Loving the Christmas Spirit already!

In all reality, it's just me in the Christmas spirit here... hahaha. Sister Colussi refuses to sing Christmas carols with me until tomorrow, when it's actually December. She says that Christmas is too trunky haha. So I just sang by myself... alllllllll morning. We were cleaning our apartment extremely thoroughly today, since next week we have transfers, and one of us might be going.... (I'm not happy with this idea--I love Paragominas so much!! Never want to leave... can I finish my mission here? One more year isn't too much time haha).

Let's see... this week was Thanksgiving right? As it's an American holiday, we didn't do much here.... but I did have the opportunity to study more about gratitude in the scriptures, which was absolutely wonderful! Honestly, being grateful is such an important commandment, with such a great blessing--eternal life. Want to know why? Because when we give thanks to God, we are keeping the most important of all commandments--loving God. And in turn, we will keep the other commandments, right? To show our gratitude. Preaching over. :D

So we are teaching a family of Seventh-day Adventists now... Maurício, Keline, and Renato (their brother-in-law). I think that church has a lot of truth. A lot. It's probably the closest to ours. But that also makes it hard to teach them, because all they want to do is Bible bash and prove you wrong. When I say "they" I mean Renato. Wow. I was honestly so thankful for the Spirit during that lesson... I've never seen someone try so hard to confound us in our words. He even called us the two harlots mentioned in Revelations. But the Spirit just told us to bear our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. And you know what? He's reading the Book of Mormon now, and he's loving it! Haha, it's amazing how the Spirit works.

I don't have much else to say... we are working on three marriages right now, we rode pedalboats, and we had ten investigators come to church this week (I love getting blessings!)... And Marisa and Eliasafe wanted to see where I'm from, so they found our house on google maps haha. I was feeling really trunky that day!

Love you all so much!!

Sister Dickerson

Here are all of our investigators that came to church on Sunday!! They are all super fantastic! :D

Quick Update

This week was... interesting! First--Everson was baptized on Friday!!!! It was such a special experience. He was so happy, so excited, and so nervous!! He already talks about serving a mission, and he wants to go teaching with us this week! He is sooooo great!

Second, I caught the flu this week... we had a conference in Belém, and we had to leave 2 am in order to be there when it started.... and somewhere along the way I got really sick. So don't judge me in the picture of his baptism... I almost fainted. It was sad not to be able to work one day, but I seriously needed rest. The other thing is that we are working really hard to marry an amazing couple so that the wife, Rosilene, can be baptized on Saturday. I have never seen the enemy work so hard to stop something! We have had so many obstacles... but it's all going to work out! Heavenly Father wants our success! He is going to help us!

Love you all so much! I am so thankful for each and every one of you! Remember to pray, study, and help the missionaries. Haha :)

-Sister Dickerson

Semana de Milagres!

Every time I start an email my mind goes blank. Where to begin...

This week we had a zone meeting (finally!! Because we live four hours from Castanhal, we only have the meeting one time per month). It was really nice to see other missionaries finally! We had lots of role-plays, practices and such... it was nice. The only thing I have to complain about is that Sister Colussi and I slept in the house of the Sisters in Castanhal, where the mosquitos were awful... we didn't sleep until about 4 AM. But oh well, we slept on the way back!

Because of our zone meeting, Sister Colussi and I were a little stressed out, since we had to go two days without working. We didn't know how we were going to reach all of our goals, teach all of our investigators, and find new investigators... That's where the miracles started! On Saturday we went on splits with two young women to recuperate the work. Sister C. went into a neighborhood that we had never tracted before, and I went with Elica to visit some of our investigators. Somehow, along the road, we found two new families that are GOLDEN. When Elica and I entered the first house, we asked Maria Lucilene if she wanted to invite her husband to participate. She called him and her three sons. I have never seen a family so intent and focused in a lesson,  or so grateful for a message. Maria cried. It was such a tender experience.

The other miracle is that we are working on two weddings at the moment! Marisa and Eliasafe (we've been teaching them for about a month now) are going to marry here in Paragominas--probably in December or January because it takes longer here. Another investigator, Rosilene, is going to get married this week, through Barcarena (it's a little complicated to explain), so that she can be baptized next week!! I've never seen someone with so much desire to be baptized. She said that it is her dream to be baptized and be born again. :)

Also, yesterday we were teaching Everson and we stopped to talk to his neighbor, do Carmo. She said that the night before she had prayed for the Lord to show her the right way, and that we were that answer to her prayers. We invited her to watch a session of conference with us in the chapel, and she loved it!

Honestly, I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for answering my prayers. He really does hear us. He really does help us. We only have to look to seek His hand. He is always placing people in our paths that need our help--don't be afraid to open your mouth and be an instrument in His hands!

Love you all!

Sister Dickerson

Time Flies!

I can hardly believe that another week went by!! Wow... time flies. I know that the last time I wrote I was feeling a bit stressed... but no worries, everything is "tranquilo" now. Sister Colussi and I got to know eachother A LOT this week (which is good and bad haha), and now I think we work much more as a team. :) I think I'll just jump to the highlights now--

1. One of our investigators has a monkey!!! He's so sweet!! The only thing that I don't like about him is that when I was playing with him he peed on me... Not cool. 

2. We finally have a branch mission leader! Irmão Marcos is helping us make a map of the city--because the area is so big this should make it easier to see which members can help with our investigators and less actives. He is really excited to help, which of course makes the rest of us even more excited!!

3. Everson is still an awesome investigator. :) We brought him to a family home evening this week (see photo), and nearly every day afterward he has called us to see when we can visit him again. He is loving the Book of Mormon and praying lots about baptism. :D We also are teaching a girl named Juliana--she is only 11 years old, but she has been coming to church every sunday for the past month, brings the Book of Mormon to school, and marks the scriptures during our lessons. :) The only problem is convincing her mom to let her be baptized... It'll all work out. :)

Love you all so much!

Sister Dickerson

Halloween!

Actually, people don't celebrate Halloween here... but Sister Colussi and I did. :) On Saturday on our way home we bought a small pumpkin (I had a lot of fun making the jack-o-lantern :) ). We also found an old sheet and made a ghost--you can never go wrong with a classic. :) I think it's a good lesson of the spirit world... with the gospel being preached to the dead and all (see Peter 3:19-20 haha).

Overall this week was... crazy. To be perfectly honest I've been feeling quite a bit of stress. However, it is so amazing how the Lord places little miracles along the way to lighten our load! On Saturday a guy stopped us in the street and said that he had a friend in Belém who is a member. She had said to stop the missionaries because they had something really special to give him. We took down his address and invited him to church, and he came!!! (Trust me folks, this doesn't happen). His name is Everson, and he's an eleito!!! He liked church a lot, and when we taught the restoration afterwards and invited him to be baptized, he was so excited. :) We also taught his friend and sister, and I think it was the first time I heard someone, without hestitation say "Of course!" when we asked if they would be baptized if they received an answer to their prayer. Foi bom demais!

The hardest thing about this week was that my favorite investigator decided that she isn't strong enough to keep the commandments... so we had to cut her from our investigator pool. It was so hard to do... but when a person doesn't want to change, there isn't much we can do. However, I know that, at least, I planted a seed. And she knows this church is true, and when she decides to change, she knows where to go. :) 

Anyhow... my mind went blank about the other things I wanted to say. So I'll just leave it at that. Love you all!

-Sister Dickerson