Week 22 - December 15, 2025

 Hi hi, I'm going to do my best to make this swift so I can get to my spiritual thought 

P-day always comes at the perfect time because I feel like every Sunday night, I'm limping home

also! today I chopped my hair I feel like a little like Dora

my week:

mission tour

december 13 

this week we went Itajaí for a mission conference! it was half of the mission with some speakers. It's always nice to see other missionaries because we can't do that in this mission. we stayed at an STL (sister training leaders') house, and I just love every time I can talk with some more sisters.

Sister Junot from Utah!

Sister Steenblik from k.c.!

-there was a missionary whose almost finished w the mission, he was in the Army before. I asked which one was harder and he said the mission. he was dead serious. 

-Sister Bird and I also somehow ended up as the only missionaries at the table for lunch with the President, his wife, and the guest speakers. 

the lunches with members are always a highlight I love being in their homes, and learning about their lives and the culture here

this family has 100 chickens! 

the dad said next time he's going to make us sausages made from the blood of a pig which is amazing, and I will not be attending. At times like I wish didn't understand Português 

Edson: I don't like when people overuse the word "elect" on the mission.  but this week we were walking on the street and some guy yelled out his window and said, "Mormons!" he called us in and wow. but this guy was an elect. 

he said everyone prays for riches and gifts, but "I am hungry for knowledge." Golden words to hear as a missionary. we spent over an hour with him, and he was hanging on to every word we were saying. his name is Edson, he's in his 40s. he was injured as a child and in a wheelchair and paralyzed most of his life. but now he's walking and you could never tell. I am very excited to see where it goes with him. 

we also marked a date with Zulu! we met him when he helped us try to find the address of our other friend. he's a nice old grandpa who wants to take us to get ice cream. he's been to church every Sunday since we met him!

...

December 13

12 years ago, my angel brother Cannon returned to his heavenly home

I remember everything

the funeral 

the burial

being picked up in the middle of the night to go hold my brother one last time with my family all around me

his blue eyes 

his fuzzy hair and scalp I'd pick at when I held him

we took him to Gatorland

he loved piano music, the same I listen to everyday on my mission

he loved when my mom sung You Are my Sunshine

his fuzzy socks

the Seattle Children's visits 

wearing color changing lip gloss at his burial with tears down my face

my dad would take too fast of turns and Cannon would be halfway out the car seat, and we'd just flip him back in

I liked to rescue kittens, and they would always end up snuggling Cannon

Ethan and I feeding him through his feeding tube when we were only 7 and 10

the first day I went back to school after his death, I stopped at the door of my 2nd grade classroom and said a prayer for peace

everyone wore yellow at his funeral

I'd be lying if I said it isn't still hard to talk about

I'd be lying if I said December 13 isn't still heavy

I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry at a bus stop with Sister Bird the night of the 12th

it's hard to know that I understood grief and death at such a young age

but

in the Book of Mormon, a sign of Jesus Christ being born was during the night the sky didn't go dark 

Jesus Christ is the light of the world

because of him our dark nights can be turned to light

because of him our bitter can turn to brightness and joy 

we celebrate Cannon's life, and we know we can be with him again because of the Savior of our world

the gospel of Jesus Christ has turned grief into gratitude and pain into peace for my family

the veil is thin here

I am honored to be his earthly and eternal sister 

I still deal with grief, but I have never lacked peace

I love this gospel

with this day coming up, I was really worried about how I was going to work the entire day and keep it together. I prayed really hard because there is no choice and I was blessed with a day full of peace. And, I wore yellow 💛 

🤍sister copeland 

Week 21 - December 8, 2025

 Oi! bom dia!

BRENLY IS 6! 🥳🎀🍰👯‍♀️🎉

Everyone who knows Brenly loves her

she is my little best friend for life, I miss how we'd squeeze each other's hands 3 times to say "I love you." I miss her riding in my car and telling me to turn the Taylor Swift up. i Miss her needing to dress like me and order a pink drink just like me. 

In Brenly fashion, she had a world-tour-themed birthday party, and a little birdy told me there was a life-size cardboard cut out of me placed in the Brazil section of the world tour? About time they started making those of me. 

oh yeah, back to Brenly

 

real quick, I have to share two stories

-one time she was being a little uh misbehaving so I told her she couldn't get a drink, but I still wanted one, so we went and she then rolled down the window in the backseat and ordered one herself. 

