Thursday, March 11, 2010

We had a great family night last night. This lady, Antonia, is an inactive member. Her husband and oldest son were killed in their house one night a few years ago. Her sister, Margarita, and her family are active members of the church. The elders that work in our ward too, just happened to knock on Antonia's door and invited her to come back to church. I know she needs strength and help so we all went there to have a family night. She chose my companion to give the message. She shared the scripture 2 Nephi 27:23. It says that God is a God of Miracles. The spirit was really strong. I know she was inspired to talk about that. Then each of us missionaries bore testimony. I had a feeling I needed to talk about Gods perfect plan for each one of us. I have a really strong testimony of this because of the things that have happened in my life. Antonia said the closing prayer, and almost cried. It was amazing. I know she will return to church, and be able to have strength to continue to go and to rely on the Lord. I know God works in mysterious ways, but everything happens for a reason. I am so grateful for my testimony and the fact that I am here to help people gain trust in the Lord and gain a testimony also.
Love you all!
I also have a new email address. It is kiley.porath@myldsmail.net Hope to hear from all of you!!

Kiley and her first family she baptized!

Wednesday, March 3

I cant believe it is March already! We had zone conference this week and it was really great. Also... on Sunday , we visited a few people and every house we went to, the person was sad or suffering in some way. It was hard for me because I didnt know how to help. One lady- Claudia- really wanted to go to church. So she went to the store in the morning and bought everything she needed to and then went home to put it all away and head to church with her little girl. But her husband was drinking and wouldnt let her go. He wanted her to stay home and stay in the kitchen and cook food for him and his friends that were drinking... all weekend. She was super sad, frustrated, upset when we talked to her because she is always working or at school and she had free time on Sunday but he woudnt let her go. We are going to try and help her but I am not sure how. The next house is a family that has 8 kids. And 4 of those kids, have ids of their own. Their dad died awhile back, their mom smokes like no other and doesnt have patience for them. Two of the teenage girls, that have toddlers, dont treat their babies very well. One is always smoking and they just yell at the kids. It is so sad to see kids that have no choice but to grow up in that kind of environment. We are teaching one of the older brothers, Cesar, who is going to get married and baptised :) But he has a hard time with how things are at his house too. The next house was Josefa. She is an old lady that can barely walk. She lives alone and doesnt have any help around the house. There is something wrong with her knee, and it really hurts her lower back to walk and stuff. SO my companion gave her a massage, but there isnt much else we could do. Her house had just been cleaned and we just visited with her for a bit because she is lonely. This day was hard for me. I wish I could do more to help everyone here. I know that the gospel of Christ will help them, so I am here to share it with them and help them make the little changes they need to in order to recieve the blessings. I am so grateful for the home and family I grew up in. Yes times were crazy... but things are great! When we keep the commandments, we recieve the blessings and happiness that come from God. I am so grateful to be here and am doing all I can to help the people here to have a better life :) Love and miss you all!!Love, Sister Porath

Wednesday, February 25

Hey! Aw… it is always so great to get emails! This week was another good one :) Lots of rain, and lots of work. We have talked to a billion people, invited them to church, and asked them to listen to a message. But most of them had an excuse and we are still at level zero in the teaching process. It is kind of frustrating because we are working so hard! We even had 2 other sisters, Sister Viana (who got here with me) and Sister Moyle (who I met in the MTC and she got here one transfer after me) staying with us at our house and working with us everyday. With 4 of us, we were able to always be finding new people, while the other 2 taught people that accepted. I had the chance to go out with Sister Moyle a couple of the days and it was scary! Just us 2 Americans, with 6 months or so here in Brazil… out doing the work! BUT it was a huge growing experience for me. I had to actually converse with the people, and start and end the lessons, which I hadn’t really been doing at all cuz my companion always does it. So I got more confident with the language and realized how much I really do know! SO even though we don’t really have any investigators right now, the work is going well and I am still happy :) Oh and another really simple silly experience I had this week… so with the rain- the energy always gets shut off! One night, we were sleeping, but the energy turned off. And with this- off went my fan. I of course woke up sweating… checked my clock (that runs on batteries) and it was only 2:30. I thought I was going to die! I was so hot, and couldn’t sleep. SO I got up and got my hair wet… that helped a little. I laid back down and still couldn’t sleep. So I prayed for the energy to come back so that the fan would come on and I could sleep… annnnnd like 2 seconds later… it turned on! It was super simple, but I know that God is always there even in those moments for us! I am so grateful for this gospel! Annnnnd for all of you! Love, Sister Porath

