Happy New Year 2012

Olá família e amigos!!

mom!!!

thank you for the email about alma 5!! i will study it more and then write you back.

I was studying apart of alma 5 the other day, i just opened to verse 28 - have you been rid of pride? .... Irmã Walker talked a lot about pride during the whole transfer. this verse hit me, and i thought about the pride that i have. i have been very prideful this past transfer. a lot. like sometimes, i felt hopeless and questioned myself what am i doing here, and do i really believe all of this. i was struggling with my testimony and many times fond myself having a hard time to testify with all my heart. it has been a transfer of `the lord brings you low to lift you up higher." i saw that irma walker and i had so much potential, but i so many times let my weaknesses win (pride, fear, doubt, lack of trust.) of course it is always easier to look back and see where the problems were. but now that the transfer is over and irma walker has been transferred, i see some of the areas that i really want to improve.

i will share an experience with you that i haven´t yet written in my journal... one day this past week, we were teaching Maria Jorgete (she is 74 and really awesome! we helped her carry her heavy bags home, then started teaching her...) we were teaching the restoration and we came to teh part of the first vision. i think irma walker recited it then, in that moment, she asked if we could say a prayer with maria so that she could feel a confirmation that this is truth. she asked me to say the prayer. i had been thinking from an investigator´s perspective in the moment trying to ask myself if i really believed if that was a true experience that really happened... i just wanted to feel another confirmation in my mind and heart that Joseph smith really did see God and Jesus Christ. So, when irma walker asked me to say the prayer, i did, and really with real intent, asked that Heavenly Father could confirm in our minds and hearts, including the mind and heart of maria, that this was a true experience. I didn´t have any great feeling of the spirit overcome me, but i felt a confirmation in that moment, that yes this is truth, and yes, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ did appear to the jovem Joseph Smith. I felt an answer to the prayer of my heart. Through this small experience, i was able to and do now testify with more fulness of my heart. I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ restored to the earth. God does anser our prayers, every single one. I feel so blessed to be part of His work in this corner of the world. What a marvelous work this is. One fo the first things i remember hearing from one of the bishopric members when i arrived in Setúbal was "Follow the spirit" and the other was from the bishop, that he says almost every week, "viver o evangelho" live the gospel. It is that simple.

Heavenly Father is blessing me beyond my comprehension. "It passes all my understanding..." everything that He does to help us along the way. When we jsut trust in Him, He will show us the more excellent way. I am deeply grateful for the scriptures that are our guidance to salvation. Jesus Christ is the way. He wants us to be better hoje, than we were yesterday. Irma Walker wrote me a note the other day. He wants us to be like Him, not be Him.

He has already payed the price. He already knows how to succor each of us individually. We just have to let go of our pride, and prepare in every way we can. He IS the way.

I am excited for this new ano and new inicio de transferencia!!!

Guess what.............!!!!!!!!............... I will TRAIN AGAIN!!!!!

What???!!!!??? okay, tudo bem!!! If that is what Heavenly Father wants, it is what I will do!! And i just found out a couple hours ago that she is from Ecuador!! That made me even more excited!! Eu nem consigo descrever os sentimentos eu tenho em meu coração. Só sei que Pai Celestial é o nosso Pai e que Ele nos ama. Ele está ao nosso lado sempre!

This past week was a great last week of the year 2011!!!

Right now we have many investigators with much potential, and that is such a great blessing!!! We ended the year marking a boy, Hugo Gomes, for baptism. He was going ot be baptized on Christmas, but it just didn´t work out. His dad is here for holiday as well as tons of other family members from Angola. He was baptized on the first day of the year 2012!!! He has already been wanting to be baptized for a really really long time, but he wanted his dad to be present. it was a really sweet meeting, and there were about 50 people present, (mostly family from Angola!!) It was so incredible!! Irmã Walker´s brother is serving a mission in Angola so she was able to get some references for him!! How cool!!

We are teaching this really great lady maria Jorgete who just wants to know which is the true church! :) Also, the brother of Dino, Emanuel, and family went to church on Christmas, we will start working with him this week!! it is going to be really awesome!

I am so sad that irmã Walker is being transfered!!!! It was a really hard moment, because i thought that we would both stay, but Heavenly Father has other plans in mind for us!! I am really excited top train, i know it will be difficult, but my goal is to trust in the Lord, love my companion, work with the ward, and love the people!!

Another great adventure here we come!!!

I am really excited for this transfer. It will be another great learning experience, especially to trust in the Lord and Go and Do!

I love you all so much!! Happy New Year 2012 will be the best ano yet!!! Tem que ser!!

Tenham uma boa semana!!

com amor, Irmã Michael