December 15, The Final Countdown

Well, it´s officially official that being a missionary is coming to an end! It´s so crazy to think about it, even though transfers are tomorrow and I'll be home THURSDAY. Think about it... Thursday.

Luckily it was a great final week. Although it was raining the whole week and we weren't able to find lots of new investigators and we got really wet and had to dry our shoes in front of the fan twice this week, it was still a great week.

Monday, we were in Lorena. Seriously, the best area EVER. The members were so willing to help us out and drive us around everywhere. It was so much fun and I'm still so grateful that I got to go. After I used the internet, I got to see Cristina and her family, who have always helped the missionaries out. I then went back to Edvaldo´s house to talk to him and his family real quick, and then I got on the bus to come back. It was a short trip, but TOTALLY WORTH IT.

On Tuesday, we went to the temple. What a neat experience! Dad, I was able to take your advice and went to the temple with some goals that I'm making, so that made it even more special. We went to the 12 o'clock session, and Pres. and Sis. Andrew were there as well, which was cool. 

We went home from the temple at about 5:30-6 (after stopping by the temple store and eating) and for all of you who don't know what it´s like to leave the city of São Paulo at 6pm, let me tell you, it´s the craziest mad-house EVER. There is lots of pushing and shoving going on, and being squished like a sardine. Luckily I will only have to deal with it one last time tomorrow morning!

Friday at English class I had another surprise party. Man, English class was so much fun. It was like a little community of people and it really helped unify a lot of different families.

Saturday was Stake Conference and it was SO AMAZING. We missionaries sang in a missionary choir (well, I played the piano) and it turned out really, really well. When we had our zone conference, Sis. Andrew had us sing the new Primary song ''I know my savior loves me" mixed with "I know that my Redeemer Lives" but it was kind of a hard mix, so I decided to mix it with "Away in a Manger" which was cool because it´s Christmas. And my companion sang a solo and stole the hearts of all the members, especially the teenage boys :P Everyone LOVED IT and it was a great way to start my last weekend in Brazil. 

It was also really cool afterwards because a lady came up to us and said that we changed the way she looks at Sister missionaries. She said that she never was really supportive of sisters going on missions because the Elders could all the missionary work anyway. But when she saw that two sisters made such a big difference among 18 Elders, she saw that we Sisters are VERY important and that we do make a difference in people's lives. It was way cool.And we got a super cool reference at Stake Conference from a Returned Sister of the other ward. Her name is Jessica and she liked Conference so much on Saturday that she went back on Sunday. It was awesome. And our miracle from last week, Sabrina, was at Stake Conference on Sunday as well. She´s really liking the church a lot and is excited to keep investigating. When we went to her house on Friday, we sat down and she asked ´´So, I´m a little confused about how Joseph Smith fits into the whole story. Can you explain that to me" It was great.

I´m almost done packing my bags. I gave a lot of clothes away, so there´s space for everything and they aren´t too heavy, so that´s good. I´ve been reading a lot of General Conference talks this week, and I realized that a lot of them talk about how we need to be responsible for our own spiritual lives and not blame anyone else for our lack of spirituality. There were also lots of talks about the importance of being good examples as parents and leaders. I once again realized how incredibly grateful I am to have such great parents that gave me a great example of how to live gospel righteously not just on Sundays, but on every day of the week. Thanks so much!

Well, I´ll see you all soon! Love you all!

Sister Tillman 

    
December 8, Lorena!!!!!

Ok, so as you may know, I´m in Lorena. Woohoo!

It´s been a good day so far. We´re using the internet real quick before lunch. While the time is short, I've been so grateful to be able to come back and visit the people that I love :)

This past week was good. A little rough, but good. We had a lot of appointments set up, but pretty much all of them fell through, which was such a bummer. Basically our investigators didn´t progress this week, which was hard on us. However, I knew that Heavenly Father was preparing something good for us, because it´s after the trials that the blessings come.

And boy did they come. We were at church waiting for our investigators, when out of the blue, this lady walked in. She had visited the church over nine years ago, and decided to go back yesterday. A long story short, she basically walked in asking when she could be baptized. She asked about the way that we baptize and asked if we could teach her more this week so that at the end of the month, she´ll be ready. She´s going to Stake Conference on Sunday as well, which is awesome. We´re so excited and happy. Like I said, when the Lord lets sad things happen, it´s because something good is on they way. Even though I won´t be herre for her baptism, I´m still really excited to teach her this week!

