WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
FERNANDO GOT BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =]
YEAH!!!
But anyways, let me start at the beginning..........
It´s been a good week...... Once again, the week FLEW by, but I
guess that is a good thing...... Did I mention that it is
NOVEMBER??!?!?!?
After meeting with Fernando last sunday (as I told you all last
week..) we marked to meet with him everynight this week. And as we met
with him everyday, we found out just how truly prepared he is!!! We were
able to teach him in the chapel, with members present at every lesson,
which was SO helpful!!! Man. As we taught the lessons, he was full of
questions for the members about their experiences and about
everything.... He wants to understand EVERYTHING!!! It is soo cool!!
Really, we didnt teach him much, he basically taught US..... hahah. He
is super intelligent, and learned a lot from his reading in the book of
mormon, from what he had learned at church the few times he went, and
from what we explained.... After we taught a new concept, he got it
completely. AH. SUCH a relief to teach some one who gets it!!! hahaha.
As of thursday night, we invited him to be baptized on Sunday, but he
said that he would prefer to wait and keep coming to church for a while
longer..... But we explained a lot about the importance of baptism and
how he would have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, and he
agreed to pray about it and meet with the elders for his baptism
interview. Friday, after the interview, I asked him how he was feeling
about baptism and he was just like "I´m getting baptized on Sunday"
WOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Saturday night, the elders that work in the other ward that meets
in our building had a baptism and we invited Fernando to go and see it.
It was probably the BEST thing for him in that moment.... He was started
to get a little nervous and worried about a lot of stuff.... worried
about being baptized and staying strong for a while, but then falling
away.... So we were able to talk to him about his doubts and worries
for a while, and then able to all stay and watch the baptism. He was
able to feel the spirit there so strong and see how everything would
happen... He left that night reassured and SO READY for sunday. =]
Sunday, we had Sacrament meeting first and Fernando showed up all
decked out in nice dress slacks and a dress shirt! haha. AWESOME. And he
was so excited for the baptism. In sacrament, the bishop announced that
we would have the baptism after the meeting, and all the members
surprised us a bit by being awesome and congratulating Fernando and
talking with him. SCORE. Then after all the meetings, we had the baptism
and everything went great. Our ward mission leader who helped out in
one of the lessons this week performed the baptism, and several other
members that participated in the lessons this week, and have been
adopting Fernando into the ward were there for the baptism as well. It
was really cool.
Finding and having the opportunity to teach Fernando was such a
miracle. REALLY. I am sooooo grateful for it!! We got here knowing
nothing and with nothing to go off of, but have just been working hard
and trying anyways, and then Fernando just falls out of nowhere, totally
prepared and ready. AH. So great and such a wonderful answer to our
prayers.
Welp.
On to some of the other less exciting happenings of the week..... =]
Monday, we made tacos with the elders for pday..... hahah. Not
quite true tacos, but they were pretty good. An elder from Chile knew
how to make the dough and the tortillas, and it turned out pretty
delicious. Sister Feistner and I tried to make some at home the next
day, and it was a disaster.... hah. Apparently neither of us are very
good cooks.... Our tortillas ended up dense and flavorless.... oh boy.
Tuesday, we had a couple funny experiences....
We were walking up a street to an inactive members house when we
stopped to talk with a man standing in his garage. We started talking to
him, and invited him to church and started talking about our message a
little bit, when he interrupted us and went on a rant.... He started
talking about his church, "Deus É Amor" (god is love) and then said how
he could tell when people had the holy ghost with them, that he could
see it in their eyes and faces. So we were just like "oh really" and
then there was an awkward silence....Sister Feistner kind of laughed and
was just like "well..... do we look like we have the holy ghost with
us?" Then the guy was just like "something is missing". OH SNAP. Then he
pointed his finger right in my face and was like "THIS.... is not of
God" (meanwhile, I´m thinking "what, the sweat dripping down my face
right now cause it´s so ridiculously hot outside???") then he continued
and pointed at both of us and was like "this makeup is of the devil.....
