Mon, 17 Aug 2009 : SEIS MESES!!!!!!!!

Yes Familia,

Tomorrow marks SIX MONTHS that i´ve been on the mish. That means less than a year from now I´ll be back home. Oh, that's strange. I have SO MUCH WORK TO DO in such a short amount of time!!!!!!!!!!

Well, this week has some great stories. First off: BAPTISM!!!! (see fotos)

Andressa and Giselle, two 14 year old girls (cousins) who are among the most prepared people I have ever met/taught to be baptised. My goodness. They accepted baptism without question and stayed firm in the decision, and everything we taught and everything we left for them to read they remembered and started teaching the rest of their family and friends. We had their baptism this Saturday (the 15th), and the Elders had a baptism too, Taciane, who is such a sweet girl and I love her like she´s my own baptism =D

Fun story: Elder Halvorsen and I were looking at the water in the baptismal font, which is a lovely dank yellow color, and I said, "The water's clean, it's just got a lot of dirt in it" which makes no sense at all, and E Halvorsen was quick to point that out and tease me about it the rest of the night "This cake is vanilla, its just got a lot of chocolate in it" "This shirt is white, it's just got a lot of black in it", etc. What I MEANT was that the water was fresh--it wasnt yellow because of algae or whatever, so its clean. But its yellow from the dirt thats in the water here in Caruaru. Oh well, makes for a funny story, né?

Here's the other fun story of the week! A lady in our ward has these (creepy) little monkeys, and I foolishly let one climb around on me. I usually detest small animals/birds on me, because they always poo/pee. And guess what? This time was no different. He hopped away from my shoulder, and I felt like something was different... I turned to E. Stewart and said "Elder, please tell me there isnt a wet spot on my shoulder" and he started laughing and said "There is". Sis Lemos had THE most horror-struck expression, hahaha. I laughed too--what else could I do? Not everyone can say they got peed on by a monkey on the mish!

Next week is transfers, so i wont be sending out an email until Wednesday.... I think i´m going to be leaving my beloved little city of Caruaru =[ I've already been here 3 transfers... thats a long time in the mish. But I love the people here and I love this little city--I know it like the back of my hand. But the Lord knows where he needs me.

Fotos!

1) Me, E. Lucas, Stewart, Halvorsen, Sis Lemos. (front) Taciane, Andressa, Giselle

2) Sis Lemos, Andressa, Giselle, Me

3) Elders Stewart, Lucas, Halvorsen (he's so adorable--I hope I have sons as cute as him)

4) Elen and I (She´s a baptism of the Elders two weeks ago who just LOVES me--sticks to me like glue every time she sees me. But thats alright because I adore her)

5) A picture I drew of our district. We all have little things that we do that are sooo distinctive--I have my sandles, Sis Lemos is laughing at E Stewart doing his retarded impression, E. Lucas is always quiet and always has his backpack, E Flaith always does the thumbs up and ties his tie differently, and E Halvorsen has a natual faux-hawk and has this goofy smile.... Its hard to explain, but Sis Lemos was cracking up because it just fits everyone perfectly.

Anyway familia--ate a semana que vem! Keep reading those scriptures, keep praying!!!!! The Lord loves you and wants whats best for you!

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 : QUE semana, minha nossa

Dearest família,

First off, I LOVE getting fotos from people!!! Thank you everyone who has sent me some. Just try and shrink them down a little, so that they're under 1MB, because my mailbox does not have much space, and it gets filled up really quickly!!!

Also, don't send me forwards.

Anyway. Wow. What a week. Minha nossa. I´ll go chronologically to preserve sanity

MONDAY! We went to SERRA NEGRA!!!!! (observe fotos) Oh man, it was SO fun! It was Sis Lemos and I, the Elders in our ward (Stewart and Lucas), the elders in the other ward (Flaith and Halverson) and Elen, a recent convert and her sister Cris. It was a couple long bus rides and a beautiful hike and an absolutely breathtaking view (once again, look at those fotos!) Wow. We had a lot of fun, and i don´t think i´ve laughed that hard thus far on the mission. Elder Stewart and Elder Flaith together are absolutely hilarious.

TUESDAY! Was Zone Conference, and I got lots of letters from people, so that was great =] We had a lot fo good training and I gave an imprompteu talk in Portuguese and everyone was like “What the... Sister, you KNOW portuguese!” And we had a great lunch at the churrascuria after also. It also POURED, like it has the past two conferencias.

