I Love this Gospel--April 28, 2014

Well, I spent most of the week inside my tiny house taking care of my companion, Sister Cutler, because she got super sick with a huge abcess in her face and had to get a root canal. It was a flurry of activity going to the doctors three time, finally getting to the dentist, and realizing she needed a root canal. Tender mercy of the Lord. She paid exactly 146 dollars, on the mission we have to pay for anything that has to do with the dentist, well when she opened up her email today guess what her parents said? Her tax return was exactly 146 dollars! Goodness, what a tender mercy of the Lord. He is truly in the details of our lives. We did have some miracles like BETEGA AND JOSIANE GOT BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED THIS WEEK! This is a couple that has been going to church for the last 15 months without being baptized because they were not married. We had tons of members present and the Spirit was very strong and sweet. I am so happy for this family and that in one year they are planning to go to the Temple to be sealed together forever. I also ate at a real Brazillian barbecue restaurant and it was delicious! I ate way too much food! I dont have much time to write, but during lots of my studying this week I learned a few points of doctrine. 1. The Spirit converts. The Holy Ghost is the link between the investigators, the missionaries, and the Godhead. This is one of the reasons that Jesus Christ left the earth, he left, os that the Holy Ghost could begin his work here upon the earth. 2. Often, when we first meet people we judge immediately. We compare ourselves and think how am I better. This needs to change in everyone. You need to think what characteristics do they have that I need to develop in my life? This is seeing with the eyes of Christ. 3. Faith creates miracles. It is only when we BELIEVE AND HAVE A DESIRE that miracles are possible. The church is true. I love this gospel. Pray to have a missionary experience this week. Share the gospel with a friend. Say what you know about Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, and the Savior. You never know who is ready and waiting for the gospel. Sister Brotherson

My Bishop Hit Someone With His Car...Did I Mention I Was in the Car With Him?--April 21, 2014

Yes, it is true. Tuesday afternoon at 1 pm, Sister Cutler and I got a ride with Bishop Robson leaving the Stake Center. We were driving up a hill rather slowly, thank goodness, Bishop Robson is known for driving very, very fast! He was looking in the rearview mirrow while we were eating icecream and next thing we know we hear a huge crash and boom, We look forward and Bishop Robson hit a girl walking on the street! She rolled up on the hood of the car and then fell to the ground. He rushed to a stop, slammed on the breaks and jumped out of the car! We jumped out to thinking that she was dead, but she didnt even have a scratch! Bishop Robson helped her up and all she said I need my shoe! She gets hit by a car and the first thing she says is I need my shoe! The second things she said was Wow you guys are not from here are you? Me and Sister Cutler looked at each other and said No, the US. My thought was you just got hit by a car and our accents are so bad that you recognized we are not from here? Oh bother, we need to practice more :) Then Sister Cutler offered the girl her icecream, I honestly dont know why, but it was super funny. All she said was no I am fine! We kept asking if she was okay and she said yes, yes, yes, I work at the hospital and am going there now! All in all, we got back in the car as she walked away and laughed and laughed and laughed all the way to our house. Be careful when you are driving with your Bishop. All Bishop Robson said it was a good thing we were in the car with him, we were the girls guardian angels :) This week we had transfers and (drumroll please) Sister Cutler and I are staying together another transfer! We are both super grateful because we feel like we have so many people who are ready to be baptized in this area and Betega and Josiene will be getting baptized this coming Friday, so we are working with them every single day to make sure they are truly ready! This week was a very good week. We saw a lot of miracles. I am so grateful that we are witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ during this special time of year, during Easter. I truly felt the Lords power as I tesified of his suffering, death, and resurrection for our investigators and less actives. We had a very powerful lesson with Celimar,the mom of one of our recent converts who hasnt been to church for the last 5 weeks since her baptism date fell through. She says every single week that she will go to church and we show up Sunday morning and has some excuse, this last week we prayed very hard that she would be able to go to church. When we passed by her house Sunday morning, she was sitting at the table looking very sad and said, she wouldnt be able to go because she didnt have clothes! Well, I was not buying it. We talked her over for a good ten minutes saying she didnt need a dress or a skirt, no one cared! We just wanted her there! Well, finally she said alright Ill go, you guys go on ahead and Ill follow in just a few minutes. Well we decided to trust her and sure enough ten minutes later she was in the church ALONE! SUCH A MIRACLE! I studied a lot this week in Jesus the Christ. I understood so much better the last week of Christs life and so many memories from my days in Jerusalem came to my head. I am so grateful for the time that I had to spend in the Holy Land feeling of the spirit there and learning about my Savior in such a personal way and that just 1 year and four months later I am able to be a missionary for the Lord where the Nephites and Lamanites lived so many years ago, I am truly teaching their descendants now on my mission! I found two scriptures that I loved that talked about the blood that Christ spilt for us. The Book of Mormon in Mosias 3:7 has a scripture that perfectly portrays the suffering of the Savior for each and every one of us. I cross referenced this scripture with Luke 22:43-43. And had a reconfirmation that the Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ. Thank you always for your love and prayers. Testify to someone this week of the divinty and life of the Savior. You will feel his overwhelming love in your life. Sister Brotherson

