Short but Sweet January 30th, 2017

Marcus's baptism

Oi family and friends

We had a baptism and it was great!! Everyone was an hour late (normal) and we had cake after and Marcus was baptized!

After the baptism bishop went to go let all the water out of the font and what do you know a drunk homeless man had managed to make his way into the church and into the baptism font unnoticed to take a little bath. Oh Brazil. 

Irma Haidee, the most amazing lady , she has helped me through so much!

OIII!!!!

Oi Família e Amigos!

Happy Day Jane!

This week was awesome! Our investigators are all progressing so well! I love them all so much. Like tears are coming to my eyes they are all such cool people.
Right now we have two different 13 year old boys preparing to be baptized this Saturday! I dont know why but we have taught so many 13 year old boys and i think Heavenly Father really wants me to miss my fav 13 year old back home. Everyone give Aves a big kiss for me:(
I thnk i already talked about Zefi last week but he is still struggling with his grandma not wanting him to be baptized. yesterday we talked with him because he was feeling really discouraged because she didnt let him come to church this week. We just reminded him to have faith and courage and remember the stories of Nephi and his courage to do what is right. We have been praying so hard and i just hope everything works out and he can be baptized on Saturday!
The other boy Marcus is the son of a member who was living with his mom in another city but moved here to live with his dad. He came up to us at church and said he wnats to be baptized so this week we taught him almost every day and he will be baptized Saturday! Hes so smart and so ready. Also he looks like a mini version of harry potter so thats cool.
One day this week we were walking in the rua and this little girl ran up to us and said "are you the people who visit people in their homes and talk about Jesus?" and then i looked around for the hidden camera and for someone to tell me this was a joke. But we said why yes we are. She told us that her mom has been looking for us and wnats to be taught. OK THNK U HEAVENLY FATHER.  BLESSINGS. so we marked a date to visit them this week.
Oh heres a funny story. So a few weeks ago this random guy showed up at church. he seemed a little weird but we were like oh sweet a new investigator awesome lets teach him. sO turns out hes actually crazy. he makes lots of comments about reincarnation and other weird things and raises his hand or stands up or claps in sacrament meeting. haha not gonna lie its entertaining. He comes back to church every week and does the same sorts of things. We have nick named him Paolo Loco. Nothing more to report on him right now but ill keep you all updated on how this week goes with paolo loco. hahahah
You guys the music here is a probblem because we all know how much i love to dance. the music is so good and i literally just want to dance and party with the brazilians so bad. but my companion always reminds me "sister lytle, não pode" UGGGH. one day ill come back and party after my mission.

Sister Jones and I in Pellorinho

I had a cool experience this week with a new investigator named Joni. We were teaching her for the first time and lately i have been struggling with some homesickness and wondering if being here in brazil on a mission is right for me. I have been praying and fasting and while we were teaching Joni yesterday she looked right at me and said "What are you doing here in Brazil? Why are you learning Portugeuse? You are so young. Doesnt your mom miss you?
Well i felt the spirit so strong in that moment. stronger than i have before i think. I told her why i was here and what i was doing and why i was willing to leave my family and home for a year and a half. I was able to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel and of my savior. my faitha nd tetsimony grew with this experience. I know that this was an answer to my prayers. An answer to my discouargemnt. Heavenly father hears our prayers and he answers them!! I know that this is true! He answers them through other people like with Joni most of the time for me.
I am working on patience still through my hard times. I am learning alot about patience here. I wasnt very patient before. im still not but im working on it. And i have been given many experiences to help me to learn.
I love this phrase in Portugeuse- TUDO VAI DAR CERTO. It means all will be right. I know that in the end all will be right if we continually put our faith and trust in god. if we reach out for his hans like in the story of peter. Continue on in patience and in faith. continue on. thats what i like to remember.
I love and miss you all. Brazil is crazy and hotter than the surface of the sun im convinced and amazing.
AMO VOCÊS.
SISTER LYTLE

"When our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the lord comforted us, and said...Bear with patience thine afflictions and i will give unto you success."
ALMA 26:27

Pellourinho

pinha fruit

weirdest fruit ever

Mom, these face masks you sent are scary

Jan. 16th! They are on FIRE!

