I want to stay on my mission forever!

Oi Familia!

Life in Conchal is going good. This week we set 2 more baptismal dates! A guy named Junior and the other Diante. They both have been coming to church for awhile. We gave the 1st lesson to them and they accepted baptism pretty easily. We plan to have their baptism on March 15th along with 2 other people.

I forgot to tell you that I already got my package. I got it when we had our transfers. I loved everything that you put in it! Thank you! :)  I also got the letter from Dad.

Wednesday was my favorite day of this past week! I mentioned how we were going to have our mission tour. We had 2 speakers. Claudio Costas, the area president in Brasil and Elder Evans. I can´t remember his calling but he use to be a member of the seventy. I was expecting this conference to be another ordinary conference where they would talk about missionary work. They did, but it was better than I expected. Claudio Costas talked about his conversion story. He was  a teenager when he was taught by sister missionaries. It didn´t take him too long until he was baptized. He told us countless times how the Spirit can play a huge role while we´re teaching our investigators. He told us, it does matter what is being taught but more importantly that the Spirit is there testifying that truth. I thought that was a pretty cool.

Elder Evans talked about marriage, families, and missionary work. He told us how he met his wife. He told us when he came home from his mission it took him 3 months to get married. He went to a mission conference in Japan and was asked how long it took him to get married. He stood up and said ``3 months!``  and the mission president said ``it only took me 6 days!`` I couldn´t believe it! Only 6 days ha-ha. Elder Evans gave us a little advice about marriage. When you know it´s right and the other person knows it´s right, don´t delay. He quoted President Monson, ``Never deny a prompting or you will always regret it.`` That reminded me a lot of when I received my answer to serve a mission. That it was the right decision for me to go when I did. He talked a lot about the importance of families. He quoted a lot from the Proclamation to the Family and even talked about our Heavenly Mother. I´ve never heard anyone talk about our Heavenly Mother over the pulpit. It was pretty cool. He gave us a doctrine about how to use the Spirit more effectively in our lessons and teach them what it really means to be converted to the Gospel. One of the problems in Brasil is that a lot of people live together and aren´t married. He taught us how we can teach them to not only decide if they want to get married or separate, but to help them realize that living together is breaking the commandments. To help them see that what they´re doing is wrong. The way he said it was powerful. We want them to get married but what do they need to do before they can make that commitment? They need to have a sincere heart and a contrite spirit and repent our their mistakes and change. Learning this changed my whole outlook on how I will teach my investigators. To really help them understand the importance of the Atonement and why we need the Savior in our life. 

I do have some pictures to send you. One of them is a picture of a fruit here in Brasil. It´s called caju, it looks different but it takes really good! Btw, thank you for the picture of the Portland Temple! That´s probably the coolest picture I´ve seen of that temple. And thank you for the scriptures that you sent me! :)

Friday, we started an English class at the branch. And guess who´s teaching English?! ME! :) my comp doesn´t know any English so she made me be the teacher. To be honest, since I started learning Portuguese i´ve forgotten a little bit of my English. I could explain everything in Portuguese but when it came to speaking in English, it was hard. I´m teaching the basics of English and i´m also teaching how to say a prayer in English. One of the members gave a prayer in English. It was pretty cool!

 

For p-day my comp wants to get her hair cut and i´m thinking I might get mine cut as well. We´re going to celebrate my 10 month anniversary by getting ice cream! I can´t believe 10 months...the more I think about it the more I don´t want to go home. I want to stay on the mission forever. But anyways, this was my week. It went by really fast and we worked really hard this week. I hope all is well and I love you so much! Have an awesome week!

-Sister Whitnah

Hello from Conchal!

Familia!

 

I have so much to tell you! First off, I got my new comp and she´s Brasilian. It´s been a long time since I’ve had a native comp. She looks like an American because she´s a red-head. It´s kind of funny, her last name in English means snow, and her skin is really white. Her name is Sister Neves and she´s from Curitiba, Brasil. She´s been out for 7 months and she´s the same age as me. We get along pretty well. :)

 

My comp and I opened up a new area called Conchal. This area has been closed for 5 years and President decided to open it up again! It´s a little different here, because i´m serving in a branch. There´s only 30 active members. Compared to my other 2 areas, Conchal is super tiny! It’s also really far away from Campinas. It´s about an hour a way and we´re in the country side.

 Yesterday was our first Sunday in Conchal and the Branch President asked me to give a 10 minute talk about missionary work. I was SO nervous and he only gave me a 30 minute warning. It was my first talk in Portuguese. I think I did okay, but my comp said it was good for a first timer. :)

 

I feel like this area is going to have a lot of success. The members here are awesome! This week we set 3 baptism dates for March 15th. We found out that our branch doesn´t have a baptismal font, so they use a plastic swimming pool as their baptismal font. I really want to see what it will be like to have a baptism in a swimming pool ha-ha. We’ve  gotten so many references and think this area will be one of those golden areas!

 

This Wednesday, we´re having a mission tour with one of the counselors in the seventy. I think...? He´s a Brasilian, and his  name is Elder Costas. I know the whole mission will be there!

 

To be honest, it was hard to say goodbye to Barao Geraldo and to Sister Howell. She was one of my favorite comps on the mission. I´m gonna miss her a lot. My last night in Barao, we went to a member´s house and they made me my favorite meal! Stroganoff (brasilian style) is was AMAZING! :) Since i´ve left, i´ve missed Barao a lot. Throughout the week I thought about Barao Geraldo and how much I miss my investigators and the members. It was like I was homesick in a way but for my area. But right now, i´m doing better.

 

I loved the pictures you sent of Duke! He looks really cute! He also looks older every time I see a new picture of him. By the way, Tessa says I look older? To be honest, I feel a little older too. It´s weird to think that I’m one of the older missionaries now.

