Alegria Completa‏ and O Maior Mandamento‏

October 27, 2014 Alegria Completa‏

Dear Family,

This past week was a really, really good week, even if it didn't end the way that we wanted it to, there´s no way to deny that the Lord was with us the entire week.

The great week started on Tuesday. We've been working in the center on Tuesdays and found two great investigators. One of them is Fernando. We were trying to track down a less active, and he lives in front, so we talked to him a little bit and did the standard contact and asked if he had ever thought about why there are so many churches. He answered by saying that he thought that all of them were built by men and that they ddidn't have God´s approval. Can we say Golden or what??? We went back on Friday to teach him, and he had ALREADY READ THE RESTORATION PAMPHLET!! This is a huge deal because hardly anyone reads those things. And not only that, but he marked it up with his questions and the things that he liked. It was so cool and it was an ´´easy´´ lesson because he already understood everything that we talked about. He wasn´t able to go to church because of work, but he´s going to go next week. He accepted baptism if he gets an answer from God and it was really funny because he said that he wants an answer through the scriptrues because a heavenly visit doesn´t cut it for him and he doesn´t want that. It was really funny. Man, he´s awesome. We´re going back on Tuesday to visit him.

Vandro (Rose´s husband that we´ve been teaching ever so slowly and subtlely the past few weeks) accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon!! And he´s going to pray about baptism!!! This is a true miracle because when the sisters first started to teach him, he didn´t want anything to do with the church or read the book of Mormon. However, he´s been slowly and surely opening up. Our second to last visit, he said that he´s been feeling the spirit talking to him and he feels good about the the Church, but that he was being stubborn and wanted to have a great big answer instead of peaceful feelings. Now he knows that he was wrong. The four of us taught the Plan of Salvation yesterday, which went really well. He was excited to get his own copy of the Book of Mormon, and said that he would pray about getting baptized in November. However, his eyes said that he already knew what he wanted to do. And he´s actually happy now. And he´s going to the ward family night. And he´s going to help us find a potential investigator that lives out in the middle of nowhere. Can we say MIRACLE!!!!! Seriously, I am so happy. Alegria completa.

Lots of other happened throughout the week that went well. I did a division in Arujá, and they also have a great area. November is going to be such an awesome month.

I´ve loved working together with the Elders. We get to know so many more people, and the ward has truly started to see a difference. It´s crazy to realize how important Unity is, especially in the Work. It´s great because if one of us has a bad day, the other one doesn´t. For example, all of our investigators fell through on Sunday, but the Elders had one, which was exciting, and he´s preparing to be baptized and everything, which was exciting for everyone. Even though our investigators fell through, we still had a reason to rejoice and be grateful. Grattitude is KEY.

Anyway, I love you all, and hope that you have a great week and everything!! I´ll be sending pictures :)

Love, 

Sister Tillman

October 20, 2014 O Maior Mandamento‏

Dear Family,

And another week has flown. Where does the time go? We have so much to do here that we don´t have enough time to do it. What with Family Home Evenings, exchanges, English class, and teaching investigators, the week goes by in a blur. 

Some highlights of the week:

Tuesday was our first day in the centro, so we did a lot of walking and contacting people. We had a lot of good contacts that weren´t able to meet with us on Friday, so we´re going to go back tomorrow and see how it goes.

Wednesday, the Elders in our district came to do contacts in our area here in Palmeiras. While it took a long time for them to get here, they got some good contacts done and then we went to eat ice cream, which was fun.

Thursday we worked in Palmeiras, contacting some of the people that the Elders met and trying to build up our investigator pool.

Friday we met with the new RS president who was very unsure of what to do, so we helped out setting up a couple of activities to get the RS up and running. And afterwards we went to English class, which was pretty cool.

Saturday, we had lunch with the Bishop, who helped us out by giving us tons of people to visit that are part-member families, which was great. Saturday night there was a devotional in Boa Vista. Boa Vista is another ward that used to be a branch not too long ago, and yesterday they had their first ward conference ever. The Boa Vista ward split from the Suzano ward a while back, so Saturday night was a night of remembering how things used to be and where things are now. It was pretty neat. It was great to see how the Church has grown so much in just one city. The Boa Vista Ward is a great example of working with goals. They´re going to try and split the ward at the end of the year, so everyone is working together. And since we´re the only sisters in the stake, lots of people were happy to see us :)

I think that one of the biggest spiritual lessons that I learned this week was about loving God and loving our neighbor. Jesus Christ taught this in his teachings when he said in Mark: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thyneighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greaterthan these

As a missionary, I can truly testify that these two commandments are everything in the eyes of the Lord. We need to love everyone that we see, and not just love them, but serve them. I love how Christ said ´´with all they heart, sould, mind, and STRENGTH´´ We have to put everything on the line and serve everyone, but not just because it´s a commandment, but because we want to.

I was able to see this with our Bishop yesterday. One of the recent converts and his family are going through a hard time and needed some extra help with food. We talked to the Elder Quorum´s President and Bishop, who both went to the Bishop´s storehouse to get some things for them. Saturday night, Bishop dropped the food off at their house, and Sunday, when he saw us, he joyfully came to greet us and told us of his experience. The family was so happy to recieve the much-needed help, and Bishop said that it was a very emotional and spiritual experience. I know that Bishop will never pass up an opportunity to help others after receiving this great experience of helping his ´´neighbor´´ 

Anyway, that´s the great spiritual experience that I recieved!

