Elder Kasey Lightheart

  Donuts! Hey everybody! Yet another amazing week full of miracles here in São Paulo, Brazil! I hope you are doing well, and had yourself a blessed week like we did! Earlier this week we had some small changes throughout the mission, but little to no change in our district. Although, one sister did receive a new Brazilian missionary to train! This was also our last full week with our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Miller. It was so sad to have our last Sunday devotional with them, but we also presented a video we all created together thanking President and Sister Miller for everything they did for us. It was super sweet! On Thursday though, we will be receiving our new presidency, President and Sister Kofford.  We also had an awesome lesson this week with one of our new friends in Vila Lavina, Mayara. She had already come to church the past few weeks before we started taking care of the ward, and wow is she so prepared! We just had a simple lesson with her about t

  Walking the streets of Mogi das Cruzes! "For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee... Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (1 Nephi 21:15-16).  Such an amazing scripture, isn't it? The Lord truly will never forget us, nor abandon us, even when we turn our back on him. I've been studying the Book of Mormon these last few weeks, looking specifically for scriptures about the atonement of Jesus Christ, and I was amazed once again by these words I've heard before, that Christ has engraven each of us upon the palms of his hands. What does this mean? That the atonement is personal, and truly infinite. If my name were truly engraven on the palms of His hands, how could he forget me, or desert me? Therefore, the Lord will not forget you, I promise you that much. If any of you out there have any doubt if the atonement of Jesus Christ applies for y

  At the temple of the Lord! "Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith." (Ether 12:9). I just love the Book of Mormon. It is filled with so many good scriptures and principles that I am constantly finding new awesome verses like this one. I found that this scripture really rang true for me this week. The first few months I was here, things were really hard, and I feel as if my faith was really tested, to see if I would really continue to work and do the things the Lord asked me to. But now, I feel as if we are finally starting to see the fruits of our labors here in Brás Cubas.  Earlier this week, a few Elders working up in Lorena (a part very far distant in our mission) sent us a message, saying they had 5 referrals for us, 3 from the same family, living in our area. After a Bible study over the phone, we scheduled a meeting in person, and the next day we had a wonderful lesson with our new friends Patricia and Dirce, as well

  Me and my companion :). Hey everybody! Man, what a week! I would say only a few days this week were really eventful, and then the rest a little slow, but overall, it was a wonderful week! On Wednesday we had our last zone conference with our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Miller. The conference was super fun, but man was it sad to hear the Millers' testimonies, and then to hug them both. I remember the short time I spent in this mission last year, saying goodbye as well at the São Paulo airport to the two, but this time they are the ones leaving. It was also my companion, Elder Costa's first zone conference, so his first and last with the Millers. We also traveled there and back on the metro with a bunch of other missionaries, which was fun, except that we were super squished in the train. But that's bound to happen at the hour we were returning home... rush hour.  Zone Conference!! Hugging President Miller goodbye. Elder Costa's first zone confe

  Walking the roads of Brás Cubas! "Stand still and see the salvation of God" (Ex. 14:13). I have always loved this scripture, but man, it really came to my mind this week! I can't say my companion and I stood still per say, but we did work really hard and certainly saw the hand of God! Earlier this week we were thinking of a way we could have great conversation with all of the people in our records that we have talked to in the past, and we decided to ask an inspired question. I came up with the following question, "if you could stand face to face with God and ask him a single question, what would you ask?", and man, we got so many responses!! It was so cool to talk with all these people about their various questions and concerns, and many ended up having the very same questions. Then, the next day we had 9 lessons scheduled, of which 4 happened, and a fifth simply consisted of offering a prayer over the phone. In fact, this week we had many of those phone call