Wednesday,February 17th

Things are going so well! I love my new companion, Sister Cataca. We are working hard, and starting to knock on all the doors in our area, again! So far we haven’t really found anybody interested. It was hard with the holiday that they have called Carnival. Everyone travels, and drinks.. its kind of like our Mardigras I think, and spring break too! The city was deserted! It was so strange. But hopefully the rest of the week, the work will get better. I also had many episodes with ants. They are EVERYWHERE!! I hate them! They get into anything and everything. I have to keep things in the fridge! It is the only place safe from them. Grrr. It is annoying. Well… I hope you can all imagine me trying to kill an ant farm.. and they start crawling up my arms and legs and then the rest of the night I felt like I had them crawling all over me. YIKES!! Oh the great things about Brazil! Hope all is going well… miss and love you!!Love, Sister Porath

Hey!! Its a new week, new transfer... and new companion!! Sister Cataca- She is super cute, and super sweet and fun and I am excited to be with her this transfer! Elder Gabriel was transferred too, so we have a new zone leader, Elder Holbrook. He is from Virginia. So this transfer will be different, but will be good too! Oh.. Monday night, my companion Sister Zorzo had to go sleep in Maceio so that she could be in a training meeting at 8 Tuesday morning, so… I went with her! I was sooooo excited to go! We got to sleep at Sister Englerts house! She was my first companion.. and her other companion, Sister Moyle was there, and her NEW companion, Sister Smith was there too. So in the mission the missionary who trains (who is the first companion of a new missionary) is the mom (or dad) and now Sister Englert has trained 3! So I have 2 sisters (Moyle and Smith) and Englert is our mom! It was soo much fun to be there with all of them. We stayed up until 2 just talking… in Portuguese! Then we woke up at 5 and had to get ready to leave. Sister Englert and Zorzo went to their training (Sister Smith went with, cuz she got here earlier than normal) and Sister Moyle and I got a bus to come back to Arapiraca. She had just gotten transferred here and I knew it would be good for her to have someone to travel with :) OH annnnd I went with Sister Englert to visit the family that we baptized! Nildo, Marisa, Janderson, Victor, Joyce, and Jamilly. The kids were all sleeping already, and they woke them up and we took a picture :) It was sooo great! They were so happy to see me, and even commented that I am talking a lot more in Portuguese! So that was one of the best nights so far! I hope I can visit them again eventually and talk more. They are super strong in the church. The dad is first counselor in the young mens presidency, the mom is compassionate service leader, the 14 yr old is president of the teachers…. Aw. They are amazing! It is one of the best feelings in the world to know that because I am here serving a mission, their family is blessed with the gospel in their homes, and with strong testimonies of Christ and His church. It is times like this that I will never forget :)Happy Valentines Day!! I hope you feel my love, clear from the other half of the world, where it is always summer! Love, Sister Porath

So I had an email all typed up and I clicked send and it erased and didnt send! Grrr! But anyway, I had a great New Years Eve! We went to a members house and ate a ton of food and listened to music! Then we went home at about 10 because the Elders wanted to go and we needed them to walk us home to be safe. The next day we went to an activity with the ward and played by the water, and played soccer, a few other games, and had a bunch of snacks too. It was a lot of fun! They had a horse there for a little bit for people to ride too. It is a lot of fun to spend time with the members, I know I will miss then when I get transferred, and a ton when I go home! They are really neat people here. And on Sunday… I bore my testimony in Portuguese! I was super nervous, but I only messed up a few times and it went well! I am so grateful for this gospel! I know it is true. I know that we can always turn to Christ for help in our lives. He wants to help us, He doesn’t want us to suffer. I know everything about this church is true! And it is perfect! I am so grateful to be on a mission and to be able to help people hear about Christ´s gospel. I am so grateful for all of the love and support I have. I hope you all have a great year this year in 2010! Love, Sister Porath