Brazil: Week 9 - Happy Easter and Dengue day...

Well, sadly, my companion has dengue. Dont as me what it is because all I know is that everyone and their dog has it here in Jau. She is super sick and has to stay in bed all day. Tadinha. (Dont worry, we are benig well taken care of). All ive got to say, is I have way too much time on my has because we have had to stay inside since last Wednesday.... So far I have read all of True to the Faith and I am almost finished with the all of the Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon. I have also watched all of the "District" and "Finding Faith in Christ" in English, French, Portuguese,  and some weird language that I thought was funny to listen too. 

Well, before all of this happened, we went to Barra Bonita with a recent convert last P-day and on Tuesday we had Multizona (CIVILIZATION!!!!!!!) Multizona is a huge conference in Piracicaba with 2 or more zones. And since Jau is soooooooooooooooooooo far away from EVERYTHING, it was so good to remember that there are actually other missionaries :) ha Our president talked a lot about how we can make our mission better by being better missionaires and representatives of Jesus Christ. Afterwards everyone was pumped to work even harder to bring this gospel to everyone!

Ive had some time to ponder these last couple days on my purpose as a missionary. Which is, to INVITE OTHER TO COME UNTO CHRIST BY HELPING THEM  RECEIVE THE RESTORED GOSPEL through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. When Christ was on the earth, He established His church, with 12 apostles, priesthood (the authority and power of God), ordinances like baptism by immersion, sacrament etc. When Jesus Christ and his apostles were killed the priesthood was no longer on the earth and teh doctrines and ordinances were corrupted. But, through Joseph Smith the fulness of the gospel has been restored! We have the same church that Christ established on the earth today! I know this is true. I know that this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it with all my heart. this is why I paid to leave my family, friends, school adn other opportunities to come to Brazil, not knowing anyone or the language to share the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone. This is why over 83,000 youth of this church have done the same thing. To invited EVERYONE to come unto Christ. 

I love my Savior, Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for all he has done for me and all of you. 18 months is just a small portion of my time that I can give back to Him. 

Have a wonderful week adn I hope you had a wonderful Easter :)

Sister Keeler

Brazil: Week 8 - BUT WAIT! There's more!

 I had the opportunity to watch General Conference this weekend....but in Portuguese. After the first session my head just hurt from trying to understand even a tenth of what they were saying. Então, I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE hearing your thoughts about General Conference! (aka. fill me in on what happened ;) 

 Also, this week, something has come to my attention. I SERIOUSLY do not know how people meet their significant other on the mission! Either missionaries are blind or just truly see with Christ´s eyes, because I try SO hard to look decent, I really do, but it lasts about an hour.... After extreme heat, then attacked by wind, then drenched in a flash of rain, then baked in heat again, I just look like a complete mess. I think the only reason people acualy talk to me is because they feel bad for the poor american! ha. After my mission I will definitely photoshop some pictures.....

Sister Kimbrell loves to work, which is fantastic becuase so do I! And, she is really good at grammar and always corrects me. We have been working so hard, especially this last week to serve and find new investigators. Last week we had to drop a couple, which is always sad. BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! Miraculously there were more people in the streets this week and we talked with the whole world. seriously.We had exchanges this week and during exchanges, I was on exchanges this week, we found this family (from a really old teaching record!) that just barely overcome a lot of problems with drugs and stuff. We asked the father what made him stop everything and he said because of his new baby and the importance of family. We had a really good lesson and I am excited to teach them. Also, on Saturday morning as Sister Kimbrell and I rolled into the church (not literally, its just a 30 minute walk....up hill.) for the General Womens conference, we had a miracle happen! A member was showing this guy and his grandma around the church and we started talking with him and found out that he is really interested in Geneology and found the familysearch website and wanted to come see our church. So, he took his grandma and just came! SOZINHO! How cool!? Amazingly enough, they came when the church was open and they stayed for the General Womens conference! 

I have been studying the atonement recently, and I just want to let you know that I know that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. He truly knows everything you go through. I know that through the atonement we can be forgiven and also become better. Through Christ all things are possible. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And, He shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind... He will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death." (John 3:16, Alma 7:11-12) As we are preparing for the Easter season, I challenge you to truly study the atonement and to gain a personal testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I know that my Redeemer lives. I hope that you have a blessed week.   

Sister Keeler

Brazil: Week 7 - Be a representative of Christ all week long, not just on Sundays

Well, lets just say, having two Americans is EXTREMELY hilarious! With Brazilians being American is sometimes really good and sometimes its really bad.... I will just leave it at that. 

