Hi Family!!!!!

Sorry for not emailing in a little bit!

I had such a great birthday! My cute comp made me breakfast, we got to eat lunch with our sister leaders and Nereçi got baptized|!!!!! That was probably the best birthday present ever. She smoked for 36 years but we promised her that if she read the Book of Mormon and prayed every day she'd be able to stop in 2 weeks. I know that the Book of Mormon brings a literal power into our lives and I have such a strong testimony of that book. I know miracles are real and she has been so happy since.

Christmas was also great! My comp and I  read the Christmas story together that morning and sang the Christmas hymns, because both of our families always do that. We went "caroling" to some investigators and members which was a blast. I love Christmas music. And we had some amazing Christmas dinners that included hallucas from Venezuela, a traditional Brazilian Christmas dinner, and an American Christmas dinner. But it's funny, Christmas day, because it's so hot here, the members we had lunch with had a barbeque and went swimming so everyone showed up in swimsuits (and I was slightly jealous, lol). And it's tradition to eat ice cream for Christmas which I still think is strange, but it's fun. My one and only Brazilian Christmas was certainly memorable.

Today we made a cake for a sister's birthday and it was an adventure. I was incredibly proud of us and it turned out great.

 I love you guys! I love my Savior and I love the mission!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Sister Dobbs

bday breakfast

baptism of Nereçi

Christmas activity: Churrasco

Christmas gifts

 bday lunch!

i love our ward <3

Feliz Natal!!

Merry Christmas!!!! Feliz Natal!!!

I love you all!! I hope you all have a great week! I'm so excited for Christmas this week and there is nothing better to be doing than inviting others to come unto Christ. I love John 17:3 because truly our purpose in this life is to come to know them. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."  Also, this week I was reading a conference talk from President Nelson from October 2017 and he challenged us to imagine what our lives would be like without the Book of Mormon. I invite you guys who are members to do this because it will open your eyes. And for those reading this who aren't, I invite you to read the Book of Mormon because it will change your life. It will bring us closer to Christ than any other book, answer the questions we have about life and our purpose here, and will bring comfort and power into our lives. It has changed my life and it truly testifies of Christ.

I love you all!

Sister Dobbs

Pictures from my birthday last week:

Zone Conference, Packages, and a really delicious Pudding

This week my pictures are my email. It was so fun to see my sweet Sister Maxwell and Sister Lopes and other missionaries at zone conference. We are truly blessed with miracles and I'm learning a lot about faith. I'm grateful for Sister Rassi and all she teaches me. I'll write more next week!

All my love,
Sister Dobbs

The Weekly

Hi guys,

So I realize my last email was all about food. But, if you know me, that's basically how my mind works. I'm always thinking of the next thing I'm gonna eat. And fortunately for me, the members feed us really well.

Well, this week we were back to eating at member's houses for lunch, which I had missed. Our ward basically loves us: the two americanas. This week Sister Rassi and I learned a lot about working with members and helping them invite people to church/activities/FHE's and it's going really well! We're also working with reactivating people and it's awesome.

This week was Thanksgiving and a super sweet couple invited us over for dinner! They're a young couple who met on the mission and Lauren is American so she made a 10/10 dinner: mac and cheese, homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, the works. It made me so happy. And we had apple crisp and chocolate pie. It was funny for this couple because it was Diego's first Thanksgiving and so he thought all the foods were different, but good.

We had a huge miracle this week. We talked to a woman who said she had met lots of missionaries before and people had invited her to church lots of times, so she said, God must be calling me, I think I'll finally go. Sunday morning, we passed by their house and they were ready so we walked together, the mom and her 9 year old daughter. They loved it and the daughter, Pietra, said she wanted to come back next week! When we visited them that afternoon, we gave Sonia a Book of Mormon and she said she'll read the whole thing! #eleitos

I really feel like I'm learning so many things here on the mission. I'm learning how to pray and truly converse with my Heavenly Father. I'm learning how to repent and rely on the Savior. And most of all, I'm learning how to endure. Sometimes we wonder, will we truly make it? I know that it's not easy, but if we can just make it to church every Sunday, even if we're exhausted after the week and don't feel like we've got anything left, we can take the Sacrament and be spiritually renewed and receive the strength to make it through one more week. It's the same as being re-baptized. We're made clean again, forgiven, and given a chance to start anew. Life is not easy, but with the Savior, it's possible. I know that if we worthily partake of the sacrament each week, we will surely make it back to our Heavenly Father.

I love you all so so much. Til next week,

Sister Dobbs

P.S. If anyone's got any questions about what I do as a missionary or about anything I say, just shoot me an email or visit comeuntochrist.org