February 11, 2019 - The Week That Lasted a Month!

I got the pictures from leadership council that president sent, and I was like "wow, these pics are a little late, but I'm glad I finally got them" and then it hit me--leadership council was THIS week! It seems like so long ago....

Haha, but anyway, while I'm on that topic, leadership council was awesome! More awesome than usual. We talked all about "ministering," and how we are going to make ministering part of our mission culture. We were challenged to read 3 Nephi and highlight every time that it says "minister" (or derivative) and "one by one." I finished highlighting them this week, and now I'm gonna go back and see what I can learn! Also, it was awesome to be able to see everyone from the 4 corners of the mission :)

OK the craziest part of this week was trying to contact 15 referrals that we recieved from an irmão that we don't even know. 15! One day we went with a member, the third and fourth time we went by bus, but the first time... the first time we made the awful mistake of walking home afterward. We went singing and talking (it was dark and there were lots of cars and few people) and when I realized where we were, we were farther away than I thought we had been when we started out, and I almost cried. When we limped through the door, I hugged the sisters that were visiting (for leadership council the next day) and plopped down on the floor. And STAYED there!

We did splits with Sister Pagassini and Sister Blanscett, which was super fun. We found lots of awesome people to teach, as usual, but they seem to have this gift to find themselves sick, travelling, or taking care of hurt family members right when we want to teach them or take them to church. But we had a few appointments that went super well this week, so that's always happy news :)

My comp is awesome, in case I haven't said it enough. This is what I said about her to Pres this week:

Eu e Sister Todd estamos bem. Realmente amo como ela é tão tão aberto sobre coisas que eu faço que ela não gosta. Ela está sempre buscando ser melhor, e verdadeiramente mostra "fome e sede da retidão." Ela me ajuda a ser melhor a cada dia.

The last thing is that we spent all morning today playing volleyball with our district and a couple of members, which was SUPER fun.

Ok I'm out of time as always. Bet you're all sick of hearing that :P But I love you all, and have a great week!

-Sister Kirkham

February 4, 2019 - An Awesome Week (in Portuguese)

I am completely out of time, so I will copy my email to pres and you can translate it and put it on my blog. And see my journal pages for more info!

Querido Presidente,

Conferência de zona foi ótima! Aprendi muito, e fui lembrada de coisas que tinha esquecida. Estamos focando muito em fazer os melhores contatos possíveis.

Eu e a Sister Todd estamos orando muito para poder marcar datas de batismo! Vimos muitos milagres esta semana, inclusive em contatar uma referência recebida pela site. Estamos ensinando as seguintes famílias:

Geisa e Vladmir sumiram. Um vizinho ou algúem cuidando do apartamento falou que eles foram para Aracruz. Ela bloqueiou nosso número, mas estamos orando por eles.

Dallete, marido, e filho. Dallete recebeu muito bem a primeira lição e o Livro de Mórmon. O marido dela não tinha chegado ainda quando terminamos a lição, então ela pediu para pensar, orar, e falar com ela antes de aceitar uma data de batismo. Ela e seu filho adoeçeram e não puderam ir para Igreja.

Liliane é a tia de Medisson, que voltou da missão agora, então já conhece a igreja.

Sonia e seu marido foram ensinado pelas sisteres antes de viajarem, e eles voltaram e apareceram na igreja!

Lucylia foi uma referência. Tivemos uma experiência muito boa com ela! Queremos levar a Sister Mazzagardi para conhecé-la, porque ela também perdeu gémeos.

Também tivemos nossa primeira reunião com nosso novo LMA! Estou muito animada para trabalhar com ele.

Obrigada por tudo! Uma ótima semana,

-Sister Kirkham

January 21, 2019 - Jardim da Penha...There's a Wal-mart Here!

Ok so as much as I didn't want to be here, in the big city, in this particular area, nor living with another companionship, I am loving my new area! It's a rather well-to-do area, with LOTS of apartment buildings, and praia!! Not that we can go there haha. But anyways, the people here are really well-educated, which generally means I can use all the scriptural knowledge and scientific analogies that I want :P Also, my district includes a set of american elders (including my district leader and his greenie), the secretaries (who, although natives, are all required to speak a little bit of English--one of them told us that he "gets emotional when we talk about food" when we told him we were going to bring muffins tomorrow) the AP's (one of which is Elder Boswell, and the other is an ex-secretary that should technically go home at the same time as me but is going early) and then us four, so it's a pretty hilarious group. I think at least our phone conversations are about 40% english.

