Viamão!

Oi tudo mundo! This week has been full of changes! I arrived in my new area, Viamão, on Tuesday this week. My companion, Sister Barros, is great! She is Brazilian and is 27 years old. She is very patient and we are working well together! We are both new to the area, so this week has been a lot of adapting and learning! The map has become our best friend :) But the ward here is great. This week, an older sister in the ward passed away. The bishop decided to leave time during church for people to express their feelings about her, since a lot of people weren´t able to go to her funeral. I was very impressed by the stories that people told about her and the immense influence she had in the lives of so many people. She had 12 children and over 80 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a majority of the members in the church here are related to her in one way or another. Because of her righteous life and her humble desire to nurture and care for everyone she met, over 100 people have learned about the gospel and are firmly planted in their faith in Christ. Our lives really are so much more significant than we can even imagine! We truly never know how much we are affecting those around us through our decisions and example. It is so important to make the most of our lives because of this. The time that we have here on Earth is really quite short and every day matters. That is something that I am working to apply, especially here on my mission. The past is there to learn from, but we can´t dwell on it. The future is full of possibilities and opportunities. But, what matters most is what we are doing with the time we have right now. If we make the most of the present, we will be able to look back on the past with satisfaction and have confidence in a good future. The Lord has a time and a place for everything and as we trust in that plan, we will find that His plans are always better than anything we could dream of ourselves. :)

Sister Dieter