just as every bolo (cake) has basic ingredients to make for a successful, yummy cake, every life has basic things we need to do to make for a successful, strong testimony. We compared these basic ingredients to things like prayer, scripture study... etc. And then we talked about how after the basics we don´t have to stop. We keep adding good things in our lifes according to what talents we have or what things we like to do to make for a happy life. It was pretty awesome if you ask me ;)

There is a family here that I love that we teach during family home evenings every week. The mom, Giani, has been a member for 5 years and the dad, Alé was just baptized this year. About a month ago Alé lost his job, and although Giani works selling Mary Kay it is not nearly enough to support their family. This brought a huge problem of stress in their lives but what has happened with them in the last month has been one of my favorite miracles in my mission. We had a family night with them a few days after he lost his job and instead of the crazy anxiety that we expected to find, they were mostly calm. A little worried but, as Giani put it, there was just a peace in their home that everything was going to be alright.

Over the month we did our weekly visits, following up with them and always praying for the Lord to help them. Every week they told us about how they had passed the last week. Together they fasted weekly and prayed for a solution. They had already been trying to sell their house because of debt and so the prayed harder that someone would come to look at it. They dedicated themselves to studying the scriptures and words of the prophets. They were already a good family, sempre trying to do what is best and unite their family more in the gospel but over this month their as their efforts increased so did their faith and in turn their home really became a place of spiritual safety for them. It has been amazing to watch them transform and learn to really trust in the Lord when everything was up in the air. And of course with their faith that Heavenly Father would help them, they did their part. Alé had interview after interview; some seemed to go well, some not as well but he kept working and searching and did not give up, not for a second. After a month, Alé found a job that is much better then the one he lost. What a huge blessing for them! Everything ended up falling in place and because of the money he received when he got let go from the other job, they will be able to keep their home. The best part of all of this, the job, the house, of all of the blessings they have received is the stronger spiritual unity that their family now has... the roots of faith they have grown in the last month can not be replaced for any worldly wealth. It is a miracle de verdade, we can feel and see the difference that this experience has made in who they are.

Something so beautiful about this gospel is that these spiritual blessings can be received by anyone at anytime. It doesn´t have to take losing a job to feel the need to get closer to our Heavenly Father. He wants to help us with whatever problem that we have, big or small. The more that we work to feel His peace and His grace in our lives, the more that we will feel it! It is that simple, the formula is that easy. I am so grateful to see the difference the gospel makes everyday. I know that the things that we teach are true. I know that this is the Lord´s work and that He wants us to know how to navigate through our dificuldades.
Okay I ran out of time. I hope that you are all doing well. I love you all and hope that you have a great week. Até Mais!

te amo, beijos

Sister Seagraves 

Bom Dia!

There has been so much that has happened in this last transfer but I never know what to write. I am sorry that I haven´t kept you all updated at all. I think that the last time that I actually wrote something was before the baptism of Sheila and Edson. Well as you can see, they were baptized. It was such a great day! We ended up having to walk about 3 hours to find a church building that had a baptismal dress for Sheila because we decided that would be the easiest. Sunday was wonderful, almost no problems, almost ha. When it was Sheila´s turn to be baptized she got super nervous. The Bishop and another brother in the ward were in the font with her to help secure her. They ended up having to baptize her 2 times because when they went to submerge her, her hands went flying all over haha but the second time was much calmer and all went very well. They were both confirmed two weeks later because of conference and then this week Edson received the priesthood. It is great to see them both progressing so well.

 

We have been searching diligently as always trying really hard to find people who will listen. We have a few that are promising and that we are excited to keep teaching.

 

One of them is a woman named Rosa, she is senhora já and is the sweetest person ever. I remember when we met her for the first time in the road she was way nicer then the normal person here in São Paulo so we were pretty excited to be go and see her. We started teaching her last week or so and just brightens up our day. She has been through a lot in the 2 years. She found out that she had cancer and almost died. She was able overcome but when she left the hospital she was super sickly and weighed only 85 pounds. From there she went on fighting, and is so much better today. She has a colostomy bag that she has had since she left the hospital the first time. She is just waiting for them to call her any hour to take it out. She has her bag all packed and ready to go and the beacon and call of the hospital. Whenever we go to teach her she calls us her flowers haha. I love her!

