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.

A fun p-day and a Mission Conference

At the "Parque dos Passaros" (bird par), a nice little break from reality!

Is it art, or a statement that soccer turns people into happy brainless infants?

 June 16, 2014

         Today was a good day.  I bought two new pens!  #itsthelittlethings  We spent our first half of the day as a normal P-day, then after lunch we went out and worked until 9 P.M.  There is a Brasil game and we aren’t allowed to leave/work after 3 P.M., so our second half of our p-day will be tomorrow.

         We went to the “hospital” today to see if we could help Sister B.  She hasn’t felt well since December and there has been very little done to try to help her.  Hopefully we can get things figured out for her so she can start to feel better. She is a really tough girl, and she barely complains, but I can see that she is just feeling really crappy.

June 17, 2014
         Today was our P-day which we spent eating popcorn and watching church movies.  While every other human being in Brazil was watching the World Cup, we were rooting and cheering for the people building the Salt Lake Temple.  When our DVD player froze during President Monson's biography, we both instinctively exclaimed, "NOOOooooo!"  Funny how things are different on the mish!  Anyways, it was a chill day.  I wrote the family some letters.  

June 18, 2014

"Freezing" in the rain.

         Today was a great and busy day.  We walked a lot, taught a lot, and the Lord just really blessed our work.  I’m loving my companion a whole lot, and we just teach easily and really well together.  We taught 7 sit down lessons today!  I think that is a record for me at least. We taught several lessons on one side of our area and then took a van to the complete opposite side of our area to teach another great set of lessons. We have a good group of people t teach in Ancora. 

June 19, 2014 

         It was a dull day today.  We held our weekly planning meeting, then our lunch fell through, then our teaching appointment fell through, then we has to leave on a 4 hour bus ride to Andarai.  At least we got to rest and talk and relax a bit on the bus ride.  We once again realized how blessed we are to be in this companionship.  I just stinkin love my companion and an growing to really love our area – especially now that our house is in order and we are focusing on teaching.

 

Sister Brown with our very first district leader, Elder Van (I think there is a similarly awkward picture from October of last year....)

Reunion with Sister Brown

        High points of the day ----TAKING A HOT SHOWER in Andarai, and seeing the wonderful Sister Brown!  It is winter now in Rio and we are freezing (60 degrees F). I don’t have very many cold weather clothes, but I think that I’ll live.  However, when I go home in the dead of winter to Spokane….I’m gonna DIE.

 

Wall collage

June 20, 2014 

         We had a special mission conference with ½ of the whole mission. I got to play prelude for 1 whole hour, and it was awesome!  (Totally worth lugging my heavy music binder all the way to Andaria.)  The conference itself was an amazingly spiritually uplifting, reflective, and inspiring conference.  We have these conferences every 3 months so sometimes they get to be routine.  But this conference was exceptional.  It is neat to be able to look back and measure my personal progress.  One of my favorite parts of conference is hearing testimonies of the newbies and all of those ending their missions.  There is such a spiritual change that comes within these jam packed 18 months-2 years.  I can feel myself changing, growing, and learning throughout this journey.  I hope that when my time comes to go home, that my family will be able to see the change that has taken place (minus the sunfried thinning hair and the zitty sunscreened face.)  
         President and Sister Lima were pretty emotional this conference - it is literally the last time they will see many of us.  They were uncharacteristically complimenary.  it was the first time thatI've heard them give us  "atta-boys/girls"  or a "you're doing good things!" Usually conferences are a long list of, "REPENT, you sinning missionaries!"  It was a good change.  We got to each individually shake their hands and say goodbye.  We ended up leaving late and didn't get back to our area until 12:30 ---LONG DAY!  We were super wiped out. 

Out-going Mission President Lima and wife with Sister Burris

Out-going Mission President Lima and wife with Sister Colvin

Elder Van and Elder Siebers

Sister R, Sister C, Sister Z

 

Sister Rosario with Sister C

"World Cup" is a forbidden phrase

Do you want to know what it is like to live in Brazil during the World Cup?  We wouldn't really know because we are not allowed to talk about it with members or investigators, we can't watch any matches on TV, and when Brazil is playing, we are not allowed to leave our houses. I promise that you know more about it than we do.  I can tell you that not many people are interested in talking about anything else other that soccer so it is a difficult time for missionaries.
          Yeah, it´s pretty nuts down here. Luckiy Rio das Ostras is far enough away from the main city (ie, 4 hours in a bus) that it is pretty chill. Though we DO have at least one person EVERY DAY that tells us, "oh, this area appears calm, but be careful because there has been a lot of assault and rape and crime and such." uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh--thanks??? We are following all the rules, and are always with members at night, so we feel pretty safe, but it IS a little disconcerting to hear, "oh yeah, this area has these bad things happening."
 

June 9, 2014

            Tomorrow I will hit the 11th month mark in the mission, almost 2/3rds done!  It is so strange to think that in just a few months I will leave Brazil, the people, the heat, the culture, the dog poop…. I can feel some of the culture becoming a part of me – especially the Brazilian directness.

