Hey everyone!!
How are you all doing? I saw the adorable pictures of Carrie, and the video of her eating! Sooo cute! I can´t believe she´s getting so big! And I finally got to see her "vampire teeth", adorable! She´s getting more and more gorgeous every day. Thanks so much for sending pics and video!
So as for this week. Let´s see, last time I wrote it was the day before the official Carnaval! The whole weekend is considered Carnaval, but Tuesday is the official day. So Monday seemed liek a pretty normal day, lots of things were closed and a slightly "holiday" ish feeling in the air, but no one dancing wildly in the street or anything. But I didn´t know what to expect for Tuesday. So...Tuesday....our lunch fell through so we ate at home, then went out to work....but it was such a weird day!! It wasn´t hot, it was super overcast and looked like a huge, ugly storm was coming....but never did all day. And Camobi was DESERTED! No cars on the road....every store closed....no one walking out on the street....it was crazy, it felt like an "end of the world" movie. And all the while, with that weird "anticipation" feeling waiting for the rain to come. But it was really cool! Terrible as far as work went, we walked all day trying to contact various people, but no one was home, and the people home didn´t want to let us in. We taught one lesson that day! But it was cool. So there you go, my one and only Carnaval in Brazil! Not nearly like what I was expecting, but awesome.
So the next day, we planned to go to this new neighborhood I had always heard about but never been to, Novo Horizonte. We were kind of looking desperately for people to teach since this new "dividing the area" thing cleaned out our teaching group. So we found records of people who had been taught there, looked at the map and realized it wasn´t far, and went. But what we found...was what Sister Draut refers to as "Crazy Town". It was so weird! The houses out there are all big and brightly colored, it looks straight out of a cartoon. And we did a mix of knocking doors and trying to contact these old investigators....and no one wanted anything to do with us! We felt like lepers or something. We knocked at one of the addresses that sisters had taught at before, and we could see some people sitting inside on the couch. I wasn´t sure if they saw us, so we clapped again. Then they yelled something I couldn´t understand, but I understood the dissmissive hand waving as a "go away". And the whole day was pretty much like that! Except for....
The gypsies! We talked to gypsies! It was so cool. I had always heard that Novo Horizonte was where the gypsies lived, and one day there was a group of strange women on the bus who S. Velasquez said must be "ciganas". So while we were walking in Novo Horizonte, these two girls about our age standing in a doorway called out "Hi!" really cheerfully. After being rejected all day, we grabbed onto their greeting and went over to talk to them. So they were standing in the doorway of this building....that was all made of cement, outside and inside, and just one huge room inside, like a big warehouse. But it looked like a furniture store, because the floor was all covered in oriental rugs and along all the walls and in lines down the middle of the room were tons and tons of sofas. Just a huge room of rugs and sofas! So they invited us to sit on one of them, we did, and we started to talk. They introduced themselves as Dani and Maria, and were super interested in us because they could tell we were foreign. They were all over looking at our eyes and our hair and even at my retainer! That was embarassing. But we asked them about them and they told us basic information. I had already thought they were gypsies from the way they were dressed (pretty normal, but with floor length skirts, which S. Velasquez said they always wear. Haha, not that different from missionaries, actually...) But when I asked if they had ever traveled, Dani said, "Oh yes. Everywhere. Ciganas (gypsies) are like that." So suspicion confirmed! I asked how it worked, how often they traveled and stuff, and she said, "oh, every week." But I looked around and was like, "But you´re living here, right? For how long?" "Oh, about ten years." So...I don´t get it! Did they like, give up their gypsy lifestyle or something? I still don´t know. But anyway, we chatted with them for a bit, and a bunch of random kids, an older guy and a teenage guy all came up and started being fascinated with us too. They started to speak another language, I asked what it was and they said Yugoslavian! Crazy. They liked that we were "from Jesus", and asked us to pray for Eduardo, a 4 year old who still didn´t talk, that he would be able to speak. So we didn´t teach because the atmosphere was so weird....I kind of felt like once a group of people have looked in your mouth trying to see your retainer, it´s hard to regain control of that atmosphere:) But we left them a pamphlet of "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" and said we´d come back later. So that was our adventure with gypsies!!
