WARNING: Fiesty alert

It is crazy hard to transport your things by bus.

Transfer time

Sister R. and me at transfers.

July 14, 2014

            I got transferred, again. Presidente took a TON of missionaries out of their areas (ie. 26 areas had BOTH companions leave), and moved things around a lot.  Rio das Ostras now had 4 Elders.  Presidente took ALL of the sisters out of zone Macae.  But, Sister Burris and I are together again.  Yay!

July 15, 2014

 

The pile of trash cleaned out of the Elders pigsty.

           This transfer was incredibly poorly organized. We were transferred to Barra da Tijuca, only our house was in a FAVELA and Presidente didn’t even know about it until I mentioned it yesterday.  So then we got stuck with the Cumorim sisters who are also opening an new area.  Both companionships are moving into yet ANOTHER disgusting mess that the Elders left behind.  I’ll spare you the details, but I will say that I never want to clean up so much pubic hair ever again in my whole life.  SHAME on these  Elders who don’t take care of their houses.  I called both of them out though (both of them were from my original district.)  Hopefully I guilted them into repentance.  Their mothers would be so ashamed of them.

            Our house:  Well, my bed is a mattress on the floor, and my desk is a filthy sofa with a plastic table.  There are tons and tons of cockroaches and mosquitoes and fruit flies.  It is just gross.  On top of the filth is the fact that this house is 1-2 hours from our area and the only mode of transportation is by bus.  I think that I have already expressed my deep hatred of buses here in Rio, but yeah, it sucks.

            On the bright side, our zone and district leaders are great young men.  We have Elder Hawks as a ZL again.  He is great.  He is now in Jacarapagua where I left 5 baptismal dates, and I am in his old area.  It is cool to see how much he sympathizes with our situation and how willing he is to help us out.  Our other ZL has yet to win me over.  Our DL, Elder Alves, was my former Dl when I was with Sister Ramao and he is a great guy. Good leaders make my life so much better.

After a thorough scrubbing we discovered our couch was supposed to be white.

 July 17, 2014

            I woke up with cockroaches crawling on my arms and neck. This area is really trying my patience and endurance. Our “house” is problematic.  First of all we live above a bar.  In order to turn on the “light” in one of the rooms, you have to plug in an extension cord that is attached to a single light bulb that dangles above the desks.  The flush the toilet, we have to run a hose from a separate faucet and fill the tank manually every single time. The shower…I have actually managed TWO hot showers this week, which is literally a miracle.  But even then, these electrical showers just are so shoddy that they work maybe 40% of the time.  Lots of times they stop working about 3.4ths of the way through the shower.  Uggghh.  What else?  Oh, I have some short of bug that is biting my hands leaving small itchy red bumps all over my fingers/hands/wrists. 

            Oh the joys of serving in Brazil.  Only 23 more weeks.  I mentioned to Sister B the other day that I feel like I am running a half marathon (which is the farthest distance that I can actually relate to), and I have hit the 9 mile mark.  That is where you feel wiped out having just run 9 miles but know that you still have three more to go.  The phrase “endure to the end” has become more important to me.

July 18, 2014

            I am so tired, and I am getting sick.  Today I got up, exercised, go ready, switched my laundry, started our personal study, then ended up feeling like crap and sleeping until about noon.  Then I got up and we left for work.  Almost 1 ½ hours on a bus later, we arrived at lunch with a really nice sisters and her 12 year old son., Gustavo.  He was a super cute kid.  When we asked him what he likes to do, the first thing he said was, “read the Book of Mormon!” He then proceeded to detail the accounts of his favorite storied with an impressive amount of energy and enthusiasm.  Way cute!

            I am realizing more and more that I just have no patience to work with less-actives. It’s always the SAME excuses – “I’m too busy, my health is poor, other people offended me.”  It drives me crazy.  I have learned to bite my tongue and let my sweet patient companion take the reins with the less-actives.

            We had a few very positive teaching experiences on the street and we even found a man, J. , who has already had a lot of contact with our church, but has never attended a Sunday service.  He asked us what he could do to visit our church. Another cool moment was teaching with Brother Xavier, who is an 84 year old former patriarch. He is just like a Brazilian Mr. Rogers.  He has been teaching twice with us now and he has a spirit that just radiates from him.  I just love being around him.

            Those are all the positives.  All of our ward members tell us about how hard our area/ward is.  When we try to show excitement and optimism, they just cut us down with another negative comment. It is frustrating.

July 19, 2014

            Today I had a break down inside of the bank after an ATM machine ate about $150 .  The inside part of the bank wasn’t open because it is Saturday.  Anyways, I just feel like I am so emotionally wiped out this week that the littlest things are getting to me.  There have been countless things that have gone wrong or have been really hard this week, and I am just at the end of my rope.  I ended up called Elder Hawks and venting to his sympathetic ear.  He gave Sister Burris and I a good pep talk, and we made it through the rest of the day without losing it. 

