I've been serving a year! wow!

Familia!

Yeah it´s crazy 1 year on Thursday! It´s hard to believe! It doesn´t feel like it´s been that long. I´m gonna try and do something awesome for that day! :)

Overall, this week was alright. We had our multi-zona on Wednesday. It went good and there were a lot of training meetings. I learned a lot throughout those meetings and will apply them in my mission. Presidente shared a video with us about Easter. On LDS.ORG it´s called Gracas a Ele. It was a great video. If you have time, watch it! I cried a little bit ha-ha! :) It was great to see Sister Loefke! She looks really good! Her Portuguese is really good! We talked a lot throughout the meeting. WE gave each other a huge hug when she saw me! Saturday, we had a lesson with a 15 year old guy named Ramon. He´s pretty cool! He loved the lesson we gave him and already accepted to be baptized! Yesterday, we taught him the 2nd lesson and agreed with everything we said. We set the date for 3rd of May for his baptism. I´m super excited!

For Easter, we got a ton of chocolate! I felt sick after eating a bunch of chocolate throughout the day. Our lunch was good. We had pretty much the regular food we would have in a lunch meal. Nothing too special, but it was still yummy. Thank you for the pics of Bryan! He looked cute with Emma! I´m glad he had a good time! I´m glad you guys had a great week too! I sure missed your baked corn this year!! Did you make it? I gotta go here in a bit! LOVE YOU LOTS! Have a great week!

-Sister Whitnah

 

This week was rewarding :)

Família!

 

I can´t believe Easter is this coming Sunday! Everyone here is preparing for Easter. There´s a bunch of chocolate sales and stuffed bunnies. Also the World Cup is coming soon. I´ve been seeing a lot of Brasil decorations. The World Cup doesn´t start until the beginning of June. Oh just a heads up! Mother´s Day is coming up in a few weeks. I´m SUPER excited! :) We´re getting our transfer call in about a week and a half, and i´m not sure if i´ll leave Conchal. So whatever happens, i´ll let you know and it will be easier to plan things for Mother´s Day. Btw Mom, I planned a surprise for you! :) I´m hoping that Skype won´t be a pain in the butt.

 

GOOD NEWS! I found out that Sister Loefke is in my zona! Sister Howell is training her! She´s really lucky to have her. I didn´t get the chance to see her but our leaders told us who the new missionaries were. We´re having our multi-zona on Wednesday and i´ll get to see her then! :)

 

This week was really good! First off, Sister Ware is one of the sister training leaders and she came to my area to do splits. Sister Ware is training a newbie and I got a taste of what training is like. I went out with her comp and Ware went with Neves. By the end of the day, I was sweating, my legs were hurting, and I felt really tired. I can see what it´s going to be like to train. You get to teach a new missionary literally everything. From planning appointments, talking with people, doing contacts , and so on. It was fun but I was tired...in a good way.

 

Sister Neves and I focused a lot about how we could help our investigators to come to church. We shared a message about the importance of church and gave them the invitation to go. We felt like it was more important that we invited them to church before giving them the 1st lesson. And I agree with that 100%. They need to know why church is important and how it can make a difference in our week. In the 1st lesson commitments in our planner, it says to invite your investigator to church. I thought a lot about why that´s in that lesson. I learned that if we just give a lesson to people and invite them to church, they probably won´t come after the 1st lesson. But if they come to church first, they will understand a little bit better about the 1st lesson. So, this week we invited literally everyone we could possibly think of to come to church. We planned with 13 people. 8 out of the 13 came. I was happy! Our Sunday was a bit more noisy than usual. :) it was a good feeling! My fast really paid off, but I know Heavenly Father was the one helping out with most.

 

I learned in my personal study this week about how I can strengthen my testimony. One thing that popped into my brain was what I know to be true and how I can recognize the Spirit more effectively. I learned what it really means to be fully converted to the Gospel and how that can bless my life. I know his role and that he can only tell us what is true. That was a comfort to me. He can never lie, only tell the truth.Every time I prayed and asked, I got an answer of you already know it´s true.