The Lord Answers the Desires of Our Heart--April 14, 2014

It was just a really good week and I dont have a lot of time to write, about five minutes :) I still have Conference ringing in my ears and I just want to watch Conference again and again and again because it was so good! We then got word that probably the Sisters from Patos were coming to visit for Zone Conference! Well, I prayed my little heart out because I had a selfish desire to see Sister Lima again before she finishes her mission next month and guess what happened, they came! We got to have six sisters in our little house for three days, it was quite the party, and such a treat to see Sister Lima again! I love her so much and am so grateful for everything she taught me :) This week we prayed to find more people that were ready to hear the gospel that would be prepared for baptism. We found a mom and her two daughters, they listened to our lesson on the Word of Wisdom and loved it! They also accepted dates for baptism in the next few weeks, it was truly such a miracle! Rarely do you meet people that are so ready and waiting for the gospel! We are also working super hard with Betega and Josiane who will be getting married on Thursday! They have already been going to church for a year, their kids are all baptized, they just didnt have the money to get married until now, so we are reteaching everything for them so that they can be baptized on the 25th of April! We are so excited as are they because they have waited for this day for so long! The devil is truly working as hard as he can to trip them up, but we are going over there every single day to sing, pray, and help them feel the Spirit! More prays would be great for Betega and Josiane that everything will go smoothly! Finally, Adriana and Vitor Hugo received the Holy Ghost yesterday and they were just glowing! Ah I love them so much :) I felt very strongly I needed to bear my testimony and I talked about Christ during the last week of his life. How this next week 2000 years ago he was in Jerusalem finishing his training of the apostles, introducing the sacrament, suffering the Atonement, being judged wrongly, and finally dying on the cross and being resurrected. Many of my memories from Jerusalem are returning as I think about all the Savior did during his life. I know that I am so imperfect, but with his strength we can overcome all things. The thing is he truly WANTS TO BLESS US. He is not witholding blessings because he wants to, but because we are not obeying! If we just obey and ask with a sincere heart he will give us all that we need! Thank you for reading Preach My Gospel, it is truly a tool of the Lord, not just for missionaries, but for members and nonmembers alike! Continue reading and I will FOLLOW UP next week :) Lots of Love and happy easter this coming sunday! Sister Brotherson

