Week 19

oi família e amigos!!!

this week was a great start to a new adventure with sister cruz!! i love her! i was super sad to say goodbye to sister lee but im so thankful to have another amazing companion! sister cruz is such an amazing example when she teaches! she always teaches by the spirit and explains the gospel SO simply and clearly. i am really trying to follow her example.  

life without sister lee was a bit of an adjustment because now i am the only american in the city hahah.. funny story:

sister cruz arrived tuesday morning and after she got settled, i called bishop to ask him where we had lunch (because i forgot to check the calendar). what i understood was: "oh you dont have lunch today, sorry. youll have to eat lunch in your house today." i said "okay, no problem! thanks bishop!" and we hung up. we made lunch in our house and ate, and after we finished eating bishop called me and asked where we were. it turns out he was joking with me but i didnt understand!! hahahaha talking on the phone in portuguese is hard. we ate two lunches that day.

this week we have been working a lot with less active families. i love teaching families! it reminds me why i am here-- my family is forever and i want to help other families have this same gift! we are starting to teach all of the missionary lessons to these families again. i think it will really help them remember why they were baptized in the first place. 

this week sister cruz taught me a cool object lesson that we used to teach robert and his cousin about repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost. we gave them a marker and they drew marks on their hands, this represents our sins. then we took a bar of soap and rubbed it on the marks trying to clean their hands. this represents repentance. this helped clean the marks, but not completely. then they took a bowl of water and put their hand under the water, this represents baptism. but they had to keep rubbing the bar of soap on their hand (continue repenting) in order to become completely clean. then their hand is clean, but covered in water, so we gave them a towel to dry off and help their hands stay clean (the Holy Ghost). i love this example!! because we really need baptism to become completely clean of our sins. but we have to keep repenting after we are baptized, every day every day every day! 

this week, our mission´s ponderize scripture is D&C 84:85

"Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man."

i have been really trying hard to apply this scripture! it is super difficult to follow the Spirit during lessons because when i try to follow a prompting and say something new i usually stumble over my words a ton and it seems like they dont understand me. it is so much easier to say things that i have already said/explained a hundred times before. but i know that this isnt allowing the Spirit to direct my words. i have been praying so much for help to rely on the Spirit, and trust that He will help me to communicate these things. 

there is a scripture in Matthew 10:20 that reads: 

"for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." 

i have been trying so hard to stay humble and remember that it is not my abilities that qualify me to teach these people, it is all through the Holy Ghost. He is the teacher! its not me! i am so thankful for the scriptures and the personal revelation we can receive from reading them prayerfully every day. 

com amor, 

Sister Jones

my new companion sister cruz!!!