Monday, March 26, 2018

March 26, 2018 Sick! but still focusing on the positive, of course

[MOM NOTE:  You may notice in this letter that Mariah is down-playing the fact that she is sick.  If you know her, you know this is very much like her.  I know she says she is doing fine, but this Mom would REALLY appreciate prayers on her behalf so she can get well.]

Ok, well it's been kind of an interesting week! I have lots of logistics to worry about today, unfortunately, so I won't be able to write a super long email. Not that very much happened haha.
The first lovely piece of news is that I may or may not have tapeworms. Yep. Lovely. My district leader (after having to describe to me what it is because I don't know the word in portuguese) was like "hey that's cool! you got to go to Brazil and get tapeworms!" I don't really think it's all that cool, thank you very much. But anyways, this week was pretty rough physically, and, because of that, not very productive as far as missionary work goes. But there were some awesome highights, so I'm going to cover those instead!
Zone Conference! We had yet another tri-zone conference, which means lots of long lost friends, awesome trainings, super awesome trainings, exceptionally awesome trainings with super artistic video components, imported birthday presents (not that it was my birthday, but Sister Farias finally got hers from February, and she shared ;), letters, and lots of picture taking! It was super awesome, as usual, even though it takes up literally an entire day. A little over 11 hours from when we left the house to when we came back. Exhausting, but worth it.
We also had interviews with President this week, which is also super awesome. He always talks to me half in English, which is super hilarious, and didn't ask me how long I've been in my current area, so I think I get to stay another transfer ;) Sister Farias was not so lucky, so I probably have to say goodbye to her soon :((( he also told everyone but me that I probably have tapeworms and to keep an eye on me. It was like have 3 mothers in the house this week... They all keep telling me that parasites like chocolate and to stop eating it, but no one has brought scientific evidence, so until that point, I will continue eating as I please.
Friday night the other sisters had a baptism! Hercules (he's been working with the missionaries for a super long time, and gotten to know quite a few sets of sisters) and Sueli (long-time member of the ward who's been inactive but coming back) finally got married (more on that later) which meant Hercules could get baptized! Sister Lima and Sister Creswell both got permission to come (And bring their companions, of course) so the 8 of us sang Hercules' favorite hymn "How Great Thou Art" in English and Portuguese. It was an amazingly beautiful day, and I don't think Sueli stopped crying the entire time.
Saturday was pretty awful, and I did just about nothing. Arrived at the wedding ceremony for Sueli and Hercules sweating and in pain and wanting to throw up and also exhausted and super out of it, and my District Leader (Hercules had only ever seen sister missionaries, so when the elders came for the interview, he got super duper excited and invited the 4 of them) shook my hand and told me I had a fever. He was super concerned all week, but he and another elder gave me a priesthood blessing before the ceremony, and that helped a TON. Between the blessing, the wedding ceremony (which was super beautiful) and the company of all the missionaries (we're pretty much a party disguised in Sunday dress), I got my spirits back up pretty quick, and haven't lost them since :)
Ok this turned out pretty long (as usual) but the last cool thing is that we got to sing a song as part of a youth fireside last night. It was more of a favor for the youth leader who filled in last minute on our lunch calendar this week, but we had lots of fun, ended up with free T-shirts (t-shirts!!!!!) and really really loved the fireside. Youth events are so much fun!
I promise we took billions of pictures this week, but none of them have made it to me yet, sorry!!
I gotta go, but I love you all, and I promise I'm being taken care of here, especially by my Father in Heaven :)
-Love from Sister Kirkham

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