Vida é assim. Se Deus quiser. Estou com pressa.

Heavenly Father has been teaching me the Christlike qualities of patience, controlling your temper, and charity recently. We´ve been contacting (stopping on the street or knocking the doors of etc) a lot of people who have strong feelings against the precious Book of Mormon and awesome Joseph Smith--basic Mormonism anything. At first I would get all worked up and want to "fight" back, but after a few unsuccessful yet learning experiences on my part, I have learned that keeping calm and offering to say a prayer (which they usually say no to) and thanking them for their time and leaving is a MUCH better way to handle the situation. They still need to be humbled to be able to except Christ´s message and that´s Heavenly Father´s job not mine. hah.

I LOVE the Holy Ghost. I love prayer. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I am not even worthy to say that, I disobey every day and don´t do my absolute best a lot of the time but at least I know they have mastered the qualities of patience and they love me infinitely and will forgive me of my weaknesses, and even when I disobey or rebel even though repentance from those are harder, I can be forgiven. The spirit has taught me that negative thoughts and feelings of inadequacy are not from Heavenly Father nor does He want me to think them. I am a simple 20 year old girl, yes. But I have a glorious message and divine power, even if some people don´t recognize it. Heavenly Father knows I am not perfect, He knows I will mess up and make mistakes and not choose the right sometimes but that´s where Jesus Christ comes in. He has shown me the way to be like him and be forgiven. As I follow the prophet, the scriptures, the Spirit... I am guided to Them, and I have peace.

The Spirit gave me the idea to read the last general conference Liahona (ensign) before the next general conference this week. Wow. I can´t even explain it. I have never gone back and read all the talks before and I can´t believe how much stuff we miss out on by not going back and reading what we watched/listened to. I invite all who read this letter to do that. Start now with reading last year´s November ensign and read it beginning to end- or as close as you can get before this weekend and then when you get the ensign of this April´s conference in May READ it-- with a highlighter and pen and prayer. (and then in September this year I will read April´s conference again to prepare for October´s conference. Ü ) Wow. I am going to do that for the rest of my LIFE. Such a FEAST. You will not regret it.

Peeps. READ the Book of Mormon. I wish I could say read it in Portuguese, but that might not work for some. I am thankful I can read it in Portuguese because the wording is SO much simpler... I almost understand the scriptures in Portuguese better than English.. but still INTERNALIZE the Book of Mormon the best you can. I am so thankful for the testimony I have of it. I know it is true. I know that the way it came about was miraculous and to some literally unbelievable. But that´s just because they haven´t asked in humble prayer if it could all be true. God is GOD. He can do anything. I have realized that the whole crazy story about how it came about CAN be true and IS true because He can do whatever He wants. (Some guy on the street told us he didn´t believe Joseph Smith´s story and when we asked him if he prayed about it he said no because he doesn´t believe it could be true. Haha. sad. don´t limit GOD buddy.) Yes, they were gold plates. Yes Joseph Smith did have angels appear to him. Yes he did use some weird glasses to help him translate at first. And so on! Why not?

I love this gospel. Faith in Christ. Repentance. Baptism. Gift of the Holy Ghost. Persevering to the end of our mortal LIVES. Tem que ser.

Sister Shumway