Week 8 in Brasil!

Hello from a sketchy computer shop with screaming children, gabbing old ladies and bugs crawling on my computer screen. Woo Brasil!

This week was most definitely a succes. This week was eventful! After emailing last Pday, Sister Ferreyra and I visited Centro for the 1st time- sozinhas. It was a miracle that we navigated the bus system and arrived. Centro is like the center of Fortaleza. Centro is just blocks and blocks of shops and stores and street vendors and brazilian-ness. People are selling just about everything you can imagine. The whole experence was a great adventure and made me love (and understand) Brazil even more. 

I just need to tell you how much I love my companion. Sister Ferreyra is just amazing. We worked really hard this week. Really hard as in literally running in between our appointments, finding and teaching a bunch of new investigators and marking 5 more dates of baptism. It was an exhausting week  with tons of work. I really don´t know how I can be so happy and have so much energy doing what I´m doing. I absolutely love being a missionary. I love and doing nothing but talking about the Savior all day everyday I love helping and inviting poeple to know the savior more fully in their lives. 

Our 11 year old investigator Junior was baptized yesterday. It was just so, so happy! He was so ready and he has so much faith! He has a smile bigger than his face. His home and family life is quite sad and it was so amazing to help him have a new ward family and bring something into his life that gives so much hope. 

Today my heart is so full of gratitude. This is by far the hardest, most exhausting and sometimes frustrating thing I have ever done in my life and yet I am so happy. I was invited in Relief Society yesterday to stand up and share my testimony about missionary work. ! I was fighting tears the whole time.What an honor to be here as a servant of the Lord. What a huge blessing! It´s amazing to feel myself changing. 

This week I could really see my growth. I´ve learned how  to be bold and just say it like it is and follow the spirit and still be loving. I really am seeing miracles everyday in my language and teaching abilities. I can communicate in day to day life and teach with the spirit and powerfully call people to repentence all in Portuguese! 

I really don´t have much more to say and remembering and typing in English is hard. I love this work. I love completely forgetting myself and my personal will everyday. I love service! My challenge for all of you this week is to just do one act of service that is super inconvenient or out of the way. When we sacrifice our will or time for the Lord we will always see miracles in our lives.

I love you all and I´m so grateful for all of the prayers and love.

Com amor, 

Sister Brown

ps- the mail service is up and running again after 3 weeks of strikes. Woo! Hopefully my letters will catch up to me and sorry if I haven´t replied.