This week I had a health miracle. I have made it up until this time in my mission without ever falling, despite rain, ice and snow, so I knew it was bound to happen at some point ha. This weekend we were sitting down to do our estudos and the truck of trash passed by. We had forgotten to take out the trash and Sister V was in the bathroom so I jumped up super fast and ran to grab the trash and then run up the stairs to throw it out on the sidewalk. About half way up the stairs I fell and I fell hard. I am not even sure how I landed but it hurt. We put ice on it and kept studying and then left to walk to almoço. By the time we got to the members house I had a nice sized golf ball forming where I hit my foot and then by the time we finished eating it had doubled again. We went to the hospital to take an x-ray and luckily it wasn´t broken. The doctor said that it would continue to get worse for the day and then hurt alot for the week and that I would need to stay off it for a while. Well that doesn´t exactly fly with our line of work so I said thanks and we went home. After talking to President, we ended up staying in for the rest of the day. I prayed and prayed that the swelling would go down but it just kept growning. By the time we went to bed it had doubled again and I couldn´t double my ankle at all. That night was painful to sleep and I would wake up and then say another pray and go back to sleep. When we woke up for church the next day I looked down at my ankle and the swelling was almost all gone. There isn´t even much of a bruise despite the fact that the day before it was completely discolored. Today it is already practically gone and I didn´t even take a picture haha. I know that it is a simple thing, but I know that Heavenly Father blessed me so that I would able to keep working. We have so much to do and so little time to do it, there is no way we can afford to spend days just sitting in house.

In these last weeks we have made a lot of progress with our work with the members in the ward. They are so importante to everything that we do! I wish it wasn´t so hard to get everyone involved but I guess if everything was easy about mission work, well it would be easy and we wouldn´t learn half as much. we had a really cool activity about the Plan of Salvation that we put together for a missionary family home evening night. It turned out so legal. We will have to do one when I get home. 

This week I found out about a super cool app that there is now that is to help with studying of the scripture. It´s called Citation lds or something to that effect. It takes everything the apostles have ever said about scriptures in all of the standard works and separates it by verse. I don´t know how long this has existed, maybe a while, but it is a novidade for me! I am just amazed more and more with all of the resources that we have today to help us better understand the plans that Heavenly Father has for us. Really we are so very blessed to live in this day and age when we have access to so much, so quickly and easily. Of course everything that comes as a blessing has opposition, that is an eternal principle. It is our responsibility to choose. If we choose to use the technology that we now have to better our lives and the lives around us, to enrich our understanding and strengthen our minds, we will become people much better prepared for the challenges ahead of us. That is a promise that we have received. I read this conference article recently and thought it was awesome. It is from the priesthood session a couple of conferences ago. If you have the chance to look at it, I would highly recommend.

 

I´ve got to go já, mas eu amo vocês MUITO. Eu tenho muito saudades de vocês mas eu sei que Deus está com vocês. Continua fazendo as coisas certas e eu vou escrever mais a próxima semana. 

beijos!

Sister Seagraves

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Sapos e Baratas (Frogs and Roaches)

What a week we have had! First I will tell update you on a few people and then if there is time I will tell you about the sapos e baratas haha.

So finally Sheila has been feeling better this week. I think the springtime is just what she needed. We were able to go and teach her a couple of times this week and she was up and back to her sunshiny self, which is such a relief to see. We have to delay her baptism just a little because she hasn´t been able to go to church but her testimony grows stronger everyday. We have had some of the most spiritual lessons with her this week. We talked about the trials she has faced in her life and she told us that the best thing she ever did in her life was sit outside of her door the day the missionaries past by. She shared with us the feelings that she has been having and told us that she feels her Savior closer to her now then ever before. These are the blessings of the gospel. There is really nothing sweeter then the moments when people really start to understand what we are teaching. That we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much that He did not leave us alone, directionless in these crazy days that we are living. That there really is safety for the soul and peace for the heart found through His Son´s sacrifice, and that now, because of the restoration of the priesthood power through a modern day prophet, we have full access to that peace. I wish everyone understood the way that she does. 

We are also teaching a man named Edison who has been coming to church for the last month all on his own. Last week we taught him the first lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon. We were a little worried about leaving a whole week without contact but he could only meet with us on Sunday so we prayed a lot. Yesterday we had our second lesson with him and it was so awesome! He not only read the chapter we left for him but read like the first 300 pages of the Book of Mormon and marked everything up making connections between passages and everything. Every blank space in his copy of the Book of Mormon is filled with notes that he took. He is a perfect example of the real intention, faith and sincere heart that is required to receive a testimony from God that what we are teaching is true! Because of his diligence, he receive a very strong and clear answer. When we asked him if he felt he had received an answer that the Book of Mormon was true he said "Not only is it true, but it holds all the answers to the things that we are missing in the gospel. If everyone would read this they could make sense of the things we need to do to reach God."  I think we could have died in that very moment. He is so prepared it is amazing. We have a meeting with the bishop to figure out how his baptism will work with the elections and conference on this upcoming Sunday but we are so excited.  

