October 28, 2013

So this week was a good one!  This area is really heating up!!!  We got a ton of people reactivated this month and have lots of prospects for baptism this next transfer.  Oh ya, I found out I'm staying here this transfer with my companion!  Tonight we are going to teach this family that we found last week and they seemed really good.  I pray that they have been reading and are ready for our lesson tonight.  We also are teaching several spouses of members.  One has totally stopped drinking and is ready for baptism so that's exciting! So yesterday I spoke in Sacrament meeting, taught Gospel Principles and confirmed our new baptism.  It's crazy how busy Sundays can be but I love them!  One thing I know you will be excited about...when I went to the mission home last week to get my package and mail I saw my release date...I leave here on May 22 and get home on the 23rd...which is Dad's birthday!

So here's something kind of freaky...this catholic church we went to see last week has "powers" to heal sick people but you have to take a picture of that person and and take a plastic part of their body there.  So this was the room full of plastic body parts and pictures of people hanging on the walls.  

We had a baptism this week!!!  yaaaaa!  The old guy next to me was baptized by the member on his left.  A while ago a member brought him to church and he enjoyed it so much he kept coming alone!  He's been coming for over a month now and yesterday in Elder's quorum he made a comment that was super good and I think everyone was shocked!  He's a pretty funny guy!

October 21, 2013

(Please include Kyle in your prayers this week.  He has been very sick.  He tells me he is doing better but I of course worry about him.-Randi)

Well, I have been in bed sick this week with a high fever and was really, really tired. I talked to the mission Dr. and got some medicine and I'm feeling a bit better.  So not tons to report this week since I was so sick but I think we're scheduled for a baptism next week so that's exciting!  The mission office called and I have a package waiting for me so I'm really excited to go pick that up! We had a lady from the States visiting this week and she took us out to ice cream and made dinner for us.  It was pretty cool and nice to speak English with someone as well.  I must say I'm missing some good ol' American food these days! :)

Well nothing else too exciting this week.  Love you all.  Have a good week!

October 14, 2013

My week was really, really good!  We have had some good success with less actives this week.  I had known about this family for a while but didn't know where they lived.  Then on Saturday I felt that we needed to go there.  So I called them up and asked for directions.  They live way down in the favela but we somehow got there.  There had been a bit of a scandal and they hadn't been to church in about a year but everyone in the ward loved them and they had gone to the temple and everything.  So I just started teaching them about the tree of life and we had a great lesson!  They said if she felt better they would go to church in the morning.  I was kinda sad because I really didn't think they would come because when we first got there they said that they wouldn't go to church in this ward.  But Sunday morning...they were there!!!  I about cried I was so happy to see them!

 We went to an ice cream shop today.  I had a banana split.  It was pretty intense...coconut ice cream, tapioca and chocolate with Nutella on top!  

 Me and my companion!

 Acaraje-which is a typical bahianan snack.  It's like a pasta stuff, shrimp tomatoes and fried dough.  it's really, really good!

We went and walked around down town this morning.  We went and explored this really old catholic church that was cool.  And then we saw these paintings on the side of a building.  Pretty cool!  We dress in our missionary clothes whenever we go down town because we are safer as missionaries than as tourists!

October 7, 2013

    I finally got the package with the ties!!!  YAY  One of the ties you sent me is the same mark as my suit.  It looks so sweet!  I have given almost all of my ties away so I was excited to get some new ones.  Although I'm sure they will be gone soon too! :)  Mom, you had asked if I have any special requests for Halloween candy...just send anything!  I love sharing candy with the kids here.  This conference everyone went to the stake center to watch and I had told some of the kids in the ward I would bring American sweets (starbursts) for them to try.  They kept coming up to me all day long asking for them but they had to answer a question about conference first before I would give them one!  haha it was pretty funny and they LOVE starbursts!!!
   I loved conference!  I really liked Elder Soares talk about being calm. He is brasilian so that was cool to see!  And we were able to get some of our investigators to conference so that was good too!
   We have a family night lined up for tonight so I'm excited about that.  We had a super powerful lesson with one of our investigators and a member.  This member is divorced with 3 kids and reminds me a lot of some of our friends back home.  She is such a huge help and a great mother.  I really like this family.
   There is the daughter of a member here who married an american missionary 15 years ago and now lives in America but is visiting here.  We spoke English and it was weird but cool.  I have forgotten some words in English because I hadn't spoken it for a while.  Also, she brought an old inactive friend with her to conference so that was good.
   I need to get some batteries for my camera and then I'll send you some pictures next week.
I love you all!

 

September 30, 2013

   I don't have tons of time this week so I'll just give you a quick run down.  We are working super hard here with one family whose husband is not a member YET.  He has stopped drinking for 3 weeks and has been coming to church.  We are getting really close with him.  
   I'm super excited for conference next week.  Last time the small branch I was in didn't have internet so we couldn't watch it we just had to watch it online on our pdays.  But here we should be able to watch it and I'm really looking forward to hearing the words of our Prophet.  
   I hope everyone at home is doing good.  I miss you all!  Have a great week.

September 23, 2013

Hello Mom!
     Well this was my first week with my new companion, Elder Alves.  He is from Sao Paulo.  He is this super happy little Brazilian!  He has about 11 months on the mission and we work really well together! We have been doing family nights like crazy.  This week we've already had 3!!!  Last night I made chocolate chip cookies for everyone and they loved them.  They don't really have cookies like that over here.  I thought I had a recipe but half way through I realized it was incomplete so I had to improvise.  haha but they turned out pretty good!  For one of the other family nights I made a bundt cake.  The only problem is that when I took it out of the oven I tipped it over while it was still hot and half of the cake came out and the other half didn't!  So I picked it up with my hands and put it back in the form.  It looked terrible.  So I just put a bunch of frosting (sweetened condensed milk and nesquik) and we took it.  Everyone was laughing because it looked like crap (literally)!!!  But then they tried it and everyone thought it was sooooooo good and wanted me to make it again!!!  It was so funny.  See mom, I can cook!  Everyone here just uses sweetened condensed milk for frosting but I decided why not make it chocolate and add some nesquik!
     We only had sacrament meeting this week because a sister in our ward passed away so they had her funeral Sunday morning.  It was pretty sad.
    We have been super busy teaching this week.  Lots of good people here.
Well I love you all, have a good week!