Week 67💌- Mission Tour and 15 months!!

 Hey guys! My pday was moved to today because I am going to the Boston temple!! So sorry for all of the emails I didn't answer on Monday...

Spiritual thought: God is aware of the One. During the mission tour, we studied the Doctrine of the One. Christ has always focused on the One, and their needs. I love the story in the Book of Mormon when Christ invited the crowd to come forward one by one and feel the marks in his hands and feet to gain their own testimony of who He is. The scriptures are full of stories where He ministered to the One. The cool thing about the Doctrine of the One, is that it has 2 parts. The One that needs His help, and that He is the One who is mighty to save. This is a gospel of One. We are all loved, noticed and important to the Savior.

Segunda: Happy pday! Today we had district pday. So we went to the gym quickly and then went to the church for morning sports. Some of the other missionaries were playing dodgeball, but I sat on the side and talked to Jergy and Snow. I also got some emails done. After that, we went to Old Navy so that Jergy could get some new pants. We then went grocery shopping- still couldn't find any Eggnog. Tragic! After groceries, we went and met up with our district for lunch at Dave's Hot Chicken (incredibly mid restaurant btw). I found out that I'm the oldest by 6 months, amd we have some elders who were born in 2008. So now they call me Unc. After lunch, we went and played games at the church. I played some solitaire and then we played BS. I found out that Gilbert is in my Grandma Bonk's home ward, what a small world! We went home for the last 30 minutes and had a phone call lesson w a friend and then did stopbys. We tried to visit Adna but she didn't answer. She texted us back later and was so apologetic, she was putting Matteo to bed and didn't hear us. She is so sweet!

Terça: Today was all about Mission Tour prep. They sent us a LIST of things to study before the Tour. It took up all of my p study and language study. But hey, I am PREPARED. The prep work was on some good topics like the Doctrine of the One. I did some meal prep today! Me!! Jergy gave me the recipe for a sheet pan meal. It's sausage, bell peppers, potatoes, broccoli and zucchini all baked on a tray with seasonings. It's so yummy! I didn't actually have time to eat it for lunch, but it made a fire dinner. We went finding on Marlborough. It was SUCH a nice day today, and NO ONE was outside enjoying it!!! And people weren't home either. Maybe there is some fair or festival that we are missing out on? President answered my email finally. I had asked about if I could stay until December. The two options are Nov 25 or Jan 5 (the day before school). I had told him that I wanted to finish closer to my 18 month mark, but that I can't get back the day before. He told me that he is going to send home a couple of missionaries on Jan 1, so we can talk in our interviews next week. Which again doesn't work…so I guess I'll be home in Nov! Mark y'alls calendars!! We stopped by Starbucks to use their restroom and get a pumpkin drink before stop bys. We got dinner after stopbys and I ate my yummy meal prepped food. We then called some greys. We had a really good lesson with this guy named Ronaldo that the Spanish sisters sent over. 

Quarta: Today was the mission tour! We had Eld Phillips and Eld Hathaway from the 70 come. Eld Hathaway is going to be speaking in General Conference this weekend, so keep an eye/ear out for his message! The mission tour started at 10 with teaching moments from those guys and Pres and Sis Risenmay. We got a lunch break at 1. We then got back to business and got out of there at 5. 10-5. Whoof. It was great though! They talked about a few different things. My favorite thing was the Doctrine of the One. We read scriptures that talked about how Christ ministered one by one. I think that is one of my favorite attributes of Christ, that he cares about individuals. Sometimes it's easy to get lost in the to-do lists and everything that needs to get done in a day, and you lose sight of what is most important. What is most important is whoever is right in front of you at that time. No one else, no other appointment. That's something that I need to get better at. My mind tends to wander and think of everything that needs to be done that second, and I get antsy to move on to the next task. I made a goal to focus more on the One. After the mission tour, we called Marcelo from the parking lot and did a chapel tour and CPR. We didn't really have time to go home and change, because we already lost a lot of time. So I went proselyting on Marlborough Main in my Mary Jane heels. My feet were KILLING me. We talked to our member Lazzaro. He wants to go and get his family's work done in the temple and get his endowment. He is the nicest guy! We met the coolest guy while finding tonight. His name is Elvin, and he said that he has been looking for a church and that he thinks us stopping him is a sign. He said he had started reading his Bible recently and felt prompted to find a church and be baptized. Unfortunately, bro speaks english so we're gonna have to do a pass off on Saturday with the Elders. Also…I HIT 15 MÊSES TODAY!!! So we stopped by Qdoba for dinner on our way home and I got a quesadilla. We then went home to call some people. We didn't get to go to the gym today because of the mission tour, so we went after 9 and I made sure to get my 7500 steps. Heck yeah!! Great way to end a great day.

