WEEK 13: September 10, 2018 "ESTA CHOVENDO DATAS... but not pictures."

Sister Gerlach, Sister Carvalho & me

OLA!!!

GUYS THIS WEEK WAS LITERALLY COMPLETELY FULL OF MIRACLES!!! I don't have time to tell you all the miracles of the week but there were SO MANY!!!

So we have been working so hard this week!!! And it totally was reflected in our key indicators!! (The indicators that must be reported by missionaries weekly have been reduced from nine to four: investigators baptized and confirmed, investigators with a baptismal date, investigators who attend sacrament meeting, and new investigators.)  WE HAD A WHOLE SACRAMENT MEETING FULL OF INVESTIGATORS! Okay that is not exactly true, but like 6!!!

Okay but the biggest miracle. So there is a couple living here that were our "eternal investigators." Their son is serving a mission in Mexico but the woman DID NOT want to marry the man. Helio (the man) wanted to be baptized SO BADLY! He comes to church every sunday and he just wanted to be baptized but Lací (the woman) would not marry him because she didn't want to go through the trouble of divorcing her other husband. But this week we got a call from a member that they invited them to a family night and that LACÍ FINISHED HER DIVORCE PAPERS! So we were all too excited to go the Family Night. We arrived and Lací told us that SHE WANTS TO MARRY HELIO!! We had an awesome family night focused on the restoration and THEY ACCEPTED THE INVITATION TO BE BAPTIZED! Guys. I have been working with this couple my WHOLE MISSION AND THEY ARE GOING TO BE BAPTIZED AND MARRIED! So now we get the awesome opportunity to work with all the Sisters in the ward and plan an awesome WEDDING!!

Also PIZZA HUT FAMILY!!! Mateus and Edwardo (the sons) accepted our invitation to be baptized also!! And Edwardo READ THE BOOK OF MORMON! Obviously not all of it but he read the part that we asked him to read!!! Michelle (The mom of the pizza hut family) is very very stuck in her ways. She keeps inviting us to attend her church so that is hard. But Mateus and Edwardo are doing AWESOME!!! We are working now to make sure that Michelle feels our love as well and that Edwardo and Mateus have friends in the ward! But MIRACLE!!!!

This week we also visited a less active named Tiago. His wife is not a member and last week he stopped me and Sister Lins on the street and asked us to visit his wife because he decided he wants a family in the gospel. MIRACLE! So this week we visited them and taught them about the Plan of Salvation. AND SARAH (his wife) ACCEPTED OUR INVITATION TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!

Guys this area is CHANGING SO FAST!! All the people we are visiting are really able to feel the spirit and I am more confident in my testimony and my portuguese and Sister Carvalho and Sister Gerlach want to work SO HARD! We have knocked on so many doors this week I can't even count! BUT IT IS AWESOME! I go to bed every night exhausted and wake up feeling completely energized and I LOVE IT!!!! This work is awesome and I am so excited to see what the rest of this transfer brings!!!

SURPRISE! I have a challenge for you this week! So this month I am trying to study all the conference talks from last conference IN PORTUGUESE in preparation for the next conference next month! My invitation is for each of you to pick one conference talk, maybe one you don't remember very well, or one that you love; and study it. Study it. Don't just read it. Study it. Look up scriptures that relate to it, read parts of other talks, really pray to learn something new. I promise you will find new insights and feel better prepared for this coming conference!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT!!

Com amor,
Sister Becca Hammond

P.S. (Mom question) How did it go this week showing your new companions the ropes of your area? 
HARD!! I actually lead them to the wrong house for lunch and another day I just went in the complete wrong direction. It is so much harder to find anything when the streets don’t have numbers. But they have patience and also don’t mind walking up a thousand hills. Because that is what this area is. Hills.