The Pride Cycle

Lovin my new house and my new messenger bag

 Sunday February 23, 2014 A LOT has happened this week.

Tuesday - 18 Feb, 2014

         Well, I can feel pride and selfishness start to creep back into my life.  Perhaps the shift in self-righteous thinking may be partially attributed to our recent change of living quarters.  Our old house was VERY humble and VERY dirty.  We were confined to tight quarters with all of the sisters in close proximity.  These circumstances were difficult when it came down to using our one tiny bathroom.  But there was very little drama because it was impossible to talk behind someone’s back there.  Here in the “big house” things are a lot more comfortable.  With comfort comes pride and with pride comes judging.  I find that I have been hypercritical of people the past few days.  I have failed once again to “seek the good” within my companionship.  So I am going to focus on her good attributes like her capacity to explain things clearly, her ability to have a good broad picture at the same time as she has a steady grasp on the small details of things.  She loves others quickly and she is a hard worker.

         We had a “caplea aberta” activity in Campo Grande today.  I will once again re-iterate how much I HATE the Campo Grande area.  People are rude, pushy, and constantly in a hurry.  I am speaking Portuguese quite comfortably now, but many people in Campo Grande were like “She talks with a weird accent, therefore she is stupid, therefore I will only talk to the Brazilian.”  It is remarkable how people can completely ignore your presence while simultaneously asking your companion questions about you.  I remember experiencing this during the first few transfers, but I have been speaking well lately, so this attitude was super obnoxious today.  I love my little, kind, dirty, humble Santa Magarida.

         Side note: A member asked me where I was from the other day and was surprised when I said that I was American.  She thought that I was South American. 

Wednesday

         We had a tri-zone conference on Wednesday which was just great!  It is really fun to see a bunch of different missionaries, and to receive training from someone other than a 20 year old elder.  Sister Tingey, Elder Papworth, and Elder Seibers were all there.  ST and EP bore their testimonies because they were the newbies, and man they have strong spirits. There were about ten other people who bore their testimonies, but those two stuck out to me.  I am so happy that they are here and so happy to feel the special spirit that so often filled our room at the MTC. You can tell that ST and EP are still in the culture shock stage where you are just constantly running on adrenaline, but they are both speaking really well! (Side note: Sister T. is so pale, you can tell that she was hanging out in my neck of the woods in the pacific northwest!)  Elder Siebers is his typical optimistic self despite some companionship challenges.         

         Anyways, conference was great and Sister R and I spent much of the 3 hour trip home discussing how we can set goals to improve our companionship.  It was awesome to be able to talk without the pressure of leaders, numbers, commitments, etc weighing on my mind.  We were open with one another ad really listened to what the other had to say. Since then, we have been working a lot better together.  We have very similar personality types which can clash at times, but also which when channeled together makes for a powerful companionship. 

         One of the best opportunities that we have had to work together is teaching Senhor A. He is a 76 year old 5’5” man with leathery crinkles skin, vivid blue eyes, and an expressive smile. He also has a warm welcoming spirit that makes you feel immediately comfortable.  We found him while contacting a referral from the capela Alberta activity.  The referral was for his wife and daughter.  When we went to share a message with them, it started raining so they invited us in their garage, where Senhor was.  His wife is a firm member of a different church.  She told us that we would be wasting our time teaching her husband because he had never shown interest in joining a religion.  He’d also never prayed before. But he was a good husband, father, and grandfather. 

         Of course we talked to him anyway and it soon became clear that he had in fact searched and visited churches but never felt right or comfortable in them.  We ended up returning the next day, and he invited us into his garage, and then the next day he invited us into his house.  Little by little we have gained his trust.

Friday

         This was a weird day.  We met a self professed “profeta” (prophet) today.  She was stamping her feet and yelling that we aren’t Christians. We also had a load of rejection, one of our investigators heavily influences by pain medications, and every single commitment fall through.  We had drama with our district leader and a sick ward mission leader. It was just a weird day. By 7 pm we were struggling to feel the spirit.  We felt prompted to go and visit two elderly ladies in our ward.  We sang a few hymns with them and visited with them.  (Sister R. has a beautiful singing voice.) It was an experience that saved the rest of the crazy day.

S. baptism day.

Saturday

         Today was S’s baptism (finally).  We passed by the church around 12:30ish to make sure that the chapel was clean and the font filled.  We found a dirty mess that the other ward had left in the chapel.  Sister R. and I spent the next 2 hours cleaning, scrubbing, and working in skirts to clean he chapel. Besides that, the baptism was perfect. Senhor A. came.  I played the interlude music (thanks mom for the new binder of sheet music!) I accompanied Sister R. in a beautiful musical number.  S.’s family and friends were all there(including her Mom is recently reactivated).  The bishop explained the importance of baptism by complete immersion (because she had to be baptized three times because her foot kept coming up.) Our investigator felt he spirit and when we asked him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized, he responded with “I would like to!” So we set a date of March 15th for him.

Sunday

         Carlos and Maykon gave our investigator with cancer a blessing.  We had a good ward council meeting which was focused on reactivation.  Next week is Carnival in Rio…a wild and crazy time for sure.  We are restricted from leaving our house after 4:00 pm because of all the shenanigans.  It will be a boring week for us!