12.28.2015

Week 21 - Feliz Ano Novo - Happy New year


I love the pics...its all good to me...maybe the week of the beach will be a different story but for now it´s all good!!
the grocery store is about 5-10 minutes walking, and yeah we have a fridge! I bought apples and oats today so I can have breakfast!! haha
I love that quote; Sister Leal uses that quote a lot with out pesquisadores (investigators)!! 
It´s from Uchtdorf!! (mom note: The quote I sent to Natalie is, "Doubt not your faith, doubt your doubts.")
This week was a little rough cause of Natal, and I LOVED talking to you guys but yeah, I cried a lot after the skype call..to be honest!! I was a mess lol...but each day I’m getting better! During the day I don’t think about it because I don’t have time to waste and think about the things that I miss from home. The rough part is at night after we plan and I'm getting ready for bed..just thinking about all of our pesquisadores (investigators) and the people in my life...it´s a lot to think about haha! but I’m just so grateful for the plan that god has for each one of us! The knowledge I have that the people in my life are in my life for a reason!! It just makes me feel that much better, and grateful!!
I feel a little desanimada (down) sometimes, but I have great people around me that are helping me out..other sisters, and especially our recent conversos (converts)!! They just make me feel so good about the work that we do, so that they can be that much closer to our Heavenly Father!!
There´s always going to be dificuldades, but I know that I can overcome them!
I love my companion, she´s the sweetest! it´s always hard to adjust to working with someone knew after a transfer with another Sister/Companion...but I´m learning a lot...com certeza!! not much happened this week...we met some people this week but a lot of people will travel for the holidays and they wont come back until Fevereiro, after Carnival!!.....but yeah...just gotta keep working harder and harder! There´s always room to improve!

Love and miss you guys! boa semana, e até 2016 ;)
Feliz Ano Novo!!
                      La Jesus Family - Natalie went to their house to Skype us on Christmas.

                                                     Christmas Breakfast
                                                                    Christmas Day
                                                          Monica, Maria, Ellen, Evenlly, Francoize

12.21.2015

Week 20 - Feliz Natal = Merry Christmas

12/21/15

Side Note:  Oh and all the new missionaries here that arrived in natal this week from the MTC
said heyy..i know your brother..he´s awesome!! but yeah ugh I love Scott!!





So this week was transfers...sister Trage and I were really anxious for the ligação..but yea we were in a lesson and we got the phone call...we were like just, well if you pray about this you will get an answer (not really but we were rushing so that we could hear the tranfers that were going to happen).
SISTER TRAGE WAS TRANSFERED FOR POTENGI...she´s the new sister Leader Treinadora..not surprised she´s so awesome!! I stayed here in Natal!! After we found out we were just crying in the rua (street) and todo mundo (everyone) was just looking at us like...ummmm what´s up with those crazy mormons!! lol
but yeah I was really sad to see her go.  I learned a lot from Sister Trage!! 
So my new Companhion is Sister Leal...she´s from Belem!! She´s awesome; she´s crazy and lovable and just so perf!
The day of transferencias, I had to wait in the Rodaviaria ALL DAY...seriosuly 7:30-9:30 for her..she was in Souza which is about 9 hours from the capital...It was a rough day!! 
This week I felt a little more stressed out cause Sister Leal doesn’t know the area or the pesquisadores so all the pressure was on me to plan, to make sure we fechamos padrão (not all the pressure but still..)
So yeah this week was a little rough, but I also realized that I actually learned a few things these past 4 months haha...I am getting used to missionary life but it´s still a little hard!!
I don´t have a lot of time but I do want to say that Heavenly Father answers our prayers!
WE were in church yesterday and I was just listening to the talks and Maria Lucia (membro) gave a talk on the talk that Elder Uchtdorf gave about the test with the marshmallows and patience...and I was listening to her and what she was saying and I was just like...Heavenly Father, you´re funny you know that hahah...answering my prayers through a talk in church!! I ´ve been praying and studying a lot about the atributos de Cristo this week, but more importantly Patiencia and Love...I seriously don´t want to think bad things about my companions or members that I work with...I want to be more like Christ so that I can learn how to love and learn how to help them!! Maria Lucia gave her talk about patience and love. I was just sitting there feeling the spirit so strong, kind of like a clarity, that I know that I can develop patience, but I always have to do my part!! WE always have to do our part in order for miracles to happen!! I don’t remember where this scripture is in the Book of Mormon.tal vez in Ether, but it says that only after our test of faith will milagres happen!! I know that Heavenly Father will answer our prayers, and that he will bless us when we show him that we trust in him.
LUIZ NETO WAS CONFIRMADO THIS DOMINGO!! HE´s JUST SOOO PERFECT!!!
WE have a family that we´re teaching. Rossana and Ubiratan...we taught them 1 liçao and the next lesson we taught 1 again because they had doubts about it (ubiratan mostly) and recommitted them to pray about it!  The next lesson we taught Rossana about baptism and we marked her baptism for 27 of December! She said yes..the next day we went by and she said that she thinks that she was already baptized in this church...with 2 elders..but after she was baptized she traveled somewhere and then she moved and she just kind of got lost and nobody found her again...so this week we have to look her name up in the records to see if she was confirmed...hahah seriously was like..ummm how did that happen!!?? haha but yeah whatever..
Gotta run.
LOVE YOU
FELIZ NATAL!!

