4/24/17 OH Girls Just Wanna Get Baptized!!!

Hello!!!! Well this week was pretty frick frackin' fantastic :)

So first off.... Yesterday was real good :) We had 5 pesquisadores go to church :) First the 3 girls went!!! Dayane, Maria and Ellen, also another named Marco, and AGENOR!!! (I spelled it Aginó the last email, cuz I didn't know how to spell it, but this is how its actually spelled :P)  He finally came!!! Couldn't tell if he enjoyed it or not, but it was so awesome to see him there :) 

Well, the girls said that they loved it and are definitley going next week along with their friend that they invited :) Laira. So thats exciting :) We also this week talked to Maria´s Dad, who was a little hesitant with us, but after we started talking about Personal Progress and what the goal is to do it, he loved it and saw that this is something amazing. He loved it and fully supported Maria to do it!!! :) YES!!!! Also Ellen was talking to her mom about this too and how she really wants to do it too. She asked if she could be baptized and her mom said yes!!!!! BAPTISM FOR ELLEN!!! Ellen is going to be so blessed. She needs this great experience in her life. It is going to be so special to see her grow and do personal progress :) I am so excited :) This Saturday :)

The Dayane is all on board with getting baptized and doing personal progress and being a member... she just hasn't talked to her mom yet... so we are going to visit her mom Cirlei this week or tonight actually :P I am so excited for them :) They are gonna be such great members and also better people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives :) 

We have mostly been working with them this week, but we also met a couple other people... no one was suuuper interested, but we are gonna visit them this week and hopefully they will want to learn more :)

Well, thank you all for the birthday emails :) I had a great 20th birthday :) We had a little party with the girls and also the next day some members threw a surprise party for me. :) It was amazing :) Loved it :)

I am so thankful for all you guys and for the love and support I feel from you :) Thank you so much :) Almost 1/2 way done.... pretty crazy to think about that :P Time has flown by sooo fast.

Well I love you all and am so happy to be here serving in Brasil :) It really is a Blessed Country :) I love this gospel and am so happy to be sharing it with the people here :)

Love you all and talk to you guys next week :)

Love, Sister Ferguson

pics.

-The girls Dayane, Maria, and Ellen... in that order left to right at church sunda. Also with Devanir. She is literally the heart and soul of the Ward here, shes Felipe´s mom too :) 

-Agenor :) 

-And the party we had at Dayane´s place :)

4/17/17 Páscoa, Chocolate,and BATISMO!!!!

Well this week was preeetty dang great. We met some people with great potential and also had a baptism!! Kazuo got baptized on saturday and then confirmed the next day on Easter Sunday :) It was really amazing :) He can now be sealed to his wife for all time and eternity :) There are no words to describe how happy I am for him :) He is just great :)

We also met 3 girls. Man are they hilarious. While walking around one night trying to talk to some people, Sister Gomes decided to walk down a street and talk to some people that were sittin on the sidewalk. I thought it was a little sketchy, but I didnt feel like anything bad was gonna happen. So we went there and met some of the craziest and funniest girls I've ever met. Maria, Dayane, and Ellen. They are hilarious. We talked to them for about a good 1 1/2 hrs. They live near our apartment, so we visit them a lot and teach them a lot too. They seem to be enjoying the lessons, also us too :) They have 12- 13 years. They are just great :) We invitedthem to church, which they said they were gonna go, but because of Páscoa they had other things to do, it was also Ellen´s birthday.... so yeah... they didn't go to church, but we are teaching them a lot and they are asking lots of questions. but yeah... we are working with them.

We also met a lady and her boyfriend, Julie and Michael. They're from Haiti and don't really speak portuguese very well. But they speak enough to understand. We invited Julie to come to church, which she did!!! Her honey didnt come though... but we talked to them after church and they are just amazing. They speak better spanish than portuguese, so we are gonna ask our Zone Leader to come visit them cuz he and his companion both speak spanish. One is from Chile and the other is from Peru. So we´ll see what happens with that this week :)

About Aginó, our pesquisador that doesn't wanna go to church, but believes everything and knows that everything we say is true.... didn't cvome to church again, but he said that he is going to go next week. He promissed, so I am remembering his promise. I have never wanted someone to just say the word "yes" or in portuguese "sim", so bad in my whole life. I just want him to say that he is going to visit Christ´s church... just one time and actually mean it..... but we are gonna work with him a little more. Our LMA, or missionary Leader of the Ward, Felipe, who is a returned missionary, he returned in December, went with us to teach him... he helped him a lot. Aginó now understands a little more and he knows someone else of the ward. So yeah... that's all that's been happening with him.

