Bom dia! 💌🫶🌺
I always try to make these shorter, but it never works.
photos 📸https://photos.app.goo.gl/svYny8Zum8pNbRjC7
my week
-zone conference
-learned how to make tapioca
-my comp hit halfway today! 9 months
-we found 16 new people and had 15 new people at church 🙌
-natália
Zone Conference
This week we had zone conference. once every 6 weeks (or every transfer) we get together and learn how to be better missionaries. something funny is they talked about which people are the best to teach, and it was decided anyone who isn't from Santa Catarina. (my mission) yay! Time is going kind of fast (lies) because I felt like we just had it last transfer. but also, so much has happened since the last one. this one was so much better I actually kind of knew what was going on and could understand. I also curled my hair for the first time since the MTC, and it's actually growing. huge news. had to make the email.
We walk so much mostly because our area is huge and we're 2 American girls who have no idea how to work the ônibus. when I wake up it feels like my feet are broken. actually, it feels like that all day. I am also so tired and I don't notice until we sit down for a lesson and I can't wait for the prayer so I can shut my eyes. there are definitely a couple times I have fallen asleep or had to fight so hard not to. also, my Grandpa George will be proud because I've gotten really good at catching mosquitos with my hand.
Random from the week that I put in my phone
-met a cat w down syndrome
-drove past a Capezio store (for my dance friends)
-we were stuck in traffic and our driver just hopped out and left
-chatted with our Uber driver and I asked him to guess how long I've been in Brasil by my Português and he said 1 year 🤑 he may or may not have started immediately bashing us after though. win some lose some
-we don't have a ton of meals with the members, so now this transfer's side purpose is for us to work on our wife cooking skills.
-Sis Bird has put me in charge of lessons with drunk people so I can get good practices in with the Portuguese.
-a member at lunch asked my hobbies and I said "antes?" meaning before. but the son thought I said "autimso." What are the odds 2 weeks in a row.
-bananas are my new favorite thing. Where have they been my entire life
-there are so many cockroaches
-people are shocked to see 2 Americans together. I think we're pretty entertaining to everyone here. especially when we see cockroaches.
Area
Jaraguá isn't the best for missionary work. It's very German, very Catholic, and lots of people have money. those 3 things together create very closed off people to missionaries. also there's 0 Brazil culture. we'll greet every person we walk past and 99 percent of the time they don't say a word and just keep walking. my social skills have hopefully increased a ton because I've learned how to start conversations with people who want nothing to do with us and actually get them talking. Majority of the time we are rejected but
this week we had so many Spirit-led experiences, it's actually crazy how many blessings happen daily. Here's a couple!
-we were looking for this specific person's house, and we couldn't find the address. we asked this family who actually were from Africa if they knew where they lived and they didn't so we left. but I felt like we needed to ask them instead if we could have a lesson with them. I told my comp I'd buy her açaí if we went back and asked. so we go back and asked and they happily accepted. it quickly turned into some bashing on the dad's end. so now my poor comp is stuck answering all the questions after I made us go there. he was pretty much mocking our teachings and our Português too haha. but, by the end of a pretty unsuccessful lesson of him just trying to prove us wrong I said, "I don't have very good Português but I'd like to say my testimony." I was overcome with the Spirit and love for this family that I literally knew nothing about. It was a mom and dad and 3 little kids. I was in tears and my voice was shaky and I gave my testimony about the Book of Mormon and the gospel of Jesus Christ and how I know it blesses us and especially families. I told them they had a special family and basically begged them to read it. They accepted and we left. I don't know yet if they'll progress, but it was a really special experience to me of seeing just a glimpse of the love God has for his children.
-on a normal night of our normal visiting people's houses, we stopped at an apartment complex. we had the name of the person but not the specific apartment. at that point since its closed off, there's nothing really we can do. but I had an idea to try and call every possible option on the keypad. on only the second option this little girl runs out. we were stunned because we had seen this same girl at church the Sunday before. her mom is baptized and went inactive and recently started coming to church again and the dad is pretty against missionaries. (or at least Elders) and no missionaries have been able to visit, find or get in contact with them before. we then had the most tender lesson with the girl and her mom. we had another lesson with her on Wednesday, and we put her on date to be baptized for November 9th! she is 9 and we bond over loving pink. her mom is so excited for her too and makes us feel so appreciated.
-we were visiting a person who was interested but they weren't home. but their mom answered instead. she was hesitant but invited us in. after a couple minutes of our message about Jesus Christ's atonement and sacrifice for us, she was telling how she's very depressed, just lost her job, and was going through the motions and doing the dishes when we clapped at her door. she was in tears and told us she needed us that day.
🌸
one thing that is clear when serving a mission is how every person is going through something. sometimes this is easy to forget, and we can be quick to assume why people act the way they act. but here when we go to pray for people and ask if there's something they need in the prayer, there is always an answer of something very heavy. cancer, divorce, depression, lost their job, their parents are abusive, or even just needing peace. we hear it all, every day. especially people are very cold at the beginning, their demeaner completely changes when we ask to pray for them and they always have something going on.
So my spiritual thought is grace. we hear it all the time, but we always forget, everyone is going through something. so give grace and be kind. when someone isn't very nice to you, it usually has nothing to do with you. so just be kind. people who are kind to us make our day. even in the littlest ways.
A personal example that I could work on is driving. 🙂 which is actually one of the things I miss most. when I get on the freeway, I think everyone there is trying to offend me. why would they be going 70 mph under the speed limit I will never know. but maybe they have a birthday cake in the passenger seat and don't want to ruin it... or maybe they cut me off because they're late to work. maybe they're not really just trying to make me mad. so, I will give grace and maybe in return get less tickets. speaking of which, the cops are an amazing example of grace. pulled over 6 times, but only 2 tickets. be like the cops!!
Because of Jesus's grace for us when we did nothing to deserve it, we can give grace to others to be more like him. an amazing way to show Jesus we love him is by loving his children.
"amazing grace
how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see."
I love you all, boa semana para vocês!
All the emails mean so much to me, thank you. knowing I have the support makes me feel connected to home
listen to Red in honor of fall for me 🍂
💌 sister copeland
No comments:
Post a Comment