September 15, 2014
Well, I am very sad.
We marked with a family to go to a teaching appointment with us to visit
B. and M., and it completely fell through.
They left us waiting for 10 minutes on their doorstep. The poor sister that went out with us had already
had a similar experience on one of the few times that she went out with the
Elders. She even made a cake and
everything! It is so hard to be
rejected, but it is so much harder when there are members involved.
Second sad thing, Mom emailed me to let me know that there are TONS of
secondary applications that have to be done for grad school. Most of them involve additional essays. What?!
Couldn’t the have put those details into the supposedly “centralized”
application process?! So I once again dragged
my sweet companion to the church to work on MORE essays #dayoff
#itbetterbeworthit
On the up side, my mom, dad, and grandma all sent wonderful
life history experiences in their emails today.
I love hearing things about my parents in their youth. It helps me
remember that they have already faced many great trials in their lives and they
can help me with the ones that I am currently facing.
Another positive note is that of H., our 13 year old
investigator. I wish that you could hear
the questions this young man asks! They
are some of the most thoughtful, insightful, and interesting questions that I
have ever been asked during my mission.
It is so exciting to teach someone who is so very thirsty to learn. We really do love him.
September 17, 2014
Today has been just another one of those utterly WONDERFUL
days where you have spiritual confirmation after spiritual confirmation that
Heavenly Father loves you, knows where you are, and is proud of the work you
are doing. Sometimes when I am teaching
I feel the Spirit guiding me to say certain things – may times to bless the
investigators, but many more times to bless me.
I feel like ach time I bear testimony, the Spirit smooths a gentle
healing balm of comfort and confidence over my soul. I love my mission. I love this phase of my mission, where I know
the Lord is pleased with the work that I am doing.
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| the Camorim sisters that we did a division with |
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| Sister G. Santos (who got to Rio the same day we did last year!) who had her 21st birthday last week. She is a great, kind sister! I would love to serve with her someday. |
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| Surprise Package!!! |
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| How does mom fit all that junk in one medium flat rate box? |
September 18, 2014
We had mission conference.
This translates to getting the same training that I’ve gotten for the
past 15 months. I remember that I used
to get a LOT out of conferences, but now the only thing I get is a sore bum and
achy spine from sitting in the same spot all day long. Though I LOVE Presidente Cabral on a personal
level, I do NOT love his trainings. I
feel like he speaks mostly to the disobedient, naughty missionaries, and since
I am neither disobedient or naughty all I get from the trainings is someone
yelling at me for no good reason. SB and
I always leave the training feeling really tense because we’ve been yelled at
and scolded all day long. But we
reassure each other that we are good, hardworking, obedient, dedicated
missionaries. All we really need is an
“atta girl”. Hearing even the smallest
words of encouragement would go a long long way down here.
September 19, 2014
Well, Today we didn’t work very hard and weren’t very
diligent in our efforts, and I feel terrible.
We’re both so stinkin tired - between
divisions and conference, we feel completely wiped out. So, it wasn’t our best day. But it also wasn’t our worst. We visited with a less active member who we
have been working with for the past 2 months.
We’ve been pretty gentle with her, but today I felt the impression to
speak more boldly. She uses every excuse
under the sun to justify her wrong-doings and says, “but God knows he
intentions of my hear, and he is always with me.” I felt the overpowering impression to speak
out and said, “ Do NOT say that. When
you are drinking, smoking, partying, and sleeping around, you can’t possibly
believe that God is with you. The same
God that said He cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance?! That God is most definitely not with you when
you are knowingly sinning against His Will.
That God does know the intentions of your heart because your intentions
are manifest by your actions, which tell God that you want to have nothing to
do with Him. So you see, God is not with
you, not because he left you but because you have turned your back on Him and
walked down the path of bad intent.” I
must admit that I surprised even myself with these bold statements, but
afterwards I expressed our love and concern for her. In the end, she actually thanked me for
saying what I said.
September 20, 2014
We were in the Barra side (think rich) of our area, and as
we were crossing he street there were two well-dress gentlemen in their mid
50’s standing by the bus stop. They were
speaking the strangest language I have ever heard. It turned out that they were waiting for the
same bus that we were, so I tried to strike up a conversation with them. I quickly discovered that they do NOT speak
Portuguese and only speak broken English, but they were so eager to try to
communicate with us. So, we found out the they are plastic surgeons from
Hungary visiting Rio for a medical conference.
Unfortunately, they learned that no one in Rio speaks Hungarian.
One
of the gentlemen recognized our name tag and asked, “Elder?”
“No,”
we replied, “We are sisters, but we work
with Elders.”
“Mormons?”
he asked
“Yes!”
“Joseph Smith?”
“Yes, yes.”
“19th century prophet?”
“Yes,” we couldn’t believe our ears. “How do you know about
the Mormons and Joseph Smith?”
“15 years now, Elders in my city. Very good people Mormons.”
Naturally we gave them pass along cards and told them that
they could get more information about the church in their language if they went
online. They were such nice men and it
was a very positive little interaction.
Who knows, maybe someday they will stop an Elder on the streets of
Hungary and tell them about their experience at a bus stop in Rio.
September 21, 2014
Today was another great day!
We had 5 investigators at church, most of whom are progressing really
well. Our members have developed a
better relationship with us. It is
really exciting to see how hard work pays off.
We has strong lessons today, minus the sister that described how she
talked with her dead husband’s spirit. THAT was odd, but our investigator
didn’t seem as uncomfortable as we were, so hopefully everything is okay. We ended our day with a meeting with our ward
mission leader. We got through the whole
meeting and talked about all of our investigators and less active, and then he
told us that he was really worried about us a few weeks ago because of some
things that happened around R.’s baptism.
In other words, I was frustrated with the lack of support from the ward
and voiced my frustrations…loudly. ANYWAYS, he was thinking about what he could
do to help us and to cheer us up and he figured out a way to contact Sister
Burris’s family. Her parents wrote the
nicest note and sent a little video for us.
This was probably WAY against the rules to watch, but it was really nice
to see. They were so kind and just said all kinds of wonderful words of
encouragement. We cried a lot, but you
know, I think it was just the kind of pat on the back we were needing.
We watched that new Mormon message this week, which made me
reflect a lot upon my mission. There
have been countless nights where I literally collapse into bed utterly
exhausted and wondering if I actually made any sort of difference in the world.
The video helped me to remember that we never know the breadth of our small acts
of service. My biggest desire is to help
someone – anyone, really, be happier and come to know the Savior more
intimately. If I can do that, I am doing
my job. I love where I am in my mission
right now. I love that I can say that I’ve
worked hard, been obedient, and loved these tiny wonderful Brazilian people
with my whole heart. I am so excited to see what these next 14 weeks will
bring. AND THEN, I am SO excited to see
what my next adventure will be – school, family, dating, marriage, profession,
my own future family – I just have so much hope for what the future holds. I know that the Lord guides our paths and if
we follow Christ’s footsteps we will always stay on the right path that leads
us back to our Father in Heaven.
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