-when I'd teach her dance classes she'd run over to me give me a hug and say, "I love you, Ella" and run back to her spot

i can't believe she's 6!! she has the purest heart and is our family's little rainbow baby. she gets first hug at the airport 🫂🤞

speaking of airport..

I hit 🖐 months! 🥳

it's bittersweet because I definitely don't want to wish the mission away, it's such a unique, valuable experience. but it's definitely nice to see time ticking. (very nice) It feels like I've been out for years but also I arrived yesterday. 

the work is going good! we walk for 10 hours a day directly in the sun to teach at most 3/4 people/families a day & those lessons are so worth it. but I love being a missionary. the hardest moments are probably when I feel unneeded or the work is slow. which happens a lot. Some members explained to us people who live here have to work at least two jobs to afford to live in Jaraguá and that's why everyone is so busy. this week I've been able to really teach half and half with Sister Bird and now than I can actually teach, I'm in love with it.

 I love when people have such profound questions which are exactly what the doctrine we have, answers. We get a lot of religious people who ask life questions that the Book of Mormon explains exactly. it strengthens my testimony so much being out here. where did we come from, where are we going, what is the purpose of life, why are there so many churches, etc etc..

If I didn't baptize one person, my mission would still be worth it because of the way I'm being converted. but we are so lucky to know we have a loving Heavenly Father, we should never get used to that or let it lose its value. 

🫂We're teaching a family who just moved here from Venezuela, who speaks little Português. We have an Irmã come with us who's also Venezuelan to speak Spanish with them and seeing them connect with tears in their eyes about their Savior was so tender. 

We knocked (clapped) a new house one day and I did not think they would have interest because they were already heavily religious, but we shared a verse with them and our testimonies, and the man started to cry. He said he was so happy to see young people serving the Lord. I told him what he was feeling was the Spirit confirming to him what we're teaching is true. I love when we can feel the Spirit with people. 

random

-Sister Bird: "Sister Copeland, the word boujee has never been in my vocabulary until you were my comp. you say it all the time"

-I set up a little nativity in our house and I accidentally put Mary with one of the wise men instead of Joseph. realized it later but that was the scandal of the day

-the roaches come out at night so every night like Cinderella at midnight a cockroach comes running down or hall like routine, so we kill probably five a week.

-a northeastern family (the nicest people in the world are from the northeast) invited us over to have a family home evening to have dinner and set up Christmas with them. they played Christmas music and Sister Bird and I sat there and didn't know if we loved it or hated it. it was too close to home without being home.  it just hurt haha. 

-there was a lizard in our house one night but we decided to keep it to help get rid of bugs, he's still with us. we're on day three. 

a Christmas spiritual thought: 💌🌲🍪🕯🫂

"Christmas awakens in us a desire to extend ourselves beyond our normal ties of love and friendship. The heavenly proclamation “on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14) was not limited to those for whom we already have feelings of love and affection. It directed goodwill to casual friends, to strangers, even to enemies. Christmas is also a time for forgiving, a time to heal old wounds and restore relationships that have gone awry." (Christmas Devotional '25 President Oaks)

the spirit of Christmas is so special. everyone's a little nicer, little more joyful, little more like Christ. without all the business and flashy parts of Christmas, I've really felt the spirit of Christ more during this time. as much as I would love nothing more than to watch a Christmas Hallmark with my mom (#trunky) I know what makes Christmas so special is the spirit. 

wishing you all a season full of the spirit of Christ!! and since I am a missionary...;), my invitation is for you all to forgive someone this season. I promise blessings of peace and lightness. I remember in high school my dad said forgiveness is a small price to pay for happiness. 

I love you all, praying for all of you. Every one of the emails I receive get me through my day! thank you!  

(Also, send me photos of home this week! I love to know how you are all doing, genuinely it helps so much)

obrigada 🥰

até 

💝Sister Copeland 

Week 20 - December 1, 2025

 hello!! 🎄💌✨️🎅

this is probably overly ambitious of me, but I did some math (that's a sentence I've never said) to see where the transfers line up and it looks like I'm exactly 1 year out today. this might not be accurate, but that's ok. 

overview

-batismo do tonny!!

-Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. my mission is...special so we weren't allowed to call home, but we had lunch with a young couple, and they made a little Thanksgiving for us even though it's not a holiday here. Before lunch I was even thinking, how nice would it be if they made us a Thanksgiving, then they did. 🥹 it was so sweet, and they had a 3-week-old baby. they were also loaded and spoke English. 10/10 

Honestly, I'm excited for December to be over because

a- December is 95 million degrees here

b- Christmas makes being away harder 

Also, we are unfortunately too close to one of the best beaches in the world (Florianópolis) so NO one will be home during the holidays. So, teaching people will be scarce.

Saturday night we wanted to grab dinner, so we stopped at a little food truck. it was caldo de cana, pastéis, live music, and futebol. if you know Brasil, you know that's as Brasil as it gets. I was in heaven. 🧃⚽️🍋‍🟩 especially because 90% of the time it doesn't feel like Brasil here. hoping other areas have more culture 🤞

The baptism of Tonny was literally a miracle in itself. he is the flakiest person of all time and the most typical 14-year-old boy ever. it felt like I was back in 9th grade trying to hold a conversation with Sam. but his friend Richard would help us in lessons and he had the most solid testimony. It was so cool to watch him and Tonny have conversations in our lessons. his friend also has really good English, enough to ask Sister Bird and I if we have boyfriends back in America. 

Português: Português is coming! I feel like I'm on this teeter point where I could talk a lot, but I know it's wrong, to talk well I still need to think hard about it and talk a little slower. but in lessons I can teach doctrine but can't fully be as deep as I'd likeee but it'll come. I can pass as fluent with small talk in Ubers but after that it's questionable haha. 

I watched a video about Christ's birth in Português and was so worried because I was understanding 0 of it. I was quickly relieved when I realized it was Arabic. but I loved the video. Jesus Christ has become my best friend on my mission. I remember growing up having the missionaries in our home and they'd share with us "Light the World" videos. Light the World is something the church does every Christmas year, it's a service and acts of kindness oriented Christmas message. I always felt the Spirit when the missionaries were in my home. it's special to be a missionary at Christmas time. 

random

-I killed a cockroach wasp thing in our house with a bat. talk about aim

-Sister Bird hit 10 months! so I made her coconut French toast 🥥👩🏻‍🍳🍞 

-our bishop sent a message out asking to borrow someone's Netflix account because he wanted to watch Stranger Things haha

-we were clapping doors, and I spoke with a woman through her window but then she just closed the blinds on our face mid-sentence. happens probably 15 times a day

-a guy showed us a photo of his wound on his leg of a cut from the beach that then got infected and had flesh eating bacteria to the point bone was showing. Sister Bird then passed out, and we had to leave. 

-everyone here is watching 1 of 2 things. Stranger Things or futebol. when walking around, we see every single TV through the windows with one of those two. 

reading my emails back I'm like wow I had a good week! but like everything in life, these are just the highlights. 

the mission is still hard, still unsuccessful at times, still sad, but still the best decision. all missionaries say it, but you can't really be prepared or understand what the mission is like until you're actually on one. I thought everyone was a little dramatic lol. a new American Sister asked me what the hardest part is. she was on day 5. I just smiled and said, "Just pray a lot." 

she also has a trainer who doesn't speak English. which is just a thing in its own. but I told her it's such a refining time.  I was never closer to my Savior than that and this time in my life. 

everyone says a mission shapes you to who Heavenly Father needs you to be, but I get now it's because of the trials on the mission. He uses the trials to refine us. That's what makes it so good for us. 

Any missionaries past or present have good tips or advice for the mission, I'd love to hear it. 

Moroni 7:45-46 🫶

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail

I love the part to "cling."  It's not always easy to be charitable, but we need to cling to it. without it we are nothing. charity never faileth. 

Everything is a choice so, choose! choose charity, choose peacemaking even though at times it may be the harder choice. my coach always said everything we do has a consequence, whether good or bad. the results of our choices and actions come through the fruits of it. choose good, receive good. doesn't mean life will be perfect but it will be good. 

we'll never regret having being kind and choosing charity. 

I love you all, I hope all is well at home 🎅🎄

💌Sister Copeland