Week #62 - Transfers Already - I am going to PALMAS!

Monday, March 29, 2021

OLA TUDO MUNDO!! Tudo bem? Let me just say how much I love Brasília. Honestly, it's the best! This was another great week in Ceilândia, and it was actually my last week in Ceilândia! We have transfers today and tomorrow and I will be going to Palmas which is a 14 hour bus ride from where I am.... prayers would be appreciated for this bus ride hahaha! But I am going to be companions with SISTER HERNANDEZ! For those of you who have been reading these emails since the beginning, Sister Hernandez was my MTC companion for the first week at the MTC! We are going to be the Sister training leaders down in Palmas! I am so excited for this next opportunity I will have to serve down in Palmas! I am sad to say bye to Sister N. Silva, but she is going to be with another American companion! Here are some miracles from my last week in Ceilândia 4:

We got a random call this week from a guy names Ivan, and he explained to us that someone gave him our number because he wanted to come to church with us! So, we told him the address and the time and.... he came! It was super exciting! He is actually apart of another church, but wants to continue to come to church!!

We have a new person we are teaching named Juliano. He is super cool, he is dating a member in the ward and he has come to church twice and we taught him the Gospep of Jesus Christ this last week. We asked him if he wanted to be baptized, and he said one day yes, but for now he wants to understand repentance more... but he will be baptized soon! I can just feel it! 

We have our friend Maria that we are teaching, and this last week we taught her the Restoration, and she also told us how she wants to be baptized!! She wants to learn more first! We have new sisters coming to our area in Ceilândia, and I know that they will do great teaching her! 

We also have our friend Eunice and we go to her home every saturday and teach her and her 17 year old son. Her son is apart of a different church, and they believe in some weird stuff... but we weren't able to go to their home this last Saturday, and changed it to Sunday. But Saturday, Andre Felipe (her son) was sitting in the living room around the time we normally come and asked him mom, "mom, where are the missionaries? Why aren't they here?" MIRACLES! He asked us so many questions when we went over on Sunday, and you can just tell he wants to learn more. I am very excited to see how they will progress!!

I have loved my time in Ceilândia and I loved being with Sister N. Silva! I can now speak, and understand almost everyone in person in Portuguese, which makes me so happy. I love you all and am grateful for the prayers and love sent! 

♡Sister Guilott♡

Love my district!

A hamburger!

Best Dinner this week: it was bacon-wrapped chicken!

Week #61 - I sounded like a Brazilian?

Monday, March 22, 2021

Hellooooooo!! Usually I say "Another great week in Brazil" whenever I'm starting my emails... but I'll be real... this week was HARD!! Because I was sick the whole week 😭 but, i am recovering now! For those of you that have been reading my emails since the beginning on my adventure last year, you'll remember that my first time in Brazil I got sick as well, like really sick where I was hospitalized hahaha. This time wasn't that bad haha! I just had a sinus infection and had to sleep it off. So throughout the week, it was more chill.... pretty much did nothing except sleep for 4 days! But, Saturday and Sunday were some pretty great days. Let me tell you about them:

I was sick for a few days. NO FUN.

Grateful for medicines!

Saturday we started off our day by studies, and around lunch time we went to our recent convert Josy's house and had lunch with her, and her sister Júlia that we are teaching!! I'll tell you all right now... I LOVE the food here! Almost too much haha, don't want to get fat!! But afterwards we had a lesson with our friend Eunice in person! She is super cool, and wants to find the true church. I talked a little bit about her last week. She likes to meet once a week, so that makes it a little hard. But she loves hearing the messages we share!

After coming home from our lesson with Eunice, our uber driver was talking to us, and we were talking to him. And he asked if Sister N. Silva is from the North because of her accent haha (and she is). And then he asked me, "are you from Minas Gerais?" HE THOUGHT I SOUNDED LIKE A BRAZILIAN!!! He was pretty shocked to find out that I'm from America haha. Speaking of the language, holy cow the gift of tongues is real. As I was sick this week, I wasn't really speaking or hearing too much portguese. So I thought I would forget everything I learned! But that didn't happen, I can understand mostly everything people are saying, IN PERSON. Phones calls and videos call are still hard lol. But I also am able to speak more now! 

My district - zoom calls helps me to understand!