So other than that....the week was pretty normal. But we met with Cleusa and Elamar again, and it was great! I think I described them in that email that got lost. So quick update - they´re this awesome family we found about two weeks ago. A couple in their 50s, with two kids: Rafael (24) and Luisa (7). They´re awesome, really great people, super spiritual, who already know what it´s like to feel the Holy Ghost. They´re allfascinated with Luisa and how "blessed" she is - they say when she prays they all get emotional. She really is really special, really close to Heavenly Father. So, we taught them everything up to the Book of Mormon, and this week we went back to see how their reading went. Cleusa, the wife, and Luisa ate it up!! They both read way more than we asked, and when I asked if they had prayed to know if it was true, Luisa said, "Yep, and He said it is." So that was great!! Cleusa and Luisa are way on board, believe it´s true, and are excited. Rafael wasn´t there:(, and Elamar didn´t read or pray. But it was so cute, Luisa sat right next to us the whole time we were talking and found the picture of Joseph Smith in the front of the BoM, and held it up for everyone to see while we taught, like a little Mini-Sister. And Cleusa said, "She´s been worried all week that she´d have to give the book back! She doesn´t, does she?" So...super cute. That family is so special, I´m so excited to see their progress.
But...my time is just about up. I hope you enjoyed the crazy Carnaval and gypsy stories, and I´ll update you more on Cleusa and Elamar! THe work here is going great. Even though we got a few funny rejections in our search for new investigators, we´ve been able to work with members on getting referrals, which is fabulous, and I know we´re going to have a lot of awesome people. It´s great to work with Sister Draut, and I´m really loving being a missionary. I´m really feeling how blessed we are when we dedicate our lives to the Lord. We really are so blessed, and I´m so privileged to be so close to the Spirit every day. I can´t believe I´m almost at 8 months! That´s almost half the mission! It´s flying by. But I love you all and miss you tons, but love to hear from you. Thank you so much for all your love and support - you really are the best family anyone could ask for. I hope Grandma´s birthday was great! I love you Grandma, happy birthday!:) I love you all and hope you have a great week. Until next time!
Love always,
Heather
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
New email and a new transfer! :)
Hey everyone!!
So I just set up this "new myldsmail" account, and now you guys need to change the address you have for me! I´ll be writing from here, heather.madsen@myldsmail.net, from now on. The new account is powered by gmail, so now it will save drafts and I won´t have any more disasters like last week:(
So, to recap last week´s letter that got lost! I can´t remember a ton of what I said, mostly recapped the week which I can´t remember a lot of now, and said thank you, thank you, thank you for the awesome package you guys sent! So thank you again! :D It was amazing, thank you so much for the adorable earrings and the cookies and CDs and everything. Grandma, Sister Draut and I are still eating the cookies, thank you so much! They´re amazing and reminded me of home! :D
So now for this week! Let´s see. So last week when S Raphaela left, she gave a suggestion to the President. We had been working in these two areas really far out on the edge of Camobi, São José and Presidente Vargas neighborhoods. That was where almost all except like two of our investigators were. But she suggested to him to divide the area, so only the elders would work in those two areas, and we would have the other half (closer to our house and the chapel). So this week he called and said it was really happening! Our area is now divided and we´re not allowed to work in the elder´s half. So that was crazy this week, getting cut down to two investigators all of a sudden! And we couldn´t get in touch with the elders to find out about all their investigators in our area. So we ended up knocking a lot of doors, asking everyone for references, etc, but even so weren´t able to get a ton of new investigators.
So the door knocking experiences were so funny! The reason we´d been working out in those other neighborhoods is because they´re more rural and it´s way easier to get in people´s doors. So we´d end up with plenty of new investigators every week. But knocking doors in the nicer neighborhoods, we got some of the craziest reactions!! We came across the first athiest I´ve ever met in Brazil, Sr. João. The cool thing about working in Brasil is that everyone, everyone believes in Christ, so we always have common ground, even if they have very different beliefs. But this guy was really hostile and said, "Do you ever ask anyone if they NEED the church?" and explained how he was athiest, didn´t believe in life after death, etc. VERY unusual for here. It felt a lot more like working in the States must be. Also, we had the funniest exchange with a woman at her gate.
We knock, she comes out from the backyard looking confused and suspicious...
Me: "Hey! Good afternoon! How are you? We´re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of La--"
Woman: "Thank you, my flower."
Me: "...tter day Saints....and we have a message about the church Christ estab--"
Woman: "Thank you!"