It really is amazing because we are struggling so much right now to find new investigators but Heavenly Father isn´t letting that stop the miracles we see. What we lack in quantity He makes up with quality. The few people that we are teaching are better prepared and are searching more sincerely then any investigator I have ever had. I know that God sees our labors and blesses us accordingly, even if at the same time He is sending trials to test our faith. 

Okay, so for the sapos are baratas. First let me tell you that my companion is literally afraid of everything. I have never met someone who says be careful so much ahah. She cracks me up every time we cross the street or see a dog withing a block from us she gets nervous and grabs my arm and says 'Ai Sister, be careful" So on Tuesday night we did our planning like usual and then I went to go to the bathroom. While I was there I hear Sister Vasconcelos making a bunch of noise in the kitchen. I leave the bathroom to tell her to be quiet because Irmão Claudio (who lives in the house behind ours but in the same yard.) and his family are sleeping. I enter from one side of the kitchen to see her on the other side pointing to the sink, now screaming "Ai Sister!!! BARATA!". I look to see what it was and I see a HUGE cockroach run across the counter. So, what do I do? I stand on my side of the kitchen and start screaming too, of course haha. So the both of us stand there screaming for a good 3 minutes and then decide that we have to kill it. She grabs some insect killer but while she was getting it the cockroach disappeared under the sink where we keep all of our pots and pans. We grab a mop and a broom and try to move things around without getting to close, but can´t find the stupid bug. Neither of us wanted to get close but we had to take the pans out because there was no way we were sleeping until it died. So with the broom and mop we start pulling the dishes out of the cupboard and letting them fall crashing to the ground and then attacking them with insecticide. I think we were both secretly hoping that Imrão Claudio would hear the noise and save us but he never came. Finally, after ever pan has been pulled out we find and kill her along with a baby one. We sweep out the area and spray it down and then start putting all of the pots and pans into alcohol to soak because of the insecticide. While Sister V is at the sink she starts screaming again and I look to see that two more cockroaches appeared. After another half hour of screaming we managed to kill them too. And then we loaded up the kitchen with insecticide. All and all we spent 2 and a half hours trying to kill 4 bugs. I am a little ashamed, but hey, at least we did it. 

Then about three days later we wake up in the morning and start our regular morning routine. I was just finishing my morning prayer when I hear "Ai Sister! Vem aqui, Rapido! um sapo!" (come here quickly, a frog) I go to the bathroom to tell her to be quiet because it is early and Irmão Claudio and his family are sleeping and see a huge frog somehow had made its way through the laundry room, kitchen, down the hall and into our bathroom. So she started screaming again and I grabbed a bucket to put over him so that he didn´t run away. This time I didn´t scream but he was a big guy, and super ugly looking. And he was strong so he kept trying to jump and hit the bucket away. Finally I got the bucket over him and put another bucket of water on top of him so that he wouldn´t escape. Then we went together and got Irmão Claudio haha there was no way I was touching that thing. So Irmão Claudio came to save us with a dust pan and broom and box but the frog got loose in the bathroom so we just saw the door stuck and then laughed as we listened to Irmão battling with the frog. After a couple minutes Irmão came out victorious and took away the frog. Also well that ends well but if we find another creature in our house I think Sister V will ask for an emergency transfer haha.

Anyways, I am out of time. I love you all! I hope you have a great week and receive tons of inspiration from General Conference this weekend!

This Week Here

Oi Tudo Mundo! 

Things are going well here in Santo André 4. As I said in my last email, my companion is an angel, and that is still true. It´s kind of been a saving grace because this is a super tough area. We talk to everyone and mark tons of appointments but almost never is the person actually there. So we have been doing a ton of walking. This area is more wealthy than my last which means that there are a lot more apartment buildings which make it a little more difficult and absolutely everyone works. Despite all of the hard parts about this area though I am loving every second here. 

I got news from Consorcio (my old area) today that Pedrina was baptized on Sunday! It is a little pang to the heart to know that I couldn´t be there but it is the best news ever to know that she continued progressing and was able to receive the blessings of that covenant.

