Funny.
On Saturday night, a member invited us to come over to her 9 year old
son´s birthday party. A few of our appointments fell so we headed
over to wish him a happy birthday (and lets be honest...so eat some
cake too!). Well when we got there we realized that this was the 9
year old birthday party of the century!!! She had all these Brazilian
party foods, soda, and loud music playing as all the kids from the
neighborhood danced around, ate, and chatted together. The
decorations were Halloween/Monster themed and way amazing. The cake
was beautiful and looked like a huge spider web. She of course said
that she had done very little...but she is that way! A little of her
effort and a "small and simple party" are equal to about 6 weeks of
preparing if I would to do that same party!! She is pretty amazing!
Anyway, so Sister White and I get there and we are eating a little bit
and talking about how the parties will be that we throw for our kids
one day. We just so happened to be talking about how we don't want to
be those types of moms that are "party poopers" when a song came on
that says the phrase "I´m in Miami, B*****" Yeah...***** meaning bad
word!! We looked at each other and tried to decide what to do. If we
should tell her since its in English so they don't know or if we should
just let it go. Well as it kept repeating the phrase over and over
again and then had a part that just says the phrase about 15 times in
a row (AHHH...clean missionary ears CANNOT hear that word!!!) we
decided we should probably mention it to her. When she came out of
the kitchen again she saw our faces (I guess we had a worried look or
something...dont know) and asked what it was. We laughed and told her
and she ran into the room and switched the music saying to the whole
group of children and her son in particulary that the song "has a bad
word...The Sisters said so." We heard her from outside and just
looked at each other...UH OH!! Now they are going to hate us!!!! What
were we just saying about not wanting to be party
poopers???....yeah....that went well!! He got a little mad since its
one of his favorite songs and he didnt know. But when Sister White
asked a little while later to listen to Justin Bieber, he got over the
madness real fast. He LOVES Justin Bieber so that made his day!
So funny. Gotta love it.
We also got to celebrate earlier that day, the birthday of two super
cute twins. They are the kids of a recent convert, Adriana, who is
amazing! Sister White made them crowns and we stopped by to give them
to them. They are ADORABLE!!! And soooooo full of energy.
Spiritual.
We have been teaching a couple, Maria and Manoel. Sister Santos and
Sister White had met them knocking doors and taught them about the
restoration. They had gone back once and Maria had been pretty
uninterested, while Manoel was very interested. We taught them our
first week together too and they agreed to go to church. That Sunday
they didn't go though. So we went by again to see why and Manoel said
that Maria woke up and said she wasn't going and started to fight with
him about it. Manoel started to fight back and so they just stayed
home mad at each other the whole day instead. LAME! Well Maria
continued saying that she wouldn´t be going to our church and would be
returning to her church and didnt want to talk to us anymore. Manoel
said he was giving up too and wouldn't go.
Well...that is when the Spirit came in and helped us A TON. We began
to bear our testimonies of the importance of the Restoration. That
God has truly restored HIS church on the earth. We testified that
they could know this for themselves. We also testified of the reality
of Satan and how he will do everything in his power to keep God´s
children from the truth. We invited them to follow Christ and not
Satan and to go to Christ´s church on Sunday. I´ve never been quite
so bold in all my missionary life....but the Spirit was so strong and
their attitudes completely changed. They committed to go to church.
We tried stopping by on Saturday but they weren't home, so we left a
note saying we would stop by there in the morning to go with them to
church.
We came by about 8:30 in the morning and much to our joy, they were up
and getting ready. We waited while they finished and eat breakfast
and then we all got in their car and went up to the chapel. It was a
good thing we went with them because they though it was a chapel for a
different church that is close by. That could have been bad!
We took them inside and sat them down and a man from the ward came by
and greeted them and told us he would get a member to go sit with
them. Awesome! Love the members here! So he sent over our dear
friend Maria Lucia and she helped them during sacrament meeting. It
was an AMAZING Sacrament meeting. A high councilman spoke and brought
the spirit super strong talking about how we are SO privileged to
have a prophet and inviting us to really prepare for conference and
remember that when the Prophet speaks it is scripture. I was blessed
to be able to sit behind the American family that is in the ward and
translate for the wife. It was super hard but gratifying to be able
to help her finally understand what was being said at church!!
Then we went into the Gospel Principles class and had an awesome
lesson about the Priesthood. And then Relief Society...the BEST
PART!!! We had an amazing lesson about Charity and the teacher was
very inspired. Everyone was teary eyed and Maria LOVED it. I gave
her a huge hug at the end of the class and she hugged me back super
tight and I felt SO much love for her. Her whole outlook has changed
since that lesson we had with her. I am so grateful for the Spirit.
It is Him who makes miracles happen.
Manoel also loved the elder´s quorum and agreed to go with them on a
service project they are doing this weekend. So awesome. They truly
loved the church and felt the spirit. We are going there tonight to
continue helping them towards baptism, their endowments, their
sealing, and eternal life!!
I love the mission!
Thank you for your prayers and I love. I love you all!!!
Sister Knudsen
Edilson, Rose, and Larissa from Osasco.
Some of the decorations and the cake
from the party we "pooped" (sorry I didn't rotate this!!!)
Twins with their cute
little birthday crowns!!!
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