I felt like Heavenly Father was helping me realize that all I need to do is strengthen my knowledge of it and my faith. I do know those things are true, but at times we doubt our testimonies. I know the more we ask with real intent, God will answer our prayers and will help our faith to know it´s true and He will help us to grow. 

 

This week was rewarding! I learned a lot! I´m grateful for this Gospel in my life and how it´s blessed me. And I know this Gospel can only bless us if we let it and if we live it. I love you so much! I hope you have a wonderful week! TE AMO FAMILIA! :) beijinhos! 

 

-Sister Whitnah


Bethany's message to her Dad follows:


Dad,

That´s really cute how Bryan asked Emma to prom! The photos are great! I can´t believe he´s that old enough to go to prom. I remember getting ready for the LDS Prom was my favorite dance. I mostly spent it was Alina, but I remembered it was always a blast. I hope they have a good time!

What were some of your favorite conference talks? I didn´t get the chance to hear all of Elder Holland´s talk, because the internet connection at the church was really bad. So i´m going to print it off and read it that way. I always love hearing from Presidente Uchtdorf. The way he words things and how he explains doctrine is easy to understand and it´s simple. But most of all I like hearing his German accent ha-ha. :) he´s a great speaker! 

In a couple of weeks, i´m excited to talk with you and Mom. My Portuguese has gotten a lot better. I´ve been practicing my English for when I talk to you ha-ha. It might sound funny, but when I speak English it´s hard to remember some words. Writing in English isn´t a problem but speaking is a whole other story. I´m almost a Brasilian at heart now. :)

Thank you for emailing me. It was great to hear from you and how things are going. I want to let you know how much I love you and appreciate you. I´m really thankful for you and I pray about you everyday. I hope you have a great week at work and at home. LOVE YOU LOTS PAPPAI! :)

Love, Sister Whitnah

Conference was Great!

Família!

 

This week was pretty good! I was so excited for General Conference! I watched it in Portuguese for the first time. It was pretty cool! The only parts I heard in English were when they announced who would be the next speaker and when the choir would sing. I really wanted to hear it in English but hearing it in Portuguese was awesome.

 

I remembered this week was April Fools. The day before April Fools Day, Sister Neves told me to not believe what anyone would say the next day. We had our zone meeting on April Fools Day. Our meeting was about 30 minutes away and we needed to take a bus. On the way there, our bus broke down. We called our leaders to tell them what was going on. They didn´t believe us that our bus broke down ha-ha. They thought it was a joke. We showed up about an hour later explaining that our bus really did break down and that it wasn´t a joke.

 

Later that day, a member from our branch told us that our mission president would come to Conchal to see our English class and to see if our house was clean. Sister Neves started freaking out. I thought it was funny because I knew it was a lie! I told her to calm down and reminded her that it was April Fools Day. The look on her face was priceless when she told me president was coming to our area ha-ha.

 

I had a lot of talks that I really liked throughout General Conference. My favorite was by Dieter F. Uchtdorf, how he talked about the spirit of gratitude. I also liked M. Russell Ballard´s talk too about missionary work.

 

In the breaks between the sessions, my comp and I went on splits with the youth to find new investigators. We found a bunch of people that look very promising! :) about 5 want us to come back and teach them! We have one appointment tonight that i´m really excited about! I´m hoping there will be a few baptisms here coming soon! :)

 

I learned a lot about the atonement during Conference and made me realize how much Jesus Christ loves us. I´m so grateful for the atonement in my life and how I can use it to become closer to my Savior. I´m so grateful for this time to serve in Brasil, and how it´s blessing my life everyday. I love you so much and I hope all is well! Have a great week! Tchau! TE AMO!

 

-Sister Whitnah

she added a short 2nd message to this one:

I would really like to come back to Brasil if i have the chance, you know. Brasil is so different than the US but the culture is cool. it´s funny, i thought eating beans and rice everyday would get annoying or i would get sick of it. but since i´ve been here, i can´t imagine not eating beans and rice everyday. i love it! i´m soaking in the culture and my mission. i won´t get another opportunity like this again. i´ve thought a lot about how hard it´s going to be when i come home from my mission. i´ve grown to love Brasil and have made so many friendships here. i know it will be a HUGE adjustment, but Heavenly Father will help me to get back in the swing of things. 