We have been teaching a guy named Marcio, and we invites him twice to be baptized, and he said no both times. So this week, we decided to stop teaching him because he isn't progressing. We have another friend named Francisca and we also asked her twice if she wanted to be baptized, and she said no as well. So we decided as well to stop teaching her. That's the hard part with missionary work. When you know people are SO CLOSE to making that promise with God, but their agency gets in the way. It's a good thing that one day everyone will be baptized!! 😁

Get this MIRACLE!! So as I've said this area is a little slower, not many people are progressing. And we only have ONE MORE WEEK left in the transfer. So, we decided that we would pray and use our faith like crazy to have someone progress towards baptism. Saturday night, we get a message from our zone leaders with a referral! And they explain that they taught her about baptism and that she wants to he baptized! And her whole family as well! We called her and honestly she didn't seem all that happy.... hahaha! But, she watched our church service and we have a lesson set up with her on Tuesday!

One of our ward missionaries is a cute 17 year old girl, and she has a new boyfriend that is coming to church with her that isn't a member. We talked to him at church on Sundsy, and he wants to learn more with us!! Miracles are real. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for the prayers on behalf of my health, and learning Portuguese as well! Prayers work! This is the last week of the transfer, and I honestly can't believe I've been here in Brasília  almost the same amount I was here the first time haha! Pray for Ceilândia 4 to see some miracles! 

♡Sister Guilott♡

I never get tired of the beautiful rainbows and crazy rain!

I hate cockroaches. They are SOOO big here!

Week #60 - Uber Drivers - Make Great Investigators!

Monday, March 15, 2021

OI GENTE!!! Guess what.... I LOVE BRAZIL! It was such a fun week here. I say that every week... but the only down side is that I have a little cold right now. Why is it I only get sick in Brazil? But I am doing good. Keep pushing on!! Here are some of the fun experiences from the week!

We have an awesome lady we are talking to. Her name is Eunice, and she invited us over to her home! We taught her and her son the Restoration, and as we were teaching she told us how she wants to find the truth, and wants to find the true church. Welp... SHE FOUND IT! She wants to read the Book or Mormon, and her son too wants to continue to learn more! The only hard part is that we have to wait a week to meet with her again. So that's a little hard. But her son even told us how he knows the Bible doesn't contain ALL that Christ did... correct!! We also have the Book of Mormon!! They are super awesome. 

Get this miracle... we were in an uber going to our apartment complex. We LOOOOVE ubers in my mission. It is one of our greatest ways of finding people to teach haha! But we met our uber driver, Leandro, and explained our purpose. We asked if he wanted to learn more, and he said yes!! So we got his number and did a video call with him a couple days later and he invited himself to church! And he CAME!! YAY! He is super cool. But super busy... so we have to wait a week to meet with him as well.. but he is AMAZING! 

Funny story: me and my companion have an English class we do over google meets ever Friday night,  and my companion wants to learn English really bad, so I've been helping her! And this week she has had the hardest time saying the word... spearmint hahaha! I love Brazilians.

Honestly, it's been a little bit harder this past week... a lot of the people we are teaching aren't progressing too much. We invited 2 people to be baptized this week and they both said no. That was so hard. Missionary work isn't always perfect and happy miracles 24/7, missionary work is HARD! But, with the hard times... we see miracles through our faith. That reminds me of one of my FAVORITE scriptures that describes this type of faith. 

Ether 12:6 "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."

Éter 12:6 "E agora eu, Morôni, quisera falar algo a respeito dessas coisas. Quisera mostrar ao mundo que fé são coisas que se esperam, mas não se veem; portanto, não disputeis porque não vedes, porque não recebeis testemunho senão depois da prova de vossa fé."

When we hope for things and look on the bright side, we will see miracles and are showing our faith! I invite all of you to show your faith in Christ this week by praying for something specifically and always looking on the brightside 🌞😁

♡Sister Guilott♡ 

Working hard!

It is bigger than my head!!

Week #59 - Gift of Tongues is REAL!

Monday, March 8, 2021 

Another amazing week here in Brazil! I think I'll probably say that every week here haha! But honestly, I haven't realized what a miracle it is that I am actually here in Brazil again until now. I am here to help specific people, and knowing that is amazing! 

