Week 6 of Hortolândia- 1st Area -TRANSFERS

 We had our Messenger meeting with Miriam this morning and she sounded so much better than she has the last couple weeks. In fact one of the members, Sister Vera, who has fed Sister Casperson and Miriam every week for the past six weeks mentioned to Miriam at their most recent visit what a considerable positive difference she's seen in her compared to the first day. That really gave Miriam a boost to have that progress pointed out since it's often so hard to perceive our own growth. Ah, that does my heart so much good!!

(P.S. The Mission President decided to keep their companionship together and have them stay in this area for another six weeks. No transfer like they were expecting. Yay!!)

Sister Casperson, Sister Vera (whose son leaves for his mission tomorrow), and Miriam

Miriam taught a Brazilian sister, Sister Silva, the American phrase, "I plead the Fifth!" for when she doesn't want to respond to something. Sister Silva started using it with the American missionaries and even used it in an interview with Mission President Card (who happens to be a Lawyer back in the States). He found it absolutely hilarious! 

Sister Casperson, Miriam, Sister Silva

👇Here's her letter.😃👇

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"Tuesday (4/4):😬😳

》First, a little information about communication between companionships in the field: we have our cellphones, and this is the ONLY WAY we can communicate with the other companionships. Second thing is Area Book. EVERYTHING about our area - who we're teaching, addresses, the map - is in this app. EVERYTHING. You can accomplish practically nothing without it.

》The apartments here: the way apartments are set up here is you have several buildings in one area called blocks. These blocks are surrounded by walls, and the only way to enter is through a security gate on one side. 

🚨remember this information 🚨

Sister Brown, Sister Batista    
Sister Card,
Sister Casperson,
and Miriam

》Storytime: We started the day off with our final district meeting of the transfer. When Sister Brown and Batista showed up, they told us that their phone was acting funny and had died in the middle of the night because it wasn't charging correctly. Since it at less than 10% at the moment, they plugged it in and we began our meeting, which went on for just a little too long. By the time it was done, Sister Casperson and I had 5 minutes to be to our lunch appointment. Uber doesn't work on our phone, so we asked Sister Brown if she would call an Uber for us. When she checked her phone, the battery had dropped even lower, but she called an Uber for us all the same. We parted ways and headed to lunch, which was with the Relief Society president, Najara. After we had a lesson with a new contact. The man we had planned to teach wasn't there, but a woman that's helping him with his son was there, and she let us in. We're beginning to think that she's the one we needed to meet. After that lesson, we clapped gates for a bit longer, then met up with Najara again to teach Adilma. We taught the first half of The Plan of Salvation, and Adilma's husband, Luciano, sat in this time. We have high hopes for him because while Adilma has her doubts, Luciano was rather enthusiastic about everything we taught. After the lesson, Adilma asked us if we said "till death do you part" in our wedding ceremonies since we believed in an afterlife. Both she and her husband looked quite pleased when Najara informed them that we say "for time and all eternity". We're hoping that we can help Adilma and Luciano feel the spirit of our message because in our first meeting with her, Adilma expressed that she and her husband wanted to believe in salvation with their entire family.❤ 

After the lesson, Sister Casperson and I headed home for the night and began to finish up our day. Just after 9PM, however, we got a voice message from a number we didn't have saved to our phone. The man speaking didn't introduce himself in the message; all he said was that he had Sister Brown's phone and that he needed more information about the problems it had been having. Alright. So we left our apartment block and headed down to the other Sisters'. As we approached, we noticed that no lights were on in the apartment. No way they're asleep at 9:15, we thought, but we saw no sign of anyone inside. We knocked on the window a few times and called their names, but to no avail. It was a little strange, but we decided that maybe they were still at a lesson or something. So we decided to wait for them, picking a spot where we could see the front gate and their apartment door. After a few minutes of waiting, we noticed that we had a message from them that they had sent nearly 4 hours earlier saying that their phone was having worse problems and that they wer going to be without a phone for the rest of th day, but they were still going to attempt some visits. So we continued waiting. 15 minutes later- 9:30PM - there was still no sign of them, so we decided to check the apartment again. Still we saw no lights or signs that anyone was there. We went back to our spot and waited some more. When 10PM rolled around, we called President Card. He agreed that this was concerning. He had his wife go into Sister Brown's area book to see where she had planned to be before the phone died, then sent us the member's contact info. We tried to call the member to see if she had seen Sister Brown or Batista that night, but the call wouldn't go through, so we were again left with nothing. We didn't even know where to start looking and by then it was 10:15. With no other ideas, we decided to try the apartment again. This time, I went to the bedroom window and banged on it while calling their names. Again, no answer. And then I heard the low hum of a fan. I turned to Sister Casperson and said, "I hear a fan. You don't think they left it on all day do you?" She didn't think so, so we banged on the window again. At long last we heard the sleepy grunts as the two of them finally woke up.

