March 18, 2019 - Coming Home on April 10th, 2019

Mariah will be returning home on 
Wednesday, April 10th!
She'll be flying into the Phoenix Sky Harbor around 9 am.  We will do a Facebook Live event as we greet her at the airport for those of you who are not close to PHX.

Since the change in the communication guidelines, we have been able to talk to and see Mariah each week on a video conference call.  And, although we are really loving it, it takes up all of the time when she would normally write her letter to post on the blog.

However, if you would like to know more about her mission, here's your chance!

Mariah will be speaking in Church, reporting on her mission, on the following dates/locations...

May 19, 2019:  Point Twenty-Two Ward, Mesa, Arizona at 1:30 pm

May 26, 2019:  Flintridge Ward, Las Flores, California at 11:00 am

February 18, 2019 - New Communication Policy!

Ok this was about the biggest excitement this week. There's still a lot of confusion about how exactly it's going to work. I was hoping to be able to call home real quick today, but it doesn't look like anyone is online :( What time of day would be best for you (mom and dad)? Hope we can work it out for next week. anyways, because of the confusion and everything, our plans aren't going to work, and now I am out of time to send a weekly email too :( sorry!!!! But I hope to see you all soon :)

New Options for Missionaries Communicating with Families Effective immediately, full-time missionaries may communicate with their families on their weekly preparation day via text messages, online messaging, phone calls, and video chat in addition to letters and emails. One of the major purposes of this adjustment is to encourage families to be more involved in their missionary's efforts and experiences.

February 11, 2019 - The Week That Lasted a Month!

I got the pictures from leadership council that president sent, and I was like "wow, these pics are a little late, but I'm glad I finally got them" and then it hit me--leadership council was THIS week! It seems like so long ago....

Haha, but anyway, while I'm on that topic, leadership council was awesome! More awesome than usual. We talked all about "ministering," and how we are going to make ministering part of our mission culture. We were challenged to read 3 Nephi and highlight every time that it says "minister" (or derivative) and "one by one." I finished highlighting them this week, and now I'm gonna go back and see what I can learn! Also, it was awesome to be able to see everyone from the 4 corners of the mission :)

OK the craziest part of this week was trying to contact 15 referrals that we recieved from an irmão that we don't even know. 15! One day we went with a member, the third and fourth time we went by bus, but the first time... the first time we made the awful mistake of walking home afterward. We went singing and talking (it was dark and there were lots of cars and few people) and when I realized where we were, we were farther away than I thought we had been when we started out, and I almost cried. When we limped through the door, I hugged the sisters that were visiting (for leadership council the next day) and plopped down on the floor. And STAYED there!

We did splits with Sister Pagassini and Sister Blanscett, which was super fun. We found lots of awesome people to teach, as usual, but they seem to have this gift to find themselves sick, travelling, or taking care of hurt family members right when we want to teach them or take them to church. But we had a few appointments that went super well this week, so that's always happy news :)

My comp is awesome, in case I haven't said it enough. This is what I said about her to Pres this week:

Eu e Sister Todd estamos bem. Realmente amo como ela é tão tão aberto sobre coisas que eu faço que ela não gosta. Ela está sempre buscando ser melhor, e verdadeiramente mostra "fome e sede da retidão." Ela me ajuda a ser melhor a cada dia.

The last thing is that we spent all morning today playing volleyball with our district and a couple of members, which was SUPER fun.

Ok I'm out of time as always. Bet you're all sick of hearing that :P But I love you all, and have a great week!

-Sister Kirkham

February 4, 2019 - An Awesome Week (in Portuguese)

I am completely out of time, so I will copy my email to pres and you can translate it and put it on my blog. And see my journal pages for more info!

Querido Presidente,

Conferência de zona foi ótima! Aprendi muito, e fui lembrada de coisas que tinha esquecida. Estamos focando muito em fazer os melhores contatos possíveis.

Eu e a Sister Todd estamos orando muito para poder marcar datas de batismo! Vimos muitos milagres esta semana, inclusive em contatar uma referência recebida pela site. Estamos ensinando as seguintes famílias:

Geisa e Vladmir sumiram. Um vizinho ou algúem cuidando do apartamento falou que eles foram para Aracruz. Ela bloqueiou nosso número, mas estamos orando por eles.

Dallete, marido, e filho. Dallete recebeu muito bem a primeira lição e o Livro de Mórmon. O marido dela não tinha chegado ainda quando terminamos a lição, então ela pediu para pensar, orar, e falar com ela antes de aceitar uma data de batismo. Ela e seu filho adoeçeram e não puderam ir para Igreja.

Liliane é a tia de Medisson, que voltou da missão agora, então já conhece a igreja.

