Week 26💌- 1st week of transfer #4

 Óla minha querida família! Opa meus queridos amigos! Como vocês estão? 

1⁰ week of transfer #4 is complete! This was a good week. A little hectic, but so good!

Segunda: Tchau Sister Dinsdale! Today was my last day with Sister Dinsdale.  I miss her so much, and she has only been gone a week. What is even crazier is that I only knew her for 6 weeks. It's funny how close you can get to people in such a short time.

Segunda was transfers day, and as some of you saw, there was a last minute change. I went to the escritório to exchange American dollars for reals with Presidente.  While I was there, he asked if I was excited to meet my new companion.  I told him of course, I love Sister Mercuri! He then told me that Sister Mercuri isn't my new companion! He and Sister Tonini made a change to the transfer board the night before at like 9pm, and forgot to tell any of us. He told me that my new companion would be Sister Leite! He changed Sister Leite's assignment 3x. First, he told her that she would train a newby, then that she would finish a training. Then, finally, that she would be my comp.

Sister Leite is awesome though. She has trained 4x, which is an insane amount of times. She finished 3 trainings, and started/finished another. That's 5 transfers training! I can see why though, she knows her stuff.

After my talk with President, I got to call my brother, Steven. I am so grateful that he is willing to wake up an extra 30 minutes early to talk to me before he has to get ready for school. I then got to talk to my baby sister, Audrey. Gosh, she is just the cutest thing! She told me that she wants to come to Brazil because she doesn't like the cold. I told her that I'd be happy to switch places! I'll give her my plaqueta and she can be Sister Starley,  and I'll go be Audrey. She told me that she doesn't want to switch places, she wants to be WITH me, that she can be my companion.  She will be Mini Sister Starley. Awwww!!

Some sisters and I got a ride back to the casa de apoio in the back of Jacó's (used to be Elder Coehlo) white van. We didn't have seats, and there were bars separating the back from the front. Felt a little like we were being kidnapped...

Once we arrived, we met up with some other Sisters and went to McDonald's. I got to see Sister Maciel again!! And I got to have a Stranger Things Coca-Cola float!! Life is good guys. God is real!

After that, I mostly just spent the day chatting with my parents and answering emails. Thank you again to all of you who send me emails! I love hearing from you all. I did have to say goodbye to Sister Dinsdale.  I told myself that I wouldn’t cry... and started bawling the second she looked at me.

After pday ended, Sis Leite and I headed back to Bela Vista, and she got unpacked. Because of all of the craziness with transfers,  she wasn't in Bela Vista's system yet. So I used my phone to show her the map and gave her a rundown on members, recent converts and investigators. Then, we went to bed. We were both wiped.

Terça: 1⁰ real day of the transfer! Due to issues with technology,  we couldn’t log her into our WhatsApp account, and she still wasn't in our Pregar system. In fact, Pregar was showing that I didn't have a companion at all! That meant that my phone would be the principal phone until the problem was fixed.  

The member that we were supposed to have lunch with today was busy, so she sent us to the usual restaurant with her granddaughter. I love this restaurant,  because it has the best suco de goiaba!

After our study break, we headed to go work in Bela Vista. My goal for this week was mostly to just introduce Sister Leite to all of the members. We met one member who is afastado,  but he said that he might start going back to church!

Funny story: we were sitting on the curb, trying to replan, when this super drunk dude came up to us. He started yelling at us "Vocês querem trocar ideias?" --> "Do you guys want to trade ideas?". And when we didn't answer, he just got closer and started yelling it again. So I just said "Não, obrigada" and he stumbled off. We quickly got up and started walking (he had been blocking our escape route). Once we started walking though, he did a 180 and started trying to follow us. Thankfully, drunk people aren't fast, and we ducked down a side road and booked it.

Quarta: I have a new mortal enemy! His name is Cachorro Chato (Upsetting dog). I do not know where he lives, I just know that it's nearby. He has this really annoying morning routine of barking and howling for 2 hours straight.  I hate this dog. He started at 6:30. Yes, I am already awake, but still!

We had lunch with Irmã Kelly, who's sister is the wife of Bispo. That meant that Bispo and Irmã Carmem where there as well. We talked to Bispo about how the Ala needs to work more with less active members or members who are afastado. He said that they would.

After lunch, I decided to decorate my copy of Pregar Meu Evangelho. I thought it would be fun to have a special cover. It didn't turn out perfect, but I'm happy with it!

We then went to work in Promorar. We had this one street on our Pregar that looked like it was chock full of references.  Nope! All of the addresses were wrong. So we just knocked on doors and tried to find people. We got a couple of contacts!

We went to go visit a member who's name didn't sound familiar.  When we got there, I realized that I had no idea who she was. She seemed thrilled to see us though. She said that she has been inactive for a couple of years due to health problems and work. She said that she had attended church for 30 years before her baptism.  30 years!! She said that she still reads her BOM every day. She also has 16 cats. I am not kidding. She has 16 cats. She just picks up strays and gives them a home. 