We are still teaching Sheila, almost everyday now, to help her prepare for her baptism on the 28th of this month. She is so excited to be baptized and even asked us if she can serve a mission too. This week we have been really worried about her though because her health has taken a turn for the worst. Two days that we passed this week we just sang and prayed with her because she was so weak and sick. This week she will have a meeting with her heart and head doctor to see when and if she is strong enough to operate. We are praying that everything will be okay. Even though she is passing through such hard times she has the most grateful and faithful heart I have seen in a long time. She has taught me so much about looking for the blessings that we have in everything that we do. 

Aside from Sheila we are stomping the pavement everyday. I don´t know yet where our pocket of success is but one thing I know for sure is that it is here. We aren´t sitting around waiting for the miracles to come to us, we are out trying to make them happen and because of that I can trust that Heavenly Father will provide. 

​Love Sister Seagraves​

New Area!

Transfer news!

So transfers finally came last week at 330pm. And the novidades.... We both left Consorcio! Crazy, I know but both Sister Rizo and I were transferred. We were pretty sad because we thought we would have at least one more transfer together and we were preparing Pedrina to be baptized next week AND we had an awesome temple trip planned with our recent converts.... BUT this is mission life and I will go where you want me to go dear Lord. So we went!

I am now serving in the Santo André 4th ward with Sister Vasconcelos. She is from Manaus and is really kind, clean and well organized. It´s going to be a really good transfer. There are 2 other sisters in our ward; Sister H. Sousa and Sister Durães. They are all Brazilian so I am pretty stoked. I will get this language down perfectly before the end of these 6 weeks, I just know it! Even though I miss the JD Consorcio people, I am excited to be working in Santo Andre. We have our work cut out for us but this area really has a lot of potential. Sister Vasconcelos is an angel so I am excited to be working with her. We have one solidly progressing investigator right now who is named Sheila. She is so sweet, about 65 years old. She is very excited to learn about the gospel and cried last night when we invited her to be baptized on the 5th and accepted the convite. She has really bad diabetes and had her legs removed about 7 years ago as a result of that. She is excited to have found the Church of Jesus Christ restored on the earth today and told us that she has been searching for this feeling for more then 20 years! It has been really amazing teaching her this week. She found out this week that she had a stroke about a month ago and now has to prepare for a head operation as well as heart surgery in the near future. She really wants to be baptized before all of this because the recovery will be long and the oportunity to be baptized after might have to be quite a while longer and she doesn´t want to wait. So we will be doing all that we can to help her be prepared to be baptized as soon as possible. We are hoping that the surgery will be after the next 3 weeks but we will find out more details about exactly what will happen after this week. Other than that we are finding and following up! This area is HUGE, and I was already serving in a pretty big area but I think this is at least twice the size... which means there are a lot of people which means that there are tons of elects just waiting to hear the truth!

AHHH times up already. I will get better at this timing thing, I swear. I love you all! I hope you have a great week. I sent out a ton of letters so look for those coming!

beijos!

Sister Seagraves

Novidades!

I am so sorry, it has been weeks again since the last time that I wrote. Things are going here in Ala JD Consorcio. In truth, we don´t have much news because Sister Rizo has pneumemia so we have spent this last week or so inside, only leaving when we can manage a divisião which is not often. 

I did have a really cool experience with a less active member that we found a long time ago. About 2 months Sister Oliveira and I had been walking down the street and stopped to talk to a man who was pulling a trash cart through the street. As we talked with him we found out that he had been baptized when he was about 18 years old but hadn´t been to church in over 30 years. He didn´t live in our area but we gave him a Book of Mormon and took his address to pass to the missionaries in his area. This week I did splits with Sister Vieira and we worked half the day in her area and half the day in mine. While we were there we passed by to visit this man, Carlos. It was so amazing to see how much he had progressed since the time that we passed him off. The Book of Mormon that we had given him is now completely marked up. The pages are super dirty because he takes it with him when he is working in the streets so that he can study in the down time that he has. He practically taught himself the lesson that we had to share. I love to see what happens in the lives of people when they realize the value of the message that we are sharing. It was an experience that we rarely get to have as missionaries, passing someone off to other missionaries and then getting to see the difference that one conversation has made in their lives. 

I am already out of time :( Promise that I will write more next week!  Love you so much!

beijos

Sister Seagraves 

Here is a picture of my view. We are waiting for transfer calls right now so I don´t know how much longer I will be in this area!

Miracles Happen!