Me: "....so you´re not interested in hearing about--"
Woman: "Thank you! Thank you." *starts walking away*
It was so weird, I´ve been rejected a lot, but usually people explain themselves or say no thank you, not just "thank you" without the no! So funny. And people come up with the funniest excuses. One woman came up and said she´d like to listen, but she wasn´t the head of the house, just a friend. She said her name, Mari, and I looked up at the sign above her door that said Mari: Hairdresser. "So, you´re not that Mari?" "Oh no, my friend actually has the same name as me. Actually she´s my cousin! We´ve known each other for years." Yeah...I would expect you´d have known your cousin for years....people are so funny. Normally though, people make up really complicated excuses instead of outright rejecting us. I´m actually not sure which one is better;)
So needless to say, we haven´t managed to work up a ton of new investigators yet, but we will! And we have a family I´m way excited about, Cleusa and Elamar, a couple, about 50. THey ahve two kids, Raphael (24) and Luisa (7). Totally adorable family, SO spiritual. Cleusa was telling me what a special, blessed child Luisa is, that when she prays the holy spirit is so strong, they often get emotional. So they understand really well about the Holy Ghost, and they´re just awesome. In the first lesson we explain about Christs baptism and ask if they want to follow his example and be baptized like him. So usually people say, "Huh, sure, all of a sudden". (They use that phrase to mean kind of, "sure, why not") But Cleusa got misty eyed and emotional and said, "Oh, I want to." So I´m super excited about them. They´re actually married-married, which is a big deal here - practically no one here gets married, just lives together. So often that´s a big obstacle to getting baptized - they either don´t have or don´t want to pay the money to get married legally. How much does it cost in the states? Does it cost at all? I wasn´t aware of that.
So Cleusa and Elamar are amazing....Sister Draut is totally awesome. I´m really loving working with her. All of a sudden in the last few weeks she kind of like, came into her own in the work, getting super involved, talking up a storm of portuguese, being really outgoing and awesome. We´re just working really well together. We´re great friends, which is good, because we can laugh at people´s crazy reactions to door approaches:) Last night we had a Valentine´s day picnic! We spread a blanket on the floor and ate a box of chocolate we bought and drank grape Fanta. So we have fun:)
Also, the members in our ward have been so great this week. We invited a couple to come visit Cleusa and Elamar with us, and it was amazing. Also an older single lady came with us to visit her friend who´s our investigator, and we just had really good luck with getting people to come with us. There´s one family, Angela and Valdir, who have son on the mission, who are awesome. They really take care of us and are just so sweet, I think because Angela believes the karma will come back to her son on his mission. They´re just an awesome ward, and I´m so glad....
that I get to stay here!:) Yep, I was 95% sure I would, and I did. This morning at transfer meeting, me and Sister Draut are staying here in Camobi, no change. So that´s awesome! We´ll be able to keep working in this new area within our old area, and get to see things through more with Cleusa and Elamar, etc. I´m so glad.
So everything´s going great! I can´t think of much more to update you guys on....oh yeah, except Carnaval!! This weekend is Carnaval, which means all of Brasil has gone totally crazy. Everything´s closed today, we had to look around hard for an internet place. But, luckily, no one does anything big in Camobi (kind of like the Sugarhouse of Santa Maria) and everyone goes downtown. So we haven´t seen any craziness, which Angela says is good. But today at the mall they had the parades on on all the TVs, and they look really cool!! I know it´s associated with a lot of bad stuff, drinking and partying, but I really want to watch the parades next year. They´re just beautiful, all the different Samba schools dressed up in crazy costumes with floats, telling different stories. Way cool. So watch them if at all possible and tell me about it!:)
So that´s it for this week. I love you guys so much - thank you so much for all your letters and support and love. I love you all! Have an amazing week, big hugs to everyone from me, and hope to hear from you more next week!
Até a proxima! :)
Sua filha amorosa no Brasil,
Heather :D
So I just set up this "new myldsmail" account, and now you guys need to change the address you have for me! I´ll be writing from here, heather.madsen@myldsmail.net, from now on. The new account is powered by gmail, so now it will save drafts and I won´t have any more disasters like last week:(
So, to recap last week´s letter that got lost! I can´t remember a ton of what I said, mostly recapped the week which I can´t remember a lot of now, and said thank you, thank you, thank you for the awesome package you guys sent! So thank you again! :D It was amazing, thank you so much for the adorable earrings and the cookies and CDs and everything. Grandma, Sister Draut and I are still eating the cookies, thank you so much! They´re amazing and reminded me of home! :D
So now for this week! Let´s see. So last week when S Raphaela left, she gave a suggestion to the President. We had been working in these two areas really far out on the edge of Camobi, São José and Presidente Vargas neighborhoods. That was where almost all except like two of our investigators were. But she suggested to him to divide the area, so only the elders would work in those two areas, and we would have the other half (closer to our house and the chapel). So this week he called and said it was really happening! Our area is now divided and we´re not allowed to work in the elder´s half. So that was crazy this week, getting cut down to two investigators all of a sudden! And we couldn´t get in touch with the elders to find out about all their investigators in our area. So we ended up knocking a lot of doors, asking everyone for references, etc, but even so weren´t able to get a ton of new investigators.