Quinta: Okay, this is the week that never ends, ngl. But it's okay. This morning we made a new friend at the gym. This old guy came in to work out and got on the treadmill next to me. He asked who we were and we said that we are the new missionaries who just moved in. He asked some get to know you questions, very nice, very chill. He then asks “What is your church's opinion on all this gender BS?” OH. Well good morning to you too. He then asked what were our beliefs on the next life, so I gave a brief explanation of the Spirit World and the 3 Kingdoms of Glory. Missionary work doesn't ever stop! Not even when you're exercising. He said that he likes us more than our predecessors (Elders) because we have personality. SCORE! We went finding on Framingham today, so I got a million steps. Will sent us a phone number randomly, so we called the guy. He said that his name is Jhonny and he is searching for a church. He said that he had an accident recently and saw the spirit world and that it woke him up to the fact that he needs a church? We are going to call him again later in the week and talk more. Will said that he felt prompted to get his number when he walked past his house and saw Jhonny in front. Way to go Will! We did some stop bys and had dinner. We went to the church and printed out the rest of our ABC list and had an online lesson with our friend Ronaldo and then called some greys. We were in bed, lights out at 9:30. What a great night

Sexta: Oh. My. Gosh. First off, I had to do abs today. Not a great start. It got better though later. I had a good personal study of the Bible and BOM. Our house is genuinely freezing, so that's fun. We found out that a Nor'Eastener is coming (a cyclone) so it's going to be a rainy weekend! I'll keep yall updated. We went and did some finding on Framingham and met a couple of people. It was so cold today! It was the same temperature as yesterday, but windy and cloudy. I had a coat and a scarf on. Lowkey might need to break out my hat soon, especially if it's going to rain all weekend. We did stop-bys and tried to visit an inactive member. He was VERY suspicious of our presence. He kept asking how we got his contract and why we were there and who sent us. He asked if the ward coord sent us. We said no, it's just us. His wife and son are active but he's busy. About 10 min after we left, he called us and asked if we wanted some leftover spaghetti! We thanked him, but said we were already out of there. We went to do some more stopbys (lowkey took a nap in the backseat because my head was hurting). We then went to CVS to pick up my medication, it took 40 minutes because I wanted medication that insurance didn't want to cover. Gah! It's chill though, we got my drugs, and Sis Jergy got her candy pumpkins. After that, we had dinner at 5 guys for Sis Peteys mesversario. We then went over to Tiago's house to teach him. His parents are both members, and have been for about a year and a half. His dad said that he wants the missionaries to teach him before he gets baptized, so we went over with a kids BOM. The lesson with Tiago mini went great. We then asked his parents if they'd want to join the Portuguese group going to the temple next week, and oh boy did that open a can of WORMS. We just sat through an hour and a half BASH session by Tiago Sr. Holy crap. He said that he believes but doesn't believe in prophets and what would we do if God spoke to us in a dream and said we were the next prophet and he won't accept Oaks unless he can shake his hand because that's the only way to tell if someone has the spirit…whole lotta stuff. He bashed on temples too. Just an hour and a half of sitting there and “mhm” and nodding while he talks about how Moses was a true prophet because every person on earth followed him and they all shook his hand (????). Just a whole can of worms. If he was asking questions and wanting answers, that would be different. I love talking and answering questions. I have questions of my own! But I don't appreciate being bashed on. Finally we were able to say we needed to get home for a mission zoom at 9:15 (it was 9). We got home and did the zoom and went the freak to bed. 

Sabado: Holy cold and rainy day! The rain wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it was just a continuous grey drizzle. It was also FREEZING. Like 54⁰ and rainy and SO windy. I wore a hat, gloves, scarves and 2 jackets. I have no idea what imma do in November (probably die). Pretty much no one was out, so we switched to stop bys and still had no luck. But hey, at least the warm car was nice! We decided to get Taco Bell for dinner, it was yummy and warm. We went to the church but couldn't enter because there were Elders there, so we started calling while we were in the car. We made the Elders come out in the rain to do a passoff, but hey better than them us. By that point, other missionaries arrived so we could enter the church. One of our RCs sent Jergy a text saying he wanted to take her out on a date away from all the mission stuff. She has rejected him 3x already, so she got pretty annoyed. We had a phone lesson with our friend Jhonny, it went well. He seems like a nice guy.