We also have Yasmin and Renata, who said they were going go to church too, but they had something else to do that day..... but we at least had Julie who came... who is absolutely amazing and has a really cute accent :)

Well, Easter wise... we had soooo much chocolate :) So good. We got 6 packages of Brasillian Kit Kat, called Bis, soo many truffles, and some cards :) The members here are just great.

So story time. While walking back from a meeting, we walked past a mom and her son, which they were homeless and the son was real sad. We decided to talk to them and tell them that we will be right backwith a surprise. So we left our chocolate in the chapel, so we ran there, got the chocolate and wrote a littlenote and also gave a pamphlet to them with the address of hte church... we then ran back to htem and gave them the treats. They were so happy. Could literally see the light of Christ in their eyes. Patricia and Kaiki were their names. We then left and felt just a little more closer to Christ. I know that through little acts like this we can all share the light of Christ to the World. I love this gospel so much and I know that sharing it is so simple. We dont have to bible bash or tell people about the restoration to share the truthfulness of the gospel, we can just smile or give some chocolate to someone to really share a little Christ with others.

I love you all so much and am so happy for this time I have to share the gospel with others. Don't know exactly if the people I talk to are receiving it, but I know that they are hearing it. I love you all so much and I hope that you had a great Easter :) Love you all and look for Christ´s Light

Love, Sister Ferguson

pics...

Kazuo and us at baptism

Felipe, Kazuo, his brother in law, and Elder Rojas our District Leader and Elder Miranda

Me and Gomes

The three girls, Maria, Ellen and Dayane

4/10/17 Cidade Nova e Pessoas Novas!!!

Hello Everyone!!! Well I am glad to say that Cidade Nova is literally the best. The poeple here are sooo nice and they are soo much more willing and open to learn about the gospel than the people in Cornélio. So that's exciting :) Also.... I looove my companion. She is absolutley amazing :) 

So first off... there wil be no pics cuz i'm on a dinasour of a computer and it won't read my camera.... so yeah.. didn't take any anyways so it doesn't matter :P 

BUT!! Man this week.... a lot happened :) There were some pretty crazy things and also exciting things too. 

So first off, we got here and literally 5 members came up and said, I have someone that wants to be baptized, so come to my house this week and we will set a date and prepare them.... so that was awesome. We weren't able to baptize anyone yet cuz no one actually was able to meet with us this week... but next week yes :) So we are gonna see where this week leads us. Pretty sure we are going to mark one for Saturday and maybe another that same day too..... Not quite sure.. but we will see...... 

Well this week we met Aginó who is 63 and lives alone. He is real interested and we asked him to pray this week about baptism. We also have some other references of members that we werent able to talk to last week, but this week we already have days marked :) 

Also, this is a little off topic, but it was pretty big to me... so this week while doin my hair in the morning... I turned on my straightener and ten literally 1,000,000,000 ants started crawling out of it. There was such an awful smell of burning ants. They were crawling all over my arms my face, my hair... it was disgusting. They are all gone now, but only after 3 days. It was a nightmare. I literally had dreams of ants crawling on me..... but yeah...real gross. I now keep my staightener in a ziploc bag :P 

