November 26, 2018 - Thanksgiving Dinner & Pumpkin Pie!

Ok I have a TON to talk about this week, but I think I have time today.

So first of all, we traveled quite a bit this week. Last Monday we were in Vitória, Tuesday we had district meeting in São Mateus, like always, and then Thursday we were in Aracruz for exchanges. I spent the day with Sister Pagassini, from São Paulo, who is still in her second month on the mission, but who is absolutely awesome! She reminds me SO MUCH of Sister Rodrigues (the sister I trained), probably because she's from São Paulo, but also a little bit of me. We had a super awesome fun productive day, and then at night we did a little Thanksgiving Dinner! Mostly because there was another Americana in the house. We made homemade mashed potatoes, bought lunch meat turkey, and I made improvised gravy with boullion (still don't know how you spell that) flour, and mineral water. I have absolutely no idea how you actually make gravy, but hey it was good! And anyways, we put it all on bread and ate it like those thanksgiving leftover sandwiches that used to be part of dinner group. (Except without stuffing cause nobody likes it anyway). Everyone loved it!!

And then as you'll see in the video, a super nice amazing neighbor that's familiar with the US made pumpkin pie for me!!!!!! THAT made my day!! and also Sister Riquelme's, because it was her birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera to Aracruz, and the birthday surprise pictures are on someone else's camera, but yeah Friday night we ordered pizza, bought guaraná soda, watermelon, and balloons, and were given açaí, which we ate with the leftover pie (the first half was our breakfast) so it was a pretty awesome night!

Oh, and that was the third fancy dinner in a row, cause Wednesday night we were invited to a last-minute birthday party for Vanessa (we brought cookies and she LOVED them!) so we ate about a ton of farofa and churrasco.

Ok I promise we worked a lot too (haha). On the days that we were here in Linhares, we found a TON of awesome people to teach. Here's a quick summary:

Geiciele, with her two kids Maria Clara and José. Didn't make it to church yesterday, but are super awesome, and preparing to be baptized.

Douglas, 15-year-old with a special needs sister that plays with us as we teach, and also a girlfriend in the hospital, and needs a little bit of God's love in his life.

Joyce, friend of a member that already went to church twice. It seems like she's had a rough life, but she (and her parents) are in the midst of getting it all put together. She also has an adorable little sister, and absolutely loved the first lesson. She participates in everything, and just has this thirst to learn. Hasn't accepted a baptismal date yet, but I'm sure she will :)

And then there's Maria das Neves, and her family. We were knocking doors (ok,  clapping is more accurate) and this old lady with a cigarette in hand comes to the window. I honestly didn't think she's be at all receptive, but it's a really good thing that I have an awesome companion!! Because seriously, I've never met anyone so so ready to hear about the Restoration. Basically, we found her on Friday, and by Saturday she had already prayed, gotten an answer, accepted (very firmly) a baptismal date, and is crazy excited about the goals we made with her to quit smoking and drinking coffee! And we're also teaching her granddaughter and great-granddaughter, who are also awesome.

Just to let you all know, Genivaldo was not baptized (yet) because he ran off to Vitória to visit his girlfriend. He gets back today, so next week, I hope to have happier news!

But anyways, in summary, the Lord has blessed us SO SO much, and I hope to be able to be a part of His work in these awesome people's lives for just a little bit longer!!

This week is zone conference and then next week is transfers, and then we start all of the christmas stuff, so the next month should be awesome too!

-Sister Kirkham, with love

November 19, 2018 - Just Plain HOT

This week was pretty full! We're working tons with this one Family, and doing splits and travelling as usual. Sorry I'm on late again! I'm in Vitória for yet another doctors appointment. Funny stuff happens on the mission, especially to my companion (haha). But this week was just a follow-up/check-up for this crazy eye infection she had like a month ago. But anyways! this week it decided to be summer. Just plain HOT. My comp and I were reminded of the old days when we came home every day drenched in sweat, and then woke up that way too, no matter how many showers we took or fans that we plugged in. It's just hot! But anyways, we're using plenty of sunscreen and drinking lots of water, so we'll survive.

Just a funny/cool experience from this week: my comp and I were studying this really cool talk one day (in Subway, prepping for splits the next day and enjoying a little bit of american food) that honestly didn't have anything to do with this, but we decided we wanted to help people come back to church. 5 minutes after we made and wrote down our goal, this Young man comes up to us saying that he's a member, but doesn't go all that often. Weird, right? Well that was the first of 5 that day! All you have to do is express a righteous desire (in the spirit of prayer) and the Lord makes it possible! Reminds me of Nephi, in the book of Helaman (I think), whom the Lord promised that whatever he asked of the Lord would happen.
This week we focused a lot on this Family that we're teaching, including some really creative lessons, and a Family night or two. Their names are Daniela (the mom, who is not legally married and has a complicated situation with her boyfriend that she doesn't even like), Genivaldo (15, is progressing toward baptism), Elizabete (13) Carlos Daniel (11) and Ellison (2) who finally started to like us this week!

Things in the branch are a little difficult, but things at "home" are awesome. We spent the whole week eating the leftover açaí from last week, plus 2 potes of ice cream that someone gave us. And planning really creative activities and what not.
This week we did splits here in Linhares with Sister Parente and Sister Olsen. Sister Olsen and Sister Farias had an amazingly productive day in the neighborhood where we usually work, and Sister Parente and I went after some really awesome people in a other neighborhood (a little farther away) that we found when we were together (like over a month ago) but that we hadn't managed to come back and teach.

Ok I'm really out of time, sorry! Hope and pray that next week will be better! Love you all tons!!!
-Sister Kirkham

November 12, 2018 - Sorry, no time to write today...

Ok I love you all, but I don't have time to write an email today. I'm on late because of our super p-day today, and then I spent 45 mins writing a letter to Pres because we had 2 exchanges this week, and one of them was a bit complicated. And then I had to fill out and send a form, and now I have a survey to do, and only 15 mins to do it.

But anyways, this week was pretty full, with 2 exchanges, like I said, one here and one in Bahia, some awesome people/families that we're teaching (some of which came to church! and members brought friends!), organizing everything for the activity today, and just the general day to day stuff. Oh, and it rained a LOT. I've decided I'm going to buy galoshes. (No idea how to spell that).

If you could all pray for Genivaldo (he's progressing toward baptism this week) that would be awesome. Talk to you all more later!

-Sister Kirkham

November 5, 2018 - Leadership Council, Splits, Letters, and Awesome People

Sorry I had tons of required stuff to do! I'll try to get through as much of my week as possible.

Just a couple of little things:

Yes Daddy, I did get your letters and no they did not take 3 months! I actually got them hand delivered to me in my area, because President was travelling and had to pass through the city, so he stopped by :P I'll send responses next week.

Not sure if you all were thinking of sending a package or not, but if you were, don't. Pres sent an email today saying that Brazil is charging huge fines to receive the packages once it gets here.

Also, Happy Halloween!!! Hope it was awesome!

and Happy Birthday, Cami! Sorry I forgot to include that last week!! And while I'm ahead, Happy Birthday to Tavia, too!

Ok,  now for this week. Highlights would certainly be Leadership Council, starting splits, getting letters, and a couple of awesome people we're teaching.

Don't want to brag or anything, but Leadership council with an ocean view and homemade quarter pound hamburgers is pretty hard to top! Plus the trainings are always so spiritual! Sister Mazzagardi wrote (but didn't give because she had a sore throat) a super awesome one about the power of the little things, which included a video that you all need to watch, by the author of 7 Habits... It's something about a boat rudder.

We're having trouble bringing people to church, because all the awesome people are super busy. But the people we're focusing on the most are William and Vanessa (not sure if I already talked about them, but they're an awesome couple that lost a 3-year-old son to cancer 4 months ago), Lygia (a 13-year-old who is super mature and super involved in just about everything. Her family is awesome--we had to bring her another Book of Mormon because her dad stole it to read himself haha--but it's hard to find them all at home), Amanda (12-year-old who has a bit of a difficult family situation. Yesterday we taught the Restoration, and I guess she didn't exactly understand the point at first, but we were finishing the lesson and she was like "wait. this church...your church...is the SAME church that Jesus Christ created? Like it's not just any other church?" and when we confirmed it, she was all "seriously!? I'm gonna tell all my friends that there's the same church that Christ founded. Hey Grandma! Did you know that this church is the same church that Jesus Christ established?!?!?!), and a young couple called Ana and Jonathan (they're hard to find because they work a lot, but they're very receptive. Practicing Catholics, but very prepared, and have a 3 month old baby).

This week we are going to have splits here in Linhares, and in Bahia as well, and next p-day we are going to do a super p-day with churrasco and feijão tropeiro, and açaí, and sorvete, and all good things! Should be fun, especially since I'm organizing it ;)

Ok gotta go. Love you all!

 Até mais!

-Sister Kirkham

October 29, 2018 - Isaac was Baptized!

Haven't read mom's email yet, but I know it starts with "hope there was a wonderful baptismal service for Isaque!" Aaaaaand there was :) More on that later.

