Noel Nutells

Oi!!!

It's weird how quickly I'm able to adjust to change now.  It took me less than a week to get comfortable in this new area.  My companion is really awesome too.  Her name is Sister Chatwin and she is from Oklahoma.  She still has about 6 months left on the mission. We have a lot of fun together and we have been working really hard this week.  Seeing that this is my last area, my personal goal this week was to make a really good impression on the members, especially the leadership.  The first great opportunity we had was when we went out with the bishop to do visits.  Our bishop is awesome!  In Portuguese missionary talk we would call him "super nova era" which basically means that he likes to baptize.  When we went out teaching with him, he helped us mark our baptismal dates.  We love him!  We also got to give 2 talks in church this Sunday.  One talk in sacrament meeting and another talk in a special missionary fireside.  I think everyone knows who we are now which is really good because we are going to need their help!  We are going to do something crazy this transfer!

This area has a lot of families to marry and baptize.  We are working with one family right now where the husband is a member, but the wife is not.  They are both really excited about the church and about marriage and baptism.  Tonight we are going to teach them how to have a Family Home Evening.

Another family we are teaching is really special.  Every time we come to teach, everyone participates and they look forward to our visits every night.  It's very rare to see a husband and wife together participating.  The parents need to get married still, but their kids have been going to church since they were little and have a great desire to be baptized.  This week we went over to their house with the bishop and their parents gave permission for them to be baptized.  This week we are teaching a commandment everyday and it is fun to watch their excitement and willingness to obey God's commandments.  Especially the 9 year old, Kaio.  He is so special.  He loves saying prayers and going to church.  Friday night we taught them about tithing and as usual I shared personal family experiences about tithing.  At the end, they were all super excited to pay their tithing!  So yesterday, while sister Chatwin was giving her talk, I saw Kaio walk up to the bishop with his little tithing envelope.  I was so proud of him!  I'm also really excited for Monique (his older sister) because at first she didn't want to be baptized.  But as we have continued teaching, her desire has grown.  

I'm so grateful to be serving here.  I know that Heavenly Father has allowed me to serve here my last transfer for a reason and I don't want to let him down.  I'm grateful for the restored church on the earth today.  I'm grateful for the Spirit that testifies of the truth.  I had my final interview with our new mission president this week and he gave us a training and in that training he said that we need to bear our testimonies with conviction.  He said, "The reason why we were born on the earth, was so that we could here the message of the Restoration."  I know that is true.  Bear testimony more frequently and bear it with conviction.

Have a great week!  

Sister Jensen