Miriam's 3rd Week in Pirassununga - Sister Rodriguez

 This next week I have decided that I will at least start taking little notes about what happens during my week to make this part of my P-Day just a little bit easier.

This week we had Zone Conference once more. Everything President Card wanted to talk about was faith and the Miracles we can bring about through our faith. He invited the entire mission that week to fast for more faith from Friday to Saturday. It was a good message for everyone - particularly me - that our faith really can bring about miracles, but only if you put some effort into it.

Then, a few days after Zone Conference, I was reading in 3 Nephi 2 which reads:

"(...)the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven, insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen-"

And I got thinking: how many times have I seen a miracle from heaven, but didn't recognize it because I was, as Jacob says, "looking beyond the mark(...)for things (I) could not understand" and therefore became "less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven".

I think most of the time God works in little ways, and if we're too busy looking for the next new star or angelic visitation, we're going to miss the miracles God's been sending the whole time.

So here's a few of my little mirclea this week:

I forgot to buy a little snack to keep in my bag this week, so when Sunday rolled around, I was a little worried because if I got hungry on the road and my blood sugar suddenly dropped, I wouldn't be able to buy anything. I silently prayed that something would present itself as a solution. Well, before sacrament meeting, I was talking to a recent convert in our area, Leonel, and he was telling me that he always has to have sugar with him because he, too, needs to keep his blood sugar up. I casually remarked, "Oh, yeah, I understand. I'm the same way." Then I added how I usually keep something with me, but forgot to buy something before Sunday.

Then church started. We had sacrament meeting, and then, while I was waiting for Relief Society to start, Leonel walked in an said, "I have something for the gringa because she said she can't stay without sugar." And he proceeded to hand me a package of Bis (which is like Brazilian Kit Kat).

This week cooled down by a lot because we've been getting rain, so the heat isn't nearly as oppressive. It's still oppressive, but now it's survivable, and sleeping isn't a nightmare.

We invited Maria Lúcia to come to church with a few days ago and told her that we could pass by her house and walk with her. She agreed, and we made our plans. When we passed by her house Sunday morning, she was in fact up and ready to go with us as she had promised.

We've been trying to teach Fábio, the father of a 13 year old boy named Gabriel, but it's a challenge because he has the attention span of a child. Yesterday, we managed to teach a little of the Restoration and snagged his full attention on the subject of a living prophet of God. On top of that, he told us he's reading the Book of Mormon everyday. 

Remember a few emails back I talked about Valdecir from my last area? Well, everything worked out and he was baptized yesterday! Every Sunday he wakes up at 4 AM to get the bus at 5 AM so that he can arrive in Jaú at 6 AM where he waits until 9 AM. He attends both hours, then waits from 11 AM until 2 PM to take the bus home. Now no one has any excuse for why they can't come to church. Obliterated by Valdecir.

Those are my little miracles for the week.

For the rest of my email, I'll attach some photos.

There's an armadillo in this picture☝

Micah's 2nd Week in Ciudad Frontera

 Thanksgiving happened, so that's pretty rad.

So earlier in the week we met this lady (her name is tricky. It's like Naomi, but not, and I can't ever remember what it actually is, so I'll just call her Naomi) while knocking doors, she listened to a little message, was super nice, gave us food and water, and agreed to have us come back. We set up another appointment, but we ended up missing that appointment because we had to travel to Carmen for district counsel, and were late coming back. We went back a day or two later to see if we could finally meet with her again. So we go over to her house, and she's sitting on the porch laughing with 2 of her friends. So they welcome us in, get us chairs, and it was me, my companion, and three very funny 30 year old Mexican women, one of which I think was a little drunk? Naomi fed us barbecue chicken and Pepsi, which was pretty rad, then we just sat and talked with them for a bit and didn't end up getting a chance to actually teach a lesson cause the other 2 ladies kept calling each other things, and apparently the drunk one was hitting on us pretty hard. I still don't speak Spanish, so I don't know what she was saying, but apparently it was bad enough that my comp felt like he "needed to repent". Through it all though, Naomi was trying to be respectful of us, and actually asked quite a few questions, so if nothing else, they learned a little more about missionaries and the work we do. We set another time to go back, so hopefully we'll actually be able to teach a lesson this time.

I had a lot of people tell me that the women here would hit on me because I'm a white man, but I didn't realize how right they were until I got here.

Me and my comp were flagged down on our way to an appointment by this really nice family (not members, or anyone that we had met before), whose son just got a new tie, but didn't know how to tie it, so I got to teach him how, and that was pretty cool.

I'm called "Vaquero" (Spanish for cowboy) at least once a day, so that's pretty rad.

I know this is the Lord's work, that God is aware of each and every one of His missionaries, and is watching over us. I'm very thankful for that, and I'm thankful for nice people like Naomi that make the countless rejections and insults we receive all worth it. It's the small things that keep us going, and for that reason, I know God is mindful of our needs, and knows exactly who to put in our paths to make being a missionary a little easier. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amén.