I got to go to the church and practice the piano a bit which was nice. Sister Leite logged in all of our contacts while I practiced.  We got a message from President that starting next year, we are getting an allowance raise of $150 reals a month!! Amen, hallelujah!!

Quinta: Cachorro Chato is really Chato. He started barking at 5:45 am. 

ALSO. GUYS. CHRISTMAS IS IN 2 WEEKS FROM TODAY!!!!!!!!

We had lunch with Ana Maria and Messias. It was the usual lunch of rice, pasta, beans and farofa. I love farofa guys, it makes rice edible! After lunch, I read my PME in Portuguese.  It is much easier to read Pregar in Portuguese than it is to read the Livro de Mórmon.  

Finally, we were able to log Sister Leite into Bela Vista's Pregar and the WhatsApp.  However,  while we were making the swap, we missed a text message from the Assistentes do Presidente. More on that later! It took over an hour to switch accounts though. I don't know why, our phones just did not want to cooperate!

We went to go visit recent converts today. We first visited Rosaria. She gave us fresh suco de maracujá and some bread. I really love her. She told us how sad her life is because she can't read. She said that many doors are closed to people who don't know how to read. I am so grateful that my parents taught me how to read. I can't imagine my life without this knowledge. 

We tried to visit Maria José and Jayne, but they weren't home. We headed to Lucia's house. She told Sister Leite that she didn't like me when I first showed up...dang. After visiting with her, she called us and Uber so that we could go to the ward Christmas party.

One thing about this ward, they don't start anything on time. The invite said 7pm. It didn't start until 8:10. And and by 8:30, which is when we had to leave, Bispo was still talking. So we had to duck out. Irmã Carmem sent us home with some food though!

When we got home, it was 9pm. We saw that we had a message from Sister Tonini asking if we remembered the meeting. We were both confused, what meeting? We knew that we had a Zone Devotional at 9:20, but that wasn't for 20 minutes.  She said that it was a special meeting, and that the APs would send us the link again. So apparently we had missed a message from the APs while we were trading accounts, because we hadn't gotten anything from them.

During this meeting, we found out that we both received callings. Our mission is trying something new, in hopes of improving referências de mídia. It's called First Responders. This program has had some success in other missions, so we are going to start implementing it here. Basically,  they chose 4 duplas from each state (our mission covers 2 states) and put them in this First Responders Zone. We have an LD and LZs, just like a normal zone. Except that our LZR (Zone Leaders of References) are Sisters!  

What they want us to do, is work in 3 hour shifts. During those 3 hours, you don't leave the house. You work only through cellphones. Every referência de mídia that arrives in your state, will go through you first. Our job is to call every reference that comes in, less than 5 minutes after it comes in. Then we can talk to them and find out if they are actually interested,  and if their information is actually correct. If so, we pass it along to the correct missionaries. Hopefully this new program helps! Because referências de mídia here are less than great. 90% of the time, they don't have a correct address.

After this meeting, we went straight into our Zone Devotional.  Everyone just went around and introduced themselves. We got a new LZ, a new LD and a new LTS. Lot's of changes! 

Sexta: Cachorro Chato woke me up at 4:45. He seems to just be waking up earlier and earlier! And getting louder and louder. He did do me a favor this time though, because I was having a bizarre nightmare. 

During planejamento,  we messaged 50 people! (I counted). Some responded, some just left us on read.  We wanted to confirm as many appointments as possible before heading to Vamos Ver O Sol. 

Lunch fell through, so we went to the padaria near our house and got Bomba. I then finished up my scripture study and studied Pregar. We called an Uber at 3:15 to go visit Irmã Kassia.

Irmã Kassia's mom wasn't feeling well, so we went over there. I have never heard her talk so much in the 6 weeks that I have been here. Normally she is silent whenever we are eating lunch at Kassia's!

We tried every single yellow dot in Vamos Ver O Sol (yellow dot means referência de mídia or person with interest). Nada. We then tried a bunch of gray dots (people who used to be taught but aren't anymore). Nada. We picked a random street and knocked on every single door. Nada. It wasn't until our last gray dot, our last door, that we finally had success.

We were looking for this guy named Mario, but he doesn't live there anymore. We found his nephew though, Felippe. Felippe said that he loves religion and that he loves God. He then asked if we had ever thought about why there are so many religions, and only one God? He said that everyone seems to have a different God. We were able to teach him about Joseph Smith's vision, and gave him a pamphlet on the Restoration.  He said that we can come back next week!

After that, we rewarded ourselves with açai. Then, we tried to call an Uber. Uber wouldn't let me add my credit card to our account, and it would cost $18 reals. I only had $14.75 in cash. We asked a couple members who live nearby if they could give us a ride, but they weren't home. We tried to call our LTS, but they didn't answer. We started to get a little worried. It was getting late, and Vamos Ver O Sol is 2 hours by foot from our house. Definitely not walkable. We said a prayer and asked for an Uber that we could afford. When we closed and reopened the app, the ride that used to cost $18 now cost $14.50! I have never clicked accept faster in my life. We were able to make it home safely,  and on time!

