Week 39 (12 May 2014)

Segunda- We had a great Noite Familiar (FHE, Family Home Evening) tonight at Irma F~'s house.  It was a lot of fun. :)

Terca- We traveled for four hours to Santo Angelo for a Zone Conference. Sister G~ was there! (It was awesome to see her again after a few months.) I gained a lot of new insights into how we do missionary work as President spoke. He reminded us the importance of follow-up, just as Elder M. Russell Ballard did in the last General Conference. He also said that "Godly things can only be understood through the teachings and whisperings of the spirit." Overall it was a good day. On our way home there was a horrible accident on the highway so we ended-up sitting on the side of the road (with our entire district and the van drivers) for about an hour. We talked about deep doctrine. It was sweet. 

Quarta- I completed 9 months on the mission today! It is weird to think that half of my mission is over... time is starting to fly by. We ended-up going to seminary today to get to know the youth more and bear testimony about the importance of seminary. Sometimes I miss being a youth... haha.

I ran out of time. Just know that talking to y'all was the best part of my week.

LOVE YOU!

-Sister Phelps

Week 38 (5 May 2014)

Segunda- We had FHE [family home evening] with the family of the Relief Society president and a few other members with the purpose of helping a less active, unfortunately she didn't end-up coming.

Terca- We taught a woman today who had been taught by [another church] for a while and has so many doubts now about the Bible and gospel that she didn't have before. It is sad that all of the things that the [they] teach that is wrong can be corrected through revelation by latter-day prophets through correct interpretation of the Bible. Luckily she doesn't want to Bible bash, but really learn what is right.

Quarta- We found the name of a less active young man on one of our lists and went to try and visit him. When we got to his house his aunt, N~, answered the door and we ended-up teaching her a lesson (because he had moved). She is wonderful. The spirit was really strong during our lesson and she seems super interested in learning more about the gospel.

Quinta- It´s MAY! Yay! Best month ever! (for many reasons). My birthday, SKYPE, I will complete my half way mark in the mission, just lots of fun, exciting stuff! Today my companion and I started feeling sick again and we ended-up staying home trying to let our bodies rest and get to feeling better. So, we live in an old chapel that is right next to the new chapel. In the chapel they had a dance for youth conference and we could hear all of the music. It was fun to hear all of the tunes that I miss, but it made me miss being a youth... haha. 

Sexta- My companion has NO VOICE today. So what does that mean for her companion. I get to teach alone! Yay. (not really). I learned a lot today trying to teach alone, it's no wonder that each missionary has a companion.

Sabado- My companion still has no voice, so we took a young woman along with us today as my companion. She is 17 and teaches so well. I hope she serves a mission. We talked to two less-active [people] today and they both want to return to the church, but are worried about what people will say. It's sad when this is the case. No one should be embarrassed to go back to church no matter how much time they were away. :(

Domingo- It was raining cats and dogs, and unfortunately that means that we only had 30 people at church today. After church we ended-up finding two new golden investigators! One older woman who has already been taught by missionaries and been in the church and a young woman who is 11 and was practically asking to be baptized during our FHE at her neighbor's house. (And D~, the young woman, came to church without us or the members who live next door to her inviting her.) It was a great day. (Oh and Sister L~ still has no voice.)

Have a great week and remember that I am always praying for you family! I can´t wait until SUNDAY!

Te amo,

Sister Phelps

Week 37 (28 April 2014)

Segunda- So we have been using the area book (that has all of the past investigators information) a lot this week since we are opening the area (starting fresh with two new missionaries). It has been an adventure so far trying to track people down, but we had some good lessons today and have two new investigators.

Terca- Again, we are focusing on the Area book and found two young women who had been receiving the lessons a few years ago and practically all of their family members are less-active. Wahoo! Let´s get to work and reactivate and baptize this family! :)

Quarta- My companion has been under the weather all week and I think I am picking up a little bit of the cold that she has, but we are trekking through it. We get to work in the same branch as the Zone Leaders and it is fun to see how the members treat us differently than them. For example, there is a young woman who is 18, and she told the elders that she had three friends with whom she had been sharing the gospel, but she was embarrassed to give the address to the Elders. (This was a few weeks before we got here). The first day that she was teaching with us we asked about her friend and she showed us straight to her friend´s house and we marked a return appointment right there and then. It was awesome. Elders are great, don´t get me wrong, but sometimes you just need SISTERS! :)

Quinta- [My companion] was super sick today so we ended-up staying home, but I started reading the Book of Mormon again (in English and Portuguese this time) and it was nice to have a day to really focus on re-energizing my spirit. We also planned-out well what we want to do this next week.

