Transferência

So the big news: I am being transferred to Riacho Fundo 2!  Which is opening for sisters and doesn't have a chapel so we have to bring the investigators to a different area to go to church. I am going to train again, Sister Pinheiro, who is from Fortaleza Brasil. I am actually going to train her in English because she is waiting for her Visa to go to her real mission in England! I am so excited because Sister Olsen and Sister Shields are my Sister Training Leaders so I get to do splits with them! And I'm in the same District as my daughter, Sister Jarrett! I was very excited.

This week was fun, being Sister Cooper's Assistant. I hung out with President for a bit, did companionship study with them, etc. and definitely had some awesome perks to living in the mission home. I got to say goodbye to my friends who were going home as well, which was nice.

Another awesome benefit was that Sister Cooper asked me if I wanted to go to Taguatinga on Saturday. I obviously said yes because Sister Olsen, Shields and Jarret are there. And then as we got ready to go, she told me Presidente recommended I sleep there! so I obviously was very happy about that and so I went to church with them and everything and then Sister Cooper told me to sleep there again last night so yeah it's been a great weekend. We ate sushi to celebrate. 

I think that's about it for the news this week, being in a trio with the Sister Training Leaders has helped me learn that their lives are very complicated and stressful... I have a lot of respect for them. 

Have a good week! 

Sister Cecil

Super Felizzzzz

Well I would love to be able to attach photos to this email, but I can't figure it out right now.   But that's okay i'll send them next week. But I'm super happy because we had a baptism this week!!!

Her name is Carol and she is 21. She has a daughter who is 8 months old.  Carol finally was able to move in with her mom after months of trying to leave an abusive relationship. So she expressed to us that she could finally be baptized and we were so excited! She will be confirmed next week because this week we had Stake Conference with all the other cities here in Brasilia.

Part of this miracle baptism was because my companion and I were able to do splits with another pair of sisters. I stayed with Sister Scott in Nucleo, and she is going home this transfer because of health issues so she can't work. Because of my stomach problems I also can't, so we just stayed there together while her companion went with mine and they were able to work for 3 days and prepare Carol to be baptized. We have been teaching Carol a while now, so it was a really relaxed baptism.

On Friday night, I was in really bad pain so we called Sister Cooper and she told us to come to the mission home. I said not yet (cause we were gonna have a baptism and I wanted to be there of course) and so we went saturday afternoon. I was supposed to get the results of the endoscopy today, but they're backed up and I have to wait until Friday. Sooo.... I am now Sister Cooper's (our presidents wife) Assistant for the week! My companion went back to our area with a different sister so now she can work again, which is good. It's the last week of the transfer, so it's going to be busy here...

I'm still hanging in there! The talks for Easter were awesome.  President Cooper gave a talk that really helped me. He talked about (sorry this might be long) a young man who was training to run, and the man who was training him was making it super difficult for him, and the training was really painful. He wanted to give up because he didn't understand why he was suffering so bad and why the trainer was being so harsh on him. Finally he went to race, and he was getting super tired and it was getting painful, but since he was so used to it he continued and as he looked up he realized that no one was even close to him. He ended up setting a new record and getting all sorts of offers. He received all of the glory and his trainer received none of it. He finally realized all that his trainer had done for him, and the hard painful experiences ended up being for his good, not because the trainer enjoyed watching him suffer. We can apply this to our lives because often we think that God doesn't know that we are suffering. But He knows, and He puts us through trials that will be for our own good, and make us stronger to face the rest of life's challenges. And in the end, we will get the glory. It was a good talk.

Have a good week everyone!!

Sister Cecil

Endoscopiaaa

So the most major thing that happened this week was that I got an endoscopy which was way easier than I thought it'd be. I have to wait 10 days to get the results of the biopsy. So it's been a rough week because I haven't been able to work due to the pain. We stayed at the mission home for a bit and then with the Sister Trainers, and we have done some splits so my companion could go out and work. I ended up going to the hospital again today cause I got sick so that was fun again. But on the upside we now have hot water in our house after 4 weeks yay!!

Sister Cooper helped us totally renovate our house. And then she took us to a grocery store and bought us SOO much food. I attached a photo. I love her and President so much.  We had Family Home Evening with them, and got to hang out and learn a lot from them! 

