Mon, 19 Oct 2009: 8 months!

Yesterday was my eight month mark. WHAT?! How does time go by SOOOOO fast! I'm almost at my halfway mark! I'm almost an entire pregnancy! I'm almost over the hill! Oh man, so weird. It seems like i've been here two months.

This week was long and tiring. We walked a lot, and had a lot of appointments fall through. People here are really flaky/lie to our faces. Slightly annoying. But that just means I need to try harder and find newer and better ways to do the work. There's always some way that I could improve.

Well, we still have our marked baptism, Xavier, and he's great. We have one other progressing investigator, Alexandre, who was a street contact. He's our age and quite the character. He keeps asking us if we want to go to the beach with him, and he also basically said he wants to marry me, and then he can move to the US and get better work. And out of the five things with the Word of Wisdom (coffee, tea, cigarettes, drugs and drinking) he has problems with 4 of them. But Sunday he went to church all by himself, and when we asked him if he read the part we left in the Book of Mormon, he summerized the chapter perfectly. Me and Sis Oliveira were like: !!!!! hahaha. He'll be our miracle baptism.

Cool thing of the week!!!!! Grandpa Maxwell, this is for you! We had lunch with a woman in the ward, Carlota, and she's from Sao Paulo. She said her mom and grandma and aunt were baptised 50 years ago in Piracucaba, SP, and that her mom always talked about an "Elder Maxwell" and his brother who helped start the branch there (which is now a stake with 7 wards). Is that you Grandpa?! Do you remember a Luzia Patten, Adelaide Patten and Carlota Joas Patten? She also had photos of a few elders, named Jessie L. McCulley and James H. Barwick, who were there while you were (1947-1950, right?) Vovo, estou animada pra saber se elas realmente te conheciam! Eu acho que seria bem legal!!!

Anyway, familia, thats about it this week. I forgot to charge my camera unforunately, so expect a whole bunch of pictures next week!

Love you all. Remember I pray daily for each of you.

Mon, 12 Oct 2009: First Week in Madalena

Oi familia,

So my area is SMALL. We can walk from one end to the other in about a half hour. Its actually one of the larger sister areas, but after Caruaru, where it was walking 15 minutes to get the bus, its pretty darn small. It covers a wide range of social classes, from the favalas and the Blocks (Brasilian equivilent of the projects) to REALLY ritzy high-rise apartments with amazing views. We're also within walking distance of the temple!!!!!!!!!!! It's so beautiful =]

The members are really friendly. I was a little intimidated because the last sister here, sis solesbee, is really good and fun and everyone loves her and i was nervous about taking her place. But we've visited with a few members already and they're all super friendly and like me =] So thats good.

They also make really good food. I'll be glad to get back to things like hamburgers and pizza and mexican, even though i didnt eat very much of those in the US anyway. But i think i'll still have to have rice and beans at least every other day. If we pass a day without, i sense a fault of them (? that sentence was strange, but im not sure how to say it in english..)

We also have an awesome District Leader, Elder Whiting, who is always looking for ways to serve us. Oh! He lent me a book that his grandpa wrote, called "Leverage", and it's waaaay good. It's about creating leverage and tipping points in your life to set good goals and achieve them and really get what you want out of life. Its pretty easy to read but has a lot of good things. I would recommend it. Leverage by Darby Checketts.

As for the work... its going. We spent a lot of time this week chuting (dropping) investigators and finding new ones. We did mark a baptism!!! That was way cool. its the brother-in-law of a recent convert. He went to church on sunday and we taught him the first lesson that night, and marked his baptism for the 24! How cool is that?

Today me and Sis Oliveira and Elders Whiting and Levesque went to the zoo!!!!! Today is also a holiday, "Children's day" kinda the same and mothers day or fathers day. So the Zoo was PACKED. It was a small zoo and kinda lame, but it was still way fun to get out and do something like that. And we saw monkeys, camels, lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) and everyone stared at us also more than the animals. i dont blame them, 3 americans and 2 in business attire at the zoo, haha.