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY TO MY JANE! everyone give her lots of hugs and kisses because we all know how loving and affectionate she is!!!! So thankful for my baby sister.

This week was HOT lemme tell ya. I've never been so hot in my life!!

But we are also ON FIRE hahahha with our investigators right now. Im sorry for that joke that was lame but i dont have time to backspace and retype. 

We have been teaching a family and they came to church on sunday! They stayed all 3 hours and i hope they felt the spirit and will come back next week. They have a baptism date for the 28th as well! Our other investigator who came to church was Zefi. He's 13 and so so smart and so ready to be baptized and wants it so badly but his grandma is of a different church and is super unhappy about him wanting to be baptized. So its tough. but we told him to pray that her heart will be more open and that she can still be happy withe him even if he is baptized. 

We have been teaching alot of our investigators about the holy ghost lately. I love to talk about this because i have such a strong testimony of the influence of the holy ghost in my own life. I am so thankful for the consolo and peace i can feel and just the sense of hope i can feel from the holy ghost. The fact that after baptism we can have the spirit with us always as long as we remain worthy is the most amazing gift. I cannot deny that i have felt the spirit. I have the amazing opportunity to feel it everyday here as i testify of the gospel and its truthfulness. I feel the spirit prompt me to say things in lessons and that is always such a cool experience. 

I love camaçari so so much. i never want to leave this area! the members here are incredible. our investigators are so awesome and so willing to follow christ. I have freinds in all of the shops on the road that leads to our house. Every night i wave to my freind José in the bakery and my friends Aliese and Joao in the juice shop and Raphael in the market. 

They eat alot of tapioca here which is really good! I don't know if we have it in the US. Also something called cus cus which is really good. And this juice called acerola and umbu!

No one can say my name and the members just refer to me as sister because no one knows how to say it still haha. One guy calls me sister pequena (small) haha. 

Its a whole different world here but im loving it. There is so much to see and so much to learn. Everyone loves God here. Even if they are not religious they love god. so its normally easy to talk to people. I a blessed to be here. To represent christ and to laugh and conversar with the people here. I love these people!! I know it will be hard for me to leave this area when that time comes. I've got a little family here. 

I love and miss you all. hope all is well back home!! AMÔ VOCES!

Jan. 9th....3 Months in Brazil!

i have officially been in brazil for 3 months people who would've thought i would make it that long?? not me thats for sure. in some ways time is flying but mostly if i'm being honest i'm pretty sure i've been here for 9 years.


haha everything is good with me and the people of camaçari. We had 4 investigators at church on sunday! 4!! thats pretty good and we were so happy to see them all there. it was a miracle in some ways because most of these people work on sundays or were just really not accepting our invitation to come and they showed up anyways! i know its because we fasted and prayed and didnt give up on them. i know that god prepares a way for us when we are faithful and these people have so much faith! So god is preparing so many people for us and its so cool and such a blessing.

A lot of our investigators lately have had a hard time following  up on compromissos which is tough for us. normally its just something so simple like read 3 verses or say a prayer and ask god if he loves you or come to church. And then the next day we come back and they havent done these things. At first i got really frustrated and thought to myself "ok is it really that hard to just read these verses?" or to say a one minute prayer? and then i had to remind myself that ok this is hard for them. theyve never heard of these things we are teaching them about. they dont understand the importance of these things yet. i have to put myslef in their shoes and think of how it would be if i were them. these two random white girls from another country are asking me to pray to a god that i dont believe in and to read out of some book. And then i relaize ok, i guess that would be difficult. I have had this gospel in my life since the day i was born and oh what a blessing it has been. but these people havent! but they need it! so i guess what im saying is im learning to be more patient and more loving towards these people even when they dont follow up on things that i think are simple. These people really do ahve so much faith and love though. they are so accepting.
I learned this week too about just giving my best and knowing that god will help me. sometimes in a lesson i will have a moment of bravery and ill start talking and the words will come. its really cool. but on the other ahnd ive had a few experinces where i start talking and have no idea how to expalin what i started saying and its just a mess. and in those moments i know god is teaching me humility. its so humbling and so frustrating learning a new language. one day you understand everything and can speak with people and the next your sitting in a lesson and you literally have no idea whats going on. But i just keep reminding myself to be patient and it will come. i think the hardest part is not being able to express myself and tell jokes and laugh. but i hope soon i can do that again.
well i dont have much else to say this week but i love you all so much and am so thankful for your prayers and support each week.
tudo bem. eu amo vocês muito muito! tchau tchau
sister lytle

stairs she fell down (handrail now in place)

view from members home

Happy New Year !! Jan 2nd, 2017

Oi family and friends!!!    

