Muito amor,
Sister Westenhaver
Muito amor,
Sister Westenhaver
This week we spent a lot of the time at the hospital. Hospitals here are more like urgent care. And the only one they have in Juquitiba is the public hospital, which is inefficient and I´m pretty sure only has 10 medicines to choose from. Here we are riding the bus to the hospital:
Sister Westenhaver
We´re still teaching M., and in addition about 4 or 5 other men. They all drink and smoke. So one day we decided to do something… We took a cigarette from one of them, and went and made chá… Tea… We took out the tobacco and put it in the water and made them drink it. It was hilarious watching their faces as they drank. Then we asked, “So do you want to smoke now?” and they just looked at us in horror. Hopefully that lesson will stick.
Also I forgot to talk about a miracle last week. So our recent convert Rodrigo has been accumulating church clothes. He has 2 ties, one white shirt, and some slacks. Before general conference last week, he was working doing some construction, and worrying because he didn´t have dress shoes. He was thinking, “Will I have to go in my casual clothes then?” Then a couple seconds later he walked a little further into the grass and trees and found a pair of black dress shoes. In the jungle. In his size. So he went to conference all arrumadinho (all dressed up) and loved it. God provides if we have the faith. Seriously.
It´s so hot here… still… it should be cooling down here soon. With all the walking around we do I´m as tan as the Brasileiros now.
–Sister Westenhaver
We´re still teaching Marcinho, and in addition about 4 or 5 other men. They all drink and smoke. So one day we decided to do something… We took a cigarette from one of them, and went and made chá… Tea… We took out the tobacco and put it in the water and made them drink it.
Sister Westenhaver
Wow, how great was that General Conference?? I loved every session and every talk. There were so many things that not only I needed to hear, but also our investigators needed. Problem is, only 2 of them went to conference… Sigh.
This week was great. We taught some great lessons and made some progress, but a couple of our investigators are really having problems with stopping drinking. Good thing we have our recent convert, Roberto, who has a testimony of fire and experience with overcoming addiction!
Also, transfer calls went out yesterday. Our mission president is really happy with the work Sister R. and I are doing, so in spite of the fact that she has been in this area for 7 months, she and I will be staying together. Which makes it 3 months that I have had an American companion. It´s a wonder I still speak Portuguese. Just kidding, we speak it a lot.
Sister R. and I are both really firm, kind of stubborn sisters, so we work really well together with all these investigators with Word of Wisdom problems. I like Sister Rigel a lot. Occasionally we butt heads, but that´s always the case with 2 strong personalities. I think we´re gonna stay friends for a long time.
We found this great new investigator, Elaine, who has 6 kids! She believes what we´ve taught her and so far she´s keeping all the commitments we´ve given her. She even went to conference with us yesterday.
Our work is going forward, and I´m really happy to be here.
Love you all! Keep me informed about what´s going on in your lives!
Sister West
This was a good week. We weren´t able to get a ton done because Sister R.´s hip popped out of place. We´re going to the chiropractor after our emailing today.
I love you so much, everyone! Have a great week!
Sister Westenhaver
Love,
Sister West
So I´m in a new area! It´s a city called Juquitiba which is totally outside the city of São Paulo (it´s pronounced Zhoo-kee-CHEE-buh). It´s very green, very rainy, and muddy. To walk from one end of our area to another would probably take 3 or 4 hours, so we take microônibus, which are Sprinter vans with lots of seats inside.
Sister West
Hi Everyone!
So a member brought her friend to church a couple of weeks ago. He liked church so much that the next week he came by himself and brought a friend. So we taught him the first lesson on Wednesday and he accepted the challenge to be baptized on the 5th of March, saying he really wanted to be baptized. Then we were talking to our district leader and thinking about this guy, and praying, and we decided to ask him to be baptized this Sunday.
Muito amor,
Sister Westenhaver
Muito amor,
Sister Westenhaver