Our Joy is Profound

Happy Irmas

This week was SO WONDERFUL!! After p-day last week, everything we had marked fell through (again) and we went home to do weekly planning. We were both rather discouraged and not very excited for the week to come, and I think that fear humbled us. We knelt down and sincerely asked the Lord for guidance. We then began the most spiritual planning session I have had on my whole mission.

As we went through all the forms from the Area Book, organizing how we would get through them all that week, the Spirit said to PUT THE PILE AWAY. We both felt very strongly that was not how the Lord wanted us to use our time this week. We then began to step by step, make a totally different plan of how we would work with the members and which previous investigators we would keep trying to find. Can I just say how different this week was than the week before? We found 11 NEW INVESTIGATORS. We saw miracles within this family, which is basically the branch.

Our days passed painlessly, we felt joy, we found people who wanted to live the gospel. On Friday, we were doing contacts and found a lady named Fernanda. She said "Is there something different about your church?" You can imagine our excitement when she asked, and we said, "Why yes, there is!" We started talking about how our families can be eternal, and it really hit her. I have always been shocked that on my mission, people don't seem to care that much when we talk about the eternal and divine nature of the family, but Fernanda did!

She invited us in, and we taught the Plan of Salvation. We taught her about the spirit world and how the spirits who didn't want to or have an opportunity to accept the gospel will receive that opportunity. She was beyond thrilled, and said that her church teaches that her father can't go to heaven because he was never baptized. But, she had always believed a loving God would not do that. The entire lesson, I felt like she was some MTC teacher in disguise because the things she would say were just too good to be true. She is so elect! We marked to teach her the Restoration the next day. She loved it just as much.

She said she stayed up until the early morning thinking about the things we said. She called her Mom and told her all about what we had taught her, and now her Mom wants to meet with us, too!! WE ARE SO HAPPY!! She is incredible! She has 3 little boys who also ask incredible questions. The 9-year old asked, "What happens when a child goes to the spirit world but didn't do the 5 things?" (which are faith, repentance, baptism, gift of Holy Ghost, and endure to the end). His little 3-year old brother asked, "If God loves us, why does He let people be bad?" They all raise their hands to ask questions through the whole lesson.

Anyways, every single night this week has an appointment, we are SOOOO HAPPY!!! Fun fact, we actually live closer to Rio de Janeiro than the city of Sao Paulo.

I am SO grateful Sister Malan is my companion. Things are still kind of hard in the area, but it is a tender mercy from the Lord to finish my mission here. If I had finished my mission in Poá, I would have continued to have crazy success and have so many people that love me and that I love and have every single day packed with appointments, so easy and enjoyable. Here, we sweat for our bread, we suffer; therefore, our joy is even more profound when we see the fruits.  

This is the "Mountain Giant," the people who live here say he will wake up after the Second Coming!! Can you see his profile??

Mountain Giant

Love to all,
Sister Ludlam ♥

Quite Superb in Cachoeira and Cruzeiro!

Sister Malan and Ava

This week was CRAZY, really long, and really quite superb.

So basically, Cachoeira Paulista has about 20 actives members, half of which are children. There is no young men or young women organizations. The branch literally consists of 1 massive family, all cousins and brothers and mother in laws. We also discovered that we are responsible for the area next door, Cruzeiro, which is the farthest area in our entire mission. They have never had sisters, where as Cachoeira hasn't had them for what seems like 3 years. The areas are GORGEOUS!! President said there are mountains because he knows how much I love mountains, but a few elders told me, "Nahhh! They are just really big hills." HOWEVER! When we got here it was cloudy for about 2 days, but one morning we woke up and the sun was shining and.. BAM! There were these massive, beautiful mountains next to us that were finally uncovered, it took my breathe away!! Also, the stars are simply incredible. There are lots of horses and grass and I love it.

Monday: I got into the capital and got to spend the day with Sister de Jesus. Oh, how I love that girl! We had a wonderful dinner and testimony meeting. I was the only one not going home that week, and I just happened to be the last to speak. I talked about the miracle of sacrifice, and how it is ESSENTIAL for happiness.

