This week I am doing
much better! I think it is always a little hard the first week after a
transfer. I am settling in right now.
The
weather was nice yesterday.....warmer than it has been! I will be buying
more clothes for cold weather today! Here, you can't escape from the
cold! I don't go home to a warm apartment every night, I go home to an
icy apartment! In fact, it is warmer outside than it is inside my
apartment. No built-in heating! Let me tell you.......I find something
seriously wrong with the fact that I can see my breath inside my house!
If it wasn't in the Missionary Handbook that I have to shower on a
regular basis, I don't think I would! The shower is warm, but the air is
not! Wow.........the steam that I create from my warm showers in the
cold bathroom is seriously impressive! The cold weather doesn't help my
problem of having a hard time waking up in the morning. Leaving the warm
bed...................a nightmare! This place is so crazy. I don't
understand how this place can be sooooo flippin hot and soooooo flippin
cold as well!
I am living with three other sisters. My companion,
Sister Ferinho from Mozambique, Sister Holladay from California, and
Sister Castro from Manaus, Brazil. We have some pretty good times
together. Last P-Day we played UNO for an eternity, watched some church
videos, drank some Chimarrão, and laughed a lot. I found it a little
difficult to play UNO in Portuguese. I wanted to say, "YOU BUM!" so many
times. Nonetheless.....it was way fun.
I
was able to attend a broadcast of the Manaus, Brazil Temple dedication!
It was so so so great. We woke up early and caught a bus to a stake
center in a nearby city. We watched it there. The night before, we told
our Zone Leaders over the phone that we didn't have white handkerchiefs
for the Hosannah Shout. We show up at the Stake Center the next day and
the Elders had white (or somewhat white) handkerchiefs (or somewhat
handkerchiefs) for us. Uh yeah.....they cut up an old white dress shirt
to make the handkerchiefs. Ghetto? Very. Did they work? Youbetchya.
President Uchtdorf dedicated the temple. Elder Cook was also there.
President Uchtdorf was cracking me up while they were doing the ceremonial cornerstone thingy. He is so funny! He had a
translator.......but everything he was saying was not translatable (I am
pretty sure that is not a word, but let's go with it). I felt kind of
bad because all of the American missionaries were cracking up..... but
no one else knew what was going on. Anyway, the spirit was so strong
during the dedication of the temple. Brazil is such a special, blessed
nation. The members here are so dedicated, so strong. During the
dedication, I felt so privileged to be serving among these people! The
people of Manaus and Northern Brazil deserve that temple. They worked so
hard and sacrificed so much to finally see their temple be dedicated!
It made me think about how lucky we are, at home in Utah, to have SOOOO
many temples SOOOO close by! Take advantage of that! The temple truly is
the House of the Lord.....a sacred place here on this earth.
Oh, and Sister Castro.....the Sister from
Manaus.....saw her sister, some of her best friends, and lots of people
from her stake as they were participating in the dedication. She was
pretty emotional! The dedication meant a lot for her!
We are teaching a man named Jose Fabiane right now.
He is really special. He has so much desire to be baptized, but he is
working through some things right now. He is not happy, but he knows
that through the gospel he will find true and lasting happiness. The
other day I was telling him how the gospel is a gospel of happiness. He
looked right into my eyes and said, "Are you truly happy?" Thanks to my
Savior, Jesus Christ, His atoning sacrifice, His restored gospel here on
the earth......I could honestly look straight into his eyes and say,
"Yes. Yes I am." There are so many people in this world that aren't
happy, that are hurting. With the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives,
we still have trials and heartaches.......but we have hope, we have
family to support us, we can bear our burdens with faith. What a
privilege it is to help people find this happiness.
I love you all! I pray for you everyday! I know that
this gospel is true. That it truly brings great and lasting happiness
in this world and in the eternities.
Sister Autumn Barnes
At the Porto Alegre Temple
I taught this couple when I was in Novo Hamburgo. They were baptized the
week after I was transferred. They are amazing. They gained a testimony
the second they heard about the Restoration.
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