Sabado: Bro. I HATE Cachorro Chato.  He started howling at 2:45. 2:45!!

We had lunch with Papagaio.  She is so funny. She sounds like a miniature adult! We had mashed potatoes,  rice, meat and suco. 

We worked in San Antonio 2 today. Our first door didn't respond,  but our second did. He name is Denes. He told us that he was baptized into the Catholic Church as a baby, but that he didn't understand why. He said that babies can't sin, and baptism is for the cleansing of sins. We taught him about O Evangelho: faith, repentance,  baptism,  gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. We then asked if we wanted to be baptized,  and he said yes!

We hit a lot of dead ends and wrong address. We talked to this little old lady. We were looking for her granddaughter,  but her granddaughter doesn't live with her anymore.  We sat on her curb and talked to her for 30 minutes.  Then her neighbor showed up. She and the neighbor said that he wasn't drunk,  but I really don't know if I believe them. He talked and walked like a drunk dude. He was very excited to talk to me, because I'm American.  His name is Washington. After about 15 minutes,  he started getting closer and closer until he was sitting right next to me.  The lady had us come into her house until he left. She gave us fruit and homemade soap. I don't know if Washington was drunk, or just crazy. Maybe both!

Our allowances finally arrived, so we went grocery shopping (No, I am not breaking mission rules). I got yogurt and granola, milk and suco. Our fridge finally has food in it for the first time ever!! Also. I walked 20652 steps!

Domingo: Cachorro Chato slept in this morning! Until 4 am! Sunday miracle.

Church was good. There were not a lot of people there though. That is the problem with the holidays,  everyone is traveling! The talks were great though. So was Relief Society.  They talked a lot about how they need to step up and minister to each other. I agree! There are a lot of less active people in this ward, and we can't take care of everyone by ourselves!

After church, we went home before our lunch. While walking to lunch, we got stopped by this old dude. We were talking to him for 15 minutes. Well,  he was talking. We told him 2x that we really had to be going, but he just kept yapping!

Lunch was Brazilian enchiladas, rice, pasta and salad. The salad was cucumbers and tomatoes with some white vinegar.  I was very very happy! We talked with the family about the temple. Our ward has a caravana going to the Fortaleza temple this week. It is 10 hours by bus! My companion has to take a 19 hour bus ride to get to the closest temple to her house. I am so spoiled with 4 temples that are within 20 minutes from my house.

After lunch, we both took naps. After our naps, we did our weekly planning. The Conferências de Natal are this week, so we are going to be losing some time in our area. We tried to plan how best we can maximize the time that we do have. I am so excited for Conferência tomorrow though! I am not excited to play the piano, but I am excited for everything else! After lunch today, we are going to go to the church so that I can practice. 

After our planning, we headed back to the church for the Stake Music Program. Last year, in my home stake, they had to have 2 programs to accommodate everyone who wanted to go. Here, the turnout was about the size of my home ward. Utah really is the center of the Church.

The program was wonderful though. They alternated between brief messages and songs. Both the music and the messages were incredible.  I love this time of year, because we can focus on our Savior. 

Spiritual Thought: O Come All Ye Faithful

Oh, come, all ye faithful,

Joyful and triumphant!

Oh, come ye, oh come ye to Bethlehem.

Come and behold him,

Born the King of angels;

Oh, come, let us adore him;

Oh, come, let us adore him;

Oh, come, let us adore him,

Christ, the Lord.

This is one of my favorite Christmas hymns. I love how it embodies Christ's principal message: Come, follow me. We are invited to come unto Christ, to adore him. 

The noun adoration has 2 defintions.

1: The worship given to God alone

2: A feeling of profound love and admiration. 

What better word could be used to describe how we should come unto Christ? We are invited not just to worship Him, but we are invited to love him. We are invited to love him with all of our hearts, with all of our minds and with all of our strengths. 

As we approach this Christmas season, I invite you all to focus a little more on why we celebrate this holy day. I invite you all to think on how you can adore Christ the Lord. The best way that you can love Him, is to come unto Him. Come, all ye faithful. Come and adore Him.

I love you all so much! I hope that you all have such an amazing week, and that you are all enjoying this Christmas season. Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you all. (I can't do much, but I can pray!) 

Tchau meus amores!

Pictures!:

1. Kitties!

2. Meet Sister Leite!

3. Gatinhooooo

4. Jesus!

5. My area really is beautiful.

6. The cover that I made! I messed up a little on the dates, I didn't realize that they would be home punched. But oh well!

7. Our new Zone!

8. A mock schedule that they drew up for us. 

9. Welcome to the day of a missionary! A lot of failed attempts to contact and teach. But all worth it for that last green dot at the end of the day!