Bom Dia! TRANSFERS! Here is the news, I am staying in this area and Sister O is outta here. I will receive a new companion tomorrow but I am not sure yet who it will be, we find out when we arrive at the chapel tomorrow. It should be interesting teaching someone a new area but I am excited. It wasn´t really a suprise though because Sister O has been in this area for almost 8 months already. 

Breaking free of the World Cup has been the best thing that could happen to this area haha. It is like we have been hibernating, and people are starting to wake up and warm up a little bit more. We have been really searching for families to teach and talking to literally everyone that passes us. This upcoming week is going to be great because it is filled with appointments with potential investigators. 

We have been doing a lot of work with membros menos ativos and are starting to see a lot of progress with them. It is so important to work to help people remember the significance of the covenant that they have made with Heavenly Father. We have had a couple of really cool experiences in these last couple of weeks. 

First I´ll tell the story of Cicera, we found her just before the World Cup started. We had been walking through the favelas trying to find a house that seemed like it didn´t exsist. We passed a little shop that had been set up in the entrance of the house that sells like candy and basic house things like eggs. Cicera was standing there kind of looking at us funny as we passed by so we stopped to talk to her. We started to talk about the church and our purpose and she interrupted us and told us that she had been baptized but had been afastado for a long time. She started crying as she told us a little about her life and the challenges she has passed through with her family. She invited us in and we have been teaching her ever since and she has come to church almost every sunday since that day. For us it had really been such a miracle that day because almost all of our other appointments had fallen through. Had they gone through we would have never had time to search for that house and we wouldn´t have passed by that day and found her. This week she told us the story from her side of view and we were able to see how big of a miracle the timing had been.

She told us that she had been attended the Universal church for almost 20 years but about 6 months ago she stopped going for some reason or another and had been feeling the lack of the Lord in her life pretty strongly. The week before we found her, her nephew had gotten really sick and she had been sick worrying about him. She said almost every day missionaries from Universal passed by her house and she decided to wait for them and ask them to say a prayer with her for her nephew. (She was also praying for guidance as to which church she should attend. ) So everyday that week she waited at the door of her loja waiting for the other missionaries to pass by. She started to feel desperate one day and said a prayer that the missionaries would pass by because her nephew was getting worse, that same day who walked by... us.  I know that Heavenly Father leads us every single day to His children who are ready to receive us. Any other time the missionaries from our church passed by she just let them go by without saying anything but we started to talk to her and she said it was an answer from Heavenly Father she could not ignore. Everytime we have days where everything falls through, I know it only happens because he is preparing someone to put in our path. As long as we work, always searching for guidance of the spirit through prayer, we will be lead to exactly where we need to be. 

Another cool menos ativo story is about a man, I don´t even remember his name, that we met my first week here. We were walking in the street and stopped him to share the gospel. He told us that he had been afastado for 10 years but that he used to be really strong in the church. He told us he didn´t have anything from the church because his house had burnt down and his family had lost everything. We gave him a Book of Mormon, invited him to read and ended up having a lesson with him there in the street. He wouldn´t give us address or information because no one, especially not his wife, would except people from the church. He told us he would think about coming back to church and that was that. Yesterday we ran into him again found out that he had actually began reading the Book of Mormon we when we gave it to him. Thats not even the best part! The sisters in his ward (who live in the same house as us) had found their address some how, and had begun visiting his family this week! He was so excited to tell us how the hearts of his family had been softening and they were preparing to go to church again together. Miracles are real! Sometimes we think the small things we do day to day, the random lessons we give to half-interested people in the street, won´t amount to anything. But really nothing happens for nothing. The plan of Pai Celestial is so much bigger and grander than we can imagine. His plan is perfect. All we have to do is follow the spirit and open our mouths and pronto.. we will see miracles everyday. Not only will we see them, but we can know and trust that miracles happen even when we don´t see them. 

AHHH times up. Sorry, Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Seagraves

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This week in Sao Paulo (June 23, 2014)

Whoo-wee! Finally things are starting to settle from the World Cup, but man this week has been a weird one! So our p-day last week got moved, except for emails, because we went to the temple on Tuesday... bad planning haha. So monday, we ended up having to return to the house early because it was starting to get a little rowdy in our area because the next day was a game of Brasil. Tuesday we got up suuuper early and headed to the temple which was a pretty long trip; three buses and three metros. We thought everything was packed in the morning but oh boy did we learn later. We got out of the temple at about midday and head out to get home because we were supposed to be safely in house at 1. First, our Elders left with out us so we were lost for a bit haha trying to find out how to get back. We called the leaders of the zone and they told us what buses to get on. We found one and ended up meeting up with some other elders that are in our zone. We stayed on that bus for about an hour and a half (it was only supposed to  be 15 mins) because the traffic was SO bad. Everyone had just gotten off work and were trying to get home to watch the games. We got off at a bus stop by a mall and Oh My GOODNESS! there had to be at least 500 people at every stop in the area. Almost none of the buses were stopping because they just didn´t have room. When our bus did finally pass we had to run and enter the exit door just to get on but it was so full that the doors couldn´t even close. I learned for real the meaning of packed like sardines. I wish I had a picture.. It was crazy. So we stayed smashed together on that bus for a couple of hours ahah and by the time we got home it was 5. The World Cup is CRAZY! only during Brasil games though.

