Commitment Trouble

I would send pictures but they don't work with this computer and we had to walk like an hour to find an internet cafe that was open; everything except for the bars are closed here for New Years. I don't think we are really gonna do anything tonight.  Maybe watch fireworks if they have any here? Idk, we've decided that our holidays here are kinda sad and that's just kinda how it is if you're on a mission in Brasil.

Honestly not a lot happened this week except Christmas, it was super great to skype. It doesn't feel like that happened a week ago, feels like it's been an eternity.

I really love the members here, but one think im getting a bit tired of is them all telling me that im not qualified to be Sister Jarretts companion because i only have 3 months in the field and im an American.  Ive kinda learned that you can pretty much say anything here and its not rude so i just kinda gotta let it roll off haha, especially when people (aka investigators) figure out im American and then act like they dont understand me and ask me if im speaking english withh them. Its so funny because they understand me up until they figure out im an american and then suddenly they think im speaking English haha. It happened with Sister Souza, one of my roomates. She walked into a store and asked for something and the dude was like "sorry, i dont speak your language" cause he just assumed we were all Americans. She told him she was brasilian and he was a bit embarassed to say the least. But for the most part its pretty cool to be an american because we can alwasy use it to our advantage, saying we left our homes from super far away to visit with them etc. and people love to learn about the US.

We are working super hard here, but everyone has trouble with committment. We have over 30 baptismal dates, but the majority of them fall because they dont want to go to church, or they think they want to wait until theyre more prepared, which is fine, but we all know that "more prepared" means in like 20 more years haha.

Yesterday we realized we had a zone conference this week, and that they were gonna take our last 4 weeks of numbers/ how much we worked and compare it to 5 weeks worth of work. Makes no sense, but anyways is gonna happen. So we decided to go on splits with the sister training leaders and have a competition. We had 2 hours to do all the numbers for one week, and the winner would get acai from the other sisters. So Sister Ribeiro and i went out running, it was awesome. We did over 100 invites, 16 baptismal dates, 27 new investigators and over 30 lessons in an hour and a half. So our numbers doubled this week, but i dont think ive ever been so tired in my life haha. it was very satisfying.

Not much else happened this week, just a lot of work so we wouldn't think too much about our families

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Sister Cecil

Feliz Natal

My child's name is Sister Jarrett and she is from New Hampshire! (oh yeah, if you train you are a mom so congrats mom, you are a grandma).  She studied at BYU, philosophy and anthropology. We only speak in Portuguese, so I'm glad she's up for that challenge. We've only had 5 days together but I like her, she's willing to work hard which rocks. We are living with two sister trainers, Sister Souza from Sao Paulo who will go home this transfer, and Sister Ribeiro who has a year on the mission and she's from Porto Alegre. We spend about 70% of our time with them, everything except for working. 

One day I tried to speak in English with Sister Jarrett to explain something and I couldn't figure out how to say anything in English, so that was kinda interesting. I honestly don't think I've been teaching or speaking better than in this transfer so I 100% have so much help from the Lord, which ROCKS.    

Our new ward ROCKS, the members are so nice, and I've heard super good things about the Bishop so that is a nice change. It's kinda small but about normal, probably 60? people, idk I'm super bad at guestimating. I am the pianist again, I think I've come to the conclusion that I need to hold a piano class in every area hahaha 

For investigators, it's super hard because the sisters didn't write down anything really about the old investigators so we are kinda starting new. We had a cool experience this week, we met a man on the street named Roswaldo and we invited him to be baptized in the first minute. The day we were going to visit him I felt super inspired to study the Bible for personal study. And for some reason, I decided to study how it applied to the the lesson of the Restoration. So I marked a bunch of scriptures in my Bible that related. We went and taught him the Restoration of the church that day. He went into his room and brought out his Bible and told us that the Bible is super important to him. He asked for the pamphlet so he could read it and then cross reference it with the Bible. I was so grateful I had studied that morning because I was able to mark scriptures in the pamhplet that supported our message, and we gave him a Book of Mormon. I was sooo happy on Sunday because he came to church, with his pamhplet and everything! It was so cute

I like this area for the most part because there's cool stuff here, but it's a lot richer than Sao Sebastiao so we get rejected a lot more which is a little disheartening but it's part of the life. People here are still obsessed with my hair and how pale I am, and I cannot count how many people ask if sister Jarrett and I are twins....One lady even emailed as I prayed and talked on the phone haha it was kinda funny

I was so nervous to train, especially cause I know that Americans literally know like nothing when they arrive (aka I literally was like a lost sheep for my first transfer) and I still feel like I don't have enough time on the mission to train. But now I'm super grateful for this opportunity.  I think that I'm learning way way more right now, which is awesome, and I'm grateful I'm able to help Sister Jarrett. 