The ward threw a surprise going away party for me. I don´have pics since Elder Matos has his camera in Suzano, but next week I´ll get them. 

When we got into Lorena this morning, I decided to visit a recent convert that was the last person to be baptized while I was here. He lives next to the bus station, so it was perfect. He was soooo surprised, and really happy to see me. I was happy to hear that him and all of his family are firme forte in the gospel! It was awesome.

Oh, speaking of firme, Vando bore his testimony yesterday. It was so awesome :) He´s going to be a great leader in the future, that´s for sure!!

Anyway, I love you all. Pics will come next week. Thanks for the pictures. I love pictures :)

Have a great week,

Sister Tillman

December 1^st, First Day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, meu Pai Celeste gave to me, one p-day!

Woohoo! And after yesterday´s day of craziness, we sure needed it. We sstayed in the chapel for about 10 hours straight yesterday. While it was good, when we walked out, we were exhausted! I ended up teaching the Gospel Principles class, but since the Youth teacher wasn´t there, they lumped them all together, so I had a class with about half the ward! (Not really, but I felt like it anyway) Then the Elders had a baptism after Sacrament meeting. Then we ate a couple bites of pasta before the Young Women in Excellence, then the Elders from the other ward had a baptism. It was nuts! But it was all good.

We had zone conference this past week, which was awesome. We talked a lot about true conversion, and it made me really happy to realize that Vando is 100% converted. Every time we talk to him and Rose, they´re always telling us about how they talked about the church to their friends that week. It makes me so happy!

We had a really cool lesson with a family this week that´s a miracle! They´re a reference from another dupla of elders in the other zone, but since the area was white-washed, nobody knows how the other elders contacted the family, and the family doesn´t remember being contacted by anyone from the church. But, they´re super receptive, and on Saturday we taught them and they loved the Book of Mormon, and loved the Plan of Salvation, and they loved the idea of prophets. Yep, we taught them pretty much a little bit of everything, but it was all with the Spirit. And Sister Cordner gave a powerful testimony that touched their hearts. Sadly, they work every other Sunday, so they didn´t go to church, but they´ll go next week. They are going to need lots of prayers because they´re firme in the Assembleia de Deus, but they have open hearts, so I know that at the beginning of the year they can be converted :)

We had the End of the Year Ward Activity, which was pretty cool. There was lots of churrasco, which is like Tucano´s but tastier and waaaay less and expensive.

Let´s see... next week I´ll be visiting Lorena, which I´m excited about! Woohoo!

On Friday, we had ´´Thanksgiving´´ at our English class where we taught how to see ´´I´m thankful for...´´ and ´´I´m stuffed!´´ It was really funny, and the members brought food to share, which was awesome.

Anyway, that was pretty much my week. Oh, we got rained on a ton last Tuesday, which was funny. It´s great to get rain here!

Love you all!

Beijos,

Sister Tillman

    

November 24 Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Family,

Well, yet another week has passed. There weren't too many exciting things that happened in our area, it´s just the normal missionary work. 

My new companion is doing pretty well, although she´s been really hard on herself with learning the language, even though she´s doing really well. It´s like you said Dad, it´s kind of a culture shock. We've been taking it easy though to make her feel more comfortable and on Friday, she taught a good part of the lesson, which is awesome.

This past week, we met Caique, who is very interested in the church. He said that when he was younger, he wanted to be a padre in the catholic church, but then he decided not to be, and now he wants to find the best church for him and his potential future family. Even though he´s only 19, he has a very good eternal perspective. Sadly, he didn´t go to church, but we´re going to stop by tomorrow and see if he read the Book of Mormon or not. 

This week we saw monkeys, a tucan, and a herd of cattle all on the same day! Sadly, Sister Cordner´s camera was at home that day. We were walking up a hill, and all of a sudden a bunch of cows started coming down. We thought they would keep walking, but luckily they stopped right in front of us to eat grass. We were kind of scared to walk through them though, so we said a prayer, and when we said amen and looked, all of the cows had moved over to one side of the road. It was a miracle!

Last night we had a really cool family home evening with a family that was less active until about 8-9 months ago. We talked about Thanksgiving and made hand turkeys. It was really cool and everyone loved it! I´m sending a picture.

Other than that, that´s about it for the week. 