One thing I want to say. If there's one thing i've really seen on the mission, especially these last two transfers, its that if you do your part, and you do the best you can with the most you can, you CAN NOT FAIL. Even when everything is going wrong and looks like its about to fall apart, just keep working and doing everything you can, and have faith that the Lord will do the rest. I know this because i've seen it. The last transfer with sis lemos everything was going wrong, but all of our baptisms still happened and inactive people started going back to church. Yesterday we had an investigator walk out of church and we every appointment we had fell through and no one else was home so sis oliveira felt like we wasted the day, but we contacted one reference and we marked the baptism of the other. So all was not in vain. In fact, everything turned out perfect.

Also, remember to laugh and to not stress. Life is meant to be happy and to have fun. Enjoy the things you do. Work hard, play hard. At the end of each day, ask yourself if you really did the thing that mattered most. If the answer is yes, you'll have a much more satisfying life.

I'll send fotos next week. I didnt bring my cable with me, sooooo já era!

I love you all! keep doing whats right!

~Ashley

Wed, 07 Oct 2009: TRANSFERED!

Querida familia,

It finally happened, what we all knew was coming but never seemed like it would actually arrive: I've been transfered. I'm now in Madalena, which is a neighborhood in Recife. So basically I went from small country town to the middle of the city. It is SO different--I almost feel like i'm in a different mission. My Companion is Sis Oliveira from Minas Gerais (a state here near São paulo). I like her thus far =] We also have an awesomely sweet house, so thats exciting.

Sis Lemos was also transferred!!! She is now in Arcoverde, which is WAAAY interior. We're talking 2-3 hours past Caruaru. But, as President said, that area is in desperate need of Sisters, haha. Our area went back into one area, with Elder Stewart and Elder Serra staying. They were really excited to get our apartment, because now they'll actually live in their area and sleep on beds, instead of matresses on the floor. And our apartment was pretty nice as far as missionary apartments go. Good luck to them.

It was quite a last week. We had another wedding, of Janaina, and two baptisms (Janaina and Adriano). Each was so special and made me so happy. We had such a good transfer with so many daily miracles. I hope I can make this transfer the same.

We also had General Conference... In Portuguese. So I understood about half of what everyone was saying. Its still hard for me to understand things through microphones or on TV. I didnt even know they announced a new temple in Fortaleza until I got your email, dad, haha. I'm excited to read the talks in the Liahona, because i'll actually get more out of it. But from I did get, I understood we need to be MUCH better at living the gospel--be more obedient and stregthen our families and have more love. In an age where the hearts of men really are waxing cold, the warmth of Christ-like love is desperately needed to thaw the bitterness of Satan.

It was hard to leave my Beloved Caruaru, and especially all the people there that I love so much. Last night we had a farewell/family home evening with Mercia and Monica and other members, most of whom we taught. I told them how the gospel unites us, and that they are my family, and families are eternal. The Spirit was so strong and everyone was crying. The Elders also made us brownies and brought them to our apartment. Im going to miss them too, quite a bit. Our district was very unique in the friendship we had, and especially with the Elders in our ward.

But i'm excited to learn and grow here in Madalena. It will be quite an adventure too, seeing as I am now Senior companion--eita! But I now the Lord has put me where I need to be, so I'm ready to do my job and help people grow. I know that if I put the Lord and His work first and give it my all, we'll have miracles.

i'll send fotos monday. I'm still getting used to the area and where everything is.

I love you all! Thank you for all your support and prayers =]

~Sister Wilkinson

Mon, 28 Sep 2009: Batismos!

Oi Familia,

So, this week has been.... crazy, to say the least. Oh man... Lets start at the beginning.

-We were robbed, so we have no phone.

-I lost my planner on the bus, which is like my right arm here on the mission. Along with it I lost all my contacts, a bunch of addresses, my ID to be here in Brasil, and bus passes. Not to mention it was my favorite planner that I decorated.

-We had the wedding of Joana and Leandro, which had a LOT of drama with their families and the bishop and a bunch of other things going on, but they got married and will stay married and its great.