            One cool thing we met P. and A.  P. is coming back to church and A is a very intelligent investigator. 

My newest planner

July 20, 2014

            Well, we worked out tails off this week and we still have a ton to do.  This is by ar the most challenging areas I’ve been in and even the members and missionaries say that it is one f the hardest areas in the mission.  Church today was just plain sad.  Only about 50 members came to sacrament meeting, and no one sat by each other.  We have a lot of work to do in the ward itself. 

Only 3 more miles to go.

            We did have a small miracle today.  We were doing a “Capela Aberta” and I invited a young woman from off of the street to do a church tour.  We had and AWESOME member help us out, and then afterwards the young woman got emotional and said that the week before she had been at her lowest low in her life and she prayed that the Lord would help her to fell better.  She said that she felt that this church washer answer to her prayer.  Unfortunately, she is not in our “area” so we passed on her information to the missionaries in her area. 

            Cool side note: my accent and Portuguese are progressing because most people ask me if I am from the southern part of Brazil.  #miracles (I am really terrible at languages)

Quote for all time:

Apostle Orson F. Whitney of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles, explained: “ No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called he children of God…and it is through sorrows and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain eh education that we come here to acquire.”

"Good thing they don't know I was born in Germany"

July 7, 2014

         Today was not p-day, because this stinkin world cup is dragging on forever. It has really interrupted our routine and rhythm for the past few weeks – we literally have not had one normal P-day yet this transfer.

         This morning I started my PT school application.  After about an hour of trying to re-learn how to use a computer properly, I ended up accomplishing very little and decided to print the 50 pages of instruction (there goes $20).  It was a really good choice to print them off though because I had the chance to read it thoroughly on our 2 hour bus ride to Cabo Frio for our district meeting.  Now I have a lot better idea about what I need to do!  I think I’m going to try for the early admission application to Eastern’s program – which means that I have to get everything done really quickly.

July 8, 2014

         Sister Burris and I are sitting at home at 5 pm on a Tuesday night. I’ve taken a 2 hour nap, figures out how to use our oven, swept the kitchen…and that’s it.  It is raining hard and Brazil is playing Germany in the semifinals of the world sup.  We worked a few hours this morning, and had more people asking us who we were than ever before.  We excitedly told them that we were missionaries, and then after about 5 seconds they were like, “oh, you are not German?”  Uh, nope. Then they would say, “Good, because if you were, it would be really dangerous for you guys today.”  We seriously had like 10 people stop us and say this exact thing to us.  One elderly lady even, ever-so-lovingly, described how a man had recently been decapitated here in Rio dad Ostras, and how they found his head floating/bobbing along the ocean shore a few days ago.  Oh…thanks?! We seriously have at least one person every day warn us about our “dangerous” area, or tell us details of some terrible something that happened. 

Watch out, Brazilians are upset.

         On top of that, our zone leaders call just to say “don’t leave your house under any circumstance. Germany has scored 5 goals in the first 30 minutes and the Brazilians are MAD.  You two look German and you have to be extremely careful today and tomorrow.  If something seems strange, call for the President right away and go home and stay there. “  Uhhhh??? AHHHHHHHH….the crazy Brazilians are going to decapitate me!!!!

         Well, other than that, things are pretty shill around here.  I really DO love this area, which probably means that I will get transferred next week gosh dang it. L

        

July 10, 2014

         Today I hit the big one-year mark on my mission, and I am not gonna lie, I am feeling TRUNKY.  I’m going to be really ready to head home when my time here comes to an end.  I love my mission and the work we do here, but I would be lying if I said I don’t ever get homesick, miss my family, imagine how my post-mission life will be, etc.  I figure that I have to acknowledge that these feelings are present, an then just move on with life. Usually I’m really good at the “moving on” part of things, but this week I’ve been particularly distracted.  Maybe it is because of the school application, upcoming transfers, FINALLY hitting the year mark, I don’t know, but I’m needing to re-focus on the peole and the work down here.

Cookies from Mom!

My Comp decorated my desk!

         My sweet companion decorated my desk this morning and wrote me a nice note for my “anniversary”. It really meant a lot. She is a great companion, I’m really going to miss her if she gets transferred (or if I get transferred) I’m nervous about what will happen.

Celebrating one year mark at McDonalds

         Cool part of today was our lesson with L.  We did a follow-up of the Plan of Salvation, and he explained what he understood which was an impressive recount of the plan.  It was better than most members could give.  I am so thoroughly impressed by his understanding and spiritual maturity. 

July 11, 2014

         Oh my goodness.  I am so so tired.  Today was one of those days where EVERYTHING fell through.  Every. Single. Thing.  Even our lunch fell through.  It was a long long day.  We tried to make the most of it, but after being on your feet and walking for more than 6 hours, you just feel like curling unto a ball and sleeping for about 100 years.  Add in the fact that it’s raining a ton down here and the roads are completely flooded with human feces –infested cess-pool water, getting splattered with said mud and water, and forgetting your umbrella in the van (Sister B left hers, poor thing), and you have a hard day that just kind of tries your faith.

