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

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

The Brazil that I used to know‏

Dear Family,

I´ve officially returned to Brasil. Yep, it´s real. I didn´t realize how much I was being spoiled in Vila Mariana until I went back to the real world! Dirt roads exist again. As do trees and grass and horses and all of the lovely smells that come with them. When I got off the bus Tuesday night, I took a deep breath of fresh, clean air for the first time in a long, long time. It was good.

However, the lovely nature has a price to pay. Suzano is a very big ward in terms of area. We share the ward with the elders, which is fun at times. Although they got to stay in the city and work close to the church while we´re way, way, way out in the country. It takes about half an hour to get to the city from our house. It´s kind of crazy. There ups and downs to being in the country. The great thing is that everyone actually lives there, and there are families! However, lots of these families can be very poor, and aren´t married. And because of the money factor, it´s really, really hard for them to go to church because it´s kind of expensive for them (it´s 6 reais round trip per person) However, we´re going to work our hardest here and we have tons of goals in place to help this ward grow.

And boy does it need it! There were only about 40 people in the sacrament meeting yesterday, which was very, very sad. We´re going to have to work from the ground up to get this ward going.

My new companion is Sister T. Silva, and Sister Godoy already knew her and said that she´s awesome, but that she´s anti-American. Luckily, I discovered that she was only anti american because her last american companion only wanted to talk in English all the time and didn´t include her in her conversations. Luckily, I only remember English on P-days when I have to write to you guys, so we haven´t had any problems :) But she´s really great and a hard worker. She´s from Rio Grande do Sul, which is waaaay in the south of Brasil, so her accent is different, but not as strong as the people from the the north.

My zone is pretty great as well, with half of the elders there being my friends already, which is fun. It´s crazy to see missionaries that I watched enter the mission train other new missionaries. It makes me feel very old, that´s for sure.

Let´s see, what else... Oh, we live in the back of a member´s house, which is pretty fun. Sometimes we get to eat dinner and get rides home, which is good. I like rides home. 

Not going to lie, I miss Vila Mariana a TON. It´s hard to get used to a new area, but I´m also liking Suzano so far, which is good. And I get to talk to Sister Godoy every once in awhile when our cellphone gets signal, which is good.

I think that´s pretty much it in terms of new things that have happened. Oh, getting here from the office was BRUTAL. We had to take the metro and then switched to the train, and then we had to take a bus. It took us around three hours to get home. Luckily, some of the Elders helped out with my suitcases, even though they didn´t need to, which was nice of them. 

I was going to send a picture of me with my new companion, but we forgot to bring the cable thing. Bummer. Next week should be better and I should have more time as well.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Tillman

Tchau Vila Mariana‏

September 22, 2014

Dear family,

Well, it´s finally happened. I´ve been transferred! I´m going to a place called Suzano, which sounds kind of like Lorena, just not so far away and not as small. I´m pretty excited and everyone loves it there, so it´ll be great.

This past week was really... interesting to say the least! Vanessa was baptized (woohoo!!) and it was awesome. This ward has always had a problem with people staying for baptisms, and it was ward conference, so we thought that people wouldn´t stay, but there were lots of members there, which was good. And it went very well and was very special. Vanessa is so wonderfully awesome and is seriously so elect. She already lived the gospel, she just needed to be baptized. She didn´t even drink coffee! It was so perfect. The only thing she had to overcome was understanding the importance of going to church, but then she started planning her weekends better to have time for church and it was easy for her after that. We´re going to stop by later so that I can say goodbye.

Lots of miracles are happening and our teaching pool increased miraculously. And the ward had a super awesome potluck activity that lots of people went to, which was good. I´m sure Denize has already put pictures on Facebook. I´m going to have to call her to say goodbye. Every time she has her camera, she says ´´Oh, I need to take a picture of you to send to Rosa Tillman!´´ It´s awesome. I´m glad that you did the same thing for the missionaries there mom!

It´s kind of weird going to a new area, but I´m really excited. And even though it´s sad leaving Vila Mariana after so much time, half the ward has already asked me to stop by before I go back home, so it´s just a short goodbye for now. 

September 15, 2014

Dear Family,

Happy Birthday Andrew!!! Hopefully your birthday was awesome. It was so cool seeing you in the video. You´ve grown up so much!

On Saturday, we had one of the coolest miracles ever. We were walking along the main street, when a lady passed by, took a look at our nametags, and then stopped us to ask where the church building is. Her name is Carol, and she said that Friday and Saturday she was praying to Heavenly Father to find a church because she knows that she needs to change her life. She said that she normally takes the metro home, but felt really strongly that she needed to walk. So she started walking, and looking for a church. She was about to give up when she found us! Seriously, it was so cool. We were shocked into silence. She then asked us what makes our church different from others, and I took a look at S. Godoy, and said ´´Well, have you ever heard about prophets?´´ And we started walking along and teaching her. She was so receptive, and she already had plans for Sunday, but said that we can call her during the week so that she can go to church next Sunday. She´s so awesome! I´ve never really had that happen to me before, where someone on the street basically said ´´Hey, teach me please!´´ It was such a great miracle.

Another great miracle was that Vanessa went to church! Vanessa is our investigator that we´ve been trying to help the entire transfer. She´s so open and receptive and intelligent. But she didn´t go to chruch three Sundays in a row, which made us really sad. However, she went yesterday, and we showed her the baptismal font and the spirit was so strong as we re-explained the importance of baptism. And so she´ll be baptized on Sunday. Just in time for my last Sunday in Vila Mariana. 

Another great miracle was that a member´s friend went to church and already made lots of friends and so we´ll be teaching him this week. 

My companion got really sick last night, but luckily she´s all better. It was crazy and sad, but now she feels better. 

Friday night we went to a member´s house and ate pizza and she talked about her mission. I love hearing mission experiences.

September 8, 2014

Dear Family,

Our new president is seriously the BEST. His name is President Andrew, and he was already serving here in Brasil as a temple worker. He´s served five missions in Brasil, and is super loving. The mission already loves him!

I´m glad that everyone got my letters! I was going to ask about them today to see if they finally made it there or not!

On Tuesday, we went with the Elders to give a blessing to an investigator. But let me back this story up a little bit. Two weeks ago, bishop said that a member from another ward would call and give us the address of an investigator who would doing a surgery and would want a blessing, but not just from regular members, but from elders. The member has a son who´s on a mission, and told Patrícia all about the miracles of missionary work. So we went on Tuesday with the elders and it went really well. We called her on Saturday to see how the surgery went, and she was already home and said that her recovery is going very quickly, that she feels great, and that she wants us to go back because she already read the restoration pamphlet and wants to know more. Such an awesome and amazing miracle!

As for our other investigators, things are a little on the rough end, but are looking up. And we´re going to do our best to work our hearts out these last two weeks of the transfer. It´s funny because here in the ward, there are three missionaries coming back home, and I´ve heard all about them the past seven months, but they´ll come home one or two weeks after the transfer. I mean, who knows, I could still be here (although I hope not, because that would mean half of my mission is in the same area, and I´m ready for a new adventure)

Other than that, things have been pretty chill. It still hasn´t rained a ton, although we´ll see what this week brings.

My companion is still as awesome as ever. It´s such a bummer that we only have one transfer together. 

And... that´s about it! It wasn´t a very eventful week, but we have lots of new investigators to teach this week, which we´re excited about that´s for sure! I´ll probably go on exchanges this week, and so that´s exciting.

How are Jessie and Susan doing?

Love you all!

Sister Tillman