-sister Talentino

12.15.2015

Week 19 - Natal MIssion Conference



Natal Mission Conference December 2015
Natalie walking the streets of Natal!

Haha I got grandmother´s card... I was like what am I gonna do with 10 dollars, but it´s always nice to get a letter!!:) tell her I love her and thank you so much for the written letter and the smile that I had that day because of her love!! The fam is lookin GOOODDDD...so do Del and Karl! the two pics that you sent after the Star Wars movie and the Cleveland orchestra didn’t show up!!


For skype, what time is best for you guys? We have a place already to go, but I don’t know what time is best!! We were talking about 3, 4 in the trade!! but let me know what´s best for you guys!!!
Forget the measuring cups hahah...I’ll look for some here!! (Mom note: Natalie asked me to send measuring cups to her.  The $4.00 measuring cups would cost me over $20.00 to send to Brazil and take over 4 weeks.  Needless to say I told her I'd put money in her account to buy them in Brazil!)

This week was a little average...I always feel like I can do more!! Our Heavenly Father blesses us so much its ridiculous!! Sister Trage and I are really nervous for transferências this week!! I love her...we work really well together and we have so many metas for our area and our ala its just like please don’t transfer us!!

This past week we had Conferencia de Natal...ALL THE MISSIONARIES IN NATAL MET IN ALECRIM!!! IT was sooo awesome!! The treinamento, the talks, everything was just sooo good!!! We had a treinamento from the assistentes about how important it is for our pesquisadores to go to church and how each day we need to give them compromissos to help their faith develop and for them to be mais proximo to our heavenly father!! With each compromisso that they do, they are growing more in faith!! so we were talking about how important it is for our investigators to understand the importancia of going to church each week to partake of the sacrament and to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ!! We, as missionaries, need to EVERYTHING we can to get them to go to church with us on Sunday....This is a hard task because EVERYONE goes to the beach (it´s like 5 min from here) and everyone likes to sleep and the capela is far away from our area...BUT as missionaries we need to do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE!!! sometimes I’m like I wish I could literally drag there people from their bed to church, but everyone has their agency (UGH!!!!) ha-ha but ya it was awesome!! I saw Sister Coelho. She goes home this week...a lot of tears were shed haha!! (typical)

BATISMO this week: Luiz Neto!! He´s seriously sooo perfect!!! his family is a little closed hearted towards us, but he will be the light and example for his family!!!

This week we marked baptism with Edivânha..she´s 21 yrs. old and has a 4-year-old and the first time we met her she was really drunk so we returned to her house and she wasn’t drunk (yahoo). She talked with the gente and she´s had a rough life...but we told her that all her sins and the sadness and the hard times in her life can be taken away because of the Sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ! And that she can be clean from sin through baptism!! She actually brought up baptism first, she asked us if her daughter her needed to be baptized! We said no, but you do...lol...not really like that but em fim...later in the week we went back and she was dunk again and she said that her sister (she lives with her sister) doesn’t like our religion and that she wont go to church with us or be baptized!! ugh I WAS LIKE NOOOOOO PLEASE DONT SAY THAT...my heart was broken!! there wasn’t much we could do because I don’t think that she even would remember us taking to her the next day!! Sister trage and I left. I was really sad, but I kept saying to myself that I need to smile and be happy cause this gospel is so perfect and that I need to get over it and find the next person that needs this gospel! Literally when I thought that, I looked up and boom, Lenilson... 22 yrs. old that is just so legit and bubbly and happy! He showed us his new bible that he bought the other day and he was so proud of it hahah!! He didn’t go to church but we´re going to visit him this week!

Yesterday after lunch sister Trage and I were heading back into our area (our lunch was in the area of the other sisters) and we were like alright, we need new people to teach! So we prayed and we asked to find new people that wouldn’t be flaky and that were really ready to receive the gospel and that lived in a condominium and that needed to hear our message that day!!...We crossed the street and Sister Trage hit the call button for an apt. to a condo...someone answered and em fim it didn’t work out. So we turned and started to walk away. After about 3 minutes of walking sister Trage was like, bora voltar...haha so we returned and she started to press all the call buttons. Finally, the last apt., this rapaz answered! em fim he invited us up....haha I was like umm my mom taught me to not enter a stranger’s apartment, but all well cause the Lord will bless and protect us haha!! We taught this rapaz (his name is really strange I don’t remember) the plan of salvation because he just had a lot of questions about it since his brother passed away 2 months ago...it is just so amazing to know that we are servants to our Heavenly Father and he will always help us when we ask for it in humility!!
This week was good but I´m excited to work more this week! I just feel more edificado when I do all that I can do, but I still know that I can do more!! (makes sense?)

I love being a missionary!! The happiness and joy that I feel when I see the changes in the lives of the people that we´re teaching!!  Such a privilege to be a missionary!!

-LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!
FELIZ NATAL!!!

Luiz Neto's Baptism
Panoramic View of natal
                                                                             Sunny Natal
                                                                Beautiful Natalie
                                                                  P-Day adventures
                                                             Roommates in Natal
                                                         Sister Trage and Natalie
                                                      Natalie Walking the Streets of Natal

                                                             Corner Drug Store

A huge Cashew Tree
 MTC group reunited at mission conference

 Natalie's First companion - Sweet reunion!
 All of Sister Coelho's mission companions. She is going home.
 Elder Harris