The lost week...

Dear family and friends.

This is my catch-up week with journal entries.  I hope that my mom does not get tendonitis from typing all this stuff in. Yet another week has flown by.  In about 2 weeks, we have General Conference which is the Superbowl for missionaries.  This week was very hot, but the weather turned overnight and it is now a very comfortable 75 degrees with rain and over cast skies.  I will take the rain over the Rio sun any day of the week.  Last week was a hard week, but we worked hard and our bishop was happy with our work.

March 17

            We had a great family home evening with Al. and Jos. FHE was so much fun.  Carlos and Ros. Volunteered to help us out and we held the FHE in Al. garage.  He invited grandchildren and his neighbors to come.  We left a message of eternal families, using The Family: Proclamation to the World.  Jos. loved it!  Afterward, we played a cute get-to-know you game and everyone had a great time.  Sister R. made a delicious cake …It was a good day!

March 18

            I was sick today, so I ended up sleeping during most of our studies.  To my comps credit, she stayed focused and did her studies.  PROGRESS! After resting, I felt quite a bit better until we walked 45 minutes to our lunch appointment….only to have it fall through…then walked 45 minutes back to our apartment to eat ramon noodles.

            Sister Brown got her new companion, Sister Nob. who is from Uruguay and has a really heavy accent. I like her a lot. We also got a new district leader, Elder O.  who is also training for the first time this transfer.  He is visibly overwhelmed, but I really am a fan of him thus far.  He is a lot more respectful and level-headed with us, and he is demonstrating a lot of trust in our judgment.

            Tuesday evening we met with Irma V. who’s husband is not a member. We spent some time talking with her and getting to know her story, and we are going to have FHE there this week.  Even though that time didn’t count towards anything numbers wise, it was essential and beneficial so that we can know how to help her husband. I am learning that the work you report to your leaders, and the work that you actually do are very different. For example, on Tuesday, I focused on the fact that we found 2 new investigators and someone who committed to come to church.  But I left out the fact that we had done a lot of follow-up work, visited with part member families, and spent a lot of time talking with our ward mission leader.   

March 19

            We were rejected by just about everyone and we didn’t get into a single house today. Rough.  And we had a Baptist preacher try to get us to fight with him about Joseph Smith. He told us that we were going to Hell an that we should burn the Book of Mormon.  Rough. We had a woman stop us on the street afterwards and tell us that she was impressed by the way we responded to this pastor.  We maintained poise and respect and testified of what we knew to be true.  We talked with her some more, and now she is an investigator.   She is 45 years old and is separating from her husband.  She is a peacemaker and she has a lot of fear of what people will think and do if she starts going to the Mormon church. There is some heavy anti-mormonism down here.  There is even one church that teaches, “How to defend yourself against Mormons: top ten secrets: 1. Never talk to a Mormon alone. 2. Recite scriptures from the Bible. 3. Tell them that the Bible and only the Bible has gospel truths.

             It makes me think of 2 Nephi 29 – I am amazed at the limits that people put so easily upon God.  They firmly believe that the Bible has ALL that we need to know, implying that the heavens are sealed and that the Lord doesn’t talk to His people in these days.  This just isn’t true.  The heavens are not sealed, and the Lord continues to guide us in these perilous times through a living prophet – just as in times of old.  His poser is limitless and I am so grateful to have the continual guidance given to us by God through our living prophet.

March 20

            Woo, I am feeling TRUNKY.  I am missing my country right now.  (air conditioning, driving a car, drinking clean water that does not make you sick, etc.)  The U.S. really is a blessed country.  Sister Brown and I are coming up on our 9 month mark, and we are still together. It is a huge blessing for me.  She is a wonderful human being!

            My little filinha is doing well!  She is starting to be a lot more focused on the work, and we are getting along quite well. We have a new district leader, Elder O.  He is very you, but his is a good missionary and a good person.

            We got to teach Seminary today.  We taught about the Restoration.  I am very impressed by the youth of this church.  They are sharp, and are striving to do what is right. It gives me hope that despite an increasingly toxic environment, my children can grow up to be strong.

            After seminary we went to Al. for his 77th birthday party.  He is such a nice and funny little old man.  We finally felt that it was right to teach Jos. the Restoration and extend the baptismal invitation.  Everything went smoothly with our ward mission leader’s help (bless his hard working heart) and she said that she will read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if she should be baptized.  It was cool to see how much she loves and trusts us as servants of the Lord.  I think that is one of the reasons why missionaries have such strict rules.  Can you imagine if an investigator saw a missionary posting 1,000 selfies on FB, or speaking ill of another person?  It just wouldn’t match up with the disciples of Christ that we are striving to be.

