Staying in Barra with Sister B!!!!

August 18, 2014

            Today was a lovely P-day of just sitting at home lounging and writing letters.  Emailing was odd and very quiet today.  No one was online and I ended up wrapping everything up with 20 minutes to spare.  I ended up listening to Levi’s farewell talk.  It is so surreal that he is actually already a missionary! I think that I am driving Sister B a little crazy with how with how much I have been talking about it, but, I am just so gosh darn excited!  I am so grateful that my siblings are making and keeping sacred covenants. It gives me great hope for our family’s future.

            SB and I had an interesting conversation during my companionship study today, discussing what the Lord defines as a “successful missionary” verses what all of the mission leaders tell you is success.  We reflected on how LONG it has taken us to feel satisfied with our work, and joyful while serving.  We feel like the Lord is accepting our efforts and He is sending his Holy Spirit to help us with this task.  But there are many missionaries who are depressed and discouraged because they aren’t accomplishing what is (incorrectly) defined as “success”.  It’s just sad to see. 

            (Side Note: my first zone leader, Spencer Goodrich is here visiting.  It is very weird to see a missionary post-mission!)

Our ward mission leader and his family with returned missionary, Spencer Goodrich.

Pictures: our last district meeting--Elder Hawks, one of the best zone leaders I´ve ever had, is going home! He seemed really sad, but also WAY happy at the same time. 

August 20, 2014

            We had a division with the Eugenio de Dentro sisters.  They split the ward and so  there are two companionships that are opening an area.  Sister Rocha and Sister Wallace (who is from the same district as Sister Burris’s MTC district, but JUST NOW arrived in country), and Sister Nasciamento and Sister Trussell (from Garrsion’s MTC district).  Essentially both Sister Rocha and Sister Trussell are training and opening a new area…that is a ton of stress!  We ended up doing divisions a little differently.  SB stayed with one companionship while I was with the other. 

            Sister Trussell had a GREAT day planned and had talked me through a lot of the commitments, but literally every single plan fell through.  I felt so badly for her because I know how nice it is to be able to show off your area, investigators, teaching skills, etc. during divisions.  But, sometimes you just have a day where nothing goes according to plan.  Every missionary who’s been out a while know that it just happens. Sister Trussell and her companion just took it all in stride and kept working and inviting people to hear our message.  I was touched by their work ethic and sheer drive to do their best. I’ve done quite few divisions now (4 months as LT) and usually you have to do a lot of pep-talking, cheerleading, and hand-holding to get the Sisters truly excited about the work.  It was so comforting to see sisters working hard and striving to reach a high standard of excellence.

            That night we made SMORES to celebrate Sister W. and Sister B.’s 1-year mark.  They were waay good and it was quite fun to make them together.  (We ended up microwaving them after a failed attempt to make a fire outside.)

The amazing Sister B.

August 21, 2014

            Sister Burris’s 1-year mark!!! Yeah!

            We ended our division and all of the sisters commented that it was the best division they have had. They were dreading divisions, but SB and I helped them to feel comfortable. It was such a nice compliment and really rewarding because we do actually put a lot into these divisions.  We pray, plan, and practice so that in some small way we can help these missionaries feel good about what they are doing.

August 22, 2014

            Sister B. and I had a great day.  We’ve really got a hang of how to work in Barra, and have once again established a great teaching group and area of focus.  Our planning sessions are very effective and we feel guided by the Spirit in our work.  Everything is just going really well.  We’ve greatly improved a lot of things…so you know what that means??  We think that we are going to be transferred.  Probably…I don’t know, but we will find out on Sunday.  SB and I are feeling really anxious.  We’ve loved our time together and I can say with all my heart that it has been the most effortless companionship that I have ever had. We teach well, plan well, and work well together.  It’s been a huge luxury to have an American companion, but beyond that, it has been great to have SB and a companion.  Her parents should be so proud of their sweet, focused, obedient, and hardworking missionary. I am sure proud of her!

            We are teaching our ward mission leaders neighbors, B. and M.   B. was baptized at age 8 and went to church until she was 15.  Then her family moved and she lost contact with the church.  Now, they are both looking for a church to help them raise their rebellious preteen daughter.  They are both so ready and so open to hearing the gospel. It sure makes a huge difference when you teach people who actually WANT you to be there.  Also, the WML is very excited to be helping his neighbors. 

            The other high point of the day was with another investigator, one who has been taught before but who has never been to church.  We were trying to figure out what was holding her back and today the Spirit prompted me to ask, talk, and testify about eternal families. It was just one of those moments where you teach exactly what the investigator needs.

