Week 20💌 - New area and companion

Doesn't week 20💌 just sound so crazy?? I have been gone for 20 weeks y'all! 

I am doing great! I had an amazing first week in my new area with my new companion: Sister Dinsdale! She is from Arizona and she also wants to do nursing. She and I get along great, she feels more like a friend than a companion. 

My new area is awesome too. My new apartment is chiqueeee. Big windows (lots of wind), a balcony, and our bathroom has 2 towel racks and a glass door on the shower. My last house didn't have any of these things. It's amazing what small luxuries you take for granted until one day, you don't have them!

This area is HILLY. Like it's just up and down up and down. You are either ascending or descending. Very little flat ground. I thought I was prepared, because I live in Herriman. NOPE. I'll try and get a good picture of how insanely steep these hills are for yall next week. 

The people here are awesome though! The bishop is super involved,  so is our ward mission leader. Tons of ward activities,  it's a great community. I'll talk more about that in just a sec! 

Here is the run down of my week!

Segunda: Pday! I answered emails, went to mcdonalds, and spent most of the day yapping to my parents. We had a family home evening at the casa de apoio before everyone headed to their new areas. Sister Dinesdale and I got home around 8 because she had been at the mission office doing some "I get to go home at the end of this transfer" stuff. We were up until almost 1am yapping while I unpacked. Seemed worth it at the time... the next morning? Not so much.

Terça: My first day in the area! We had lunch with a recent convert. She was super nice. I was dying on the way too and from her house though bc of those dang hills! I did not think I was out of shape. I mean I work out every day, and walk 10,000 steps! But hills are a different evil. 

Today was mostly about just seeing the area. I met a woman that Sister Dinsdale baptized last transfer, she was so nice. She has started smoking again, which is a bit of an issue. Pre-missionaries,  she smoked 10 cigarettes a day, then when she met the sisters, it went to 8, then 4, then 2, then 0 for 2.5 weeks. Then she jumped up to 4, and now she is back down to 2.

We stopped and got some açai, so good! And then we had a ward activity. Our bishop does "Noites de Integração" on Terças and Quintas. So they've got food and games. We had our meeting with our ward mission leader, and then we went to the LTS's apartment for pizza. 

Quarta: We didn't have lunch, so we walked to a padaria and got Bomba. I also got a Coke 0. We ate back at the apartment. 

One thing that is both a blessing and a curse about involved leadership: they are involved! Which is so awesome! Until your phone is blowing up with calls and messages. Daniel (our ward mission leader) sent us a text about a lesson he wanted us to be at that night. When 2 minutes had passed and we hadn't responded, he started calling us. Dude. Calma. We will be there!

And then,  he and Fransisco (an RM) started spamming us with messages and phone calls in the evening asking what lesson we would be teaching this guy. We said we didn't know yet. 

So this guy's name is Aristony. He has been to church 3x and goes to all the Noite de Integração,  but had never expressed an interest in meeting with the missionaries.  But then, he told Daniel he had some questions. That is the information that Daniel passed to us. We said thay we would decide on a lesson once we got there and figure out what his questions were. That wasn't a good enough answer for them. So we had to plan out 3 possible lessons based on what questions he might have. 

Once we got there, we started talking to him. He did have a lot of questions! We actually ended up teaching 2 lessons! We started with The Restoration,  then jumped to The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then finished The Restoration. 

At the end of our lesson,  he asked "How does baptism work? What do I need to be baptized?" Oh! That was fast! We explained that there is some more stuff he needs to learn, and he just said "Okay". Then he gave us cake and some sugar free soda. 

BTW, Aristony has the cutest dog. It's a pitbull named Kobe. He is so smiley!!

Quinta: We didn't have lunch again (or anything in the fridge), so we went to the bakery again. I got a pastry with like taco meat? I spent like 2 hours trying to catch up on my journaling. I have been slacking this week. I finally got caught up, and now I am behind again. It is Domingo,  and I am only halfway through Sexta. 

We taught a man named Allan, he was a media reference.  He seemed pretty receptive,  but we shall see. 

We also got pastel, and I got suco de goiaba.

We then had Noite de Integração,  which was pink themed for breastfeeding cancer. They had a ton of cute decorations,  and a cake the size of my desk! One guy brought his drone, so they were getting some aerial shots. They had some speakers on woman's health, it had a great turnout!

When we got home, I had a phone call with Sister Tonini,  which then turned into a phone call with President. Nothing bad, they just wanted to talk about some issues from last transfer. I was definitely not expecting President to join the call though. 

After that, I was getting ready for bed, when my phone started BLOWING UP. It was 10:22, and we had Daniel, Francisco and Bispo calling. Why? Because Aristony came up to them after Noite de Integração and said "I want to be baptized on Sunday". Wow!! Okay!! We sent Tony a text and said we would stop by the next day and see how possible that is. Because he still needed 2 more lessons, and we didn't know if he drank coffee, tea, alcohol, smoked, obeyed the law of chastity... there are a ton of things that could postpone this baptism. But we were going to try!

