Miracles already

Well...I have 16 minutes to summarize 4 days. You know me and summarizing...this will be a challenge. 

 

As you know I got here on Wednesday and immediately started learning Portuguese. We were then told that we were to be teaching an "investigator" already on Friday completely in Portuguese. These "investigators" are paid workers here at the MTC and they pretend that they don't know anything about the church and you have to knock on their door and sit down with them and have a lesson discussing the doctrines and answering questions....all in Portuguese. My companion and I were pretty terrified but we spent hours praying and planning.  I never ever thought that after one day at the MTC learning Portuguese I could knock on a door and have a whole discussion with an investigator about the church. The gift of tongues is so real. 

 

Our first time meeting "Andre" we didn't really understand anything that he said. It was really hard coming back to the classroom and sitting down together and trying to piece together what we thought he said he needed and wanted to learn from us, and then on top of that trying to create a second lesson centered around his needs? It was so hard. But we managed to figure it out enough to create a second lesson. 

 

The second lesson Sister J. and I went into a classroom right before the lesson and just prayed that we would know what "Andre" was saying to us so we could be effective. We went in feeling the spirit so strongly and what happened next was just truly a miracle. We sat down and started talking and not only did I understand almost everything he said....but I just started talking in broken but totally understandable Portuguese all about the spirit and prayer and Joseph Smith and the power of the Book of Mormon. We read scriptures with him and he even gave the closing prayer for us! We got to bear our testimonies and he said we could come back.  I'm still not exactly sure what I said but I know that the spirit blessed us with this miracle because we went into it only having two Portuguese lessons total and were totally able to communicate. It was crazy.

 

On Saturday night Sister J. and I were pretty tired of studying so we decided to go to the basement where our classroom is with the other sisters in our district and find the Brazilian missionaries who are learning English. We found them and were able to help each other speak the languages! He would speak to us in English and we would speak to him in Portuguese. It was realy neat to be able to help each other and practice in such a real and effective way that was so much more helpful (and entertaining) than reading our language books. The Elder told us that he has a friend serving his mission in Campinas and his friend just wrote to him saying that they met a lady who is not a member who had a dream that sister angels were coming to Campinas to teach her the truth and she was waiting for them. This Elder was so excited to meet us and he took a picture with us and sent it to this missionary to show him he "met the angels that are coming to Campinas to teach this lady". It was so amazing. I'm still blown away. This church is true. My testimony is constantly being strengthened and I feel so blessed to be able to have this experience.

 

Well it is coming on two minutes left now so it looks like I will have to wait to write all the rest!

 

Love,

Sister Heyer