March 21

             We had lunch with M. I love that little lady.  She is growing really well in the church, and is loving expanding her gospel knowledge.  We had an awesome lesson with Irma An. In which Sister R. and I explained very clearly about the tribe of Judah and and Joseph and the chronology of the Book of Mormon.  We taught about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work hand-in-hand.  We were led by the spirit and ended up giving a lesson that just hit everyone of our investigator’s needs. 

March 22

            Highlight of the week: teaching L.(65) and his 2 daughters J.(12), and G(15).  This family is so prepared to hear our message.  We found them doing a street contact.  The girls were living with their Mom until she took them to a favela to live with her druggie boyfriend.  Their loving and faith filled Dad found out about it, and despite many risks, rescued his daughters.  When he arrived, they hadn’t eaten in 3 days and were living in fear of leaving the house.  Now, three years later, they are very sweet, educated, well-mannered girls.  They came to church on Sunday and loved it. They are also planning on attending early morning seminary (starts here at 7 a.m.) At tonight’s lesson, all 3 of them committed to baptism!  

March 23

            It rained hard.  We had a member baptism after church, then our lunch ran late, then bishop wanted to talk to us about this friend who is interested in the gospel., then we had our meeting with our ward mission leader, then we had ward council meeting.  Basically it was a great day for member missionary work, but we had very little time for proselyting! 

            We ended the day teaching Jos. She opened up a ton and told us of how she feels impure and unworthy to be in church because she can’t seem to forgive some server trauma that her son inflicted upon her and her husband.  We just listened , then testified, then listened some more.  She remarked how good it was to get things off her chest, and how she feels lighter when we are with her, or when she reads the Book of Mormon, or when she was at her husband’s baptism.  She is learning to feel the spirit in her life.            

            I don’t know why the Lord is continuing to work miracles in this area. I feel like there is so much more that I should be doing, and so much more humility that I should be developing.  I keep expecting things to get harder.  But it seems as though Heavenly Father just keep putting person after person in our path.  It is incredible.  I am in awe of His plan, power, and love.  I strive every day to pray, study, serve, and teach these people.

             Well. I love you guys.  I miss you loads, but it brings me a lot of peace to know that I will see you all again in this life and the next.  The gospel is true and it gives us strength and protection, purpose and direction.

Con Amor,

Sister Colvin

The eclectic post

This week, Taylor sent me the same journal entry that she did last week.....so all I have for updates are the comments made to me in our emails, and captions to photos.  I am sure that she will make up the difference next week. 

 Walking the streets of Rio

 HI MOM! This has been a great week, except for the BAD diarrhea I have right now, haha. Quote of the week (by Sister Brown): "I´m either constipated or have the runs. There just isn´t an in between"  I´m sick of hearing "drink coconut juice" or "drink more water" as a remedy for everything....I don´t have a fever, just upset stomach and lots of diarrhea. Sister Brown is feeling a little woozy and has a headache this morning, but I don´t know if she has any other symptoms. It could just be the RAPID change in weather that we´ve had--going from 100+ to about 75 overnight.

Oh man. I love 3 Nephi. I love the Book of Mormon! We got to teach parts of seminary TWICE this week and it was awesome! It was a goooood week down here.

We had a change of leadership and I feel like a huge weight has been taken off my back! I´m also learning to just do things the way that are effective regardless. It is all a good learning experience because it will not be the last time that I have to work in difficult circumstances.  I am settling into my job, and now that Sister Rosario is settling into the routine we´re having a lot more fun and things are a little more laid back.

Our FHE with Alcebiades last week

 

I would welcome any creative ideas for family home evenings? Especially simple and fun activities that we can do? Topics of particular interest are: temples and eternal families for older couples, and young families; and forgiveness and repentance for a variety of ages.

Antiga Alcebiades e Josefa <3

Lunch at Marcia´s!

Ramón

Our cute FHE with Eduardo and Jessica. The kids were SUPER cute, and when we pulled out the "necklaces", Guilherme yelled, "PEITOS PEITOS!" which is the equivalant of "BOOBS, BOOBS!" hahaaaaaaaaa! we all got a BIG laugh out of it.

SUPER cute kids!

