The Astonishing Adventures of Sister Hannah Hiatt

So this week we had a miracle. Last Thursday we met this guy on the street and offered to share a message about Christ with him, like we do. We started talking and got to know him a little, and found out that he had moved here recently from Bahia and was looking for a church to attend. We invited him to church and he accepted enthusiastically. We found out that his city in Bahia was known for the coffee plantations and we mentioned that we didn't drink coffee. And with that he stopped. The next day we visited him and met his sister and her adorable little baby, and started teaching. He went to church and loved it, and we invited him to be baptized. This gave him a moment of pause. He had already been baptized, and so we had to teach a lot about the priesthood (the authority God gave to certain men to perform ordinances like baptism). He understood but wasn't sure, and although we marked his baptism for this Sunday, I thought it would fall through. We've already taught peopl...

So the highlight of this week was that we went to the temple (!!!) and that was wonderful, like it always is. The low point of this week was that we did a week-long fast with an investigator, where we agreed that we'd stop eating sugar and he'd stop smoking. That was fine. But then our District leader decided to be awesome and sent us pizza. That was better than fine. The sad part was that he sent pizza with a chocolate border and we couldn't eat it. Oh my goodness it was sad. We ate the pizza part but when we got to the crust we had to leave it, in all its chocolatey glory. (But the sugar-fast ended today so I ate the leftovers for breakfast! woot woot) So those who know Brother Chin will know that his favorite scripture is John 11:35, and when I was getting ready to leave for the mission he said that I should always read it with the members here and then let my companion express her feelings and her testimony about that verse, because it's so powerful. But when I got...

So when I got here, the Sisters had already been teaching a family for a while. The family was awesome and very receptive, but hadn't yet been to church despite having been invited several weeks in a row. The dad, Emerson, was trying to quit smoking and had gone down from 4 packs a day to 5 cigarets and the girls were reading the Book of Mormon, but my companion wasn't sure if they'd really start going to church and would be baptized. But we kept teaching and last week they went to General Conference and *loved* it. The girls thought the chapel was the prettiest building they'd seen and Emerson said he felt the Spirit really strongly right when he entered. They liked listening to the apostles and the prophet, and promised to come back each Sunday to learn more. They really wanted to be baptized, but one by one they had problems come up. Emerson, despite his best efforts, was having trouble kicking the last cigaret. Isabelly started to feel a little aprehensive and was...

So this last week has been pretty darn awesome. I think I mentioned last week that I was transfered, so now I'm here in Rudge Ramos, ala Assunção, serving with Sister Sales (who was my roommate a month or two ago) and Nossa Senhora, it's been an awesome week. Tuesday morning we set out with the purpose to find the elect of the Lord and help them repent and prepare to be baptized. We were walking in the street normal when a lady stopped us. I didn't recognize her but my companion knew her to be a member in the area, and she offered to fill up our water bottles. We followed her home (she lived pretty close) and she gave us water. Without us asking or saying anything, she mentioned that she had been talking with a friend of hers about the church and wanted us to visit her. (Now, as missionaries, we're always looking for people to teach, but we almost never get references like this) Later that same day we passed a guy in the street who turned out to be a recent convert, and...