Im baaaacckkkkk :)

Seems like I have recuperated completely so we are back to work.  How good it is to be back on the streets.  I think that mumps is maybe the worst disease that a missionary could ever get on the mission.  Your face swells up and you are full of energy and then you cant do ANYTHING!!!  I went nuts.  I was reading the scriptures a lot and I read the bible enough that I started going crazy and talking in a really loud voice and screaming *Hallelujah!!* and *Give me all your dizemos!!*  like the pastors here...just kidding haha  but I was going insane just laying there.

It was so good to get out.  We were heading to one of our pesqu that we were teaching before, and we made a contact with this lady and her son- Rosangela and Flavio.  They were really receptive and we got their address.  I went there on Friday with Elder Rojaz (splits) and we taught the restoration.  She is a really nice lady with 5 cats and her daughter and her son ( 22 and 14).  She is divorced and is working really hard to keep her family well under her roof.  She understood well and accepted the invitation to be baptized if she receives and answer.  Yesterday, Elder Hansen and I went back with an irmã of the ward.  She made friends really fast with the member and before we knew it we were laughing and eating cake from Rosangela´s work and the two of them are pretty much sisters now haha.  While we were eating, she turned to me and said, *Èlder, I have to tell you something.*  She grabbed her Book of Mórmon.  *I brought it to work, and I was reading it, and I went way past what you marked.  I had some feelings while I was reading it....I was light, and happy, and I just had the sensation that it all was true.*  We asked her to explain a little more, and she looked at us, and got quiet for a moment.  Then she told us-  when she was reading, she saw angels dressed in white all around her.  As she related this, the Spirit hit the room like a bomb.  The sister who came with us started crying as she bore her testimony that all this was true.  We reinforced the baptismal invitation and closed the meeting.  She is super excited to go with us to a ward activity this Friday night.  The only hard part will be helping her to go to church- her work only gives her one Sunday off per month.  But, we will continue to work with her.  I am so excited!!

In one of your last letters you said that you saw a photo of a bunch of people dressed in Santa stuff with Books of Mormon-  thats my zone!!!  Elder Sea is at my side, and the other Elders are of the other areas.  They really liked the idea haha.  

It is neat that Elder Sieber´s mom got in contact with you.  He had told me that his mom had *seen* you a few weeks ago (Some missionary mom thing or whatever).  I guess his mom had been reading my blog since before he had left for the MTC hahaha.  He is way cool.  He served in Gilbert for a little bit before coming here, and has already picked up a good bit of the language.  

In these past few weeks, I learned a lot.  I feel that my Heavenly Father was trying to reach me- and that maybe He had to put me on my back for a few days to get the message through.  I have a greater depth of understanding of the healing power of the Atonement, and how the Lord never takes his eyes off of his children.  There is a phrase that I remember which hit me pretty hard that says, *as vezes, Deus calma a tempestade, porem outras vezes Ele calma o marinheiro. *  or rather *Sometimes, God calms the storm;  however sometimes he calms the sailor. *  The words of the Book of Mormon spoke to me when it said  And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.*

Thanks so much for your prayers during this last little bit.  Surely, I have felt them, and God has heard them.  I hope that all is well with you, and if not, that we may enfrent our trials with faith, for the Lord is truly watching.

Abraços e beijos,

Elder Stinnett