 

i´ve thought about when i´ll get to train. at times I’m  really super ready and other times I have doubts that my Portuguese isn´t good enough. but i´ve learned that it doesn´t matter if i´m fluent or not, the Lord will help me with the language no matter what. i´m hoping to train here soon. maybe the next transfer coming up.

 

i love you so much and i´m grateful for your testimony. i know that the church is true and the we have a loving Heavenly Father that knows us personally. My mission had blessed me in so many ways and has taught me so many lessons that i know that i couldn´t have learned anywhere else. Brasil was the place i needed to be to learn the things i know now. i´m so grateful for my call and the opportunity to know my Savior more. once again, LOVE YOU so much and hope your week will be great! :)

 

Love your Brasilian chicka! :)

 

A tough week :(

Família!

Thank you for sending the pictures! It looks like you guys had a great time. :) I´m in the mood for Tillamook ice cream now ha-ha. I´ll keep little Dominic in my prayers as well as Becky, Jeff, and Ryan. I hope little Dominic gets better and nothing serious will come along. Btw, I thought Becky and Jeff would choose to name their boy Dominic. I think it´s a cute name! I can´t believe Alina is going to college at Disney World!! she wrote me a couple weeks ago that she applied for it but wasn´t sure if she would get it. That´s so awesome! :) I´m happy for her! I also can´t believe how many people are already married or getting pregnant! I´ve heard a couple people from school or from our stake that got married. It´s so crazy!

This week was a little tough. First off, one of the members in my branch, his wife (Aparacida) passed away. The member was a convert for over 30 years and his wife never got baptized. When Sister Neves and I first got to Conchal, we made a plan to teach her and then baptize her. There was one day where we were doing contacts and we were close by this cemetery. For some reason we entered the cemetery and looked at the grave sites. Afterwards we felt really weird and had an impression to go to this member´s house to visit his wife. She was home alone and we shared a message and invited her to be baptized. Aparacida said a BUNCH of excuses and didn´t give us a yes or no answer. She complained to us how she had feet problems and that she would have to get surgery on them soon. By that point we were both really annoyed and Sister Neves shared a scripture that talks about the right baptism. I think it´s in the Bible, I can´t remember. But after she read it, she said ``God is really sad with you Aparacida. You´ve had so many chances and this could be your last one. He can take your life away at any moment. I´m going to ask you again and I want a yes or no answer.`` She said no in the end. She told her that she is still welcomed to come to church and we left. We both had a feeling that this would be the last time we would see her. Aparacida had surgery on her feet and it didn´t turn out well. She died during the surgery. Sister Neves and I both felt sad that she died, but we also felt that Heavenly Father literally gave this lady her last chance but she didn´t care.

We tried to teach Edson (the homeless guy) 3 times this week, but he wouldn´t show up to our appointments or he would be at the bar. He promised to come to church, but didn´t come. We set up another appointment this week and i´m hoping it will turn out okay. The family that we taught, they´re doing good but every time we visit them, the dad is always sleeping on the coach. We had an idea to sing them Families Can Be Together Forever. The mom loved it! She told us how we needed to come by more often and sing her hymns.

I can´t believe General Conference is already this weekend! Crazy huh? I´m way excited to see if there´s any new and exciting going on. I know the last conference I found a lot of insight and advice I needed to learn. I´m hoping this one will be the same.

Thank you for your emails every week! I love hearing from you and i´m glad everyone is doing great! I will pray for Becky and Jeff. I love you so much and hope you guys will have a great week! TE AMO!

-Sister Whitnah

I'm staying in Conchal! and the Mission Tour from the week before

Familia!

 

We received our transfer calls last night. Sister Neves and I are staying together in Conchal! I was really excited to hear that we´re going to be together for another transfer. This past transfer went by really fast and one that I really enjoyed. We´ve become really close and i´m glad that i´m serving with her! We were both kind of worried if one of us was going to be transferred. 

