I'm SO excited to Skype and see you all!

Familia!

 

I´m going to be an aunt again! I´m so excited for Becky, Jeff, and little Ryan!! :) I hope this time it will be a girl! :) So, i´m going to be at a member´s house when I Skype with you. We´re going to have lunch at 1 and probably end around 2:15ish. I might Skype between 2:30-3:00 my time. So be online and ready! :) i´m going to use my Skype account. I´m so freakin excited to see everyone!! Oh I have some bad news... I can only talk for 40 minutes. 

 

For p-day, I got my hair cut! It´s been 6 months since I cut it last. I only cut 2 inches, but it´s still long. Btw, thank you for my package! :) I already opened it ha-ha. You know how I am with being patient about Christmas gifts. Sister Howell told me, ``since you opened your package, your mom will probably want pictures ha-ha.`` I have photos of me opening everything. I also have 2 pictures of the Campinas Temple. The temple was so amazing! I like the new movie so much better than the first! 

 

This week was difficult. It´s the week before Christmas and most of our investigators will be going out of town or have family come to visit with them. This week was kind of a blah week, but we visited a lot of less actives. I´m sorry that this email will be short, but i´ll talk more once I see you on Wednesday!

 

I´m going to send some pictures! LOVE YOU! See you on Wednesday!! :)

 

-Sister Whitnah

A week full of Miracles!

Familia!

 

Woo i´m an aunt again! :) Little Duke looks so cute! I can tell he looks a little bit of Robbie and Tessa. How are they doing? Thanks for sending me pictures! The picture of you with your x-ray is kinda funny ha-ha. I´m glad to hear that everyone is doing well! Oh btw, happy birthday Mom! :) How was your birthday? Did you do anything fun?

 

Honestly this week was full of miracles. We have 4 investigators that are interested in the church. Claudia, Sabrina, Cida, and Edina. Sabrina is 10 years old and Claudia is her mom. We have already taught them the 1st and 2nd lesson. They have been reading the Livro de Mormon and praying everyday. Claudia has a boyfriend and we just met him this week. Cida is about 55-60 years old, and she has a daughter named Edina. Edina is about 35-40 years old and has a son that´s about in his early 20´s. This whole week we have been praying like crazy! We also fasted to help these people to come to this Christmas activity and to church. For Cida and Edina it´s been difficult for them. They both have husbands that are alcoholics. They drink too much to the point where they don´t let Cida or Edina leave the house. It´s really sad. For us, it´s hard to know how to help them. But we´re trying our best to help them know the members and to feel loved. We try and visit them often. We invited Cida, Edina, Claudia, and Sabrina to an activity at the church. It was a Christmas dinner. When Sister Howell and I showed up, Claudia, her boyfriend, Sabrina, Cida, Edina, and Edina´s son were there. We were SO excited! They told us that they loved the party and they felt welcomed. On Sunday Sabrina, Claudia, and Claudia´s boyfriend came to church. It was so cool to see them there! It was Claudia´s first time coming to church and she told us that she liked it a lot. 

 

Before I came to Barao Geraldo, I heard that it was a tough area. An area that nobody wanted to serve in, because it was hard to find success. There aren´t many members and the members have a hard time believing that they can have success. We have been helping everyone to become more excited about missionary work. We have an awesome bishop and ward mission leader. Our bishop and ward mission leader have been praying for a long time to have success in their ward. About 2 weeks ago, we received 18 returned missionaries and they are all men. They came to Barao Geraldo for a reason. All of them are super pumped to help in the ward. Some of them are going to go on splits with us this week. This little miracle helped me to see that the Lord knows who needs our help. All of our investigators will all need to get married and that will take some time. But at least when the time is right, they will have a firm testimony. 

 

Tomorrow, all of the missionaries get to go to the temple! We´re replacing our p-day for tomorrow, but we get to email families today for 2 hours. Today is just a normal regular day. Oh, so I don´t know when i´ll be skyping you. I´m assuming after lunch time. Lunch usually starts at 12 in the afternoon and goes till 2. I might Skype with you at 2:30 my time. I´m not sure but i´ll let you know next week. 

 

I love you so much and i´m excited to see you soon...on the computer at least ha-ha. But anyways, have a great week! LOVE YOU!

 

-Sister Whitnah

The work is slow, but progressing

Mamãe!

 

I´m glad that you had a great time in Utah! What was the weather like? I bet it was nice and cold. I wish it was cold here in Brasil... :( Summer hasn´t official started here yet, but it seems like it gets hotter everyday. The sun is so strong that I can feel it almost burning my skin. Plus the humidity with it sucks. We had a couple of huge rain/thunder storms this week. One of the storms lasted for a good hour of non stop raining. It was fun getting soaking wet. :)

 

Saturday, I went to the temple and all of the missionaries were there! There was a choir that sang at the temple. We weren´t suppose to sing, but we had other tasks to do. Like greet all of the people who arrived at the temple. I saw a couple of families that were from my first area. One of the members (Rafela) was so excited to see me! She ran up to me and gave me a huge hug. It was so good to see her! 

 

I talked with Sister Menden a little bit and she told me that my package is here! I´m so excited to get it! I actually can´t get my package until Dezembro 27th. Sister Perrotti is making all of the missionaries wait to get their packages until that day. So it won´t really matter if I can´t open my package on Christmas day. I do have some plans with some members in our ward for Christmas Eve. A popular thing in Brasil is having a HUGE barbecue! It´s very different to the barbecue that we know but I think it´s a lot better! In Brasil it´s called a Churrasco. It´s the same thing we had at Tucanos.

 

I´m excited to Skype with you too on Christmas! I´m excited to see pretty much everyone! I´m hoping that Skype will work okay. If it doesn´t, Sister Howell mentioned to me that she uses Google Plus or something like that to talk to her family. If you can, make an account and give me the username and password. That will be our next option if Skype doesn´t work. But i´m sure Skype shouldn´t be a problem. I will use my account to talk to you. So when you see me, it will be through my account. I was told that I can´t call on the phone for Christmas and Mother´s Day.  