"PEITOS PEITOS!"

Tal vez the most beautiful baptism I´ve had yet. I just love him!

Alcebiades´s baptism! Everyone in the picture is a non-member, minus Carlos, us, and Alcebiades!

Thank you Mom for my OCD tendencies.

This week we had another baptism. Do you remember the return missionary that I got so upset with?  His son was baptized and we had 3 nonmembers attend the service.  It was great!

Sorry for the incomplete update--I am getting lazy with writing in my journal because we are WIPED by the end of the day. It has been HOT down here until a day or so ago when it suddenly got very cold.  I will close with proof that I am capable of getting a tan.

My weird tan lines.

ADDENDUM:

Monday, March 17

Well shoot, another week just whizzed right on by.  It was Shark week for me…nuf said. Also it was 100 degrees plus weather and we had a string of rough lesson with stagnant investigators and there you have it.  Our poor District Leader got the worst of it.  He called to get our goals for the week and told me that I had to change my personal goals because I had lowered them from the pattern of excellence (after not hitting this goal…..EVER.)  He told me (fairly respectfully) that I need to maintain my faith and vision of what could happen.  I then went apecrap crazy on him about how leaders shouldn’t impose ridiculous numbers on missionaries.  I told him how setting dramatically unrealistic goals will lead to discouragement and apathy.  (think Mom rant X10, in Portuguese, on the phone.) To his immense credit, her responded incredibly well.  I remained pissy, then hung up, then felt terrible, then cried a lot, then spoke/ranted to myself in English, then my copm ran to get Sister Brown – “S. Colvin esta chorando e falcondo em Ingles bem rapido e isto NAO E NORMAL! Pode falar com ela, por favor?”

Sister Brown then came and patted my back until I calmed down a bit.  I then called Elder A. back and apologized. He actually was really sweet (really uncharacteristic) and shared that he had the same questions and doubts abut unrealistic goal setting.  I felt better afterwards. 

The highlight of the week was Al. baptism.  We did a lot of planning and it ended up just about perfect.  Jos. (his wife) said the closing prayer and it was so cute and heartfelt.  She thanked Heavenly Father for the “angels” that helped her husband be baptized – something that she has been praying for a LONG time (think 35+ years).  All of his daughters were there.  His baptism had 12 non-members present. It was awesome.  I sent a foto in for this week’s mission newsletter.  I got a call from the mission president congratulating us on our work, and giving us special permission to use a computer later in the week to send him the story so he can use it in training meetings.  ONLY one problem, it wasn’t us at all!  We just showed love and kindness to a family, and the Lord and Jos. did the rest.  I don’t like it when people associate miracle with missionaries. Hard work and being instruments in the Lord’s hands are a good thing to be a part of.

Getting back to work feels great!

Us with our AWESOME Ward mission leader and his wife!

My mission "daughter", Sister R.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

            Wow, time is really going by fast! This week has been really good.  Carnival ended and we’re starting to get back into our routine.  We’re continuing to work with Senhor A. And J. and also found several other families to teach.

Ot. and Jos.: Super humble older couple. Ot. was baptized a long time ago, but he went inactive and started drinking and smoking.  He is drunk a lot of the time, but he is a really kind man and everyone speaks well of him.  Jos. has a great desire to read, study, and change.  But it is complicated because she feels loyalty to her husband and doesn’t want to do things without him.  We are working on strengthening Ot.

Pa. and Cl.:  This is another part member family.  Cl. is inactive and her husband Pa. is not a member.  They are awesome people and their son recently returned from his mission, which is of course a huge help to us.  Their daughter recently became re-activated in the church!

Bar. and Ben.: This is and elderly Baptist couple.  Bar. already knows a lot about the church because he gets a Liahona every month and has read last year’s conference editions cover to cover several times. He received a Book of Mormon over 20 years ago and has kept it and read it all of these years.  What is holding him back?  Social fears and habits.  His wife has no desire to change religions and he is very faithful to her.   It is a difficult situation. 

Fer. and Adr.:  Fer. is inactive and his wife is active. We are working to help him remember his baptism and the importance of taking the sacrament each week. 

      It is a huge blessing to be able to have families to teach , but they are complicated.  It is very hard (nearly impossible) to stay within the 45 minute guidelines for teaching lessons.  Yesterday we spent 1 ½ hours teaching and listening to one family.  I was initially frustrated by going so long, but Sister R. helped me to remember that when we are teaching a family, we are essentially teaching two lessons because they are two people with very different needs.

