This week, was great!! we had Zone Conferance with everyone in the interior of our mission, 3 zones. and it was great cause I got to meet a bunch of missionarys, and also got to see missionarys that i already knew, And two elders from my CTM distict!! YAY! 

It was great to see the President and his wife. They are so amazing, and it was even better cause I understood almost the WHOLE conferance. I was so proud, took a bunch of notes!

We are still teaching Ana Clara, we taught her the 1st lesson, and after she was crying cause she was so excited about the message and book of mormon. she said her whole life she has had questions about what church is true out of all the churchs in the world! I am so excited to see where things go with her! :)

I dont have alot of time, and the internet is being really weird, BUT. I love you guys and hope you all have an amazing conferance/easter weekend and remember our savior!

xoxo,

Sister Hernandez

PS

if you havent seen the becuase he lives video go RIGHT NOW! 

I hate to admit this becuase I dont want to sound like a cry baby, but with out fail I cry EVERYTIME that I watch it. 

I am so thankful for our Savior, and with this upcoming Easter season we can thnk about him, and the fact that HE LIVES. I know that he lives, I know he is our savior, and that this is his chruch. 

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY!

This week was rainy, and that is insane cause here in Caico we NEVER get rain. But for two or three days it just rained and rained and rained, and I was COLD! It was like 75 degrees, and I was freezing! But, I pulled out the sweater my dad made me bring, and the umbrella my mom packed for me and kept on workin! :)

This week was great, the blessings were SO GOOD! Tueday we did a zone fast and when we broke it on wednesday I sware it was like the doors of heven opened and god showered his blessings on us. (not just with the rain haha) But we got a referance a couple weeks ago form the mission presidents wife. The name of the women is Ana Clara, So Ana works A TON, so it was really hard to get catch her at home. And then one day we were buying water and BAM Ana Clara comes up to us and asks ASKS, for us to come to her house. WHAT?! We made the connection that she was the referance and so we were so excited to finally find her. We went to her house and she told us all about a dream he had (her mother had died within the last couple years) about how her mom came to her in a dream, and then they went and were talking and after the dream she felt like she needed to talk to the missionaries and how she thinks there is life after death. I dont know all the details of the dream cause I didnt understand EVERYTHING, but that is the basic. PLAN OF SALVATION HERE WE COME!! We taught the plan of salvation and she was so into it, and so ready, the spirit was sooo strong. She asked us to come back so we are gonig back this upcoming week. and one of the biggest blessings of all, SHE IS LEGALLY MARRIED!! that is unheard of here!! She works alot, so that will be hard to teach here, but she wants to hear our lessons so we will do anything to teach her. 

We also are teaching a man named Jecino, hes great! We went to teach him and when we got there he asked "Have you ever felt like we knew pepole before this life, like there was a life before right now.." PLAN OF SALVATION AGAIN!! He was great, and had so many questions and was loving the whole lesson. He is such an amazing guy, We are workin on getting him to church cause he wants to be baptised, but the past two weeks have had things happening on sunday so he couldnt come to church. But everday we visit him he always is talking about how excited he is is for his batismo. 

This week, I was also sick.. that sucked. But was good becuase now I am not sick. The whole house was sick, and even some of the Elders, so at the start of the week I started as a healthy person, and was workin in two HUGE areas, mine and the other sisters, helping them out cause my comp Sister Moraes and Sister Baker (a sister from the other area) were sick, THEN after working that for a couple days, I got sick. But no worries now cause everyone is healthy and happy again! :)

I am so thankful to be able to see the blessings of the lord everyday in my life. He blesses everyone and I know that he loves me and everyone so much. Studying and teaching the plan of salvation this week I realized how amazing it is that he knows us. God, our Father in Heaven knows us. And he loves us, and is just a prayer away to help us 24/7. 

I love you all so much! Stay great this week :) I am counting down the days to conferance like its chistmas cause i am so excited :):)

xoxoxo

Sister Hernandez

the happy brithday pic is for SARA! cause her birthday is this week!! HAPPY BRITHDAY!! 

Blackouttt!!

 

This week we had a blackout, it started Monday night and ended Tuesday night. It wasnt very long, but it was epic, and REALLY hot cause we didn't have a fan or anything. And the whole town shut down, all stores, all everything. We went home early Tuesday night cause there was no lights in the road and it is dangerous! but the power is back on now and we are safe and sound! :) 

Everyday we have lunch in the house of members, the lunch here is like dinner for us in the states, its the big meal that the whole family eats together and then their dinner is small. Normally we have lunch with the elders who are serving in our ward, but one day this week they left for Natal for meetings so it was just sisters so we all had lunch together. We were in the house of this one family and we were all just talking and eating like normal, and then she brought her mom into the room to talk with us. Her mom is really old, like 100, and has altimers, so she doesnt remember anything. But when we were talking she said "those girls are mormons, the missionaries." and then the one Irmã said "mom say a prayer for us" and she did, it was the sweetest prayer i have ever heard. so simple and so beatuiful. The spirit was SO  strong, and when she finished and I looked up, me and the three other sisters were all crying our eyes out. It was so sweet to me that although she doesnt remember much, she remembered the missionaries and how to pray and who her heavenly father is. It just showed me how important prayer is, no matter what age, or how big the prayer is. Keeping a relationship with Heavenly Father makes your life better. Plain and simple :)

This week we had zone meeting! and I got to see one of the elders in my CTM district! (photo attached and i look awkardddddd haha) it was great cause i got to get my letters! HAND WRITTEN LETTERS ARE THE BEST AND MAKES MISSIONARIES HAPPY SO WRITE SOMEONE! I want to say thank you to the preists in my home ward for the letteers, my grandparents, and hayley girl! :) 

