Week 17💌 - Cheer each other on!

 Hi loveys!

This week was good, but also a little hard. Don't worry, nothing like lice or hospital trips. I am in perfect health! (She says, knocking on wood). The work was just a little hard this week. But vai da certo!

Segunda was pday with our district, and the district of Cidade Leste. We played volleyball,  basketball and had a waterballoon fight. The Elders also made a Churrasco. Then we hung out in the air conditioned escritório and called our families. It was so fun, and I got SO sunburned. My first sunburn on the mission! I am considering it a win that i'd made it 3.5 months without getting burned.

We also had a mission devo that night, and President and Sister Tonini extended a new challenge for us. The challenge is to read the entire Book of Mormon 2x before next general conference.  You start with a clean BOM, and the first time you read, you only mark things relating to gospel principles and doctrine. Then when you read it the 2⁰ time, you mark anything that points to or testifies of Jesus Christ in a different color. This is sort of a simplified version of how I already mark my scriptures. Normally when I read, I use 5 colors. I started the challenge on Terça. So I am reading New Testament and the BOM right now. It's so fun! You guys should do it too, especially if you've never read the BOM cover to cover before. 

Terça: Sis Smith made a fantastic banana cake, and I made a banana peanut butter smoothie. Can yall tell that we like bananas here? We also did a comp exchange with Cidade Leste, so I went out with Sis R Smith. It was so fun, I feel like I learned a lot. I took Sis Smith to meet with Fatima, and as soon as she opened the door, she asked "Por que você é preta?" --> "Why are you black?". Yeah, I picked up a good amount of sun. 

I love Fatima. When Sis Smith and I were explaining transfers, she started to tear up and told us we can come back at any time. She also asked if we wanted some juice. Every time  Sis Maciel and I are there, she makes suco de tamarindo. I like it, but she doesn’t. It's not very sweet. So when Fatima left to make it, I told Sis Smith it would probably be that. Nope! She made suco de manga for the first time!

At the end of the night,  we met up with Sis Maciel and Sis Oliveira at a food truck that is run by a member of the Taquiri ward. Sis Maciel had presents for everyone. I got an erasable pen and some scripture marking tabs! Sister Smiths gift though... she got a children's Bible book about Adam and Eve. Idk if it's just because we are missionaries now, but the book looked a little racy! Like ik that they were nude in the Garden, but do they have to be that nude?? We were all cackling though. It then started to rain, so we pulled out our umbrellas and hunched under them to protect the food.

Quarta: Guys, miracles do exist! We met with João Henrique, and it was completely different from last week. Last week, he told us that he doesn't believe in Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. But he joined us for the 1⁰ session of General conference on Sab. Today, he told us that he felt a feeling of peace there that he has never felt before in any other place. He then asked us what other good things we have to share with him. He also told us that he has a lot of addictions. Alcohol, coffee,  cigarettes and cocaine. He said that he hasn't used cocaine in over 2 weeks though!

Quinta: I finally got through all 3 sessions of Sabado GC. We met with Noemia and Fatima, this time I had Sister Maciel with me. So this time, she made suco de tamarindo again! Poor Sister Maciel. She also got attacked by a dog! Thankfully it didn't land a bite on her body,  but it did try. We were walking down a street, when all if a sudden I hear this angry barking coming from the darkness. I look around, and I see this dog trying to eat my comp! Now, maybe a good comp would try and help. I chose self preservation instead, and crossed to the other side of the road. Thankfully this teenage boy came to her rescue and scared off the dog.

We went to Irmão Nelson's after that, and he had pudding for us. So good! Then we met up with Cidade Leste at the church, and we decided to order a pizza. Best decision ever. 

Sexta: Okay this day started off weird. (For some background, all missionaries are supposed to wake up and get up at 0630. I wake up and get up. Sister Smith wakes up, the other sisters don't.) But anyways, at 0630, my alarm goes off as normal. I get up to turn it off, but then I realize that the noise isn't stopping.  I am not a morning person guys, I am super groggy in the mornings, this morning was worse than normal. So I kept staring at my phone for a few seconds trying to figure out why it was still yelling at me. Then I realized that it's because someone was calling me. Now who in their right mind would decide that 0629 is the perfect time to start trying to call a missionary? Irmão Carvahlo.