THURSDAY! We went to a members house to help her clean out a room in her house as a service project. Oh man, it was hilarious. It was full of JUNK, and me and Sis Lemos and Elder Stewart were like “JOGA TUDO!!!!” or “Throw it all away!!” and she was having a REALLY hard time letting us, because her husband died only a month and a half ago, and to her, this junk represented the sacrifices he made for her and her familia. But really..... it was junk. We’re talking old water bills from when they lived in Germany and puzzles that were missing half the pieces and things like that. She got really upset about halfway through and left.... And we just threw everything into the trash really fast and organized the rest into boxes and put it back in the room. It was pretty funny, because she came back and was like “You’re right, its junk, just chuck it” I wish I had before and after pictures, but I forgot my camera. We also found some hilarious old clothes that we had fun trying on. I’ll try and get those from Elder Lucas.

The rest of the week was filled with some awesome experiences. Sis Lemos and I discussed what we need to do to be better missionaries, and we decided Obedience is the key to everything. Its the key to having more faith and the key to getting blessings. We’re pretty obedient, but one thing we’ve been slacking on is getting home on time at night. So we prayed and said basically “we´re going to do this to be more obedient, we ask thee to bless us with this work”. And boy does the Lord bless people who truly seek his blessings. We were able to get the marriage papers for Joana and Leandro done and just so many other little things.

We´ve also noticed this week how much we’ve been guided by the Spirit in who we need to visit and what we need to say. Especially with Joana and Leandro, our cute little happy family. My goodness, we love that little family. Leandro is having a hard time because his mom doesnt like Joana, and at first she was fine with them getting married, but now she thinks its too rushed (even though theyve been together three years and have a baby). Its amazing HOW HARD the devil works against us. But we have God on our side, and with Him, we can´t fail. But Saturday night we had na appointment, but we randomly decided to go see Joana and Leandro. And we arrived right after they had a fight about Leandro’s mom. We were able to talk to them and help Leandro a lot. He really wants to get married, but he’s afraid of his parents. We also helped calm Joana down and smile. The Elders are helping a lot with Leandro, talking with him “Man to Man” or whatever. Its good =]

Also, we´ve been working with the members more this week. Last night we again randomly decided not to go to an area and went back to near our house. Sis lemos asked if there weere any members nearby, and at first I couldnt think of anyone, but then I remembered Dona Dora, who loves having the missionaries for lunch and is always anxious for the little spiritual message we leave after and is always quiet at church. I never really talked to her much except at lunch. So we went by, and again, arrived in the right houe—just in time for FHE! And her non-member husbannd, who usually doesnt participate, stayed, and really liked the message we shared. Dona Dora was sooooo excited to have us. She told us we’re welcome at any time to come by. I felt really good about that, and I know that the Lord guided us there too.

Então, familia, keep being great, keep reading the scriptures and PRAYING. Its those small things that make the difference between who is baptised and who isnt, and ultimately, who is saved and who isnt. I know that this work is a sacred work, and Im so happy to have a small part in it.

Fotos:

1 and 2) Sis Lemos and I being cool

3) Sis Lemos and I at Serra Negra!!!!!!

4) Elders Stewart, Flaith and Halverson

5 and 6) The view. AMAZING. I love beautiful green Brasil!

7) Elders Stewart and Flaith believing they can fly

8) The group (E. halverson, sis lemos, me, Elen, E. Lucas, Cris, E. Stewart and E Flaith)

9) Warriors of Zion

Until Next week, love you!

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 : E Agora, Jose....

Oi familia!!!!!!!!!!!

We´re going to Serra Negra today, which is this pretty hike/viewpoint here in the Interior of Penambuco. I´m way excited =] Look for pictures next week! This week I dont have any because we didnt have a baptism.

But!!!! We marked the baptism of two girls, Giselle and Andressa, who are friends of Mercia and Monica, my frist two baptisms. They´re 14 and love the church. I was so happy when they accepted I almost cried. It´s amazing how much I love these people that i´ve known for three months.

It´s funny, because our mission focus is baptising men, because the church needs more priesthood holders to grow. And even though we focus on men and finding men and contacting men, we still have a ton of women joining the church, almost without trying. Goes to show, ne?

Sis Lemos is great. We´re best friends. We goof off a lot together, and work hard too and really see success with our labor!!!! I feel like I can really be myself with her. And being with the Elders is fun too. Elder Stewart likes to pretend to be retarded around Sis Lemos because she gets soooo embarrassed and tries to get away from him, while eu and Elder Lucas laugh. Oh man, I havent smiled so much in my life. I can´t stop grinning!!!!!!!!

Em fim, eu quero dizer que eu sei o evangelho é verdadeiro, que esta igreja realmente é a igreja de Cristo na Terra hoje. Eu sei que Joseph Smith foi um profeta chamado por Deus, e que ele restaurou a igreja e tranduziu o Livro de Mormon,que é a palavra de Deus e testifica que Jesus é o Cristo, o Salvador do mundo. Eu sei que este evangelho traz TANTA felicidade em minha vida, e já eu vi tantas milagres nas vidas de outras pessoas. Eu sou tão grato por estar aqui no Brasil, por servir meus irmãos e irmãs no evangelho. Sou grato que eu posso aprender português, eu amo. Este é realmente o melho tempo na minha vida. Quero batizar todo mundo!!!!!!!