 

This week, we worked really hard to find new people to teach. We found a family to teach. We gave the 1st lesson and the next day we talked about the Plan of Salvation. The dad told us how he smokes and that he wants to quit. Sister Neves asked the dad, ``So, you want to quit smoking? Great! I know a trick that will help you to not smoke again!`` She grabbed a cup full of water and asked for his cigarettes. She broke a part 3 or 4 cigarettes, put them in the water and mixed it all together. After doing that, she asked the dad to drink the cup. He was a little resistant but he did it. He told us how he felt sick afterwards. My comp showed a point to him that every time he wanted to smoke, he would remember that sick vomiting feeling. I thought it was an awesome way to help someone to quit smoking. We went back the next day and found out he had smoked that very night. We were annoyed but we´re going to go back and help this guy and his family. 

 

Last night, we had another lesson with a member and his friend. His friend was really excited about the Gospel. His name is Edson. The sad thing about this guy is that he lives on the street. His wife abandoned him because he started using drugs and became obsessive. But last night, I could tell he really wanted to make a huge change in his life. We´re going to help him to stop drinking and smoking for good! :)

 

Some food that I love in Brasil are stroganoff, I believe or not I love the beans and rice here! Especially black beans! :) I love how they make mashed potatoes. They put meat in their mashed potatoes to make it look like a casserole! They also use a lot of corn. I see a lot of corn bread and food that has corn in it. Another food I like is pão de queijo (cheese bread). I´ve bought it many times when it comes right out of the oven! It is SO GOOD! Another one I love is açaí. It´s a type of fruit and it´s kind of like a ice cream/slushly. You can put strawberries, granola, leite candansado, and bananas. It´s really yummy!

 

To be honest, i´ve only eaten a few weird things. I tried corn flavored popsicles. And it tasted like I was eating a stick of butter. It´s really gross. I´ve eaten cow intestines ha-ha. I thought that I was going to eat fried chicken, but when I took a bite it was really slimely-like. Ahh just thinking about it makes me sick. A dessert that I don´t like very much is maracujá mousse. It´s a passion fruit pudding. I don´t like the texture and the flavor. It´s kind of bittersweet. It´s a type of dessert if you try it and like it or you don´t like it. I had to eat it 3-5 times in my first area.

 

I hope you enjoy your Spring Break at the beach. Be safe and have fun! LOVE YOU LOTS! Te amo! :)

 

-Sister Whitnah

Familia!

 

Hey this week went really well but at the same time it was kind of stressful. The mission tour was awesome! Elder Costas talked about his conversion story. He gave us great advice on how we can improve the work in Brasil. And he also talked a lot about the Spirit and how we can following it´s promptings when we´re teaching our investigators. I took a bunch of notes!

 

Junino went to the temple this week and he loved it! He told us how he has never felt the Spirit so strongly that he began to cry. I thought that was cute. He will be receiving the Aaronic priesthood this coming Sunday! :)

 

As for finding more people to teach, it´s been kind of hard. There´s a lot of people here that are very strict on their religions and won´t let us come back. We´ve ran into a couple people that might be interested but i´m not sure if they really want to learn more. 

 

My English class is going good. We´re getting more people as i´m teaching. I´m teaching them the basics of English. Like numbers, colors, days of the week, how to create sentences and so on. 

 

I´m hoping this next week will be easier to find more people to teach. I really want to find those people that are waiting to hear the gospel. I´m praying that we´ll find them! I love you so much! And hope you have a good week! Talk to you soon!

 

-Sister Whitnah

This week was great!

