The Heavens Are Open for our Day

The heavens are open for our days. Who closed the heavens? Who put a limit on Gods power? Man. The pride and wickedness of man put a limit on Gods power after Christ, the Great Jehovah died and was resurrected. The gospel of Christ was distorted and changed, therefore taken from the earth. Who are men to say today that God and Christ cannot appear to man face to face? Who are men to say that God cannot reveal scriptures for our days, that we receive CONTINUING REVELATION? That God cannot call another prophet for our days? Who are men to LIMIT THE POWER OF GOD? Man is imperfect. God is perfect. We are fortunate to receive even a sliver of the knowlede we have today of the Plan of Salvation, the Nature of God, and of the eternities that occured before this life and will continue after. Sory for the rant, but I am amazed that some people will not accept God and Jesus Christ appearing to a young boy, 14 years old, in a forest, I am amazed that they will not even read one verse in the Book of Mormon to know if it is true or not. Why can God call a prophet, like Samuel or Abraham or David, in the days of the Old Testament, but for our days man can worship and be saved in any church that claims Jesus Christ as the Savior? I am here today to testify with my heart and soul that Christ lives. He leads and guides a church today upon the earth. THE POWERS OF HEAVEN, THE POWERS OF GOD, are not limited, they are omnipotent, and continue despite the ignorance of man. I am here today to give my firm witness and testimony that God and Jesus Christ appeared to the boy, Joseph Smith. The powers of heaven are open for our days. God can and does appear and speak to his children here upon the earth today and he has called prophets again to lead and guide the church of Jesus Christ. I invite all to read the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and ask with a sincere heart and real intent to know if these things are true. Dont take my word for it, test and experiment what I am saying. The Book of Mormon testifies for itself that it is true, it testifies of Christ, and teaches all children of God what we need to do to return to Heaven and our Heavenly Father. I taught a lesson yesterday to a couple that I really love, we found them a few weeks doing contacts on the streets and were finally able to visit them this last week. They were so kind and welcoming, but they have hearts very closed to the idea of God and Jesus Christ appearing to a young boy, and the idea of another Bible, they did not accept at all. We testified and gave them the Book of Mormon anyways and invited them to read and pray. I hope that their hearts will change and be open because they are truly very good people and I desire so much that they can have all the truth in their lives. This week was fabulous as usual. Miracle 1- 5 investigators at church, with three companionships, we had 12 and 5 less active familes! Miracle 2- Our goal for people in Sacrament meeting was 120, we had 130! Miracle 3- Vanessa showed up at church! We were shocked because she was out of town, well she showed up and the first thing she said was I want to get baptized on February 28 and I want my brother, Rodrigo, to baptize me! Of course, Rodrigo started crying and they just hugged and hugged and hugged! I was trying my hardest to not cry as sacrament meeting was about to start! Ahhh it was sweet music to my ears! I think I have invited her to be baptized six or seven times now and finally she accepted! She will be baptized this Friday and then leave for camp with all of the other youth and she will be confirmed at camp! I did 200 contacts this week. President is uping our numbers, but 200 contacts this week truly brought miracles. Always fast, the Lord blesses us when we sacrifice. I saw that this week when we fasted to have investigators at church. Monday night, we witnessed a motorcycle accident. Sis Lima and I ran over to help. Delio and his girlfriend, Alise, flew through the air and were in a lot of pain. It was raining, so we held umbrellas over them, until the Police and Ambulances arrived. I stayed with Delio and talked with him about his family and job and school. He said he had already met me somewhere before, but I knew that I had never talked to him before. We got his address and he asked for us to come and visit him after he gets out of the hospital. I am grateful the Lord put me in the path of someone who needed help. Sister Lima and I saved a dog from drowning, some rowdy kids were throwing an abandoned dog into the lake and trying to drown him, we stopped them, and some nice ladies called the police, we stayed with the dog to make sure he was okay :) And finally, a couple that we had taught this week, but were pretty sure would not progress showed up at church, when all of the other families we had confirmed didnt show up. This couple that showed up loved it and had tons of questions! They said they would stay the whole time next week and bring their families! I cannot even judge who is ready for the gospel and who is not! Only the Lord knows! Finally, I bought a hammock! I still dont know when I will use it on my mission, but I LOVE IT! Love, Sister Brotherson