Love you all!!

Sister Tillman

QUENTE!!

October 13, 2014 

Dear Family,

First of all, I´m glad that Benjamin got my letter! Especially since I live really far away from the Mail Office, so I probably won´t be sending any letters any time soon... or ever.

Dad, it´s funny that you mentioned spiritual experiences, because it´s exactly what the new mission president is focusing on. Remember the talk that was in Portuguese? Well, he talked about how we need to analyze our patriarchal blessings and make plans to recieve the blessings that we were promised, and that´s exactly what I´ve been doing. It´s great to feel the love that Heavenly Father has for me.

Another great spiritual experience was when I was on exchanges with the sisters in the other zone. We taught this lady and her son (her husband was travelling) and as I was listening to S. Modesto bear her testimony, it hit me so hard that I have the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, I already knew that, but sometimes it becomes a little automatic to testify of the Restoration day after day after day, that I forgot the importance of the Restoration for ME. And as my temporary companion was testifying, I became so happy to feel spirit work through us and to know that after everything is said and done I have the blessings of baptism and the sacrament and the temple and my family. It´s kind of hard to explain what I felt, but just to know that I felt it is awesome and makes me happy :)

As described by the title of the email, this past week has gotten pretty hot. Not as hot as it was in January, but summer is starting! I got a little sunburnt at the zone activity today, but more on that later.

Interviews with President went really well. I´m still a Sister Leader and so we talked about that a little bit. I´m taking care of the Sisters in the neighboring zone, which is a LOT, since there are ten of them! However, five of them are going home soon, so I´m focusing on the junior companions and helping them feel the spirit and working on their teaching and stuff. Well, that´s the goal anyway, since I started last week. I´ve only done one exchange so far, but I plan on doing one every week for the rest of the mission.

A friend of mine who´s a Zone Leader also called me and asked me to help out some sisters in his zone sine there isn´t a Sister Leader there, so I talked to them as well. Basically my responsibility is to help all of the sisters be happy and feel the spirit. There are lots of ups and downs, but I feel like I´m finally getting the hang of it!

Anyway, the exchange was pretty neat, I´ll send pictures. Sis. Modesto is starting her mission, so she´s really excited and is a very hard worker.

As for our area, we´ve talked to the Elders a lot thisweek, and we´re going to take away the division of the areas. We´re going to work in the Centro on Tuesdays and Fridays teaching people and accompanying the investigators that the Elders have taught. We´re really excited because the people in the centro are a little more committed and don´t have as many problems going to church. We´re teaching the boyfriend of a recent convert and a guy that showed up at church yesterday, and the Elders found a family that the husband is a member, but never talks about the church, but the mom is super interested, so tomorrow or Friday we´re going to meet them and teach them. And yesterday the four of us had a family night to teach a member´s husband.

Oh, and I´m helping Elder Sellers (the American Elder who entered the MTC the same time as I did) teach English class. It´s kind of weird, but very fun.

Things are going to get better and better here in the ward, and I´ve talked to my District Leader and the Zone Leaders, and everyone thinks that it´s a great idea to work in the Centro a lot more. It´s going to be great! 

Saturday, we went to a little girl´s birthday party to help and we met a lot of people who aren´t members, but they weren´t very interested. At least they know a little bit more about the church!

I think that´s about it! This week was luckily ten times better than last week, and I´m excited to keep working here in Suzano. Thanks for all of the prayers because I know that they help me so much!

Love you all!!

Sister Tillman

Conferência Geral!!‏

Dear Family,

Wasn´t conference just the greatest?? When the choir was singing the last hymn, I looked at my companion and we were like why is it over already???? But man, lots and lots of good teachings that I´m glad to have learned.

One of my favorite talks was by Elder Godoy :) It was great to know the best way to make decisions in my life.

I also liked a bunch of other talks, especially by Pres. Ucthdorf in the women´s session where he said that Heavenly Father knows every one of our weaknesses, but he chooses to rejoice in our successes. That phrase had a really big impact on me. I also liked the talk about what side we´re on, and how we should NEVER lower our standards to make the people of the world happy.

This past week was pretty normal. It´s been raining a lot, which is good. And it´s not hot, which is a double win. Actually the past few days have been downright cold! 

My companion and I are getting along really well, and we share lots of laughs, which is fun.

As for investigators, we´re trying our hardest to find people who are willing to commit to action, which seems to be the hardest part. Although we learned lots of new things in conference that will help us out a ton!We´re looking forward to have a good week. We´re currently trying to help a recently-returning less-active´s husband become interested in the church. It´s a work-in-progress, but last night they gave us a ride home and we talked about conference (he didn´t go) but as we got out of the car, he asked us what the website was that had the conference talks. So the Spirit is working with him! 

Interviews with President will be this Friday and at the end of the month we´re going to the temple, so this month is definitely going to be VERY spiritual.

I´ll be sending pics of what it looks like here in the rolling hills as well as pics with me and my new companion, Sister T. Silva and with Pres. and Sister Andrew.

Love you all, and have a great week!

Sister Tillman