" Then he continued to tell us how we DID NOT have the holy ghost with
us because we use makeup and earrings..... hmmm. Interesting. At one
point, we were getting a little bugged and Sister Feistner was like "are
you telling me that as a representative of Jesus Christ that I dont
have the Holy Ghost with me???" He got super nice after that...
allthough he didnt change his opinon. haha. Sister F. just ended up
bearing testimony about the church to him (pretty confidently... =]) and
he wished us luck and promised to come visit our church
sometime............. yeah right.
After that, we went to visit a little old lady, Nilsa, that is
inactive who we found knocking doors our first week. She works as a
hairdresser and manicurist in her house, and she had a client in there
when we went by. But she invited us in anyways to get out of the sun for
a minute and drink some water. As we were sitting there, another friend
of hers came by. Nilsa turned to Sister Feistner and was like "my
friend just got back from the viewing of a 5 year old girl..." expecting
Sister F. to be like, "ohhhhhh that´s so sad." or something of the
sort. IN REALITY, Sister Feistner hadnt ever heard the word "velório"
(viewing) before, and therefore had NO idea what she had just said. So
she paused for a second and then answered with a huge smile "HOW
COOL!!!!"................. woops. hahah. Everyone was silent (I went to
two viewings when I was in Araras, so I already knew this word and I was
busy trying to hold in my laughter in this awkward moment.... ). Then
Nilsa was like "do you know what that word means??" ... Sister
Feistner´s smile fell off her face and she was just like "apparently
not..." hahahahahah. It was so great..... Not sure if I loved it more
because of the funny situation itself, or because it was finally NOT ME
that made the awkward mistake.... hahah.
WEDNESDAY WAS HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! woooo!
Didnt feel exactly like halloween since it was BAKING outside, but
we tried to celebrate anyways. It was SO HOT the first part of the
week!! Wednesday, I heard that it was about 37 celsius.... not sure what
that is in farenheit, but it was HOT. The sad thing is... it is gonna
get way hotter still!! AGGGHHHHH
As we were walking that day, I kept trying to IMAGINE that we were
walking in Utah, with the leaves falling and only needing a jacket to
feel just perfect outside.... thought maybe I could overcome the heat in
my head. Yep. Didnt work. It was still hot.
That day we taught about the commandments to Rodolfo during the
day, and then again with Fernando that night..... we almost started
laughing when poor Rodolfo was in shock after several of the
commandments... "IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE???" ahhhh. poor guy. A different
day this week he started talking about how people sometimes go on 40 day
fasts and asked us if that was how it worked with the commandments like
the word of wisdom and law of chastity..... Nope. Not quite how it
works buddy. hahah. But dont worry, he is working really hard and
progressing a lot.
That night, after we got home, Sister F. was DYING to carve
pumpkins. BUT, we hadnt been able to find any anywhere..... So, being
creative, she looked in our fridge and we still had two tomatoes left
from our taco making adventure on monday, and decided it´d be better
carving tomatoes than carving nothing... haha. What you all should
realize in this is that Sister Feistner HATES tomatoes. Like big time.
She wont eat them. EVER. If we go to lunch and there are tomatoes, she
avoids them. IF they come mixed in the food, she puts them on my
plate.... If they are cut up in tiny little peices, she STILL doesnt eat
them, and picks them out and leaves them on her plate. She hates
tomatoes SO much that even watching people eat tomatoes bothers her, and
the smell is even worse. SO, when she got this tomato out and started
to carve it, she would pause every few seconds, start to feel sick
because of the smell, then steel up her determination and continue
on.... hahah. It was funny.
But yep. We carved tomatoes!! Then we found some handy little bday
cake candles that I had laying around and put candles
in them and everything. Not the prettiest jack-o-latern I´ve ever made,
but for a tomato-o-latern, it was pretty good.
We also got to eat some of the butterfingers and peanut m&ms you all sent, so it was LEGIT. =]
THANKFULLY, it rained thursday night and cooled off a TON. Thursday-Sunday was actually pleasant! YAY!
Thursday, we got to work with a girl in the ward that has
volunteered herself to leave with us every week. Her name is Leila, she
is 19 and one of the bishops kids. She is SUPER cool, hilarious, and way
fun to work with. She gave us a whole ton of 7 belos (raspberry
flavored candy like now and laters...) and so we decided to share the
love and give her a butterfinger to try. You should have seen her face.
hahah. When she bit in, it kind of fell all over her and she was just
like "what the heck??" hahah. andddddd she didnt appreciate it very
much. Now she keeps going on about how american chocolate is crappy and
so sweet that it will give you seizures..... oh brother.
She loves to help us with our portuguese (make fun of our accents
and teach us hard-to-say words????), and so I always try to ask her
words I dont know and write them down in my planner.... I´ve got a whole
two-page spread in the back full of words I´ve been learning in the
last month.... I asked her what they call billboards here.... and she
was like "its an english word! you should know!" BUT, weirdly enough, it
is NOT billboard.... they call it "outdoor".... WHY???? So we explained
to her how we use that in english and for the rest of the afternoon,
she kept using it as much as possible, mixed in with her portuguese.
haha. it was cute. I like her a lot.
OH, and while we were out with her, we knocked at a house close to
the chapel. The lady leaned out her window to ask what we wanted, we
told her we were missionaries and she was like "oh, thats funny. We have
missionaries here right now!!" Turns out they are catholic, and they
had two catholic missionaries (preists?? I dont know) from the roman
catholic church in São Paulo in their house doing a prayer service for
them and their neighbors. These two catholic missionaries werent too
impressed that we were there though.... they were just leaving when we
arrived, so they walked out in all their attire (they honestly looked
like knights.... just missing the shiny armor...) and when Sister F. was
all like "oh heyyyyy. What church are you from?'" they were just like
"roman catholic. Tchau." Alright. byee. Needless to say, the lady who
lived there didnt want us to say a prayer with her....
Friday, was a holiday. I swear Brazil has a holiday every other
week.......... its ridiculous! Somehow, holidays are always practically
impossible to work at all......... NOBODY is home. Or if they are, they
are having a party and drinking. Really effective.
But, our ward had an activity (one in a million..... they arent
much for activities in our ward....) and we got to go and eat lunch with
them. It was a potluck and all the men cooked..... haha. Well,
TECHNICALLY, all the men were supposed to cook, but I think a few of
them gave up in despair and their wives finished the dishes for them...
hahah. But there was actually a good turnout and everyone enjoyed
themselves. ANDDDD they had icecream! WOO! from this AWESOME little
icecream place close to our house that is soooooooo good!!! mmmm. Did I
mention that I love icecream??? yep. ahhh.
We´ve been meeting with Rodolfo just about everyday this week and
he is progressing A LOT. He is reading almost everyday, and saying
prayers!!! YEAH! and when we taught about the commandments, he agreed to
everything and has been going without coffee ever since. (granted, its
only been a few days, but i´m so proud of him!!) ANDDDD to top it all
off, friday when we went by, HE PRAYED AT THE END OF OUR
LESSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, funny thing he said saturday.......... we were reviewing over
the plan of salvation with him, and looking in the back of the pamphlet
were they have a layout of everything that happens in the plan.... He
was reading through and thinking through out loud what everything
meant.... When he got to the fall, he was like "the fall..... the
fall..... what is that? Is that when we came out of our mother????"
ahahahaha. Sister F. and I had to try REALLY hard not to laugh at him
too much over that one.....
Rodolfo is super funny and way nice. I´m really loving teaching
him! He is always laughing at himself and it makes teaching super
entertaining.... Like after he understood what the fall really was, he
was laughing with us about it.
Saturday, had another cool experience.... After lunch, we had
planned to go by a family that lives close to our lunch appointment that
day. One of the grown up daughters is a member, and her brother was
recently baptized, but decided after the baptism that he didnt really
believe it, and never came back to be confirmed. Their other sister,
passed away a few months ago, and the whole family is struggling a lot.
Their mom is REALLY having a hard time, as well as their nephew (son of
the sister that passed away) who now lives with them. When we were
planning at the beginning of the week, I didnt know when we should go by
their house, but I just decided to write down to go by there after our
lunch cause we would be close by.... It ended up being perfect timing.
The brother- still doesnt really want to talk to us.... but the sister
who is a member--- Inyra, was having a WAY hard time and was super
depressed, so our timing couldnt have been better. She was upset about a
lot of crap going on in our ward right now, as well as everything else
in their life and stuff. Our ward is frustrating though, because the
ward is VERY un-united.... they arent good about home teaching or
visiting teaching, sundays there are always LOTs of people sitting
alone, and every family just sits by themselves..... everyone is super-
un-animated about everything, and most everyone is going through some
kind of difficulty or challenge. But instead of uniting and helping each
other out, everyone is just goint through their own problems ALONE!!
AGH. It is so frustrating!! But when we talked to Inyra, she just ranted
to us and talked with us for about 2 hours...... But as we were talking
with her, her mood completely changed. She went from being
angry/upset/depressed and ranting to us, to us all turning to the
scriptures and bringing the spirit back. I hope we left her in a better
state of mind.
a few more funnies.....
Sunday afternoon, we were walking back from our lunch and passed by
the little park by the bus terminal and decided to go try to do some
contacts and find some people to teach. Apparently that was a BAD
idea....... There was practically no one out there. We did find two or
three cool people that we will be going back to, but it also was a
little sketchy..... After we invitied someone to come to church, this
guy in his 20s came up to us. He had a big backpack like he was
traveling around and he started talking to us in english, all excited to
talk to americans. Turns out he lived in London for a while, and worked
as a missionary for his church. He was going to catch the bus, and had
to leave super fast, but was interested in hearing more about the book
of mormon, and we were able to explain a little and give him one as he
was running away.... MEANWHILE, a drunk homeless guy had come up to us
as we were talking to him and was trying to talk to Sister Feistner. She
ignored him like a BOSS, and just talked to the kid we were teaching in
english, so that the guy couldnt interrupt as easily.... But I dont
know how she could think straight enough to teach cause this drunk guy
was getting up in her face and muttering in portuguese and jumping on
every word he recognized and yelling it at us... "ENGLISH!!"" "ENLGISH""
yikes.... I think he even touched her hair at one point.... When the
kid left to catch his bus he was like "BE CAREFUL" and we just turned
and walked away as well, and then the hobo guy went on his way....
calling after us "I want to get to know you!! I will get to know you!!"
Yep.... Cool.
After that, we were leaving to head back down to the chapel when we
had to walk by a group of bums sitting on the sidewalk drinking.... As
we came up to them sister F. just said to me jokingly "dont even THINK
about talking to them..." haha. But they saved us the trouble by talking
to US. One guy that was standing there drinking said hi to us and told
us he had come to the church before. We were just trying to invite him
to come back, when all his drunk friends decided that it would be cool
to talk to us as well. Then Sister Feistner almost got into an argument
with a drag queen when she/he told us that she "was saved" because god
payed for carnal sins, and that god gave her this talent and gift of
being a prostitute and she needed to use it............................
Gotta love Brazil.
Dont worry mom..... we are being careful. =]
ANDDdddd to end things on a happier note........... here is a
little saying that one of the members who helped out with Fernando this
week shared in one of our lessons, and then quoted again in testimony
meeting yesterday. (sorry if I translate this poorly)
"It doesnt matter the speed, but the direction"
I think a lot of times we get caught up in how much we want to
progress, or where we THINK we should be with the things we are working
on......... When we mess up, we get frustrated because we expect a lot
more of ourselves. BUT, the important thing to remember is the big
picture of the direction we are going. If we are going in the right
direction, then it doesnt matter where we are at right now, we are
MOVING towards our goals. We just need to have patience and trust that
we will get there someday, in the lord´s time.
PS---- Did I tell you all that I hate cockroaches????????? Yep.
They are so gross. Sister Feistner makes fun of me for freaking out.....
butttttttttt, they really gross me out. And they are everywhere here.
ewwwwww.
Love you all soooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have the best week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks so much for all the emails, I really really really appreciate it.
Love,
Sister Ward