Happy Is as Happy Does

Dear family and friends! I love you all and I dont have much time! I sat down in Julios house this week, he is a less active returning to activity, we are working with his wife and daughter to be baptized. And I picked up the Book of Mormon on the couch, well I started looking inside and was very confused because I didnt understand the writing. Well, the writing was in English, not in Portuguese! I didnt recognize the Book of Mormon in English because I was expecting it to be in Portuguese, BREAKTHROUGH! Sis Lima laughed for about an hour for that one! We had divisions this week? I honestly dont remember the word in English... haha but after our district meeting, our Zone Leaders called and said we would be trading for the day! Well, I took Sis Graziella back to our area and Sis Lima left with Sis Brady for the other side of the city! I was super nervous and scared to be in charge of the area and our investigators because Sis Lima is Senior and knows everything, but somehow we survived and it was awesome! We taught Julios family about how families can be together forever in the Temple. It was the first time that Claudia was actually quiet during our lesson and just listened and felt the Spirit. I am so grateful that the Spirit spoke through me in that moment to touch this family and that we were able to teach them how families can be together forever. Vitoria was baptized this Saturday! She is the younger sister of Leticia, these two girls are seriously elect daughters of God! Vitoria is 9 years old and has been coming to church every Sunday for the last two months with Leticia! We were teaching her for three months, but had to hand her off to the elders because she lives in their area. She was baptized on Saturday and she was so sweet and beautiful! She and Leticia sat with us on Sunday and she drew me a picture that said She was super happy with her baptism and she wants us to come to her house next week :) We have tons of new investigators right now, but we are just barely starting to work with them and its a slow process, but they have tons of potential and this week our goal is to invite everyone to be baptized! I love this work, I love the Lord, and I know that missionary work is really and truly the work of salvation. Lots of love! Sister Brotherson

Our Search for Happiness

Happy Valentines Day and Happy Six months for me on the mis! Goodness the time has gone so fast I cannot even believe it! Here in Brasil, they only have Valentines Day in June and its actually called Day of boyfriends and girlfriends, which is the literal translation which I think is quite funny. Anywhoo... this week was super fast and a whirlwind and also quite normal, but really lets be honest a day on the mission in Brasil is never Normal! Well last week, Monday and Tuesday, we were led by the Spirit and found two awesome couples who really want to learn about the gospel. We have started working with them. The focus of our ward is families and priesthood holders, for this branch to split this year, we need more priesthood holders, so our focus is finding and teaching families together! They were not able to be in church this week, but they will be next Sunday for sure! We spent Wednesday in the Hospital because Sis Lima has some pretty bad pains in her back and spine, so we spent the day in the hospital doing xrays and tests, please pray for her that her pains will go away! The rest of the week was great because we finally had rain! I have been praying for rain for weeks because it has been sooooo deadly hot here! We were able to help the young women a lot this week with their fundraisers for camp, making desserts, painting nails, and doing hair for all the ladies in the ward was super fun! I am just grateful we were able to help some of our less active young women be there and feel the happiness and spirit the other girls have! funny experience: Maria Isabelle gave me a ride on her bike, I sat on the handle bars and thought that I would die going up and down hills here in Patos de Minas, but we somehow made it safely :) Last, but not least, honestly, the most important part. This week I have been reading the book Our Search for Happiness by Elder Ballard and it is seriously amazing. He invites everyone to read this book to learn and understand the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He talks about our purpose here as children of God and why we came to this earth. The first and ultimate gift that we received in Heaven before this life was mortal agency, to choose right or wrong before this life and here on the earth. Elder Ballard says Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ entered into a covenant with us before this life that they would do everything possible to help us return to our Heavenly home, IF WE SO CHOOSE. This life is our choice. We need to choose now to accept the Lords will in our lives. We need to choose now to accept the Atonement. We need to choose now to change and become better, because we cannot return to live with our Heavenly Father without the help of the Savior. It is only through him that we can return. But first, everyone, all the children of God need to know there is a better option, there is a better way, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why I am a missionary. That is why I will proclaim the gospel to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. Everyone needs the opportunity to hear and accept the gospel. Elder Ballard closed with this thought which I loved If during the course of our time here on earth, we learn to use that wondrous gift of agency in positive ways to bless our own lives and the lives of others then our journey will have been successful. This is sooooo true! We need to live our lives in reflection of the Savior, blessing the lives of others. Love, Sister Brotherson

The Church Is True!