So this week was a little crazy, what with showing the 3 new sisters around the area, responding to Isaac's (oh yeah, we found out that he spells his name the English way, except it's pronounced like Portuguese: Eez-ah-key) crazy questions, like whether or not making phone calls on Sunday would be breaking the sabbath (because the scriptures say that it's wrong to make others work on this day, and someone has to operate the calls), why abortion is wrong, and trying to convince him that "faith is not to have a perfect knowledge," therefore he does not need to read the Book of Mormon twice before being baptized. Also, I am once again taking antibiotics for another crazy skin infection. And we had to have a last minute district meeting because the former district leader (who was transferred) accidentally took the cell phone with him (hahhahhaa) so he gave it to me at the bus terminal, and I had to hand it over to the new district leader. Other interesting things would be that it rained a ton, and we walked miles and miles and miles, and took the city bus (which we never use) 3 times, because all of our Almoços were on the other side of the city. (The closest 2 are each an hour's walk away). Yup that was pretty much it. That, and the presidential election was finalized last night, so everyone was going crazy with fireworks and honking horns for hours on end.

Ok, but back to Isaac. So yeah, he has really awesome, in depth questions, and we spent a lot of time studying various chapters of the BoM, and also Doctrine and Covenants. Wednesday we went over the interview questions, which was good, but also made me really nervous, because he's not a fan of tithing, and also felt like he hadn't gotten a clear witness that these things are true. At one point he said something like "ok, but I can't decide why this church, right? What makes this church different than the others?" and I'm like staring at the Book of Mormon in his hands, like really? You can't?  But anyways, the interview on Thursday was really awesome. Elder S. Silva (he was my district leader my last transfer in Cobilândia) bonded with him pretty quickly, and helped him realized that the "certainness" that these things are true, (for example, when he's reading the BoM) is an answer from the Holy Ghost. He (Isaac) came out of the interview smiling, like "ok so I can be baptized on Saturday?"!!! :)

Friday's lesson was pretty funny because we decided to sit at covered the bus stop across the street from his house (instead of on the curb--we can't go inside his house unless we bring another woman with us), which ended up being really good because halfway through explaining baptisms for the dead, it started to pour torrential rain. And then this other woman came and sat down next to us and started to ask questions, so basically I finished the lesson with Isaac on my left, and my comp started another mini lesson with the woman on her right (haha).

And then he was baptized! 

There was a lot of confusion because there was an activity before the baptism that ran super duper late, and an activity after the baptism that was supposed to be in the chapel (so people would just come to the baptism and stay for the activity) ended up being elsewhere, which meant that not many people came, but it was such a beautiful baptism.  We started out with "Oh Elders of Israel" and I almost cried right then and there. Isaac himself picked out the music, with a little bit of help. I showed him this hymn because it's masculine one, and I explained to him how leaving Babylon represents forsaking sin and following Christ. And wow, it was really powerful. The talks and messages and welcomes were PERFECT, and he was baptized by a member of the ward that's been helping us since the beginning, mostly without even being asked. Isaac also chose "Oh how lovely was the morning" as the closing song (I started explaining that the hymn tells Joseph's story, and he cut me off--"this one. Let's sing this one"), so we sisters sang a special rendition using the melodies from Hie to Kolob and Come Thou Fount. The spirit was SO strong the whole time, and at the end, I don't know who was smiling more--me or Isaac.

Yesterday he was confirmed, and also ordained a priest! And we're going to get him all ready to go on a mission a year from now ;)

Ok that was basically my week! Love you all tons! Até mais :)

-Sister Kirkham

October 22, 2018 - One Year and Back to the Beginning

Ok I saw Trunk or Treat in one of the email summaries, and I'm DYING to open it, but I've already used half my time (I technically did splits with 4 sisters this week, so I wrote a ridiculously long emial to Pres) so I gotta write this ASAP.

You all heard about most of my crazy crazy day in Vitória last p-day. The only part you all didn't hear is that there wasn't space in the 7pm bus, nor the 8pm, and not even the 9:30. He told me the soonest would be 11 something and I was like "no no no that's not gonna work!" but he somehow managed to find two seats in the 10:20 bus, which means we got home to Linhares at exactly 1am. Sister Parente and Sister Perez met us at the terminal with our stuff, and at exactly 2am, Sister Parente and I left on another bus to Bahia.

So in case you missed the excitement last week, I have now stayed and worked in 4 Brasilian states! The people in Bahia are a lot like the people in Minas. We didn't see much of the city, but it seems pretty similar to Minas as well, except the food is a lot cheaper. Seriously, every single lanchonete has Pastel 1$R!! I know most of you don't know what that is (haha), but it's a really good price. The highlights of the day were district meeting (we had this super awesome training about optimism), and a Noite Familiar with a less active family. We had another crazy night thinking that we were going to miss our bus, but we didn't haha--which was good, because we got back to Linhares (again) just in time to meet Sister Creswell and Sister Rodrigues, coming from Teófilo.

Quarta-feira I hit one year on the mission! We ate ice cream to celebrate, but mostly because we used the time to do part of our training. And then it rained the whole day (actually, it rained half the week, and had tornado-like winds the other half), and we had tons of work to do, so that was pretty much the only celebrating haha. BUT, I got to do splits with my former companion Sister Creswell, (at least for a few hours in the morning) AND with Sister Rodrigues (whom I trained, so so long ago) which was super fun. It was amazing to see how much she's grown as a missionary since I last saw her.

And speaking of trianers! I forgot to tell you about transfers! I'll be staying here, thank heavens, but my comp was transfered back to her old area to finish training an american sister, and I'm going to be companions with my trainer, Sister Farias!!!! Crazy.

Ok, I only have like 10 mins left, but the other exciting news this week is that Isaque is going to be baptized!!!!!! He went to church again, and he's reading the Book of Mormon, and keeping commandments and has a good relationship with a couple in the ward that's been helping a ton, and he accepted a baptismal date for this Saturday! Lots and lots and lots of prayers please!

I'd tell you about all the other cool people if I had time, buuuut I'm kind of out, sorry. More next week!

Love you all!!

-Sister Kirkham

October 15, 2018 - Epic Week and More to Come

Sorry I'm on so late today! And sorry if there's a couple of Portuguese words that don't make sense haha. I'm at the library in Vitória, today, which uses Portuguese auto-correct. :)

This week was seriously crazy! Don't ask me how much I slept this week, cause it isn't much. But since I last talked to you all, I have taken 7 long-distance bus trips, and I still have the return trip tonight, and then another to/from tomorrow. BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO BAHIA! I don't even know why Bahia is so exciting, but it's an area that was in a another mission, that is now part of ours, which means it's new, and also in a different state, so that makes it awesome!

Tuesday was Leadership Council, at the mission home in Vitória. Also, a doctors appt because my companion was under the weather. But don't worry, modern medicine is awesome, and she's doing great now! And, in case you missed it, Leadership Council was in the mission  home!!! It was a coincidence at first because an old sister in the local Ward passed away, so they were using the chapel for her funeral, but I think it's going to be officially there from now on! Soooo much more comfortable! I mean the chapel is great, but I'll take the couch and the ocean view any day. AND I think that means that the next time, we'll be eating Sister Mazzagardi's cooking ;) Oh, but the meeting was really good too. My favorite part(s) was(were) the special musical number (If the Savior Stood Beside Me, in Portuguese), the fact that our training went well (don't tell anybody, but the AP's called us at like 8 pm the night before asked us to prepare it), and this super awesome all-encompassing practice, where we literally practiced everything, and all of the records (for the area book) and everything, from contacting on up. Super cool.

Wednesday we worked in our area, but not for very long, because we had to take a bus to another city, where we worked a little bit, and then spent the night.

Thursday we woke up early to take two more buses to yet another city, and then walk a mile in our best clothes to Zone conference! Which was also awesome. We did the same exact practice, but it was still just as fun. Also, we watched more epic talks that all you normal people don't have access to, and talked about how awesome General Conference was. Um, and Sister Mazzagardi gave a really awesome training about something that I don't remember because I don't have my notes with me (haha). And then it was interviews, and 2 more buses back home.

Friday, I don't really remember, but Saturday and Sunday were awesome, mostly because of a great Branch Council meeting, and Isaque. So, Isaque is a 23-year-old that we met a couple weeks ago, when we got lost really really close to our house.  :)  It was a pretty funny contact, but we could tell even then that he had tons of potential. Only problem is that he didn't know his address, because he had recently moved. Last week we managed to talk to him over the phone, and we marked an appointment for Saturday night. (He's a little shy/antisocial, but he's also in the midst of getting his life back together after a failed long-term relationship, and a couple weeks of trying to drink it off, so we won't hold it against him. Anti social people are easier to teach anyways - haha). And wow, is he prepared to learn about the gospel! We spent about 2 hours Saturday night explaining the Plan of Salvation (he has LOTS of questions, but they're really really good ones), and then he went to church with us the next morning, stayed all 3 hours, and even made friends with a couple of people! We brought a young RM named Felipe with us Sunday night and taught him the Restoration, and it was PERFECT. Seriously, so awesome. So now he's happily Reading the Book of Mormon, and we will be back to teach him as soon as we're done in the Bahia.

Today was just buses, and hanging out in the mission office, chatting with everyone. Not too exciting, but I love Vitória, so coming here is Always fun :)

Aaaaand...  the exciting News I already told you all.  I'm going to hit one year this Wednesday! (Had to think really hard about what day that was in English haha). And we will be doing splits with not one but 2 of my old companions that day, so it should be awesome :) And I'm planning on having strawberries involved.

I think that's it for this week! Love you all tons and tons! Until next week :)

-Sister Kirkham

October 8, 2018 - "Doze Freaking Templos!!!" - Sister Parente

Well Hi, family! It's been another great week here in Espírito Santo. Actually, it's been a little crazy, what with the rain, and the election (no, we have no idea who won, but my comp's been going a little crazy) and getting ready to travel a TON this week. We spent waaaaaayyy too much time stressing about bus passes and timing and all that. But, none of this travelling actually happened yet, so I'll fill you all in on the details next week.

