September 27, 2010

Olá família!

All is well here in metrópole! IT´s warming up really fast here!!! We´re going into summer now and it literally looks like a desert, and the sun is getting more hot each day, don´t worry though, i´m using sun block :) THe other day we were walking down the street and it was completely silent (it was after lunch) no one was in the street, the wind was blowing, the sun blazing hot and you look down the street and you could see the sand blowing in the wind...I felt like i was in a western movie and i was thinking of the music that you hear in a scene like this(not sure you know what i´m talking about, but it makes sense in my head :). I´m used to the heat though, i think working on the farm and being in the sun a lot helped me be more accustomed to the weather here. My comp dies though, she hates the sun and she´ll walk in any shade possible, she runs to get into the shade (and im not exagerating either) it´s quite funny really.

SO i have a few experiences to share about prayer. I have another story about losing keys(goes well with oregon coast story :) So we were grocery shopping and we headed back to the house with all our things. We get there and neither of us has the keys. We were trying to think where they could´ve fallen out. We took everything out of our bags dumped everything out, but no keys. So we left our groceries at our neighbors house and we went to retrace our steps. We stopped at a little bakery to get something to eat because we were starving and during this whole time I was praying like crazy that we´d be able to find the keys. We´re sitting at a little table and i had the thought to look in my bag again. I opened up the frint zipper and looked in a little slot that i didn´t know i had i pulled out some chap stick that had fallen down inside and underneath the chap stick were the keys! I couldn´t believe it! I was so grateful and i said another prayer thanking heavenly father for the prompting and that i found the keys. I´ve found myself praying for many things that i wouldn´t have before. I pray for everything, it´s amazing how the power of prayer works. A couple of weeks ago we had a zone p-day and the elders had told us what church building we were meeting at. We get there and the whole place is locked up. We didn´t have our cell phone, both of us had forgotten our planners which has the elders´ numbers and had no way to find out where they were. ONce again i started praying...within 3 minutes members in a car pull up, has a cell phone, and has the elders number so we could call. WE got a hold of them and the members took us to where the elders were. I know that the Lord answers prayers, and we can pray to our father in whatever situation and he will answer! So last week we were teaching one of our investigators and at the end he wanted me to talk in english, so i gave a little part of the lesson in english. You guys, i couldn´t think of half the words, it was horrible. I started to talk in english and then half the words came out in portuguese it was so weird. I guess this is a good sign!! Well i gotta go, i have more to talk about but im out of time. I love you all and hope all is well!

love,

ariana

September 6, 2010

Olá!

Wow this week was crazy!

So we´re working with these two kids right, a girl and a boy, they´re cousins. They are honestly some of the elect! We´ve been teaching them and they just keep on progressing more and more. We have a baptism date and they were excited about and all and we warned them that now it´s really close to the baptism to stay strong and continue to read and pray every day because Satan will work his hardest to stop them from being baptized. Satan is NO JOKE people! The VERY NEXT DAY.....24 HOURS...we were already seeing a change. Friday night we taught them the 3rd lesson about the principles of the gospel. At the end of the lesson we said we wanted to move up their baptism date to sunday because they were ready. They said one more week, we thought, ok, we still need to teach them the 10 commandments, we can have family home evening with them and visit them each day (they live right above us) We said ok, and right as we agreed for the following week I had the worst feeling come over me and I though, nope this is NOT okay. The next day is when we started seeing the changes. Saturday night me and my comp were talking about them and thinking wow, a whole week and we´re seeing changes already. Then my comp says to me, "sister, right when we agreed to have their baptism next week i had a really bad feeling and felt that it needs to be this sunday".....i couldn´t believe it, i told her i had the EXACT same feeling. Right after that we went to talk to them. We told them that it´s very important for them to pray tonight(saturday night) the hardest they´ve ever prayed and ask if it be right to be baptized the following day. We told them after they say their prayer to wait and just listen for a couple minutes and that we would talk to them at church. THey said ok, we get to church and they didn´t show. We were really worried. We still are. WE´re going to talk with them though and see what´s going on. But wow! Goes to show you how hard Satan is working to keep people from having the gospel in their lives.

The language is still coming, being patient and just doing my best. We played volleyball today!!! I was super excited. I could tell I hadn´t played in awhile :( Then we played soccer afterwards...and honestly I think i played better soccer than i did volleyball. My first time actually playing REAL soccer....and i made 3 out of the 5 goals :) me and my comp played with 4 of the guys from the ward. It was lots of fun! Well i was going to send pictures this week, but the place where we usually go, the internet wasn´t working so we had to come to a place where it takes FOREVER and a day to load the pictures, so hopefully next week you´ll get the pics :) well i better go. sounds like everyone´s staying busy!!! Hope you guys have a great week! I love you all!!!!!!!

Love, sister ariana salisbury