I have some news for all of you, I am finally dreaming in Portuguese! This has been my goal for the last six months, so lets all just take a second and give a round of applause! Haha just kidding, but really English is super hard. I eat, dream, write, read, jump, sing, talk, and think in Portuguese all day every day.Thinking or talking in English truly gives me the heebiejeebies. I am super scared for the end of my mission after speaking and thinking and doing all of these things in Portuguese for 15 months, I dont think I will be able to say anything in English! But writing all of you in English is good practice :) The beginning of last week was hard, Sister Lima was sick for two days and we were stuck inside. I do not like being inside all the time, I get restless and think too much, and man I just love walking in the sunlight, talking with everyone, and just knowing I am working hard for the Lord! Staying inside is not fun! So, I was a little down in the dumps because we werent working and we just didnt have a ton of investigators. And then after praying and reading a few talks, I realized who is choosing my attitude right now? Satan. He was taking my bad mood and making it 10 TIMES WORSE! Holy cow, after realizing that Satan was actually trying to make me more sad and annoyed about staying inside, I decided to change my attitude, right then! Well, what I have discovered this week is that my thoughts, my desires, and my attitude determine everything in the mission! If I will have joy and if we will have success in this work, it all depends on if my desire is to help people come unto Christ, my desire to share the gospel, and my attitude that no matter what happens I will be positive and hopeful for the future! This applies to all aspects of our lives, we cannot get down just because we have to stay inside for a few days, we need to pick up our heads and be positive! Vilma and Marcos, they were a contact on the street, we finally visited them this week and Vilma said We have been waiting for you guys for two weeks, where have you been! They arent married, but have one son and they truly want to know what church is true. They were at church on Sunday and it was Testimony Sunday and they truly enjoyed it! We taught them the Restoration and how to pray. Vilma is 23 years old and has never prayed before. We asked if she would like to pray and she said she was way too nervous and did not want to. I said I will talk first and you just repeat after me. Goodness, she was soooo scared! I felt the Lords love for her so strongly in that moment, she was only able to say a few simple things because she was so nervous, but she did ask during the prayer that she would be able to know if this was the right path for her. We are teaching Julio and his family. He is a less active who showed up at church three weeks ago with his daugther Deborah, who is also less active. This is truly a story. Me and Sister Ball were at a store on a Pday about two months ago, some guy waiting in line talked with us, Sadayuki. Well he saide he had been baptized years ago by other sisters, but went inactive. Well, we got his number and invited him to church. He never came. About three weeks ago Me and Sister Lima were walking down the streeet when oh there goes Sadayuki! I stopped to talk with him and we invited him again! Well he came with Julio and Deborah. Well, we went to visit Julio and Deborah and lo and behold, his wife and younger daughter are not baptized but want to learn about the church! He has a smoking problem, but he truly has the strongest testimony of the gospel and the Book of Mormon I have ever seen. We taught their little family twice this week and finally, his wife shared with us how she wants to learn more, but is scared to change! I truly felt the spirit when I testified that Christ is waiting on his side of the door and all we need to do is open the door for him to enter! We felt the Spirit super strongly to visit one of our investigators Friday night, we entered her house and she just started crying and crying. It is a very long story, but we were able to comfort her with a hymn and a scripture from the Book of Mormon. Saturday night, we felt strongly we needed to visit a less active, Yuri, who is returning to church, his best friend, Ricardo, is super inactive, and he was there! We have been trying to teach Ricardo for months, but he is never home! But he was at Yuris house that night, again we sang and shared a simple message about the Restored Gospel. The Lord truly puts us where he needs us! Finally, one of the happiest moments of my mission was to see Rodrigo with a suit and tie blessing the sacrament this Sunday. He then shared his testimony about how the gospel has truly changed his life. He is reading the Book of Mormon every day, ten chapters, and he had a huge fight with his stepdad this week. His stepdad is a hard man and never asks for forgiveness, but this week he asked for forgiveness! This was truly a miracle. I have been awed and so honored to see how the gospel changes peoples lives and how the Atonement truly, pefectly takes our hurts and pains away. We had 113 in church again! Another miracle! And we had two families and five investigators at church this sunday! The work is growing so fast! Our district has a goal of 10 baptisms for this month and already we marked seven dates for baptism! This work is so real and so true, I love it with all my heart. Sorry this one was sooo long! Sweet is the work. Loves, Sister Brotherson