So last Monday, we did what we'd been wanting to do for like forever, which was make muffins/cupcakes, and go around our little apartment building giving them out to and meeting our neighbors! It was really cool, and we met two really awesome women (and their families) that we hope to be able to teach! Haven't made any more progress on that yet though. But I have lots of other people to talk about today!

So right now we're teaching 3 families: Isadora and her parents, Uanderson and Fabrícia, and William and Vanessa.

So Isadora is a 14-year-old that we met on the street, and marked down to visit her and her friend. Her friend wasn't able to make it, but we taught her and her dad, and it was really cool.

Uanderson and Fabrícia we have been teaching for a couple weeks now. They're recently married, even though they've been together for a long long time, and super receptive. The only problem is that they both work a lot. Fabrícia works night shifts, and then also works day shifts more or less 1 out of every 3 days, And Uanderson works all day long every other day. So you all can imagine that math that goes in to figuring out when we can teach them, and when they can come to church!

I think I talked about William last week, but I'm not sure. He and  his wife Vanessa were a reference from some members of the branch, because they recently lost their son to cancer. We taught William last week, and then came back and taught Vanessa, because William had to work last minute. It was an awesome, but crazy stressful lesson. She most definitely felt the spirit, but has some pretty strong religious beliefs that she's scared to let go of. She literally told us "if you only believed in this one small difference, I would definitely join  your church!" without us even mentioning anything about baptism! She told us flat out that she wont ask God to see what's right, but that she will read the Book of Mormon, so we'll see how that goes.

We had a zone fast this week, and saw some amazing miracles! Including finding another legally married couple that accepted a baptismal date! Their names are Danilo and Milena. I wrote them all out in my journal and then I forgot to take a picture! But I'll try to remember and send it next week, because I don't have much time.

We worked so so so hard this week, inviting people to general conference, and we had so many people interested! We spent all of our free time before and during the sessions calling everyone reminding and asking if we could walk them there, and everyone said they were coming, and then didn't show up... So that was pretty disappointing, especially because there was a talk that was especially for each one of them.

Disappointments aside, general conference was 'freaking awesome!' as my brazillian (yes, she really does say 'freaking') companion would say. Seriously. Mind blowing. And 12 temples!! One of which will be in Brazil!!!! And it will be sooooooo good for Minas!!!! (A bit random, but I swear I saw Emily Blanchard in the MTC Choir. Is she in the MTC?!) I don't want to spend tooooo much time, so I'm going to write you all a letter about the stuff I thought was cool and what not, and send it to you next week!

Oh hey, and just a random news flash: Our mission added a new area this week! Our 4th state. :) We are now responsible for a little bit of Bahia! (the state where the new temple will be built). And we are going to do splits there in about 2 weeks :)

Ok,  I think that's all the exciting stuff. My companion and I think we ate a bad piece of pork this week, so the past 2 days have been a little rough, but not too bad. And it was general conference, so at least we weren't on the street.

But anyways, love you all! Have an awesome week!

-Riah :)

October 1, 2018 - More of Linhares...

We discovered a lot more of Linhares this week, including a bunch of mysteriously dead vultures, lakes that aren't full of plants, LOTS of cool wildlife (herons, storks, seagulls, weird duck/bird combinations, and maybe a very large rat), and lots of people of other religions that usually don't like us, but that we ended up teaching. For example, Friday night we knocked on the door of a Seventh-day Adventist family, and they let us in, and we shared a short message. The old grandmother went off in a hilarious rant about the sabbath being on Saturday and people not reading the bible when we were in the middle of explaining Jesus's baptism, which was a little confusing, and then she made her granddaughter change into a skirt before saying the closing prayer, which was a little funny, but then in the middle of her prayer we were like "OH! Their sabbath starts Friday at sundown!" So then it all made a little more sense. We were pretty embarrassed to not have recognized, but at least I don't think we were interrupting or anything. And then that same night, we were sharing a message with a woman that's a member of this other popular church that was created here in ES and her (drunk) catholic husband comes over and starts very slowly and calmly ranting quite extensively about how most Christians don't accept his baptism but he doesn't need another one. And then he compared all the different christian denominations to types of beer 😂😂 We laughed about that one for quite a while.

Ok, in serious news, we are teaching this really cool 19-year-old named Breno. He's progressing really well, and is friends with a girl in the ward, so that's going to be a huge help. (Also, they would make a really cute couple, just saying...). He's super smart and understands everything really well, but he wasn't feeling so well yesterday so he didn't go to church. But he will!! Everyone please pray that he can recognize the spirit answering his prayer, and that he will accept a baptismal date! (We invite him every time and he says "yes I will definitely be baptized, but not right this minute").

Also, pray that we can manage to find and teach Lorena. She's also really awesome, but work as a nanny and doesn't have a cell phone, so it makes it really hard to contact her!

We honestly didn't have all that productive of a week, since we were focusing on taking care of the sisters that we're responsible for, but this week should be much better! Love you all!

-Sister Kirkham

September 24, 2018 - Food & Shops in Linhares

I have a million emails to respond to and I'm not liking the new google look so it's stressing me out, but lets see what I have to say about this week.

So this week was long, hot, and tiring. My companion passed the whole week sneezing, and I had quite a bit of sinus pressure. BUT. I found Sudafed!! Well, it's more like Tylenol sinus, but it works and I'm so happy. Also, we bought lots of food on the street. We like to eat (haha). The other sisters are always like "you brought home MORE food?" and we're like "well yeah! there's nothing to eat in this house. How do you two survive?"  

But the cool thing is that Linhares has lots of shopping options. Today we went into this SUPER ADORABLE and CHEAP wood store that you would all spend hours and hours in! I wanted to buy everything. Oh goodness.. We'll see how many more times we go there before we're transferred.  :)

Oh. Linhares also has lots of cacau trees (I thought they weren't good for anything except chocolate, but I was wrong I guess) and lakes that don't look like lakes because they're literally FULL of water reeds. It's the weirdest thing, but also cool. I promise we'll take pictures at some point.

We managed to teach lots of people this week! It's slowly getting easier. My favorite person this week was Breno. He already went to church and was taught by the elders a couple of years ago, but he doesn't remember much. We were so excited to teach him the whole week, and yesterday we finally did! It was seriously one of the best lessons this week. He understands so well, and has such a good relationship with God. He totally understands how the little things can be miracles, and also answers to prayers. And it was really funny cause at the end of the lesson I used an example about pudim [a brazilian dessert like flan] and tomatoes to demonstrate how we need to "ask of God" (James 1:5) and he was like "whoa that's so weird.. Just this week my girlfriend brought me pudim and I bought her tomatoes...." which is such a little thing, but definitely not a coincidence, and we all just sat back a little and admired how things work by divine design.

We also started teaching a family! But I'm running out of time, so I'll talk more about them next week.

This week we official started splits with the sisters, which was cool. And we also had our first district meeting, which we have to take aguia branca [a big bus] to get to. This coming week we're doing splits with the sisters in Nanuque, so we're going to travel 3 times, and be doing a lot of waking up in the middle of the night. Should be fun!

Love you all, and have a great week!

-Sister Kirkham :)

September 17, 2018 - "We're Not In Minas Anymore!" said Dorothy.

Ok so just so you all know, Minas Gerais is the best state in all of Brazil (to serve a mission, not to live in) and Espírito Santo is VERY VERY different!! My companion and I both came from there, and we literally spent the ENTIRE week saying things like "whoa. That doesn't happen in Minas" or "ohmygosh I forgot that ES does that!" or "wow, capixabas are different..." or "oh gosh sister, I forgot... We're in Espírito Santo!" Very very very weird. Here's a couple of examples;

It doesn't rain in Minas. Or at least not this time of year. And when it does rain, it's about 5 minutes of sporadic drops that don't even wet a piece of paper. Also, the numbering of the houses is much more organized in Minas. We tried to use the Area Book this week, but we always got to a point on the street where the numbers were all jumbled together, and it was impossible to tell if the number we were looking for actually exists or not. Another thing--both of us were in pretty small half-farming cities out in the middle of nowhere. And while we are still in the middle of nowhere (we have to travel--like actually travel, with Agui Branca (think Greyhound)--to district meeting every week, as well as to leadership council, and of course for our splits in minas) this town is SIGNIFICANTLY bigger. It's awesome because there's a lot bigger selection as far as shopping, but there are also a heck of a lot more cars, which means we have to be really careful where we cross the street. (Teófilo not so much, but in Nanuque it was more likely to be run over by a goat or a cow).

So yeah, in case you missed last week, I was transfered! To Linhares, ES, with Sister Parente. She is about the cutest, sweetest, sister that ever served here, and we'd already worked together a little bit, so that part was easy. The hard part was saying goodbye to the few people I managed to, and also packing my bags, and trying not to think about all the things I'm going to miss there. Oh, and then our ride didn't manage to find our house, so, a little before 6am, we decided to walk down a couple of giant, badly paved hills, with my rather large suitcases, and then drag them accross a couple of large streets to the bus station. We managed to get there only 5-7 minutes late, but my bus wasn't there. Well, a little bit later, we found out that I had been misinformed about which line I was taking, and that my bus actually HAD been there when we arrived. So we took the next possible bus to Nanuque (which wasn't until 8am) and arrived there JUST in time to catch the other bus (and my companion, who was also scarily late) to Linhares.

