The Missing Weeks

From 24 March 2009

What the hey? Week 6 begins already?

well, this last week FLEW by for me. I seriously can´t believe it´s already Tuesday.

So some stories from the last week:

We have a track that you have to run around 14 times to get a mile, how crazy is that? But I did lunges around it and my legs hurt for like 3 days. But I kept doing them and now it feels great. We don´t spend very much time outside, so anything I get get to just feel fresh air and run around is GREAT.

Adventures in Portuguese continue. Our books we learn from are hilarious. They were written by a Brasilian, so they have a lot of English mistakes. My favorite: "I saw a saw saw". Also, one of the Elders in my district has this other Portuguese workbook he got i Provo, and it has "Common phrases" and one is "EVERYTHING IS GOING WRONG!" I just thought that was hilarious.

I love talking with the Brasileiros at meal times, and my roommates. Sadly, they left today =[ I can´t believe 3 weeks went by so fast!Funny story about cute little Sis Marenco (Dad, don´t put this in the newsletter :]) She was packing her suitcase the other night, when she looked up at us and asked "O que bullsh*t?" Omg. Sis Campbell and I looked at eachother and were like "..WHAT did she say?!" and started cracking up. She got really embarrassed b/c she realized it was something you probably shouldn´t say. We were like "Ya... don´t say that".

And on a more spiritual note...Everyday that I´m here, I see little miracles in my life. I think that often you can measure your spirituality (meaning how close you are to God) by how much you can recognize His hand in your life. I have had so many little prayers answered--whether it be reading a scripture that gives the answer or comfort I need, or someone saying something, or getting a letter, or having a really tasty dessert or anything! I know that all good things come from God, and there aren´t such things as coincidences. He is so acutely aware of each and every one of us, and our personal struggles in life.

Can you believe it´s been three years? I miss Mom so much sometimes... I want to share a special experience I had at the MTC in Provo, that´s been reaffirmed here. My teacher said something along the lines of "There are concourses of angels around us right now" and I had the distinct impression, almost as if I could see it, that Mom was standing right next to me saying "That´s right, I´m watching over you and nothing is going to hurt my Ashley-girl!" Mom is my guardian angle right now... I can feel her so close so often, especially every time I´m in the temple. I know she´s still there because I know that death isnt the end. It´s a part of the amazing plan that Heavenly Father has created for us. How blessed are we to know of that, and to know that we can all be with Mom again? The atonement of Jesus Christ is what makes that possible. That´s what what I´m doing is so important. I´m helping people find that truth, find that way to get the atonement in their lives, so they can live forever with their families and with God.

1 Cor 1:17!

~Sis Wilkinson

From 17 March 2009

Hey guys!

I can´t tell you how nice it is to check my email and have a message waiting from you. This week hasnt been super exciting... Just busy with learning the language and learning the gospel. Can you believe tomorrow is a MONTH since I left?! How does time go by so quickly?! I feel like its been like a week, but at the same time, i feel like "that´s it?" I feel so out of touch with the real world.

We went prostelyting (is that how it´s spelled?) on Friday. Wow. What an experience! It was great to get out. The first three people I said hi to looked away and walked quickly past us. But then we talked to some teenage boys and things went better from there on out. We had the most sucess with men (haha) and people sitting on benches. The people we talked to were very polite and listened despite our horrible portugues (though when they found out we´d been in the country for only a week, they were super impressed with how much we could communicate! We talked to a lot of people: we gave away five copies of the Book of Mormon and a ton of pass along cards. Some people we could tell weren´t that interested, but there were a few that we could tell really wanted to hear what we were saying. The first was a man that passed us and I glanced back at him and he was looking back at us, so I stopped and we talked to him. It was awesome... we couldn´t quite understand everything he was saying, but it was something like he had heard of the church where he used to live and then had moved to são paulo and hadn´t known how to find out more. We explained about the book of Mormon and had him read Moroni 10:4-5 and the introduction and then the beginning of 3 Nephi 11, where Christ visits America. He was really interested in hearing about it and was happy we gave him a number to call and find a congregation to meet with. Talk about golden! We talked to a few other people after, some who were surprised to hear that the church is so big in Brasil and in the world. There were two girls a little younger than us that we talked to, Samatha and Vanessa, and we were just chatting with them and then we told them we had a message for them and explained about the restored gospel and the Book of Mormon. At first they just seemed to be listening politely, and we asked them if they were Catholic. They said no, but that they believed in God and Jesus. We told them that this church is the true church and that the Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They started really listening after that. I told them, "não posso falar muito, mais eu sei que estas coisas são verdadeiras. O livro de mórmon é a palavra de Deus" (I can´t say much, but i know that these things are true. The book of mormon is the word of God). We had given a copy to Samantha, and then we told her it was for her, and she got the happiest look on her face and said "Really? For me?" and held it close. It felt so good to see someone feel the light that the truth brings. I prayed for them that night, that their hearts would be open and that they would read the book and desire to learn more.

So some other fun things here at the CTM!

I think I mentioned last time about how I made friends with a lot of the Brasilian elders. A lot of them left this week--kinda sad! But most of them are going to Recife and the ones that arent promised to write =] it´s awesome making friends all over the world!Speaking of world, Brasilians can´t pronounce that word. They cant do the strong r and the strong l right next to each other, if at all. Other things that are tricky are turtle and chocolate fudge brownie. Hahaha. The reason I bring that up is because a couple of my friends, elders silva and souza, were trying to trick me by getting me to say "paralelepepido"... which I got in like 2 tries (not to brag or anything). Then I was like "say world" and they couldnt. It was awesome =] Also, Elder Souza used to be a clown, and he bought some balloons last week and made a bunch of us sisters balloon animals. He made a heart for sis beecher and a flower for sis campbell and a swan for sis hall and he made me a turtle ;)

So every day for every meal we have rice and beans. And I think I´ll get sick of them and then meal time rolls aroiund and suddenly I just have this craving for rice and beans. It´s crazy! But they are SO good here! Way better than the stuff in America. And the meat!!! The CTM has it´s own churrescuria... oh my goodness. Some of the most delicious meat I´ve ever tasted. tá bom!The Elders in my district were having a contest to see who could eat one of the apples in the least amount of bites. First it was 6 bites, then doesn to 3, then down to 3 in 52 seconds, and then my comp, sis campbell, trumped them all and did it in TWO BITES!!!!! It was amazing!!!! Hahahaha, the Elders were super impressed.

I dont know if I mentioned this in the last letter, but I love the Brasilian national anthem. Google it. It´s SO fun to sing! We sing it every sunday before our fireside. IT goes super fast and its great. Its been stuck in my head for the last week.

The other day I had to give my teacher just a short lesson for lesson two, about the plan of salvation. And it was hard! I was translating from what I had memorized in Portuguese into English! By the time I call in May, im not going to be able to speak English ;)I love the second lesson. It´s teaching about the Plan of Salvation. It´s amazing how well it just works. Read lesson 2 in chapter 3 from preach my gospel!!!!!! And also read 2 Nephi chapter 2, chapter 9, and alma chapter 12 and chapter 41-42. God does have a plan for us. We werent just put here on this earth by accident. There is meaning and purpose in life, and the gospel of Jesus Christ helps us know who we are, and how to overcome all of life´s challenges.

Muito amor!

~sister wilkinson