2/4

2/4 aint bad? (yes i know that equals 1/2)

Our goal was 4 baptisms this week but some issues happened with Ester and Maria Clara. We talked to the mom of Ester and she was soooo not on board at first; But let me say thank goodness we are foreigners because she got super excited to talk to us. We were there for like an hour and a half, and by the end she was on board. Ester still didn't feel ready by the time the interview came around but that's okay because she feels she needs to get to know more about the church! And that's our purpose! With Maria Clara it was the exact opposite, she wants to be baptized and passed the interview but her mom is a little iffy about it and didn't give authorization.

We did, however, baptize Erica and Adilson!

Erika readily accepted our new goal of this Saturday with no problem, and our LD said it was the fastest interview he's had because of how ready she was. Then with Adilson, he's just so ready to be baptized, there was no problems there. Ahh  it was the cutest thing, the Sunday after the baptism we invited him to have lunch with us and a group of the members and they added him to their group chat and everything so that was cute. The baptism went smoothly for the most part, we have a new font (aka pool) so yayyyy

But of course, there always has to be a trial every transfer. Since this transfer it isn't my companion, nor is it spiritual, it's physical. My poor companion could barely walk on Tuesday because of her knee problems so she went to the hospital with Sister Cooper on Wednesday and I went on splits with the Sister Trainers so we could have our interviews. She was told she's not allowed to leave the house for 5 DAYS. You could say she was a little devastated...so we went on splits with Lago Sul which would have been cool except all of our appointments fell through so I felt bad because they came to Sao Sebastiao twice in one day for nothing haha. We also went on splits again with the Sister Training Leaders so it was nice that I was able to go out and work. 

Sister Barrios is still the best, no companionship is perfect, but we are having a lot of fun together. She's teaching me spanish (uhm more or less) and I'm teaching her English! We are hoping to both be transferred to Palmas together next transfer.

Tchaoo

Beijouuss

Sister Cecil

140

I love working with Sister Barrios, she is such a good missionary. We almost work too hard, cause now we both are having pain in our knees for how much we walked this week. 

Friday was rough because we woke up at 6 am to go to the office so that we could get my Visto sorted out with the elders who work there, only to arrive and 9 and find out it was a holiday and so everything was closed. We returned to Sao Sebastiao and honestly, we literally walked until the end of the earth that day. Of course, the majority of our appointments fell through, and both of us were feeling down and really not wanting to walk to our next appointment which was 1 hour away. Her phone number was disconnected because it was the wrong number, which usually means the address is wrong; but we decided we were going to go anyways. I can honestly say God blesses missionaries who strive to work as hard as possible. We went to the investigator's house and after teaching the lesson she told us she used to be super committed to how she was baptized in her church, but now she's thinking she needs to be baptized again. She offered the closing prayer, and was crying as she finished. We marked a baptismal date for her, but she works on sundays so we shall see what happens. As we left the house we felt a little better about our decision. Then as we were walking, a boy asked us who we were. As we talked to him, his uncle came and told us he went and visited the church in Lago Sul and really like it, but didn't know where it was in Sao Sebastiao. We definitely were on that street for a reason, and we are going to be able to visit him this week. The blessings didn't stop there, we went to our last appointment at 8:30: Erica. She is the sister of Nicolly, daughter of Lucimar who were baptized last transfer. The week before we had invited her to pray about whether or not she should be baptized. Honestly, her transformation has been amazing, she used to always leave the room as we taught, and now she's inviting us to come over and teach. Anyways, as we entered the house I could tell she was excited. She was just waiting for us to ask her if she had received an answer. I asked her "voce teve o opportunidade..." and I barely even finished asking and she was already nodding her head. She is so excited to be baptized. We marked a date with her for the 1st of December, but since she went to church this week we are gonna try to move it to this Saturday. As we left her house that night I had never felt so tired in my life, but both of us just ran down the street, dancing, shouting, etc. from happiness. 

That being said, we are going to try to have 4 baptisms this Saturday...it's gonna be stressful and we are bringing the sisters from Lago Sul to help us one day this week so we can get to all of our appointments. The first baptism will hopefully be Erica. Then we have Adilson who just randomly went to church one day because a friend mentioned it to him, and he's been attending so we have to follow up with him and give him more lessons this week. Then there is Ester and Maria Clara, friends who are 11 and 10 years old. They rock! They love me because I am an American and want to be baptized this Saturday butttttt their parents are hardcore Catholic. We are going to talk to them tomorrow and explain what's happening. Definitely will be a difficult week to hit the goals of the mission, but we are hoping that with our obedience and fasting the Lord will provide a way, as he did the week before. 