Tuesday: We went to the São Paulo Temple and it was my first time actually going inside. It was a very sacred experience I will always treasure. We went to a Churrasqueria buffet afterwards, and the meat was SUPER SALTY to make you buy more drinks. I held strong. Then we got back to the escritorio and it was time to make the long voyage to Guaratinguetá. Thankfully, the only 2 other sisters in our zone (Sister Lima and Sister Mendes) happened to be there so I didn't have to go alone. There was a big mix up and, unfortunately, Sister Malan was unable to get a bus, so I stayed the night with Sisters Lima and Mendes. It was lovely.

Wednesday: In the rain we lugged my two little but heavy suitcases to their chapel for a district meeting. We then went to pick up Sister Malan at the Rodoviaria. We went to eat lunch in Lorena with the sisters, and then payed their LMA to take us to our area because he was the only one who

Our house has black lights.

knew where we lived. We FINALLY arrived in our area at about 3:30. We discovered that our area had had elders the last transfer, and the house was in much need of a clean up (hahaha). We unpacked our stuff and bought food. We tried to mark a visit with the Branch President, but he marked an FHE with us and his whole family the next night. When we were leaving the super market, someone said, "Hello, Sisters!" and it was him! He took us to his house to meet his whole family really quick.

Thursday: When you "open an area," you have to start from ground zero because we didn't have information of who was being taught the last transfer, who is less active or a recent convert, so we organized our Area Book (with forms of all previous investigators) into the different neighborhoods and got to work! We spent all day just knocking doors and seeing if the people would let us teach them. I am very grateful I genuinely like knocking doors and walking in the street all day because that is really all you have to do when you open an area. That night we had an FHE with the President's family. They talked about Nephi building a ship and how we need to go to the mountain and inquire of the Lord. I felt like it was meant for us. ♥

Friday: More Area Book files, all day. HOWEVER, we live next to a member named Mariana and she gave us a reference of a less active, Vilma. When we got there with Mariana, we also met Josiane, who lives with Vilma for right now. We taught them and marked Josiane for baptism! WOOHOO!

Saturday: More knocking. We also visited with Josiane again, she read the Book of Mormon and prayed and said she felt really good. We talked about the Sabbath Day and everyone agreed to go to church the next day. At night we had a Noite de Caldo (Soup Night) with some investigators who don't want commitmen,t but they love missionaries, so we went and met a ton of new people who gave us their addresses and numbers! Yay!

Sunday: At 8:30 we knock (clap) at Vilma's door, no one answers. After about 5 minutes of making a lot of noise, a man comes over and says they left early to visit a neighboring town. I was really sad.

Our Chapel Warehouse

We got to the church, and it was SO DIFFERENT! It is basically a warehouse with plastic wall dividers. The baptismal font is a tarp draped over metal poles and a hose. There were 17 people there, at the end of the meeting 2 more families showed up (coming to a total of 25), but then they left again. After church, the President of the neighboring town, Cruzeiro, called us and said they have 3 references for us! They came and picked us up and the rest of the day they just chauffeured us around and we taught many many people. After the whole week, we had 4 new investigators in Cachoeira, but just on Sunday we also got 4 new investigators in Cruzeiro. They are trying to show President they need missionaries again, so they are working really hard with us!

So, all in all, this week was exhausting. I forgot how much energy it takes to open an area. You have to get so many "no's" before something goes right. When we finally marked Josiane, we felt like the

Lord is seeing our effort and it is paying off. There is certainly a reason Sister Malan and I are here, it just is going to take a lot of patience and diligence to figure it out. We are doing our best to stay pumped up and not get overwhelmed or discouraged. I LOVE Sister Malan. She teaches so simply and purely, is very level headed, and is just so enjoyable to be around. She has a LOT of faith. We decided when we got here to fast every week of the transfer.

This week we fasted to see miracles and help Cachoeira grow, but we realized we need to be more specific. This week we were planning on fasting to find a family because that is exactly what this branch needs, so I told that to the sister leader of the mission. She said you need to be even more specific than that, ask for a family with a mom, a dad, 2 teenage boys, and a young woman, or something like that. We now pray to know what kind of family would be best to help the branch, what kind of family the Lord already has prepared for us.

Well, I have a feeling this week is going to be even more exhausting, but I am ready for it! With the Lord and sister Malan at my side, I know we are going to discover very shortly why the Lord has sent us here.

Love,
Sister Ludlam

Surprise Transfer out to the Country!