The rest of the week was kind of rough as far as missionary work goes. Every day, the hours that we could work got changed. We also started teaching an english class in the mornings. That is pretty challenging because I realized that there are rules in english I never knew exsisted, luckily its not too many people that come... okay fine so just one person has showed up haha. There are 8 missionaries and only one other person there everyday, but they are learning! 

We had an awesome Sunday though! Lindo Mar got baptized, wahhhooo! We have been teaching him for quite a while and he has had an answer for so long but he was just too shy to get baptized. It turned out really good though because the Elders baptized a family at the same time so all of the attention wasn´t on him. President and Sister Tanner came and gave them some gifts, it was really special and really great. 

This week I was studying in the Liahona (yep, I can study in portuguese now!), one of the talks from the priesthood session. I can´t remember what it was called but it talked about how we are now living in a time of choices. I think it was more focusing on choices that we make with the tecnology that we have now but really it can be applied in everypart of our life. There are so many things that call our attention in the world, which ones we dedicate time to will decide what kind of people we are. It is so true that literally everything we think, say and do affects who we are and where we will go in our life. We have to be ever aware of who we are becoming and make sure that we are making choices to guide us to happiness. Like we learn in Moroni 7:11, wherefore, a man being a servant of the devil cannot follow Christ; and if hefollow Christ he cannot be a servant of the devil.

we can´t serve both sides. If we aren´t moving forward towards Christ, we are falling backwards toward the devil. Choose Christ! 

I love you all, I hope you have a great week! Happy World Cup, go BRASIL! 

Sister Seagraves 

-- 

fotos! and the much asked for address!

Hi there my address has been asked for much of lately.  It must be buried somewhere in my timeline so here it is again for everyone who wants to write me:

Sister Seagraves

Rua Dr. Luis da Rocha Miranda, 159-8° andar

04344-010-Sao Paulo, SP-Brasil

This is the mission office which is where I pick up mail weekly.  We did a test-package to home and it took two weeks for international packages non-priority.  A regular letter that was thick was 3 stamps according to mom and 2 stamps if it's especially flat. They go by how thin envelopes are.  Mom says: just do 3 stamps to avoid problems. :)

 Ala Jardim Consorcio Missionários! We love brasil; Elders Pablo, Morgan, and Sister Oliveira

Temple with the Sisters we live with; Sisters Oliveira, Veira, and Dias Malla

Trapped on the bus for hours because of the World Cup

Rumo ao Hexa!

Okay! Sorry that I didn´t write last week. Time fllies on the computers! Things are going really well here. The World Cup started this week that passed and now our work schedule is crazy haha. Everything literally stopped for the first Brazil game. We have a lot more time in the house now, anytime there is a big game, so that is kind of chato but we are working around it. It´s funny because we can´t watch the jogos but we always know the score of the Brazil games because of the cheers and fireworks haha. 

Now we go out at 8 in the morning and work and then return to the house after lunch for studies and then depending on who is playing we receive and call from our leaders that says that we can return to work at 6 or we have to stay in house. It is a little hard to get anything done in the morning but we have been able to do a lot of work with less actives which is awesome because we have a ton. Every day we find someone else who has been baptized but works on Sunday or whatever else. We have a stakes worth of people in our ward we just have to activate them all. 

We are starting an English class on Wednesday in the church during the morning hours. That is going to be really interesting haha. We don´t really have any clue what we are going to do but we know it will be great! I have been teaching Sister O some English but I don´t really remember rules or anything. I am excited though to have a fun new way to find more investigators. 

We are teaching some really awesome families right now that we found this week. The men in the ward gave João  some church clothes and he showed up looking shaky as all get out on Sunday, he should be receiving the priesthood in the week that's coming. Yay for solid coverts! Selma is practically teaching us now haha. Every time that we go to her house she  has already read, and understood all that we had planned. Finding her really was a miracle. 

