2 months since i reported to the MTC!!

Feliz Natal para tudo mundo!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! I sure did, it was so much fun!!

We did a secret Santa with our zone! I love my zone so much, we have so much fun together! Christmas Eve we taught a lot during the day. Everyone was home with their families. It was super awesome to see everyone so happy and all together! It made it so clear to see that families are so important to our Heavenly Father and how he has given us families to have joy in this life to help each other and support each other! It’s so awesome to actually see that here!! That we had dinner with the Bisbo (bishop) and his family, it was great!

Christmas day we went to a family’s house for lunch and ate this HUGE meal! I’m not exactly sure what I was eating but man o man it was so so good!! Then we went to go skype our families! Seriously so wonderful! And again it was so obvious to see how important families are in this life! I love my family so much and am so grateful for those 40 minutes to talk to them and be strengthened by them!!

So yeah Christmas here in Manaus is very different than the US. Not a lot of gift giving just a lot of food. Ha-ha, a lot of really good food! I like Christmas here a lot!

Okay well some bummer news, two of our really strong investigators are moving... so we have to pass them on to some other missionaries, but there’s no doubt in my mind that they will be baptized soon! They already have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, so I’m not too worried about them, just bummed to lose them.

This week we had divisões das duplas com as sister tranadores (exchanges)! Wow that was so great! I was with Sister Gomes de Sao Paulo. She’s awesome! We contacted a ton of people, and she taught me SO MUCH! Man, she’s an amazing missionary I love her so much!! Yeah so this week was awesome! I’m pretty stoked for this coming week too! Missionary work is the best!

Scripture of the week

Alma 26:12 (I know mom! same scripture that you sent me!) – ‘Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.’

Eu AMO essa escritura! por que realmente, com a força de Deus, eu posso fazer todas as coisas!!! e, servindo uma missão não e fácil e MUITO difícil, mais quando eu lembro que Deus e aqui comigo, e que ele quer a ajudar me eu tenho paz, e alegria e forca para continuar e trabalhar duro. nos precisamos sempre lembrar que com Deus todo e possível nos precisamos ter confiança em Deus e paciência em sua tempo e esperança por o plano que Ele tem por nos!

TRANSLATION - I LOVE this scripture! Because really, with the strength of God, I can do all things!!! Serving a mission is not easy, it’s VERY difficult, but when I remember that God is here with me, and He wants to help me, I have peace and joy and strength to continue and work hard. We need to always remember that with God, anything is possible, and we need to trust in Him, have patience with his timing and hope in the plan He has for us!

Okay shout outs!

Shout out to 2015! I’ll be in Brazil for the entire year of 2015! I’m thinking it’s going to be a good one!

Shout out to the US for having maple syrup... cuz that doesn’t exist here.

Shout out to all the Brazilians who think they don’t like peanut butter, then try it and don’t stop eating it until it’s gone!

Shout out to candy canes because they don’t exist here.

Shout out to my mom for sending me chick fil a sauce!

Shout out to Sister Gomes for teaching me so much during splits.

Shout out to my family for all their love and support!

Happy New Year everyone!

Tchau Tchau Pica-Pau!

--Sister Huisken