Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Pics from Brazil

A house made from a sewer opening

avatar trees 

Graffiti is on everything here, and we found a little baby mouse dying in the road :(


Our zone from the MTC at the mission Christmas party & Elder White from Lewisville!! Yeah I look gross oh well haha


My Companion.  


My favorite Brazilian Camilla! & a close up of Ellen


December 16th


This week I have worked really hard on trying to show the people that even though I can't speak the language very well that I still love them. It has been a great experience & I have definitely seen a difference. It has definitely been beneficial. Helen, which is actually Ellen haha yeah it's very obvious I can't understand Portuguese, got baptized on Sunday! It was so awesome. She is so rock solid it isn't even funny. I am so excited for her future. We have found tons of people this past week, and have been teaching a lot. We have been working on trying to stop and talk to everyone and knock on every door. It has been such a blessing. We had 6 investigators at church on Sunday so I'm hoping we can set one of them with a baptismal date for next Sunday.

 Well this morning we moved into our new house which was so exciting! No more termites and ants everywhere :) That took up a lot of our morning though which is why I'm emailing right now instead of earlier. So worth it though. 

December 9th


Well this past week was better than the first. The language is getting better, which is good. We met a girl named Helen last week. She is 18, and is a 7th day adventist. She is so nice & wayyy receptive. She came to church for the first time yesterday & gets baptized next Sunday which is exciting. We have three other potential baptisms. I'm still really not that good at speaking, but I'm understanding a lot more. I have noticed this past week how much Heavenly Father loves me. I'm really starting to like Brazil, it's definitely different but good. I'm trying to just work hard and stay focused so there's blessings that come from that. We are moving houses next week which is exciting because our house is infested with termites. There everywhere, it's so disgusting haha I don't even want to know how many crawl on me at night. We had stake conference yesterday, & our mission president spoke. He gave a great talk, well from what I could understand:) things are definitely not easy, but I can feel Heavenly Father's love for me & I know that he helping me to become the person/missionary he wants me to be. Slowly but surely things are getting better. I know that I will eventually come to love this mission as much as I loved Reno. Thanks for all the prayers, I know that they are being answered and are a huge help.

December 2nd Brazil!!


Well the flight was way long, but it went well. Elder Hunter & I were the only missionaries to fly to New York & then to Brazil, everyone else went to Atlanta which was weird, but it was cool going to New York & flying over the city at night. Our flight was 10 hours long from New York & since I have great luck the person who sits next to me doesn't speak Portuguese at all haha he speaks French & only a little bit of English. I was hoping to practice the language, but that of course didn't happen. We flew into Sao Paulo. It was way cool, it definitely looked just like I thought it would. We then flew to Curitiba. When we got off the plane we met our mission president, President Monteiro. He is way short & speaks absolutely no English haha. We got on a bus & headed to the mission office where we dropped off our bags. It was definitley way more humid than Nevada that's for sure. We headed to the mission home & had lunch. It was some wierd food, but good none the less, I drank plenty of Guarana :) We went to the mission office again for transfers & I saw some people who were in the same zone as me in the MTC that I have kept in touch with which was definitely comforting considering at this point I couldn't communicate with anyone. They announced companionships & everyone who had been reassigned was put with Brazilians. My companions name is Sister Lopes. She is from somewhere up north, she says it too fast for me to understand so I'm just going to say it's by Menaus. She speaks absolutely no English which is great because I speak absolutely no Portuguese. She has been super patient with me though. Although this is a big change & I miss Reno I know that this is where I need to be. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan. I just need to work hard and rely on the spirit and everything will be okay.


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Photos in Sparks



We put the zombie dude in front of the elders door & put the creepy doll in front of the YSA Sisters door, funniest thing ever

pulling a Zombie dude up a hill
We found this tumbleweed

We put this Zombie Doll in front of Elder's Door

Adventures in 7/11
We found an Ice Cream Truck
Trunk or Treat with Wreck it Ralph and Vanellope



November 4th, 2013


We are trying really hard to set another date with Rylie. We had a lesson with her last night. The spirit was definitely present. We retaught her the Plan of Salvation & she says she knows it's true. Hopefully she will pick a date, & one that is before I leave but we'll see. Shawn didn't go to church this week so we have to push his date back again. Hopefully he comes this next week. We'll keep working on him though. We saw soo many people this week, which was exciting. We are asking everyone for referrals & always trying to find. It turned out well for us this week. We met some really cool people, & taught the most lessons this area has seen in years. Hopefully the work continues to progress. I'm really starting to love the area & the people we are working with. The strength some of these people have is amazing. We have been working with a 24 year old girl named Kayla since last transfer. She got pregnant at 18 with her daughter Lily & fell away from the church. She has recently started coming back with her daughter & is now trying to get her family to come back. Her & her daughter are such pioneers in their family. To see her come back after the way she was treated is amazing. I truly hope to have her as a friend even after my mission. That's only one example of the many people we meet with. It truly strengthens my faith to see them progress like that. Other than that just normal stuff going on, just trying to work hard & convert. 

I cannot believe it is already November. In about a week it will be a year since I got my call to Brazil. When I got my call I never imagined that I would be in Sparks Nevada a year later. Crazy how things turn out. Heavenly Father really does have a plan for each and every one of us, and I am so grateful for the way my life has played out. I'm even more grateful for my mission and the opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me to serve here in the Nevada Reno Mission.