We found out last Pday that the number of invites for church has been moved from 70 per week, to 140 per week. We thought 70 was a lot, and now its double. On Saturday we realized we had only done about 1/3 of that so we realized we really needed to bring it, and in one day we did 73 invites, our normal weekly goal in 1 day. We managed to hit all of our goals this week which was really satisfying. 

Oh and quite possibly the best thing EVER happened to me this week. There's this one member who is rather well off, and likes to take us out to a restaurant in Lago Sul every month. He always asks us what food we want and my companion, wanting sushi, told him that I was craving sushi. So we arrive, and the waitress asks what kind of meal we want. He says "Fica a vontade". That was music to my ears. All you can eat sushi???Yes please. I had 4 giant platters full of sushi,  I kid you not (photos included). And yes, I was thinking "sushi?? in the very center of Brasil?? many many light years away from any sea?? how am i NOT going to throw up because of this." but then i thought "this will probably be the only opportunity I have in 1.5 years to eat good sushi. That's totally fine, I don't even care". The Lord blessed me yet again and I did NOT get sick and I was very very very very very happy. I also made guacamole again this week from another big boi avacado so I have been eating rather well here. 

Thank you everyone for your lovely emails and prayers! 

Sister Cecil

A saying on the mission is that you find out the kind of member you want to be and the kind of member you don’t want to be.

4 Months

I hit 4 months this week, and everyone says the mission goes by fast but I have yet to experience that haha. I did, however, eat cold pizza for breakfast one morning and I felt like an American. It's hard not to feel like an American here, everyone stares at me because I'm so blonde and pale. It's a blessing because people love to talk to me and always want me to come visit their homes because of where I'm from. I also really loved the cereal you sent mom, I'm too poor to buy any here haha. 

I'm loving being with my new companion, Sister Barrios.  Presidente Cooper emailed me this week saying that she is a great companion, which isn't something he would normally say. She really is awesome. She is so dedicated and ready to work and we absolutely killed our goals this week, so that was super satisfying. I'm her first American companion so she wants to learn English. I'm also her first companion not in training so I think that's why she is so pumped to work in this area.

We have 10 dates for November 24th to be baptized so lets see how that works! Our goal is 9 dates for baptism every week which is a lot, and kinda hard because they usually fall through, which is sad. 

We had our District Meeting yesterday with Sister Trainers in Nucleo and got to spend the night.  So Sister Olsen, Sister Shields and I had a sleepover!!!

Muito Amor

Sister Cecil

Confirmation & Baptism

Oi!

Well, we had a baptism this week! Jk, really, the sisters in Lago Sul (shout out to sister Olsen and Sister Shields) had a baptism, but she lives in Sao Sebastiao so technically she's a new member of our ward haha. It's really great that she was able to be baptized there because she will be better integrated into that ward, and her testimony is more important than whose investigator she is. It was super fun to go to the baptism though! 

I'm so sad to be done with training, I keep telling my new companion that she still is gonna have to act like I am in training. Sister Ramos and I got the phone call last night that she would train (FOR THE 4th TIME, and FOR HER LAST 2 TRANSFERS) IN PALMAS, so she leaves tomorrow for a 14 hour bus ride to open an area with a newbie. It will be hard, but I know she's the best person for the job. I am staying in Sao Sebastiao and my new companion is Sister Barrios, she is from Buenos Aires, Argentina! She seems super great. Earlier this week I was really wanting to leave this area, but as the week progressed and I became more involved with our investigators I started getting really stressed about leaving because they all have a lot of potential and there is so much here to do. I was super worried I would leave so I'm pretty okay with staying now as I focus on the investigators and members. And I'm happy Sister Olsen is staying too haha, hopefully we will have a district meeting this transfer??

We had a lot of trials this week, but also a lot of blessings. We did a family night with all the members every night, which was good because Sister Ramos got to say goodbye to them. We struggled with some things as a companionship, and with all our investigators (the first two days all of our appointments fell through) so we decided to fast together. It really helped, honestly. I was so stressed about being senior this week, but it wasn't that bad, just disappointing because I felt way worse when our appointments fell through. But after the fast we had way more success, and became even closer. I am so sad Sister Ramos is in the area that's farthest away from me. 

I learned a lot of things this transfer, especially how important it is to listen to the Spirit and stand up for what is right. You're never going to be able to follow the rules or the commandments perfectly, but as long as you try there will be a way. This week Sister Ramos taught me a lot about loving our investigators, and everyone we teach. If you are too preoccupied with what you are going to say, and how the lesson will be, you wont be able to get to know them and listen to what they say, and then you wont be able to help them. If you listen with charity, the pure love of Christ, you will already know what to say because you will be guided. 

We are hoping to baptize Claudia, Pedro, and Joao Pedro this transfer because they will get married hopefully -  So I am excited for that! I hear that Sister Barrios likes to work hard, so vamos!

Muito Amor,

Sister Cecil