August 23, 2014

            Today we went to McDONALD’s for lunch!!!  I don’t think that I have ever looked forward to a Micky D’s burger and fries so much in my whole life.  It was really good and afterwards we started fasting. Poor SB was feeling like crap.  She has had a pretty good week, but today not so much.  So we opted for a post-lunch nap before hitting the pavement again.  I woke up after about 45 minutes, but she was still out. I let her sleep some more because she was really needing it.  We then headed out and had some fabulous lessons!   Moral of the story: it is so important to take the time to take care of ourselves so that we can help others.  If we don’t, we won’t have the Spirit and we won’t be able to do much. 

            Today’s highlight: acting upon the spirit to be very straightforward with M. about living the commandments and going to church.  She stood up from our lesson and exclaimed, “let’s go to my room!”  (uh, okay..why?)  “I have to pick out clothes that I will wear to church tomorrow!” 

….We’ll see if she actually goes.

Beautiful Barra

A great family in the ward!

August 24, 2014

            Transfers came…WE GET TO STAY TOGETHER IN BARRA!  We are beyond happy about this.  It was literally an answer to our prayers and we are so relieved and thankful to be able to serve together again.  I love SB and we have a great companionship.  Today was filled with miracles.  M. wore her specially selected outfit and came to church! No one thought that she would come, but she did!  We also had another less active member come with her nonmember husband and daughter.  They are all very excited about the church.  Our bishop is really happy to see the growth here and he is starting to trust us more. 

Where am I?

August 11, 2014

            Today was a tragically comedic p-day.  SB and I went to the chapel to do our emailing and about 5 minutes after settling ourselves we heard this TERRIBLE howling dying animal noise.  I ended up searching the church.  When I opened the sunbeam room ad scruffy old dog jetted out as fast as possible.  We were then hit by a wall of thick pee/poop/dirty-dog-stink.  We quickly let the dog out of the building and he tried to go poop outside for about ten minutes. The poor thing had been locked up for about 24 hours.  I’ll bet you can guess how we started out our p-day…yup scrubbing dog mess off the church floor.  He destroyed the trash can, ripped the light switch cover off the wall, and chewed the door  and walls to death.  I had to call the bishop of the other ward because this was one of his member’s dogs. 

            When we finally got to our emailing it took 100 years for SB’s pictures to upload. After lunch we were planning on going to a rainforest park that is nearby.  Field trips are something that we very rarely do in our mission.  We wore even wore our jeans so that we could hike a bit.  (mine were quite a bit tighter than the last time I wore them and SB are quite a bit looser…)  When we got there, the gates were closed with a sign that was hand written saying they were closed on Mondays.  Nooooooooo.  We went to boring plan B which was grocery shopping where we waited in the check out line for 45 minutes.  Basically it was a wasted p-day dang it. But I did finish one of my application essays and wrote a couple of letters. 

            Tonight we went to P. and A.’s  house where SB had to act as a marriage counselor.  She summed it up well when she said, “I really don’t think that I am qualified to give marriage counsel since I haven’t even touched a boy in over a year.”

August 12, 2014

            We taught R. with J. today.  He is having a hard time keeping commitments especially reading and studying between visits. So I gave him an analogy to help motivate him to do what we were asking.  I told him, “If you were taking a hard course and knew that you had an exam in a month would you wait until the night before the exam to begin studying?  Of course not.  We are all here preparing for the moment when we will stand before the Lord.  How should we prepare for that?  Should we wait until the last minute to repent?  That is why our invitations to you are so important, because they will help you to be prepared to stand before God so that you can return to live in His presence.”……We’ll see if it sunk in at all. 

            (SIDE NOTE:  He cam to church this Sunday and had read the entire assignment we left for him!!!  #progress.)

August 14, 2014

            Time sure has gone by fast.  We are in divisions with the Cumorim sisters. Divisions are great, but they are stressful. SB and I are always wiped out afterwards.  On top of our own problems that we can’t figure out, we have to hear and give counsel to help the sisters we supervise with their unsolvable problems.  It is just a lot to take in at times. I am learning to pray and develop more love and compassion for these hard working sisters.

            Funny story- We were coming back from Cumorim and had to go o the bus station “alvorada”.  We got on a bus that said “**” bus station and asked if it was going to Alvrada.  A man nodded yes, and we got on. It was a particularly cold day, but in the bus it was very cozy and warm. SB and I ended up both falling asleep, expecting to wake up when a bunch of people got off at the bus station…only that wen I woke up, we were in a tunnel.  What?...we don’t have a tunnel in our area! We don’t even have one in our ZONE!  I quickly asked where the bus was headed and it was going to a station in “Novo Rio”, which is NOT even remotely close to our area.  We got off in “Bom Sucesso” and made the circuitous route back to our home.  Needless to say it was a LOT of time wasted.  But you know, B and I are learning to laugh at ourselves really easily and hey, we got a good nap!