Domingo: I don't know why, but Brazilians are scared of rain. One of our members asked if church was going to be canceled because of the rain. It was not even raining that hard…so no?? But we didn't have a single friend show up to church. Jhonny is covered in bandages and has 3 casts on, so he can't get them wet or put on shoes. So he at least had a good excuse. He sent us photo proof...which included a side profile of his entire very bruised butt. Adna was at a wedding in New Hampshire, so she did have a good excuse too. But c'mon peeps, a little rain will not kill you. Today was the Primary Program, and it was so cute. Every ward has a screamer, and this ward is no exception. He was getting INTO it and bobbing his head, so cute! Turns out my baby sister was having her Primary Program too, how fun! After church, we had baptisms for the Spanish branch, and the English Elders baptized a Brazilian (yeah.). The baptism was beautiful, the Spanish sisters baptized a mom and her 3 kids. The Spanish branch made SO much food, and it was so good. After church, I watched my friends hoco talks via zoom (great job ale and misha!) And then we had ward coord. After ward coord, I studied Lehi's dream super in depth before dinner. I made some delicious mac n cheese. We then had the most LIT 2 hour weekly planning session. This week has actually been kind of frustrating with finding people, so we mapped out 5 ways to find people for every single day. We are going to be finding nations this week. So help me. We then had a zone zoom and I got asked to pray…guys I kept LAUGHING. It was so bad. Whatevs. I then got to call my family which was a great pick me up in the middle of the longest week. 

Segunda: Not having pday today was messing with my head, but we made it! I had to do arms today, and normally my reward for arms is pday. Not today! I had the most random lunch of some saltines with chicken and a sliced up banana. I could not figure out what to eat. The fact that I have to choose every day for the rest of my life, and include a family in that decision?? I'm hosed. Anyways, we called some greys after lunch and then did some stopbys. It was cold and rainy, so finding out in public was a no go. We waited until the rain stopped. We stopped by Big Boi to use the restroom because the water to our apartment was shut off all morning and we ran into the English Elders. They gave us some candy! Our RC Valdirceu texted us out of NOWHERE and asked if we could have a lesson in 30 minutes. It kind of made us nervous, because he hadn't gone to church yesterday and didn't respond to any of our texts, so we were nervous. It ended up being great though, he got off of work early and felt bad for sleeping through church. We talked about General Conference and he's super excited. I had a yummy grilled cheese for dinner and we went to the church to make flyers for GC and for Noite de Integração. I'm super proud of the flyer I made!

Terça: Holy freaking fire day! I got in 1.5 miles on the treadmill and we had District Council. We talked about how to connect better with our friends and understand them better. It can be hard to get to know people in a 3 minute conversation, so we need to be on our game. After DC, we had interviews with President. While waiting for my interview, I got to talk to Sister Risenmay and she is my new favorite person. She is SO funny and so sweet, she reminds me a lot of my mom. She asked me a lot of questions. I then had my interview with President and it went well. He agreed to send me home in November, instead of January. That means that my homecoming date will be Nov 25- mark your calendars!! Like 2 hours after interviews, I got sent “My Plan” which is terrifying. What do you mean I have to have my life together?? We got home at like 2:30 and had lunch and did p-study and then went out. We tried a new finding location and weren't having much luck, so we switched to stop-bys. On our first random dot, we found this woman named Regiane. Her husband had been taught by the missionaries previously. It was an amazing lesson, the spirit was SO strong. We mostly just talked about missions and following Christ. At one point she said that she didn't think we were here for her husband, she said she felt that we had prayed and were there for her. She had just recently received a cancer diagnosis and it's been hard for her family. But she talked about how God has a plan, and her illness is just part of a bigger, more beautiful picture. She had such a strong testimony! And on our way out, her husband pulled up and offered us each a mini Brazilian pizza!!!!! YES! We got home at 8:45 and had an hour long phone lesson with Jhonny. We taught him about baptism and the homy ghost and he said that he needs that constant guide and that help in his life. He is going to be baptized on Oct 18!! Two great lessons in one day. And tmr is pday!! 

Pictures:

1. Look at the PREP that was put into the mission tour! I would actually recommend looking at this, I think it was super helpful

2. My fire meal prepping

3. Fall drinks

4. Mish tour! I love my comps!!

5. Holy gorgeous sunset before the sun left for 3 days

6. Breaking out Christmas music in Sept☃️🎄

7. It's been SO cold

8. Random as freak lunch

9. My General Conference flyer, I worked SO hard on this