Dear Everyone,

 

This week was wonderful. Ana Maria was baptized yesterday, and her daughter came to see the baptism! I think it was the best baptismal service we´ve have so far in our area. Things are going to be great for Ana Maria and our recent converts. It was a HUGE priviledge to see the Lord, Jesus Christ, change the lives of so many people. All of our recent converts have difficulties and weaknesses, but they all have added strength and hope in their lives:

 

Adriano: 3 years ago he was infamous for getting mad at his girlfriend and throwing a washing machine out his window... which is on the 6th floor! Ever since he received the answer that the Book of Mormon is true, he completely changed and has direction in his life. Since he was baptized he´s only missed one Sunday!

 

Ana: She´s realized that even though things don´t work out the way we want, you can still have God supporting you.

 

Corina: She has found a new love of the scriptures and sharing what she knows with other people. She has also shown ME that age and background has nothing to do with eternal life and the gospel of Christ.

 

Maria Augusta: She prove to everyone that through true repentance and the Atonement of Christ, anything is possible. She overcame illegal drugs and every single vice mentioned in the Word of Wisdom.

 

Silvia: The devil worked so stinking hard on her, but she came through with the determination of her testimony. She is one of the most knowledgable recent converts I know and the Bishop already want to give her a leadership calling.

 

Stella, Leandro and Cristiana: They are so sensitive to the Spirit. Literally it was so easy for the Lord to touch their hearts. I think they are more suceptible to the Holy Ghost than I am!

 

Ana Maria: She is a huge example of optimism and she shows her desire to get involved in the ward by making friends and involving herself even before we try to help out!

 

Some good things have to come to an end. I was honestly hoping that Sister Giberson and I would be like Alma and Amulek and stay together baptizing a whole nation for the rest of our missions! But sometimes we need a good change. I was transfered to Lisbon in the burough Oldivelas. So far I have only heard good things about the ward, so I am excited! Within the ward boundaries is the temple lot, and evidently the Sacrament frequency is so high that they have 2 sacrament meetings for one ward.

 

My new collegue is Sister Thornley from Syracuse, Utah. She just finished her training last transfer, so this will be a whole new adventure for the two of us! We are opening a new area, which means we are starting everything from scratch. We are going to need a lot of prayers and faith in order to do this! Seriously we have a spanky brand new cell phone and opened the Area Book and there were 5 papers inside it... FIVE! We are going to do a lot of finding and working in this area to leave it prepared for the next companionship to reap the fruits of the labor.

 

I love you all,

 

Sister Derrick