Wednesday (4/5): interviews 

》We had interviews with President Card this day in preparation for transfers, but not much else.

Thursday (4/6): A tad competitive...

》We had a ward activity this night, and we played what was most certainly the absolute loudest game of "Pictionary" in my life. We had our two teams and those that would be drawing. Every single time, the moment the drawing began, the whole room exploded into incoherent shouting. Sister Casperson and I could hear nothing. Twas next to impossible to figure out which side was guessing correctly first. Em fim, it was extremely fun.

Friday (4/7): Sticky situation 

》Friday we decided to start a fast after lunch to fast for miracles to reach our goal of 100 mission baptisms this month. About an hour after we started, we got a message from a member informing us that we could visit (we had asked earlier, and she hadn't been sure). We thought, "great! We have a visit." Then we realized that this probably meant we would be fed. We shrugged it off and offered a little prayer that she wouldn't feed us. When we arrived, she informed us that she was baking a cake for us🎉🎉 Instead of explaining our fasting situation right away (I blame sister Casperson for this), we just expressed gratitude. Then she sat us down, laid out a table cloth and sent her husband to get some soda. Still sister  Casperson said nothing. Fortunately, the cake was taking a while, so as we were talking, I looked down for a moment and realized that Sister Casperson was flashing the phone screen at me with the question, "what do we do?" written in English. Thus began our mission impossible scenario if sending messages back and forth while trying to remain engaged in conversation. It eventually boiled down to 3 options: explain our situation then and there after so much time of not saying anything, accept the cake and start the fast over, or lie. Sister Casperson went with option 3- Lie. All our lessons had fallen through but we pretended, "Oh, dear, look at the time! We have a lesson we need to be to! We're going to have to run.  Can we bring the cake with us?" The member of course agreed, gave us a container with the cake, and we left. When we got to the street corner, Sister Casperson turned to me and said, "Okay, actually, though. What's our plan for the night?"

Saturday (4/8): Popcorn

Sister Casperson, Miriam, "Grandmother", Mariane 

》We met with a less active member -Mariane (the one who speaks English)- and her mother. We talked with her about her trips around the world, and she showed us pictures of trips to London. Before we left, her mother (who is now our self proclaimed grandmother) popped us some fresh popcorn. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoy their company.

Sunday (4/9): Easter! 

》Naturally since it was Easter, we had a special sacrament meeting focusing 100% on Christ and His atonement, and one of our investigators, Cicero, attended for the first time. He's been to 2 activities in the church, but never the meetings, and he still hasn't had a real lesson. But he loved this meeting. We spoke to him after and he said that he's tried many different churches, and he loved that ours was so focused on Jesus Christ. He wants to attend every week. Sister Casperson is 100% we will baptize him. Prayers people.

》In the afternoon, we met up with President and Sister Card so they could give Sisters Brown and Batista a new phone, and the four of us learned that we are staying in our areas with our companions for this transfer🎉🎉

》At the end of the day, Sister Casperson and Batista made an Easter dinner of chicken, baby potatoes, squash, and pão de queijo. It was delicious."

Sister Casperson, Miriam, Sister Maria

Easter Dinner - Narrated by Sister Batista