 

This week went a lot better. We taught the 1st lesson to Sabrina and her mom Claudia. They had watched the Restoration video and read a little bit in the Book of Mormon. We gave them the invitation to be baptized and the first thing Claudia said was WHEN?! She seemed really excited! We found out that she has a ``husband`` meaning she lives with her boyfriend. A common thing here is that a lot of people live together but aren´t married. So it may look like Claudia and Sabrina´s baptized might have to wait a little bit. A new batismo rule in Brasil is that if you have an investigator that´s between 9-15 years old and the parents don´t want to be baptized, they have to wait 3 months to be baptized. It´s really crazy. We also taught Cida and Edina the 2nd lesson. They´ve been having trouble with coming to church. Cida works a lot and is tired when Sunday rolls around. We´re inviting them to an activity that we´re having at the church. It´s going to be a Christmas dinner!

 

 

P-day, Sister Howell and I went to Shopping Dom Pedro! It´s this huge mall that has Walmart and a bunch of shopping centers. I bought this cute Brasil shirt! Sister Howell bought a lot of Christmas gifts for her family. I thought about getting one gift for all of you for Christmas but I couldn´t think of anything. If you do want something let me know! For lunch we ate açai! It´s so yummy! Ask Sister Woodhouse about it! It´s a type of fruit in Brasil that they use to make it like a slushi. They put granola, strawberries, and leite condensado! I took a picture of it and it was so good! You might want one just by looking at the photo ha-ha. 

 

The work here in Barão Geraldo is going slow but is progressing. Sister Howell and I prayed a lot about how we can help our ward. The answer that we both felt was working a lot with the members and less actives. There´s a HUGE list of less actives that we´re trying to figure out who wants to come back to church or doesn´t want to come back. It´s a good 22 page list. It´s a lot! So we are focused on helping the less actives to come back to church.

 

I´m glad to hear that you found out about your foot. I´m sorry that it´s broken, but I hope you can find something to do to help you keep yourself busy. I hope you enjoy the pictures that I have for this week! I love you so much and can´t wait to hear from you soon!! 

 

-Sister Whitnah  

My Patience is being tried

Familia!

 

You will never believe this! I can send pictures now! :) I used my other memory card and it works! I´m so happy! For p-day Sister Howell and I went to Central in Campinas. It´s kind of like the farmers market but for shopping. Everything there is super cheap! I needed a pair of sneakers.  They´re grey and hot pink! They reminded me of Tessa. My comp bought some jerseys for her brothers and her dad. She also bought a bag because our mission is making everyone use side bags now. It´s a good thing that I still have my polka dotted bag. Sister Perrotti wants all of the sisters to look stylish.

 

Heavenly Father definitely tried my patience this week. Throughout the week I was super tried and frustrated. There´s a member in our ward that always wants to ``hangout`` with the sisters. She´s a good person and all, but it gets to the point where it´s too much. If you know what I mean. 3 times this week, she planned activities and called us a couple hours before to let us know. And by then we´ve already planned our day. We still let her come with us to our appointments, but in the end I felt really frustrated. She complained about every little thing when we were at a less active member´s house and even walking on the street. By the end of the day, I was really annoyed. We had a 10 year old girl come to church with us for the first time and it was Fast Sunday. We explained to her how we have Fast Sundays at the beginning of the month. The same annoying member started to tell the 10 year old girl about paying tithing and expounding on it for at least 15 minutes. How she needed to fast and went on and  on. It drove me nuts. When an investigator comes to church for the first time, you don´t blast them with every single detail of what they need to know about the church. You help them learn the simple and basic things. This lady went super deep and detailed about everything we do on Sundays. This is why I was frustrated and felt like I needed a lot of patience.

 

On the flip side, we taught the first lesson with these 2 older ladies and they are pretty hilarious! They seem like they want to know more about the church! Their names are Edita and Cida. We found them by giving them a Joy to the World invitation.  

 

I forgot that Thanksgiving was this week. Here, it was just another day. It was the same thing for Halloween. Nobody here knows those holidays because it´s an American holiday. 

 

This Saturday, there´s an activity at the temple where our stake is having all members and non-members sing Christmas songs. Sister Howell and I have 2 investigators that want to go. So we get to go to the temple! I´m excited for it! :)  I´m sorry that I don´t have a lot to talk about, but i´m glad to hear that everyone is doing great! I´m excited to see you on Skype in a few weeks!! 

 

 

I can't believe I've been serving 7 months!

Mamãe! :)

 

It´s crazy to think that 7 months have gone by. At times it feels like it has gone by slow and fast at the same time. I had a great 7th month anniversary! On Sunday, we had the primary program. Sister Howell and I sang batismo or baptism in English. It turned out pretty well. The whole program was so good. I felt the Spirit so strongly. I had the chills and goose bumps! My favorite song that the primary children sang was If the Savior Stood Beside Me. Talk about POWERFUL. I´ve never felt so much love while listening to that song. That song bore witness to me that I do have a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior who love me so much. 

 

I have some AWESOME news that I´ve been waiting to share you with! On Dezembro 17th, our mission is going to the temple for an endowment session!! Everybody from our mission is going! I´m so freakin excited!! :) I´ve missed the temple a lot since I was in Idaho. I´m excited for this opportunity to get to go again. Especially in Brasil! I heard there´s a new film for the endowment. Some people have told us that it´s a lot better than the other film. I´m looking forward to seeing it.

 

For p-day, we had all of the sisters from our mission join together for a Sisters Conference in Campinas. The sister training leaders and Sister Perrotti spoke. They showed Mormon messages of President Uchtdorf´s talk about The Ugly Duckling. I can´t remember what it is in English. But the video was about how we look at ourselves in the mirror. How we are daughters of our Heavenly Father and how we have so much potential and divinity. Towards the end of the conference, we watched a video about Emma Smith. How she was a women of great worth. It was so good! I cried while watching the Emma Smith video ha-ha. I got to see some of the sisters that i´ve become good friends with and the new sisters too. 

