Monday, April 25, 2016

Week 40!

I am going to be a Trainer!
Week 40--April 25, 2016

I am going to be a trainer!!  Holy cow I got emotional when they told me!  I am nervous, excited, happy, scared all the above!!  I have been thinking back to when I was with Sister Amaral and all the things she taught me!  Pray for me that everything will go good!(:  Oh and I don’t know where my new companion is from...the Elders that called me didn’t know!  But I think she is Brazilian, or maybe Hispanic!  I don’t know.  This transfer was only for 5 weeks and the next will be 7 weeks!!  I am staying here in Caldas Novas!!  WOOT!!  I knew I would, I think I have at least 2 more transfers here!  Sister Kendell is heading to Goiania, University where I was!  I am so excited for her!  She is going to love it!  She is going to have to visit Maura and Stephaney!  We are going to Goiania Tuesday and I hope we will have time to visit them!   Elder Contreras is going to Rio Verde (my first area) next transfer to be leader of the zone there because the area isn’t doing good...and I am giving him letters to give to all my recent converts!  I am so sad to hear some of them have stopped going to church.  But Elder said he will visit them and get Rio Verde going again!(:  I am going to miss my district, but Elder Yanqui is staying here with me, so that will be fun! And we are getting a new leader for our district!

This computer is terrible because the e and a keys take 20 years for me to press down!  Transfers are the biggest, most exciting thing that happened to me this week!!

I love being a missionary I can’t believe I've been out for 9 months!

I love you all!  Give the missionaries a referral!!!

-Sister Smithie










Monday, April 18, 2016

Week 39!

Trials, Growth, and Fireflies
Week 39--April 18

Okay, let me give you the update about my arm.  The ringworm or rash that was taking over my arm was getting worse and it was becoming painful to even touch my arm.  I went to the dermatologist again and it turned out not to be ringworm, it was a black bee bite.  The dermatologist gave me oral medicine and cream to apply and so guess what my whole arm is BETTER woot woot!  Thank you Heavenly Father(: 


Some funny stories...
-We were in a restaurant eating when all of the sudden Sister and the Elders were like Sister, move, stand up!  I was like what the heck is happening?  So I moved and there was this gigantic spider that fell from the ceiling right next to my food, that was awesome!!  Haha but after they gave us some free food (;
-One night after saying our prayers I looked up at the ceiling and saw this little light flickering in our room...I was like what is going on?  Then I realized it was just a cute little lightning bug/firefly haha(; Its always fun sleeping with fireflies!
- Fun fact, I bought professional hair cutting scissors and cut my hair..yeah that whole process was a little stressful.

This week has been...interesting let me start off by saying that this is our last week in the transfer!!  We didn’t know (until Saturday) that there are only 5 weeks this transfer and the next there will be 7...Sister Kendell and I are super sad because we only have one more week together.  I’m positive she won’t stay here the next transfer but I know I will!  I know one of the Elders will get transferred too...but we have been here a loooong time together!  I’ll miss them, we have all grown so close, I know without a doubt we were all friends in the pre-existence.

On Friday we had this awesome activity with our little ward.(:  We made posters, got tables, 3 boxes of Book of Mormon, and pamphlets.  We went out in the road where people do lots of shopping and there are open markets and gave out Book of Mormon with the members!  It was literally sooooooo fun!!  The members were a little nervous and didn’t like it at first, but once they got walking around with us (missionaries) and we showed them what to say and do everyone loved it!!  We got tons of addresses and gave out TONS of Book of Mormon..I asked the Elders if we could do this activity every week it was the best!  Rodrigus was there and he walked around with me and bore his testimony and invited people to church, super special!!