Just wanted to send a thank you to everyone for all the sweet Christmas messages! Definitely made me smile!

FELIZ NATAL, our house be decked out with fake snow (thanks Kim!) and christmas trees!

Sister Cecil

me and sister barrios in a car with our millions of suitcases

TAGUATINGA 2

Wow so much happened this week, it feels like it's been a month since I've emailed. The Christmas Conference was super fun, our President dressed up as Santa Claus so that made me laugh. And when I was there I got 4 boxes so that was kinda interesting to try to carry back to Sao Sebastiao with me through the bus and the metro...but all worked out. And I didn't really have any patience, so I opened 2/4 :)) I was soooo pumped to have a speaker I think my comp and I have been listening to christmas music nonstop for the past week now because of it

So yesterday my companion and I were both freaking out about the transfer because per usual there were like a million rumors floating around. This transfer 24 new missionaries are arriving. Finally, for the first time since I arrived, a new American sister will arrive, so I am now the second newest American. Low and behold, I am actually going to train her, while opening an area, which means no one where I am living has been in that area yet so we don't know anything. I am being transferred to Taguatinga 2 which is where Sister Barrios was before Sao Sebastiao! I was so nervous after the call and I think I slept about 3 hours last night because I was so worried because I feel so unready to train, let alone an American, in a new area. But I know that who the Lord calls the Lord qualifies, so this should be a really good learning experience for me. Sister Barrios is leaving to go to Nucleo Bandeirante as well, and the area I am currently in is closing for sisters, which means two elders are going to come. I was kinda worried about that, but turns out it's Elder Hendrickson from my CTM district! So I know it's in good hands, and I'm excited to hear about all the baptism they'll have. 

So this week we worked so hard on Maria Clara, who bore her testimony about knowing the church was true a couple weeks back. She kept telling us she wanted to be baptized but the parents wouldnt let her. So we talked to the mom and dad and they agreed to let her be baptized on saturday, but we still didnt know if  they would sign the baptismal document. So saturday came, and we were getting all ready for the baptism, made cookies, signs, everything. Then Telma, her friend, called and told us Maria Clara wanted to talk to us. SHe told us her mom told her she shouldn’t feel ready to do this, so we were super sad. I haven't seen sister Barrios cry that much in 6 weeks. It was kinda hard on us, and sister barrios kept asking me why this would happen when we gave it our all, and there are other missionaries baptizing who can’t even follow the rules.   We came to the conclusion that we did our part, and sometimes that's the most we can do, because we can't take away the agency of others, nor the will of the Lord. But I know she will be baptized one day, just not this transfer.

We also had a fun fight with a moth that we thought was a bat because it was LITERALLY that big, kid you not. 

Oh and this week our water stopped. so that was fun, but now it works

Have a great week!

Sister Cecil

PS. no i did not dye my hair, and yes my eyes are actually that blue, and one day my comp and i made empanadas so that was litty

“Good Examples”

Oi!

I wasn't feeling super great this week so there isn't a whole lot of stuff that happened this week.

However, because the transfer happens on the 19th (i think), my comp and I decided to open the first Christmas package together and it's the cutest Advent Calendar! We are counting down the days until the Christmas Conference together and it's so funny to watch her try American candy!

I also tried the jeans of my comp yesterday and I was very happy because it has been 5 months since I have worn jeans so I made her take photos but I was moving around too much because I was excited. photos attached (you don’t have to include this part in the group email but you can if you want haha)

Last P'day we went to the house of a family who was baptized this year. They are probably my favorite people everrr, the mom isn't a member and doesn't really go to church but she has 3 kids; 11, 12, and 16 who are super firm. They always come to our baptisms, and every monday night have Family Home Evening, just the three of them. They always invite us and it's just the CUTEST thing, always strengthens my testimony. They are such good examples. (photo attached)

Today we spent P'day in the Mission President's house because we had to practice for the Christmas Conference and he doesn't let elders and sisters together at all so he said we could go to his house on P'day... We weren't super excited about it, but it was actually kinda fun to hang out with him and we got free lunch so boom, win, and he's actually pretty funny.  

We are going to try for a baptism this saturday with Joao Pedro, he's been to the church for about 5 months now and knows he needs to be baptized, but is too scared to make that step because he thinks he needs to be perfect after. We had a fun time explaining just how imperfect we are to him.  

On Sunday the cutest thing happened, one girl (Maria Clara) wants to be baptized soo bad so her mom lets her go to church but says she cant be baptized. Anyways, she went up to the podium because it was Fast Sunday and bore her testimony about how she knows this church is true. SHE IS 10 YEARS OLD! it was adorable, but makes us super sad because her mom wont let her be baptized. But miracles happen so who knows!

Sister Cecil