Only that wasn't the end of the adventures. We slept there one night, and then the next night we had to travel to Vitória for Leadership Council. The council itself was really awesome, although really long, and I loved being able to see everyone. Also, my old friend Elder Boswell was recently called as assistant to the President, and he did the favor of asking me to play piano. As if I wasn't already stressed enough! But it went well haha, so I forgive him. Anyways, after the meeting, my comp and I had various disasters on our way to and from the big mall in Vitória (our official reason was that we needed to buy a hair dryer to replace mine that broke, but really we were just missing big cities, and really wanted milk shakes) most of which involved stressed out (and apparently blind) uber drivers that couldn't manage to find us. So yeah, we missed our bus, and had to take a later one haha. But it worked out cause we got to go to the office and pick up our letters!

Wow this is kind of a very long email, and not very much about missionary work haha. But that's mostly because we still haven't found very many people to teach. The people of Minas might not be all that into committment, but they're very very receptive. Even if they don't want to hear anything you say, they invite you in and offer you crackers and juice. Espírito Santo, not so much. We're trying super hard to stay positive, and diligent, and listen really hard to the spirit telling us where to go, but it's really strange and sad to have worked here almost a week (ok, we only worked 4 days haha, but still) and have just about no one to teach. We would love some prayers, please! We're going to have to travel every week to be able to take care of and do splits with the sisters we're in charge of, but we still really really want to have success and make a difference here in Linhares!

Ok I think that's it for this week. Hopefully I'll have some stories and miracles to tell about next week :) Love you all!

-Sister Kirkham

September 10, 2018 - Goodbye Teofilo

Ok I honestly don't remember what happened this week, but I will try. Today is transfers, so we are all a little stressed out. (Or a LOT). There are going to be 4 sisters in this area (at least temporarily) and we are trying to figure out how to rearrange the furniture and get both the bathrooms in working order, and I am packing my bags! I will be going to Linhares, which is still pretty far away from the mission home, but at least a little closer to here, and my new companion will be Sister Parente, who is super awesome and sweet and adorable, and I am being called as Sister Training Leader as well. To be completely honest, I'm not super thrilled about the calling, and much less about being transfered (I love Teófilo, and we have so so so many plans!!! AND the sister I trained, Sister Rodrigues, is coming in my place! so jealous!!), but I'm trying to calm down because if not I think I'm going to be sick again. (Oh yeah I got sick again this week. But I think it must be something I'm eating. I'm trying to cut down on milk and also beans because I think they upset my stomach). I was sitting at the table writing a letter while my companion made lunch and the song "I'll go where you want me to go" came on and I was like "wow, this one's for me" so I made her play it twice haha. And honestly, the change will be good, and I know it will be a great learning experience :)

I'm sending journal pages about most of the week, which is good cause I'm running a little late, but here is a summary:

This week was difficult in that almost none of our appointments worked out. We went from one cancelled appointment to another, and then we would be like "okaaay. Where does the Lord want us to work today?" and we would take turns deciding where to turn/walk and which houses to knock on. We had some pretty cool experiences that way (and also some 4th floor, last door moments), some of which I wrote about in my journal, but we still don't have anyone progressing :/ We also had lots of help from the Lord in finishing our contacting goals. Friday was a national holiday, which always makes it a little difficult here in Brazil (before, during, and after the holiday), but we would always pray as we started to head home that the Lord would put just 4 or just  7 more people in our path--and He did! Every. Single. Time. Not more, and not less. Just proves how important goals are! Especially "couselling with the Lord" to help you set and also accomplish them.

I wrote more about her in my journal, but Tais was a pretty big miracle this week. We only managed to teach her once (and she didn't come to the activity or to church) but that one lesson was just amazing. I've never had anyone understand the restoration of the gospel so well! she was absolutely floored that we have a living prophet! Kept asking when was the next time he's coming to brasil, and if she could meet him hahahah. Hope the sisters get to keep teaching her!

Leide Laura was also a miracle. We taught this woman last sunday who didn't seem to understand much of our message, but she liked us, and told us we should go visit her daughter--which we did, even though we had to climb up and over a mountain to get there haha. She's only 15 and living with her boyfriend, but she recognizes that she's made a lot of wrong choices in her life, and she cried when we testified to her that God is not far away, and that the Book of Mormon can bring her closer to God than ever.

Like I already mentioned, Friday was a holiday. Independence Day, to be exact. They definitely  aren't as hyped up as we are for independence day  (for once we beat them on a holiday hahhaha) but the schools all do a drum march/parade thing (I mean it's a parade, just a lot more military than we usually think of. Definitely no throwing candy hahahah) so we left early in the morning to be able to see it.

Last two things: we helped two families make cookies this week--the first time they honestly weren't so great, but the second time they were quite literally the best cookies either me or my comp have ever eaten on the mission!

And then finally, my comp and I did a Book of Mormon debate with the relief society, which was super cool. Something I really liked about this branch is the close relationship we have with the RS president here. This is the first area on my mission that I really felt like I was a member of the RS and not just a visitor. I'm going to miss her and her family and all of the other women so much!

Ok I gotta go, but next week I'll get you all filled in on my new comp, area, and calling.

Love you all!!

-Sister Kirkham

September 3, 2018 - Jogo Da Vida

Sorry we're on so late!! It's been a crazy day. This week hasn't honestly been all that productive. Lot's of running around, and lots of teaching, but not a lot of people progressing. Can't count how many lessons we taught this week that didn't end up going anywhere. But anyways, seeds planted, right? And this week we're going to use our time (on the street anyways. We've been very creative with our time in the house, as you'll see by the pictures) much better this week, and have better stories to tell :P But at least this week we both started writing in our journals again! Won't say how long it had been since I last wrote though, cause it's pretty embarrassing.

In general, this week we cooked a lot less, partially because we ran out of flour at the beginning of the week, and partially because we were working on other stuff, but we did get super creative with our juice intake! Basically, I had told my companion like forever ago about this spinach and lime juice that this member makes, and she finally tried it and loved it so then we bought a bunch of spinach and have been trying to use it all, together with various combinations of apples, oranges, and carrots. Don't judge until you try it, cause it was all really good! this week we are going to mix in pineapple, too.

As I hinted last week, we made a board game! I was planning to write out the rules (in English--we already have them in Portuguese) to send to you all, but I didn't have time, due to our crazy day today (more on that later). But anyways, it's awesome, and we've already played it 4 times in the past 2 days, changing the rules slightly depending on the circumstance, and really seeing some miracles!

One of these miracles was a baptismal date with Olivia. So Olivia actually lives in our area, but we didn't know that, so she was going to the other branch (she's already been 4 times!) and being taught by the elders. She's seriously awesome, but loves to talk (and her mom talks more) so long story short, they hadn't been able to mark a baptismal date with her. We knew she wasn't super comfortable with us taking over teaching her, so we basically created the board game (Jogo da Vida) to gain her confidence--and it worked!!! Seriously, it was awesome :)

Before we went to teach Olivia, though, we finally managed to teach Sara, which is also a miracle. Her husband Romario works with the branch president, and was a reference from him. They've already been to chruch a couple times, but stopped progressing, and kind of put off investigating the church right when I got here. But anyways, long story short, after a lot of patience and a couple of crazy children, we managed to teach her on Saturday (we played Jogo da Vida with her too haha but this time we tied it more into eternal families) and she told us that she wants to be baptized, but first she's going to read the Book of Mormon and get an answer that it's true. And then at the very end, she thanked God in her prayer for sending us right in the moment that she was needing it! There's just about nothing better you can hear as a missionary :)

Just some other fun stuff. I was asked to give the training this Tuesday at district meeting--and the topic was "use your time wisely." Heaven knows I needed that topic! I had some fun sending the elders on random useless errand to demonstrate the need to prioritize (one of them was pretty annoyed with me by the end haha) and then we brought french toast and strawberries for our treat :P Also, Saturday morning we played a couple quick games of ping pong at the chruch with Mauro and a couple others. I'm not as bad as I thought I was! Ok I'm still bad haha but all the practice at the institute in college has definitely paid off haha.

So that brings me to our crazy day today. Not sure if I mentioned, but we had this old wooden table that we realized was being slowly eaten by some sort of insect/worm. It's been on our list to throw away for quite a while, but we never had time. And today was the day! We manuvered and manuvered and manuvered but that stupid thing just wasn't coming out. (Don't ask me how they got it in there in the first place!) soooooooo we ended up breaking it a little bit. And then a lot. And then it broke more while we were trying to carry the pieces out. So then we had a teetering stack of smaller pieces that we managed to carry out the house and down the street and up the little hill and then it finally fell over in the middle of the street (I screamed and dropped all of it. My comp was not too happy hhahhhaha). So yeah, that was fun :P and then we were finally leaving and our neighbor was like "hey wait I have time right now to hang your new curtains up!" and we were like "uhhhhhh ok..." (THAT was an adventure too hahhaha. It even involves a lizard) so then we actually left like 40 minutes later but my comp had to mail a package home, which also took forever. So yup, here we are!

I'm running low on time, but I've got pictures to come and another great week ahead of me. We're gonna work super hard and be super productive and I'll tell you all about it next Monday :P Love you all!!!! Hugs and kisses :)

-Sister Kirkham

August 27, 2018 - Closed Doors & Cancelled Appointments with Lots of Miracles/Laughing/Learning in Between

This week was a hard week and also an awesome one at the same time. Work-wise, it really wasn't all that productive. Lots of walking in the hot sun half passing out (also, I got sick--more on that later), lots of closed doors and cancelled appointments, but also lots of miracles and learning and laughing in between.