August 15, 2014

             Wow, time is flying by…so fast…so, so fast. Today was kind of a flop.  We wen to the island, but no one was home or opened the door for us, so that was a bummer because we usually have really good success there. Then we tried contacting some of the bishops referrals (side note: We are starting to win our bishop over! J)  Unfortunately those were failures and we just ended up on our feet a lot longer.  The highlight of the day was that the wonderful Joanna, a future sister missionary, wen out with us today.  She is hilarious and just really upbeat and nice. We lover her and her family. They are definitely one of the families that is more excited about missionary work here. We taught R. (who is a 23 year old referral that we have taught a few times).  He has a slight learning disability so we have to explain things several times before he really understands it. He has sincere intent, but it is hard for him to read and study in between lessons.

             We have these 9 apartment buildings in a row that lie smack dab in the middle of Rio das Pedras. (side note: I learned this week that “River of Rocks” is slang for “River of Crack” – which gives you an idea of what this favela is like.)  Anyway, these apartment are quite nice and we have several members and investigators that live there.  Only often times they are not home so we have gotten into the habit of chatting it up with the doormen.  We have always shared a little gospel message with them and now we have one who is reading the Book of Mormon, and another who is coming to our English class.

            Funny Story: We saw a lady chasing after her beautiful female dog YELLING at the top of her lungs “They have already impregnated her!”, as she kicked at a crowd of male dogs chasing after her.  She was so distraught and angry but it was just so comical.  It is hard to describe the scene, but we got a good laugh.

Makes any day better!

August 16, 2014

            We did a church tour with some of our English class students and it was one of the best tours I have given.  They asked a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon, what we believe, etc.  It was a very positive interaction.  We worked in our area of concentration today and it was GREAT!  We stopped by our PMA’s house and it turns out that their neighbor was baptized a long time ago and went to church from ages 8-15! She went inactive after she moved and now she has 2 children and a nice husband.  We talked with her a little bit. She was very nice and receptive. We are going there on Tuesday with our ward mission leader and his wife.  It’s gonna be great!

Cute little girl happily washed dishes during our entire visit with her Mom.

August 17, 2014

             We had a great day today. We successfully marked visits with some of our members. We just have to start having them get more involved in missionary work.  Sometimes you just have to hold members hand and give them lots of pats on the back to get them started.  R. came to church today! Yay!  And he read the Book of Mormon too. We have a great lesson with him, hi mom, and a 23 year old recent convert of 1.3 years.  Great things are happening. SB and I were evaluating our numbers from the past 5 weeks and almost every single key indicator has been gradually increasing which is really gratifying because sometimes we just feel like we aren’t even making a difference.  We’re fairly convinced that we have one of the best ward mission leaders ever.  (okay, Carlos and Rosangela are the best, but it is close.)  Andre and Giselle are so willing and excited to help us, and we would do anything to help them.  It’s really nice to have such a positive relationship.

Missionaries call to repentance and other adventures

Zone leader, APs, Sister training leaders

August 6, 2014

            We had our mission council meeting with all the sister training leaders and zone leaders, APs, and Presidente and Sister Cabral today and it was about 8 hours of “REPENT YOU SINNING MISSIONARIES!”  (Seriously.)  Presidente speaks really loudly and I think he is stressed and running on adrenaline a lot of the time.  It just stressed us out way too much.  Poor Sister B got a really bad headache, which I think was due to all the stress.  I really love and respect President Cabral, and feel his gentle kindness when I am personally interacting with him, but when he gives talks or trainings, I just feel so stressed out as he yells, “Why aren’t you baptizing?!  Is this the best you have to offer?!  What do I have to show to Elder Holland this month?!  NOTHING! “  (Yes, Elder Holland is visiting the mission soon and everyone’s panties are in a twist over it.  I am not even kidding about the quote.)

            Fortunately, Sister B and I know what we are doing, and we know that it is the best that we have to offer.  We also know that we are striving to follow the Spirit in every moment, so we feel very good about our efforts and work.

Sister training leaders and President and Sister Cabral

 August 8, 2014

            Wow, this week has really flown by!  We are finally finding our routine and rhythm and seeing the small results of our hard hard work.  Today we taught R., who is a nice 23 year old man.  He was a member referral form another ward.  We taught with her today and well, it was a little crazy. Sister B and I left the lesson a little dazed, but our investigator set a date for baptism in September. 

