Welcome to Natal!

Oi todos familiha!
 
Well I made it safe and sound to Natal! It's absolutely beautiful here. I love it already. We left at 10:00-ish this morning and landed in Natal just after 1:00. It's been a really long day, I woke up at 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00 to say goodbye to my peeps from the CTM. I'm, like, beyond tired.

I find out what area I'll be in and who my companion is tomorrow.

I've just spent the day at the mission office and with the Mission President. I love them so much.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll get a picture soon. I have P-day on Monday, so I'll talk to you then. Much love!!!

Sister Moss!

Week Five - Last Week in the CTM!

What's up everyone!!

Alright, so this is my last week in the CTM! I leave for Natal on Tuesday and I'm so beyond nervous! So beyond excited, and soooo ready to be outside more! I loved my CTM experience but I'm ready to not be locked in a building all day.

The language is getting easier day by day. I still really struggle with understanding people, which really sucks beacuse people in Natal talk much much faster. Hence the worried feelings! I'm speaking a lot better (at least I think so). Teaching comes a lot easier when you know more words haha! But it's going great!

I'm so not ready to say goodbye to the amazing people I've met here, let alone say goodbye to Sister Moss. Definitely is going to be a rough day. And maybe rough first few weeks... But I know that the Lord will watch out for us both and make sure we are okay.

The days here really just kind of run together, lots of classes, lectures and tons of studying! Easter in the CTM was awesome, it was actually kind of cool to forget all the worldy parts of Easter and just focus solely on the Savior and all the amazing things he did for us. Guys, I want you all to know, that I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. That he suffered, bled and died so that each of us would have the opportunity to live with him in heaven again. I know that he rose again, that he has been ressurected and lives today! HE LIVES!!!!! There's no doubt about it. And because of him, all of us, willl have the same privilege to be ressurected. I love my Savior and all that he has done for me. Without him, sacrificing his life for the world, I would not be here. I know he lived, died and rose again. How awesome is that!!

Um, we went proselyting on Saturday, and it went waaaaay better than it did the first time! Not to brag or anything, but Sister Barney and I gave out 9 Books of Mormon!!!!! It was so cool to see the progress from the last time. I love this work and know with all my heart that it is the work of the Lord. That all those people who accepted Books of Mormon are ready and willing to hear of this restored gospel.

I love you all so so much, and miss you tons!! My next real email will be from Natal and will contain tons of pictures! Be ready!!

Till then, much love!

Sister Moss

My new home

Week Four - Teaching

Hello,

Okay, what an awesome week!! So we had divisions last week, and I got paired with Sister Moss' companion and Sister Bittencourt. Both are so amazing! We taught really well together, I feel like. Um I had the opportunity to teach Sister Barney and her companion Sister Duarte, also both are amazing! I really love teaching them, Sister Duarte is so sweet. She gives me a lot of hope for my teaching. She told me last week, that she enjoys to listen to me teach because she can tell how hard I work to make sure the investigator feels how I feel about whatever I'm teaching about. She says the spirit is so strong when I give the first vision, which is really cool because I've worked really hard to memorize it. But yeah that was awesome.

Um Sister S gave us a scare yesterday, we were teaching and we saw her run out. We followed to make sure everything was okay but when we got there she was on the ground crying in sister Southwick's arms. Apparently she had a hard time breathing and passed out for a bit. I know from this experience that God does answer our prayers. She's doing much much better today! Whew!!!

For the past few nights I've been up almost to the last minute just talking and hanging out with Sister Southwick and Sister Skelton, I love them so much and we all get along so well!! 

I'm almost out of time but I wanted to share a little bit from the devotional last night. It was a recorded MTC devotional by Elder Holland and it was incredible. He asked a bunch of questions that really got me thinking. So he said that, obviously, our purpose here on the mission is to invite others to come unto Christ, but said that we couldn't invite someone to do that if we aren't there or on our way there ourselves. That really hit me. Am I on my way to Christ?? Can I invite people to come with me or would it just be a hope. Anyway, think that's about it. I'm out of time.

Love you all so much!!!

Sister Moss!

Questions and Answers

What kind of awesome things happened for you and Sister Barney this past week? So Sister Barney and I taught one of our investigators this week on eternal families and part of the plan of salvation. I went in with absolutely no notes, and I think it went super well. We spoke the words to Families Can Be Together Forever and I shared about how we had Maiya sealed to us and Zac will be sealed to us soon. The spirit was so strong, we were all crying! I absolutely love Sister Barney, we get along great! 

How was the temple? The temple is always incredible. There's something so special about going with nearly 120 missionaries. I love the temple so much!