This week, I understood a good amount more! I love speaking Português and am still praying for the gift of tongues everyday. There are definitely some people where I understand almost nothing of what they said hahaha, and then others where I understand everything! Patience.... I just need more patience hahah!

This last week was little more difficult, and also miracle filled. We worked a lot with the recent converts. We have 2 girls here, Duda and Vitoria and they are converts of 7 months. They love the gospel so much, but their mom isn't a member. But we went over to their home and shared a message with them AND their mom, Josy! It was awesome. The spirit was very strong and we formed a great relationship with Josy. 

Another recent convert we have is Daleth. She has been a member for exactly one month! She loves the gospel so much. She got baptized the week before I got here. She invited us over to her home and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ while her mom was there. Her mom is apart of a different church, but sat and listened! It was awesome. I asked her (in my broken portuguese) if she would like to start taking the missionary lessons, and she didn't give an exact answer, but went on to explain some questions that she has about where we go after we die, and how we can all be saved if we didn't get baptized here on earth. Daleth looked at her mom and said, "Guess what?! We have the answers for those questions!" We are going to go over again this next week and hopefully teach her mom the Plan of Salvation! Then Daleth on Sunday helped us out with a lesson with an investigator that we have. It was awesome, and afterward Daleth told us that she wants to serve a mission! Yay! 

Here is a miracle that turned into a sad story.... we were teaching Felipe Salomão, I talked about him before, but we taught him this last week on Tuesday and invited him to be baptized and he said yes!! YAY! Then we had another lesson with him on Friday, and he didn't answer... and our messages wouldn't send... so we thought that he blocked us and didn't want to talk to us. Then we thought of Facebook and messaging him on Facebook, and he replied! He told us that his phone got stolen. And then...... thay he was moving with his family to Bahia... it was sad, but he still wants to meet with the missionaries there! 

Lots of things happen that sometimes make us feel down. Like someone saying they are moving after showing the desire that they want to follow the example of our Savior. Or all of our lessons falling through (happened to us on Thursday and Friday). BUT what I know to he true, is that the miracles that will show after that are UNREAL! Because God is a God of miracles!

Love you all so much! Thank you for all the prayers and support!

♡Sister Guilott♡

Week #58 - Mission Tour

Monday, March 1, 2021 

Sister "N" Silva (She is called that since there are so many "Silvas")

OI GENTE!!! Wow, another amazing week here in BRASIL!! This week was a really good week. I'll be honest with all of you, when I first got here I was nervous out of my mind. I was also feeling really homesick for Arizona. But... I don't feel that nervousness anymore. The only nervous feelings I feel is for the people we are teaching! But lots happened this week, so let's hop right into it...

What it looks like outside!

So, we started off the week kinda crazy, me and Sister N. Silva went to the sister training leaders area, because me and Sister Souza were going to be going up to Brasília to practice singing our song for Mission Tour that was on Wednesday. So we stayed with the STLs for those couple of days, and then me and Sister Souza would drive up in an uber and practice the song! We sang Este é o Cristo (this is the christ). And it went suuuuper good! While we were in the uber's, we taught the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the uber drivers! Hahaha gotta love ubers. 

But then we had mission tour, and I got to meet almost all the mission!! My brain hurt really bad afterwards trying to understand everything they were saying... but it was all good hahaha! Elder and Sister Koch were the ones speaking to us, and they were awesome. It also hurt my head to try and understand everything hahaha. 

Here's my update with portuguese: let me just start off by saying the the gift of tongues is real... when I was here last year, I had the hardest time understanding. Well, I can understand a good amount now! I understand everything Sister N. Silva is saying which is nice hahaha. But once I understand what people are saying, we are on talking about the next thing. So I'm just a little slower right now hahaha. The hard part now is knowing what to say, to form the sentences. And then it's hard as well with training because I am helping Sister N. Silva with teaching skills. Pretty much it's like she is my trainer hahaha. 

But me and Sister N. Silva are doing awesome. I am teaching her English and she loves it. Her English is already sooooo good! She just needs the confidence to speak it :) speaking of english, me and Sister N. Silva are going to be starting english classes online! We already have 30 people that want to participate... so we aren't too sure how that is going to work hahaha. 

Now for the people in Ceilândia we are teaching...