 

Overall, this week was bittersweet but good. We worked really hard this week and we´re finding success slowly. But I know the Lord is blessing us with this new opportunity to serve in a branch. I love you so much and i´m grateful for everything you have done for me. Have a great week!! :) LOVE YOU LOTS!

 

-Sister Whitnah

I'm getting transferred!!!

Bethany’s short email today.  She will be transferred.  Something she was hoping for, yet as she puts it, kind of sad to leave those that she has gotten to know.  Here are some pics she sent today.  The one girl in the middle is only 18, Her name is Letetia.  She is a member in Barao Geraldo and is planning to serve a mission when she turns 19.  She became great friends with Bethany.  I had to post the photo of the kinder chocolate(German chocolate) she found, she loves this stuff! Her German is still in her, even in Brasil!

 

 

Mom,

 

So, are you ready for the news? I´m being transferred, Sister Howell is staying in Barao Geraldo and will be training! I kind of had a feeling that I would go anyways. I´m excited to be going but at the same time i´m sad to be leaving. I was there for 3 transfers and it gave me time to get to know all the members and to get attached ha-ha. But wherever I go will be good. I won´t know all the details until tomorrow morning when I go to the bus station in Campinas.

 

This week was tough but good. A lot of our investigators aren´t progressing like we want them to. It didn´t work out this weekend to go to the temple with Danuzia. Carol´s birthday was this weekend and they were busy planning her party. We can tell that Carol and Bruno don´t want to be baptized anymore. The biggest thing is that they don´t want to make that change in their life. So we´ve let them go for now. On the other hand... Danuzia wants to get baptized SO badly, but she has to divorce her other husband that lives in Northern Brasil and separate from the other guy that she´s living with now.

 

It´s been hard to communicate with Olifer since Sunday. We found out that his girlfriend doesn´t like the fact that we´re teaching him. The fact that we´re ``sister missionaries``. It´s really dumb. In the lesson last week, there was us, the 3 members, Olifer and his girlfriend. So I don´t get why she doesn´t like us. He still wants to meet with us though, which is awesome! :) he still hasn´t come to church yet....

 

Our ward did a fast for it to rain here. It´s been really hot and some members have had no water. Saturday afternoon, we had a rain storm! It was awesome! It rained for a good hour. I took a picture of Sister Howell and I when we came back to our mini house. :) Watching it rain was a huge testimony builder. It showed me that everyone´s prayers and fasts were answered. :)

 

Well, that is pretty much it for this week. I´ll have more news once tomorrow hits. I love you so much and I hope all is well with you guys! :) Take care!

 

-Sister Whitnah

I can't believe it's February. Time is flying quickly!

Mom,

 

I can´t believe it´s already February! Time is flying by so quickly! I´m doing pretty good. This week the weather went from being hot to insanely hot. I completely cut pop out of my meals and I only drink water. A lot of our meals with the members they give us a lot of pop. And sometimes I really don´t want to drink it because I know it will give me headaches. So I only drink water and juice. 

 

This week we visited Danuzia, Bruno and Carol. Our baptismal date with him fell through. :( We really think him and Carol won´t get baptized until Danuzia gets divorced from her husband and moves into a new house. She has told us more than once how badly she wants to get baptized. We´re going to the temple with them this Saturday! Danuzia wanted to see what the temple looked like. She´s pretty excited about that. :)

 

On Thursday, Sister Howell and I went to Village to knock on doors. To explain Village it´s very country. When Robbie was serving in Honduras and would explain what his areas looked like, Village is what I thought of. Dirt roads that would go on forever and all you could see is grass fields. I took a couple pictures to help you see what it looks like. It looks pretty.

 

Yesterday, we had an awesome lesson with a member who brought a friend to FHE. We taught about the Restoration and the Spirit was so powerful! It was incredible! Laura´s friend is named Olifer. He´s 19 years old and he goes to the Congregation church of Jesus Christ. I´ve never heard of this church before. He seems very interested in the church. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. 

 

I have something funny to tell you. I can´t remember what day it was but one day this week, Sister Howell and I ate out for lunch. Afterwards, she wanted some chocolate. There was a place that was really close called Caucau Show. It reminded me of Godiva Chocolate. But anyways, we go in and bought a piece of chocolate. I was eating my chocolate and kept thinking how weird it tasted. I looked at the rapper and it had liquor in it ha-ha. Sister Howell laughed at me and said ``I wonder how your parents are going to react when you tell them that you had liquor during your mission? ha-ha`` I thought it was pretty funny! This reminded me when Alina went to Belgium and ate that chocolate covered cherry with alcohol. 

 

For p-day, we´re gonna go to eat some lunch. There´s this place close by the bus terminal. They sell pastels and juice. After that, we´re going to go back home and clean our mini house and SLEEP. I´m exhausted! We´re getting our transfer calls this coming Sunday. I want to organize all my stuff so that if I get transferred, I can be ready. I´ve been in Barao Geraldo for 3 transfers now. I would like to go to another area.

 

I liked the quote you shared with me. Since I´ve left for my mission, I´ve learned a ton! Especially about Jesus Christ and how he means so much to me. My testimony has grown a ton since i´ve been in Brasil. I know the things i´ve learned in Brasil I wouldn´t have learned in Idaho. That i´m grateful to have served in the states as well as in a foreign country. My ward mission leader showed us this book called how to be an everyday missionary. I think Desert Book has it? But I read it and there´s a lot of good advice in that book. It talks about how you can talk about the church in a simple way. At school, work, or pretty much anywhere. It´s really awesome! If you have time, you should take a look at it. :)

 

I hope this week will be great! I hope your foot continues to get better soon! LOVE you so much! Tchau! Amo vocês! :) Enjoy the pics!

 

-Sister Whitnah