So the door knocking experiences were so funny! The reason we´d been working out in those other neighborhoods is because they´re more rural and it´s way easier to get in people´s doors. So we´d end up with plenty of new investigators every week. But knocking doors in the nicer neighborhoods, we got some of the craziest reactions!! We came across the first athiest I´ve ever met in Brazil, Sr. João. The cool thing about working in Brasil is that everyone, everyone believes in Christ, so we always have common ground, even if they have very different beliefs. But this guy was really hostile and said, "Do you ever ask anyone if they NEED the church?" and explained how he was athiest, didn´t believe in life after death, etc. VERY unusual for here. It felt a lot more like working in the States must be. Also, we had the funniest exchange with a woman at her gate.
We knock, she comes out from the backyard looking confused and suspicious...
Me: "Hey! Good afternoon! How are you? We´re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of La--"
Woman: "Thank you, my flower."
Me: "...tter day Saints....and we have a message about the church Christ estab--"
Woman: "Thank you!"
Me: "....so you´re not interested in hearing about--"
Woman: "Thank you! Thank you." *starts walking away*
It was so weird, I´ve been rejected a lot, but usually people explain themselves or say no thank you, not just "thank you" without the no! So funny. And people come up with the funniest excuses. One woman came up and said she´d like to listen, but she wasn´t the head of the house, just a friend. She said her name, Mari, and I looked up at the sign above her door that said Mari: Hairdresser. "So, you´re not that Mari?" "Oh no, my friend actually has the same name as me. Actually she´s my cousin! We´ve known each other for years." Yeah...I would expect you´d have known your cousin for years....people are so funny. Normally though, people make up really complicated excuses instead of outright rejecting us. I´m actually not sure which one is better;)
So needless to say, we haven´t managed to work up a ton of new investigators yet, but we will! And we have a family I´m way excited about, Cleusa and Elamar, a couple, about 50. THey ahve two kids, Raphael (24) and Luisa (7). Totally adorable family, SO spiritual. Cleusa was telling me what a special, blessed child Luisa is, that when she prays the holy spirit is so strong, they often get emotional. So they understand really well about the Holy Ghost, and they´re just awesome. In the first lesson we explain about Christs baptism and ask if they want to follow his example and be baptized like him. So usually people say, "Huh, sure, all of a sudden". (They use that phrase to mean kind of, "sure, why not") But Cleusa got misty eyed and emotional and said, "Oh, I want to." So I´m super excited about them. They´re actually married-married, which is a big deal here - practically no one here gets married, just lives together. So often that´s a big obstacle to getting baptized - they either don´t have or don´t want to pay the money to get married legally. How much does it cost in the states? Does it cost at all? I wasn´t aware of that.
So Cleusa and Elamar are amazing....Sister Draut is totally awesome. I´m really loving working with her. All of a sudden in the last few weeks she kind of like, came into her own in the work, getting super involved, talking up a storm of portuguese, being really outgoing and awesome. We´re just working really well together. We´re great friends, which is good, because we can laugh at people´s crazy reactions to door approaches:) Last night we had a Valentine´s day picnic! We spread a blanket on the floor and ate a box of chocolate we bought and drank grape Fanta. So we have fun:)
Also, the members in our ward have been so great this week. We invited a couple to come visit Cleusa and Elamar with us, and it was amazing. Also an older single lady came with us to visit her friend who´s our investigator, and we just had really good luck with getting people to come with us. There´s one family, Angela and Valdir, who have son on the mission, who are awesome. They really take care of us and are just so sweet, I think because Angela believes the karma will come back to her son on his mission. They´re just an awesome ward, and I´m so glad....
that I get to stay here!:) Yep, I was 95% sure I would, and I did. This morning at transfer meeting, me and Sister Draut are staying here in Camobi, no change. So that´s awesome! We´ll be able to keep working in this new area within our old area, and get to see things through more with Cleusa and Elamar, etc. I´m so glad.