Love you all and have a great Thanksgiving! Sister Tillman    

November 17 Training!

Dear Family,

Well mom, it looks like you were very prophetic in your last email to me asking if I would be training. At the time, I said that I wasn't going be. However, when we went back to our house to eat lunch, the Assistant called me, and said that he was acting in President´s name to call me as a trainer. I just couldn't believe it! I mean, I was excited, but at the same time, I was a little worried because this transfer is only five weeks long, and it´s a big area to cover in just five weeks. 

However, the Lord knows what´s best and sent me Sister Cordner! She´s awesome. She´s fresh from the Provo MTC and ready to learn. It was kind of weird having an American Companion for the first time in a year, but it´s going really well. She´s already teaching pretty well, and we are having a great time in Suzano. Suzano- a terra dos milagres!

We taught what we now call ´´The Miracle Family´´ which is the family that showed up to church last Sunday. They are awesome, and have actually already been to church a few times in other areas. The weren't able to come to church on Sunday because of a viagem [trip], but they´re going to meet with us on Tuesday and we´ll see how it goes. They´re really receptive, which is great.

We also found this really cool lady who´s name is Zilinda. Her son was a reference from a member that lives in our neighborhood. We´d been trying to meet Diogo, the referral, all week, but it never worked out. Saturday evening, we´d planned something else to do, but it was getting cold, and we didn't have jackets or knew where we were going and it was dark. I felt that we needed to change our plans and call Daiene to see if Diogo was going to be home. And he was! So we went, and taught his mom. Daiene felt that we needed to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so we did, and it was waaaay different than I´d ever taught it, but it was PERFECT. Diogo had to play in his soccer tournament, but his mom, Zilinda went to church, and loved it! And she accepted a baptismal date! We´re going to teach her the restoration tonight.

It was really cool because Zilinda said that people have been trying to get her to go to church for the past five years, but she never ended up going. And then we came along and she felt the need to go. She´s really excited to learn more as well. We´re hoping that after Diogo´s soccer tournament is over, he´ll be able to go to church as well!

Vandro was confirmed yesterday, which was awesome. And he brought his mom, his aunt, and his cousin. They all LOVED church and his aunt and cousin took a Book of Mormon home and we set up an appointment with them for Wednesday. We´re suuuuper excited for them as well.

Going back to my greenie companion. Her name is Sister Cordner, and she´s from Alpine, UT. She´s nineteen years old, and she´s picking up portuguese pretty quickly. She´s going to BYU after the mission, and she has four younger siblings, with the youngest being 11. Her dad served in São Paulo as well, and one of his zones is in our mission, so she´s hoping to go there someday in the future. It´s pretty cool.

Anyway, that´s about it for updates in the week! 

Love you all!

Sister Tillman

November 10,  The Best

Dear Family,

I have been so blessed the past few weeks to see so many miracles happen! 

This past week was really good, and ended on a high note-- Vandro´s baptism!

It was probably the fanciest baptism ever. A lot of people from the ward went, even though it meant going home, rushing to eat lunch, and coming back to the church building. We passed mormon messages while the people were changing clothes afterwards (the Zone Leaders had a baptism as well, and since they don´t have a baptismal font, it was at our chapel). We had three investigators- Vandro´s aunt and cousin, and another investigator of ours- and the Spirit was really strong.

At the end, we missionaries sang ´´When I Am Baptized´´ (I like to look for rainbows.) I set up a little scheme where we sang the second verse in English and the refrain in protuguese and ended in english. It´s hard to describe, but it was really cool and everyone loved it. And afterwards, we had cake! Yum yum! And Vandro´s aunt and cousin loved the service and are probably going to church on Sunday, and Vandro and Rose are going to visit them with us :)

At Vandro´s batismal interview, Rose made a giant dinner for us, which was really tasty. And it was a great spiritual experience as well because Rose´s mom was there, who has been a faithful member for 33 years. And Rose and her mom bore their testimonies of how grateful they are for missionary work in their lives. It was a very touching moment, and I´m never, ever going to forget them!

On Sunday, there was an entire investigator family that just showed up out of nowhere. The sister in law is a member who lives in the states, so when she came to visit, she took them to church. They seem very interested and we are going to help them out this week. When we saw them get out of the car, I was so surprised. I told Sister T. Silva ´´Sister, these kind of things only happen in the Liahona!´´ And now they happened in Suzano as well. Milagre!