We marked 3 baptimos this week!! whooo!! One is a family we are teaching, they were a referance from the elders and they are awesome. There is one daughter shes 24 and she is really insterested, and we were teaching her solo for a little while and her mom came in with some food and told us to eat, and we were talking so we said we would, ten min passed by and we still hadnt eaten and she came back in and said we had to eat NOW and so we did, teaching while eating, was different! :) The other is a man in his 50's ish, we meet him while we were doing contacts and he was interested really fast. but this week he said he would come to church but when we passed by to get him he was at the hospital cause his sister was sick, so hopefully we can get him to come this upcoming week :) the other is a boy whose 11, he is super excited about the church and loves the book of mormon, everytime we visit him he is excited to tell us about what he read and he ALWAYS has qustions! it is so great :):)

Things are good for me, this week I saw so much improvement in my portuguese and i understood so much more, not fluent, but there is progress and thats all that matters to me!! :):) 

I love you all so much! Remeber to read the book of mormon cause it is amazingg!!!

xoxo!

Sister Hernandez! 

 

THE PHOTOS!! 

the picture of us at the birthday party, that little boy is named Marlon, and he is the cutest boy i have ever meet. When we took this picture he said "you guys are my second family!!" SO CUTE!! i love him so much. Him and his mom are recent converts and they are amazing! 

how pretty is our view?!? :)

Don't Trip!

 

Well, this week we were walking down the street like normal, and I was talking and took a step off of a curb and BAM, tripped, now this wasnt the first time I have tripped, but it was the first time it left a mark. (I have photes attached of the fall) It was really funny, and really sad, and is now a huge joke and my comp always is saying "sister.. dont trip!!" I was really sad when i fell, so we ate acai and I was happy again!! :) I LOVE ACAI!

I had my first transfer this week! It was great and really exciting! I stayed here in Caico, but we got a new sister in our house. Sister M. Baker. She's great!!

We had alot of work to do this week, and had to meet with alot of people. But remeber that set of cousins we teaching?? Vinicius and Julio? Well they have an uncle who is a member but isn't active. and normally when we are at their house (cause they live togther) he and his wife avoid us and dont listen. But, this week while we were visiting, they came and sat with us and visited with us, and sat in during the lesson, and IT WAS AWESOME!! They said they want to come to chuch but she is like 8.5 months prego and the church is about 2 miles from their house.. and so it will be hard to get them there. But we will do our best to find a car :) I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS FAMILY! 

We also are teaching Padro, he has come to church a lot and loves it!! but He is a really hard headed and so we have been teaching him slow. And this week he invtied us to his church too. He is great, and growing out dreds right now haha. But all the men in the ward want him in our ward so they have been working with us non stop to get him baptised. 

we have this mom and daughter we are teaching too, The mom is like 60 something and the daughter in her 40's. they are SO funny. they are always trying to force feed me something and making us cake and stuff. its great! but we gave them the book or mormon and they are really excited about it!! :)

In church yeterday we sang "ill go where you want me to go" and i almost cried, i am so thankful to be here in brazil serving a mission right now! with the people i am teaching and the members and other missionaries, the lord has a plan for us and he knows what we need at every moment. I am thankful to be here and never wanna come home ;) sorry mom and dad ;)

Com Amor,

Sister Hernandez

Here are some pictures of the fall, and the newest baby in our ward!! :)

another week here in brazil!

Hello Friends and Family!!

This week was good, the start of the week was slow becuase we had to go back to Natal. While we were in Natal, I saw rain like I have never seen before. Here in brazil it doesnt just rain, it pours. Also, we went and met with this family who was in the ward Moraes served in. It was so cute cause their little two year old daughter said my name "siter na-na-des" haha it was so cute!!

When we got back to Caico, it was HOT. some of the hottest days that we have had here. and we had to work hard cause we missed 3 days while we were in Natal. We got a referance from the Elders of this boy named Rikson, we went to his house and he was really excited about the church and we taught him about the book of mormon and he said he would read it. His mom was also there and we talked to her for a while too, she was a world travler, she has seriously been everywere. and when she visited the USA she visited vegas, haha! She asked if I would help her learn more english, so we told her when we visit their house I would also teach a little bit of english haha. Wish me luck! :)

Pedro came to church again, he is also reading the book of mormon, and when he is in church he seriously knows everyone, he is having a hard time cause he wants to come to our church but also his. And so we have been teaching him slow, he just recently broke up with his "wife" (they arent married but lived together for like 20 years) and so we have been helping him with that.

Also we are teaching those cousins I told you about last week. This week we taugh about the plan of salvation, and it was cool to teach about familes being together forever. Their grandpa recently died and so when we told them that they would see their grandpa again and that there if life after death they were SO excited. I love them so much! 

Also, this week was fast sunday, so we were fasting and then went to a house to an investogator and it was funny cause they kept trying to feed us, and we would say "no thank you" and then keep talking then she just started serving up ice cream and handed it to us and almost force fed us the ice cream. After we left the house we laughed so hard cause we tried but they would let us. My comp said that is super normal bcuase everyone just wants to feed us. haha.

Things are good here, the portuguese is coming, everyday i understand more and more and i am speaking more and more and feeling more comfortable with the language everyday!

I love you all!! read the bom!! 

xoxox

sister hernandez

 

ps! I GOT MY FIRST PACKAGE WITH HOT CHEETOS!! THANKS MOM!