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