Remember to pray and read your scriptures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

July 27 5 Months Out!!!!

And then some, actually. A year from today will be the last day of my mission (due to the transfer schedule--my year and a half falls in the middle of a transfer, so I end 3 weeks earlier). CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! I only have one year left!!!!!!!!!!! Eeeeiiiiita! Preciso trabalhar MUITO.

And Daddy and Linny--I´m excited to see you in one year here in Brasil!!!! Right? Right? Eat some good churrascuria? Getting soaked in the pouring rain while sweating at the same time? It´ll be great =D

Also... Familia... It finally happened.... Someone asked if I was Brasilian! When I replied that no, I´m american, they were surprised and said that I speak "muito muito bem!" (very very well) AHHH!!!!! I was all smiles =D

The work is going good! We had the baptism of EVA!!!!!!!!! this Sunday, right after church, so a ton of people went, including a lot of investigators. They really enjoyed it! So hopefully that will help them in their decision to be baptised =] But Eva is so amazing. When we met her she was sick and lonely and depressed, but now she just has this light that radiates from her. She LOVES the gospel, and is constantly reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible and the little pamphlets we leave with her. She said she feels so happy now, and she has so much strength and faith. Seriously, I could go home happy right now knowing I´ve helped someone like her.

We have a young couple we´re teaching who want to get married and baptised. THEY asked US, hahaha. Joanna and Leandro, and they have a little baby 1 year and some months. I´m excited for them--their baptism is scheduled for August 15!

Funny "Small World" incident this week:

I was looking at some fotos of Elder Stewart, who is one of the Elders working here in our area, and I commented, "Hey, this looks like tahoe!" and he said it was and we started talking and he said goes to Tahoe EVERY summer wth his family. They have a condo near King´s Beach! And we were talking about the movie theatre in Nevada with that really good Mexican place and the golf world and haha, it´s such a small world! He said that his parents and grandparents have been going to Tahoe every summer for years and years. E. Stewart and I agreed we´ll have to hang out next, next summer when we´re there, hahaha. He ends his mission the same time as me, and is going to BYU. I think we´ll be good friends--he and some of the other Elders are soooo hilarious. It´s good they know how to play but work hard too. It´s something I need to learn to be better at, I think =]

It´s fun working with the Elders. We devided our area, but we have lunch together every single day, plus various meetings with people in the branch.

I´m going to be teaching an English class this Saturday!!!!! It´ll be good to get investigastors and also to help the members. People have been asking me for the last two transfers, but Sis Jacobs never really wanted to schedule a time. but now! it´ll be fun =] And now I can actually explain things in Portuguese.

Fotos:

1) Me and Sis Lemos having fun =]

2) At Alto do Moura last week, playing the "flute" with my new friend

3) Eva´s baptism!]

4) Elder Lucas and Elder Stewart with Eva (E Lucas baptised her... 3 times... he messed up the prayer and then her foot went out of the water, hahaha. But third times the charm, right?!)

Well familia, keep reading the scriptures and being the good people I know you are. Put your trust in the Lord and you´ll see miracles! And don´t be afriad to open your mouth and talk about the gospel with people and invite them to meet with the missionaries!!! Oh man, I always thought I was such a good little member, but I never did ANYTHING to help the missionaries! Our work goes sooo much better when we have the help from the members! So do your thing! Help those missionaries!

Até a semana que vem! Eu amo vocês!

~Sis Wilkinson

July 20 Cai A Chuva!

Signafica "The rain falls". And this week has been quite rainy! (see foto)

First off...

I LOVE sis Lemos. She is fantastic. Our personalities just click. Sis jacobs was a good trainer and we had fun, but she was hard, and I often felt lonely/frustrated with her. But with Sis Lemos, oh man, she´s great. We´re already great friends. We laugh a lot together and sing as we walk and I just feel like I can be myself around her.

And I dont know what it is, but its like a switch was flipped in my brain, or maybe its because im not with sis jacobs anymore, but suddenly i can talk and understand people. Everyone at transfers commented on how well I was speaking, and even members in our branch and investigators and Sis lemos even my district leader this week have all been saying "wow sis wilkinson, you´re speaking sooo well!!" and people we meet are like "you´ve only been here 5 months? and didnt know portuguese before? I dont believe it!" Woohoo!!! Happy day =]

I´ve been teaching Sis Lemos english =D I love it! So much fun! We learned "I am, you are, he/she is" and then how to attach the gerund, "I am speaking, we are sleeping" etc. Its fun because as we´re walking down the rua I´ll say a phrase in english and she has to translatge it into portuguese or vice versa. this week i´m gonna teach her how to conjugate the present tense and we´re going to start reading the book of mormon =D also, she has to say her prayers in house in english. I prayed the other night in English so she could hear and it was SO hard! I kept slipping into Portuguese. Eiiitaaaaa... when I return home im not gonna be able to say anything!