So last monday, after we emailed, we set to work on our epic egg experiment. We spent all last week trying it for this one family we were teaching, but we couldn't get it right, and then we had this lesson Monday night and we were like "no, this has to be it. We have to figure it out!!" and we did! But it involved several ruined eggs, some expensive grape juice (we just wanted the bottle) and some singed eyebrows and lashes (my companions', not mine hahaaha). But anyways, it was the thing where you use a match to make the boiled egg go into the bottle, and you use it to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The girls we're teaching loved it!

The most I remember on Tuesday is that we ate lots and lots and lots of food. Like to the point that someone on the street offered us a popsicle (it was like 100 degrees) and we couldn't even accept that! And then that turned out not to be the best thing, because after complaining the whole day, my comp went to bed and woke up fine, and I woke up very very stomach sick. I got a priesthood blessing, which miraculously (yes i know that's the point haha) let me work the whole day, but I ate just about nothing for Almoço, which made our mission fast very long and painful on Thursday. But I made it!

Highlight of the week would have to be zone conference, as always. I was still a little sick (I got in huge trouble with President for not telling Sister Mazzagardi I was sick--but then she was sick too! So sick that she didn't even come, which was really sad 🙁) but I still got to enjoy all the incredible trainings, participate in the discussion and the many many many practices/role plays, and get my mind blown by all the deep doctrine President Mazzagardi brought up. Usually we hear about focusing on the simple stuff, but President was like "hey you have to know this stuff! Don't you chase the footnotes?!?! Cause you should!" This conference was definitely themed a little bit differently. We were first in the mission last month, and president warned us that "pride comes before the fall," but we weren't expecting to fall quite so hard. Seeing the results, we were expecting a pretty fiery rebuke, but president was as happy as usual. Just a little I-told-you-so haha. Anyways, the conference was also different because it was a lot more council/discussion, like "come follow me" type thing. Because apparently in the new PMG that's coming in January, it's going to be all "council" and not "conference." We had a really good debate about using the Book of Mormon, which led us to two huge miracles Saturday and Sunday!

Sorry I'm out of time so I gotta summerize, but Saturday night we found a family!! On a street we've been looking for for over 2 months. And then on Sunday, we were knocking doors on a street we totally hadn't planned to knock, and we found Magda, who is a breast cancer-survivor that wrote a book about her experiences. She was talking all about it and then was like "I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this" and that's when my brain kicked in and was like "whoa ok that means it's the spirit and I have to figure out why!" And then the prompting came! We taught her about the Book of Mormon, and shared 1 Nephi 1:1, where he talks about his trials, and how he was highly favored by the Lord, and compared it to her and her book. And she LOVED it! She was like "wow. THIS (pointing to the BoM) is why God led you to my door tonight!"

One last thing: my comp and I have had an epidemic lately of saying or thinking the same thing at the same time, and we decided today that it's just like the people of King Benjamin, when they were so united in the spirit that they were able to respond "with one voice" all about their conversion. Companionship unity is soooo important and also sooo cool! My comp and I are very very different, but, unlike my past companionship, we find unity in following the spirit. Like I can't even describe how cool it is when we're trying to come up with a solution for something and then one person tentatively responds and the other is like "whoa I just thought of the same exact thing!" and then we just know it has to be revelation! hahaha :)

Ok I really gotta go, but here's 2 things I'm looking forward to:

We're going to paint our apartment!

Also, this week we have epic plans for a plan of salvation board game--can't wait to show you next week!

There were tons of pictures taken, but sorry I don't have any of them yet! Get them to you as soon as I can. Love you all! wishing you an awesome week!!

-Sister Kirkham

August 20, 2018 - Missionary Parodies!

Sooo much stuff happened this week, but we'll see how much I can get through! Really hope you all had a better week!! Hope the kids are all settling into school, especially Payson! How's Nolan doing? Any more crazy storms?

OK so this Tuesday the topic of our district meeting was about "administering money" (everyone in the mission is focusing on self-reliance right now) so we took some time to organize all of our money, with the goal that it will not simply disappear this month haha. It's funny though that I think everyone in our district said that our biggest spending is on food. Missionaries love food haha. Oh, except one elder said his was by far personal heigyne. Like how many products do elders need?? But whatever.

Tuesday night we taught our college friends about the Plan of Salvation with a cute little graphic that they loved. Two of them came to church yesterday!

This is out of order, but speaking of people that came to church, yesterday we had Patricia, whose brother left on his mission last week, and who was being taught by the elders, before they discovered that she actually lives in our area. She's awesome and also the cutest little thing ever, but she's worried about being baptized because her whole family is very catholic. We would appreciate lots of prayers on her behalf!

Probably the biggest excitement this week was our double splits. The sister training leaders came to Teófilo this time, and they had to stay 2 days because of the bus schedule. It was tons of fun (if a little cramped) to have 4 sisters in the house. Also, they were basically on vacation, so they wanted to explore everything. I convinced one of them to visit the cemetery with me (neither of my comps here has been willing to go!) and then we also got to visit the international rock fair! I bought two pairs of earrings, and also got given a mini turtle and dolphin because people thought I was funny hahahah.

Saturday we got to paint a house! (or at least one room of a house) for our friend Joyce. She absolutely could not believe that we all paint things ourselves there. Apparently it's not something they do here in Brazil!

Our baking continued strong with baked potatoes, torta de mousse, cookies, failed pumpkin bread (and pumpkin pancakes), and calzones (those were the best!).

Our district is also focusing on sacrifice and consecration, so my comp and I gave up on popular songs and decided to put our musical skills to better use...which would be writing impromptu missionary parodies to every single primary song we could remember--and there were many! The corny, bad, and ridiculous ones will stay on the streets of Minas where they were created, but I wrote down and am attaching pictures of the best ones, for your enjoyment :P We plan to continue this project, so if anyone has any ideas or funny stories, please share! (Here's a hint: the next verse of BOM stories will be about crocheting).

Ok that's it for this week! Love you all! Pictures to come (if my comp remembers to send them to me...)

-Love from Sister Kirkham

August 13, 2018 - Pop Songs & Sunday Talk

Happy anniversary mom and dad!!!!

Also, someone wish Rory a happy birthday 12th for me! Can't believe she's going into Young Women's!

I didn't read your emails yet, but it seems like it's been a crazy week for you all. We have been working crazy hard--I think we taught over 20 new people this week, including a couple of families. We have also baked way too much, invented a district t-shirt, and been serenaded by ukelele a couple of times over the phone by the elders (they get bored or something, don't really know...).

My comp and I have also been having way too much fun trying to sing all of the pop songs we remember (which sadly isn't very many haha). The only song that we got close to remembering all the words was "You belong with me" by Taylor Swift, and even then we were missing an entire verse haha.

Because we taught so many people, I won't give you details on all of them until we know who we're going to keep going with. (also because I need to use some of my time to work on this district t-shirt). But I think the highlights would be all the miracles on Tuesday (attaching a picture of my journal pages from that day), giving a talk on Sunday (which I will also send to you, but you're gonna need google translate. I got lots of positive comments :), and then lots of visits to lonely or sick members, and several less-active families. Also, we did family history with Mauro and his sister and niece on Saturday! It was pretty frustrating because Brazil doesn't seem to have the type of records that we have, or maybe their just not digitized yet.

Something else funny is that we literally ran to the grocery store a couple of times this week, because it closes at 8:30, which is usually right when we finish teaching for the day, and we needed flour and sugar and what not to make a whole ton of desserts we promised to people.  :)

Yeah, ok, I don't think it was all that interesting of a week, sorry! Kind of frustrating too, because we weren't trying to teach so many people, but we weren't able to find/teach those that we had already started teaching. And also, none of them came to church because it was Father's day yesterday. But oh well. Some of these people have to come through, right? :)

Love you all! Hope this week is better!! Praying for you :)

-Sister Kirkham

August 6, 2018 - Travelling is Exhausting

This week wasn't all that exciting. I was either sweating/panting or falling asleep for like all of it. Not sure if I was getting sick or if it was just a side effect of overnight travelling 4 times in the past week and a half. But this week will be better :) And we still worked hard anyways, trying to visit sick members and less actives and all the people that went to church in the past 2 weeks, and all of the people we met in the park that live all across and outside of the city.

Terça-feira I spent in Vitória--feels like I've been away from there for so long!! I was sooooo tempted to take a bus (or 3) over Terceira Ponte for no reason what so ever, but I didn't have time. I got to each lunch with my trainer!!!! And hear all about Cobilândia from her. She spent almost 8 months there! but finally got transferred like 2 areas over. But anyways, that was awesome. Also got to spend time with Sister Levi, my first former comp to go home! (she stayed with us until her taxi to the airport came). In October, 2 more will go, and then my current companion goes home in January, and then--yeah ok we don't need to think that far ahead.

I think I mentioned this last week, but my nova companheira is Sister Creswell, from Utah. I lived with her for the first 3 months of my mission, so it's been fun to think back on a couple of old memories. It's also cool to see how people grow and change--and what things never do :P

Eunice was all set and super prepared to be baptized yesterday, like we had the service planned out, and everyone was informed and prepared (and I yelled at the elders when they unplugged the font on Saturday after their baptism even though I told them not to) and the cake was soooo pretty--and then she didn't show up to church or afterward and her phone isn't working and we knocked on her door and no one answered, so honestly I don't know what happened. I was super nervous all week, and on Saturday during the elder's baptism I asked Heavenly Father for a specific sign that everything would work out for her baptism, and the sign didn't come. So all I can say is that now isn't the time and Heavenly Father must know something that we don't.