WHELP! It turns out I am NOT staying in Poá with Sister Quieroz! I am being transferred to the North Pole of the my mission (well, actually it would be like the west pole. ha ha). My area is called Chaoeira Paulista, Zona Guaratingueta! It is the farthest zone in the whole mission. Our mission has 8 zones, but Guaratingueta takes up half of it because it is all farmland.

Chaoeira Paulista, Zona Guaratingueta

 For my whole mission there have only been elders sent there, but President has decided to open this area with sisters! Me and my companion, Sister Malan, will be pioneers!! I AM SO EXCITED! I met Sister Malan once at the temple. She is American, very sweet, and the thing everyone says about her is that she is a HARD WORKER! WOOHOOO!!

So, as I said a few weeks ago, President told me I would probably finish my mission in Poá, so I was TOTALLY not expecting to be transferred. Sister Quieroz were doing weekly planning and a long- term plan for the transfer (my last 6 weeks AHH!!) and I was just SO EXCITED. Our only problem  was a lack of time to teach all of the elite people we had found last transfer. Three people were already marked for baptism, and many more with so much potential! I thought if I was transferred, my heart would be shattered into a million pieces.

However, when I received the news, once the shock wore off a little bit, I was FILLED WITH JOY! I can feel that this is a tender mercy from the Lord, sending me to open this area with Sister Malan during my last transfer. Yesterday, President called me to explain what was going to happen and I just felt so blessed and excited. I would have LOVED to finish my mission in Poá, but I am even more excited for all the miracles we will see in Cachoeira Paulista. Oh, and I am finally leaving the Itaquaquecituba Stake ;)

I am currently in the capital, writing in a random lan house and can't seem to send pictures. I am sorry!

These past few days have been very emotional, having to say goodbye so suddenly to so many special people. It wasn't sad, just very special to realize how many wonderful people I have had to privilege to love. HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!

Love Sista Lu

BEST WEEK EVER!

Almost all my companions are still on the mission!

Last week I said we would begin to teach 8 new people, and truly, this week we have 8 NEW INVESTIGATORS! The interesting thing is that they are a totally different group of 8 people than we were planning for. Unfortunately, none of them went to church (sigh....) but we still had 5 investigators at church we weren't even expecting to come! This week we have marked visits with many, many more people with much promise!

This week our ward had a Festa Julina and two new investigators actually came, Jonathan and Rosana! Jonathan is a student at Bishop's English school. They have two little boys, and

Fest Julina

a girl on the way--she will be born in August. Jonathan won the blackout bingo and as the grand prize, a MASSIVE teddy bear, which he gave to Rosana for the baby. They were SOOO happy about it, hahaha! They were some of the last people there and helped clean everything up. I will never forget seeing Rosana cleaning the floor, 8 months pregnant, and everyone saying, "No, no! You really don't need to!" But she insisted. They will make a wonderful addition to the Ward Poá. :)

Jonathan and Julina

This week Sister Quieroz and I had many, many spiritual experiences. Every day, my heart is just so grateful and light because I canpreach the gospel. It makes me SO happy, but as my favorite song says, "It's not about you! It's for the people who are blessed by what you do."  Here is a link if you want to listen!

It is an extreme privilege to participate in the reactivation of inactive members and help them sing the song of redeeming love again. It is such a delight to teach the Restoration every day and invite people to let the fullness of the gospel change their lives and bring them joy. Just like when I began my mission in Ogden, it is in the small moments that I feel the most joy and gratitude to be here as a missionary.

I love you all and I love my Savior!

Mae e Filha

Blessings Poured Over Us!

I don't have much time, but I just have to tell you about the finding miracles I promised last week!

Something I have realized ever since the beginning of the mission is that rarely we find the elate by our own efforts, but as we work and give our all, the Lord then begins to pours blessings over us. The prepared fall in our lap. President Silcox really can testify of this. Every single person he taught that was baptized during his mission was a reference!

This week we had many elate (prepared people) poured out over us. This week we will begin to teach 8 new people who are just so excited to receive the gospel! I AM SO HAPPY!

This past week has been really lovely because we were able to spend every day in our area for the first time all transfer. We got a lot of good stuff done. We have now officially contacted every person on that massive list we made 4 weeks ago, woo!! I will tell you about the teaching miracles that are going to happen this week next Monday!

I love my Savior and I am so honored to carry His name and my family name on my chest every single day. It is such a privilege to be a missionary, to play a part of God's wonderful work.

Love,
Sister Lú