Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy New Year All!

Ah família, I don´t have a ton of time left but I loved reading all of your e-mails. I´m hoping and praying that all this snow can stick around until March! It makes me so happy thinking about how much it´s snowing there :). Glad you all had an eventful New Year´s. Hope everyone´s adjusting well to being back in school... it´s always tough to go back, but that´s life, I guess! From the pictures, it looks like you all had a great time with Tina. Love you guys! I laughed so much about what some of the kids designed for the Primary spotlight hahaha. I love Primary! I´ve only been able to visit the Primary a few times because we usually stay in Relief Society, which is always wonderful too. Mom, thank you so much for helping those sister missionaries. I haven´t had to walk in freezing weather like they were, but I can´t tell you how happy and grateful we are when a member stops to help us or give us a ride. Missionaries walk... a lot! I hope you can continue to help out the missionaries in every way possible! Referrals, dinners, rides, FHEs with friends, making visits, etc. We love receiving help from members because that´s really how missionary work should be! Thanks again for saving those sisters´ freezing little legs haha.
So this week with the world celebrating New Year´s, our success in numbers wasn´t spectacular. But we had success in helping those who were really in need of help and serving how Christ would serve. Yesterday, we went to visit an investigator that´s a bit hard to find home. We caught her there though, and sat down to visit her. I gave the opening prayer and as soon as I finished, she told us that she wanted to introduce her to a young lady who´s been living with her and really needs help. So she called this young lady and left, saying she´d remark with us. The young lady sat down and all we had to ask was what was wrong. She began telling us everything. (This is something that amazes me as a missionary. The people tell us their lives so easily! Sometimes we don´t have to say anything... they just start talking.) Through the experiences she told us, her feelings and the Spirit, we were able to teach a lesson that was especially for her. It was so great as the Spirit led us and told us what to say and share. In the end, we gave her a Book of Mormon. She happily accepted it all and accepted to start praying, to exercise her faith in a God that she doesn´t even know really exists or not.
It´s moments like these that make my mission what it is. I´m grateful that we´re here to help others and learn together with them. I hope you´re all well and love you all so much!

Com amor,
Sister Ball

P.S. I´ve received some e-mails from some friends and family and I apologize for still not managing to respond! And thank you to the Gilleys, the Kelly family, the Smidts and Tina for your Christmas cards!! Love you guys!

Here are some pictures from our NYE celebration and feast at the Bishops house, Shoveling dirt, Our Christmas decorations, drinking chimaera a specialty from Porto Alegre, churrasco (Brasilian BBQ), and poor Sister Custodio with tummy pains, but she's all better now!











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