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