So everything´s going great! I can´t think of much more to update you guys on....oh yeah, except Carnaval!! This weekend is Carnaval, which means all of Brasil has gone totally crazy. Everything´s closed today, we had to look around hard for an internet place. But, luckily, no one does anything big in Camobi (kind of like the Sugarhouse of Santa Maria) and everyone goes downtown. So we haven´t seen any craziness, which Angela says is good. But today at the mall they had the parades on on all the TVs, and they look really cool!! I know it´s associated with a lot of bad stuff, drinking and partying, but I really want to watch the parades next year. They´re just beautiful, all the different Samba schools dressed up in crazy costumes with floats, telling different stories. Way cool. So watch them if at all possible and tell me about it!:)
So that´s it for this week. I love you guys so much - thank you so much for all your letters and support and love. I love you all! Have an amazing week, big hugs to everyone from me, and hope to hear from you more next week!
Até a proxima! :)
Sua filha amorosa no Brasil,
Heather :D
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
GAH!!! :(
Oh my goodness, guys!!! I just wrote you a whole huge email, and tried to send it but it experienced an error or something and lost the whole thing!!! I´m so sorry! But I´ve already been writing for an hour and I have to go now!:( I´m so sorry, I promise to write a ton next week! I can´t believe it lost everything.
I´m so sorry, but I love you all so much and I´ll tell you a million stories next week! I´m happy and healthy and loving working with Sister Draut! I love you, til next week!
Heather
I´m so sorry, but I love you all so much and I´ll tell you a million stories next week! I´m happy and healthy and loving working with Sister Draut! I love you, til next week!
Heather
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Fourth Week!!
Hey everyone! :D How are you guys??
First of all, guess what? I finally got the package Mom sent in the middle of December! With month and a half old cookies!;) I am so excited to eat them - even if they´re crumbs, we will find a way:) Thank you sooo much, guys! I haven´t opened it yet, but thank you already.
So how is everyone?? I saw the adorable picture of Carrie and Finn. He must be the worlds sweetest cat!! That´s awesome. I hope she´s feeling better by now! How are you all? How´s school, Katie and Mom? What classes are you guys taking this semester? Speaking of classes, did you ever get on my school account just to see if everything´s ok? Let me know how it goes. How´s work, Dad and Alex? How are U sports, Mom and Dad? What have you guys done for fun lately? I need to hear everything!:) I´m looking forward to Mom´s letters that tell a little about every day - I love all that stuff you guys think is boring.
As for things here, this week was great! A little different: lots of activities with the ward, Sister Raphaela arrived, and most exciting, Aldrey´s baptism!! All in all a great week. So let´s see. The week started out fairly normal - we were kind of getting ready for S. Raphaela´s arrival, cleaning the house and everything. I was cleaning the sink one day and realized I felt exactly like a mom must feel when her mom comes to visit!! So Sister Draut and I joked about it all week - "Remember, Grandma´s coming, we have to be on our best behavior". So we just worked like normal, but with a fun Family Home Evening on Thursday night that was so big we had it at the "chapel house", the house next to the chapel that the church bought to have activities and everything. It was great, and some of our investigators came and had a lot of fun. Elder Reis, one of the zone leaders, was on division in our area. He´s from Ceará, and made this cearense food, Tapioca! Which is not how we think of it - it´s like sweet crepes made from mandioc flour. Really interesting. Soooo that was thursday....and then Friday morning Sister Raphaela arrived! The President dropped her by our house early in the morning. At first I was like "ohhhhhh man, this is going to be sooo hard..." because right when she arrived she started to plan with us. But everything we had planned she had something to say about - we´re not supposed to do service projects like that, wouldn´t it be better this way, etc. She has an authoritarian side, and she was very much in that mode in that moment. So for a minute I was imagining 10 days of that. But later in the day, she relaxed and went back to her normal self, and it´s been great since then! So friday we worked like normal, and Aldrey had his baptismal interview, passed, and was super excited for Saturday.
