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