First is Francisca, she is awesome. We went over to her house and introduced the Book of Mormon to her! She thought that I was a Sister that used to teach her, but I've never met her before hahaha. She was literally convinced. She even ended up coming to church with us! I was going to ask her if we could take a selfie, but she ran out of the church building suuuuper fast. But she is awesome.

We are also teaching Felipe Salomão and he is super cool! He is more to himself and shy, but still doing good. We have some good fellowship with him. He is catholic though and helps out at his church every week the same we have ours... so hopefully he will come one day and feel the spirit there! But he's reading the Book of Mormon a lot! 

We have another guy we started talking to, his name is Daniel. He is a referral from a member in a different ward. He is soooo cool and has a Book of Mormon already, and is really wanting to learn more!

I love being here in Brasil. I still can't understand what a blessing it is that I am here!! Today is also my 14 month mark.... which means I don't have too much time left eeeek! Pray for Sister Guilott to have the gift of tongues!!

Alma 26:3 "And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work."

Alma 26:3 "E esta é a bênção que nos foi concedida: que fomos transformados em instrumentos nas mãos de Deus, para realizar esta grande obra."

♡Sister Guilott♡

Sister Hernandez (who I arrived with on 2/11)

The members bring us food and give us treats!

Week #57 - Brazilian Rain Storms

Monday, February 22, 2021

My fabulous district!

Let me start of by saying that GOD IS GOOD!! I just love Brazil so much. I have seen so many miracles here this past week being in Ceilândia! I love it! I will share some of the miracles from the week: 

This week we spent a lot of time getting to know the area better and the people here better. We reached out to a loooooot of potential people and even started teaching 9 new people!! Wowza! It's been a fun time. On Tuesday we had district council, and yes... I am the only American in the district. The only American in the zone. Now, there are 4 Americans here so more are starting to come! Everyone here really likes to talk to me, which is a little awkward because I never know all of what they said, and when I finally do understand them... we are going into the next conversation. 

Portuguese is coming good... I can understand my companion, but I am still having a hard time understanding others. And right now a lot of missionary work is over the phone.... and I can never understand people over the phone hahaha! 

Here is the funnest experience from the week... we have a recent convert named Duda, she is 14 and her sister who is also a recent convert is 10. Their mom isn't a member. The only way we can go over to members homes is if a nonmember is there. So Duda invited us over to share a message with her and her mom! We were so excited! We were at a lesson with a different recent convert, and after leaving we went to Duda's house. While walking there, it was starting to rain a little bit. Not too much. But as we kept walking, it kept getting darker and raining even more. Next thing you know.... it's POURING rain and we are running through the street trying to find Duda's house. We stopped to look at the address and saw that we  only had 7% on the phone. Then an elder started to call us. After we explained to him that we couldn't talk... WE HAD 1%!!! So we quickly memorized the address, and went on running through the rain again. Drenched. It was so crazy hahaha. After running for a minute, we stopped at a churrasco (which is like a barbeque here) and waited for the rain to stop. But it didn't.. so the owner of the churrasco made us ponchos out of giant black trash bags hahaha. And off again we went running. Turns out we had the wrong address. BUT luckily someone let us in and charge our phone. And we even ended up talking with them a little bit about our beliefs. Not too much, because they expressed they weren't interested. But hey, they helped us out and that was a miracle itself!! 

Soaked! 

A couple days later we went to a different churrasco and got some yummy food there. There was a guy who sparked up a conversation with us there, named Felipe. We explained our purpose, and he showed interest in what we were saying. So we got his number and with my broken portuguese I gave him a Book of Mormon!! We even had a video call with him a couple days later and he really likes the Book of Mormon. MIRACLES!! 

I truly can't explain how big of a miracle it is that I am here. I still can't comprehend it. I am grateful that God has given me the opportunity to serve in 2 wonderful places: Brazil and Arizona. 

Pray for Sister Guilott to have the gift of tongues to understand and SPEAK!! Love you all! 

3 Néfi 5:13 "Eis que sou discípulo de Jesus Cristo, o Filho de Deus. Fui por ele chamado para anunciar sua palavra ao povo, a fim de que tenham vida eterna."

3 Nephi 5:13 "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

♡Sister Guilott♡

Ubers - How we get around at times.

Rainbow from our apartment window