GOIANIA here I
COME!!!!(:
Week 17—Nov.16, 2015
This week has been the most crazy,
busy, emotional week by FAR!!!! SHEEESH!! But I’m so happy, so don’t worry!!(: Transfers are here and guess where I´m
going?! I’m going to be living in the
middle of the beautiful city of Goiania!
Sister Amaral lived there for 6 months before she moved to Rio Verde
with me! She absolutely loved it there
and wouldn’t stop saying how much she missed Goiania during her first transfer! Whenever we go to Goiania for meetings for
all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders we stay with sisters in their
house, and now I`ll be living there! wooot woot!!! I’m sooo excited! Everyone says where I´ll be living is like the
nicest apartment in the MISSION!! It
really is though, it’s so nice! I´ll
have a beautiful view from my window everyday… and there’s is a GIANT pool, we
swim in it on P-days!!..HA! Just
kidding, but its fun to look at!
Okay, so this week we went to
Goiania for the meeting for all the leaders and we stayed in the exact apartment
I will be staying in for my next transfer.
But while sister Amaral was in the meeting I got to go on splits or
divisions, don’t know the word in English, but I worked with another sister. Holy freak!!
Goiania is so different from Rio Verde!
Many of the people are college students and the city is really big. I talked to 45 people and only 10 of them said
they would visit church on Sunday. In
Rio Verde 25 out of 45 people say they will visit church. Rio Verde has
many more people with humility. The night when all the sisters returned
from their meeting, Sister Amaral took me aside and said “I talked to President
Kuceki and you won’t be in Rio Verde for the next transfer” I STARTED BAWLING!! Lets just say it’s been a ruff week saying
goodbye to the 14 new converts that we have taught here. They are my
family and have part of my heart. Holy
cow, people told me before the mission, you think it’s hard to leave your
family? Try leaving the people you
baptize and the members you fall in love with. Yep, I understand it now. I think I have
cried almost as much as I did when it was my last day before I left on my
mission and we were at the temple as a family..remember that day? Yes, I cried A LOT!! My favorite member Carol and I hugged in the
chapel for like 30 minutes crying and laughing at all our memories and inside
jokes. She gave me the cutest stuffed animal frog.(: I love you Carol!!
Then Saturday night
at like 9:15 Bishop Carlos said, Sister Smith, you haven’t given a talk and your
leaving! Will you give a talk tomorrow
in church?...(church is at 9 am, we have to visit 20 people and stop by their
houses in the morning to get them before church, oh and it’s SATURDAY) Haha,
but of course I said yes, I will. He
asked me what do I want to give my talk on..I was like ummm I don’t know. He said just talk about your family. I said “no”!! Then I´ll just be crying the whole time haha! Then Sister Amaral said faith! They suggested other topics, but I was like
ahhhh I don’t know!! Then that night I
was trying to prepare my talk in Portuguese and I only had 30 minutes! At the end of 30 minutes, I had nothing and
all the awesome talks and quotes I have are in ENGLISH!! So I went to bed and was praying and I had the
coolest revelation of what I should talk about! It was so cool! Sister Amaral always talks about how when she
doesn’t have time to prepare a talk, the Lord fills her mind with the things
she should say the night before and I´ve always wanted that to happen to me
too!…Well, it happened! Heavenly Father
is so awesome!!
My talk went great!!! It was funny because I was running late and
they saw that I was and switched me to be the 3rd speaker and I ran down and
asked Elder Sneil for some help conjugating words that I needed to say, then
the kid giving his talk finished in less than I minute! I was like holy cow!! I ran up there grabbed all my stuff and ran to
the pulpit. And WOW, the spirit took
over and it was such a special talk. I incorporated faith and my family
together and then at the end said how much I love everyone in the ward and
thanked them for letting us in their houses for lunch. I was crying and
everyone was crying, well, not everyone but almost (; Then President
Carlos got up after and said “when Sister Smith got here 3 months ago she bore
her testimony and didn’t know Portuguese and 3 months later she is giving a
talk and we all understand her”. It was so sweet and he commented on my
family...because I talked about my mommy and how it was hard for her when I
left but she chose to have faith in God and trust him that everything would be
okay. Then I talked about how when I
opened my call I lacked faith to speak Portuguese but my dad said, “I know you
can do it” and I said how my dad had faith in me, but that Heavenly Father has
even more faith in us. It went great! Everyone told me they understood every word… I
don’t know about that:), but I was so grateful for the spirit and that Heavenly
Father gave me the give of tongues in that moment and let everyone feel the
spirit.
After there were lots of pictures,
tears, and exchanges of emails and people saying the sweetest things to
me. I told everyone that if they ever visit the US they can come and stay
at our house and we can visit all the temples together. I gave people our
address and mom & dad your telephone numbers....I don’t think they will
ever call you though because they don’t know English! But I am hoping in a couple years we have some
Brazilians staying in our house...ahhhh! I love them all!
So after church I visited almost all
our recent converts (that we baptized) Holy cow..that was hard. We
visited Luis and Regina and their 5 kids. They are so sweet they gave me presents and I
shared my testimony and talked about the first time we saw them on the street
we knew they were special and were a perfect happy family. Regina was
crying...I’ve never seen her cry...it was so special! She said she would miss me so much! I told
them they have to send me a picture of them standing in front of the temple
when they are sealed together as a family.(:
Then I said goodbye to my Brazilian
Grandpa Noguerria. That was not easy. He
lost his son a week ago and has been struggling and Alexandre said that he has
been sad the whole day because I am leaving. He asked me when I would visit and I said I
don’t know. Then he started crying...I
have never seen this man cry, only laugh and crack jokes. He started bawling and said “God be with you
my child” and kissed my hand. Then I
started bawling and said “I love you, stay strong”!!
Then Carol had a party for me at
her house and made a bunch of yummy food and treats...she is an amazing cook! Her future husband is going to be a lucky
man! We hung out and laughed with the Elders
and some members. Then I hugged Carol
for like 20 minutes again and cried my eyes out.
In an hour I will be on a 5 hour
bus ride to Goiania to meet my new Brazilian companion! Woot woot!!
Carol's house
Goodbye Party just for me….hehe
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