Here's some pictures for y'all.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Miriam's 2nd Week in Pirassununga - Sister Rodriguez

 I feel like a lot of stuff happened this week while at the same time I feel like nothing happened this week.

But I'll write an email all the same.

I met a family of three rambunctious girls: Iris, Luna, and Natacha. They're super cute with too much energy for their mother. Luna reminds me of me, especially when she's hungry and impatient for food.

We had exchanges this week, and since we live with our Sister Trainer Leaders, it made things much simpler. I spent the day with Sister Harwood. She spoke English with me pretty much the whole day, but it was fun because I got to know her better (she was a little rebel before her mission, apparently). We also placed a Book of Mormon during lunch because a few people got interested in what language we were speaking.

This week we started teaching a girl named Nayara. We've left her a Book of Mormon when we first met her and invited to read it and meet with us again. When we met again, we taught her the Restoration, and she was riveted. She even told us that her prayer about the Book of Mormon seemed to have driven away nightmares she had been having recently. However, when we visited once more and invited her to church, she was a little apprehensive to accept because of something that happened to her in the Catholic church. This experience had led her to be a tad suspicious of churches in general, so she wasn't exactly jumping at the opportunity to visit us. So we made a comprise, inviting to simply get to know the church building itself, not on a Sunday. To this invitation, she agreed. When Friday night rolled around, she showed up with her older sister, Katlyn (that may or may not be how you spell her name). We introduced them to the classrooms and other jazz, and when we visited the chapel and showed them the Sacrament table. We explained what the Sacrament is and why we do it, then explained a little about baptism. When we finished, we asked how they were feeling. Katlyn said she felt something different when we talked about the Sacrament and baptism. She had listened to lots of pastors talk about baptism before, but she said when we talked about it, we seemed to actually know what we were talking about, and that she could see in our eyes that we actually believed it. 

They weren't able to make it to church this Sunday, but Nayara informed us that her sister really wants to next week. Yee Haw! We're hoping and praying that nothing gets in their way.

Yesterday, after lunch, we were starting out our day and a strong wind kicked up out of no where, and a heavy rain was on its way. We were trying to find a system referral, but his wife said that he was sleeping and wasn't all that interested in waking up. So we were just about ready to keep going when someone called out, "Sisters!"

Now, when someone calls you "sister" in Brazil, that means they know exactly who you are. Standing in the garage of the neighboring house was a man, and he was calling us over. We walked over to him, and he said, "Come in! Come in! Don't worry, I'm a member, and my girlfriend is here, so you can come in."

His name is Yuri, and it turns out, he's been inactive for about 10 years and recently felt the strong desire to return. He invited us in to let us a share a message with his non member girlfriend and wait out the rain. We asked him to say the opening prayer, and he thanked God for sending the rain so that he would open his garage at that moment when we were on the road. He said it was the best decision he's made in the last two weeks.

Thus was yet another proof that God has His own plans, and if we let those plans guide us, we'll end up with a better result. He knew where we needed to be and when we needed to be there to find Yuri when he was most needing us.

Well that was my week.

Micah's 1st Area - Ciudad Frontera - 1st Week

Final day at the Provo MTC

So I'm in México now and that's pretty rad. I'm in a beautiful place called Frontera! It's very colorful, and very tropical.

My new companion, Élder Christensen, is great. We work really hard together, but he's also chill, so we have fun together. I'm really lucky to have him as my trainer!

So, Saturday was my first actual day doing missionary work! We eat lunch with members every day here (except P days). On Saturday we ate with Hermano May, I ate a bit of a habanero, and May thought that was pretty funny to watch.

We do a lot of knocking doors, but here, most the houses have walls around them to prevent theft, so "knocking doors" usually just means standing by the gate and yelling "¡buenas tardes!" or "¡buenas noches!". It's all pretty fun. Today there's some festival thing going on. Something about "Revolución Mexicana"? It's pretty cool. So I have a picture from that, lots of people on horseback. I wasn't able to get a better picture, but most of the people on the horses were wearing traditional Mexican clothes, then soldiers were in the parade n stuff, lots of fun.

I've got stories to tell, and more pictures I'd like to share, but I don't like writing terribly long emails, so if you follow me on Facebook, you might see some more pictures on my stories or something. 

I will share one experience though; my companion has been teaching this young boy named David, who's about 12? He seems super interested in the gospel, and he was the first real lesson I went to. Tomorrow we plan to teach him about prayer. But just during that first lesson, it was amazing to see how happy he was to see us, and how happy he was as we taught him. It made me kinda realize a little more what this work is about, and the light this gospel brings into the lives of others. With that, I know I'm doing the Lord's work, en el nombre de Jesucristo, amén. 

So now here's some cool pictures from my first 2-3 days here in bonito Frontera, and from my arrival in México