September 16, 2019

Families are forever!

Oi fam and friends!


This week was toasty here in Guarulhos! This week was hot and only one day was cold then it switched and got hot again.....SP weather is wild. Because of the heat a lot more bugs are out and about and I have been told about ´´flying cockroaches´´............I nearly cried when they told me that, the season for them is coming up. please send aid and lots of prayers.


Sister Costa and I had some really neat teaching experiences with some families this week. On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to teach Adelia and Eri (the couple that moved from Bahia, or northern Brasil, to here in SP) about the Plan of Salvation and how we can be sealed to our families for all eternity. She had heard a few things in church about temples and being sealed to our families, so she asked us how she and Eri can be sealed.......and what joy it was to tell them about the great plan of Happiness that God prepared for us to live in our families FOREVER. I felt the Spirit testify so strongly of that incredible truth as they both looked at each other with pure joy and desire to be sealed to one another forever. They are not yet married, so we are helping them plan to get married in the next few weeks and be baptized! Then in one year they can make that special covenant with God to be together not for just this earthly life, but for FOREVER! I got to share my testimony to them of how grateful I am to have temples on the earth to bless our families and to allow us to make this sacred promise, and to live faithful to that promise. (Thanks momma and pops for sealing our family together!) The temple brings peace into our hearts because of the strong connections we feel there of our families, it is a love that is different from the world because it is a Godly love. 

Then, after wards, we were walking around a park doing our English practice (we have to do 30 mins everyday) when a teenage girl in a bright yellow shirt came running up to us and said out of breath, `´are you guys Americans? my brother-in-law is American`` and I said yes and we began talking. Also, she had passed by a man walking his dog and he got scared and thought she was chasing after him and it was so funny. Her name is Vera and she told us that her brother-in-law, Nick, had moved to here from Orlando, Florida to marry her sister and had been here for a year and a half and they have been waiting for the visa for her sister to go live there. She then invited us to go and meet him because they live close to the park, so we went and met him and it has been a while since I heard a real American country accent haha! Then we gave him a Book of Mormon and after wards, Vera took us to her house to meet her dad because he teaches English. He, Abraham, had received some lessons from the Elders almost 20 years ago and remembered a few things about Joseph Smith! Nick came over and his wife Maiara and we were able to teach their whole family about the Restoration of the true church of Christ- all in ENGLISH!!! It was our first time teaching in English and it felt a bit strange haha but they all understood very well and asked a lot of questions and we had a lot of fun with them! They want us to come back this week and have dinner with them and explain more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are excited!!

I am so grateful for the blessings of the gospel and the opportunity to share these great and essential blessings with others!

Have a great week!


-Sister Giles


photos:
1)the members that we live with, the baby celebrated 2 months so they had a party, it was cute!
2&3)we love Irmã Vilma and Irmã Naiara and her sweet 3 little girls, they are awesome
4&5)we made `´Estrogonofe`´ a Brazilian food classic