Sister B. getting to work.

           Opening an area is really hard.  Our area is HUGE!  Beyond huge. We have between 16-20 barrios within our ward boundaries.  It is just overwhelming to think about all of the people and areas that are within our care and responsibility.  Sister Burris and I are praying and searching for the best way to take this area on.

            We had a fun Family Home Evening with M. and her family.  She is an incredible lady.  Her husband has been inactive for 10 years, but she took it upon herself to insure that her 4 kids all grew up within the gospel.  She is so strong and determined. (She reminds me a lot of my own mom.)  M. kids are so cute and just hilarious!

Sister Trussel - just arrived in country. She was 

part of Garrison's MTC district

Sister Zarate!

June 10, 2014

            We had a zone training meeting today and Sister B and I did the teaching.  It went well which is always a boost to our spirits.  Afterwards we taught L. in the chapel – and gavehim a quick church tour.  We ended in front of the picture of Christ knocking on the door and discussed about how Christ always asks permission to enter our lives.  It is our choice to let him in or not.  But Satan never asks permission, he just barges right in.  Leo opened up about a lot of his concerns and we were able to have a very spiritual lesson with him.

June 13, 2014

            We had a bad day today. Lot of things falling through and lots of “ida e voltas” – tips back and forth and back and forth.  Our area is massive and I feel like we’re just wasting a ton of time riding in vans.  It was a long, cold, and rainy day.  The bishop asked us to give talks on Sunday, one day to prepare. To top it off, our shower is back to a FREEZING condition.  I think that I will try to sleep off my bad mood.

Mosquito bites - BITE

June 14, 2014

             Well today was mostly frustrating with a happy ending.  Our lunch fell through, then a teaching appointment, then another teaching appointment, then we struggled to find someone’s house (never did find it), then…the most pathetic attempt at a baptismal service I’ve ever seen.  I don’t even want to go into details, but both Sister B and I were completely unimpressed by the lack of care and concern that the members showed.  Thanks to us, the font was filled, the room was set up, and we pulled of a last minute service that was just “okay’, but the whole event leading up to the actual service was a total mess. That being said, our dear sweet Marta was baptized and she was just beaming.  She went out and bought all new clothes that were within the standard of the church to start using.  Even though we entered in on the tail end of the teaching process, we feel a great love for her! 

The GREAT Bishop Alvino and Marta

 

Transfer to Rio das Otras with my 1st American Companion

Rio das Otras

June 2, 2014

            I’m being transferred! So is Sister Romao.  I don’t believe it- we are handing over a drastically improved area to our zone leaders.  They are going to get al the credit for our 5 baptisms…which shouldn’t bother me, but sort-of does. At least they are good Elders.  I am headed to Rio das Otras in zona Macae.   Sister Romao and I got up early on Tuesday morning and finished getting our things together.  I made the final touches for Elder Hawks and Elder Covey leaving our area book perfect, leaving a weekly progress record all filled out, addresses of everyone, a VERY clean apartment (kudos to Sister R who is an amazing cleaner!), and we even left them cookies in their fridge!  I left the area how I would like to find an area.  I like to think that my love for the people and the work is reflected in the details. (I would say that Sister Colvin’s love language is work.) Unfortunately, not everyone thinks or works that way.

          I will be sister training leader – senior with Sister Burris (and yes if you think that sounds like an AMERICAN name you would be correct!!!!)  We  will be opening an area for sisters.  All I know so far is that zona macae is the farthest from the mission office, is a huge area, we live by ourselves, our house is very far from the chapel, the area is calm and beautiful and close to the beach.  It will be a huge change for me, that’s for sure! 

  Our last FHE in Jacarepaguá, with Alexandre & Franciele, and Edna. They are great people with amazing testimonies of love and sacrifice!

Picture with our former Mission President and our new area Seventy.

The view from the veranda of our new house!

 

 

New Comp and I walking to our house

Here we are...looks great from the outside!

           

Sister Colvin and Sister Burris

I just have to lug these bags up those stairs.

 Sister R and I (with the help of our zone leaders) lugged our 5 suitcases onto the bus and rode two hours to the Rodoviaria Novo Rio, where all of the missionaries meet to do transfers.  We ended up leaving around 11 am…and didn’t get to our house until 4:30 pm – that was one long bus ride!  But, I stinkin' LOVE my new companion.  We just mostly chatted and enjoyed the scenic ride. It was actually beautiful in a nice bus with private seats. We arrived at our house, which is a lovely little upstairs space with a nice veranda overlooking a quiet beach town street.  But when we entered the house we were hit by a WALL of stink, filth, garbage, and insects.  I took loads of pictures, but it doesn’t even do it justice of how utterly disgusting the Elders left this house….GROSS!  One of the Elders (I won’t give names) is now our district leader.  Soooo I have to try to forgive him as I;m wading through his trash and killing his fruit fly farm.  Seriously awful!  We didn’t even end up working at all on Tuesday because our house was so trashed.  In fact, it was so bad that Sister Lima took 100 reals out of the Elder’s account and put it on our cards so that we could buy cleaning supplies, and so that they would learn to NOT leave their houses like this again.

