Elder Kasey Lightheart

  Elder Shepherd's first Pastel, a fried food very popular here in Brazil. Wow, what a crazy week and a half it has been! A lot has happened, so I'll try my best to sum it all up in a short email, but can you believe that I'll only be making 3 more of these e-mails after this one?? Crazy! Earlier last week, while visiting a few less active members in the Poá área, we received a  phone call from our AP's saying that we would be receiving a new American missionary, and would be serving as a trio for a time. I tell you what, I was very surprised, but also very excited to hear this news!! Thursday night, we prepared everything in our house and area for his arrival, and then waited Friday morning for the planned hour for him to arrive. Well, the missionaries arrived a little later than expected and ended up eating at the mission office, and we had district council planned in person... so basically as soon as the Elder showed up at our house in an Uber, we grabbed his stuff,

  What a marvelous week it has been!! Near the beginning of the week we finally received permission to have district council meetings in person, and so we jumped on the opportunity and met in person as a district! One group of sisters arrived really late, and the others had lessons shortly after, so it ended up being very rushed and short, but informative, and SOO fun! Afterwards we took some silly pictures, and then went on our way. District council with the best district in the world! We also had the amazing opportunity to see our friend Gloria enter the waters of baptism on Saturday! We were a little unsure if it would work out on this day because we still had a lesson and baptismal interview to do, and Glória was very busy with her new job. However, we managed to work everything out and had a humble, but special, baptismal service. The next day was fast Sunday, so we couldn't have a reception after the baptism with refreshments, and very few people that we invited to participat

  Stake Conference in the Itaqua Stake! "The only way to acquire spiritual knowledge and keep it burning brightly is to be humble, prayerful, and to strive diligently to keep all of the commandments." James E. Faust, April 2002.  This quote from the 2002 General conference in April (just under a year after I was born) became my theme for this week, as I strive against the physical, mental, and spiritual trials that I had. This was one of the harder weeks I have had in a few weeks, but that isn't to say that I didn't see the Lord's hand every day, helping me to continue onward. This week was certainly a strife, but each night, as I kneeled to pray, I simply thanked God for helping me make it through one more day. I did my best to keep all the commandments, as Elder Faust implored, and though I wasn't perfect, I know that my works were sufficient in God's eyes. Sometimes all we can do is persevere, with faith. And so if any of you are passing through difficu

  Picture with our dear friend, Denise Hey everybody!!! Yet another amazing week has gone by, and I am just so grateful to be a missionary in the service of God! This week we did a lot of visits with a young man named Caique, who is preparing to serve a mission! We ended up visiting a few old contacts of people who had once spoken with the missionaries, and we found 3 awesome individuals, Luiza, Gabriela, and Brenda. At Brenda's door she answered and invited us inside. She was taking care of her 2-year-old the whole visit, and towards the end he began to scream and would not stop. But it was a really sweet visit and we plan to visit her again this week! At the Itaqua church building, they had an activity to celebrate Pink October and Breast Cancer awareness, in which we participated and met many new faces! Our friend Denise (shown above) also participated, and came to church for her second time as well!! She is the sweetest lady you will ever meet, and we are planning to invite her