Other than that...not a lot happened. These photos are from last week and this week.

I am halfway done with the mission! 9 more months to go wohooo

Love you all

Sister Cecil

Conferencia And Conferencia

Well this week was just full of conferences. Started out with a Zone Conference which was fun because it was combined with Planaltina, so there was a bunch of missionaries there. We did splits with the Sister Training Leaders which was super fun to see Sister Barrios and Sister Ribeiro again. We ended up going to a jehovah witness church which was not as loco as i thought it would be

I went to the doctor again this week and i think i might get an endoscopy this week? That's kinda still up in the air but we are gonna see what happens this week. I'.m going to the mission home today so Sister Cooper and President can take care of me basically.  

In terms of our investigators, one of them turned out to be possessed. So we had to drop him cause he got kicked out of his house and is now roaming the streets. But we were able to bring 2 investigatores to watch General Conference, Marcos (who is living and dating a man) and Luciano (who has a few aggression penalties but he's actually super great and wanting to change his life). It was really fun to watch it in english with the other elders, and the assistants were able to do a couple interviews for us. 

Other than that...was a pretty simple week for us. General Conference was super interesting (www.lds.org) <---- i think thats a link to it idk. But it was super inspired per usual! 

Love you all,

Sister Cecil

I am Alivveee

So yeah it was an interesting week to say the least. But I am alive, thank you everyone for the kind thoughts and prayers. 

So what happened is that I’ve basically been sick to my stomach for the past 5 months, throwing up on and off etc etc etc. So that happened last Monday, I woke up vomiting and so we called Sister Cooper and she took us to the hospital. It was ironic because I had already had a consult marked for that week I guess I just couldn’t wait haha. So we stayed in the mission home for 3 days until my appointment which was fun because air conditioning. And also we got to hang out with President and Sister Cooper and get to know them a little better. And on Tuesday I got to see Sister Olsen, Shields and Ribeiro! I miss them so much, so that was super fun. I ended up going to the hospital AGAIN later that week because I had a fever. I literally just wanted to know if I could take advil because i was taking a bunch of other meds and SIster Cooper freaked out and told me to go to the hospital lol. So that was kinda funny. So I spent like a solid 2 days just waiting

OH ANNDNDDD we went to visit a recent convert and he had his CANADIAN friends over. and what are canadian friends for if they dont bring maple syrup? so we feasted on waffles 

I’ll be honest, it does feel like I have been here an eternity here in Sao Sebastiao even though it’s only been 2 weeks. But I am seeing the blessings of coming back, and being able to see my Recent Converts. That is an opportunity that the majority of missionaries don’t get, and I’m really enjoying it, and seeing my member friends from here. I can finally converse with them now! 

I learned a lot from the mission council that we got to participate in because we were in the mission home, which is basically when all the mission leaders come to the home and give training to each other. I really liked the one about obedience.  The Elder who gave it asked a question asked in the Baptismal Interviews "O que te impede?" or, “What holds you back or stops you?”. So we need to apply that to our missions, and understand why we don’t want to follow the rules and identify that it is not something from God. And then the other thing I liked is something I am gonna need to apply this transfer is that it doesn’t matter WHO is right, but WHAT is right. I think I had a lot of problems with this before the mission because i like to be right haha but I’m trying to get better at this

All of our investigators here are...complicated...One is a man who is married to a man, but he’s so dedicated to the gospel and church and reads 10 pages of the Book of Mormon every day and even comes to appointments with us sometimes lol. And then the others are not married, one does not believe in God, one smokes and has been trying to quit for years...etc. They all are good prospects but we feel like we are more here to help them get to the point of baptism rather than baptize. 

Im super excited for General Conference, I know there’s gonna be a bunch of good changes. 

In respect to my health, i know that a lot of people are worried about my health, seems like the only person who isn’t worried is me! Yeah its kinda unfortunate and I really don’t like having to stay inside and not work but I know that every missionary has its trials and mine just are physical haha. But I’m still in good spirits, happy to be here and serving. I’ve learned to be positive throughout all of these things and I know I’m probably gonna be blessed with impeccable health when i come home! 

Love you all

Sister Cecil