Monday March 10, 2014

     Well, I am sad today. It is probably PMS, but it could have a lot to do with feeling like my individuality is being stifled by mission rules.  The ability to choose and use your free agency is weirdly restricted during a mission. It’s like people are trying to turn us into baptism-producing robotic cookie cutters.  I’ve mostly been able to take Uncle Mark’s salesperson advice especially with understanding leaders, and Dad’s advice to follow the rules, and Mom’s advice to use my unique gifts, BUT, it takes a lot more time and energy to do this.  I see most other missionaries falling into the “routine” and suppressing their personalities. It’s quite sad.
     I might also be sad because there is a garbage strike here and it literally STINKS.

Rio Garbage Strike

Here is a weekly recap:

Mon-Tues: We basically stayed in the whole day on Monday for Carnival and it SUCKED.  Satan works hard when we are not working hard.  On Tuesday we had one of our investigators drop us.  It was Sister R’s first heartbreak, but we ended up having a good discussion about it and it turned out to be a good learning experieince for her. She and I have had a lot of good fortune during our time together.  We have been part of two really beautiful baptisms. I have kept trying to keep things realistic and help her realize that missions rarely move this smoothly. Well, we got our dose of reality on Tuesday.

Wednesday:  We had a great lesson with Sh., then B.(a cute 12 year old), then Con. All of the lessons went well except the lesson with Con. which involved a lot of re-teaching of correct principles that were not previously understood.  Luckily, Sister R. was teaching really well and we actually ended up with a good lesson taught by the spirit.

            It was zone training today.  The theme was ????  I am praying to love and respect a LOT of leaders right now.

Thursday:  We had evaluation of the new missionaries in Andarai, which means waking up at 5 am and taking 2-3 hours of public transportation to Andarai.  I can’t complain too much because Elder Papworth’s area is 8 hours from Andarai!. We travele with Sister Conde and Sister Jamieson.  Sister J is still struggling with culture shock.  She is still in the “I’m stupid, everyone laughs at me, and I’ll never learn this language stage.” I tried to console her and assure her that EVERYONE passes through this phase.  It is rough for her right now.

            The training was pretty chill.  I got to play piano prelude music for an hour because people were late!  My arms hurt the next day (so out of piano shape), but it was totally worth it!

            I think that President Lima was having a rough day because he was very condescending to the American missionaries and their difficulties in speaking and teaching.  He legitimately laughed at them – something that I don’t remember him doing when I arrived.  That was discouraging even for me.

            We stopped by Al. house. She is the young woman who was recently baptized whose mother is suffering with cancer.  Her whole countenance has changed!  She went to the youth conference, made good friends, and she finished the Book of Mormon!  She read it cover to cover!  I love her story because none of her leaders ever believed that she would be active, but Sister S. and I did.  We prayed about her, and did all we could to show love and support.  We served and taught her Mom and then we figured out what was really holding her back from going to church – and that was not feeling socially accepted.  So then we brought 3 different youth to teach with us.  with friends to help her feel welcome, she hasn’t missed a Sunday. It was great to see how love and dedication on the part of the youth of the church can make such a big difference.  It makes me really really happy, deep in my soul, to see the changes that good friendships bring about in people’s lives. 

            Tonight we taught a lesson that was an answer to prayer. We taught Senhor A. and Dona Jos. I sure love them.  They are the old-fashioned type with rich family values.  They don’t like alcohol or loud music.  They also have a profound love and devotion to their family. Senhor’s life has already been changed and improved through the gospel.  That is why I am here on a mission.  He has expressed many time his gratitude to us for the sacrifice we are making to help people like him. We have also been able to reach his wife.  She was timid and closed at first, but after 2-3 visits, she has seen that we genuinely love her family and are concerned about them.  I have faith that with time and patience and love, she too will be baptized.  I have developed a real love for these people…pretty sure that I never REALLY loved anyone outside of my family before my mission. It is cool to see an emotional and spiritual maturation of my capacity to love others take place on my mission.  

Some planners that we made during Carnival!

Carnival, Cooped up, and Crazy

Monday March 3, 2014

Dear Family,

         I am becoming a terrible journal keeper and letter writer.  Right now it is Carnival here in Brazil, which means a LOT of booze, transvestites, loud music, and fireworks.  But for missionaries it means being cooped up in your house.  I

am going CRAZY with all this down time.  I am definitely wired for the work.  I think that past few days I’ve felt a little bit of what a newly returned missionary feels – a lack of purpose, guile for not keeping mission hours, and gaps of time that you just don’t know what to do with.  Sister R and I have been studying a lot more together, but there in only so much that you can do before your butt and mind go completely numb. 