I Don't Know What to Call this Week...

Hi everybody! We had transfers and Guess what? I am staying in Patos with Sister Lima, I am truly grateful that nothing is changing because we have so much work to do here! Our whole district is actually staying together, so that is a huge blessing! This last week was goooood as always, I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of course my life is wonderful! Marisa, the YWs President asked us to sing with the girls for New Beginnings, so we practiced every day this last week with them! It was so fun singing and practicing with them, these girls are such amazing examples of virtue and integrity. I am truly amazed at the little Branch, we have some of the kindest, strongest families ever. And almost everyone is a convert to the church in the last 20 years. I dont think any of these families had parents that were members of the church, they are truly the pioneers of their families and it is amazing to see how the conversion of the parents have absolutely changed the lives of the youth here in Patos. I ended up directing the music for New Beginnings, the girls sang two songs and I guess I had the most experience with leading music? I think this is a big lie, but I was willing to do whatever they asked me, I think it went okay? Even though the songs were in Portuguese, so it was a little more difficult to sing :) At church on Sunday, I became a mother for all of the little kids that did not have parents there. For all those little kids who want to be in church, but their parents are not members and have yet to choose the gospel. It was so fun having them sit all around me and sing hymns and ah I just love our little primary kids! We had 113 people in Sacrament meeting this Sunday, two more than last week, if we can have more than 100 every Sunday for three months we can divide the branch, everyone is working really hard to do this because we need this branch to grow grow grow! I dont have much time right now, but my thought is this We need to do our part. We need to do the best we can, that is all the Lord is asking for. He is not asking for our lives, just for the best that we can give, and he will do the rest. The Lord loves us, he is ever merciful, and ever forgiving. When we fall down, who is there to pick us back up? The Lord, his hands are outstretched and will always pick us up. I want to share a poem with you all that I wrote in the MTC. We watched the video about Jesus Christ when he visits the Americas, in the video it shows a young girl leading her mother who is blind to the Lord. This video touched me deeply and I wrote a poem about the woman who was blind, but was made to see through Jesus Christ. My Eyes Always dar, never seeing, only voices can be heard. Rays of Sun forever setting, stars of night still never gleaming. Never to see the clear blue of flowing rivers or a mother mare with her foal. Never to see the rising smoke of hearth fire that always calls me home. My daughters earth brown eyes and constant-guiding hand kept from my ever-seeking face. Oh my daughter, my leader, my guider-she-always at my side to direct and aid down twisting paths of gray. If food I lack, she provides. If lost and alone, she always finds, when chill night comes against my frail bones-a blanket she gives because I cannot find my own. Daughter whispers of glories soon to appear, my life-so long, Moses Law, is it wrong? Do I believe? My heart is unsure. My daughter knows, of that I am sure. I may not see, but I feel her light when seh speaks of Jesus Christ. Will he come? It is unclear, Will I ever know? I hope so. Will my eyes ever look upon his face? It is hard to trust what my eyes are not shown. Days pass, weeks go by, one day the dark I see is further darker for much too long. I hear frantic whispers and feel running feet. The earth is groaning, her tears are shed. Montains tremble, rivers bend, ground is shifting, valleys descend. Is the time long prophecied near at hand? Has the Savior of the world come, so that I might look upon his face? My daughter takes my hands and pulls me eagerly to the others, the members of my family and people. I hear a voice within the crowd, a beautiful, joyful voice that brings to memory a place of white, a place of peace and safety. I feel two soft, roughened hands grasp my own. I know two eyes watch my face, these eyes I knew before, they see into my soul. This man knows my thoughts, my heart, my very inner being. I feel the cuts within his hands and wrists, the nails that cute and pierced him, that caused blood to flow, and his final death to come. It is him, the one spoken of before, the One who would redeem us all. I feel his hands touch my head, a deep power resides in there. No words are said, I cannot see, but his touch do I feel to the inner most part of me. I open my eyes, and no darkness is there. I never imagined the face that I would see, when someday in a faroff place my sight returned to me, but here today I see the loving, shining face of Christ full of love and peace. Why me? Why does he heal me? My joy is unexpressable, I cannot control my tears. The Savior of the world loves me, tiny, little me so much that he would give me such a blessing as this-my eyes, my life. I turn my head and behold the face of my daughter-my leader, my guider-the one who showed me when I could not see. I love you all, this church is true. Christ stands at the head. He directs this work. It is only through him that we can return to the glorious realms above to live in peace and love with our Beloved Heavenly Father. Sister Brotherson

