10/1/18 - Emma Letter to Family

Mari and Hyrum I miss you too! Thank you for your prayers!

That is so sad about Grandma Shea! Agh!

WHO DO YOU THINK I AM PEOPLE?! I KNOW PORTUGUESE HAS MESSED MY MEMORY UP BUT ITS NOT SO BAD AS TO FORGET THE SWEEDISH PANCAKE RECEITA! I meant the puff pancake recita from whitney sutton? I hope you know what I'm talking about. You can take the Girl out of the states but her family traditions will stick with her.....

 

I love that thought about to do lists. I've found with my "follow every prompting" goal it's been anything from, "Talk to those people sitting on that porch" or "Make breakfast for your comp" a really cool one happened last week on the subway. I saw a girl looking sad standing in the corner of the cab so I went up to her and said "I have a message from God. Your Father in Heaven wants you to know you're not alone and he understands your struggle. Everything will be ok." I gave her a Plano de Salvação phamplet and didn't think much of it but when we arrived at the station she talked to me and the other 3 sisters I was with saying she was on her way to the bank with all her passowrds and documents and she was robbed. She's a local college student and wasn't sure how she was going to get all these funds back together again. The Lord's to do list is for sure greater than ours.

Dad that powder puff shrit design was the same one they used my softmore year. I was on the gray team. My favorite short f all the years I played.

This week I ate pizza with sauce, zuchinni and parmesan. It was actually the best thing ever and mom would love it. I take back everything I said about brasillian pizza before the mission.

Thank you for teaching me life skills. When I offer to help in the kitchen some members say, " oh no, you're like the last one" meaning sister bybee then Volterelli defends my skills saying "No this one actually knows what to do" I'm thankful for the time I had at college to learn a lot of these skills too. Tender mercy! Also mom, thanks for not being a nutzo mission mom driving the memebrs and my mission president nuts. Your contact with all of them is just perfect! If you need anything don't heasitate to message them, I only say  this because some moms here are super needy with their missionaries. Amo voce!

Can you please send me a uke chord chart? I've forgotten a few things

This week we were walking in the blazing sun up a giant hill and this was the 3rd giant hill in a row on our way to this appointment. my comp pointed to the other side of the mountain in the distance and said we still had a long ways to go. Not kidding about the distance of this trip toaal was about equal to walking form herriman high to the draper temple with a lot of steep hills inbetween. I cried a little bit but then I sucked it up and remembered I prayed for hills. Ugh. For reals though, I really need your prayers for my knees. I've never had knee problems but they're starting to hurt a lot. I was able to locate a store that sells icy hot and that's helped but literally going on long hikes everyday is killing my knees... but my calves and booty are doing great! Positive side to everything right?

We were trying to see how many contacts our District could make in 30 minutes so I got up in front of a bus stop full of people in Barueri and made the invitation to all at the same time. I got some crazy looks because 1) No one looks like me here so I stick out like a sore thumb and 2) My Portuguese has a whack accent I'm still working on getting rid of. It was probably one of the bravest things I've done so far ahah!

So about my experence in the celestial room.... I'll give a quick version here for times sake:

In preperation for conference and because I got to go to the temple I wanted to be thinking of a specific question. The more I study the more I realized the final last days are really upon us. My question was simple, "What can I do to prepare my heart for the Second Coming of my Savior". I prayed about it the Celestial room and had this experence.

I was about 8 years old standing on the edge of a platform looking out into darkenss and the Savior came and knelt by my side and said, "Are you ready?" I told him I wasn't sure. "Look and see all you can become." With His light I began to see a pathway illmuinated in front of me. As I started to walk it I saw specific things like my SBO times, Ballet class, math home work at the kitchen table with dad, early morning temple trips, cabin trips, school dances, graduation and suddenly I found my self standing in the middle of a jungle at 19. I looked down and saw the path beneeth my feet got a lot narrower. I also had a name tag. I turned back to my Savior still standing on the platform. "What now?" I asked. He smiled and said "Keep loving, keep serving, just keep going." So I kept going. I saw late study nights, more cabin trips, a simple and pure courtship, more temple trips, a temple marriage, a little girl swinging on a park swing, after school snacks,  car pools, music lessons. I saw thing speed up and the path get narrower as I saw grandkids, another mission, lots of smiles and happy times. I then found my self at the trunk of a tree. This tree had a beatiful carved door. I looked up and saw the branches of the tree illuminated and pictures of my ancestors smiling. I looked down at the roots and saw pictures of my posterity. I tried to open the door but it was locked. I called to Him,"What now?" He said, "All these joys can be yours if you only keep loving, keep serving, and keep going."

This experience was so special to me because I know that I am constantly being guided by His loving hands. I love how the temple appeared many times. I know if I keep loving, keep serving, keep going and always stay focused on the temple I will have all the joys Father has planned for me and be ready for the day when the Savior comes again. CAN'T WAIT!

I love you lots! Thanks for your constant support.

Sister Em