A Brazilian Thanksgiving in Florida!

My favorite lady Aofia Mauigoa!

Good morning! :) 

So I have to give a talk in church next week about missionary work and Christmas. I was reminded of a quote from general conference by Elder Ballard. I think it kind of links the two together :) 

"Trust the Lord. He is the Good Shepherd. He knows His sheep, and His sheep know His voice; and today the voice of the Good Shepherd is your voice and my voice."

This is the time of year that people are thinking about the Savior most. We need to take advantage of that! It is easy to share the gospel during the holidays! :) 

We had a pretty good week here in Southern Orlando! It was the last week of the transfer, and it's cool to look back at our numbers and see how much things have grown and improved in the past six weeks! I am staying in Hunter's Creek because I got asked to be a trainer again!!!! :) I am so excited! I loved training. I get to meet my new companion tomorrow! So I will be here for the next 12 weeks! We are gonna whip this ward into shape haha. 

My district!

So, I forgot to mention last week that I finally went to the dentist and got my teeth cleaned! It felt nice! :) Dr. Beardon said I have had some good dental work done, so props to Dr. Tavoian! :) I said thanks but that it's unfortunate I had to have any dental work done... But, I have no cavities! :) And he said that I am in his top one percent of oral hygiene patients! :) Yay!! :) That was a really good compliment for me ha! So, moral of the story, brushing AND flossing every day is totally worth it!!! ;)

About our "investigators." Jerry got really sick this week, so we haven't been able to move forward too much with him :( Iliana and Ivet have bailed on us a couple more times. We finally dropped the Rivera family, but then the mom and daughter came to church yesterday! So that was a cool surprise! We really just need to do some more finding people, but we haven't been able to contact that much because Sister Adamson hates biking... So my new companion better like it! It seems like our most effective way to find people. Knocking on doors is just not effective. But the members are coming around it seems like! :) We have our ward Christmas party this weekend and a lot of people are inviting their non-member friends and family, so that should be good! Like I said, holidays are best for missionary work! And pumpkin oreo shakes... :) I have made a few of those lately... 

The feast!

Thanksgiving went well! It was kinda weird because I've never had it without my family! So it was sad for little bit but we have some good family here so that helped! First a family invited us over for breakfast. They are the Gomez family and they are so cute! We are trying to help them get to the temple! Then we ate at the Schorn's house. The husband is Brazilian and a non-member, and they had a ton of Brazilian friends over, so they were all speaking Portuguese the whole time! But the food was good! :) I was sad to not have my Grandma Sandy's sweet potatoes though :( After that we visited a few more families, and of course they wanted us to eat too! I tried to say no, but I just can't deny pie... Especially pumpkin! It's like my favorite food! And all the Samoans do not take no for an answer! 

The day after Thanksgiving Sister Adamson was sick like throwing up. So that was pretty unfortunate. So I just studied and organized and all that fun stuff! I also got a wedding announcement for my friend Regan's wedding! It was adorable! She was like the best person I met at BYU, for those of you who don't know who she is ha ;) This last week we spent a lot of time at the Medina's house. They are such a great family! They have 3 kids. The son is going into the marines with my brother Vince, and the 2 girls are both cheerleaders so we have fun talking! I also helped them with their tumbling slash tried tumbling and I was so sore the next day! They have a friend they are sharing the gospel with too so that is even better! :) There is another family named the Erbiti's who we are trying to help get to the temple too and they set a date to work towards so we are super excited for them! :) So as you can tell, things are coming along! And Christmas is in like, 22 days! ;) I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!! Have a fantastic week. 

Love, Sister Lowry