Uma grande bagunça

Hello, North America!

This week I am completely unorganized and unplanned and have no idea
what to write to you all. Generally I plan everything out all
bonitinha, but today não.

Eu amo a missão, gente!! Eu amo Brazil. Eu amo batizar.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh....hooray for missions!

One neat experience this week was very spontaneous and very
"this-would-NOT-be-allowed-in-the-USA." My comps and I dropped in at a
school here in Catu to drop something off with an Irmã from the ward.
She was teaching a class of about 20 students, all about 12, 13, and
14 in age. Sis. Tibúrcio, half-kidding, said that hey! we could have a
super preaching-the-Gospel session in her class. The ward member said
sure! come on in! and we entered the classroom, surprised and pleased.
I was shocked, thanks to my North American upbringing around public
schools with amazingly rigid rules in regard to religion.

The students, skin of every shade from white to very dark, stared as
we introduced ourselves. Then, with the permission of our friend the
teacher, we taught a short version of the entire message of the
Restauration to the class, complete with questions and involvement
from the kids. I had the opportunity to recite the First Vision of
Joseph Smith to them. Knowing that I was Americana, they paid close
attention. (Here in Brazil, hearing an American speak is like candy).
I really saw that these young people were touched by the
message--Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, truly did appear
to a young boy in a grove of trees in 1820.

Afterward, we told them that if they wanted to hear more about this
message they could write their address down for us. Several did! It
was a very unique, fun experience. Afterward, a few meninos in the
back of the classroom whispered furtively something to the teacher,
eyeing me shyly. She grinned and turned to me. "Eles quer que você
dizer alguma coisa em englês." Very slowly, I talked a little about my
family. They LOVED it.

The Gospel is true, whether taught in the street, in the countryside,
in tiny homes, in huge homes, or in the classroom. I'm so very
grateful for the opportunity I have to be here doing what I'm doing.

The more I'm here, the more grateful I am for the Atonement of Jesus
Christ. It truly was something personal for each one of us. Because of
the Atonement, we have the opportunity to take part in the wonderful
plan that God has for each of us--to come to earth, gain a body, live
a life with the freedom (and responsibility) to choose and to learn
for ourselves, and to return to our Father again if we follow the
example of Christ.

Without the Atonement, I would not be able to be learning all that I
am learning here in Catú, Bahia, Brazil. I love Catú, I love my
companions, and I love brasil.

Thank you all so much for your support and love. Your letters lift my
spirits in ways that nothing else can--thank you all so very much for
writing. And please forgive me for the delayed response to get back to
you.

No matter what else happens, continue to pray and to read your
scriptures every day. If you do these simple things, you will be
blessed throughout your life.

If you still don't know much about the Church of Jesus Christ, check
out the website to the right--www.mormon.org. I know that the Church
is true and is of God.

Com muito amor,
Sis. Anne Petty