Week 3 with Sis. Santos - Jaú, Brazil

 

On Division (or Splits) with Sis. Hirschi

This past week, we did a division, and our Sister Trainer Leaders - Sister Sousa and Sister Hirschi - came to spend the day with is. I ended up sticking with Sister Hirschi, and we had a really fun time. She's got a lot of energy and love for what she's doing. And she's also always hungry, so she stopped to by snacks often. This activity led her to buy a single banana at a store and the entire staff in the produce to laugh at this decision. ALSO she impulsively purchased a bubble wand and was just dancing in the street with this thing.

We also had the opportunity to speak with way more people than usual because of the power of the Spirit and miracles that, unfortunately, only happen during divisions. I can't explain it, but every time the SLTs do a division, crazy things happen...

Festa de Julina er Junina; I don't know which one it is. But it's a traditional Brazilian party, and they held it at the church (which was way different than the other festa I went to because no one was swearing or drinking alcohol). It was fun to just hang out with the members of the Branch and eat very tasty food. I'm sorry guys, but Brazilian hot dogs kick American hot dog butt. I'll have to try and make them when I get back.

We went to visit an investigator yesterday, and her husband came to the gate. It was quite the interaction because he was extremely drunk. He kept telling us to enter and share our message, but proceeded to not open the gate for us. His wife finally came out and apologized for his drunkenness, and we planned to visit her another day. When Sister Santos reached out to shake his hand, he planned an unfortunately long kiss on her hand. We decided it best to not visit again on a Sunday afternoon.

Sister Santos is hilarious when we're rejected by people. She becomes very aggressive in language and gestures, and her favorite thing to describe them as "futureless" and what not. But in reality, she's a very charitable, loving, person, a skill she said she learned on the mission. She told me that before her mission, she honestly thought humanity was pretty hopeless, and she spent all of her time with little kids and animals because she just hated people. 

She told me a little bit more about her story about deciding to go on a mission during our nearly two hour walk to a certain part of our area, and it's insane.

I won't go into lots of detail, so let's just say that Satan was rather bold in his attempts to discourage her from serving. By that I mean bold to the point that she and her mother had to cast him out of their presence in the name of Jesus Christ more than once.

This topic came up during a conversation about the premortal life, and it got me thinking. Our Heavenly Father knows us perfectly well, and, because he lived with us, so does the Adversary. He knows our potential, and it's because he knows us that he will do everything in his power to destroy us. Like we read in Joseph Smith History, its a real power. But we have to remember that his power is only what we give him. Compared to our divine nature and the power of our Heavenly Father, we can be like Moses, look upon Satan's efforts and be able to say, "Where is thy glory that I should worship thee? Get thee hence, Satan. Deceive me not."

If the influence of the Adversary feels strong, think of it this way: you're on the path to accomplish something great for the Kingdom of God, and Satan knows it, and he's scared.

I think the devil saying, "I hate you" is just about the highest compliment he's capable of.

-Miriam

Looks like the Barbie movie craze is even hitting Brazil.
I'm certain this dog isn't impressed though and is getting ready to leave his mark to emphasize complete and utter distain. 

The following are some videos and stories Miriam shared with us:

[Sis. Santos filming the Sisters exciting night excursion☝ to find a garbage bin for all their garbage.]

[In these two videos, Sis. Santos rants☝ about how annoying the excuses were getting from this one particular contact who kept making up stories as to why he couldn't set up an appointment to meet. After a phone call with this guy and exhausted by his lies and excuses, Sis. Santos stopped him from talking any further and said sternly, "Look!" (there was a pause as he waited for her to say more...but instead she hung up on him.) When he was off the line, she proceeded to give him a piece of her mind, shouting at the empty phone, telling the man he was a flake.]

[In this video, Miriam went on splits with Sis. Hirschi☝ and had a great time. Sis. Hirschi is extremely happy recalling the events of the day because this time for Divisions, everything seemed to be more successful and miraculous than she usually experiences- visiting with more people, and more positive responses. 

She's also laughing about the grocery store workers reaction when they walked in and bought one single banana and bubbles.]

Demonstrating bubble wand skills.☝

Happy Birthday, Kaylee!

 Kaylee turned 15 this month. She is full of love and life. She's hilarious, she loves to tease and play!

  I started homeschooling my kids when Kaylee was only one year old. I've steered all of them clear from starting any kind of public school until they are in high school.  

Kaylee is my social butterfly though, more social than any of my other kids. She loves to chat with her friends and can't ever sit still long enough to read a book. My older three have never cared one bit about the social aspect of school but Kaylee cares a great deal. So it is no surprise when I say that she is the only one so far who has shown this much excitement for starting high school. 

Kaylee is a friend to everyone she meets regardless of who they are. She has the biggest heart in the world. She's also a day-dreamer. If you've ever seen the movie Mitty with Ben Stiller - you'd understand when I say that Kaylee drifts off like that. I love this girl and wouldn't change her for the world!

A Gift From God

 Endowment literally means "gift".  Last night, Micah had the opportunity to make sacred covenants with God in the temple and receive his endowment. We have tried to prepare all of our kids for this experience and to their credit, they all have been incredibly receptive.  If you are curious to know more about the significance of temples and the what goes on in them, click these links below. 👇💕

Temples

What is a Temple Endowment?