 

Like every week in Barao Geraldo, this week was good but tough. There was a stake activity for all of the relief society sisters on Friday. We took our investigator Fernanda to it. She loved it! They had the stake president speak and had different people speak about their experiences while reading the Book of Mormon. That was one thing Fernanda has been struggling with. Reading the Book of Mormon everyday and praying. I´m hoping that it helped her to see other people´s testimonies about the Book of Mormon besides mine and Sister Howell´s. After the talks, we had a huge dinner. It was a great night! We tried this week to see Kelly and her sister. Kelly is about 28 years old and her one sister is 15. They didn´t come to church yesterday because of work. We have a huge list of less actives that we are searching. Meaning, we go to find their address and see if they still live there and invite them to com back to church. Most of these people live about 30 minutes away. Our ward mission leader is AWESOME! He helps us with anything we need. He has some great ideas to help us and the ward to be more active and excited about missionary work. It´s great! :)

 

Honestly, I don´t know what´s going on with me not being able to send pictures. They show up on my camera, but when I try to send them they don´t show up on the computer. Maybe it´s my card reader or even my memory card. I´m sorry that I haven´t been able to send some in a while. I´m trying my best!

 

Sister Howell and I bought a mini Christmas tree for our house! It´s really cute! :) We put lights and mini ornaments all around it! We call it our alvore bebezinho ha-ha. The more we decorate our house with Christmas decorations, the more I´m excited for Christmas! I´m guessing Christmas in Brasil will be really hot and humid. Yay....ha-ha. But i´m sure it will be good!

 

Well I hope you have a good week! I´m really excited to Skype with you in 4 weeks! WOO! I love you and i´m praying for you everyday! Love ya! :)

 

-Sister Whitnah

 

 

These are photos from the Sisters Missionary Conference that was held today. 

I have a new companion, Sister Howell, also from Arizona!

Mom,

 

It´s crazy to think that it´s been a year since I got my call. It seemed like it went fast and slow at the same time. I didn´t realize it until you mentioned it. This week went pretty good! But before I start off, there were some changes in this transfer. The elders told us that Sister Menden and I would be staying in Barao Geraldo together. During our comp study on Tuesday, we get a call from the elders asking why Sister Menden wasn´t at the transfer site. Sister Menden was suppose to be transferred all along. She had almost 2 hours to pack up all of her stuff and head to the bus station. It was pretty crazy! And apparently this wasn´t the only time this has happened to Sister Menden. It happened to her about 2-3 transfers ago. She was kind of upset with the elders but, she said that she´ll get over it. She´s still in Campinas, but not serving in my zone.

 

My new comp is Sister Howell. She´s from Gilbert, Arizona too! I found out that her and Sister Menden are from the same stake but, never knew each other! I think it´s pretty funny! She´s been out for 11 months. I really like working with her. She has a fun personality and is a hard worker! We get along pretty well! We have a lot of great goals for this transfer since it´s gonna be 7 weeks.

 

During the week, we did a lot of knocking on doors and talking to as many people as we could. We have about 5 people that we are going to see this week to give the 1st lesson. I´m pretty excited! We have an investigator named Kelly. She has a 1 year old named Bionca. She also has 2 younger sisters and one of them came to church yesterday. She told us that she really liked coming to church. We are going to visit Kelly this week to see if we can get her to come this next Sunday. This next Sunday, our ward is having a primary program! Sister Howell and I are going to be singing a song. I think in English it´s called Baptism? In Portuguese it´s Batismo. 

 

Last night I watched a movie called Fireproof. Have you heard of it? It´s about this couple that has problems with their marriage and the Dad helps the son with this journal that his mother made for him. ``How To Save Your Marriage in 40 Days``. It talks about having the gospel in your life and relying on the Savior. The couple almost get a divorce, but they end up saving their marriage. It´s a really good movie! I cried towards the end ha-ha. I think you should get it and watch it. 

 

For p-day, we´re meeting with another zone to go to this park in Campinas. From what the elders told us it´s huge and has a tons of activities you can do. Like play basketball, play set, and a bunch of other things. I´m pretty stoked! We had 8 new sisters come in this transfer! 3 of them are Americans and the others are from different countries that speak Spanish. There wasn´t anybody from Brasil. I was really shocked.

 

Tell Sister Menden´s mom thank you for having her husband bring my Christmas package! That´s so nice of her to do that! My area is in Campinas so that makes it a lot easier for her husband to get it to me! Btw, I haven´t received any of your letters. I wonder if they got lost or something? Maybe they might come in this week. I will check to find out.

 

Hey I want to let you know that i´m doing great! I love being in my area even though it´s a difficult area, but I love my companion! Our goal is to get the most out of this transfer. To help baptize as many people as we can! Thank you for all of your love and support every week! I love you so much and hope you have a fantastic week! LOVE YOU! :)

 

-Sister Whitnah

 

P.S That´s so cool about Leya leaving for her mission this week! I´m so excited for her!  

Dad,

 

I like this activity that you´re putting on! Sounds pretty fun! I can answer the questions for you.

 

One of the things that I have learned as a missionary is to rely on the Spirit. The Spirit is so important when you are teaching. It also helps you to know what you should do personally. I´ve learned to love others that I come in contact with. To get to know them better.

 

There are so many things that we do! We visit less active members, talk to strangers about the Gospel. We always share our testimony. For me, I have to talk to people in a different language.

 

Being a missionary is not for the people who have the black name tag. Everyone is a missionary. Everyone has a significant role in being a missionary. You never know who´s life you may be touching. Always be an example. 

 

Brazil is pretty awesome! They have AMAZING fruit! The food is probably my 2nd favorite and the people are my first. The people here are so nice and are very friendly. The name Campinas in translation means field of mountains or of some sort. 