The only other interesting things would be our funny (half English) call-ins at night, messing around with our District Leader. Also, we made him and his comp carry a bag of baptism jumpers up 3 hills to our house so we could wash them. Which is fair cause they're the ones that didn't wash them in the first place....

Gotta go cause my time is (already) ending! Love you all!! More next week :)

-Sister Kirkham

July 30, 2018 - A Crazy Awesome Week!

It's been a crazy awesome week and I so wish I had more time to tell you all about it!

Transfers: So today is transfers! President gave out so many hints at the Zone Conference (get to that later) that everyone has been going crazy for days trying to guess everything, but then in the end, only 3 people in the zone are being transferred, and only 1 of them is in my district. Also happens to be my companion haha. So I will be staying in Teófilo Otoni with Sister Creswell, an american from Utah that I lived with for the first few months of my mission. My comp is super sad to be leaving, but she's also going to be companions with her best friend ever (on the mission), so she can't be too sad haha. And then the two new elders will be two greenies (the zone leaders were both called to train--should be interesting!) so I don't know anything about them.

Mauro was confirmed yesterday! He continues to ask really good questions, and is an awesome missionary. We're going to eat burgers with him for our lesson tonight haha.

We've also been working a lot with Eunice. She was interviewed, and passed, but decided to delay her baptism another week, even though she prayed and recieved and answer that she should be baptized yesterday. And then she went out of town, which might have been the reason.. Trying to think positive :P

Thursday was Zone Conference!!! My first time being a part of a conference that only includes one zone, and I loved it! The trainings were absolutely awesome, and exactly what we needed. Our zone is the top zone in the mission, apparently because of some experiment President was trying out, but he's going to start spreading us out now to help the rest of the mission now. We're focusing a lot on humility and unity, and we set some crazy high goals for the next transfer. Like crazy crazy high. But we're going to work and work and work and get as far as we can! Also, president took us out to a super fancy restaurant to break our zone fast (ok that part is normal) and then bought us ice cream!!! Lots of ice cream haha. On top of the candy that Sister Mazzagardi brought. We ate a lot of sugar that day.

Due to a miscommunication, we weren't able to get the right bus to go back to our area, so our entire district ended up staying an extra day up in Nanuque, doing splits. It was super fun and crazy productive and we also got to participate in the branch's Festa Julina!! (Fall festival). We ate corn bread and various soups and pastel and desserts and chá and lots and lots of yummy stuff haha. Oh, and we helped out :P

Ok I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but our mission has a weekly (usually it's monthly or per transfer, but President Mazzagardi is a little overly energetic haha) Padrão de Excelência (standard of excellance) that moves up as the larger part of the mission starts to hit it. Our zone has been 80-90% this transfer, but my comp and I have never hit it personally. We knew this week would be hard because we would be spending 2 days (plus travel time) in another area, but we were determined that this week would be the week. And guys, we were SOOOO CLOSE!!!!! I won't tell you the numbers, because it's not all that important, but we were so so so so so close. A little sad that we didn't make it, but just proves that all things are possibly if you pray, fast, and work hard!

Ok I gotta go now, but I love you all! Pictures to come! (If I finish this survey in time).

-Love, Sister Kirkham

July 23, 2018 - Another Busy Week in Teofilo Otoni

It was another super busy week in Teófilo Otoni! (I don't usually brag, but we got an email from President Mazzagardi just to our zone this week congratulating us for continuing to top the mission). We taught tons and tons of people this week, but I'm gonna focus on the most important ones.

Mauro (I think I called him Fernando last week, which is what he prefers, but his name is Mauro) was baptized yesterday! We've only been teaching him for a week, but he was so ready, and SOO excited! He invited 30 people! Only 8 of them showed up, so he was a little bit disappointed, but it was awesome for us! Well, awesome and stressful haha. The members also brought friends (for a total of 16 visitors!!!), so we were running back and forth the whole day trying to greet everyone and make sure they had a friend and knew how to read the hymn book and writing down their addresses so we could go visit.

On a bit of a sad note, Rodrigo isn't progressing as well as he could be, and also didn't come to church, but we're hoping that he'll participate in seminary when it starts and that that will help him out. He was even interviewed this week, and can be baptized whenever he wants, but he doesn't quite want it yet. But the interview helped us understand a lot better, cause he doesn't open up to us quite as well as he did to the elder.

We've also been working a ton with Eunice. We brought her cevada (which is basically coffee except it's made from barley and a lot healthier. I still think it's gross--even tried it again to make sure haha--but she loved it!!) and took her coffee away, which is the last step she needed to make. In the beginning, she had been having trouble with keeping her promise to pray and ask God if everything that we're teaching is true. We even prayed with her a couple of times, but she didn't ask a specific question, which makes it hard to get an answer. But! one day this week (don't even remember which) we went there and read in the Book of Mormon about the Holy spirit and we asked her if she prayed and she said YES and that she got an answer!!!!!! AND she came to church yesterday! All 3 hours!! She's going to be interviewed on Wednesday before we all leave haha and baptized on Sunday!

The only other person that I want to mention is Pedro, who came to church yesterday. We went to teach him yesterday, and he is literally what I would be like if I were being taught by the missionaries! It was fun haha. I'll let you all think about that one and then tell you more about him next week :P

In other random news, we made this amazing potato/chicken/bacon casserole this week! We were trying to imitate this famous potato dish that Sister Mazzagardi makes every special Almoço. You'd think you'd get sick of it, but it's so good that you want to be called to train just so you can eat it! Anyways, ours didn't turn out quite the same, but it was good :P Also, we went through an entire kilo of flour in like 2 days, but I can't remember what we made haha.

Also, we found out Friday night that we've been knocking doors on the wrong street the entire week! I mean we were close, but the street doesn't actually continue straight like we thought it did--it doubles back on itself and climbs a mountain. Don't know how we were supposed to figure that out haha. We're planning on going back and finishing the street (I'll tell you why when we get there) but we're going to be gone half this week for Zone Conference, so we'll see!

Gotta go (gonna send lots of pics!) but love you all!!! Have an awesome week!

-Sister Kirkham

July 16, 2018 - Blessings and Really Strange Stuff

I think this week we knocked more doors than I ever have in my life! We walked a lot less, because we've been working a lot closer to home, but we also travelled overnight twice. It's been a week of blessings, but also some really strange stuff haha. We had some miracles show up to church (hallelujah cause Pres Mazzagardi also showed up for the branch conference haha) but none of the people we're teaching, which is a mixed feeling. The water in the whole city was cut off, we taught a women who's almost athiest (which is SUPER rare here!) and also a man who sang an original composition on the spot instead of saying the prayer at the end. Someone stopped us on the street and asked if we were nuns, and another person asked if we were foreign exchange students (hilarious if you remember that my current area is in the middle of nowhere) and then told us we should pick a different street to walk on (I'm assuming she meant for safety reasons, but since it was noon and full of people I'm not positive haha). We ran for excercize time a couple days this week, but also ate quite a bit of sugar (ooh and we have some awesome plans for today!). We ate with our ward members only three times this week (but one of the times was churrasco, AND THERE WAS SOBREMESA), once at this all natural café, and once with a super rich baptist family that invited us haha. Basically, all's well and "normal" in the mission field!

And here are a couple highlights:

Splits. So the overnight travelling was because we did splits in Nanuque, which is even more in the middle of nowhere haha. Nanuque is a bowl surrounded by farms with a giant rock in the middle. Not even exaggerating. But the 30 hours we were there were pretty awesome, and we had a party and made french toast and almost-maple-syrup with the other two american sisters :P

Eunice is the only person from the last 2 weeks that we're actively teaching. She's super sweet, and has great desire to learn, although she wasn't able to go to church yesterday. She works really hard to support her family, and really makes the best of her living circumstances. It was so sweet when she told us that she's praying and trusting in God that he'll help her find a good husband!

Fernando was a bit of a puzzle, because he's very....artistic...in his story telling, but I think it goes like this: About 10 years ago, he visited the church and liked it, but never went back. Over the last couple weeks, he had this random desire to learn more about the church, so he's been searching the neighborhood for the elders, but not finding them (because we're the ones that work in his neighborhood). He also tried to make a request on the church website, but the system didn't accept his email address. Saturday, he wandered into the chapel, which the elders didn't close all the way (shame on them! but it worked out haha), and chatted with the elders while they were getting stuff ready for the baptism yesterday. They invited him to church, and he came! and the rest is history haha. He stayed for all 3 hours and the baptism, and by the end, he was soooo happy that I'm amazed he didn't pass out! He loved the hymns so much that he collected a stack to take home (we let him take ONE). Oh, and he's also the one that sang the prayer yesterday haha.

Yesterday was our Branch conference, and President Mazzagardi and the stake president both gave awesome talks! Other than that, it was normal haha.

Ok I'm almost out of time, but the last thing was that on Tuesday, I'm going to hit my 9 month mark! (YES, it does seem like it haha). It's gonna be a really awesome week, and I'll tell you all about it next p-day :P

Love you all! See you in 9 ;)

-Sister Kirkham

June 9, 2018 - 'Merica Songs

It was another busy week here in Teófilo! Brazil lost and is out of the world cup, so life will go back to normal now. Half the people are sad and angry, and the other half are relieved it's over haha. I had a ton of mission stuff to do today so this probably won't be super detailed (again, sorry!).

This week was 4th of July!!! We had our district meeting half in English and sang the Star Spangled Banner for our opening hymn, and Proud to be an American at every pause. We continued to sing 'merica songs all day Wednesday, plus Disney, plus anything in English we remembered (it's not much haha) and telling everyone it was our independence day haha. Being in another country is interesting, because you get a break from all of your own country's problems, and just really focus on all the good things that you have and others don't. We're so used to Brasil that we don't even notice the differences most of the time, but we started thinking about it on 4th of July and it's a lot! Let's just say that I'm proud to be an american :)

We spent most of this week going back and forth to another city (it's faaaaarrrrr. We know cause my comp borrowed a pedometer from an Elder this week haha) to teach this really awesome family, whose son went to church last week. They're progressing so well, and need the gospel so much, but the parents aren't married, so they can't be baptized :( On that note, just about no one we taught this week is married, but we keep teaching and loving them and hoping that one day they'll be able to join the church!

We've also been working a ton with the members this week, and it's been awesome. Yesterday, the Branch pres told us to tell Pres Mazzagardi not to transfer us--which is high praise coming from him!

Ooh, and that reminds me! President Marcio and some other leaders (not the LMA cause we don't have one, which is weird) came up with a super awesome scavenger hunt-type activity to get the branch (and especially the youth) involved in missionary work! They have to do things like teach a lesson or give a reference or have a family night with the sisters, or bring friends to church and activities and all that and they get points for each item. The branch is split into 4 teams, and they have about 2-3 weeks to gain as many points as possible, plus there will be two big activities with like minute-to-win-it type mini activities that they can also use to get points. I'm SUPER excited!!! Hope the branch gets as excited as we are haha.

Today is the 19th birthday of an elder in our district, so we're gonna have a picnic in the chapel haha. Should be fun!

Anyways, it was an over all busy, productive week!

Gotta go, but I love you all! Lots of hugs :)

-Sister Kirkham

July 2, 2018 - Another Awesome Week & World Cup

Don't have much time this week either, unfortunately :( But I gotta tell you about a couple of things! Before I get there, I promise we worked like crazy this week, but no one managed to progress, even though we fasted twice and did as much as we could. So instead of the people, I'm gonna focus on a couple of interesting events. But don't think it's all we did :P

Brazil in the world cup

So Wednesday was a Brazil game, and let me tell you, these Brazilians are crazy! Can't tell you how many time people set up fireworks or smoke bombs like 5 feet away from us. And we jumped EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I think we were better entertainment than the fireworks hahahaha. There's so much screaming and noise making that it's hard to tell what's a goal and what's not, but about the time the whole sky blue up and this family decked all out in green and yellow and facepaint and noise makers filed out of their house screaming and dancing in the middle of the street, we were pretty sure Brazil won. (They did). The streets had been absolutely EMPTY during the game (oh except for the kids doing the fireworks) but right after it ended, we bought popsicles and sat down to watch the city magically fill up as if nothing had happened. There's a game today, too, so we'll see how it goes.

Fun stuff in the district

So our district is hilarious, in case I didn't tell you last week. We made a bet with our district leader (about how hard we would work) and won by a VERY small margin, so he's gonna make us cookies tomorrow ;) Also, our district is 4 americans (2 companionships) and a dupla of hispanics (don't know what President was thinking but it works I guess) so we're planning to have a fourth of july celebration tomorrow too :P

Quadrilha/Festa Junina

So Brazil has this tradition called Festa Junina, which is like Fall Festival (even though it technically should be winter) that doesn't actually have a date--everyone just celebrates it when they feel like it. Every school, church, community, everything holds a Quadrilha, which is like a Brazilian hoedown--everyone dresses up in patchwork and cowboy hats and does pioneer dances and eats food made of peanuts and corn and potatoes. The two branches here held a combined one this Friday, and there was peanut tea, potato soup, corn cake, corn break, corn cake with filling and frosting, and something that looked like corn brownies. And then there was this herb tea that I swear (and the other americans will back me up on this) smells and tastes exactly like fruit loops! I'm waiting for my comp to send me pictures, and then I'll get them to you!

Stragest Saturday ever

So Saturday here is a little hard, since everyone either goes out to their ranch, or plays football, or parties/drinks etc. Basically, no one has time for missionaries. But this Satuday was like beyond strange. We had doors slammed on us, people hung up the phone, yelled at us, threatened to call the police, you name it, and the only person that invited us in was the pastor of this one church that basically wanted to show us off to his family and be like "hey, this is what our church should do!" so that was weird... I've literally never felt time pass so slow! At the end of the night, we finally ended up finding one person to teach, and then a family that the elders used to visit a lot invited us in and fought with us until we accepted hot chocolate and bread and crackers and fruit (all of it. And we were fasting) because they said it was too dangerous to be out on the street.

Sunday Miracles

In a stark contrast to Saturday, Sunday was the day of miracles. Not ONE of the people we're teaching showed up to church, but six miracles did! SIX!!!!! All friends of members, and many of which have a ton of potential. Oh, and then there was barbeque (churrasco) for Almoço, so that was awesome :)

Ok I gotta go! Sorry for emailing so early! We're pretty sure everything is going to close for the game, so we had to make the best of our time.

Love you all! Sending hugs to everyone :)

-Sister Kirkham

June 25, 2018 - Quick Note from Teofilo Otoni

Praying this computer doesn't shut off on me in the middle! Gotta write fast cause I'm pretty out of time.

Basically, it's been an awesome week in Teófilo Otoni! We are basically out in the middle of nowhere, and a 20 hour bus ride from the center of the mission. The péople here are even more open and friendly here, and super duper receptive!

My district is awesome, and my companion and I get along really well. Her name is actually Sister Withers haha, although you'd never know that from how the brazillians say it haha. Anyways, she's also pretty quiet, and quite a nerd :P we spent most of the bus ride (you know, when we weren't sleeping) talking about book series.

I'll send some pictures of the house so you all can see it. Well actually it's an apartment. It's pretty small, but there's a ton of stuff crammed into that little amount of space! We have a seperate dining room and kitchen, 2 bathrooms, our bedroom, a study room, a closet-room, and a laundry room, and a balcony! It's really nice!

The area itself is gorgeous, although really hilly, and paved with these weird sticking up rocks. Gonna need new shoes after this I think haha.

The branch here is small, and has a lot of less actives, partly due to the leadership, but there's some super sweet people, as well as some youth that help a lot. We just have to be a little more self-reliant with a couple of things.

This week was work work work work work! But it was fun :) We met a ton of awesome people, which I don't have time to tell you about, sorry! The most interesting parts of the week were the world cup (Brazil won in the last 2 minutes!!!! You should have heard the fireworks and the screaming! Also, all the classes are cancelled next week just because there's a game on Wednesday. Crazy.) and the day that I got super bad cramps and spent an hour on the bathroom floor (my companion and an awesome member rescused me, and then the member took us out to a really nice restaurant for lunch) and the fact that I sliced my finger open this morning. But don't worry, I'm ok :)

Although I'm also out of time, sorry!

I love you all, and I'll tell you more about it next week!

-Sister Kirkham

June 18, 2018 - Another Transfer and Dia dos Namorados

Just to clear a few things up, yes, the trucker strike has ended, and no, we aren't starving haha.

To start back to front, it's been an interesting weekend! Today we walked a few miles in the pouring rain (y'all don't want to know what we looked like when we walked in to Subway for lunch) due to a doctors appointment and a lost umbrella (mine.  oops.) but it was all worth it cause everyone's healthy and I got a package!!

Oh but also, I got a call last night that I'm being transfered! (It was supposed to be tonight, but thank heavens it got moved to tomorrow!) I'll be going all the way to the end of the world (or the mission, I guess), way interior to Ipiranga, Teofolo, which is actually part of the neighboring state, Minas Gerais. I'll be with another American, Sister Whitters, from Idaho, who only has 3 transfers left. I'm sad to leave this awesome ward (more about that later) and our trunky trio (also more later) but I'm excited for a new adventure :) Just means it will be hard to get letters and stuff there. Oh, and there aren't any hospitals, apparently, according to Sister Sena (she would know hahha).

And speaking of hospitals! No, I did not go to one this week haha. But I also didn't go to church yesterday, because about 8:30am, I got violently sick, and ended up spending the whole day (or most of it) throwing up and all that fun stuff. But don't worry, I have bossy companions taking care of me, ward members checking up every few hours (I mentioned they're awesome, right?) and I've been drinking tons of water and electrolytes and I got a blessing and I'm feeling tons better and eating normally today. (OK mom? ;)

Our other fun activity this week was Dia dos Namorados, which is the Brazillian equivalent of Valentine's day. I wasn't all that bothered by all the couples (it's hard to be when you have the best (and trunkiest) trio ever) but I did get really into our romantic dinner. We order burgers from the burger place next door and listened to music and filmed a video, while eating dinner on our balcony in our pjs with our stuffed animals. Just one of those mission moments you never forget :P

Oh but we did work this week! Tons haha. We are working with some really awesome people this week, (especially Rosa and Fleverson and his whole family, plus Ericson) and we had a couple of really awesomely spiritual lessons, a couple of finding miracles (including an entire family!) a couple of promptings followed and a couple ignored (which was sad, in the end, but we learn and we grow) and another awesome meeting with our ward mission leaders. I really love the ward here, and I'm really sad not to be able to keep up with those that we're teaching, but I know that God (and my companions) will take good care of them :)

All in all, it was another awesome week in the field, and I wish I had a whole nother hour to tell you all about it. Something that we do here and that I want to continue, is our daily inventory. Every single day, we come home and we talk about our day--what we learned, what we're thankful for, what the miracles was, and what we're going to improve. And it's amazing that every single day, no matter how the day went, we're all able to come up with something (or lot's of somethings--especially miracles!!) for every category.  Missionary work is exhausting and relentless and extremely unpredictable, but trust me, it's worth it.