Speaking of miracles we went to tach Lindo Mar this week and put him on date to be baptised next Sunday, the 22. I don´t know if I have written about him yet but he is pretty cool. He is like the most timid person I have ever met but he is super solid and comes to all of the church activities and meetings etc. A couple of weeks ago he told us that he didn´t want to be baptized he just wanted frequent the church and be a dry Mormon. We worked away at him for a while and finally got him to agree that he needed to be baptized but he wanted to wait for a LONG time. After that we told him to pray and kind of left the subject for awhile because we sensed he was getting a little annoyed with us asking and didn´t want him to leave the church all together. The other day though we stopped by just to see how he was and invite him to something or other and we sat and had a quick lesson. We kept getting the impression to ask about baptism again so we did. First we asked, have you been praying still about it and he kind of shrugged and said yeah and then we asked okay, well have you gotten an answer and he looked up and said totally calmly, yeah mark a day. It took about 30 seconds to register because he said it so calmly and then we were like cheering and all that jazz and now we are getting him prepped for next week. YAY! 

Oh shoot times up! I love you all! I hope you are doing well! Remember, always follow the spirit in all that you do and miracles, big and small, will follow!

Love Sister Seagraves

Hello From São Paulo

This week was so awesome! We were running like crazy all around São Paulo. We had a 3 zone conference this week which was a little bitter sweet. It is the last conference that we will have with President and Sister Tanner. I have only been her a short time and I already know that I am going to miss them so much. We got to watch a video of our new President though and he and his wife seem pretty awesome as well! 

This week I have had to sing in front of people enough times to fill my mission haha and most of the time it was awful. We sang a goodbye song for President and Sister Tanner with all of the zones... it was the worst thing I have ever heard haha. We were trying so hard not to laugh the whole time because it was so terrible, full of love though. Then we had conference and we sang in quartet, that was actually good but then we sang for a baptism this weekend and it was the second worst thing I have ever heard haha. You win some you lose some.

 

Work was a little harder this week. We were out of our area for two day, first for conference . And then on Friday we had to leave because I had to go to the Federal Police. The good news is, I am actually legal now so they won´t deport me! yay! We had time to return to our area but then all of the power went out, everywhere. We were sitting in a lesson teaching the ten commandments and next thing we know, pitch black. We finished the lesson by the light of a lighter and then ran home so fast. So right now we are just working on finding new people to teach.

We had the baptism of Selma and Aparecido this saturday and then on Sunday they were baptized along with João who was baptized last week. It was so wonderful! Our LMA was worried that not a lot of people would make it because it was on Saturday but the room was full! This ward is awesome about supporting our investigators. We were in charge of filling up the font for the baptism this week but the water heater broke. Poor Selma and Aparecido had to be baptized in freezing cold water ahah at least they will always remember it! Selma got in and her face was scrunched the whole time and then she ran out of the font. Little Aparecido was shaking so hard that Jair baptized him and then instead of just standing him up in the water he lifted him directly out of the water into a towel. Everyone started laughing when they changed and came out. Selma kept saying she could feel the shock of it for the rest of her life aha. It was a great day!

Ahh ran out of time again! Got to go! Love you!!! 

Sister Seagraves

1- So we got asked to sing for conference.. this is our quartet. Elder G Santos (the short one) is a rockstar (true story) He is like the David Archuleta of Portugal.. You can google him or read the Liahona 

​2- Batismo de Selma e Aparecido!​

Oi! Week 2

Week 2 in Brazil is done and I can hardly believe how fast things move by here! This city is awesome though. I think I am actually understanding less Portuguese this week than I did last week! Not sure but I don´t think it is supposed to work like that haha.. Oh well, the work moves forward despite my slow tongue. We had a baptism this week for our investigator João! João found work this week, which was a huge blessing because he had been looking for a while and he was able to get something that doesn´t make him work on Sunday. He does, however, work every other day of the week 10 am to 10 pm which made it really hard to prepare him for his baptism. We had to get up and ready and leave for his house by 7 every morning and then return to the house for studies, but we did it!  We had a really great baptismal service after church yesterday and the ward just welcomed João with open arms. It was so cool, I love to see  how quickly the gospel can penetrate someones heart and how much it can change their life. My head is still spinning a little trying to adjust to the fast pace of missionary here, it is so different because the people are so much more humble and ready to apply the gospel.

