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