Mamãe,

 

This week went really well. We had Junino´s baptism on Saturday. It was one of the most spiritual baptisms i´ve experienced on my mission. It was so cool to experience an investigator get baptized in a pool. Juninio wanted the branch president to baptize him, but he was on a business trip in Mogi Mirim. So one of the priests in the branch baptized him. All of the young women sang the primary song ``I like to look for rainbows``. After the baptism, we celebrated with cake and ice cream. My comp and I made a mint chocolate cake! It was really yummy! :)

 

Sunday, Junino received the Holy Ghost. The blessing he received was so cool! Some of what was said made me a little emotional. I´m so excited for him and the choice he made in his life. I´m so proud of him. I know that he´ll be an awesome member and someday a future missionary.

i think what made this baptism so special was Junino has gone through a lot in his life. His older brother is anti Mormon and it was hard for Junino to tell his family that he was going to get baptized. he has a good support system in the church. his blessing said that he would be firm in the church and someday share his testimony with others that are not LDS. I looked at it as he would serve a mission someday. that would be so cool! :)

 

This coming Wednesday we have another mission tour with Elder Claudio Costas. The last mission tour was mainly focused on Elder Evans. This one is going to be more focused on Elder Costas. It´s going to be 2 days. Some zones with go on Wednesday and the other zones with go on Thursday. I´m pretty excited!

 

My English class is going pretty well! I taught everyone this week the days of the week and the months of the year. I asked everyone to tell me their birthdays so I could tell them how to say it in English. I really like teaching English! The members help me with my Portuguese and I´m helping them with their English. It´s a nice trade! :)

 

I remembered on Saturday that it has been 6 years since Ross passed away. He really did touch so many lives in a short time. This past week, I heard 2 boys from my comp´s stake died. When Carnaval starts, all of the youth go to a campamento for 5 days. It´s kind of like EFY. Well anyways, these 2 boys both drowned in a lake. My comp knew one of the boys. It so sad. She later found out that the mom of the boy, had a dream that her son would die before the accident happened. In the dream she got impressions that her son and this other boy needed to be missionaries in the Spirit World. Isn’t  that crazy?

 

 

Btw, thank you for the quotes! Oh I already got that picture of my zone. I´m glad you liked it! :) I´m going to send pictures of Junino´s baptism. I´m glad everyone is doing great, happy and healthy! :) Have a good time at General Conference! Lucky duck! Have an awesome week and I LOVE YOU! :)

 

-Sister Whitnah

 

I've got exciting news!

Mamãe!

 

I have some exciting news! We will have a baptism this Saturday! :) Our investigator Junino wanted to be baptized this coming Saturday. A member from our branch introduced him to the church. He has been coming to church for a month, and when we came to Conchal he was ready to take the lessons. I´m so excited for him! And I finally get to see an investigator get baptized in a pool! Sister Neves and I are planning to bake a cake for him. It´s common here to do that when someone gets baptized. They act like it´s your wedding day. It´s been difficult to reach the other girl Garde. We´ve been trying to contact her, but we haven´t gotten anything back.

 

Carnival started on Friday. There´s one street close by our house that has been closed off for Carnival. Every night we hear this annoying pounding sound of music and people screaming. It´s been really hard to sleep for the pass couple of nights. It will end on Tuesday, thank goodness!

 

In Conchal, there´s a huge statue of Christ. It looks a lot like the statue that´s in Rio de Janeiro! But not as huge as the one there. So I got a picture of myself with the statue! I´m gonna try and send it. It looks pretty cool.

 

I liked the picture you sent of Duke and Becky. She´s a cute pregnant lady! Tell her I like the name that she´s thinking of picking. It´s different but I like it! Duke looks a lot like Robbie in that photo. He looks so cute! :)

 

This was my 2nd week of teaching English. It´s getting a little easier to speak English now. It´s starting to come back to me. I taught my students to sing Called to Serve in English. There´s one member in our ward that speaks really good English. He always helps anyone who is struggling. Sister Neves is learning English and when we are on the streets, she asks me how to say things or points out what certain objects are in English.

 

That´s really sad about that family who died of CO poisoning. I remember when I was in Pocatello, I served in 6 different wards. Could you find out what the family´s name was? Maybe I might know them?

 

Nothing too much has happened this week other than we have a baptism coming up! I hope everyone is doing well! Thank you for your emails and such. Love you lots and have a great week! Eu te amo! :)

 

-Sister Whitnah