August 25, 2014
Today was great! Sister B and I enjoyed having the house to
ourselves until the other sisters arrived from transfers. I’m living with Sister Alves (Sister Brown’s
companion during Carnival) and she is quirky and funny and sweet. But, she is LOUD! She just is a verbal processor so she is
constantly talking. The plan is that
they will be moving to a new house in about a week.
We are
teaching one of the most prepared families I have ever met. We had a family home evening with them and
they invited the mother invited her sister to attend. Her sister was baptized
when she was young and she was recently reactivated in Ala Camorim. The husband of the family is a very sharp and
nice man. He has a genuine interest in
researching the gospel. He has also kept
every single commitment that we have asked him to. He even gathers his family for family prayer
and scripture study. Our activity was
really fun. Everyone drew pictures of
the story of the tree of life as Sister B. read it to us. It ended up pretty cute and everyone liked it
a lot.
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| Our family home evening |
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| Beautiful little lane on the island. |
August 26. 2014
I don’t have time to write so it is bullet point journal
entry tonight
· R. is progressing towards baptism.
· Our new Zone Leader is great!
· We had a member teaching with us this afternoon and evening and she was the bomb!
· Our housemates are driving me a little crazy…no quiet time.
· I got attacked by mosquitoes today!
· Summer is coming and my feet are sweating again…hyperhidrosis here we come.
August 27, 2014
Today Sister
B and I made another trip to the hospital.
She was wheezing really badly so we got her checked out to see if she
had an infection. Everything came back
normal so the doctor thinks that she may be having some allergies.
August 28, 2014
Today I got
my trunky call from one of the assistants, Elder Maciel. He called to tell me that my flight home will
be 31 December and asked me which airport I wanted to fly into. He will buy the tickets this next week or so,
and then send flight plans via email to me, my parents, and our stake
president. It is so strange to think that I am almost done with my mission in
Rio. Only 17 ½ weeks left and man they
do go fast. It is really interesting to
see how much I have grown this past year. I used to let leaders, numbers,
failed plans, and people just really get to me.
I measured a LOT f my personal satisfaction by the external results of
my labors. I loved helping people be
baptized and always was at my emotionally highest and happiest when we had lots
of baptisms. Don’t get me wrong, I still
love baptisms, but I know that in the past 3 months with Sister B., we have
learned to be happy and grateful not just FOR things, but IN and OF our
circumstances.
I’ve never seen so
grateful for a hot shower, a supermarket that is close, a wonderful lunch, and
a cockroach free house as I am now.
There are so many small and simple blessings in life. Yes, there are oh so many challenges, and I
can feel the wear and tear that this mission has taken on my body, but I can
genuinely say that I am excited to wake up every day, exercise, eat, study,
plan, work, help people, etc. I am so thankful
for my trials, especially those I have passed through with Sister B. We’ve had
our share of weird and extremely HARD trial, but we’ve become refined through
this process.
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| Some amazing food prepared for us! |
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| how missionaries have parties--watching temple videos on a miniscule screen |
August 30, 2014
Well,
Sister B is sick, coughing and wheezing.
I feel sorry for her. She is so tough,
and also stubborn! I wish that I could
help her. We stayed home today so that
she could rest. We watched “The District
2” for he 15th time and played bananagrams. I hope and pray that she feels better
tomorrow.
August 31. 2014
Today was
just great! Out sacrament meeting numbers have jumped from 50, to 70, and today
we hit 96! We are just thrilled to see
people coming back to church, becoming more active, and reaching out to
fellowship others. The ward counsel is
working effectively and our investigators feel welcomed. We had 4 people come back to church today and
4 investigators come. It was just
wonderful and amazing to see this work move forward. I just teared up today as I looked over our
ward and felt this powerful genuine love for these people. The Lord loves them so much. I am very
grateful that I could stay here with my companion and continue His work.
September 1, 2014 HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER BURRIS!
Today I made some birthday cookies and a fun scavenger hunt for my companion's 21st birthday!!!
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