Then on Saturday....in the morning we did a service project at a member´s house. I had thought we were going to help with something that had exploded in their backyard (I never really got it - sometimes I still miss things in portuguese). But when we got there, the irmã just had us clean their bedroom. It was pretty crazy, I´m pretty sure they hadn´t cleaned in years and years. So....that was interesting :P Then, we got ready for Aldrey´s baptism!! It was him and another person, Marcos, being baptized. So he got there early with Daniel, his brother who I already told you about, who was going to baptize him. Aldrey was (is!) SO cute - I can´t even describe him to you. Elder Brooksby came in after he left the room and was like, "Wow, he is SO excited!" And he was. So we got everything ready, took pictures...and then he was baptized! It was so great to see his whole family there (even the dad came) and see Daniel baptize his brother. Afterwards, we sang "When I Am Baptized" for a special hymn, and I looked at him the whole time. I´m so happy he decided to follow this path in life. He´s about the same age I was when i was baptized, and I thought so much of how it´s changed my life. I´ve told him a lot about that in the lessons we´ve had and everything - how it´s going to be for him, what will be hard, but how worth it it will be. So...that was an amazing baptism:) Then Sunday was a pretty normal day. Aldrey´s confirmation was the highlight! He came with his hair parted all neat and everything - adorable.
So to sum up the week......let´s see. It has been really, really hot. Really really REALLY hot. Hot, like, we have to be really careful not to get sick from the insane heat. But don´t worry, I´m not:) And...it´s been great to have Sister Raphaela back!! After she got out of that authoritarian mode she was in for the one morning, she´s been the amazing companion I missed so much. It´s been really interesting to hear from her all the inside stories from the president. She´s practically like a Sister AP! But it´s so good to have her help, and just to have her around. But she´ll only be here til next Sunday, so it will fly by.
So for now I have to run!! But hopefully that gave you guys an idea of this week. It was a good one, and I think next week will be even better! I can´t believe i´ve already been with S. Draut 4 weeks and we´re starting the fifth. It´s flying!!! But thank you guys so much for everything. I love you all and can´t wait to hear from you soon. You all have many prayers coming your way all the time. I love you!!!
Til next week,
Heather
First of all, guess what? I finally got the package Mom sent in the middle of December! With month and a half old cookies!;) I am so excited to eat them - even if they´re crumbs, we will find a way:) Thank you sooo much, guys! I haven´t opened it yet, but thank you already.
So how is everyone?? I saw the adorable picture of Carrie and Finn. He must be the worlds sweetest cat!! That´s awesome. I hope she´s feeling better by now! How are you all? How´s school, Katie and Mom? What classes are you guys taking this semester? Speaking of classes, did you ever get on my school account just to see if everything´s ok? Let me know how it goes. How´s work, Dad and Alex? How are U sports, Mom and Dad? What have you guys done for fun lately? I need to hear everything!:) I´m looking forward to Mom´s letters that tell a little about every day - I love all that stuff you guys think is boring.
As for things here, this week was great! A little different: lots of activities with the ward, Sister Raphaela arrived, and most exciting, Aldrey´s baptism!! All in all a great week. So let´s see. The week started out fairly normal - we were kind of getting ready for S. Raphaela´s arrival, cleaning the house and everything. I was cleaning the sink one day and realized I felt exactly like a mom must feel when her mom comes to visit!! So Sister Draut and I joked about it all week - "Remember, Grandma´s coming, we have to be on our best behavior". So we just worked like normal, but with a fun Family Home Evening on Thursday night that was so big we had it at the "chapel house", the house next to the chapel that the church bought to have activities and everything. It was great, and some of our investigators came and had a lot of fun. Elder Reis, one of the zone leaders, was on division in our area. He´s from Ceará, and made this cearense food, Tapioca! Which is not how we think of it - it´s like sweet crepes made from mandioc flour. Really interesting. Soooo that was thursday....and then Friday morning Sister Raphaela arrived! The President dropped her by our house early in the morning. At first I was like "ohhhhhh man, this is going to be sooo hard..." because right when she arrived she started to plan with us. But everything we had planned she had something to say about - we´re not supposed to do service projects like that, wouldn´t it be better this way, etc. She has an authoritarian side, and she was very much in that mode in that moment. So for a minute I was imagining 10 days of that. But later in the day, she relaxed and went back to her normal self, and it´s been great since then! So friday we worked like normal, and Aldrey had his baptismal interview, passed, and was super excited for Saturday.
