Christmas Missionary Newsletter

Oí!

How are all you missionaries doing? For those of you who don´t know I´m here serving in the Brasil Fortaleza Mission. As of right now (November), I´ve been out eight months. I don´t know about you, but for me the time has flown by! It´s been a great experience so far and I´ve grown so much. A mission is such a blessing, for the missionary and those you are serving.

So a little bit about my mission. Brasil Fortaleza is a huge city next to the beach with a population of 2.5 million people, located Northeast of Brasil. My first area, Baturité, is about a 3 hour bus ride from Fortaleza and is located up in the mountains. It was a great experience, they have a small branch of about 100 members with 40-45 attending regularly. It was a lot of work to serve there, but I absolutely loved it. I made some wonderful friends and met some of the most kindest, loving people I´ll ever meet. I´m now in Metrópole and I´ve been here three transfers now with the same companion. I love her and my area! Me and my companion are over two wards and they´re great! It´s like being back at home. We´ve had really good success here, but had some hard times as well. I think one of the hardest things as being a missionary is getting people to come to church. You work, work, work all week with investigators and then comes Sunday and the people don´t want to go. Being a missionary takes a LOT of faith! But we truly receive blessings as we show our faith to our Heavenly Father. Like it says in Ether 12:6- "for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." We have to be willing and faithful to work before we get what we want. Henry B. Eyring once said, "Faith is not hope. Faith is not simply to know God could do something. Faith is to know that He will." This is TRUE faith.

Something I´ve realized here on the mission is that the Lord works in His own time. I had an experience my first transfer here in this area. We were teaching these three family members and a friend of theirs about the Restoration. After the lesson we asked them if they would read the pamphlet and pray about it. They all said yes except for one of the family members. He´s 16 years old and his name is Wesley. He straight up said no and didn´t want to continue with the lessons. His aunt told us that he´s very arrogant with the "mormons". But we saw him and his family quite often because they live right above us. Time went by and we would always say hi and ask how they were doing and we became really good friends with all the family. More time went by and I´m into my next transfer. We´re heading back to our house for the night and our other neighbor, who is a member, tells us that Wesley went to seminary! We couldn´t believe it, it was a miracle! So the next day we´re teaching a different family member (you would think they would decide to learn about the church all at once, but no they like to do it one by one :) and Wesley sits in on the lesson. At the end, we invite Wesley to be baptized and he said yes! We were so excited and the next day he tells us he bought a little notebook to take notes at general conference. He had changed so much, I couldn´t believe it. He also told us that he couldn´t make it to the Saturday session because he had to work, but would be there Sunday for sure. And the next Sunday he was baptized. I know without a doubt that when we are keepíng the commandments, following the mission rules and striving to be the missionary we were called to be, we will see the blessings and miracles that come from our hard work. I found a quote the other day that I love which says, "Pray as is everything depended on God and then work as if everything depended on you." -Francis Cardinal Spellman....I know that I´ve found myself at times ask for help in some things and maybe not done my part as I should´´ve, but when I work hard and do my part I can see the blessings and help from the Lord.

Wherever you missionaries might be, whether it be in a hick town, the big city, foreign country, the good ol´ MTC or packing your bags; we "are servants of the Most High God, with a testimony to bear, truth to teach, and souls to save." -President Thomas S. Monson...Never forget that!
Be faithful and diligent in doing the work of the Lord. I am happy to say that I am a servant of the Most High God-what a blessing! Not just for me, but for those I am helping to come unto Christ and receive eternal life.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!!! May we all remember the importance of this special day, the birth of our loving brother, Savior, and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

I wish you all the best!

With love,

Sister Salisbury