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Olá!

Wasn't General Conference incredible?! Wow! What a privilege to have a living prophet and apostles! I loved it so much and truly felt that those talks were for me. And not just me, but it was incredible to see my investigators taking notes and receiving personal revelation. I think that Sanna and Max (our Recent Converts as of this week!) took more notes than most members hahaha :) We had lots of investigators come to conference and absolutely love it. Well of course, as Matthew 7 says "By their fruits ye shall know them" I know that President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God.

We had a neat miracle this week regarding references: On wednesday we had lunch with Irmã Maria, who recently moved from São Paulo. She is so great! She was a little inactive in the Church until a few weeks ago and now she is super excited about anything and everything Church related! We asked her who she loved that we could visit and invite to General Conference and she took us to not one, not two, but EIGHT different houses. We would knock on the door/clap/ring the doorbell and when someone answered she would say "Hello, I'm Maria, remember me? I live just over there. Anyway, Im a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and these are our Sisters. We are here to invite you to a special conference!" It was so neat because we would just smile and then bear our testimonies about General Conference and living prophets and apostles. It strengthened my testimony that everyone can share the gospel and that God works miracles. One of the people we visited was Maria's sister-in-law, Neide, who is from another religion and never was interested in Maria's invitations to go to Church or any activity. The visit went really well and she went to General Conference on Saturday AND to the baptism and loved it! She commented yesterday that she liked the talk about humility and Saul becoming Paul. Of the 8 references that Maria gave, 3 of them came to conference! :)

Another neat event of the week was that on Thursday it was Sister Alves' birthday!! Woohoo! We (the other 4 sisters and I) woke her up at 6:29 with a birthday cake and balloons and singing "Parabéns pra você!" :) I planned a suprise family home evening with the branch presidents family and Sister Alves was totally surprised! it was so funny, we had planned to teach Max and Sanna at 7 and I told her that we would pass by Pres. Rocha's house to pick up his daughter who would go to the lesson with us. SIster Alves was suprised when we got to Pres Rocha's house and Max and Sanna were there for a family home evening but still didnt pick up that it was a suprise party. We had a great lesson about the Atonement and then we could hear popcorn popping for the treat. Sister ALves mentioned to me "I think everyone forgot that it is my birthday" because no one had said anything until SURPRISE - Jaqueline and Nalda (Pres. Rocha's daughter and wife) appeared with a GIANT BIRTHDAY CAKE! :) Sister Alves declared it the best birthday ever and I found out that Im a better suprise party planner than I thought. 

Yesterday we had a miracle in between the conference sessions. We went to visit Genesio to see if he was okay because he left the first session not feeling so great. We got to his house and he was locked inside and obviously wasnt well, so we called the neighbor who hurried to find his family. Long story short, we called the ambulence and he went to the SAMU (emergency room) and now is home all better. The miracle was seeing the neighbor tell everyone that we (Sister Alves, Leandro, Iasmin, and I) were angels sent from God that arrived just in time. Truly, it is so important to follow promptings of the Spirit to visit those we feel we need to visit.

But my favorite story of the week was that on Saturday, in between the conference sessions, we had the most amazing baptism of my mission. Max and Sanna were baptized!! There were so many people there that we had the program in the chapel and then went to the room with the font only at the time of the baptism. Us 6 sisters sang a musical number (Home Can Be A Heaven On Earth), Iasmin gave a great spiritual thought, and the baptism was beautiful. Sanna cried. :) Actually, pretty much everyone cried, including Sister Alves and I (of course), and the branch and district president. Tons of people congratulated us for baptizing such a perfect family, but truly, Max and Sanna were just ready. They are such a miracle. One of the best parts was that at the end of the baptismal service, Max and Sanna bore their testimonies about their search and finding of the Church of Jesus Christ. It was so spiritual, and they are super excited to go to the temple in a few months to do baptisms and in a year from now be sealed as a family for time and all eternity!

Well, I am out of time, (news right?) and I just want to finish by saying what an incredible privilege it is to be serving as a fulltime missionary in the Brasil Teresina mission. I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He lives, He loves us, He paid the price for us to return to our heavenly home. When we have faith in Him and repent, make and keep sacred covenants, we truly receive joy in this life and the promise of eternal life.

Have a wonderful week! Count the miracles!

Sister Knapp