Conference Weekend!--April 7, 2014

It was CONFERENCE WEEKEND! I love Conference and seriously received so much spiritual nourishment and power! I sure hope you had questions ready because the Lord truly spoke through his servants during this Conference, I was fortunate enough to watch almost all of Conference in English, only half of Sunday morning was in Portuguese, because there was not enough space in the chapel, so they opened up our little room for everyone else! This was one of the most special Conferences in my whole life because in between conference sessions on Sunday, we were able to have a baptism for Adriana and Vitor Hugo! A mom and her 11 year old son. They are truly two of the most prepared people that I have ever met in my life. We found them only three weeks ago when we talked with them on the street, but they have truly been so converted and accepted everything about this gospel. Adriana says that everything just makes so much sense and she feels so blessed to have found the gospel and she cannot wait for Vitor Hugo to serve a mission in ten years and help other people find this joy :) The baptism was super spiritual and Adriana just cried and cried as she bore her testimony. She has an older daughter who was saying some pretty bad things about the church and asking why in the world would she be baptized after only three weeks, well that night as she and Vitor Hugo were going to bed they both said Nothing has changed for me, I know this church is true and we will be baptized no matter what anyone says. That is true faith. My favorite talk was Elder Eyring, I honestly dont know what he said, but I received a very spiritual, special lesson about how sacred our time is and how very important the convenants we make for our lives are. That this time is the Lords time, he is ever mindful of us, he is preparing us for something more glorious and holy than we can imagine. That every day we have the choice to honor our covenants or not. That we have the choice to be righteous or not. I am realizing more and more how very sacred this time on my mission is and how truly it is setting the habits and pattern for the rest of my life with my future family. This week with Sister Cutler, I finally felt like we hit our rhythm, we are working hard, in sync with the Spirit, and we are giving our all to the Lord. It is so nice to have the same goals and desires as your companion. We are working hard to find new investigators and we are continuing with some others who need more time to prepare for baptism! But, the work is going forward and I am absolutely LOVING IT! Thank you for your prayers, they are truly felt all the way here in Uberaba, Brazil! I ate fish eyes last night...one of our investigators was astounded when I said I had never eaten fish eyes... she decided this needed to be changed, so we ate fish eyes for dinner last which was suprisingly good :) Oh the life of a missionary! Sister Brotherson Shoutout for Mason and Lillie! Hope you had a blast at prom! Congrats to Grace, Taylor, Brother and Sister Barrett, and Anne for their mission calls, you will be amazing!

His Hands Are Extended to Help You--March 31, 2014

Hey all! This will be short and brief because I do not have a lot of time. Oh I also cut my hair! To my shoulders! Mom dont freak out :) Adriana and Vitor Hugo are progressing beautifully and are so ready to be baptized next week! They came to the Ward Family Night, church, and Adriana came to the Womens Conference! Yes, I did get to watch it in Portuguese.... not quite the same as English, but I do get to watch General Conference in English and I am super super excited because my companion is American, so we can watch together with two other elders in our zone that speak English! Anyways, this week was super fast and we spent a lot of time teaching our recent converts that are trying really hard to understand everything about the gospel. It was a nice refresher for me that everyone progresses differently and we need to have patience with the Lords timing. Adriana and Vitor Hugo have accepted the Word of Wisdom without any doubt and already had stopped drinking coffee! A huge miracle, that they are truly so ready and prepared to have this gospel in their lives. We helped plan a huge Family Night for the whole ward Friday night and I spent most of Thursday and Friday calling the whole ward! We ended up with a huge turnout of 50 people and investigators! I am planning on teaching the ward limbo for the next activity... :) It also rained a lot this week, so our house flooded a bit... I guess whenever it rains our kitchen fills with water... that was an interesting battle :) Did I mention that we have church in a house? First time ever in my life! But, its awesome and quite cozy and its nice to squeeze 100 people into our house every Sunday for activities! The already have a chapel, it just needs to be built this year! All in all, the work is progressing. I love my companion, I am learning more and more how to be humble and faithful with her. How to make my scripture study more meaningful, how to make my prayers more sincere and heartfelt, how we need to listen to the spirit in every moment, and how truly this is the work of the Lord. This is the saving of the human soul and it is more important than anything else we will ever do. I am so excited for General Conference this coming weekend, to hear the Prophet and apostles speak directly to our hearts and minds is such a treat and a blessing in this difficult world. Remember the Lord loves you and always has his hands extended to help you.