         I guess that one cool things that we are trying is to have quality contact and today we tried out a new thing, a “religious survey” with 4 quick questions.  Just about everyone we talked to wanted to participate.  The questions are:

         1. Before we were born, where were we?

         2. What is our purpose here on Earth?

         3. After death, but before we are judged, what happens to our spirits?

         4. Do you believe that families can be eternal?

         It is really interesting to hear all of the different results and it was shocking to realize how few people have stopped to think about where we came from, or potential, and where we will be if we are obedient.  The Plan of Salvation gives us so much identity and purpose.  

Saying goodbye to so many people:

Last District meeting in Cabo Frio

 Our last family home evening in Rio das Ostras--with Michelle, standing on the far right

One of our ELECT investigators in RdO. 

Remember that cute little girl who saved our tails the first day in Rio das Ostras? This is her!

With our amazing relief society president, Sabrina. She is a return missionary and is just the BEST. 

CUTEST kids in the world!

 Roger e Ramy--we love them! 

With Carol, Magda, and the kiddos. This family was so stinkin cute, and Irmã Magda is one of the strongest ladies I know. Her husband is inactive and works on a big boat, so he´s gone a ton of the time. She singlhandidly does everything! 

Our going-away present haha! They always called us the "Barbies" and gave us these cute presents so we can always remember them.

Opening a new area

Barra da Tijuca - the same area where the newly proposed Rio  temple site is located.

      Sister Burris and I were transferred to open ANOTHER area in Barra da Tijuca (ie, RICCH RICH RICCCCHHHH area). I am running on 0, we are feeling very stressed, so I will update you more next week.  I also couldn't find my card reader in my suitcase, so I will send pictures next week.  In the meantime, Mom and I will spend the rest of my email time working on graduate school applications.  I tried working on an essay last week. ROUGH, mom. ROUGH. I stared at the page for about an hour and only got 2 paragraphs out....I honestly am really worried about it. My brain just doesn´t function in English any more. 

A view of Barra da Tijuca beach

 

New Mission President

 

View from the bus

June 30, 2014

            We spent the day in meetings for Mission Counsel. It was fun for me to be able to trade ideas on how we can help our areas and missionaries.  It was also great to get to know Presidente and Sister Cabral.  Presidente is a great little man (seriously, he is shorter than I am!)  He is very warm, friendly, and personable.  This is a huge change from Presidente Lima who was an excellent president and an inspired leader, but who is quite rigid and cold.  I must say that so far I am loving the change.  The new president seems to be a lot more in tune with the emotional side of things.  One of the things that he taught was that we should be teaching “with the end in mind.”  We need to focus on helping our converts have the temple in their sights – not just baptizing them and leaving them on their own.  He passed some very specific instructions to help us focus on the quality of our teaching and preparation.

Visual Aids for FHE

At the end of a long day!

I love getting packages with my favorite things!

July 4, 2014

            Today we woke up at 4 am, got ready, sand the national anthem, and then traveled the 4 hours by bus to a our special “get to know President and Sister Cabral” event in Niteroi.  It was a great conference, and once again I was struck by their warmth, humor, and kindness that was shown to all the missionaries.  It’s a big change from President and Sister Lima.

            I got my PACKAGE today!!! Thanks Mom!  Everything in is was just perfect.  Sister B. and I are loving hearing general conference in English! 

            We got home and there was yet another Brasil futebol game, so we jammed out to the conference talks – Sunday morning session.  Once again my thoughts turned to Dad and my family and how this particular conference session was so saturated with emotion.  I was once again amazed by how every single talk seemed so specifically tailored to our needs and worries.  How grateful I am for living prophets and apostles who are inspired instruments of the Lord.

July 5, 2014

            We had a great day today.  We worked hard and taught a lot, and just had a good full day of work.  We ended our day teaching L.  Lessons with him are natural and  casual.  We usually end up teaching through conversation.  Today he was super excited to show us what he learned in Alma 36, and then asked questions about tithing and other commandments.  He is doing really well at avoiding temptations.  He is just one of those people on my mission where I am humbled and in awe that the Lord has trusted me to be here helping him to come unto Christ.  It is the BEST feeling.  Sister B and I always leave our lessons with L. with this feeling.

            A few not so great things happened today:  Our LMA bailed on our meeting, and one of our recent converts is headed in completely the wrong directions and has decided to live a completely materialistic and worldly way.

Flooded streets of Rio das Ostras

Post Mission Conference Recovery

 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!

Our beautiful chapel!

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.

A young man from the ward, Patrick.

Carol, a young woman who helps us a lot.

Our ward mission leader, Hishashi

 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. 

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. 

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.)

My healthy breakfast!

Sister B's favorite snack, carrots and peanut butter.