I'm Here! December 4, 2017

I'm here! Said goodbye to my MTC district monday night (a week ago) and got up WAY too early Tuesday to take a bus to the airport. I was practically a zombie all day that day, but it was still good. Descending into Vitória was an absolute dream! We were over this awesome gorgeous cloud cover the whole time, and then all of a sudden there were rolling amazingly green hills on one side, and ocean on the other. For those who haven't googled it, Vitória itself is on an island in a little bay, with bridges and peninsulas all around, and it is GORGEOUS. The mission home (where we spent the first half of the day) has the most breathtaking ocean view! I'm serving in Cobilândia, which is just across the bridges, so close to everything, but flat and not surrounded by water. I'm glad we get to visit the island, and get our mail and whatever we need from the office, as well as be close to other missionaries, but goodness there are some crazy hills that I would NOT want to climb every day! Walking a mile for lunch and half-swimming to visit people still beats  almost-vertical staircases! I'll explain more about that later if I have time.

Sister Kirkham with her Training Companion, Sister Farias

My companion is Sister Farias. She's lived all over Brasil, but is most recently from São Paulo, zona leste. (Elder Clawson's mission). She's only been out for 3 months, but she is AWESOME! She'll talk to literally anybody (I think sometimes she gets lost on purpose just so she can ask for directions haha) and she's amazing at catching people's attention and figuring out what they need in their life. She doesn't speak any English, but she's super easy to understand, and has an amazing balance between making me feel comfortable and helping me grow and stretch. She's seriously perfect. Every day I'm more and more grateful to Heavenly Father for knowing me so well, and preparing the perfect place and person for me!

L-R:  Sister Lima, Sister Farias, Sister Kirkham, Sister Creswell

Back Row L-R:  Elder Xavier, Elder Puyen, Elder Lever, Elder G Santos, Elder Nunez, Elder Pedro 
Front Row L-R:  Sister Kirkham, Sister Farias, Sister Lima, Sister Creswell

We live with another companionship who's also working within the same ward. Sister Creswell is from Bountiful, Utah, has been out only about 4 months, and is training Sister Lima, who arrived with me from the CTM.  We have tons of fun. My district is also super fun, although I don't know their names yet. And because we're so close, we have a decent amount of interaction with the other missionaries in our zone. Right now we have choir practice every Sunday, in preparation for our Christmas concert, and oh my it is a party. A very diligent, conservative, and hard working party! :P

Probably the craziest thing this week is that it rained nonstop! We've backtracked and gone in wide loops and climbed over things, but in the end we're always wet haha. All the world's a river! was my catchprase one day, but then the next day we decided it had to be an ocean! The storm is supposed to continue for 2 more weeks, but it was dry yesterday, rained last night, and is dry again today, so lets hope that sort of pattern continues!

And now the people. Nobody that we invited (which was 80-100 people) came to church yesterday, but we have high hopes that next week at least the families we're teaching will come! Not that we taught them all that much this week, since we couldn't get to any of their houses without REALLY swimming. But we meet new people every day! Nearly everybody is a strong member of some church or another (there's at least one on every corner, and 2 in the middle) but everybody will still talk to you. These people really love God (or at least like to talk about loving God) and will talk your ear off about their family and their church and whatnot. We've had one guy tell us exactly how long every old testament prophet lived, and another quoted to us how many chapters, verses, words, and letters are in whatever version of the bible he reads. But hey, if that's how you grow your faith, then so be it!

Just one last thought. My mission president is really strict (that's why I will never have enough email time) and at first I was kind of struggling with a couple of the rules. Like we can't study language and companion inside the house. That one was really strange at first, but, without fail, everytime we study in the park, someone comes up and wants to talk to us. One man was selling sweets, but ended up talking to us about how his wife died and he's looking for God and comfort in his life. Obedience brings blessings, and exact obedience brings miracles! Look for a way you can be more obedient this week, and then write me about it :)

Love and miss you all! Until next week

-Sister Kirkham

PS:  I can always read stuff throughout the week, but I probably won't have time to respond (only to family). But I can write as many paper letters as I want, so send me your address if you want one! Oh, and if you have a burning question that you want answered, please highlight it! Otherwise I probably won't see it.