the last one: 532 days later

5/28/18

Tudo bem?

So this past week has been kind of an emotional roller coaster. It seems like every time that a big change is about to happen, Satan tries really, really hard to make you doubt everything that you've been through. I was feeling a little bit like a failure last week,comparing myself to other missionaries and thinking that this year and a half hasn't come to anything. And then one day I decided that I was sick of feeling like nothing as a missionary. So I prayed and told Heavenly Father how I was feeling and opened up my Book of Mormon and read the first verse I saw: And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end. 

And I felt an immense sense of love from Him. I was anything but the perfect missionary but He blessed me with so many miracles and I'm so grateful for being able to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for every companion and area and member and investigator that I was able to meet. 

 A lot of people have been saying this past week. "Make your mission worth it when you come home." And so the important thing is not to forget everything that has happened here (like that one time a guys let his rabid dog lose on us, or that time that we bought a TON of açaí and the guys gave it to us for free, and all the other stuff) and be the person that I tried to teach about.

Maybe this is a little dramatic but I love love love Brasil so much and I'm super excited for when I come back one day ;) I'm so grateful for my mission and everything I have learned and the love I have felt from my Savior. I know that this is the true church of Christ and that He is our Redeemer and does everything He does because He loves us.

Thanks for all the love and prayers, until next week!

Tchau ♥

Todo meu amor,

Sister Morata

"I finally found what I've been looking for after so long"

5/21/18

real quick Tamires got baptized on Saturday and it was so great! The above quote is what she told us the day after she was baptized. 

also hahaha I have no more time left but I promise I'll send a better email next week!

todo meu amor,

Sister Morata

happy belated mother's day!!!

5/14/18

Hellooooooo so Tamires is doing great and Sister Labra and I are doing great and I love lvoe love being a missionary. Tamires is super super excited for baptism and we are super super excited for her. Miracles are happening every day here! I don't know what else to say but have a wonderful week!

todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

pictures:

including: a giant Book of Mormon at leadership conference and lots of hilarious kids after church :)

4th transfer in my 4th area ♥

4/30/18

Transfers were today! And I'm staying round 4 here in Américo to finish training Sister Labra!!! We're working super well together. I'm so excited! 

Tamires is preparing for baptism this week and is on fire. She's loving church and is getting really well integrated with the members here! 

And this week I was reading a lot about dilligence and enduring to the end. One of the most important things that I've learned on my mission is to perservere (is that how you spell it?). Things are hard and trials are hard and sometimes you just want sit on the sidewalk and cry in the beating sun after talking to 23492348 people who rejected you - but when you try just a little harder, talk to just one more person, miracles happen. The Lord blesses us in our efforts and the reward for pushing ourselves just a little more is so much greater than what we hope for. And it's a promise from our Heavenly Father that, if we do so, we'll one day gain eternal life with Him. I know that this gospel is true and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of every effort we make and is very happy with us when we choose the right. 

I love being a missionary! I love Brasil! These next few weeks will be fantastic!! 

todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

fotos: varied pictures from us in the church to us in Aguaçatonga (a little plot of land that one of the members here took us to for our Pday) to us at the leadership council and all that​

that one time a drunk guy tried to pray to us

4/23/18

hello it's been a great week! Tamires came to church again! She's loving it and everybody is loving her. We found a bunch of people this week with questions like, "I want to get baptized, but how can I know if I'm doing the right thing?" and "How can I know which of all the churches is true?" WELL, MY FRIENDS, you have come and talked to the right people. And then there was a super drunk guy that tried to pray to us and that was rad (not). 

Anyways, this week I have been studying a lot about prayer and thinking about how to make prayers more meaningful. Putting more thought into the words, having better posture, and reflecting on all the blessings and miracles that happen in our day. I've been working on that and I have felt so much more happier and closer to my Heavenly Father and I invite you to do the same! 

But I love you all and thank you for all the support and prayers!

Todo meu amor,

Sister Morata

(sent the pics to my mom buuuuut I don't know if they went through)

no time sorry

4/16/18

hello i'm basically sending this super short email because i forgot to send one lol but it's going great here in Américo! Deni came to church again and we're finding lots of great people! The branch is great and time is flying so fast! have a great week!

todo meu amor,

sister morata

full house

4/9/18

what.

a.

week.

We had so many miracles!!! Principally, yesterday our tiny little house/chapel/church was SO FULL.. There was hardly room to sit down and it was miraculous to see so many people (including investigators) at church. 

Paloma and Priscila, who are sisters in law and are reading the Book of Mormon and praying, came to church and loved it! And Tião bore his testimony at church yesterday about The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith! And then a crazy lady (lol, like we've seen her on the street laughing alone and talking to herself at night...) came to church and tried to argue and discredit everything in the middle of a class and one of our investigators, Tamires, turned to her and told her, "The missionaries invite you to pray and ask God if all this is true." And the crazy lady shut up hahaha. WHAT A GREAT SUNDAY. 

I am so so so so grateful for all the blessings and miracles we had this week. Heavenly Father answered many prayers and I'm so grateful to be a missionary! 

Have a wonderful week ♥

Todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

fotos:

zone conference!

like the craziest week of my mission

4/2/18

okay so between going to another city for leadership council and then another city for divisions and then getting sick and having to stay at home and then going to another city to watch General Conference, the only normal day we had this week was Friday haha but it was still a good week!

We found a family a couple weeks ago that is so so so good. Haha the family is so big that every time we go back to visit, we meet somebody new and find a new person to teach. But, they told us that they had kneeled down as a family to ask God if our message was true and they all got an answer! WOW. Personal revelation, answers from God are so real.  

and General Conference was this past weekend and I was blown away. The opportunity to sustain a living prophet of God (show our support for him by way of voting) was so powerful. The Spirit was so strong. Also, I loved loved loved Pres. Nelson's talk about received answers in our own lives. We need to practice hearing and responding to God's promptings now, so that when more difficult decisions come, we will already know how God speaks to us to know how to respond.

