May 20, 2008

Dear Family,

I have a new companion!! So I have to teach her about the area... all the stuff that I hardly know. Like how to get places and who needs to learn what and where all the Irmães in the ward live and the names of everybody... So I'll have to keep you updated on how that goes. Her name is Sister Christensen. She's American. There are currently four american sisters in the mission and about 30 brazileiras, and they put two of us together! Sister Christensen will go home in August... she's only got 2 transfers left. She's really a sweetie. She is calm and loving and I can already tell she has a very profound testimony. I have so much to learn from her. We also had Nova Força and Interviews with the President this week. In Nova Força I learned that it isn't good enough just to make goals, you have to make specific plans. This is something that we hadn't done before. Already it's starting to make a difference in our work. We always have a purpose and a fall-back plan. And we know why we're doing things.I taught an exciting lesson this past week. We had an investigator who we had high hopes for. She went to church twice with her kids and she enjoyed it and she understood the message... but she wasn't reading or praying. So we went to have a talk with her and she said she wouldn't read or pray. That she didn't need to. That she had lots of faith and that she had a plan for God to help her better her life and lots of other stuff. All of the sudden I had tons to say to her. I testified that she may have a plan for God, but God has a plan for her that is so much greater than her plan. He wants to give her eternal purpose and perspective... etc. etc. I don't remember exactly what I said, but at the time I knew what I should say. And I said it. At the end of my impassioned plea, I challenged her to read and discover the purpose that God has for her... and she said no. It was the saddest and best thing. I knew that it made no apparent difference, but I know that I taught what I ought. I knew I was guided by the spirit... because on my own I couldn't have spoken so boldly or so much portuguese.

Love always,
Whitney