Let me tell you what happened to me on Saturday.  Okay, Saturday was normal we ate lunch at the house of a member, visiting people, we set a date for baptism, the 6th of May for this cute girl Rafiela.  Everything was normal, we stopped at the church to drink some water and they had some food there and I ate a lot and Sister only ate 1 and stopped because she found a bone in her food.  The councilor to President Kuceki was there and he said he was excited to hear my talk in church the next day, and I was excited too.  Anyway, later that night we went to the church to make reminder phone calls to the people we talked to during the week that said they would come to church.  While we were making phone calls my stomach started hurting a little and I didn’t know why, then later we came home and we were writing down our numbers for the day and I said Sister I don’t feel good, then I ran to the bathroom and threw up...yeah.  So after I felt a lot better but then during the night I was vomiting a lot.  In the morning we called Sister Kuceki and she said to go to the doctor and so a sweet member took us.  They gave me an IV and lots of medicine.  So after the doctor I was feeling much better and the Elders came over to give me a blessing, but right before they did, I threw up again!  I was so mad!  Then they gave me a blessing and bought me medicine.   So yesterday, the whole day Sister and I stayed in the house sleeping.  

When I was laying there in misery staring at the ceiling feeling like super sick and saying why, why is this happening to me right now..in the mission?!  I lay there and thought wow, I study patience everyday, I study faith every day, and look at me...when Heavenly Father throws a trial at me..I am thinking why, why me??  I realized I need to have more faith and patience.  Instead of feeling sorry for myself I began praying and thanking Heavenly Father for a healthy body, for my life, for my mission, for everything.  I thought about all the people I have met that have changed me.  I thanked him for Jesus Christ who knows exactly what I am suffering; feeling, and that Jesus Christ suffered waaaaaay more than me.  I can’t tell you how much changing my perspective on the situation of being sick helped me feel so much better.  After that I started praying for him to help me feel a little better so I could study some Portuguese and he did, he helped me. 

I know that sometimes in our lives it is easy to study talks, and read things that we know we need to do.  But when we are given a trial or difficulty we don’t apply what we have learned, what we know, we just fall back into the natural man crying and saying why does this have to happen to me.  But these hard times is when he is testing us and when we grow the most. 

The Book is blue, the church is true, Jesus Christ is Mormon too!

-Sister Smith

 District meetings are fun (:



Boys will be Boys…..
Elders will be Elders….



         

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Week 38!


Wow! 9 months!
Week 38—April 11, 2016

Hello my awesome cute family!  Looks like you all had a blast in California without me and Kylie. (;   Not much happened this week, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn something!!  I learn something new everyday out here!

Okay, Sister Kendell told me this hilarious story that I have been laughing about all week long.  A church leader somewhere said this, when his son was disrespecting his mom, the dad said, “don’t you ever talk like that to your mother again.”  And the boy said, “well it was the truth, right?” The dad said, “I don’t care, you don’t talk to your mother like that, mister!”   Then the boy said, “Dad, don’t you love me?”  And the dad said, “if we were on a boat and it was sinking, I would step on your face to save your mother!”   BHAHAHA!!  I can just imagine this dad stepping on this kid’s face, and I just thought it was the funniest story.(:  Respect your parents folks, they know best. (:

Okay for a little while, the missionary work has been slow, but hey, that doesn’t stop us right!!!  In Preach My Gospel it says every person you come in contact with, that you talk to, that you teach, that you invite to church, is affected and we plant a seed.  Sometimes we teach someone and spend a lot of time with them and it turns out they don’t want to learn more, or they don’t want to be baptized, but guess what?  It isn’t a waste!  Because in 5 weeks, 5 years, or the next life, what we did or said, made a difference and one day they will eventually accept the gospel.

There is a lady from Goiania that has been visiting our ward because her friend lives here in Caldas.  She said that she found out about the church 5 years ago but wasn’t baptized until just 2 years ago.  She started crying and told us that we don’t know how many people we affect in our mission.  She said she wishes she could tell the first missionaries that found her five years ago, that she is baptized today and that they made a difference in her conversion.  She said that we will never know the fruits of our labors until after this life, and we see all the people we affected on our mission, not just the people we baptized.  She said she has so much respect for us, sisters serving a mission because it isn’t easy, its hard work, spiritually and physically. She was so sweet and she asked us if she could go on visits with us. She has a little girl and can’t serve a mission, but she loves us and is so grateful for the missionaries.  It was super special to hear this from a convert.  I love her, she is amazing, and calls us just to see how we are doing. (:

What is this!!!  I will be out 9 months this week AHHHH!!

