November 8, 2017
Halfway! woohooo!
This week has FLOWN by! So much has happened! I'll try to get it all down, but we'll see.
Probably the second biggest thing (I'll get to the biggest in a minute) this week was proselyting. They take a big group of missionaries out into the middle of São Paulo and drop them off on the side of the road with nothing but a pen and some slips of paper, and say go talk to people! It was our first time speaking Portuguese to people who don't work at the MTC, and it was hard! BUT we had lots of great coversations! Everyone loves americans, and many people are already familiar with who we (the missionaries) are and what we do, so that was cool. The only person who was really interested in what we had to say actually spoke English! Which was weird, but awesome. Anyway, I'm just proud of myself for talking to strangers cause that's not something I would EVER have done before I left! Whom the Lord calls, He qualifies :)
The BIGGEST thing this week is that we got new Elders in our district! There were 3 other missionaries who were supposed to come with us who went to Provo instead, since they didn't get their visas, and they all came this week! There's a sister who's going to Salvador Sul who got put in a trio with the sisters in the other district, and then two elders got added to ours. AND ONE OF THEM IS GOING TO VITÓRIA!! I finally have someone going to my mission!!!!!!! Ok I'll calm down a little. Maybe. So their names are Elder Archuleta (no, he doesn't sing, and no, he doesn't have a cousin named David) and Elder Boswell. Elder Archuleta was pretty quiet yesterday (half asleep, and I don't blame him) so we don't know too much about him except that he's from Colorado. Elder Boswell is from Missouri (which is a miserable place, sorry to anyone who likes it there) but I won't hold it against him because 1) he's going to my mission, 2) he has more siblings than me (there are 11 of them!) and 3) HE ALSO DOESN'T HAVE A TV. (Oh, and he actually does sing, and play piano, which is awesome cause there's only one Elder in my district that can hold a tune. It's terrifying...) Having "a billion" siblings and not watching TV are the two things that I get made fun of the most, but now I'm not the only one!! Take that, district! Haha, just kidding I love them. But anyway…We found out last Friday that we were getting new people, and we stressed about it all week, but they fit in really well. We watched out the window all day yesterday, and the second a bus pulled up, we ran downstairs and outside to help all the new arrivals with their suitcases, as well as meet our new additions.
I think I mentioned this last week, but I played "The Miracle" for the devotional yesterday. I was super nervous about it, but it went really well! My district is super happy it's over, because it was stuck in their heads for a whole week while I was practicing. :) I'm just praying I don't get asked to be the main pianist for choir, cause you get about a 5 second warning on what song you're about to play, and, as my companion so eloquently says, "I'm not about that life" (haha). But if they need me, I will do it.
OOH there was a big storm this weekend!! The sky was all purple and there was lightening!!! It's probably because it's a novelty in southern California, but I absolutely adore lightening! I spent 10 straight minutes with my face against the window watching it. And I wasn't even put off when Elder Farrow told us a story about how some of his friends from HS were killed by lightening. True story. But anyway! It was a lovely storm, and I enjoyed it a lot. And no, the lightening wasn't close enough to us to even hear the thunder, let alone be killed by it, so don't worry :P
Our lessons have been going so well! We barely write out even an outline, but we're able to teach from our hearts as the spirit directs. I know I've said this a billion times, but the gift of tongues is real!! Sometimes I get frustrated because I don't understand people when they talk fast, but then I realize that I speak more Portuguese than I ever spoke Spanish, and I've only been learning for 3 weeks!
Our Brazilian roommates left yesterday! And all of our friends :( We have officially been here longer than any group except one. Also, the last few days have been super quiet, since an entire 3rd of the MTC capacity left to their missions yesterday morning. We got a little under 50 Americans yesterday afternoon, but we haven't gotten any new Brazilians yet. I hope we get new roommates! Our room is sooo quiet! But I'll always miss our first ones...
Ok, I'm off to p-day! P-day and another great week. Love you all!! Keep writing!
-Sister Kirkham :)
No comments:
Post a Comment