Sexta- So we were supposed to have a baptism today of two youth whose mom is less-active. Unfortunately [it has been postponed]. Luckily they still want to be baptized so we will have two baptisms next Saturday, but it was sad that they both fell through. 

Sabado- She hasn't gotten better yet and I´m pretty sure I have the flu, but it´s all good. Three of the four sisters in Sao Borja have the flu now, and I am one of them, but the Lord is just trying to teach us something, so it´s all good. We had the adult session of Stake Conference today and they talked a lot about not only the importance of baptizing, but reactivating less-actives too. It was a good reminder for the members. 

Domingo- Stake Conference was good and we got to talk a lot with Sister Parrela while waiting for President Parrela to finish interviews with the stake leaders. After that we ate lunch at the Stake President's house and then got out our list of less-actives and went to work. Literally there was no one at home. We hadn't had the chance to do weekly planning yet because of being sick and so we had the option to go home early and plan or stay in the street and try to find someone to teach. We didn't know what to do so we said a prayer asking for guidance and I felt like we should go home and plan. We took the bus (because our area is 40 minutes away from where we live, walking) and a woman sat next to me. We started talking and I ended-up teaching there the entire lesson of the Restoration and got her phone number. I know that if we had not gone home early I wouldn't have met M~.

I love this church and am so grateful to be a missionary!

Com muito amor,

Sister Phelps

Week 36 (21 April 2014)

This week was great! I am in Sao Borja serving in the Branch I~ with Sister L~ and loving it so far! We got to the area Terca-feira, were locked out of our house for a few hours, finally got in and it has been smooth sailing from there. We are THE FIRST SISTERS to ever serve in this branch so it is fun to see how everyone is reacting to our presence there. We have a fan club practically of 8 and 9 year old girls that run up to us when they see us and give us big hugs and best of all lots of Easter chocolate (that we shared with the Elders who serve with us in the ward because the girls forgot about them.) haha. We have two baptism that the Elders who had been working here before left us for next Saturday and are working with an 11 year old so that he can get baptized in May. I am really looking forward to working here and feel at home in this Branch! Wahoo!

Easter was great because the Elders, my companion, and I went around to the member´s houses and sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives." They really liked it and I hope that they know how much we really love and appreciate them. Well, that´s the wrap for this week. Thanks for all of the prayers and remember that every Sunday should feel like Easter Sunday, with our thoughts turned to the Savior.

 

-Sister Phelps

Sister Phelps' new address

This address if for letters only. 

 

Sister Phelps

Caixa Postal 27

Centro- Sao Borja -RS
97670-970

Packages are mailed to the Santa Maria Mission office:

Sister Sarah Phelps
Brazil Santa Maria Mission
Rua Alberto Pascualine, 121 Sala 403
Centro
97015-907 Santa Maria - RS
Brazil
Phone: 55 (55)-3222-1666

Week 35 (14 April 2014)

Well, this week was an interesting one.  Very interesting.

Segunda-feira- We taught a less active member and her family and talked to them about how we can receive answers through general conference.  She took our promise and challenge seriously and said that this was an answer to her prayers.  :)  (Oh, and I completed 8 months of my mission today!)

Terca-feira- We had a great lesson with our progressing investigator So~.  She really connects with the Joseph Smith story so we watched the video of the Restoration with her.  It was great (except for the fact that the member that was with us started talking in the middle of the first vision.)  Don't do that to the missionaries in your ward please.  It just doesn't work.  Haha.

Quarta-feira- So my companion's mom was very sick lately and we found out more information today about how she is doing and it wasn't good news.  My companion ended-up deciding to go home after a lot of prayer and fasting.  She taught me a lot about how the Lord will truly answer us when we are diligently seeking an answer.

Quinta-feira- We taught So~ again and this time it was about the Word of Wisdom... dun dun DUN!  With the help of a member and a lot of help from the Spirit she agreed to live the Word of Wisdom.  It was a miracle, truly.