HAPPY NEW YEAR. i spent new years trying to sleep while outside my window justin bieber was blaring and someone was setting off fireworks until 4 am:) haha oh brazil.
Im back in Camaçari! The members have been so nice and loving and call em their bebê. They have all been so worried about me and it really feels like i have a family here. Also they make sure to tell me EVERYTIME i see them to hold onto the handrail, wear sunscreen, and eat lots of food. Whenever we eat at members houses they always always say EAT MORE EAT MORE and im always about to throw up. You guys would not believe how much they eat.

My new companion is sister jones from Oregon..i keep getting American companions which is weird because there are only like 5 of us in the whole mission! i miss sister Nogal a lot and i wish i had had more time with her but she calls me very night to send a beijo (kiss) 

Teaching this week has been hard because evryone leaves for christmas and new years. So we had alot of appointments fall through and did alot of walking and being disappointed. Luckily in my mission i dont have to be disappointed very often though because the people are so accepting. Heavenly father new i needed loving people and i know brazil is where im supposed to be in large part because of that.
We are working really hard with a woman named Auzenie right now. Her husband is a member and 2 of her 3 sons have been baptized. also we found out this week that her uncle is the stake president here. So baptism will hopefully be soon for her. Her only problems are that she works on sunday and she doesnt like to read and never follows up on her commitments to read o livro de mormon. But we are working with her on that and i have faith she will be baptized soon!
We taught a man on a bus this week which was an interesting experience. So on the buses her you always have a guy from some religion who is screaming about god and how we are horrible people and we will all be burned if we dont praise him right now and sing HALLELUJAH and clap our hands. And you know what everyone on that bus starts singing hallelujah and clapping there hands and yelling AMEN! and while this is happening youre trying not to be thrown out of your seat by the sharp turns the bus driver is taking at like 60 mph. and if your anything like me you´re trying really hard not to throw up. But somehow while this was all happening my companion managed to start talking to a guy about our church. He was super intersted and i didnt hear most of what he said but i was able to yell my tetsimony at him at the end. We got his info and will hopefully be contacting him soon.
we taught a man named vinancio the first lesson this week in his restaurant which was really cool. We taught him about joseph smith (oh haha funny thing they pronounce his name Josephy Smichy) and about the priesthood and gave him a book of mormon. He is super awesome and very receptive. Something funny ive noticed about brazilians is they love to touch you the whole time their telling a story or talking to you. So hes telling us about his family and about his beliefs in god and what not and the whole time hes either squeezing my shoulder or grabbing my hand unexpectedly or adjusting my bracelets. haha it was super weird and uncomfortable the first time it happened but now its pretty normal.
I am starting to understand people better which is so exciting! I still dont speak very well but being able to understand makes it alot less frustrating.
I am eating lots of weird things! the other day i tried a fruit called jaca which was gross but i choked it down and told the guy i loved it haha. I ate a chicken heart! i hated that too! but honestly most of the food here is super good and pretty normal.
Theres something good in every day even when its so hot and im so tired and just want to sleep or sit down. But i remember a talk by eyring where he said that whenever he felt like he had finished some hard task and deserved a rest he would remind himself to "remember him" to remember christ. I try to do that as well. Sometimes i think okay, i just walking like 6 miles in the heat and we taught alot of people and im hungry and my feet hurt and im so sweaty and gross and you know what i think i deserve a rest! and then i remember this thing. remember christ. I remember that i can keep going for a few more hours and i will rest when its time to rest. i remember why im here and who im here for. firstly im here for christ. but also for the people here and for my family. and its all worth it when i remember this.God lives and i know this!! he is here in brazil everyday and i see his influence and i feel his love.
happy 2017 people! i miss you all and im so happpy to hear about the happy things going on at home. be safe and be kind to the people around you. love your family and hold them tight!
AMO VÔCES! TCHAU TCHAU
sister lytle

Look at these TAN feet!!