         I am really enjoying my many treats from the packages you sent me.  I especially love the black sandals (the ones that I told you not to get, but you sent anyway.) My feet have very weird tan lines all over them.  I have a tan on my lower legs for the first time in my entire life!  When I get home I would be terrified of what I would look like in the pool with all my weird tan lines. (She’ll have to work out in her trisuit for a while)  I am also really appreciating the ziplock baggies that you sent.  Our house no longer has filthy cockroaches, but it has an ant problem!  The baggies protect everything!

Week in Review

Monday, 24 Feb

         We had a great P-day mostly because I got to play the pianos.  I love the William Joseph arrangements that you sent btw, especially the Come thou Fount, God be With You, and With Royal Praise.  I think that the Royal Praise one is actually from a classical piece but I don’t remember the name.  (She is right …it is Jupiter Bringer of Jollity by Gustav Holst.)  I played them at S.’s baptism and Carlos and others seemed moved.  It is a blessing to be able to invite the spirit through music.

         We held a FHE with a recently returned missionary named Paulo H.  He is tall, dark, and handsome, and speaks English…kill me now. We taught his inactive sister and his nonmember father.  Sister R and I taught well together and the spirit testified.  His sister recommitted herself to activity so that was a great night for us. 

Tuesday

          We got to teach Senhor A. again and he is doing really well, but he is a frail 76 year old which means that we need to explain and re-explain things and then ask questions to make sure that he understands us. 

Wed-Thursday

         We had a division with the Sister Training Leaders, which was stressful to prepare for, but ended p being awesome.  Sister R. stayed in Santa Magarida and I got a break from being a trainer!  I go to learn with an experienced companion, Sister Santos.  I had forgotten the blessings of having a seasoned companion.  She exuded a quiet, calm, and confident peace.  She expresses all of the doctrines of Christ with clarity and patience.  I learned a LOT with her.  She also walks much faster than I can keep up with.  But, other than my achy muscles, my division felt like a spa day for me…haha.  It is so much easier to breath and relax as a junior companion.  We are striving to work on being equally yoked, but it always seems like the senior/trainer is pulling the heavier load.  I need to learn how to be more patient and give Sister R more responsibilities. 

         Training is a lot easier the second time around.  I feel like with Sister S. it was just a series of screw up and lessons learned the hard way.  I am super grateful for Sister S’s sweet, patient, funny nature.  I’ve been pensive the past few days thinking about the first half of my mission and what the future holds for me. Some moments I have complete certainty that the Lord is pleased with where I am, but then there are other moments when I feel like (to quote Dad) a spiritual amoeba.  I have been learning the same lessons over and over again the biggest of which are the lessons in humility and patience.  I like the person that I am becoming though I don’t like all the imperfections that I still have.  I am excited to enter the next phase of my life.  I can’t wait to be a wife and a mother, but I also can’t wait to continue my education.  The future is exciting!

"Let's leave the Elders alone Sister."

         Sister R is talented but struggling to get immersed in the work.  She often talks about home/fiancé/worldly things when we should be concentrating on our work.  I do my best to pull a Liz Lemon and be the wet blanket.  Anyway, back to the comp.  She is from a well-off Brazilian family, worked for her father and has a lot of material blessings.  Sound familiar?)  I think that our common egocentricity is impeding our capacity to work with true unity, but we are working on it.  I am starting to recognize the things I can learn from her and vice-verse. 

         She has an interesting story.  Her family was super active but then after a pretty tragic circumstance, her entire family went inactive.  At 15, she was attending the Baptist church and was not living the standards of the church.  Her brothers all had babies out of wedlock.  Then something changed and Sister R started coming back to church.  After some time, she brought her brothers back to church and they have since been married in the temple to their wives.  Her father served a mission in Rio back in the day, so she is hoping that her experiences will help her father to return to activity. She has a great understanding of the doctrines and we love to read and discuss the scriptures together.

         I’m starting to recognize that most Brazilians have has a major tragedy in their lives, such as: a baby dying in infancy, a parent dying at a young age, not enough food to eat, etc.  It is interesting how they still suffer and feel pain, but move on and talk abut he situation as if it is an every day occurrence.  I feel quite out-of-place in these conversations because, besides the whole Bailey situation, I have lived a really happy family life.  You can’t just fit in by saying, “oh yeah, I know how you feel, when I was 16 my fancy pony died.”