-We had the batism of Marian and Joana. That was so awesome. I love baptisms =]

-We have our recent converts, Adeildo, excited about going on a mission.

-Today for P-Day we went to Nova Jerusalem (New Jerusalem), but not the real one because Christ hasn't come yet. Its the largest outdoor theatre in the world and every Easter acts out the Passion of Christ, and it moves around to all these different stages and the audience follows it and it sounds waaay cool. Too bad I cant go. But it was neat to see the stages and things. We had a lot of fun taking pictures.

We have four baptisms next week, Adriano, and Leandro, and a wedding--Janaina and Lula (her husband, its a nickname, but i dont remember his real name).

Adriano is AMAZING. He stopped drinking coffee right off the bat, and then we explained about the Sabbath day, and hes like "Well, usually i pay football on sundays because im the captian of a team, but i'm going to go to church instead. its what God wants". !!!!!!!!!!Wow!!!!!!!! So we're really excited, and he's excited to be baptised, and he got to see the baptism of Joana and was even more excited. His mom says he's already changed so much. (Its funny, here in Brasil, people say things like "You're angels sent from Jesus" a lot, and his mom said this to us, and I was like "well, actually, yeah, we were sent by Him")

General Conference is next week!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, I cant believe its already here, i feel like we just had it yesterday!

And I have one week left here..Transfers Wednesday. I can't believe time goes by SO fast!!!! Next time I email, it will be from a new area...Eeek!

Fotos:

1) Sis Lemos with our guide in Nova Jerusalem. He kept touching her shoulder and arm... it was soo funny.

2) Our district on the throne of Herod. This is basically the personality of our district in a nutshell.

3) Elder Halvorsen lost his arm to the lion

4) Joana's baptism (Leandro is next week!)

5) Mirian's baptism

6) Joana and Leandro's wedding. (I look SO BIG. I'm not wearing heels or anything)

7) Freaking AWESOME telephone booths in Nova Jerusalem

8) Getting tortured by our guide, hahaahahahahahahahahaha

Anyway Familia, I hope all is well with you. I love you and think about you and pray for you all.

Until Next week!

~Sis Wilkinson

Mon, 21 Sep, 2009: Another week

So I spent about 20 minutes typing up a ridiculously cool email, and then the computer froze. Its one of those days

We had a baptism! Isaias and Adeildo, two awesome young men who are so solid and ready for the gospel. The baptism was great.

Speaking of baptisms, we have three next week! Joana and Leandro have their marriage on Friday and will be baptised on Saturday, along with Miriam, the sister of a member, who went to the baptism on Saturday and said "hey, i want to be baptised!" and we said "okay!" We call this um batismo que caiu do ceu (a baptism that fell from heaven). How cool is that?

Besides them, we have 5 others marked and hope to mark 3 more this week. Sis Lemos and I have been working HARD this transfer--I get home every night exhausted, plan, and fall into bed. But its paying off! Its truly amazing how the Lord blesses those who make an effort.

We had Zone Conference, with some awesome training by President and our Zone leaders, and had some amazing speakers--Me and sis Lemos, haha. She gave a talk in English!!!!! We were up until midnight practicing. The one thing she kept messing up on (but got right in the talk!) was that she kept saying "its not enough to be good, we have to be better" but instead of "good" she would say "god", hahahahahahaha. She also said "piss" instead of "pass" and a few others that were way funny. But she did great in the talk itself =]

E Lucas got transfered and now we have E Serra. Hes great.

Its weird to think that two weeks from now i'll be leaving Caruaru. I love this place, I love these people. I started crying in Relief Society because I was thinking about it too much. The beautiful thing about the gospel is that one day i will see all these people again---maybe not in this life, but at least I have the hope that it isnt the end.

but enough about that... Can you believe it already makes 7 months for me? How weird is that? The time is passing SOOOOOOOO fast!

No pictures this week because the computer is being stupid. I severly dislike technology sometimes.

I love you all. The gospel is true!

~Sis Wilk