The Lord Makes Up What We Ourselves Cannot Do--March 24, 2014

The Lord truly makes up for what we ourselves cannot do. We are so imperfect and incapable of doing so many things with our physical bodies, but the Lord is perfect and can make up all the rest. This week was an interesting week. Monday and Tuesday, we started out super strong! Teaching, finding, contacting, and reaching all of the goals we had, Me and Sister Cutler truly felt like we were on fire! And then the infamous phone call! One of the Assistants called Tuesday night and asked if we had planned for Wednesday, I said No we are literally running for our house RIGHT NOW! Why, what do we need to plan for tomorrow?? Well, Elder Brito started laughing and said dont plan anything! I literally stopped and said WHAT?? Why? Turns out that two weeks ago when I was in Goiania, the assistants forgot to tell me that I had to sign a piece of paper for my visa so stay in the country of Brazil for the next year... Yup, you betcha. Elder Brito called Tuesday night to inform us that Wednesday morning at 9 am we were getting on the bus for a lovely eight hours. I will be honest I was pretty frustrated because I have only had five days in this area! And we had 3 BAPTISMS for the coming Saturday! We needed to teach them every single day this week to get them ready for Baptism! Well, I didnt really have a choice considering I want to stay on my mission for the next year in Brazil and not be deported to the US.... so we got on the bus and literally within ten minutes of being on the bus I got super nauseous and lets just say I spent the next eight hours vomiting and having diarrhea every time the bus stopped... It was really quite painful and not so fun. We arrived in Goiania and I signed the tiny piece of paper and then We stayed with some other sisters in Goiania and I tried to sleep as much as i could in between running to the bathroom. Thursday morning at 9 am we were again at the bus station and I spent another eight hours being sick. Lets just say it was a pretty miserable two days. I am still trying to figure out if I ate something wrong or if my stomach just decided it didnt like me? Luckily, I am feeling much much better today! Luckily, we share this ward with the elders and they were more than willing to visit Celimar, Beto, and Gabriel to prepare them for baptism for Saturday! I am so grateful they were willing to do this! Then Friday morning was Interviews with the District Leader! Just to explain a little bit about this wonderful family! Ceverino and Celimar are the parents, Celimar is pregnant and they already have one son, Gabriel, who is 10. Beto is Celimars nephew and he lives with them. Three weeks ago on Saturday night, before I arrived in the area, Sister Cutler did a contact with Beto as he was walking down the street. Honestly, she wasnt even going to talk to him because it was super dark and late at night, but she felt compelled to talk to him. She invited him to church and did not think much of it afterwards. Well, she walked into the church the next day and guess who was sitting on the front pew... dum dum dum BETO! He came to church alone! Well, Sister Cutler and Sister Larsen started teaching the whole family that very same day, they invited the whole family for baptism for the 22nd of March and then Sister Larsen got transferred and I came in! We literally spent the first five days of our time here teaching them! Well, interviews happened and Gabriel and Beto cleared with flying colors! Sadly, Celimar and Ceverino are not married :/ We understood incorrectly. The problem in Brazil is that it costs a lot of money to get married! And most people believe that if you are living with someone for a long amount of time then you are married, but many couples dont actually get married legally... So, we understood incorrectly and Celimar was super super sad! But, we have set a date with her and Ceverino to be married in May and to be baptized immediately after! Anyways, after the interviews on Friday Sister Cutler started feeling sick! She got the flu! So we then spent all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday inside with her sleeping because she could barely walk :/ Luckily, she had enough energy to go to the baptism and help out! Beto and Gabriel were baptized and the spirit was SO STRONG! Sadly, Celimar got super sick and went to the hospital with Ceverino so they were not able to be at the baptism or at church on Sunday, but Gabriel and Beto were confirmed at church on Sunday and Beto leaned over to tell me it was the happiest day of his life! He has plans to go to the temple for the first time in June and is already talking about serving a mission in one year! We also had two HUGE MIRACLES HAPPEN considering we were not able to teach anyone this week! Betega and Josienne, a couple that have been investigators for the last 18 months have been saving money to be married for the last 18 months. They go to church every Sunday, pay their tithing, go to all activities, and all their kids are baptized, they are basically members, they just didnt have the money to get married to be baptized. THEY SET A DATE TO BE MARRIED ON APRIL 17! They will be baptized the following week, I am seriously sooooo happy for them and so grateful that I can be here to help them make this step in their lives. Adriana and Vitor Hugo, a mom and her 11 year old son, were at church on Sunday. We found them one week ago and were unable to return the whole week! The elders passed by just as they were leaving, but they were at church on Sunday and LOVED IT! We were able to teach them after church and they will be baptized on April 5 in between sessions of General Conference! They have already gained testimonies and believe that everything is true! All in all, I am grateful for what the Lord was able to do this week, that our physically limited bodies and minds were unable to do. I am grateful that he touched the hearts of our investigators and created miracles in their lives when we literally were unable to physically be present with them. This church is true. Christ leads and guides this church. He has a Prophet on the earth to lead and guide us. I am seriously counting the days until General Conference, I am soooo excited! And I gave a talk on Reverence on Sunday, second talk in Portuguese! It was scary, but I felt the spirit! Lots of love, Sister Brotherson