What was the most spiritual thing from this last week that you'd like to tell me about? The most spiritual thing was either testimony meeting on Sunday, the lesson with our investigator or our devotional last night. Super amazing stuff. I really enjoyed the devotional last night, it got me thinking about a lot of stuff. I'll share more in the group email.

How are all the elders and sisters in your district doing? Everyone in my district is great, we had a little scare yesterday with Sister S, but shes much better today. To make a long story short, she couldn't breathe and passed out for a bit. We aren't totally sure what happened but she's much much better today. Whew!! I've honestly never been so scared in my life.

What has been something you've struggled with and how have you overcome it? I struggle a lot with not understanding the language. and I'm still working on overcoming it. One of my instructors told me to study the Book of Mormon more and pay more attention to the grammar and stuff. I really hope it works!

What kind of fun things do you have for your p-day? We basically just roam the street and explore a bit. Find some really cute skirts (I bought one last week) and just kind of enjoy being out in the city.

What's your favorite thing to do at the CTM? Favorite thing in the CTM is probably pday being out and about, or choir one the nights we have devotionals. Music just brings the spirit so quickly it's amazing.

Least favorite? Um I don't think I really have a least favorite. The whole experience here is amazing!

Week Three - General Conference Weekend

Oi everyone!!!

Alright, so this week was sooo good!!!! I feel like I emailed y'all like 3 days ago, it's absolutely crazy! But this week was General Conference weekend, for those who may not know General Conference is 2 days every 6 months when we hear talks from our prophet Thomas S. Monson, and all his apostles. Really really good, if you're ever interested you can find all the talks on the church's website. I highly recommend it! Anyway, there were a few talks that really stood out to me that I'd like to share a little bit from each. In the Saturday Afternoon Session I really enjoyed Elder Gary B. Sabin's talk about being committed and ALL IN. He said "In order to be all in, we need to stand up on the inside." I really liked this because since being in Brazil, I've noticed some people who just claim to be all in and don't really show it. I want to be All In, with all my heart, all my mind, and all my love. I don't know, I just really liked it, it's hard to explain.

From the Sunday Morning Session, I really loved Elder Ronald A. Rasband's talk on Recognizing the promptings of the spirit and acting immediately. He shared a story that made me think of my mom and her journey to becoming a member. He said he was knocking on doors and had a prompting to follow one more referral and go to just one more house, he introduced them as missionaries and the lady at the door immediately turned them away. As she was closing the door, he put his foot in the way so she couldn't close it. and asked again if there was anyone in the house who was interested in learning more about the gospel. Turns out her 15 or so daughter was the one that the referral was for. <Mom note: One of the missionaries who taught me also stuck his foot in the door so I couldn't close it on them!> I know for a fact that if we follow the first prompting of the spirit that great things will come about it. He said "if you act on the first prompting you will get it right 9/10 times" Pretty high odds to ignore the first prompting of the Spirit. But yeah, general conference was bomb!! 

Um Sister Barney and I changed rooms last night and are no longer roommates with Sister Kearns and Sister Goodrich :( but we are getting some new Brazilian roommates later today! This should be really good (hopefully) with understanding the language more! 

Something super funny that happened this week; so this whole week, there's a sickness going around and unfortunately Sister Barney and Sister Goodrich got it. But Sister Goodrich has melatonin to help her sleep at night and Sister Barney hadn't been sleeping well because of the sickness and asked to take some. Well she took it and within about 30 minutes of her taking it she didn't fall asleep. Instead she got hysterical and it seemed as if she was high! It was so funny, she was laughing and crying hysterically. She was saying things that made, literally,  no sense and just random stuff! But needless to say, after that she didn't get melatonin again! 

I miss you all so much and hope everyone had a super awesome week!! Much love!!

Sister Moss

"We must recoginze the Spirit the first time we feel or hear it. It's a still small voice but a familiar voice" - Elder Rasband

From Sister Moss's letter to Mom

The temple this morning was amazing, I love the temple. I have so many pictures with my friends that I cant wait to show you and tell you all about (stories only make sense when you have a face to the name so you'll have to wait). We gained almost 100 new missionaries this week! It's crazy how quick people come and go. General Conference in the CTM was sooooo good. I loved Elder Holland's talk about being apart of the Lord's choir. But the talk that got me most excited about missionary work was Elder Rasband when he shared his story of how he put his foot in the door. It got me so excited and so grateful for wonderful, courageous missionaries willing to throw a body part in the door just to keep talking to someone. I hope I can share my own story about this one day. Love you so much!! Please send videos and pictures of the kiddos, I miss my babies!!