Received 6 New Missionaries this month.  These 2 from Brazil, 3 from the US and 1 more sister from Brazil.  Receiving New Missionaries is one of my most favorite days!  I love to see these new faces, feel of their love and energy!  We love them even before they arrived.

Interesting to note -  We currently have 31 Americans waiting in Missions in the States, for their Visa's.    Receiving Visa's continues to be a problem in this Country.  Thru out the Country of Brazil and the 34 Mission's here we currently have 1000+ Visa Waiters.  Many prayers are offered daily by us, families and church members throughout the World.
Elder Wrights, one of our New Missionaries had this experience with receiving his Visa.  His Mom wrote this to us 
"When Brody was reassigned to Nashville, Tennessee we were told that he may be there up to six months, however as a family we all just knew that it was part of the plan and how exciting for Bro to have the experience of a state side mission as well as Brazil.  Two weeks before his visa arrived Brody met a man who ask him why he was in Kentucky. (That is part of the Tennessee mission).  He explained about his visa and how he was waiting for it.  The man then told him, that he could get help him get his visa so to give him all of his information and he would go to work on it, he would make a few telephone calls.  He worked for the Government in a office where he could pull some strings to help him get it.  Two weeks later his visa arrived.  Brody saw him before he left, and he told him, "See, I told you I could help you".  He was serving with a Sister missionary who had been waiting for 7 months for her visa to go to a different mission in Brazil.  I know that he was supposed to meet that man, so that he could get into Brazil quicker."
One by one, experience by experience we are affected by the stories that we hear from our Missionaries and the experiences we witness here.  The Lord is answering prayers.  They might not all be answered in one day, week or month but your/our prayers is/are being answered.  Your prayers are felt here.  Thank you so much.  Keep them coming.  As we say here in our Mission "Fica Firme",  Stay Strong.  We need to continually exercise our Faith and Prayers for all aspects of our lives.  Your lives will be blessed if you ask,  You will receive answers if you ask.

 Arriving in the Airport 

 New Missionaries with their Trainers

Our Mission has a Total of 134 Missionaries - 24 Sisters and 110 Elders - We are praying for these #'s to increase.  The # of Sister Missionaries has tripled in the last 1/ 1/2 yrs but the # of Elders has decreased.   The Sisters are doing Great and we love each one of them.  We just want more of all of them!