I invite everybody to study the words of God's living servants and apply them in your lives. It's why God has sent them!

Wow, this is the longest email I've sent in a while. But have a great week! I love you!!!

Todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

photo

me & Sister Behner @ leadership council

Attachments area

i'm a mom again!

3/19/18

Hello friends! We got the transfers call last Saturday and transfer calls always are full of surprises haha. I'm training again! I feel more nervous now than I did the first time I trained but whatever haha. I'm staying in Américo and I'm SUPER happy about that because I love love love Américo. Sister Lira is also staying which we're both super happy about! There is gonna be another set of sisters here so we're splitting up, with me training and her killing Sister Behner (also love her).

Anyways, we had a couple people in church this week! Daniel and Tiago moved recently to Américo and are super open to visiting the church. Tiago has been reading the Book of Mormon and is progressing well! 

There's not much more to report this week except that GENERAL CONFERENCE IS IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS and I am so excited. I hope that everyone gets the chance to watch it and prepare questions to bring so that the Spirit will respond. It's so gr8.

But have a wonderful week!!!!

todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

fotos:

super pday paintball shenanigans

i love the color of this wall haha

(no subject)

3/5/18

hello friends I don't have much time this week but:

Ricardo stopped smoking!!! (Also he's finished the Book of Mormon already wow fast reader)

That's the highlight of our week. I have a huge testimony that God hears and answers our prayers of faith. When we have the conviction that God loves us and will do the best for us and the people around us, miracles happen! I love this gospel and God's plan for us ♥ His plan is perfect!

Have a fabulous week :)

Todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

my body is broken HA

2/26/18

This week was SO BUSY we were little running everywhere and I thought my legs would fall off but we're here haha. 

Ricardo is doing great! He's almost finished the Book of Mormon and is quitting smoking and coffee and is loving loving loving the gospel. We're so excited for him! He's got a date for baptism next week!

But man Saturday was rough haha. Have you ever been on your feet from 10 am to 9 pm with straight rejection all day long? We were a little beat up physically, but I gained a powerful testimony that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. We ended up saying a prayer after our list of addresses ended and just started walking. We had several impressions to go to certain streets and visit certain people and ended up finding those people and helping a woman who had gone to 231089753 different people trying to use a phone to call her husband and we were the only ones who were able to help her. It might not have been the grandest miracle in the world, but it showed me how God guided us to her to help her and how He answered her prayer and continues to answer ours.

It was a very spiritual week and I know this week will be great, too :)

Thanks for all the love and prayers ♥

Todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

fotos:

okay if you've never tried a passion fruit and nutella milkshake, you need to

me and Sister Lira ♥

I have no more email titles

2/19/18

So many miracles! 

So this week was Carnaval and it rained A TON so there weren't many (sober) people on the street but we were still able to work! Ricardo, who we met less than a week and a half ago, came to church again this week and is almost halfway through the Book of Mormon!! He's doing so great. Tião, who was baptized last month, is also doing super well! He's already super involved with the members here and it's so amazing to see the people you helped teach grow in the gospel. I have a testimony that Heavenly Father uses us as instruments to carry out His work here! 

And I was reading a General Conference talk from last October by Elder Neil L. Andersen and I LOVE IT. 10/10 would recommend you guys to read it. It reminds us that the voice of the Lord is made known to us through the voice of His servants. I know that God has chosen prophets here for our day as He did since, well, ever. I am so grateful to have this direct connection with  Him! 

Have a fabulous week!

Todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

pictures:

okay there is a GREAT sushi place at the corner of our street and we are loving it

giant flowers ♥

okay it doesn't show really well in the picture but there was one day that it was SO HOT that we started getting tan lines from our clothes after like an hour LOL

my hair is 2 shades lighter and my skin is 47 shades darker

2/12/18

HELLO IT'S HOT HERE.

But other than that we're doing good haha. 

This week was great. On Saturday afternoon, we found a man named Ricardo who had received a Book of Mormon a few years ago but ended up throwing it out because he didn't really know what it was, neither did he read it. We were able to share with him the message of the Restauration and gave him a new Book of Mormon, and he came to church yesterday! He's super great and super open, and we've got great hopes for him.

OH and me and my new comp, Sister Lira and I are doing great! It's great to have a Brasilian companion again because with the last two companions, I think I started speaking a little bit of Spanish instead of Portugues haaha.

The work is progressing here in Américo! And I promise that I'll have pictures to send next week :)

Todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

somebody get me a cookbook

2/5/18

Okay so one thing I learned this week is that I can't cook hahahha. 

Poor Sister Rodriguez got a little sick last week and I tried to make her lunch and let's say that I'm not the greatest pasta cook and that my banana pancakes don't even look like pancakes LOL but that's okay. The Lord still blessed us with an incredibly productive week! We were able to find a lot of new people to teach that have so much potential! We felt so blessed and so grateful to be witnesses of how the light of the gospel changes the lives of those who choose to live it. 

Anyways, we have transfers this week! I'm still in Américo but I've got a new companion! Her name is Sister Lira and she's from Acre, a super super northern part of Brasil that everybody jokes isn't even part of Brasil. We're super excited for the work this transfer and it'll be great.

Have a great week! Take a read at 2 Nephi 2, one of my favorite chapters of The Book of Mormon. It'll brighten your day!

Todo o meu amor,

Sister Morata

ps. sorry no pics this week :(