Things Just Got Rio: Running Around like a chicken with its head concussed!

September 1, 2014

Today was just great! (minus the dinosaur speed internet connection) It was Sister B. 21^st birthday and I tried really hard to surprise her, which is really quite impossible when you are literally together 24/7. But, when she showered or was sleeping while sick, I made a little birthday scavenger hunt with 21 clues. It was topped off by warm delicious cookies for breakfast. THEN President and Sister Cabral called and sang to her, which was such a sweet gesture. We emailed our families, then ate FROYO for lunch (and I wonder why I have gained some weight?) Then we ran errands, and at the end of the day I arranged for flowers to be delivered. The only problem was that our intercom wasn’t working, so I sent the other sisters to get the flowers from the front desk. They called out Sister B.’s name fro the balcony and it was cute. Sister B. was pretty surprised!

Lunch with an adorable tiny Irmã.

Sister Training Leaders and Sister Cabral

September 2, 2014

Conselho de Missao was SO long today, SO, so, so long. We got up at 6, left at 7, got there at 8:30, it finally started at 9:30. And then….we sat in training until 12:30. Then we had a little lunch break followed by more sitting until 7:30 PM. It was a LONG day. I have already sat through a lot of long conferences, but this one topped them all. SO long. Fortunately the material was really spot-on and we received some good training.

One of the weird things that happened during this conference was that one of my good friends, Elder Neu (AP) told me that he had talked to MY MOM yesterday and translated the conversation for president Cabral. Nothing big, just preparation about what will happen with Dad’s upcoming transplant situation. I don’t know why, but just hearing that brought a lot of emotions to the front that I didn’t even know I had. I’ve been really mentally and emotionally healthy and happy theses past few months. I suppose that I cope with stress by compartmentalizing and working hard to distract myself. But, when I spoke with Elder Neu, it was interesting to see how subconsciously I am still very anxious about Dad’s situation. I have learned what triggers my anxiety and how to manage it, but having a trigger out of nowhere like, “I talked to your Mom yesterday, “ for some reason hit me pretty hard. I really do love President Cabral on a 1-to-1 level. He expresses a genuine love and concern for us, and he expressed how he is willing to help me with anything I need through this process. Despite the fact that he is a LOT to handle during training, he is a good man with a good heart and for that I am grateful.

Eating lunch with one of our favorite families in the ward -- Irmão Moura and his sweet girls! He is a chef and is just basically bomb.com.

September 3, 2014

Today we were waiting for lunch to be ready and we say the ugliest chicken. I decided to take pictures of it. We were on the 2^nd floor and I crouched down to get a better look. Then I stood up quickly and WHAM, I hit the back of my head HARD on a concrete beam. It hurt way more that any fall that I have taken from a horse, bike, skiing, etc. it hurt then and still hurts now actually. But I did the self0chekc for signs of concussion and everything seemed okay. So I just took some motrin and we had lunch. Afterwards we went to the chapel to give our zone training. During zone training, I had different levels of pain and some blurred vision. The meeting went just okay. It is now 9:55 pm and my head still hurts. I am fairly certain that I have a concussion but I don’t want to call Sister Cabral. She will just send me to the hospital where we will waste 4 hours just to have them tell me what I already know. So I will try to sleep it off.

Pain aside, we had some GREAT lessons today! R. is committed and excited for baptism. He has opened up quite a bit more lately. We taught M. B and R. with the young women’s president who is like a superwoman. It is so reassuring to see good leaders inspiring and elevating the people they serve. M. and B. are o GOOD. They are willing to help their family and we can already see some direct results of our invitations. Their relationships are becoming even stronger.

September 4, 2014

Well, my head still hurts pretty badly. Sister B finally just called Sister Cabral after I laid down during personal study. So we made another trip to the hospital….wasted another 4 hours….had them tell me exactly what I already know – “you have a mild concussion.” I think that I am learning why my Mom and Dad never took us to the doctors when we were little. #biggestwasteoftime

We taught ZERO lessons today. I think I feel a lot more tense and stressed and maybe even anxious when we are not teaching. On a mission you feel guilty for being sick, injured, etc….it is so hard because you are wired to work, work, work and do countless hours of selfless work. It is challenging to know when you need to stop and take care of yourself.

Here is Gracious George - he does nice things for others in secret.

Funny story about Sister B and Sister C. – the directionally challenged sisters. We were headed out to teach the cute American family that moved into our ward recently and do a FHE activity with them. Well they are still in a hotel for now called the “Promenade”. We asked around and all he Brazilians pointed us in the right direction. We hopped on the bus (#1) and then got off at the hotel. We asked the reception desk for the family and yeah…no family. They checked for us and found them at another hotel which was literally on the opposite side of our area. So, we got on another bus (#2) which was PACKED beyond belief. We couldn’t even see out of the windows because there were so many people shoved up against the windows. You guessed it, we passed out stop, crossed our area boundary, got off the bus, and had to run precariously across 6 lanes of traffic. Finally we got on another bus (#3) and then ended up getting off at the right stop. We again had to cross 6 lanes of traffic and ended up finally getting to the right hotel. BUT, in the end we got there and enjoyed talking in English with an adorable family. We even did the “Gracious George” activity that my mom sent for me to use.

September 5, 2014

Our best helper!

Well if yesterday’s bus saga wasn’t bad enough, we cancelled our lunch appointment because my head is still hurting quite a bit. Anyways we had to travel from Fragvesia to R. apartment in Barra, which should have only taken us abut 45 minutes. Only the one bus that takes us directly there wasn’t coming. So we got on another bus only to see the correct bus pull up to the stop behind us. We got off at the next stop thinking that we could get on the correct bus, but it didn’t stop there. Then we got on the second bus of the day which only took us ½ way to R.’s house. The 3^rd bus got us the rest of the way there where the elders were waiting for us to do R.’s interview. The interview went well.

Then the bus saga started again. Three buses later we are still 20 minutes from the chapel so we just decided to walk the rest of the way. We spent the next hour cleaning the font, scrubbing the floors, setting up chairs, writing on the chalkboard, moving pianos, tables, etc. Who was helping us? No One. Actually, a cute 4 year old came and helped us towards the end. But, not a single soul from our ward. I called our ward mission leader to confirm that the had called everyone to invite them to the baptismal service. He hadn’t called anyone…WHAT? And he is sick so he won’t be able to do the baptism. UGHH. I wished that I found that out before 7:30 the night before the baptism. I called him out and something must have worked because he said that he would call people to come to the baptism. I just called our zone leaders who said that they would perform the baptisms.

September 6, 2014

Sister B and I are happy because the Lord is putting great people in our path and we are doing our job well! But our ward is very complicated and there are tons of politics involved. Our ward mission leader pulled through for us and we had a few people from the ward show up. Most of them were cleaning the building and came just so that they could have cake. But, it ended up being a nice service and R. felt pretty special, so that’s what counts.