Week 17

Bom Día!

March 8th, this week, was Día das Mulheres (Womens Day) which was cool. Also, we are seeing a lot of tender mercies. We were clapping gates and it was super hot and Apucarana has a ton of hills and we were sort of casually dying and this lady just randomly offered us juice. She wasnt interested in anything, bummer, but like a normal receptive Brazilian, just offered us juice and we got to sit for a second. Also, this week we had all of the missionaries in our city (about 10) go to one area and do work all afternoon to help that area and we were going to be more than an hour late because our lunch had to be later that day. The morning of the event, we got a call from Irma Tamara, who would be giving us lunch and she ended up not going to work that day and lunch could be earlier. We got to visit with her and have lunch and made it on time to the event which was such a blessing. The Lord works in mysterious ways and always blesses us. How many things in our lives do we let go by unnoticed or just considered coincidences? I know that the Lord was looking out for us.

Also, my favorite food is stroganoff. Which sounds super strange but brazilian stroganoff de carne or stroganoff de frango is delicious. I will for sure be making it for you all when i get home.

We are working with a family right now who have a very complicated story. Liliani is the mom. We met her through a member, and her two sons (12 and 14) Leonardo and Guillerme. They are inactive. Liliani was baptized with 8 years but never had a testimony and got into a lot of wordly things as a teenager. She thought she was excommunicated but turns out she was not. She was baptized in another church and really found God and through His grace, was freed of a lot of things. She always, however, felt something was missing. at 4am one morning, she prayed in her mind that she would go on facebook and if the first post was by a Mormon, she would know she needed to return to church. Yes, you guessed it, that blessed member was João. He led us to her and she counted her story to us. She asked us to give them the lessons and help them receive a testimony. Her sons are so funny and so sweet and have such respect for their mother. They treat her like the queen she is and it is quite inspiring. Their family is just wild but in the best way and we love going there. We left them, one night, with a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and we sang where can i turn for peace? and left. The next day, she told us she had received her answer and had a testimony. The Book of Mormon is so powerful. She also learned Where Can I Turn for Peace on the guitar and sang it for us and calls it the song of her conversion because we brought it to her. Wow, so sweet. They are now coming to church and her sons received the priesthood yesterday which was really meaningful for us. Her older son started going to seminary and they come to church every week now. It is really gratifying (i think thats an english word) to see how the gospel blesses our families and how it unifies us and brings more happiness into our lives.

Also, this week, we read in Luke 15:4-7, 10. Go read it. It is super good.

One of my favorite families, Mauricio is the grandpa and our investigator, their grandson of 8 years, João wants to be baptized but the grandma does not want him to until the grandpa return to chruch. Mauricio is inactive. He is super nervous and afraid to enter the church and hasnt exactly been holding on to the iron rod. We really want to help João get baptized because he wants to and he is a really good kid and his parents are very very far off members. Anyways, we have been trying to work with his grandpa to come back to church but it has been a while since we have seen them because we are really busy. We were on divisions on Saturday so me and my companion for the day, Sister Reis from Cape Verde. Africa went by there and promised a lot of blessings to them if João could be baptized and the grandma said no. By only a true miracle, Mauricio showed up to church on sunday. I was literally stunned. We will continue to try with them but what an example of how the Lord can and will perform His own owrk and miracles through his servants. It was truly a miracle that he even stepped foot in the chapel. Prayer is real and the power of church is real. Never convince yourself you dont need to go, even one sunday.

Go read Luke. Have a fantastic week. I love you all!!

Love, Sister Megan Penni