Another pretty crazy that happened this week that is more spiritual... while making contacts and going from house to house, we met a lady that was really interested in our message about the Restoration. When we were about to talk about the First Vision a lady came up and started talking about how she had already received the missionaries in her home and the messages. We then continued our message and then got to the Book of Mormon. She then said that she received one of those before... she then casually says that she BURNED IT!!!! She burned a Book Of Mormon. She said that she didn't believe anything that was in it and that everything was wrong about our church and how every member thinks they are better than everyone else..... We tried to leave cuz there was nothing but thick contention in the air. We asked to say a prayer, she agreed. During the prayer that Sister Gomes gave... the lady started saying her own, saying how we cannot lie and cannot be a part of the devil.... it was awful.... after we left she continued to bash us with her words. We then left without saying a word. Man... our testimoies of the Book Of Mormon grew so much. We had so much more gratitude for it and knew and KNOW that this Book really is a Book of God. It has the Lord´s words inside of it and it really is the keystone to the Restoration. It has such an impact on people and thier testimonies that some people are afraid of it.... I think that's why she burned it.... she burned that Book of God because she was too afraid to be wrong... too afraid to see the path toward Christ. 

I know that this Church is LITERALLY the Chruch of Jesus Christ in these modern or Latter-Days today. I am so thankful for this time I have to be on a mission to help others with this gospel and to strengthen my testimony. I know that this gospel is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no other way to return to Christ than through His gospel, which is here... in the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints. 

I love you all and I hope that you all have a great week. Read the Book of Mormon. Try to understand that it is truly the words of God. Study it diligently and share it's message. I love you all so much and I will talk to you all next week :) 

Love, Sister Ferguson

04/03/17 Here I Go Again....

Welppppp.... er' one, I'm finally leaving Cornélio Procópio. I'm sad... but also excited, cuz maybe now I can actually progress and find people that are really ready to make a change and willing to make a change.... Cornélio has been the same for over 40 years.. and pretty sure it's gonna stay that way until the end. Poor missionaries that are gonna be here next..... BUT!!!! I'm excited :) I am heading to Cidade Nova in Maringá. It's close to Londrina... so I won't be moving too far. My new companion is Sister Gomes. Don't know her yet... but she is newer on the mission.

Well... this week was pretty good. We still had no luck with people.... but we met some pretty crazy people while making contacts. Met a 40 year old guy without any teeth who apparently wanted a person like me in his life. He was asking me to marry him while his wife was gone in another city..... so that's exciting.. our wedding is going to be so beautiful..... during his dreams. It was pretty funny. When I left he yelled, "Ela não me quer!!" to the world! This means, she doesnt want me. Then Costa and I continued our day pretending to plan my wedding. XD 

We also met a drunk who thought I was from Argentina, so I played along and he asked Costa where she was from, she said Bolívia. When she said Bolívia he then screamed BOLÍVIA!! real loud and gave her a big side hug. My heart sunk XD XD She was cringing the whole time and was trying to get away from him. He then continued to talk about nothing and asked why ..."of latter day saints", is n the name of the church. I tried explaining to him, but he just kept talking. Then we started to leave and he started following us continuing to talk about nothing. Then he asked us where we are form again... I said Argentina!and she said Bolivia!. He then repeated and when he said Bolívia he lunged forward towards the ground and fist bumped... almost punching the ground XD XD It was so hilarious. Then we left and just laughed all day long. XD XD 

Well.... this week was fun :) Also so full of the Spirit. General Conference was literally the best. I loved the talk that Jeffery R Holland gave about how we are all in the Lord´s Choir. Each of our voices are so essential to the music that we are making and we cannot let the music die. It was so great :) 

Well... no one came to watch the conferences with us this week. We invited so many poeple.... but when we went to there houses to pick them up, they were either at the store..... sleeping.. didn't answer or just didn't want to go anymore... so that's sad.. but i am glad I was able to watch the Conferences. They were amazing :) 

Well I love you all lots and I am so happy to be here. ALMOST 9 MONTHS!!! Half way :) It has passed by sooo fast!! Gotta make the best of the time I have left. 

Well I love you all and I hope you all have a great week and if you guys didn't hear or weren't able to watch General Conference look it up :) lds.org General Conference April 2017 :) Love you all and keep singing in the choir!!!!!!!!!

Com amor, Sister Ferguson

Pics.

-Well this is another pic of Gisela. Shes great :) Gonna miss her sooo much :/

-and this is a big tree we saw at a park. I thought it was pretty impressive. 

-then more pics of Me, Gisela and Sister Costa