We are teaching a mãe and filho, Selma and Aparecido... I think I already wrote a little about them last week. They are amazing! Selma is soaking up every bit of information we teach her. This week they came to church again and Selma had already read all of the lessons and she was prepped and ready for Sunday school and every thing. People thought she had just moved into the ward and she is already giving opening prayers and such. Its amazing! They will both be baptized this week on Saturday. 

The rest of the time this week we spent teaching people who have been learning for quite a while but are afraid to commit. We are searching and praying for more `Joãos`and `Selmas´right now and I know that we will find them. We are all gearing up for o Copa do Mundo which starts in like a week or two. It will be interesting to see how the work starts changing since the whole world will stop for the games. 

Winter is just starting up here and it has been raining none stop., Yesterday we were waiting to cross the street at a huge intersection and there was this lake of water next to us. I remember looking at the water thinking wow, that is really dirty and then I look up and next thing I know a bus drives by going like 50 miles per hour and hits us with a wave of that dirty water so huge that it went over our heads! We were soaked all the way through.. and the worst part... I was surprised so my mouth was open. If I end up having some kind of worm or parasite I will have no doubt where it came from haha. Some days you just feel more like a missionary then others. 

AHHH ​sorry I am out of time! I love you all!!​

​Love Sister Seagraves​

-- 

"..I  have been called of him to declare his word.."

~3 Nephi 5:13~

Oi!

Sister Seagraves and Sister Oliviera

Bom Dia!!! 

Okay I am going to apologize now for any spelling or grammar errors.. my mind is so mixed up right now it is a miracle if I remember my name!

So I am here in the field in Brazil and I LOVE it!

 

We left the CTM Tuesday and met our new trainers. We get to go through the 12 week program again which is nice because that is more time to practice the lessons and such. My trainer is Sister Oliveira from Cabo Verde Africa. She is awesome, and patient which is good because I am sure that I say some weird things. Also she doesn´t speak a lick of  english. It is super cool though because we share an apartment with sisters from the other ward in our building and one of the other sisters is Sister Wilcox! My companion from the Provo MTC. It´s been nice to have a familiar face here. Anyways we dropped off my bags at the apartment and went back out to work. The first day was not easy but I made it through. I kinda felt like a lost puppy though because everthing just feels crazy here. Especially the streets, nossa! The way people drive here... it is a miracle and a half that we don't see crashes on every corner. I have to like sprint across the road because nobody stops haha. The people though, are so awesome. Seriously, like every person we talk to is kind and we make so many appointments that we literally never have a down moment.

 

The language is so so. I can already feel an improvement though and that is good! I can understand most people from São Paulo but if they are from the north...I´m pretty sure they speak a whole different language. What is really amazing though is the power of the Spirit. It is so true that when Heavenly Father needs something He will make it happen. Multiple times I have been sitting in a lesson, understanding some but not being able to think of any words to say and then boom! I will have an impression to share something and all of the sudden the words are there. Then, afterwards, I can´t think again and it´s hard for me to say the most simple things like goodbye haha. We are very blessed in the work despite my shaky ability to communicate. We are teaching some pretty elect people right now. 

First is João,he is soooo prepared. We have had to do basically nothing, the Spirit takes care of it all. We met him my first day here, he was actually the first person that I ever contacted  and he accepted our invitation to learn so we went to his home Wednesday to teach him. Since that day we have taught him every day, he has come to a ward activity, a baptism and all ours of church. He is so anxious to apply the gospel and so humble. He can´t read so we read from the Book of Mormon with him everyday before our lesson and pray about it and I think it was the 3rd day that we did that, that he told us that he had received an answer and was positive that he wanted to be baptized. He has his interview this wed and will be baptized on sunday! 

Another family we are teaching is Selma and her two children Miriãm and Apardicido. (I think I spelled that wrong). The sisters had taught her before but nothing really came from it. We were in her area though and decided to stop by. At first she didn´t want to let us in so we asked if we could sing a hymn and leave her with a prayer. As we were singing though she changed her mind and invited us in. We retaught the restoration and she accepted the baptismal invitation. We have taught her almost all the lessons and now we are going to finish teaching her two children and the whole family will be baptized on June 7th.

 It is a little crazy to me how fast everything moves here. I think it will take some getting used to because the work is completely different. I just trust though that everything will work out. It is true in all areas of life that if we are obedient, have faith, pray and work hard, everything else will fall into place. I know that is true with every fiber of my being. It is such a blessing to be able to see so many miracles as we labor to bring the restored truths to the people here. The church is true in Brazil too! :) I love you very much, I hope you have a great week!

Sister Seagraves