Transfers?--March 17, 2014

Hey family and friends! Well, for those of you who didnt know, I got transferred this last week after a lovely four months serving in Patos de Minas. It was super sad to say goodbye to everyone, I absolutely loved my time in Patos, but I am super excited for a new area, new comp, and new adventures! I got transferred to UBERABA! Uberaba has five wards and is currently a stake which is super awesome! I am currently serving in the Vallim de Mello Ward in Uberaba, Brazil! My companion is Sister Cutler, she is really, really tall, has huge blue eyes, is from Virginia, and studied at BYU, oh yes she is American! She only has 2 transfers in the field, so guess what else happened.... someone had the crazy idea to make me SENIOR COMP. I am still freaking out on the inside about this HUGE CHANGE, but I am grateful for the opportunity to have more responsibility and truly I feel like I will learn so much about being humble with Sister Cutler. She truly is perfect! She already knows the area, the members, and all the investigators. And the other huge miracle. We have a family being baptized next Saturday, all we have to do is finish teaching them. Sister Cutler and her previous companion were teaching this family and challenged them for baptism on the 22nd of March, well then transfers happened and here I am! They are a super awesome family and I am super excited to work with them, get to know them better, and help them prepare for baptism! Silimar is the mom, Gabriel is her son, and Beto is her nephew. Her husband, Ceverino, will be baptized on the 6th of April! He was unable to be at church this Sunday, so we pushed his baptism back two weeks. Anyways, this week was crazy, emotional and awesome! Monday, the sisters in Patos had a BIRTHDAY PARTY for Sister Brady as it was her birthday, it was then of course raining, so we ran out in the rain and just LOVED IT. I find it ironic that the first night I arrived in Patos, it was raining like crazy and my last night in Patos it was raining like crazy! Tuesday, 10 hours on the bus, it was quite nice to sleep, reflect on my time in Patos, and write in my journal. Tuesday night we stayed with 10 other sisters in a very small apartment, but it was loads of fun to be with all the sisters in the mission because we are so rarely together! Wednesday, it was raining again, so we all piled into taxes with lots of luggage to go to the chapel where Mission Conference was being held with Elder Cruz, a newly ordained Seventy. I will just say this much, He and his wife spoke about missionary work and they were amazing. How there is truly no difference between the missionaries of the Scriptures and us today. They had more faith. So, we need to have more faith that this is the Lords work and that with his help we will find those people who are ready for the gospel! It was truly inspiring and I felt a new determination and drive to work super hard! Then we had Transfer meeting and President Kuceki pretty much transfered the whole mission! Everyone is in new areas, tons of missionaries are training, everyone is opening new areas, we have 8 Sister Training Leaders instead of the 2 we had before! Basically it was a transfer of HUGE CHANGES! But, I am way excited for what will happen! Well, then I got called to serve in Uberaba with Sister Cutler and everyone was just freaking out, crying, and hugging! Then Thursday, we rode in a VAN WITHOUT AIRCONDITIONING for 8 hours with 13 other elders. Oh, I forgot to mention that we are the only sisters in the whole ZONE OF 28 ELDERS... Its fine, I dont mind elders too much haha... but Zone Conference and Zone meetings will be an adventure withotu other sisters... And then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we went to meet the Bishop, the members, the investigators, EVERYONE! It was super awesome and everyone is so kind and friendly. I really feel like we have so many people in this area who are ready and waiting to hear the gospel. Sister Cutler is a gogetter and truly has a huge desire to work super hard! I feel like we will be able to help this ward a lot! Interesting facts about my area. We live close to an elementary school, so kids are always passing our front door. Every car has music BLASTING super loudly.. it will be interesting to get used to. I am completely lost and have no idea where anything is, I hope I will learn :) Again, dog central. We have dogs on every street corner following us and barking at us. I ate peanut butter today for the first time in four months. Sister Cutlers parents sent her peanut butter for Christmas, it was truly heavenly to eat again. Sorry, I know this is super, super long! It was just one of those weeks. Finally, I just want to end with a talk I read the other day. Cast Not Away Thy confidence from thee. I read this talk the other day and felt truly inspired. Truly, before and after great spiritual moments, is when Satan is working really really hard to tear us down. It is when we have already felt the confirming peach of the Spirit that we need to stand firm and work just a little harder. If it was right the first time, then it will still be right the second time. Ignore the fear and doubts that Satan is sending to you, stay firm in the Faith and listen to the peace and light of the gospel and the answer you already received. Love you all, Sister Brotherson