Rodrigues received the Melchizedek priesthood and has been blessing the sacrament. woot woot!!  And yesterday, Cosme and Damian the 2 little boys we baptized and have been working with, came to church and Cosme bore his testimony in sacrament meeting.  It was soooo special!  I didn’t know until after because I had to step out (I was so bummed) but sister told me everything he said, and he said,  “I love this church, and it is the place for me, and I will never leave it”.... Cosme melts my heart!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

-Sister Smithie poo
My Caldas Novas family.








Week 37!

Spiritually Fed
Week 37—April 4, 2016

Okay this week was CRAZY!!  To start off we had a leak in our cute little kitchen.  Water was dripping from the ceiling super bad.  So we had to call the owner of the apartment and ask him to come and look at the leak.  The next day this guy had to come and cut a hole in our ceiling to see what was causing it.  To let people enter our house we had to call the assistants to Pres. Kuceki and tell them why someone was going to enter our house.  Then when the guy came to fix it, the assistants said we have to have Melchizedek priesthood holders in our apartment with us, so the Elders came in our apartment with us and we read the Book of Mormon, it was super funny.  Oh and the ceiling still isn’t fixed because the person living above us wasn’t home when the repair man was here, so I think today they will come again and hopefully get it all fixed! 

Okay the people here are soooo funny with Sister Kendell and me! People always stare at us in the street or say stuff to us because we are blonde Americans walking around haha.  I know I have already told stories, but it is just hilarious! This one man calls us the blonde angels. People are so intrigued with my eyes it makes me feel like I’m a superstar. The members never stop saying how beautiful we are.  I have never felt so ugly in my life, with my acne (because it’s so hot and I’m always sweating) and we eat...a lot.  But these people are so sweet and so loving, I love the Brazilians. (:

Okay, lets get to the good stuff...CONFERENCE!!!!  Holy cow, this church is so true you guys….it’s obvious!  What other church has a prophet, 12 apostles, and General Conference every six months.  What other church has 75,000 missionaries serving missions all over the world.  Leaving their families for 1 ½ --2 years to teach and preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  People have no idea all the work and organization that each mission has.  It’s like this secret army that no one knows about….its sooo cool.  This secret army of missionaries preparing their little area in the world for the second coming of Christ. What other church has 150 temples all over the world today!! Woot! Woot!!  The church is growing, the work is hastening, and I feel so honored to be apart of it!  The last prayer in the 2nd session of Saturday conference said, and bless the missionaries serving all over the world...and I don’t know why, but it just hit me!   THATS YOU!!  You´re in Brazil, your a missionary! AHHHH!!  Sometimes you just get in routines and forget things...its so AWESOME!!

Only the true church on the earth has all these things! 

Conference was incredible and every talk was what I needed to hear, my favorite talks this conference were Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Holland (big surprise, I know).  But holy cow!!  I loved what he said about the lost sheep!!  There are people that are lost, whether they don’t know about the church, or they could be members with difficult trials or challenges.  Whatever it is, he will rescue you, he will find you, because he loves you.  AHH!  There are people here that are lost, like our investigator, Patricia for example, or Rodrigues that were lost, trying to find their way, praying, and searching.  Then one day we had the feeling (from the holy ghost) to knock/clap at their door, and they heard the message of the restoration and knew God sent us to teach them the truth.  God never forgets his children, this is why he has missionaries that represent him to go and find his lost sheep.

I’m out of time folks, but the last line in Elder Holland’s talk, as well as everything he said before it, hit me hard.  “Of him I bare witness, and of him I am a witness.”  I know that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ appear to our Prophet and his apostles today, I have no doubts about it.  I am so grateful for worthy men that honor their priesthood that are guiding our church today.

I love you all!  Feed the missionaries this week or something, I know they are hungry! 

-Sister Smithie poo


We got to watch general conference in ENGLISH at the house of a member..
we were there from 8 in the morning until 8 at night (: