Saturday, September 29, 2012

A Tough Week (Sept. 3)

Well. Pday switched to monday, soooooooooooo its pday again!!! How are you all?!
 
This week was a tough one.....
 
for example. Last thursday night, we marked to work with a young member couple from the ward. SO GREAT. It is hard to actually be able to find members to work with and this couple is seriously awesome. I love them!!
We went out with them to the José Ometto (the area WAY far from everything where they are starting the little mini-branch). We had marked to teach a family that we´ve been working with, but when we got there, no one was home...... We then tried to pass by about 4 other families/investigators and either they werent home, were busy, or were just not interested...... In the end, we spent a good hour just driving around, finding these people and EVERYTHING fell through. It was super depressing. I HATE when that happens!! Especially when we have members with us to help out and everything. Ricardo and Carol were SUPER cool about it though and when we had nothing left to try they were just like "Sisters.... its okay. Lets just go out to eat!!!" hahah. So we did, and they were super nice and bought us food. Really though, they are super sweet and I love them!!
 
ANDDD..... about thursday..... We went to our lunch appointment and it was really good. Way good. Afterwards, we were just sitting there talking with the irmã giving us lunch.... She is a super cute, funny, little older lady and we were just having a fun time talking with her. After a while she gets up to go get the dessert.... And she says "let me go see if the jello has set up yet...."
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. ahhahaha. As she has her back turned to look in the fridge, Sis. Feistner and I exchanged looks... (mine of TERROR and hers.... trying not to laugh in my face... hahah).
Then... just to make it better, she gets it out and puts it on the table..... and this jello is purple. GREAT. So sister F. is like "ohhh what flavor is it?" and yes.... it is indeed grape jello. AGAIN.
And this irmã... bless her heart.... dishes us each up these HUGE cups of jello. Oh man. I thought I would die.... probably just from trying not to laugh.... Then she left the room for a bit to go take some to her son who came by from work to visit on his lunch break..... While she was gone, I frantically put as much of that horrible grape jello into Sis. Feistner´s already spilling-over-cause-it-is-so-ridiculously-full-cup as I could..... She just laughed and let me. hahah. It made for a good story that night when Ricardo and Carol took us out to eat though..... hahaha.
 
Random side-note.....week before last, we met a lady that is turning 100 years old in december!!! crazy!!
Then this week, we met an old lady who has a great-great grandchild. WOW. and she told us that her mom passed away at age 126!!!??? INSANE. I dont understand!!!!!!!!
 
And another side-note. Over the past few weeks, the political campaign in Araras has been getting up a storm..... I think it is just people running for city government, but I´m not sure.... BUT, basically every candidate has TONS of cars that drive around the city with pictures on the sides and the number to vote for them. But to make it even better, they put these HUGE speakers on the top of the cars and just drive around ALL DAY blasting obnoxious little jingles to convince you to vote for the candidate. I AM ABOUT TO GO CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Worst thing is, apparently this will go on for another two months. TWO MORE MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. People also use this technique for more normal, all-year long type things.... like selling gas tanks for your stoves.... The people that sell the gas tanks use a jingle with just the beginning part of "fur elise".... oh gosh. It makes me insane. OR, in one of the neighborhoods there is a car that comes around selling eggs. Yep. Eggs. Out of the back of a van. It is great fun when we are knocking doors and one of those cars just starts going up and down the streets.... for HOURS.
 
Friday................. almost all our appointments fell through again. SWEET. hahah.
SATURDAY.......................it was super hot, we went out to work, taught a lesson and then I randomly got sick and almost blacked out when we stood up afterwards......cool. I hope this isnt a regularly thing when it is hot outside...... Cause it hasnt done much in the way of HOT yet..... Anyways.... point being... we didnt get to do much on Saturday because of that.
saturday was also a little tough because it was a moment of realization for me...... about how much I need to work and improve on actually talking to people and not being scared!! hahah. OH gosh. We had a lesson that night and I was too scared to say anything..... I wanted to smack myself in the face afterwards. BUT, on the bright side, I have realized what it is I need to work on now, and now I just have to DO IT.
 
Sunday, was the best day of the entire week!!!
Sister Feistner and I have to do divisions each sunday at church. One of us stays at the chapel for the church services there, and the other goes out to José Ometto to be at the sacrament meeting that is starting out there.... Yesterday, it was my turn to go out to José Ometto. It was super cool!!! It was only the 3rd sunday that they have held a meeting out there. The group is basically just one family of members that have been pretty less-active for the past couple years. They dont have much money and cant afford the bus to come in for church at the chapel each week. This week, we had a couple other members that live nearby as well.....no investigators showed up, but I´m hoping for next week!!
The first week, there were six people, the next week 9 and this week 13!!! SO great!! ALSO, this family is the family of Luisa who got baptized back in June.... It is so great to see that she will be able to go to church and have that support in her family now! We also had a lesson with her a week or two ago and she wanted us to mark our favorite stories in the book of mormon for her to read... She already read one and is starting on the other and so excited about it! so cute! I got to ask her how that was going on sunday and she was soooooo excited to tell me that she had read!
Oh, and I dont know if I´ve said this before.....but in general, brazilians have a lack of musical abilities..... it is especially apparent when singing hymns.... I think it probably comes from a lack of learning about music, cause they dont teach music in the schools here.... But anyways, I took the violin out to the meeting there and played the hymns with them. It helped A LOT. As in, there was a MELODY to be found in the midst of all the other stuff going on.... hahaha. And Luisa´s cousin Gabriel (he is probably 4 or 5?) LOVESSSS music and loves the violin.... he also is TERRIFIED of me and sister feistner.... hahaha. Not sure why. But he will shake everyone else´s hand but wont even LOOK at us..... hahah. So I tried to win him over with the violin.... Didnt quite work.... he was still to scared to touch it when I handed it to HIS MOM to let him play a little bit..... But I caught him watching me while I was playing the hymns. So we may be getting somewhere. =]
 
the peacocks down by the lake on our morning walk to church. They were out in STYLE yesterday!

Grupo de Oracão in José Ometto!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Luisa has a book of mormon on her lap, Gabriel is the kid in the green shirt. I will win him over someday!!!! hahah.
 
ALSO, we did a lot of knocking doors and lessons on Sunday and I was DETERMINED to turn over a new page and talk to EVERYONE. So I did. And it was wonderful, super fun and way less scary than being too scared to say anything at our lessons.hahah ALSO, I shared the message at our lunch appointment and they had a TON of family and friends over to visit.... I didnt think they were gonna all listen to the message, but they all saw my violin and wanted me to play something. So I did. and afterwards, everyone was listening so intently that I just had to share a message with them all. hahah. It was great.
 
OH..... Some exciting news!!
We have a girl that we have been teaching over the last month or so..... Her name is Bruna and she is 11 and SUPER shy. As in, she wont hardly even talk to us! haha. Her family is less active, but they just recently started coming back to church and want to keep coming back. Bruna wasnt ever baptized and she really wants to! She apparently got scared by the elders a few years ago because they tried to convince her to get baptized before she was ready.... As in, they had the district leader come in and do an interveiw with her (without warning them ahead of time!) and he tried to mark her baptism for the next day..... And since she is WAY shy, she freaked out. So we´ve been trying to take it slow with her, and let her run the show.... but she decided to get baptized this saturday the 8th!! Wooooo!!! So hopefully everything continues to go well with her this week!!! =]
 
Last story......
So, we have a little bit of a pigeon problem on our back porch............ they sit up in the roof part over the porch and poop all over the floor out there by our washing machine.. It is sick!! So last week, I got mad and cleaned the entire thing!! It was SO GROSS. I was even yelling at these pigeons in english the entire time..... hahaha. Hopefully our neighbors dont think we are too crazy now.....
But this morning, we had the back door open for a bit while we were studying.... and we heard a racket coming from the porch. So sister Feistner went out to investigate..... There was a pigeon in our little mini-bbq thing..... but as she was trying to get it out, he got out and came IN OUR HOUSE!!! she starts to come back in and she´s like "sister ward, I figured out the problem..." and when I turn around there is a PIGEON  walking towards me, in between me and her!!! hahaha. The pigeon freaked out a little bit and started FLYING at me, and then I freaked out a little bit too. ahahah. Then he landed on our desks and started walking ALL OVER MY BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh gosh.. hahah. So sister F. chased him back outside, caught him and threw him off our porch. HA. take that evil pigeons!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Anyways, enough stories for one email......
 
Love you all so much!!!
 
have the best week!!!!!!!!!!
 
Sister Ward
 

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