Thursday (Happy Birthday MOM!)

         We visited Senhor A. and it became very clear that the teaching process with him would be a little slower because of his age and ability to understand.  We decided, after praying about it, to change his baptismal date to the 15th of March….super chill, right?  Well, our district leader was not happy with us.  When I responded, I purposefully stifled my hot-headedness knowing that he had responded the same way to Sister B. the previous week.  I calmly explained that we were considering the needs of our investigator, and that we had prayed about it and both felt like it was the right thing to do.  Well, the DL was not listening.  SOOO, then I pulled my angry protective momma bear and ended up kind of yelling at him.  NOT my best moment, but I did get my point across and he stopped questioning my judgment.  I just hate it when leaders try to bully you out of following what you know is the right course.  I am not going to become obsessed with numbers and baptisms.  It is just not right.  (Side note: I did end up apologizing on Friday morning for my temper.)

Happy Birthday Sister Brown!

Friday         Sister B. had her 20th birthday.  We ended up making a cake, some sweets, and other goodies.  It was also the last day of Carnival so we enjoyed our view of the roads filled with transvestites and loud vulgar music from the safety of our double locked doors and high walls.  I guess that Carnival in Santa Margarida is pretty dull compared to other parts of the city. Anyway, our humble birthday party was pretty fun. Sister B. is a cutie.  I have a feeling that she will be transferred this next week.  I am pretty sure that I will finish another transfer here to finish the training of Sister R. and then I will be headed somewhere else.  I have been in the same area for my entire Brazilian portion of my mission.

Saturday

         We cleaned the chapel to do some service for the ward.. There was only one other person there so we had to work our tails off! The rest of the day was pretty chill. 

Sunday

         We had a great Sunday for reactivation.  S.’s mom came again, Paulo’s sister came and so did a brother who hasn’t been to church in over 6 years.  So that was pretty neat.  Mar. got a calling and so did May.  Both are recent converts who are growing in the gospel.  May. Was called to be the Young men’s secretary.  Now he will not have time to go out with us to teach, but it is really great that he is moving on to the next step of learning and serving.  He is also getting ready to go and do baptisms in the temple.  It has been really great to be in one place long enough to see the growth in the gospel beyond baptism. Some of the other converts who are doing well include. E. is a super solid young man.  He is attending seminary and all of his youth meetings.  J. held her first FHE last week and she is starting temple prep classes. S. is still radiant from her baptism and is attending all of her meetings with enthusiasm.  Unfortunately, G. is not doing well.  Please keep him in your prayers. It is a blessing to be a part of these people’s lives and makes me really really happy.

         On another note: Missions are hard, really really hard.  There are many things that you just don’t learn before serving. I think there should be a section on my blog outlined, “Things they don’t teach you in the MTC, or What to do when…” 

·      A woman tells you she’s a prophet and she is here to re-build Noah’s ark

·      You knock on a door and a 5 year old yells back, “ My Mom can’t come to the door, she has diarrhea.”

·      Two women stomp on the ground and insist that your church is a brainwashing cult.

·      Your leaders are telling you different things than the Lord is.

·      You have 3 different investigators in the same house, all on different levels, and you have to teach them at the same time.

·      People are more interested in the fact that you are an American than that you are a missionary.

·      You are hating on the country where you are serving and someone asks you what is better – Brazil or America?

·      A drunken man proposes to you and wants to take you to Africa to meet his family.

·      Your companion just so happens to have menstrual cramps and headaches every time weekly planning comes around.

·      You’re contacting a referral and you can see into the house…where there are several completely naked people.

I sure do love you guys.  I think of you and pray for each of you often.  I hope that you are feeling the Lord’s influence guiding your life and decisions.  Spokane looks beautiful and perfect to me.  It is so weird to think of times and seasons passing by which a lot of the time days are very much the same down here.  I am almost to my halfway point.  Before you know it, it will be May and my birthday and our MOTHER’S DAY SKYPE!!!  I am happy and working hard, but still very much looking forward to being back with you.

Con Amor,

Sister Colvin 

A weird fruit here in Brazil that you peel open and eat the inside.

Catch a husband cake -- made by a sister in the ward.  I had a "few" pieces!

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!