The Lord's Strength Is Always Greater than Our Own

Dear Family and Friends! You should all be happy to know that doing anything in English is becoming more and more difficult, I think this is a good sign for my Portuguese. Even writing right now in English is difficult! But I can still say what I need too :) This was an awesome week! Okay, every week is awesome on the mission, and I probably say this every week, but really it was awesome! Monday night: We had a family night at the Relief Society Presidents house, name is Ariadyne! I love her and her family, she is my adoptive mother on my mission right now! We had almost half the ward there and me and Elder Cheney taught everyone how to play Ninja! I have never seen so many people hitting each other and enjoying it in my life! The youth have continued to play at every available moment, I am very proud :) We then had the two winners dunk their heads in water and then in flour to try and find a piece of chocolate, it was HILARIOUS! And of course one of the winners was President Andre, he was such a good sport :) Tuesday and Wednesday: We walked a lot... which is quite normal. I think I say this every week as well. We set a goal in District meeting to have four new investigator families at church this Sunday! Well, Sister Lima and I put our heads together in prayer and fasting that we would find these families and reach our goals for our district. We have not had investigators at church in 3 weeks and I will be honest it has been hard to not have anyone at church when we teach, invite, feel the Spirit so strongly in our lessons, and they say they will go, and then that morning they are not at home or do not wake up. We prayed we would have miracles for this next Sunday, especially President Kuceki and the assistants were visiting Patos this weekend! Thursday through Sunday: It was super, super hot! More than ever before I think. I also woke up with a very painful, dry throat and started coughing that day. Well, we decided that we would continue to work throughout the day as long as I had enough strenth, I really did not feel good at all. Well, somehow I managed to have enough strenght Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I felt so tired and just had the worse cold ever, but the Lord gave me the strength to carry on. It was really hard to continue walking and talking to people, but the Lord gave me the strenth I needed. I know without a doubt that it WAS NOT ME. It was the Lord helping me because I could not do it alone. Well, miracles happened as always! We found two awesome families that agreed to go to church and totally want to change their lives, unfortunately they were unable to be at church, but I know that it was not a lack of faith, it was their agency, but we will continue to work with them and they will for sure be at church next week! We did have Gabrielle and Terezinha at church on Sunday which was a miracle and they loved it! Terezinha also accepted a baptismal date for February 1st! We have been working with Terezinha for the last few weeks while the other sisters covering that area were in Goiania being sick :/ But Terezinha will get baptized, so happy for her! President Kuceki was here with the assistants and it was awesome to talk to him one on one and truly feel his love for the missionaries. He spoke in church and gave a fabulous talk about member missionary work! We also had 111 people in Sacrament meeting, which was our record for the last year! We had tons of less actives and recent converts who brought friends and family! It was so amazing to see the Lord truly working in these peoples hearts! I also got my Christmas package! Thank you so much Mom and Dad! I absolutely loved the cookies, poptarts, sweets, my NEW Jerusalem scripture case, almost cried when I saw it, and my new shoes are fabulous! Love you all and thanks so much! Sister Brotherson