Then on Saturday....in the morning we did a service project at a member´s house. I had thought we were going to help with something that had exploded in their backyard (I never really got it - sometimes I still miss things in portuguese). But when we got there, the irmã just had us clean their bedroom. It was pretty crazy, I´m pretty sure they hadn´t cleaned in years and years. So....that was interesting :P Then, we got ready for Aldrey´s baptism!! It was him and another person, Marcos, being baptized. So he got there early with Daniel, his brother who I already told you about, who was going to baptize him. Aldrey was (is!) SO cute - I can´t even describe him to you. Elder Brooksby came in after he left the room and was like, "Wow, he is SO excited!" And he was. So we got everything ready, took pictures...and then he was baptized! It was so great to see his whole family there (even the dad came) and see Daniel baptize his brother. Afterwards, we sang "When I Am Baptized" for a special hymn, and I looked at him the whole time. I´m so happy he decided to follow this path in life. He´s about the same age I was when i was baptized, and I thought so much of how it´s changed my life. I´ve told him a lot about that in the lessons we´ve had and everything - how it´s going to be for him, what will be hard, but how worth it it will be. So...that was an amazing baptism:) Then Sunday was a pretty normal day. Aldrey´s confirmation was the highlight! He came with his hair parted all neat and everything - adorable.
So to sum up the week......let´s see. It has been really, really hot. Really really REALLY hot. Hot, like, we have to be really careful not to get sick from the insane heat. But don´t worry, I´m not:) And...it´s been great to have Sister Raphaela back!! After she got out of that authoritarian mode she was in for the one morning, she´s been the amazing companion I missed so much. It´s been really interesting to hear from her all the inside stories from the president. She´s practically like a Sister AP! But it´s so good to have her help, and just to have her around. But she´ll only be here til next Sunday, so it will fly by.
So for now I have to run!! But hopefully that gave you guys an idea of this week. It was a good one, and I think next week will be even better! I can´t believe i´ve already been with S. Draut 4 weeks and we´re starting the fifth. It´s flying!!! But thank you guys so much for everything. I love you all and can´t wait to hear from you soon. You all have many prayers coming your way all the time. I love you!!!
Til next week,
Heather
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Week 3 training!
Hey family!! Thanks so much for your emails and the pictures!
I loved hearing about Caroline and can´t believe how big she´s getting. And Finn looks like the sweetest cat ever! I can´t wait to meet him. It´s so good to hear how well everything´s going back home.
As for here, things are also going great! This week we finally got into a good rhythm working together. It was just like Sister Raphaela said when I saw her at the transfer (she´s made several prophecies that have come true...) She said it might take me a bit to recover from the last transfer and get used to training, but by the third week I´d have it all under control. And it´s pretty much true! Not that I have it all under control, we still have tons to work on, but this week we worked really well, met almost all of our goals, met amazing people....and magically met someone who wants to be baptized! Let me tell you about the week!
So Monday, after P-day, we went out to work but stopped by Daniel and Elizangela´s house (members) to work out some details of things for the week. They´re some of my favorite people in the ward - a couple in their late 20´s, Katie and Alex´s age, but so funny - Daniel is so nerdy and hilarious, talks so fast I always have to make him repeat himself, always, always joking about something. Then Elizangela is gorgeous and refined...they´re hard to explain! But they help us SO much. Elizangela served a mission in Salvador, and Daniel "waited for her". So they´re hard to describe, but amazing.
But we went in and sat down, and Daniel said what he always does (super fast as always): "Sit, children! What do you need? Do you need referrals? Let me see..." (He always gives us the names of people he knows who he thinks would be interested in our message). But this time he surprised us - he continued "I want you to teach my brother Aldrey. I think he´s ready to be baptized now." I had never even met his brother! Aldrey is his way younger brother, 11, who lives in the house right in front of Daniel. So he went and called him, we talked to Aldrey, and...he´s so amazing!
Let me explain the story a bit. So Daniel´s mom is a member and has been for years, but she hasn´t been to church in about 8 years. She converted shortly after getting married and raised all her kids in the church, but her husband is Lutheran and not interested. So he started getting miffed at her going to church or something, so she stopped going, but always sent the kids. So the kids are all faithful members, and so is she, she just....hasn´t been in almost 10 years. Crazy story.
So Aldrey already knows lots about the church, has been wanting to be baptized...and the dad is cool with it now. He was almost baptized before but the Dad changed his mind. But it seems like now he´s fine with it! So we scheduled his baptism for Saturday the 30! (This was last Monday). So...he´s getting baptized! He´s amazing, I´ve only known him a week but I already love him. He´s a really really sweet person, holding his mom´s hand, just really....innocent and pure. I love teaching him because of his reactions, widening his eyes at interesting parts, smiling, reacting the whole time. I´m so excited for him to be baptized. So that was a great thing about this week! We met lots of other interesting people - next week I´ll tell you about Rosalino.