Irmão Carvalho is this old guy in our ward. He and his wife are so sweet and so funny. They just LOVE any and all missionaries.  They were senior missionaries a few years back. But he always texts us good morning,  etc. He and his wife only text in all capital letters. He also spells my name YNSTALEY. But back to Sexta. Quinta, he had told us that he and his wife would be traveling Sex-Sab, so they needed to cancel our lunch on Sexta. But they wanted to drop off ingredients so we could make our own food. We said we'd be home around  2115 Quinta night, or home all morning on Sexta. He said they'd come by Sexta morning.  I assumed that meant like 0800, or 0900. NOPE. 

I answered the phone and tried to say good morning. I am pretty sure I just yawned. And he told me that he and his wife had been knocking on our door for the past 5 minutes.  Which means that they showed up BEFORE 0630. 

We ended up eating lunch with Cidade Leste at the home of the woman who owns the food truck. Tia Rosa was there too, and she told me to be more careful with my skin. "The sun you pick up today will eb the same sun that gives you skin cancer in 10 years. You will be happily married with kids, and then you'll start to feel sick and you'll find out that you have cancer. Do you want to do that to your kids??" Okay... aight.  

João Henrique wants to be baptized!! Seriously, what a 180⁰ from last week. The Holy Spirit is real, and He is powerful. 

Also, apparently I now look European instead of American. I haven't been asked if I am American in a little over 2 weeks! I got asked if I was from England,  Germany or France. Germany seems to be the most common guess.

Sabado: We had lunch at Irmã Assunção's house. She and her husband have a watermelon farm, and it's watermelon season rn. So we ate a LOT of watermelon. She sent me home with a watermelon, and with another type of melon. 

Guys, this new melon is divine. When you cut into it, it looks like snow!! Snow in Brazil! I half-jokingly prayed for snow this week, and God delivered in the form of this melon. She had me try it three different ways: natural, with a little sugar and then with leite condensado.  Natural, it doesn't have much of a flavor, just a slight hint of cantaloupe. The sugar changes it completely! Leite condensado just tastes like natural with leite condensado. I love it though, and it's my new favorite fruit. I had Sis Smith try it, and she did not like it.  She said it tastes like something you'd find at hobby lobby. It does have a strange texture. Kind of like stuffing. But I love it!

We taught Noemia, and reminded her that in order to be baptized,  she needs to go to church. Because she says that she wants to be baptized,  but in the month that we've been teaching her, she's only gone to church once. 

Domingo: none of our people with baptism dates came to church. Noemia and João have all of the lessons, all of the information they need to be baptized.  They only thing they need is to go to church 2 more times. But they didn't show today. But oh well. After church, our ward had a break-the-fast lunch.  Dude. These irmãs dumped a MOUNTAIN of food on my plate. At least it was good food! I had woken up ridiculously early (0500), so after lunch I had a killer headache. So once we got home, I just laid on the kitchen floor and passed out for 2 straight hours. 

After that, we got to work. We were super behind on our lessons with members goal for this week, because everyone was sick,  working or had exams to study for. But we got Ana Livia to go out with us, and we ended up meeting both our new people, and our lessons with members goal!

Spiritual Thought: My favorite talk so far is Cheering Each Other On. It is by J Annette Dennis. She talked about how everyone is starting with a different level of difficulty,  and only God knows what that is. She told us to be less hard on ourselves and on others when we feel like we/they aren't where we should be. Because everyone has a different starting place, and everyone has different trials that they are battling. She invited us to show love and charity to everyone, because we don't know what they are going through. It isn't our place to make assumptions about anyone else. 

Here is the link! Cheering Each Other On

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/10/32dennis?lang=eng

Thank you guys for all of the emails and messages this week! It seriously brightens my day so much when I see that someone messaged me. I love hearing about your guys' days and weeks!

Now here is the part you guys actually care about, pictures!

Anyways,  I love you all so much!! Have a great day!

Picture Descriptions

1. District PDay!

2. Churrasco!

3. Comp exchange!

4. Turtles!

5. Sis Smith's book

6. Biggest watermelon I've ever seen

7. Snow Melon

8. Church!

9. Irmão Carvalho posted this to his WhatsApp status. It's a picture of a picture of our profile picture. Two slides later, he posts this.

10. A ZOOMED IN, CROPPED PICTURE OF ME. He didn't do this to Sister Maciel! JUST ME. He literally hates me.