Sexta: Happy Halloween!! I love Halloween guys. Our LTSs sent us a photo of them dresses as ghosts, and then asked to see our costumes, followed by a "Be creative." Uhhh... I do not have a creative bone in my body. We quickly put on matching outfits and posed like the twins from The Shining. 

We didn't have lunch again, so we got Subway. It was so fire guys. First Subway since I left the CTM. 

We ate açai as well. Then it was time to hit the streets. Our Zone decided to do a Trick or Treat challenge, we got stuck with a trick. We had to make 7 contacts,  and during one of them,  ask for a cup on water and dump it on our heads. It was fun though!

We knocked on this one lady's door, and man, her dog was TICKED. He was barking, and then he started to growl. Then, he started slamming his body against the door. I started to hope that the lady wasn't home. Nope! She was. She put the dog on a chain and let us in. 

Her dog did not stop barking! We were teaching her about the Book of Mormon, and her dog was LOSING it. I started to get worried that he was going to break the chain and come eat me. But when we got to the part of the lesson where we talk about Christ coming to visit the Nephites... silence. The dog stopped barking!! We were able to talk about that special moment in peace. As soon as we moved onto other parts of the BOM, Kujo started freaking out again. 

We then met with Tony. I honestly did not have high hopes going in. It just seemed too easy. 1 lesson with us, and he wants to be baptized ASAP? There had to be something in the way. Most likely coffee. Everyone here drinks coffee! But, we were going to see.

We taught Plan of Salvation, and then the 10 commandments. This was the part that was going to trip us up. I just knew it! Except... no! He doesn’t drink alcohol, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't do drugs, he doesn't like the taste of coffee or tea, and he believes that sexual intimacy is between man and wife. What??? 

He told us that about 6 months ago, he had gotten a pamphlet about the church from a couple of sisters. And he had just stuck it in a nightstand. But about a month ago, he found it, and it felt like something he needed to check out. So he started going to Noites de Integração, and then sacrament. And then he felt like he needed to move forward and be baptized. Guess who was here 6 months ago? Sister Dinsdale. She gave Tony a pamphlet 6 months ago, and never heard anything about it until now. We really are here to just plant little seeds.

Sabado: Another good day in Bela Vista! We actually DID have lunch today (amen hallelujah). It was good! We worked in Vamos Ver O Sol, which is an almost 2 hr walk from our apartment. So we did Uber. We met with the Old Bishop and his wife.  We then had a family home evening with Daniel, Tony and the old Bishop's family. We helped Aline (Daniel's) wife get ready for the night. She has already started decorating for Christmas (so she is my new favorite person). We then went with her to pick up pizza. Tony and everyone else arrived, and we had a message on integrity, and then everyone ate some delicious pizza. 

We also got the news that Tony passed his interview! We're having a baptism!

Domingo: Baptism!! Bishop wanted Irmão Tony to be baptized before sacrament and confirmed during sacrament meeting. Sounds great, right? We have 0830 church. That means that the baptism was at 0730! And we live 1.25 miles from the church. We had to leave at 0700 just to get to thr baptism on time. Early? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely!!

It was such an amazing experience.  I have never met anyone who is more ready to be baptized.  Heavenly Father has really been preparing him for this moment. I feel so lucky that I got to be there for it.

We ended the night with a Zone devotional. They talked about how important members are to the work, and set some goals. They want 15 baptisms before Zone Conference on the 18th. We had 3 this weekend, so I think it's doable.

Spiritual Thought: Acts 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.

This scripture is so short, but so powerful.  James, the brother of John was martyred in Acts 12. It is a dangerous time to be a disciple of Christ. But they found joy. That joy came through the Holy Ghost,  and the knowledge that they had of Jesus Christ. 

It reminded me of a Russel M Nelson quote: "The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives". Our lives can be filled with true joy when we keep our hearts and minds centered on our Savior. 

I invite you all to focus a little more on your Redeemer this week. Remember how much he loves you! Make time for him by reading your scriptures, and attending church or the temple. I promise that as you do this things, you will start to feel that joy that comes to disciples of Christ.

I hope that you all had a wonderful week! Know that I love and miss you all so much!!

Picture Time!

1. View from my balcony

2. Acai!!

3. You can kinda see the hills here

4. Our awesome LTSs

5. I swear guys, we spent 20 minutes trying to figure out a costume. We just lack creativity,  and options

6. World's sweetest pitbull

7. Skyline from our living room window during a HUGE lightning storm

8. Subwayyy

9. BATISMO!! (Left to right: Francisco, Daniel, Aristony,  Sis Dinsdale and yours truly) and no... I am not wearing my tag. In the rush of the morning, I left it on my desk.

10. I have a bed now!!!

11. I have a shower door with glass!!!