Our new elders are awesome--way enthustiastic. They´re going to be fun to work with. We divided our area and now Sis Lemos and I are working on the East side of our area. Its good because we get to concentrate in areas sis jacobs and I never had time to before. We´re already doing well.

Fun/cool story of the week: Saturday at night we were walking home and I saw this young guy on the other side of the street looking at us, and so I called him over to make a contact (Sis Lemos was like "I dont believe it!" because usually people dont do that--usually you have to stand in front of them and say "really quick!!!!") and I talked to him and invited him to church the next day and he said sure and Domingo we passed by his house and he actually came! And he really liked church and already was making friends. We taught him the first lesson after and he accepted the invitation to be baptised!!!!! I almost couldnt believe it! We had met him less than 24 hours before and he was ready to be baptised. wow. Never underestimate the power of the spirit or that some people are just prepared.

Realmente família, I love this mission. This is the best thing I could be doing right now. Thank you all for your support and love =]

Until next week!

~Sis Wilkinson

July 15 This week in Caruaru...

So the reason this email is delayed is because the week of transfers our P-day switches to Wednesday--the day of Transfers. Which is today.

Então...

I have a new comp!!!!! Sis Lemos. I am SO excited! She is awesome. I met her before when we went to Recife for the day and we had a lot of fun together, so im really excited because I think we´ll work together really well and be really good friends! She only has one transfer more than me in the mission--she was SO surprised that she turned senior! Hahaha. But I´m way excited!

And our area was divided too, so now we´re going to be working with Elders too. We´re meeting tomorrow to figure out how we want to divide the area, or if we just want to work in the same area--since we have investigators in all parts of the city. It´s kinda crazy because I´m now the only one of four people that know ANYTHING about this area.

I found a box with some clothes that previous sisters left and now I have two new shirts and a new skirt and its so exciting =D

I dont have any pictures this week, but next week I will, I promise =]

This week was more of the same--teaching! We also had a FHE with some of our recent converts and man, they cried when we left because Sis Jacobs was leaving. Its great that shes touched so many lives here in such a way. I hope someday people feel the same about me!

Well familia, keep being great! Go to church, read scriptures and pray!!

~Sis Wilkinson

July 7 A wedding and a baptism!

This week was pretty much AMAZING.

First off, we had Zone Conference on Wednesday, which was great. We got some great training about how to help our investigators and heard some great inspirational messages from Prez. I also got to see my Elder friends from the CTM, which is always a joy. I miss male companionship. And after the conference Prez Emerick took the WHOLE ZONE out to a churrascuria for lunch!!!!!!!!! Oh man, it was great meat, probably some of the best I´ve ever had. We sang Happy Birthday to Pres, because it´s bee a year since he became mission president, and then we all sang the mission hymn... Yeah, like 50+ missionaries belting that in a restaurant. It was great.

But the real excitement was this weekend. Friday night Simone and Edson got married! We had a beautiful service in the chapel and I almost cried when they said their vows and exchanged rings. I´m turning sappy here on the mish. We got special permission from Prez to go to the reception too!!!! So we got to stay out until 10:30!! Wooo!!! Hahahahaha, sad that that is "late" now.

But Saturday was even more awesome and this time I really did cry. I got to watch this little family, Simone, Edson, and their sons Joel (12) and Felix (8), one by one enter the waters of baptism. I can´t believe the happiness I felt watching them. And litle Felix was so cute, the water was practically up to his shoulders--he just got dipped under =]

It is so amazing to me that I get to be here in Brasil and to meet these people, my fellow brothers and sisters, and to know that I will get to be friends with them forever. Literally forever. D&C 18:15-16. It´s at moments like these that all the sweat and lack of sleep and gastronomical problems are worth it--to know that I, in some small way, helped someone start on the path that leads to eternal life. What greater thing could any of us really do in life?

On a totally completely different note, Sis Jacobs is in the New Era this month!!!!!!!!! Look for the article called "An Honesty Test"!!! She´s the "Patricia A. Jacobs" that wrote the article. How cool is that? Yeah, that´s right, my companion

Photos:

1) The Happy Couple!!!!!!!!

2) Sis Jacobs and I with the family. (I promise I´m not really as fat as I appear in this picture... The angle is horrible and it´s my bad side )

3) Me and cute litle Felix!!!!

4) Have you ever seen something more beautiful? (Me with the family all dressed in white and Pres Rondon, their friend who baptised them)

Well, I love you all, and I hope you´re all doing well. Remember that I´m always praying for each of you, and that God loves you. You are His child and He is acutely aware of your personal joys and struggles in life. You can always depend on Him!

~Sis Wilkinson