hi, everyone!
(I'm still me 🐈⬛)
here is a not very quick update:
today we received transfers and I will be leaving Biguaçu
Biguaçu brought me a lot of joy to my mission
I'm so grateful for the time I had here in this ghetto ah beach town
I will be training again! this time a Brazillian! I'm super excited
I'll be opening an Elders' area in an all-Elders Zone. I don't know the last time this area/zone has seen Sisters
my area is Navegantes andddd if you look it up it's basically just the movie "Rio" looking beach
I'm so excited! I needed this
tonight I went and said goodbye to some people.
I swear it gets harder and harder and by the end it'll be just like when I said goodbye to my own family
I told Darlan we needed to take a photo I can show my future children and he said,
you can tell them you made a disciple
& my first filha
I'm so proud of her
I can't wait to cheer her on and watch her grow on her mission 🥳🤍🫂
now my week...
my week
-transfers
-rc at temple
-world cup
Darlan went to the temple!
he was beaming at church afterwards
told anyone and everyone
Ana
ana is 12, and a sister of a recent convert who was bapped 7 months ago.
she has a lot of anxiety and other disorders that makes her seem uninterested. but one day we went and I started to talk to her and ended up that she just needed the invite
so she went to church with us and it was so good.
we then walked and went to seminary with her. she doesn't look you in the eye when speaking and only gives one word answers but has been warming up to us
she sent us a text after that said
"thanks for the invite, it's nice to get out of the house"
unfortunately she has some trauma with her brother (I've grown so much I didn't even make a joke about Ethan.. but I do remember that one time in Hawaii he said, "Let's play a game of who can hold each other under the water the longest")
but I've matured so I won't mention that
so now she associates the church with him. so we're trying to help her have more spiritual experiences on her own, with us or with other friends her age.
she's a sweet girl and also so broken.
Mariana
my model friend's dad got in a car accident and is now in a coma, and so she's in another city right now to be with him.
I love her so much and I pray for her by name every night.
I feel peace knowing she's in the Lord's hands. but sad that I couldn't have done more.
this poor girl has been through it and back. we pray now for her and her dad who is in a coma.
yesterday we had ward council. all of the leaders of the ward together for a meeting.
bishop had us all go around and say what we learned and want to apply from stake conference. about 20 of us.
it was really spiritual and just raw with everyone expressing their insecurities, doubts, or impressions about their callings.
I said how I remember the area seventy talked about his mission and how he remembers one specific day on his mission where it was at least 95 degrees, 90p humidity, no one was answering, a car drove by and splashed water on them, maybe the Irmã haven't given a dessert at lunch
just one of those days
and he remembers thinking,
wow, I will not miss this.
but then it hit him, he was given a feeling of the future and how he will look back and miss it.
there are a lot of days out here
just absolutely nothing going right.
lunch was a whole fish with the eye still looking at you on your plate
your baptism date ghosted you
it's pouring rain
you're doing everything you can to help your gringa ah comp learn Portuguese when you're also learning
no one's answering
just everything
and I can't help but think
wow, I will not miss this.
but then as I was saying that in the ward council, I just couldn't help but feel how much I will miss it.
I only have four transfers left
about six months
I will miss this so much
not because I love my lunch when it has eyes that look at me when I eat it
but because my call here has stretched me to a point I can't do alone
resulting into a unmovable bond between me and my savior
I can't wait and share everything I've learned, funny stories, hard days, but I just can't wait and live my testimony that has been concerted.
I am so grateful for that!
I wouldn't have learned what I have learned if my mission went the way I wanted.
if every comp was automatically my best friend
if every person I talked to accepted us
If every lunch had dessert
If I could've seen other missionaries/ my friends during the week instead of once every six weeks.
no way I would've learned what I needed/need to
if it went the way I wanted, or thought I wanted,
11 months ago getting on a flight to Brazil.
I'm really grateful it didn't go that way.