Week 2 with Sis. Santos - Jaú, Brazil

Capybaras!! These R.O.U.S.'s can get up to 200 lbs.

Well I officially hit a third of the way through my mission yesterday day. A solid 6 months. But I feel like my Portuguese regressed this transfer because my companion and the people here speak way faster than in my other area, so I'm back to being completely lost in conversations. But it's fine. I'll learn faster this way, I suppose.

Here's a few events from this past week:

So I've been in need of a bigger suitcase because I didn't think many things through

When I brought two little suitcases out here. I looked around a store near our house, but all of the suitcases in the size I needed were R$650 reais (that's less than $130, but still). But this past week, while working in our area, Sister Santos saw a bazar in a little church and just stopped out of no where and asked if they had any suitcases. She herself said she couldn't believe that she was asking because the chances of finding a suitcases of the size I needed was slim to nothing. However, they had one. A huge one that's apparently a really nice, expensive model and I got it for R$50.

#blessingsofthrifting

I have learned for myself exactly what burning electricity smells like. No, not because of outlets, lights, or other such things. No, no, no. But because of the freaking shower head. I still can't believe they plug them into the wall, but anyway.

If you take more than a 5 minute shower, the head starts to smoke. This thing is walking a fine line between life and death, as are the missionaries using it.

We received some new bases for our beds Wednesday, I think, and, unfortunately, we couldn't fit all 4 beds in the same room, so we had to do some rearranging in the house. When Sister Santos lifted her old wooden bed frame, it immediately started to break so she just snapped it completely right there, shrieking the whole time that the pure power of God and Jesus Himself had kept the frame from breaking on her while she slept.

Four sisters sharing a house.

On a more serious note here:

We've been helping an inactive member, Eva, by calling her almost every night, reading a scripture, praying, and singing s hymn with her to help her feel better. She has a pretty serious case of cancer and is awaiting surgery.

One night, we called her to share a message and everything, and she answered on tears because she discovered some horrible things her ex husband had been doing to her 14 year old daughter. We did our best to comfort her, and we visited her later that week in person and shared a message with her there. She's living in pretty rough conditions; she has curtains covering the windows and her TV only show 24 hour footage of the road outside her house to make sure her ex husband isn't near the house.

This past week, we called her again to share a message, and she answered us telling us that she was hiding in a supermarket with her daughter, Maria Eduarda, and her boyfriend because Eva's ex husband had attacked them with a knife and tried to kill Eva. The only reason he didn't succeed was because Eduarda jumped in front of him and pushed him away. 

They were able to get back home safe, but her husband has just hanging around the house for the past several days, waiting for them to leave.

Theoretically, the police should be doing something about it today. 

So if you could all keep Eva and Maria Eduarda in your prayers and fasts, that would be extremely helpful because this poor woman is a mess.

On a lighter note to end:

We've been teaching a man named Ademir, and he really likes what he's hearing, and he wants to be a part of this family, is what he said. So we've been teaching him. The only thing is that he's only available after 9:30PM, so lessons usually drag on until 10 PM, at which point Sister Santos and I are dead mentally. We want to teach him the Restoration, but all of the sudden he wanted to know about tithing and other such subjects really bad. Sister Santos keeps saying that this man has no choice now. We've stayed up late for him almost every night so she said that she's just going to go to his house and throw him in the water and baptize him herself if necessary.

But he really does have a lot of interest, and he's progressing well, so keep him in your prayers too.

That's all for this week

Visiting with a Brazilian member family. The dad baked this dessert for us.

Anna taking a selfie with her mom in blue Cleo, and dad Andre

Antonia and her daughter Karol

Goodbye Sis. Alves Hello Sis. Santos - Jaú, Brazil

"I had an actual transfer this transfer, meaning I left Rosolem after 3 transfers and am now in Jaú, a city that actually makes me think I'm in Brazil (and Salt Lake City, but that's fine).

I have another Brazilian companion, Sister Santos. And I'm killing her. That's mission talk for I'm the last companion she'll have in her mission before returning home.

Also, I'm in a house, not an apartment, with another companionship: Sister Santana and Sister Harwood.

This area is already far different than Rosolem [Hortolândia]. First of all, more plants and rivers meaning that the air is fresh and doesn't always smell like Marijuana and other such drugs.

My first full day here was Saturday and I had the opportunity to go to a traditional Brazilian party at an English School run by a member of the Branch. It was a strange experience to say the least because my English felt highly unnatural because my brain couldn't seem to comprehend that, yes, I was speaking English to Brazilians. It was also strange because these people picked up on strong swear words somewhere in the learning process and during one conversation this man dropped the £ bomb on me when I told him I had only been in Brazil for 6 months and could speak and understand full conversations.

So...yep.

I'm just getting to know this area, so I'm not sure what to write about this time.

So here's some pictures.

(And a few extra that happened before transfers)

- Miriam"

Final pictures with Sis. Alves in Hortolândia - 

Miriam swapped one of her dresses for the cute dress Sis. Dias is wearing here.

Left photo: Front - Sis. Casperson, Sis. Alves, Sis. Rawlins, Sis. Dias, 

Back - Elder Leatherwood and Elder Sanchez

New Area: Jaú, Brazil - with Sister Santos 

Finally Fresh Air!