Week 67 (03/02/20) Week Full of Miracles !!! 

Hey Family!

Well this week was just full of miracles!! Truthfully, I don’t even know where to start my letter, so I’ll just from Monday evening. 

Monday evening, Elder Mitchell calls me at 10:20 at night! Asking if I can give a training for Zone Conference Thursday. What am I supposed to say? NO?  Ha-ha yeah not that easy, so I said, sure.  So that evening, “ha-ha” like 10 minutes later, I was thinking about how I can give the training, I couldn’t sleep, so I started writing some ideas down, but I couldn’t stay up all night since I had to get up early the following day.

The next day would be my first split with the sisters and we would have to get up at 4am to catch the bus at 5.  The hours are a little different because this past weekend, and Tuesday were a holiday/ Carnival. It’s a weekend where people barley dress in clothes, and Drink A LOT of alcohol, and just do stupid stuff, a lot of Brazilians don’t like it and neither do we.  

So we got to the bus stop in time, but the bus didn’t leave until 6 am, so we waited for an hour...then we finally arrived to Ribeiro Preto, which is like 2-1/2 hours away, and just in time to split ways and maybe catch all the right buses so that we didn’t have to wait forever. But of course, that didn’t happen, so we had to wait, and wait some more, then we finally got to our area, I came back with Sister Silva to Barreto’s.

Sister Silva is who I roomed with when I was at the MTC, but then (15months ago) I DIDNT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING, hahahahah and it was so strange because I can understand her now. That was a miracle. Then our splits here was super good, we laughed a lot, and she’s really awesome. She doesn’t have anyone in her family who supports her being on a mission and was baptized about 2 years ago herself. We were able to find some awesome new people to teach, then that evening we went out to eat ACAI, and celebrate 5 months for Sister Gaspar.

Then Tuesday evening, I was up late making cookies for my training meeting. We finally got to bed and woke up at 330 am to finish things and prepared to leave to get our bus at 5, and as we arrived, the bus was pulling out and almost ALMOST missed it!  I was a crazy person and ran right into the front of the bus!  Yeah, I know it was not a smart idea, but we caught it, lol.

Wednesday Morning, we parted ways for another split with the sisters in Votupuranga, Sister Christian and Sister Carvalho. But the next bus to Votupuranga didn’t leave until 11 am, and lunch was like 12-12:30pm, we had to get another bus just to go to lunch in another city, and were  so worried that we were going to miss it, and not make it to lunch on time, but the Lord heard our prayers, we got to the city in Votuperanga, and ran off the bus so that we could see if we missed that second bus, and you would believe it- we didn’t. 

WHY you might ask, but that same bus that we just ran off of, was the SAME bus that was going to the city we needed.....yeaaahhhh, MIRACLE!!! 

Our splits together were good, had some funny experiences. First, we were teaching some people and they had some little ducklings.  I asked at the end of our lesson would it be ok if I held one? They said it was ok, so I said sure, and he handed it to me. I don’t know why, but I screamed and dropped it, everyone was laughing, LOL!! 

Then another family we taught, I asked to use the bathroom. As I was washing my hands, I moved the hair cream to a different spot so I could wash my hands. But instead of moving it, I accidently dropped it upside down and it was spilling out everywhere, LOL.  I was like HECK! what am I supposed to do now? Well I start picking it up off the floor and putting it back in the container.  Then I left the bathroom really slowly, and confessed what happened. Everyone was laughing 😊

Well that night, I was still working on baking some cookies for our meeting. There was no way I could do it all by myself, so I asked the other sisters if they could help me bake the cookies and bring them Thursday for the conference, which they did. I’m super grateful they did. Thursday came, and the cookies were all different shapes and sizes, some burnt, others not ha-ha!!

It’s now Thursday morning.  We had planned to wake up at 4am, to finish things up and get to our bus at 5:50am. Do you know what time we woke up?  YEAH, it was 6am!!!! 10 minutes after our bus left!!

So, what are we supposed to do now?  First, I called Sister Macedo, my SLT companion, and asked what I am supposed to do? The next bus didn’t leave until 7:30am, so I would have arrived late, which wouldn’t be good. Well we hung up the phone, really distressed. And then made another phone call, but this time it was with our Heavenly Father, saying a prayer asking for the Lord to help us, and of course the Lord ALWAYS hears our prayers, especially if our Faith is really strong in that moment. Well, I said a prayer, and afterwards I was looking at the sister’s phone, who could I call? I came across a members name, who the sisters said is super awesome, so I called him, and asked if he could see how much an Uber ride would be to Ribeirao Preto.

Well he was able to find an answer, and it would be about $120 reis (about $35 US Dollars). So, we agreed that either we could pay that amount, and be on time, or take the bus and be there late? We opted for the Uber, and the driver was so amazing. We listened to hymns the entire time we were driving there. I got to finish getting ready for the conference, and sure enough we arrived on time. We split the cost, and she even gave a little discount.

The conference finally started, and this day would be the highlight of my week! I don’t think I’ve ever really told my parents how much I am grateful they encouraged me to play the piano, and to learn, but it has served me well my ENTIRE life. From church to school, and other events. Because almost every conference in my mission, I’ve gotten to play, and I usually play every week for church, and almost every week for district counsel.

Of all the times I have ever played the piano, I would have never imagined, and I’m sure my parents as well, this is something that I’ll NEVER forget. At the close of our conference, President Santos says the following: 

Elders, and Sisters, when I was in the MTC, I went to talk to Elder Bednar and said it would be a dream of mine, if you could come visit my mission in Ribeirao Preto.  It would just be so amazing, and I’m sure he’ll forget, or not have the time, but it’s always been a dream of mine. He continues…. Elders and Sisters, Elder Bednar is making my dreams come true!!! He will be visiting the mission, on the 12^th of March, which now, is next week!  And GUESS who has the amazing opportunity to play the piano, ME!!!!!!

You guys, I get to play for an apostle of the LORD, and also Elder Adikitus (the area president of brasil) I am freaking out!!!! And WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW, I am so excited!!! Thank you, mom and dad and other members of my family, for teaching and encouraging me to play. I love you. 

My training went well. We left and arrived at the bus stop late, and sure enough, they didn’t have any more busses for Barreto’s that day. The next bus would leave at 10:30am, or 5:30pm the next day, Guess what else happened? Our phone was dead so we had to ask around and see if someone would allow us to use their phone to call the other sisters to come get us.  It was a super crazy and spiritual week all in one. I love you and can’t wait to talk next week.

Love from Brasil,

Sister Pierce