Wishing you all a good (dry) week!!

-Sister Kirkham

PS: Yes, the world cup started this week. No, we aren't watching the games, but yes, we are extremely curious as to how it's going hhaha. I won't send pictures, but Brazil is crazy, in case you all didn't know :P

June 13, 2018 - Random Surprise Transfers

So as you can see in the title, we had our first (of many) random surprise transfer this week! Our mission no longer has scheduled 6 week transfers (aside from people coming and going, which has to happen every 6 weeks), so you could (theoretically) be transfered at any moment. Yup. Scary. But it breaks the cycle of working well at the beginning of the transfer and then slowing down. And people have to just pack and go, instead of making a big deal of it. Which is cool, I guess, but we didn't really get any sleep Monday night as we were last-minute packing sister Levie's bags. I am still in Marcílio, and we are still in trio, and it is awesome, but we are now together with Sister Jeremias, who is from my group (we were in the MTC together), and absolutely adorable. She's from Anapolis, Goiania, and is engaged to be married like as soon as she gets home.

Anyways, on to our awesome week! I got my package!!! Everyone who reads a little bit of english was laughing pretty hard at how well it suits me. Ooh, and I also got given a recees peanut butter cup (the sister that taught and baptized our financial secretary sends him packages full of american sweets) so those two things about made my day!

During District Meeting this week we were instructed to make an action plan, including our goal for the month, what we were going to do personally to accomplish this goal, what the Lord was going to do for us (according to our faith), and what sacrifices we were willing to make. And then we went home and wrote it up and signed it. It was really an awesome experience, and we've been trying hard to follow it throughout the week. We've been noticing a lot of distinct opposition to some of the sacrifices we decided to make, but we know that just means it all the more important. For example, we decided that we were going to fast once a week, and also that we were not going to think/talk about the things we miss during the day. It's not that we'd been super unfocused before, but we wanted to really devote 100% of our energy to the work. And it's been almost hilarious to see all the things that have randomly shown up just to distract us. Or the fact that all 3 of us wrote down a reminder to fast this Saturday in our planners, and ALL THREE of us still forgot! So we decided to start our fast yesterday afternoon, and break it with Almoço today. Unlike last week, we didn't see any visible miracles, but I know that the Lord will bless us for our faith!

We've been working with a ton of people this week, but I think the ones that deserve the most mention (and prayers please!) are Rosa, her neice Fabiana, (and Fabiana's kids: Hychard, Sayonara, and Sofia) Fleverson, and Ericson.

So Rosa was our Saturday miracle from last week. We didn't manage to teach her at all this week, but we did stop by her house at one point, and she told us we didn't need to come by Sunday morning, because she was scheduled to work through the night, and said she would take the bus directly from work to the church building. And guess what? she did! She was fighting sleepiness and embarrassed about being in pants, but she came to church on her own, inspite of everything. Can't explain  how much of a miracle that is to us.

With a lot of divine help, we managed to find Fabiana's house without knowing her address or anything. She wasn't there when we found it the first time, but the spirit led us back there (rather last minute) on Saturday, and we were amazed at how awesome her family is. They didn't make it to church yesterday, but we have FHE scheduled with them tonight, and we are SUPER excited!

So Fleverson was the other person who came to church last week. He arranged for us to teach his whole guitar class (or the people who showed up anyway) which, although it got scheduled and unscheduled all week, ended up being a really awesome experience. And that's how we found Ericson! He claims not to be religious, but he came to church yesterday (WALKED AN HOUR ON HIS OWN TO GET THERE) and stayed all 3 hours, and loved it! At the end of church, I asked him if he had any questions, and he was like "yeah actually I do... who's mormon?!" hhahaha so we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon to read, along with a quick introduction. He started to walk home on his own, but we sent a member family who lives near him to go intercept him on the path, and it ended up being a really good thing, because the family loved him, and wants to participate when we go to teach him!

Oh, and a bonus, one of our favorite member couples brought a friend to chruch with them yesterday. Her name is Patricia, and she lives in the area of the elders, so she's being taught by them, but we got to get to know her and teach her a little bit during Almoço yesterday. She appears to be awesome (and single) and got along really well with our assistant ward mission leader. Just sayin...

Ok the last cool thing is that we have official started our weekly trips up to Marechal, and it gets better every time. We got a ton more references, and people wanting to go out and teach with us. It's quite literally an all day thing, but the bus is surprisingly comfortable, and I got to get a ton of reading done, which made the trip more than worth it.

All in all, misison life continues to be awesome, and I can't wait to tell you more of my adventures next week!

-Love and hugs and handshakes from Sister Kirkham :)

June 4, 2018 - Hard Work and Bananas

This week was awesome! I think we worked harder than I've worked in my entire mission, despite how tired we all were, and it really paid off in blessings. We've been following the council of the bishop, making an effort to visit members, active and inactive, and really be a part of their lives. We also got to teach with a couple of them, and do service, and were really well fed haha. As far as our own efforts, we focused a lot on following up with people, which we hadn't been doing so well on before, and trying to hit our mission's contacting goal--even and especially because this week was a holiday week, which means lots of drinking and partying, and just about nobody walking around and going places. We also last-minute decided to fast, even though everyone was feeling a little sick, and more than a little worn out, and it turned out to be the best decision of the week! but ok, here's the details.

One awesome experience we had this week was teaching with Menekin, who came home from her mission last week. We spent the whole day talking about misison life, and she got to pretend she was still a missionary haha.

We also had a super amazing, emotional Almoço with two RMs, who talked all about the realities of post-mission life, and being released and all that. It was great for us, but I think (hope) it was also a really positive experience for them too!

I got to be a romantic pianist this week, during the fancy dinner the youth out on for Bishop and his family. It was a really cute activity, and I got to pretend that I wasn't there while the bishop got emotional and his wife was singing along to my music, and his youngest daughter decided she didn't want to be a part of it hahhah. But no, it was good :)

A couple weeks ago, I made a last-minute contact with a 16-yr-old named Pedro. We had a hard time scheduling with him, and ended up walking a ton to this really far neighborhood and back before Almoço, but it was totally worth it when we got there and ended up teaching him and his cousin and aunt and 4 sisters! Seriously an awesome, spiritual lesson!

We worked quite a bit with Railom this week, and he finally started to pray on his own! That, alone, is super amazing. But anyway, we had some difficulty getting in contact with him at the end of the week, and we walked all around and up and down (quite literally--you should see the mountains) his neighborhood before finding him (thanks to many miracles and much patience) in a park with his friends. We were (unfortunately) too embarrassed to call after him--but he left his friends and came over to talk to us! It was super sweet. He came to church yesterday, too! And so did...

...Rose the miracle! (fasting works!) We met Rose a while ago, on the bus in Vitória, but didn't end up visiting her until Saturday. I'm running out of time, but long story short she was a huge miracle for us! She came to church with her neice and her niece's 3 kids, and loved it so much that she said she's going to "always go there from now on"! And on top of that, 2 members brought friends to church, AND a man that was invited to church and promissed to go and never went (like thousands of others that we talk to) several MONTHS ago, showed up during sacrament meeting! Miracles, miracles miracles!

The hunt for bananas: On a bit of a different note, I spent literally all afternoon/evening yesterday calling and visiting everyone asking for bananas. A banana, to be specific. (I wanted to make banana bread for our unofficial mission seamstress, but I was one short). And NO ONE had any!!! For those of you who have never been to ES, that probably doesn't sound that weird, but here, it's seriously abnormal! We had some hilarious conversations, but I was getting more and more disappointed as the night went on. But guess what! Another miracles happened :) At about 9ish last night, arriving at our house, we decided to ask our next door neighbor who has an amazingly smelling/tasting burger place, if he had a banana. He said he only had one, but then he came out with 2, plus a bag of tangerines (more or less). Seriously awesome! Heavenly Father answers even our smallest prayers :)

Oh and in case you're wondering, the truck strike "ended," but everything is still a little up in the air. There's talk that it might start up again today or this week, and whether or not it starts up, it's gonna take a while for things to get normal again. We weren't allowed to leave our area last week, because of protests, and we've been hearing stories of crazy price hikes, but it hasn't affected us at all, so that's good. 

In other news, we are getting new dresses today, and scared that president will have to unmake our trio, because there's only one sister leaving, which will make our numbers even again. Nooooo!

It's been pretty hot this week, which wasn't so fun, but then it decided to be cold and rainy today, and we are far away and without jackets. Thanks a lot brazil haha.

We'e all (as in the entire country. Literally. You should see it) getting pretty excited for the world cup here, although it's still a little ways a way. Sister Sena gets emotional every time she sees anything yellow and green hahaha.

Ooh last announcement: Happy birthday Spencer!!!! Can't believe you're 22! (Also, good thing mommy reminded me cause I thought it wasn't until Wednesday. Forgot that Brazil writes their dates backwards..)

I spent WAYYYY  too long on this email, sorry to all of you that wanted responses! Hugs and handshakes for all! Have a great week!

-Sister Kirkham