But this week has been great, we´re really getting into the work. It´s great working with Sister Draut - we relate so well, both being American (it doesn´t seem like it would make much difference but it does) and she has a great desire to work and all the fire of a new missionary. I´m really excited about this transfer, and the next, as I assume we´ll be together two. Oh yeah, and Sister Raphaela comes this week on Thursday to stay with us for 10 days! To teach me how to train. It´s funny, i kind of feel like she´s coming right as I feel like I don´t need it anymore:P But it will be great anyway!
I love you all so much and I´m so grateful for you. Thanks so much for your letters and emails and pictures and all your love and support. I love you all and pray for you all the time. I always pray that you guys will be able to notice the blessings in your lives you receive because of my missionary service. I hope you do! I´m so glad to be here, I know I´m exactly where I need to be. Thank you for supporting me and making it possible for me to be here. You´re the greatest family I could ask for.
Til next week!!
Heather
I loved hearing about Caroline and can´t believe how big she´s getting. And Finn looks like the sweetest cat ever! I can´t wait to meet him. It´s so good to hear how well everything´s going back home.
As for here, things are also going great! This week we finally got into a good rhythm working together. It was just like Sister Raphaela said when I saw her at the transfer (she´s made several prophecies that have come true...) She said it might take me a bit to recover from the last transfer and get used to training, but by the third week I´d have it all under control. And it´s pretty much true! Not that I have it all under control, we still have tons to work on, but this week we worked really well, met almost all of our goals, met amazing people....and magically met someone who wants to be baptized! Let me tell you about the week!
So Monday, after P-day, we went out to work but stopped by Daniel and Elizangela´s house (members) to work out some details of things for the week. They´re some of my favorite people in the ward - a couple in their late 20´s, Katie and Alex´s age, but so funny - Daniel is so nerdy and hilarious, talks so fast I always have to make him repeat himself, always, always joking about something. Then Elizangela is gorgeous and refined...they´re hard to explain! But they help us SO much. Elizangela served a mission in Salvador, and Daniel "waited for her". So they´re hard to describe, but amazing.
But we went in and sat down, and Daniel said what he always does (super fast as always): "Sit, children! What do you need? Do you need referrals? Let me see..." (He always gives us the names of people he knows who he thinks would be interested in our message). But this time he surprised us - he continued "I want you to teach my brother Aldrey. I think he´s ready to be baptized now." I had never even met his brother! Aldrey is his way younger brother, 11, who lives in the house right in front of Daniel. So he went and called him, we talked to Aldrey, and...he´s so amazing!
Let me explain the story a bit. So Daniel´s mom is a member and has been for years, but she hasn´t been to church in about 8 years. She converted shortly after getting married and raised all her kids in the church, but her husband is Lutheran and not interested. So he started getting miffed at her going to church or something, so she stopped going, but always sent the kids. So the kids are all faithful members, and so is she, she just....hasn´t been in almost 10 years. Crazy story.
So Aldrey already knows lots about the church, has been wanting to be baptized...and the dad is cool with it now. He was almost baptized before but the Dad changed his mind. But it seems like now he´s fine with it! So we scheduled his baptism for Saturday the 30! (This was last Monday). So...he´s getting baptized! He´s amazing, I´ve only known him a week but I already love him. He´s a really really sweet person, holding his mom´s hand, just really....innocent and pure. I love teaching him because of his reactions, widening his eyes at interesting parts, smiling, reacting the whole time. I´m so excited for him to be baptized. So that was a great thing about this week! We met lots of other interesting people - next week I´ll tell you about Rosalino.
But this week has been great, we´re really getting into the work. It´s great working with Sister Draut - we relate so well, both being American (it doesn´t seem like it would make much difference but it does) and she has a great desire to work and all the fire of a new missionary. I´m really excited about this transfer, and the next, as I assume we´ll be together two. Oh yeah, and Sister Raphaela comes this week on Thursday to stay with us for 10 days! To teach me how to train. It´s funny, i kind of feel like she´s coming right as I feel like I don´t need it anymore:P But it will be great anyway!
I love you all so much and I´m so grateful for you. Thanks so much for your letters and emails and pictures and all your love and support. I love you all and pray for you all the time. I always pray that you guys will be able to notice the blessings in your lives you receive because of my missionary service. I hope you do! I´m so glad to be here, I know I´m exactly where I need to be. Thank you for supporting me and making it possible for me to be here. You´re the greatest family I could ask for.
Til next week!!
Heather
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