I went on exchanges with a sister from England! She´s been on her mission for ten months but still has a hard time with the language. So, I helped her out a bit and gave her some tips. It was a lot of fun. Her name is Sister O´Brien, and she´s really funny. And she offered a place to stay if I ever go to England! Woohoo!

Our teaching pool has become so big now! It´s awesome. I was writing to President about how I feel. I see so many missionaries that get burnt out early and say that their best time on the mission was in other areas, but I can honestly say that I´m seeing more miracles and having better results week after week. There hasn't really been a drop-off and I feel like it´s getting better and better. I´m so grateful that this area is so blessed!

The only thing that makes me sad is that my companion is being transferred tomorrow!! We´re working so well and things are going great! However, we know it´s for the best. President is doing this new thing where we´re having transfer meeting and stuff, so we have no idea where Sister T. Silva is going, and we have no idea who is my new companion or anything. It´s kind of crazy to not know.

I´ll be sending pictures this week, woohoo!! So don´t worry, they will come :)

Love you all!!

Sister Tillman

November 3, 2014 Story Time!

Dear Family,

Let me tell you an awesome story that started about thirty years ago.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Rose. She lived with her family, and one day they met the missionaries and were all baptized. However, in her teenage years, Rose made a few decisions that weren't in line with the teachings of the church and ended up becoming a less-active. However, her mom stayed strong and always reminded Rose that the Gospel is important, and even though it didn't seem like it, Rose was always listening.

Fast forward 25 years. Rose met Vandro and they fell and love. At the beginning of 2014, they decided to get married. Rose, remembering that God is important, wanted to have the Bishop of the Suzano ward marry them. But, she was a little ashamed of her inactivity in the church and ended up asking an evangelical pastor instead. The Pastor married Vandro and Rose, and they decided that they would start going to church at the Assembleia de Deus, where the Pastor was from. This decision helped them a lot because evangelical churches are really strict and helped Vandro decide that he needed to be on God's path and not the ''Catholic'' path of being a nobody. 

Fast foward to three months ago. Rose and Vandro were going regularly to their church, but Rose knew that it wasn't true. She knew that the Church of Jesus Christ was the true church, so one day she just up and went. Vandro was a little reluctant at first because he wanted them to be together at the same church, but he knew the importance of free agency, so he let Rose to go to church. However, when the Sister missionaries tried to teach him, he was very blunt in his rejection and said that he would not read the Book of Mormon and that he didn't even want Rose to read it. It was a hard blow for the Sisters, but what could they do? Six weeks later, after much fasting, prayer, faith, and planting seeds, Vandro had a change of heart AND NEXT WEEK HE WILL BE BAPTIZED!!!!

Yes, that's right. This story has a very happy ending, and a great beginning. This past week has been INCREDIBLE!! Vandro was a very hard heart to open, but once it was open, he has become one of the strongest investigators EVER.

Three Sundays ago, he decided to go church of his own accord and leave the other church he was at.

Two Sundays ago, we taught the Plan of Salvation and it went perfectly! We asked him to pray about baptism, and he said that he would. Thursday night, he and Rose helped us teach another couple, and he bore his testimony about the peace and happiness that the Gospel can bring to their lives if they just accept it. That night, we asked him about what he was feeling, and he said that he doesn't have a shadow of a doubt that this is a true church. He stropped drinking café two days later.

Yesterday, his baptism was announced in during Sacrament meeting. He went to church in a suit, and has already given a referral to another ward. Can we talk about strong in the faith?? Seriously, this is true happiness, that's for sure! He and Rose are such the cutest couple, and Rose is glowing with happiness. She is such a great example of faith and hope, that's for sure. Vandro has changed so much in the past two weeks, it's amazing.

Our area is doing pretty well. We're always in the search for new investigators, and we have very busy schedules, which is wonderful. We also went to the temple on Wednesday!! It was such an incredible experience, and it was awesome to feel the presence of the Lord a lot more strongly in my life. I took pictures, but the internet is being slow, and so I'm not able to upload them today :(

I taught English class all by myself on Friday. It went ok I think. It's hard to speak English, but it's pretty fun too to help others learn.

Hopefully everyone had a great Halloween. Mom, the pics were awesome!! 

Well, the time is short, as usual, but know that I love you all!!

Sister Tillman