Sonia e seu marido foram ensinado pelas sisteres antes de viajarem, e eles voltaram e apareceram na igreja!

Lucylia foi uma referência. Tivemos uma experiência muito boa com ela! Queremos levar a Sister Mazzagardi para conhecé-la, porque ela também perdeu gémeos.

Também tivemos nossa primeira reunião com nosso novo LMA! Estou muito animada para trabalhar com ele.

Obrigada por tudo! Uma ótima semana,

-Sister Kirkham

January 21, 2019 - Jardim da Penha...There's a Wal-mart Here!

Ok so as much as I didn't want to be here, in the big city, in this particular area, nor living with another companionship, I am loving my new area! It's a rather well-to-do area, with LOTS of apartment buildings, and praia!! Not that we can go there haha. But anyways, the people here are really well-educated, which generally means I can use all the scriptural knowledge and scientific analogies that I want :P Also, my district includes a set of american elders (including my district leader and his greenie), the secretaries (who, although natives, are all required to speak a little bit of English--one of them told us that he "gets emotional when we talk about food" when we told him we were going to bring muffins tomorrow) the AP's (one of which is Elder Boswell, and the other is an ex-secretary that should technically go home at the same time as me but is going early) and then us four, so it's a pretty hilarious group. I think at least our phone conversations are about 40% english.

Having an american companion is really interesting. Because of the high education level, just about everyone here speaks english, so they always have to include something in english (actually one time it was German) in every conversation. And sometimes they thing we're lost hahahha. But anyways, my comp is super sweet, super honest and open, and also the type of person that never forgets to apologize or pay a compliment. We are teaching TONS and also running every morning! Today we ran to walmart (which was closed) then to a pretty park (I had to run up a very steep long mountain -_-) and then to McDonalds, and then back to walmart (IN CASE YOU DIDN'T UNDERSTAND, THERE'S A WALMART HERE) and then we walked home, and all before 9:30am!

I sent along my journal pages with all the details, but we are teaching some awesome people, two of which came to church already! I think I'm gonna be happy here :)

We have 5 sets of sisters to take care of, so we're going to get started on splits this week, but we don't have a date for the zone conference (they haven't even planned it yet) so that could make things difficult.

But anways, I think that's good for now! Have an awesome week!

Até mais,

Sister Kirkham

January 14, 2019 - Fridge-less and Getting Transferred

OK so this week was pretty crazy! First, I went to the podologa last p-day, and she cut all the parts of my nails that were causing problems. Real fun stuff. I went back on Thursday, and then I have to go back today as well, but my fingers are much, much better. I can acutally type today! Oh but also, last p-day they took our fridge away to fix it, so we are fridgeless. It's awesome haha. President and Sister were kind enough to bring up a water-thingy that chills water, so that helps a bit. Other than that, we're just being really creative. Today I made pancakes with little juice-box-type chocolate milks that we've been buying in rather large quantities because they don't need to be refrigerated.

Tuesday was district meeting, and then we ate Almoço on the bus (our ZL made it, and it was SUPER good!) on our way to Vitória. Also, Tuesday morning we brought chocolates and cookies and a hand-made card and missionary pamphlets to the guys that work at the bus station and our really patient with the thousands of passes we are always printing out and switching around. Yesterday we went back there, and they were all talking about how much they loved it. Except it was sad because the one worker that we really wanted to have some didn't ended up getting any! Also, he cried when he found out I was being transferred! Literally cried!!

Wednesday was leadership council, and it was AWESOME and also hilarious. I may or may not have made a joke that made president say he was going to email mom. But it was a nice joke, don't worry.

This week we did exchanges with Sister Farias and her companion. Probably the last time I will work with her! And then we also visited several members, including one that we'd hardly met before because she was embarrassed about her smallish house, and also Isaac, who is needing lots of prayers please!!!! At least I know that Sister Parente will take care of him.

And, well, the last thing is transfers! President let a LOT of things slip, as usual, but then he didn't do anything that he said he would! We were all shocked. But in the end, the results are:

I am being transfered to Jardim da Penha, in Vitória, which is President and Sister Mazzagardi's ward, and basically the center of the mission. My companion will be Sister Todd, who is a newer sister that I have known and worked with from the beginning. She's from somewhere in Utah, but I never remember where. Sister Parente will be coming back to Linhares in my place! I'm excited for a new area, but sad to leave Linhares, and not super thrilled about living with other sisters (Jardim da Penha has had only one companionship for a really long time, but now President put in two more) or returning to the big city, but if it had to be anywhere, I guess Jardim da Penha would be the best choice. And I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!

Love you all!

Tchau :)

-Sister Kirkham