 

Love you, Sister Whitnah

 

I'm staying in Barao Geraldo with Sister Menden!! YAY!

Hello Familia!

 

So, are you ready to find out if i´m staying in Barao Geraldo?! I´m staying in Barao Geraldo with Sister Menden!! :) I´m so happy! She´s an awesome sister and i´m so glad to be with her another 7 weeks. This coming transfer with be 7 weeks. I found out that Sister Ware is being transferred :( i´m hoping that she stays in my zone at least. 

 

On Friday, we had a multi-zona conference with Presidente Perrotti. It was great! He shared a video about the Atonement of Jesus Cristo. I saw the same video while I was in Idaho. But this one was in Portuguese. He also talked about how we can help our investigators to progress towards baptism and helping them to get to that point and desire.

 

The lady that Sister Menden´s mom mentioned, she is really sweet. Her name is Nadir. From what Sister Menden told me is that Nadir knows the Book of Mormon is true, but wouldn´t keep her commitments. Like go to church, pray, and so on. This past week, Nadir moved to a different area. We promised her that whenever she wants to return back to church, she can. There will always be missionaries to help her. I only knew her for a short time, but I could feel that she wanted to change. Just now wasn´t the right time.

 

I have some sad news about Vinicius. We went to his house on Wednesday to give him the 3rd lesson. Just before we were going to start, he said that he needed to tell us something. He said that he doesn´t want us to meet with him anymore. Everything we have taught him, he doesn´t believe. I was in shock. We talked more and more and come to find out, he has a couple of friends that don´t like the church. We´re thinking that his friends said something to him. We could also tell that he has fear to receive an answer to know if the Book of Mormon is true. He said that he´s afraid to know what the answer might be. We ended up telling him, he´s always welcomed to come to church and to do the things we promised him to do. At the end, I could tell that this would be the last time that I would see him. We left the house feeling so sad. I thought things were going so well, but he has fear of receiving an answer. I´ve learned that an investigator must know that the Book of Mormon is true. Because once they know the Book of Mormon is true, everything that Joseph Smith testified is true, and that this church is true also.

 

It was really hard to let Vinicius go, but I hope that one day he will return. That he will have faith to ask Heavenly Father about the Book of Mormon and about everything we´ve taught him. One thing he did say was, he loved the members. How everyone was like family to him. 

 

Almoço is lunch in Portuguese. I´ve decided that all of the fruit in Brasil is amazing! The mangos are probably my favorite. :) It was fun celebrating the Bishop´s birthday! I took a couple of pictures of the lunch.

 

Overall, this week was bitter/sweet. But i´m not going to let the bad things over ride the good things. I´m excited to stay in Barao Geraldo with Sister Menden. I´m also excited to know and see what´s coming in our path as far as finding new investigators. It´s been hard for us to find new people to teach. But I hope we will have someone who wants to hear about the Gospel. We have Zumba once a week and i´m excited to see if some of the members will bring their friends to Zumba on Wednesday! 

 

I wrote Dad a letter this week. I´m hoping that you´ll get mine sometime this week. I will try my best to send some pictures this week. I love you so very much!! I hope all is well with you! Have an awesome week!

 

Love, Sister Whitnah

I've Become Attached to Brasil

Mom,

 

Hey how are things going? I´m sorry that I haven´t sent any pictures in a long time. I have a lot that I want to send, but somehow  I can´t. :( the computers here are ridiculous. But, this week was kind of hard. We had a lot of plans for the week and most of them got cancelled or nobody showed up for our appointments. It was really sad. As far as this week, we have A LOT to do! I´m excited for it! Next Sunday we get our transfer calls. This transfer was only 5 weeks. I´ve heard next transfer might be 5 or 7 weeks because Christmas is involved in the next transfer. I kind of want to stay in Barao Geraldo with Sister Menden.

 

Vinicius moved into a new house this past week. Last Sunday, we planned to help him move. When we got to his old house nobody was there. We went to his new house and nobody was there also. We waited for at least a hour and called him and he didn´t pick up. It was really strange. The whole week we didn´t hear from him. I was beginning to worry about him. It was really weird how when we would call him, he wouldn´t pick up the phone.

 

  Yesterday, (Sunday) we went to church and we saw Vinicius! I was so happy to see him. We found out that he got a new phone number and was really busy with school and work. Plus he didn´t have our number in his new phone. We were so happy that this whole week we didn´t have any contact with him, but he still came to church. We talked with him a little bit before Sacrament Meeting, and he still wants to know ``everything`` before he gets baptized. During Sunday School, our ward missionary leader gave a lesson about baptism. This is perfect because, the next lesson we are going to share with Vinicius is the 3rd lesson. Which includes BAPTISM! :) 

 

 Vinicius is one of my miracles. We had a hard week trying to communicate with him this week. We were hoping that he would come to church. When we saw him, we were so happy. It goes to show how he has a desire to go to church. Even when we couldn´t communicate with him at all. He still came. He is a huge example to me, of being steadfast. I swear, he is GOLDEN. I´m so grateful that I get to teach him the gospel. He has blessed my life and more. I can´t wait for the day when he gets baptized. 

 

Our ward had a ``break the fast`` potluck. There was a bunch of fruit, salads, chicken and casseroles. One member brought in fresh cut mangos. OH...it was so GOOOD! It was also the bishop´s birthday. We sang happy birthday and had cake and ice cream. It was probably one of the best almoços I´ve had here!

 

This week we did a lot of knocking on doors and visiting with members Every Thursday night, the relief society puts on a zumba night. A couple members bring some of their non-member friends.

 

I really like the advice that Robbie gave me. Sister Menden and I always have companionship study. Everyday we always have personal study, comp study, and then language study. It really does help a lot when we study together. We both understand what and how we need to teach for that day. All of our lessons are in Portuguese. We never talk in English. I think that´s what helps me the most. The more I speak in Portuguese, the more I learn the language faster. It´s difficult to speak a lot of English and then try to talk in Portuguese later.

 

On Halloween, Sister Menden and I bought some American candy! In Brasil they have snickers, kit kats, m&m´s and Hershey's. We also had hot dogs for dinner. The way Brasilians make their hot dogs is very interesting. They put corn, ketchup, the hot dog, and mashed potatoes on top. It might sound really weird, but it´s good! I´ve grown  accustomed to the food here! After my district meeting, we went to a Japanese resturante. I wasn´t too thrilled to have sushi. I told myself that if I didn´t like it, I would get something else afterwards. I put some teriyaki sauce on the sushi and ate it. Surprisingly, it wasn´t that bad. I kind of liked it.

 

That´s so cool how Bryan is being such a good example. I really like that example of how Heavenly Father smiles when we do what is right. 

 

I mailed you a letter last week. I wrote more detail about the mission conference and what I learned. I really liked the quote you shared with me. I think it´s so true. I´ve become attached to Brasil. To the people I serve with to the food I eat. I love it here. At times it is hard, but it´s a good type of hard. The type that´s going to help me grow. I hope you have a wonderful week! I love you SO MUCH! Talk to you later.

 

-Sister Whitnah    



 Sisters Menden and Whitnah, Halloween day!

 Pizza with other missionary sisters!

 Mansion of Stake President where Sister Whitnah was at last week with her companion  and other missionaries

I felt like I was running a marathon this week.

Mom,

 

This week was SUPER busy for me! I felt like I was running a marathon...literally. This week was good. We had the mission tour on Thursday! It was GREAT! Elder Snow and Presidente Perrotti spoke. When Presidente Perrotti spoke, I could understand a lot. It blew my mind. A lot of what Elder Snow said really helped me to regain my confidence in myself as a missionary. He said a lot of things that I needed to hear. He asked Sister Menden and I if we could have an interview with him one by one. This might sound funny, but he asked me to say a prayer in English. Let me tell you....it was kind of  hard. I could only think of Portuguese words ha ha. But I managed to do it. :)

 

Thursday I hit 6 months in the mission! Sister Menden and I celebrated with ice cream! :) We also had peanut butter M&M´s at our house. 

 

For p-day, we are in Costa e Silva. All the missionaries from my zone are at the stake presidente´s house. His house is a MANSION! It´s so beautiful! :)

 

As I was reading your letter, my heart sank when I read about Tucker. That´s so sad :( I know he´s in a better place where he can´t suffer anymore. But it´s sad to think that he´s gone. he was a good dog.

 

I´m sorry that this letter is short. I don´t have a lot of time. But thank you so much for your love every week! :) Congrats on your job by the way! I love you and hope you have a great week! 

 

-Sister Whitnah

 

I'm tired and exhausted, but it's a good kind of tired

Mom,

 

That´s so cool how there´s a set of Elders and Sisters in your ward! The work there must be growing fast. You should invite your friend to the ward activity! You'll never know if you don't try. I´ve learned that it doesn´t hurt to invite someone to church, an activity or anything in the church. I´ve learned to have courage and to not be afraid.

 

This week was exhausting. Tuesday we had our district meeting. Sister Ware is in my Zone! :) I get to see her every week now! I found out that this transfer is only 5 weeks. It´s really short. I think it´s because next transfer involves a week before Christmas. I´m excited to talk to you during Christmas! I´m noticing that my English is slowly going away. I´m forgetting some words.   I was explaining something in Portuguese and I forgot a word in English that I wanted to say.  i think it´s good that my English is going away.

 

I´m getting along pretty well with my companion, she´s awesome! She helps me a lot with my Portuguese, especially with words and phrases that I don´t know. Sister Menden is a hard worker and she has helped me to become a hard worker too.  We´re always busy! which is a good thing, and I´m happy too :)  This transfer I’ve learned to work hard especially in studying. I’ve grown a greater testimony on studying the lessons and scriptures.  Sister Menden and i bought a pizza on Saturday with guanara! it had tomato, cheese and parmesan! YUM! 

 

 

It´s very difficult to teach people in my area. We have so many less actives that we go and visit. Most of them are nice, but don´t want to come back to church. We come home every night feeling exhausted. I swear this week it felt like my feet were going to fall off because of all the walking we do everyday. I’m tired, but it’s a good type of tired, you  know?

 

On Monday, we had our 1st lesson with Vinisios. It went pretty well! He´s reading the Book of Mormon and praying everyday. He came to church yesterday and last week. He loves coming to church. He told us that he loves the feelings he gets when he goes to church. I noticed this Sunday, he cried a little bit during sacrament meeting while a member was giving a talk about feeling the spirit. We´re giving the 2nd lesson tonight (The Plan of Salvation). I can tell the spirit is working with him a lot :)  I´m kind of nervous about teaching this lesson, because it´s the hardest one to teach in my opinion. At least in Portuguese. I can tell the more we visit Vinisios, the more he looks happier.  I swear he is GOLDEN!   I think he is one of those people that is fully prepared to hear the Gospel!  He does everything we invite him to do.  He is so obedient!

 

 

I read the Joseph Smith story in the Pearl of Great Price. I learn something new every time I read it. Thank you for the idea of reading it once a week. :)

 

This week we´re having the mission tour! I´m excited! The president of the seventy is speaking. Elder Snow and his wife. That´s my highlight of the week and visiting with Vinisios! 

 

I hope you have a great week! Love and miss you!

 

-Sister Whitnah

 

Sister Whitnah and Sister Menden enjoying lunch on P day. 

 

My new area: Barao Geraldo

Mom,

 

So... I got transferred to an area called Barao Geraldo! It´s about 15-20 minutes outside of Campinas. So far I like it a lot. I have to walk a lot. There are some parts where it´s country and others where it´s city like. It´s pretty! The ward is fairly big. There´s around 470 members, but only 70 are active. It´s kind of sad. So we do a lot of less active member work. We have a couple of people that we are teaching. The members here are super friendly and welcoming. I was walking in a neighborhood and I found a sign that said ``Welcome to Brookelyn`` in Portuguese. I thought it was funny, so I took a picture of it. My comp is Sister Menden and she´s from Gilbert Arizona. She´s 21, has been out for 9 months, and she´s studying nursing at BYU. We get along pretty well! 

 

This week was SO busy! I´ve never felt so tired in my life! We taught a lot of lessons and we have a new investigator! On Saturday, we were doing street contacting. We saw this guy and invited him to come to church the next day. When we invite people to come to church, most of the time they say yes and don´t come to church. This guy said he would come. We walked into Sacrament Meeting and this guy was at church. I was pretty excited. Oh his name is Vinisios by the way. He´s in his early 20´s. He went to all 3 hours of church. After church, he told us that he really likes our church. He agreed to take the lessons with us. We´re teaching the 1st lesson tonight! I´m excited! 

 

I received your package at transfer site. It only took 3 weeks to get here! I loved all of the goodies you put in there. I didn´t realize how much I missed eating peanut butter! The peanut butter m&m´s were so good! You should put some in my Christmas package! I also enjoyed reading Bryan´s letter and yours too. Thank you for the package! I´m sending you a letter tomorrow. 

 

I liked the photos of Tessa´s baby shower. Thank you for sending me some. I bet her and Robbie are getting excited for the baby to come. It´s weird to me that they are going to be parents.

 

This week is going to be filled with a lot of finding new investigators and teaching! I´m way excited! I´m looking forward to another busy week! I want to let you know that i´m doing great and i like my new area. I love you so much! I hope you have a great week! Talk to you soon!

General Conference was just what I needed to hear. I loved it!

Mom,

 

I got my transfer call late last night. I´m leaving Jundiai and going to a new area. I will find out tomorrow where i´m going. I do know that my new comp is American. Sister Gomez is staying in Jundiai and will be training a new sister. She´s excited! :) oh Sister Gomez is 22 years old by the way. The other two sisters, Sister Colombre and Martins, they are both training and Sister Martins will leave Jundiai too. I´m kinda sad to be leaving Jundiai, but I know Heavenly Father wants me somewhere else. I know it will be okay.

 

I LOVED General Conference! I would have to agree with you, it went by really fast! I told a bunch of notes. I loved hearing Elder Holland´s talk as well as President Uchtdorf´s. It seemed like everything said in conference was what I needed to hear. It was different looking at conference in a missionary perspective. I was excited to hear from Robbie´s mission president. I loved his talk as well. Did you noticed that President Dyches talked?

 

For conference, we went to the stake center in Parque and watched conference there. The chapel was for Portuguese and the Relief Society room was for English. Conference in Brasil doesn´t start until 1pm. We went to a member´s house for lunch and the food was great as always. We had rice and black beans with this special meat, spinach, and squash. It was really good! For dessert, we had a different types of fruit mixed together with this sweet sauce that people use to put in their ice cream. The whole meal was so good! The members surprised me with... DR.PEPPER! :) I was so excited!

 

I think I will read Joseph Smith´s story in the pearl of great price. I´ve been watching the Work and the Glory movies lately. We have all three of the movies. I´ve been thinking about how I need to strengthen my testimony more in the Livro de Mormon. I know the book is true, but I want to have a firm testimony of it.

 

Overall, this week was bittersweet. A lot of the people we invited to General Conference didn´t come except for Brandao. We have been trying to get Silvia to come to conference, but she didn´t come. She also told us that she has no desire to get baptized, yet she goes to church every week. We have been desperately trying to find new people. It seems like everything isn´t working out. But i´m trying to have faith that we will have miracle.

 

Becky has been a huge example to me. Someone who never gives up on hard things. I love her so much. There have been times where I truly have wanted to go home. I´ve thought that a mission was too hard and that I couldn´t handle it. I´ve felt those same feelings as her. Her example has lead me to never want to give up. Especially when it´s during the hard times. I know that during the hard times we grow the most. I noticed the pattern in conference was have faith and believe in the Savior. I´ve decided, whatever happens in my mission weather it be easy or hard, I will strong and not give up.

 

Thank you for everything that you have given me. I´m so grateful for you and your testimony. I know that this church is true. Conference was exactly what I needed. I´m so grateful for President Monson and all that he does for us in the church. To help guide us in these latter days. I love you so much and pray for you every night. Please pray that this next transfer will be great and pray for miracles. I love you and I hope you have a great week!

 

-Sister Whitnah

Feeling a little better this week

Familia,

 

Things are going a little bit better this week. Thursday night, I got sick with food poisoning. I ate a burger that had a lot of bacon. I´m pretty sure the meat wasn´t cooked all the way. Today, i´m feeling a little bit better, but I still can´t eat much. I´m getting a blessing from my district leader today. I really think that i´m lactose intolerant. My stomach gets upset every time I eat things that involve cheese or milk. It´s really hard especially in Brazil where the people cook their food with cheese. So I made a goal to go without diary products for a week, and see how my body feels.

 

On Saturday night, our ward put on a talent show! It was really fun! The laurels did a dance routine and it was really good! The relief society did a zumba routine and that was AWESOME! It made me want to go up and dance with them. A lot of the acts were of people dancing or singing. Sister Gomez and I sang Come Thou Font of Every Blessing. One verse in Spanish, another in English and the last verse in Portuguese. It was awesome!

 

I´m excited for general conference this weekend! I´m looking forward to hearing what the talks will be about! Or if there will be any shocking news. I was told that all of the missionaries in my district will meet up at a stake center and watch conference there. There will be different rooms with different languages. Like English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

 

For p-day, i´m in Jundiai with another zone. We plan to watch movies and play soccer. I´ll try to take some pictures. The weather here has been really cold. We had a thunder storm a few days ago and the power went out a few times. I´ve a feeling it will be like that again tonight.

 

Thank you for the pinterest quotes! I love them! I also love what Robbie said in his email from his mission. Í noticed the more I forget about myself and service others, I see the blessings more and more. I read an article in the Ensign about sacrifice. It really touched me how as missionaries we give up so much to serve the Lord, and he repays us with blessings. I know the more I come closer to the Savior, I feel like I know him better.

 

I want to thank you for all of your love and support. It means a lot to me. I know I made the best decision to serve a mission. I know it´s only been 5 months, but I can tell that i´m a different person. Once again, thank you so much. I love you and hope all is well.

 

Love, Sister Whitnah

5 Months this week...Crazy!

Mom,

 

I´m sorry about last week when I was trying to send you pictures. The computer I was using was being dumb. I´m gonna try again today and send some pictures.

 

Overall, this week was not the greatest. It was really difficult. It seemed like all of our appointments were cancelling on us. Some of our investigators won´t progress in the gospel and etc.. I felt like everything Sister Gomez and I would do to help our investigators wasn´t working. I felt so discouraged. 

 

I had an interview with my zone leaders later this week. He gave me some really good advice. They said, When times like this happen in the mission, the Lord needs us the most. To be the examples of Christ and help the people come closer to the gospel. You are doing your part as a missionary.

 

It helped me to realize that everyone has their agency. I´m doing all I can to help them. They just have to have the desire. I´m sure the more I put all of myself in the mission, the Lord will help me tremendously. And in the end, it will all be worth it. I read all of my notes that I took in the MTC, and it helped me to regain that confidence. On my purpose as a missionary and why i´m here in Brazil. 

 

The other advice my zone leaders said was when you have a really bad week. The best solution is to go eat some ice cream! In most of our lunches this week, we had so much ice cream. So I find it funny that the elders said to go eat ice cream, and we did. Without even planning to do so.

 

My plans for p-day are going to be pretty chill.  I´m super tired today. I´ve been waiting for this p-day all week! I´m probably going to write you a letter too.

 

So the picture I took of that plate of food, it was just random things put together. We went to a restaurant that was like a buffet. But it was really good! 

 

I´ve been trying my best to drink as much water as possible! And I found a trick to when i´m eating at a member´s home. Eat slowly. And i´ve been exercising at least 4 times a week with the walking that I do everyday.

 

The nice thing about the food here is you cook it all on your own. It´s not all fast food. Hey, when are you going to send my package? Could you send me some music? I´m kind of sick of the music from my iPod. I pretty much listen to it everyday. We have a DVD player so you can send me a CD. You can send me the Piano Guys/LDS music. 

 

 

I can´t believe tomorrow i will be out for 5 months. It´s crazy! It´s weird how i have 2 weeks left of this transfer. Time has gone by so fast.

 

 

Thank you for your love and support! Can you send me some cute missionary quotes from pinterest? :) Thank you for this week email. I love you and I hope you have an awesome week! 

 

Love, Sister Whitnah 

 

I found Kinder Scokolade in Brazil! Having a great week!

Mom,

 

You will never believe what I found in Brazil. KINDER SCOKOLADE!! :) I found it at a grocery store called Boa. I bought 2 things of it. It´s so expensive here. I was so excited when I saw it. My comp thought that I was gonna have a heart attack haha.

 

This week we found 3 more people to teach. I was praying a lot for new investigators...and well, Heavenly Father blessed me with 3! :) Amanda is 20 years old and the other is Feranda and she´s in her late 30´s. The other girl is named Juilanne and she´s 18 years old. We have plans to visit them again this week! I´m hoping this week will go great!

 

I had a spiritual experience on Thursday. Do you remember me talking about Gabi? Well Gabi´s mom is a member but less active. I really need to find out what her name is. She´s very sweet and loves the missionaries. Anyways, on to my story. So Sister Gomez and I were walking through this neighborhood. Close to where Gabi´s mom lives. I remembered the last time we saw her, that she said she´d love to have us come over for dinner or for ice cream. I had an impression to go see her. I told Sister Gomez that we should go see her and see how she´s doing. We go to her house and she comes out with her hand all wrapped up. She went to the hospital earlier that day because she did something to her hand. 

 

She told us how she wanted visitors. And when we came over, she was really excited to see us. We shared a scripture with her about the atonement. The spirit was so strong in her house. She started to cry. She shared her testimony with us and it was so cool. She has a strong desire to come back to church but, there are some things holding her back. I find it interesting how the Spirit guides you to the people that need you the most. And she needed us in that moment. It made me realize how I need to rely on the Spirit more than on myself.

 

I did take a couple pictures of myself for my mission plaque. There were only 2 good ones. But I did take a lot of pics throughout the week! Some of them involve food! :)

 

The mission conference is like a zone conference, but with all of the missionaries in the mission. It´s sometime in October. I´m looking forward to it!

 

The German/Italian couple are doing good. They have been coming to church more since Otavio got baptized. That´s their grandson. They came yesterday and they look really happy.

 

Hey have a great week! I love and miss you! :) 

 

Love, Sister Whitnah

a BLAH week

Bethany FINALLY received the first letter I wrote to her on July 15th!  Almost 2 months!  I had sent her a photo of Mollie in her email, hence the reference to Mollie, our black lab.  It sounds like this week was so, so.  As she put it, kind of blah. 

 

 

 

Familia,

 

This week was kind of a blah week. My companion had a fever and we had to go to the hospital. We were there at least 3 hours. She received 2 shots. One in her arm and the other in her butt. I couldn´t help myself from laughing when she pointed to where she got her shot. She also has been having really bad headaches. She found out that there´s a lot of high pressure in her head. That´s what's causing the headaches. Now, she´s doing a lot better. Oh, I found out where she is from. She´s from Uruguay ha-ha.

 

I traveled to Campinas on Thursday for a photo document. Everyone is required to have one in the mission. So I spent my whole day in Campinas. I was really tired when I came home.