           

Moldy disgusting filth

Uggh!

          

Trying to figure out the drainage issues.

Pile of trash left by the Elders

Moldy Fridge

Fruit fly farm

June 4th, 2014

          Wednesday started with a bang at 4 am when the blinding light entered our curtain-less bedroom.  We both tried to go back to sleep, but the stress of 1,000 problems to resolve didn’t let us.  Some of the problems include: clogged toilet, clogged bathroom vent/pipe (contributing to the foul stench in the apartment), broken shower, and literally hundreds of fruit flies, filth everywhere, etc.  We cleaned until 8:00, then did our studies, and headed out for our first lunch with Irma Magda.  Our new area is HUGE.  We didn’t have very clear directions of how to arrive there, so naturally we ended up getting lost. (Shocker!)  Just picture two super white American girls reading a map on the side of the road,  with everyone passing by and giving sideways glances. Yeah. We were getting pretty flustered and I said a quick prayer that the Lord might help us out.  Barely 30 seconds passed by (I am not even kidding), and an energetic 13 year old member of our ward (who we had not yet met) hopped out of a van and approached us offering help.  I am 100% certain that it was a direct response to a simple prayer for help.  She  had taken a different route that usual, and noticed two white missionaries looking very lost.  She offered to help and knew exactly where we needed to go because she happened to be best friends with on of the kids in the family  

          After our lunch, we went straight to our district meeting in Cabo Frio (1 ½ hours in a bus), then after the meeting we went on to Andarai (4 hours on a bus) to meet with the sisters there.  It made for a long and unproductive day, but at least it was spent in good company.  We spent the night with the Andarai sisters (I got to see Sister Brown who finally had been transferred after serving for 10 months in Campinho.)  It was goot to see her again. 

SIDE NOTE:  It is not just the Elders who are slobs – the sister’s house in Andarai was NASTY!

Sister B. struggling to scrub grease off the walls

Almost Done!

A greatly improved bathroom!

June 5, 2014

             We woke up early to get ready so that we could be on time for zone training which started at 7:30.  The training went to 4:30 pm, and we didn’t get back to our area until 11 pm because of the traffic.  Ugh!  I don’t know why we have to have such long training meetings – it is a long time to sit on a church pew.  I am not good at just sitting. It was fun to see some old friends: E. Van Wagnen, S. Packer, E. Neu (who is now a great zone leader!)  I also got two letters from my brother and one from Bessie Porter (she gets a big hug when I get home).  It is so nice to get mail and kindof special to get handwritten notes from my brother.

June 6, 2014

            Friday was our first real day of work in our area.  We had weekly planning, then hit the ground running. Unfortunately the “running” was actually a lot of walking in circles and getting lost.  But hey, that’s just what happens when you stick two Americans together in a new city with ZERO credit on the telephone, and only a crappy map to guide them.  We got lost a lot this day, but lovely Irma M. and her daughter, C. helped us a lot.  We found a new investigator, L., who is a family friend of some ancient slow-progressing investigators.  He is a nice man in his mid-40’s who had a lot of really great questions and sincerely seems to be searching for religion.  We’ll see.

            We also had our coordination meeting with our new ward mission leader, Hisashi.  He is a really neat guy.  He is Japanese-Brasilian, speaks Prtugese, Japanese, and Englush.  He works as an off-shore helicopter launch pad coordinator.  He is a proactive go-getter!  We are going to do great things together.

            After our meeting a brother and sister from the ward drove us home and attempted to fix our shower.  It is almost lukewarm now, which is at least tolerable.  I really miss having a nice hot shower….which makes me think about all of the things that I miss at home.  When I get home I want to:

• Go to the temple
• Spend as much time as possible with my family
• Sleep for about a week straight
• Get a massage
• Get a treatment for my poor frizzy sun-fried hair
• Take a hot shower
• Sleep on a comfortable bed
• Snuggle with my dogs
• Play a tuned piano
• Ride my pony.

There are loads of other things, but these are at the top of the list. 

June 7, 2014

            We had a really good day of work today.  We visited J., who is returning to activity.  The Elders found her one day through a street contact.  She had been inactive for 3 years.  She is amazing.  I am very impressed by her determination to come back to church and get her life in order. 

June 8, 2014

             We had stake conference in M., which was great.  It was broadcast from Salt Lake City specially for Brazil.  Sister Carol M. Stephens, Elder Scott, Elder Ballard, and others spoke.  Elder Scott tried to give his talk in Portuguese but I had a hard time understanding his accent.  Fortunately it was the same talk that he gave to us while we were in the MTC.  I got to visit with all of the missionaries in our zone inclusing Sister R. (my last companion).  She was kindof unpleasant to me which makes me even more grateful for Sister Burris.