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
