June 21, 2014
Sister
B and I woke up feeling like zombies.
Six hours just isn’t enough sleep for missionaries. We struggled to stay awake during our
studies, and ended up taking a 30-minute power nap during our hour of language
study. Afterwards, we had a great
day! It started off by visiting M.
who is a great lady who really wants to return to activity after a 10-year
absence. Something changed within
her, and she is determined, humble, and willing to make the changes necessary
to get her life back in order – and we are going to help! It is so wonderful to teach someone who
recognizes that something is missing in their life. Later in the day we taught a non-member family for the first
time. Their daughter has a newborn
baby, which made the lesson on the Plan of Salvation very powerful. The Spirit was so strong and they
welcomed us back for another visit.
We also had a good lesson with L. who is progressing. Now he just needs to come to church!
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| Our beautiful chapel! |
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| Posing with my comp after church. |
June 22, 2014
Sundays
are so stressful on a mission. We
are just really worn-out by the end of the week, but have to have extra
patience and energy with the 157 members that want to talk to you. We didn’t have any investigators come
to church L,
but M. did come!! I am so
impressed with her bravery and determination to come back to church after such
a long time. There were many
sisters who helped her to feel welcome J. We had a great lunch with Bishop
Roberto Alvino and Priscila (and her parents). They made us Brazilian
churrasco, which was GREAT! Bishop
taught me how to cut and prepare the meat. I ate WAY too much meat, especially considering the amount
of garlic on the meat. It was
delicious, but I am going to pay for it!
The rest of the day was frustrating and
discouraging with lots of rain, and lot of appointments that fell through.
June 23, 2014
Well,
I figure I better write a real update and get caught up in my journal. First, having an American companion is
really great! I feel like things
are so much easier when you have the same culture. She is a really sweet, hardworking, and dedicated girl. She is also very “type B”, and so we
balance each other out. She helps me to be more cal and patient, and I help her
with goal setting and making decisions.
It is a good companionship.
Our work had been really odd because of the World Cup. We will have a
few really great teaching days and start gaining momentum, then we are stalled
because there will be a Brazil game and we have to stay at home. President Lima has done some creative
rescheduling to help us work as much as possible. For example, last Tuesday was a Brasil game so he moved our
P-day from Monday 10am-6 pm to Tuesday 3 pm – 10:30 pm. Today we had a normal day of work until
1:00 when we emailed our families and then we had to come home by 3 and stay in
for the rest of the day. It’s
really not too bad for a change, but they only let us know with about a day’s
notice. This means that we often
have to make last minute changes to our appointments and that gets pretty
annoying. I like making plans and sticking to them especially when they involve
other people.
The
highlight of the day was eating lunch at McDonald’s. It was WAY good and that sounds strange I know, but
McDonalds is one of the “chic” restaurants down here. Everything is very clean,
new, well organized, etc. Sister B
and I enjoyed pretending like we were in the United States while eating our
chicken wraps and French fries.
#trunky #imissthelittlethings.
Another
thing that was really a highlight for me was seeing my little brother’s college
graduation pictures! Congrats to
Levi, soon to be Elder Colvin II. It was just a few short years ago that I was
graduating from SFCC with my terrible Umpa-lumpa spray tan. Life goes by so fast.
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| A young man from the ward, Patrick. |
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| Carol, a young woman who helps us a lot. |
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| Our ward mission leader, Hishashi |
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| Pricila Jesus (left), and Camila (right--Hisashi´s wife) |
June 24,
2014
Work is very different here in zona
Mereere. All of the areas are
HUGE, and all of the missionaries live really far away from one another. For example, today we had our district
meeting in Cabo Frio – 2 hours by bus.
TWO hours! Add up the
travel time and the meeting time and you get 6 hours of non-proselyting
activities. I did do some street
contacts while waiting for the bus, and talked to the crazy lady sitting next
to me, but she dominated the conversation and ten started singing various
gospel songs…it was a little strange.
I definitely will not miss riding on public transportation.
We
did have a great lesson with M, a recent convert, and her husband P. A couple from our ward went with
us. P. is starting to be more
interested in the gospel and I think he wants to know more about what is
motivating his wife to make changes in her life. He recently had a near death
experience where he was in the hospital for over a month with intense organ
swelling and heart problems. Two
brothers from the ward gave him a blessing, and he miraculously recovered. He is working, walking, and functioning
normally. He also has to take
better care of himself – no more drinking, smoking, or eating fatty foods. I hope that this helps him to change
his life for the better.
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It is COLD down here! I am wearing like 3 shirts and a sweatshirt, pajama bottoms, sweats, socks AND using a blanket. It´s been a very cool 55-65 degrees at night and we don´t have heating in our house. coooolllddd |
June 25, 2014
We
had a great and busy day today. We
were running from one appointment to the other! Our day ended with teaching L. in the chapel. He quite
literally has a “broken heart and a contrite spirit.” He humbly recognizes his sins and weaknesses, and accepts
the necessary steps of repentance.
He’s been continuing to read the Book of Mormon, praying, and he’s
continued to have spiritual reassurances that confirm he is doing the right
thing.
June 26, 2014
We did divisions with the Macare 1
sisters, which means I got to work with Sister Zarate again. We had a lot of fun together reflecting
back on our three months together.
We traded ideas of ways to improve our areas. It was great! We taught M and P again. P. committed to go to church on Sunday
with M., which is a huge step for him.
Sister B and I are really excited that things seem to be picking up in
our area.
June 27, 2014
We
had a great division with Sister Bobelany and Sister Zarate. It was so good to work with SZ again
after these 7 months. I was able
to thank her for her patience in helping me to get through the intense culture
shock phase of my mission. She is
a great missionary. It was very
impressed by the love that she so easily transmits to others. It’s odd to
realize that she’ll be headed home in only 8 weeks. Time really does fly by.
I
am wiped out and not feeling particularly well tonight. I ate way too much lunch and then
walked in the sun, then rode on a bus…queasy!
We
had a great visit with a sister in the ward who is trying to come back to
activity. She has such a desire to
change her life for the better, and she is working to follow through with her
desires.
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| Area book - nearly perfect! |
June 28, 2014
Today
was another odd day of work because of the World Cup. We worked from 10-12:00, then stayed in doing our weekly
planning until 18:00, then went out and worked. Brazil won their game and everyone went CRAZY…really
CRAZY. Haha! Like running into the
street and taking off their clothes crazy! Gotta love our neighbors!
We
had a great lesson with Al. and Fl. Al. has been coming to church for almost a
year and has a great desire to be baptized; only he isn’t married to Fl., and
he is Argentinean. So he has to retrieve papers from Argentina that say that he
is not married there before he can get married here. But even then, FL. doesn’t want to get
married…complicated! But we had a
great lesson, which was led by the Spirit.
June 29, 2014
Today
we got lost on the way to lunch #likethatssomethingnew, and then we had to
travel to Andarai (centro do Rio) 4-5 hours in a bus. I discovered that there are games on our ancient cell phone,
so I played sudoku and brain games for a good chunk of the trip. Sister B mostly just slept. We are trying to be a lot smarter about taking care of ourselves physically so I am happy that she is able to sleep. We are also trying to eat better, more healthy choices, and just plain more food (especially my comp.)
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| My healthy breakfast! |
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| Sister B's favorite snack, carrots and peanut butter. |
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