 

For p-day, we hung out with another zone. We watched 17 miracles and played air hockey. It was pretty fun!

 

Sister Martins told me that I was talking in my sleep the other night ago. She said that I was talking in Portuguese! I was repeating one phase like 5 times ha-ha

 

Next month, we are having a mission conference! One of the seventy is going to be there. It´s probably going to be a Brazilian guy. But I'm  super excited for it!

 

I did get your letter btw. I´m going to try and write you today. I asked my district leader about how long it takes to receive packages from the US. He said it takes about a month or more. And it doesn´t matter how big it is.

 

I´m sorry that this email was kind of boring. I´m hoping this week will be better. I haven´t had any spiritual experiences yet...but when I do, I´ll let you know. I love you so much. Have a great week!

 

AWW Molly Moosers! :) Thanks. I gotta tell you something. The sisters that I live with say i´ve been grinding my teeth at night. They said i´ve been doing it for 5 days straight. Is there a way where I can prevent my teeth from grinding?

 

There is someone that I do want to hear from. I want to hear from Lon Halterman. Have you heard from Alina recently?  I’d like to hear from her as well. 

 

Sorry this email is short.  We are given an hour and a half to read and then write emails.  I will try to make up for it in the letters I write you.

 

-Sister Whitnah. 

I love my new companion!

Here is Bethany’s recent email.  She sounds like she is doing much better with her new companion.  I had noticed that she hadn’t asked me about Mollie since early May.  I told her in my email that Mollie was doing well, hence the message about her   It’s so strange that she has NOT received the letters I wrote her..  I sent one  out on July 15th, 8+ weeks ago and  I thought for sure it would be at the mission home when she was there last week for transfers.  bummer. You can probably tell this email is choppy.  Well, she sent 4 different emails as she forgot things she wanted to add .  I have included the photo of the Brandao who was baptized on Saturday.     Grace

 

 

Mom,

 

This week was pretty tiring because of transfers. My new comp is Sister Gomez. She has been out for 6 months. She´s from a country just below Brazil. I can´t remember the name of the country, but she speaks Spanish. She is super sweet and funny. I can tell that we are getting along great!

 

Brandao got baptized on Saturday. He was baptized in a river, ha ha. That man is so crazy. Silvia however, didn’t get baptized. I´m sad about that. She’ll  get baptized when she is ready.

 

I saw Sister Ware on transfer day! I was so excited to see her! I gave her a big hug! She is now comps with my old comp (Sister Cabral). I´m kind of nervous for her. I hope she can deal with her. It was hard enough for me to deal with her. I hope everything will go okay.

 

I didn’t get your letters. Maybe they will come tomorrow? Sisters Colombre and Martins are still in Jundiai with me. Things have been going so much better since we had transfers. I´m so happy. Things are not so stressful anymore. As far as drama goes. My old comp created so much drama that it made of all us so frustrated. I´m glad that she´s gone and I can start off with a great comp.

 

So this inactive family that we are teaching, the father is from Germany and the mother is from Italy! :) I thought it was really cool. I tried to speak to him in German, but all I can say are words in Portuguese.

 

Oh, Gabi is a member but inactive. She doesn´t have a desire to come back to church. She loves talking with the missionaries though. It´s kind of interesting. A lot of families here have kids and are not married. That´s one of the biggest problems in Brazil. Couples have 3-4 kids and live together and don´t get married. I´m glad that Silvia and Brandao got married.

 

Fun fact about Brazil! I love the Cola cola here! It´s so much sweeter here than in the US. If you could, put peanut butter  M&M’s in my package. :)

 

Sorry that i´m writing multiple messages. I do feel like Brazil is kind of my home but i still miss the US. We had Burger King the other day and it was so gross. I´m so use to having home cooked meals everyday. Fast food is so gross here. I´m learning how to cook some of the foods here. When i get home from the mission, I’ll  cook some of the recipes! :)

 

I´m glad things are going well for you. I love and miss our ``girl time`` especially with Molly girl. I hope you have a great week! Here´s the pic of Brandao´s baptism!

 

 

Love you lots!                          

 

Sister Whitnah 

I'm Staying in Jundiai!

Familia,

 

I have a lot to say in this email. First off, i´m staying in Jundiai and my companion is the one being transferred. I´m going to Campinas tomorrow to pick up my new trainer! I´m way excited! :) I really like my ward and all of  the members. I´m really blessed with the people that I work with. This transfer was probably one of the hardest ones I’ve had. I´m glad that it´s finally over ha ha. I´m excited to start off with a new transfer and a new companion!

 

So my investigator Brandao is getting baptized this coming Sunday! Along with his wife Silvia and his son Joao Pedro! Brandao and Silvia got married on Saturday and I was there to see the wedding. Silvia looked so beautiful! :) We had a baptism yesterday and his name is Otavio. He´s 14 and has been meeting with the missionaries for a long time. 

 

I can´t really think of anything that I want in my package. How about you surprise me! :) I bought those brown boots in Brazil. There´s a cute store in Guanabara that´s called The Pink Store. They sell shoes, jewelry, purses. It´s a really cool store. I have gotten to know the owner of the store. Her name is Gabi. 

 

That´s crazy that Emily has been in the mtc for almost a full week! The first week is the hardest because you are tired and exhausted all the time. But it only gets better! Thanks for sending me the pictures! I haven´t received a letter from you yet. But i´m looking forward to getting one!

 

I´m glad that everyone is doing well. I hope you have a great week! Please pray for me that this coming transfer will be better than the other one. I´ve been so stressed and frustrated lately that it´s been hard to be positive. Anyways, I love you and can´t wait to hear from you soon!

There is one thing that I’ve learned about this transfer. It is that I can relate to having a comp as a spouse. There´s a lot of marriage counsel while you are on a mission. I´m so glad that I have the opportunity to learn about how to communicate with others and meet with different people to know what I want in my future husband. Serving a mission is the best! :)

 

 

Com Amor, Sister Whitnah