Well...We All Knew It Was a Possibility--March 10, 2014

Well... we all knew it was a possibility that I would get transferred... I do have four wonderful months here in Patos de Minas where everyone tells me that they have the best cheese and barbecue in the whole country of Brasil, since I have only lived in Patos de Minas, I still dont know about that... but I am placing my bets with Patos :) Anyways, I was TRANSFERRED!?:/:) I really dont know how I feel, sad, scared, nervous, excited, happy! I am excited for a new area, new comp, new adventures, new members, new investigators, but I am sad to be leaving Patos! I have truly come to love Patos with my whole heart, I have made so many close friends that I love! I truly feel like Patos is my home :/ I hate to leave Sister Lima, she has been fabulous these last two transfers, and we have been working with so many investigators who are progressing towards baptism this next month, we have also been working with some less active families to reactive them, so I am sad to leave all of the wonderful people I have come to know and love! But if the Lord needs me somewhere else then I am happy to serve wherever the Lord needs me! We got transfer calls last Thursday night and all they said was that I was transferred and that I was leaving Tuesday morning at 4 am! Ah horrible! But, conveniently we have Mission Conference with the seventy, Elder Cruz, this week, so the whole mission is going to Goiania for three days! I am so excited to see all the misssionaries! So I wont actually know where I am going or my new companion until Wednesday or Thursday this next week! Anyways, this last week was an amazing last week in Patos! We invited Rafael and Ronald, the little brothers of Rodrigo, for baptism this next month, they both said yes! Then they were both at church on Sunday! We invited Julia and her mom Claudia for baptism, Julia accepted without a doubt, and then started crying when we told her that her dad could baptize her! I love this family! Julio was baptized about seven years ago, but he fell away from the church, right now he is trying really hard to come back and stop smoking and drinking, his older daughter, Deborah, was already baptized! Julia, his younger daughter is 11 and she has such a sweet, tender spirit and she truly knows this church is true. Julio accepted the goal to baptize his daughter at the end of the month if he can stop smoking and drinking, his wife, Claudia, smokes as well and is unsure about being baptized... Sis Lima will continue to work with them! And finally, our miracles of miracles! Cisera and Aline, the two friends that w found last Sunday, we have been visiting them almost every single day this week and they are so ready for the gospel! They were at church on Sunday and LOVED IT! We invited them to be baptized this month and they said yes they would prepared to be baptized! I spent the rest of the week running around saying goodbye to everyone in the ward, our investigators, and my recent converts! I feel so blessed to have served here in Patos, but I am excited for the people I will come to know and love in my new area! We also had 120 people in Sacrament meeting, the branch is growing! Lots of love, Sister Brotherson

