Itapecerica

Sorry this email is getting to you late...yesterday turned out to be a bit of a mess. We tried to find Western Union because dad sent me money but we ended up getting sent to 2 wrong addresses--I didn´t check my email 1st where dad had already sent me the addresses....whoops! At least we got to tour the fancy/rich part of Sao Paulo, but things would have been easier with GPS #missionaryproblems. Anyway, lesson learned. 

My new area is Itapecerica and my companion is Sister Ovejero from Argentina(my 1st non-brazilian comp here). She has 9 months on the mission and is 24. She was my companion for like 3 days when I first got her eand we were in a trio. She´s awesome! Our ward is huge---compared to my other 2 wards here. We have tons of youth here and lots of active member. However, on sunday the choristor wasn´t there so they asked me. I´ve never led the music in sacrament meeting and well, it was a semi-trainwreck. I don´t think they will ask me again...lol. I forgot to have everyone stand up for the intermediate hymn but luckily my companion motioned to me at the last second and it all worked out. It was stressful though because I had never even heard of the closing hymn before. I don´t think I had ever even sung it in English...Oh well, I´m grateful for those who have a talent for that kind of thing. That´s really the beauty of the church--we bring talents and learn others. 

This is my view from our house. It´s like the Lion King where Simba sees the Elephant Graveyard(or favela) ``as far as the eye can see.``​

This week was really wonderful! On Thursday, we fasted to find new investigators and prayed to find families to teach and it worked!We have been inviting everyone to our English class and that has opened MANY doors for us so far. We were trying to contact a referral, Wellington, and we ended up talking to his mom. We told her about our sunday meetings and the english class. She wasn´t too interested in the sunday meetings but she was super interested in the english class. She invited us in and had us invite her 2 daughters to the class. At the time, Wellington was at school so we didn´t get to meet him yet. Then we talked a bit and said we would return on Saturday when Wellington is home. When we came back on Saturday, we talked to Wellington and he is super elect! He had been to church once with Elder Chavier like 4-5 months ago(?) and loved it. When the elders got transferred, he didn´t receive anymore visits and was shy so he didn´t go back to church. We didn´t even have to invite him to church--he told us he would go and he invited his whole family, telling them how wonderful it is. They all stopped going to church because they were disappointed in many and have doubts about tithing. When we were on our way out, Wellington told us that his mom has some sort of depression and that their family has been going through a lot lately; he said he believes God sent us there because his mom loved us and is really interested--that like never happens (they have had visits from like every denomination--Jehovah´s Witness, etc.). On sunday, Wellington went to church and loved it! He is already integrated with our Ward Mission Leader and we had a lesson with them later that day. The whole family is really receptive and we had a really spiritual experience watching ``Because of Him``--the mom was really touched. As we left, Wellington told us that things have been worse since we got there but he believes it´s because we are bringing a good thing--he basically taught us the law of opposition. I´m really excited for him! 

Also we had a super spiritual experience with the sister, Mariana, of a returned missionary, Evelin. Mariana was once close to being baptized but an inactive member told her a bunch of anti-mormon things. Because of that she still has doubts about the Book of Mormon. On Saturday, we visited Camila, a recent-convert who was introduced to the church by Evelin. Mariana showed up there and we shared a spiritual thought about the atonement. Everyone was in tears and bearing their testimony. Mariana told usw how much she wants an anwser and how she thought, ``Camila got an answer, why can´t I?`` We testified that she could and talked about a lot of related things. Camila bore her testimony, which was really powerful, and told Mariana to have an open heart. It was a really cool experience. I´m grateful for such a good companion, who is already teaching me so much. 

​I realized that I haven´t straightened my hair for like 6 months so it has gotten really long. I´m scared to get it cut because of Elissa´s experience in Peru. Anyway, I might come house as Rapunzel...lol ;)

Thanks!

Sister Bledsoe