Sexta-feira- We thought that my companion would be leaving next week because that is when we have transfers, but President called today and she has a flight early Saturday morning.  We ran around all day packing her things and getting her ready to leave.

Sabado- She left at 3am.  :(  But the Lord's work had to continue.  I am in a trio with the other Sisters of Camobi until I go to SAO BORJA!  Yep I am being transferred, which kind of stinks because we found the perfect investigator today!  She accepted to be baptized without a second thought.  We met her through a reference from a member who lives in another part of Santa Maria.  N~'s house collapsed a few weeks ago and this member S~ has been building it for her with no charge.  After this selfless service she wanted to know more about the church.  How wonderful that the Lord was able to work miracles through a willing and worthy member of the church.

Domingo- We said goodbye to everyone today.  :(   But, in Sacrament Meeting there were 4 baby blessings.  How cool is that, and all of the babies have been born since I got here.  It has been a fun ride in Camobi and I am excited for the next adventure!

Week 33 (31 March 2014)

Sorry that I haven't been writing you about my weeks the past few times.

This week was good teaching wise, I am finally feeling like I am becoming my witty self again and it is a lot easier for me to get the trust and friendship of the members.  My Portuguese is getting better too!  I had two people not believe that I was American this week and one of the members said that he couldn't tell that it was me talking on the phone!  Wahoo!  I'm finally making lots of progress with the language and let me tell ya, it feels SO GOOD!

Segunda- nothing really happened... everything fell through (but the rest of the week was good.)

Terca- So my companion has a problem with her knee.  We stayed at home today because she was in a lot of pain and needed to rest.  We were able to update our entire area book and organize our list of less-active members, so we still felt like we had a productive day.

Quarta- We were visiting an area that we work in a lot and Sister T~ began to talk to a woman in front of her house.  After a little while I remembered that I had already talked to her twice before, but Sister M~ and I were never able to teach her.  She is wonderful.  Her name is Si~ and she is looking for a church and wants to know which one is right.  It was awesome.  We marked to return Quinta.

Quinta- The Sister Training Leaders got to teach with us today.  Sister L~ stayed with our companionship and taught with us.  If there is one missionary that I look-up to here it is Sister L~.  She teaches so well and always has such a wonderful spirit with here.  We taught So~, one of our eleitos, and were able to [learn a lot about her] just by truly being her friends and asking her inspired questions.  We also taught Si~ and ended-up making a BAPTISMAL DATE!!  She will be baptized on April 19th!

Sexta- We found a less-active [member] and have been teaching him every once and a while, he wasn't home when we went to talk to him so we ended-up teaching his dad who has been to the church once and has a lot of respect for it.  (You know the dad in Sound of Music, he looks like that guy when he was older.)  It was so sad to hear about [some of his concerns ] and how much he worries about [his children] everyday.  It reminds me that as a member and [as] a future mom I am so blessed to know what foundations my family will need to have in order to stay firm and make good decisions in order to live together for all eternity.

Sabado- We were walking down [a street] and a little girl stopped us in the street.  She said, "I like Mormons and my dad was almost a Mormon, do you want to meet him?"  Of course the answer was "SIM!"  So we went and talked to A~.  Turns out that he is the brother of a less-active and was taught by the missionaries a while back and was wanting to talk to missionaries again, but never had the courage to stop us in the street.  He is truly trying to [improve] his life.  We also taught V~ (the daughter of a recent convert who we have been [teaching] since I got here.)  We made a lot of progress today.  We felt that we needed to do something different in order to capture her interest during the lesson so we used Pres. Uchtdorf's talk, "Our Wonderful Journey Home" [https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/your-wonderful-journey-home?lang=eng] to teach the plan of salvation and ... SHE LOVED IT!  She felt the Spirit so strongly, had a change of heart, and accepted to be baptized on the 12th of April!  It was truly a miracle.

Domingo- We taught So~ again and made SO MUCH PROGRESS with her.  She understood everything we said, will pray about baptism, and has started to open her heart-up to the Gospel.

Thanks for the love and support!  Pray for missionary experiences and they will come!  I promise!

Com muito amor,
Sister Phelps