Patience--March 3, 2014

Sometimes you just need a little patience. I have been working with Vanessa for the last three months, visiting her Family three or four times a week, and it has been amazing to see the changes in her and the rest of her Family, remember Vanessa is the younger sister of Rodrigo who was baptized in December when I first arrived in Patos. Well, after inviting Vanessa for baptism almost seven times over the last three months, she finally accepted, AND WAS BAPTIZED! Rodrigo baptized her and it was seriously one of the best moments of my mission to see Rodrigo use the power of the priesthood to baptize his little sister. Of course the baptism started 30 minutes late, but we had tons of youth and families there! We made cake and juice and Vanessas mom and little Brothers were at the baptism! I loved seeing the joy on her face after she was baptized knowing that she has chosen this right path for her life. Her little Brothers told us that they love church and are thinking about baptism too because they want to do the right thing that God wants, so precious :) I truly feel like I have stayed in Patos for the last four months to help this Family find the gospel, we will continue to work with Vanessas little Brothers and hopefully they can be baptized in the next few weeks, and we will continue with Vanessas mom and stepdad as well, they are truly such good people who just need to continue feeling the presence of the Holy Ghost! Also, Rodrigo and Vanessa, were able to go to Youth Camp this weekend! Every year in Brasil has Carnival which is a HUGE HOLIDAY! Luckily, we are in Patos, so nothing toooooo crazy is happening, but the Ward Always has a huge youth camp, and this year they had over 45 youth, which was more than they ever had before! I will be a tiny bit prideful in saying that Sis Lima and I ran around like crazy last week getting signatures for all of our less actives and investigators that are youth, it was pretty amazing! And then we got permission from President Kuceki that we could spend Pday with our investigators at CAMP! So, I am currently writing after 4 pm and I spent the whole day playing volleyball, football, taking pictures, and just playing games with all the youth out at camp, IT WAS SO AWESOME! I love the youth here so much! Our investigator, Julia, she told us today that she wants to be baptized this month! Truly such a miracle! Her older sister and father are already baptized and are slowly returning to church, we are working a lot with her mom to prepare to be baptized this month! This work changes lives. The Atonement changes lives. But, sometimes people need time to accept these truths and allow the Holy Ghost to work in their hearts and minds to prepare them for baptism. I had a neat experience last night that reminded me how truly the Lord is aware of us, our thoughts and desires. We were walking along the street, it was about 8 o clock. No one was at home almost the whole day after church and I was just praying that we would find someone to teach and share the gospel. Well, we were walking down the street, we passed a woman sitting on the ground and she just looked super sad. Well, we continued walking for a few seconds and then BAM, THE SPIRIT said You need to talk to her now, so I turned around right then and said We are missionaries, we have a message that will bring you comfort and Peace, can we share it with you? And she said yes! We taught her and two of her friends, they all agreed to come to church next Sunday, and Aline, one of her friends was just crying and crying during the lesson the Spirit was SO STRONG! Ah I love the gospel! I know this gospel is true with all my heart! Unfortunately, Sister Lima and I both feel that our time together is almost over and that one of us will be leaving next week, we receive transfer calls next Saturday or Sunday, I honestly do not know what I am feeling, I truly just want to stay in Patos with Sister Lima for the rest of my mission because I lover her so much and I love working with her :) Love you all and until next week! Sister Brotherson ps! Matt! I cannot believe you are home from the mission! Write me a quick email!