Amazing food!!!

            We had to reschedule a lunch appointment with a gruff little old lady for a dinner appointment tonight.  It turned out to be such a fun night for us!  She invited the Venezuelan couple that has been such a great help to us, and a recent widow, and a newly reactivated sister.  We all laughed a lot, ate some GREAT fish (up there with Dads smoked salmon), and we shared a great message.  When we finally left it was 8:45 pm…yikes.  We were at least 30-45 minutes, more like a hour with traffic, from our house.  We were really worried about making curfew.  I remembered seeing a bus labeled “Cascadura” nearby our house, but we had never taken it.  We got on and literally 10 minutes later we were already in Freguesia, really close to our house.  It was such a miracle, and we felt so blessed and grateful to make it home safely. 

            Just as an interesting side note:  our upstairs neighbor is learning to play the drums and his drumming is causing Sister B. to have some bad headaches.  

August 10, 2014

            We had an utterly FABULOUS day today.  We had 0 investigators come to church , and all of the less-actives managed to come up with last minute excuses not to come, but the rest of the day was just great!  Our lunch was fabulous, prepared by a cute little returned missionary, and then we had a great day of teaching.  We found new investigators to teach, and we are working with a less active family who has a desire to come back to church.  BUT the coolest thing was that an AMERICAN family moved into our ward.  Sister B and I were so awkward talking to them, but it was just great to be able to help the cute little kids out and to talk with the mom.  The mom, while brave and super sweet, is experiencing that same major culture shock that happens to everyone, poor thing.  They don’t speak Portuguese.  But, we have a few ward members who are bilingual.  I can’t even express how nice it was to speak English with someone, but MAN, I am rusty.  I have a hard time expressing myself in English and I feel as though I’ve taken on a lot of Brazilian mannerisms.  I think I am going to be weird when I get home. 

I love my new plant....

Then it blew over in a wind storm!

Hot showers = happy sisters

My FIRST haircut since leaving home.

August 1, 2014

            Wow, a ton has happened these past few days!  Sister Burris and I are trying to rejoin the living, but it is wiping us out.  We finally moved to Anil and are living with the Anil and Fregesia sisters.  IT IS GREAT!  I feel like our quality of life has improved about 200% (oh wait, it has!)  No cockroaches, a real bed, room to unpack our suitcases, a HOT shower!!!!!  Plus we are close to our chapel, a supermarket, and most of the members of our ward.  We are really grateful to be here.

            We had lunch in the favela “Rio das Pedras” (river of rocks) today with the cutest little Irma.  She is maybe 4’6” and is just hilarious and so very nice.  She made an amazingly delicious lunch and entertained us with her good humor and good company.  I just love these good Irma’s that show us so much love and care.  Especially those who have so little but are willing to give us so very much. My heart is sometimes just so full of joy that I feel like I will explode with gratitude for our Irmas.  When so many things are going wrong, and are hard problems, knowing that there is a cute Brazilian lady making you a hearty meal, sure helps make things better.  For that hour or two we feel loved and accepted in the home of one of those great ladies.

            We stopped by Xavier’s (that sweet ex-patriarch) again today.  We just love him.  We always thank him for his hard work and willingness to help us.  He always expresses how he wishes and feels as though he could do more.  If everyone had his faith and vision the world would be a much better place.

Sister Burris is freezing.

August 2, 2014

            We had a great day of work today and I am tired,  but  it feels great to be working again.  We visited our golden family and found out that their marriage papers have been approved!  The Elders have been teaching them since April, and the man is  ready for baptism.  The woman was baptized when she was 14, but went inactive almost immediately.  In April she entered Mormon.org and asked for a missionary visit, and that is how it all started!  They are both really sharp and nice people.  They are our shining ray of sunshine on a dark day.

            We ate in the favela again today. To get to the house we had to weave trough a bunch of tunneled allies and past poorly constructed brick and concrete towers.  People are stuck on top of people.  It was quite eye opening.  Lunch was prepared with a lot of love, but I blessed the food 2 or 3 times so that we won’t get sick.

August 3, 2014

            Today was a great day at Church!  Our sacrament attendance has jumped from 50 to around 80, which gives us hope that the Lord is hearing our prayers.  Everyone seemed more united and happier this week and we have won the confidence of many of our members.  They asked us to help out with the youth and primary, which was really fun.  It really helps to break up our Sunday routine when we get to do stuff like that.  Our lunch was with Mora and his family.  They are incredibly warm, happy and enthusiastic about all things religious.  It is great!  We also found a new family to teach!      Things are looking up!

Some views from members apartments in the Barra.