Anyways, I absolutely LOVE my companion! Sister Kimbrell is from North Carolina and has a southern accent when she speaks english! SO COOL! She arrived in Brasil in November (I found out there are only about 10 American sisters here!) We speak in Portuguese all day, every day, and after 9:30 pm we speak in English. Surprisingly we are really good at never speaking english! Sometimes we forget how to speak English when 9:30 rolls around so we end up still speaking Portuguese!

 Our area is enormous! It covers the east part of Jaú and 3 other cities.(we hardly ever go to those other cities because it takes about 30-40 minutes by bus and we also dont have money to go there) The thing thats been really hard for me so far is that Jaú is really different from Americana, people use different words, different phrases, people are rich so they arent always the nicest.......(this area has only had missionaries for 20 years) , its a BRANCH, and most days there is literally NO ONE in the streets to do contacts. (One day, I will take a video of how quiet the streets are). But, I love it here! Especially since Jaú is the capital for womens shoes :) 

There are definitely people here ready to hear the gospel and they have real intent to learn and they just feast upon the words of Christ. It is really fantastic to see. We had three new investigators (S1., J. and S2. this week and two of them were a reference from a convert that got baptized in January (He has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and is already in Ether! He is amazing!) They have amazing questions and J. has already read all of 1st Nephi in one week and he was asking us questions about it! AWESOME! 

Our mission president, President Canuto, spoke yesterday at our Branch Conference and he talked about our baptismal covenant. When we get baptized we covenant that we will take upon the name of Jesus Christ, always remember Him, and keep His commandments. He focused on taking upon the name of Jesus Christ and being true representatives of Jesus Christ. Its not just a Sunday thing! We need to be representatives all week long, which includes VT and Home teaching, GOING OUT WITH THE MISSIONARIES, going to the temple etc. I know that sometimes life gets busy but we need to remember where our priorities are, I think I read about this in a conference talk by Henry B. Eyring this week... anyways, I know that when you put God first it definitely wont be easy but it will be worth it. The blessings will be immense! 

love you! Have an amazing week serving the Lord!

Sister Keeler

BRAZIL: Week 6 - DUH DUN DAAAAA! Transfers....

First of all, before I forget. IM BEING TRANSFERED! to Lago Silverio! (in the city of Jau) My new companion is American and her name is Sister Kimbrell (I THINK thats what my zone leader said.......) Keeler and Kimbrell...... An American in Americana...... Very funny President. :) 

Sister Moraes and I had a great, little hectic, last week together. First off, we found some of our 'missing" investigators. Heavenly Father knows all, and he knows how to put us in a place

                                                               Baptism of E!

Spot the three americans! haha(:
p.s. elders are awful at taking pictures

LOVE THE LAKE!!! SO BEAUTIFUL!

my companion and I

at exactly the right moment. We went to teach D. in the plaza and low and behold there was N. and R.!!!! They dont know their new address but they gave us the best directions they could and said they would be in the plaza couple times a week. Our lessons with D. are always so fun! We speak in Portuguese, a member in the ward from Haiti speaks Criole, and we read scriptures in French! He had some really great questions and committed to baptism! I am sad that I wont be here when he does get baptized. 

We went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders which was so fun! I absolutely love exhanges! Sadly, while I was having a great time learning, talking, and giving this really funny Brasilian an american quarter (which she thought was the coolest thing in the world) Sister Moraes was having a panic attack. The baptism of E. was supposed to be on Friday but they called Thursday afternoon and said that they needed to do it that night because they are going on vacation. BUT! Everything worked out and we had the baptism! And, her father was able to baptize her! 

We also had a missionary fireside this weekend. Everyone wore their name plaques (We invited the whole stake) and we had testimonies by young men waiting for their call and a couple RMs then there were a couple special hymns sung by all of the missionaries in our stake (accompanied by yours truly) and then President Canuto gave a talk. It was really cool and it really changed the perspective of missionary work in our stake. EVERY MEMBER a missionary!

I hope you have a "muito legal" week!

  

Sister Keeler

Brazil: Week 5 - PICTURES!!

BAM!! Take that! PROOF that I CAN TAN!
Look at that watch line. It has only been 5 weeks!
Rachel, you owe me 5 bucks!(;
 

The lake in our area is so beautiful! but I would never want to swim in it...

I LOVE BRASIL!!!:D

At the end of a hard week we receive a double rainbow! God is good!

All of the sudden it started POURING rain, but it was still sunny! So weird!

 And we had a double rainbow so of course I had to take a picture! :) hahah