Having an american companion is really interesting. Because of the high education level, just about everyone here speaks english, so they always have to include something in english (actually one time it was German) in every conversation. And sometimes they thing we're lost hahahha. But anyways, my comp is super sweet, super honest and open, and also the type of person that never forgets to apologize or pay a compliment. We are teaching TONS and also running every morning! Today we ran to walmart (which was closed) then to a pretty park (I had to run up a very steep long mountain -_-) and then to McDonalds, and then back to walmart (IN CASE YOU DIDN'T UNDERSTAND, THERE'S A WALMART HERE) and then we walked home, and all before 9:30am!

I sent along my journal pages with all the details, but we are teaching some awesome people, two of which came to church already! I think I'm gonna be happy here :)

We have 5 sets of sisters to take care of, so we're going to get started on splits this week, but we don't have a date for the zone conference (they haven't even planned it yet) so that could make things difficult.

But anways, I think that's good for now! Have an awesome week!

Até mais,

Sister Kirkham

January 14, 2019 - Fridge-less and Getting Transferred

OK so this week was pretty crazy! First, I went to the podologa last p-day, and she cut all the parts of my nails that were causing problems. Real fun stuff. I went back on Thursday, and then I have to go back today as well, but my fingers are much, much better. I can acutally type today! Oh but also, last p-day they took our fridge away to fix it, so we are fridgeless. It's awesome haha. President and Sister were kind enough to bring up a water-thingy that chills water, so that helps a bit. Other than that, we're just being really creative. Today I made pancakes with little juice-box-type chocolate milks that we've been buying in rather large quantities because they don't need to be refrigerated.

Tuesday was district meeting, and then we ate Almoço on the bus (our ZL made it, and it was SUPER good!) on our way to Vitória. Also, Tuesday morning we brought chocolates and cookies and a hand-made card and missionary pamphlets to the guys that work at the bus station and our really patient with the thousands of passes we are always printing out and switching around. Yesterday we went back there, and they were all talking about how much they loved it. Except it was sad because the one worker that we really wanted to have some didn't ended up getting any! Also, he cried when he found out I was being transferred! Literally cried!!

Wednesday was leadership council, and it was AWESOME and also hilarious. I may or may not have made a joke that made president say he was going to email mom. But it was a nice joke, don't worry.

This week we did exchanges with Sister Farias and her companion. Probably the last time I will work with her! And then we also visited several members, including one that we'd hardly met before because she was embarrassed about her smallish house, and also Isaac, who is needing lots of prayers please!!!! At least I know that Sister Parente will take care of him.

And, well, the last thing is transfers! President let a LOT of things slip, as usual, but then he didn't do anything that he said he would! We were all shocked. But in the end, the results are:

I am being transfered to Jardim da Penha, in Vitória, which is President and Sister Mazzagardi's ward, and basically the center of the mission. My companion will be Sister Todd, who is a newer sister that I have known and worked with from the beginning. She's from somewhere in Utah, but I never remember where. Sister Parente will be coming back to Linhares in my place! I'm excited for a new area, but sad to leave Linhares, and not super thrilled about living with other sisters (Jardim da Penha has had only one companionship for a really long time, but now President put in two more) or returning to the big city, but if it had to be anywhere, I guess Jardim da Penha would be the best choice. And I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!

Love you all!

Tchau :)

-Sister Kirkham

January 2, 2019 - Happy New Year!

Sorry I'm a couple days late haha. Brazil gets a little crazy during holidays. It was great to talk to you all on Christmas! Glad you are all having an awesome time :) Hope new years was good too!

Sorry this email also probably won't be very long. Not just because I don't have much time, but because my fingers are hurting pretty bad. Well, two of them. The other eight are gorgeously cuticle-less and painted purple. My ring finger on my left hand though is infected on both sides of the nail and there's an infected ant bite on the pad of the finger too. The nail is because it grew into itself (the nail/cuticle, not the finger) on one side, and it was starting to on the otherside too. My comp fixed both of those problems, but it was already infected on one side and the infection spread quickly to the other side as well. And the ant bite, well... not really sure what I could have done about that. Thankfully that one is healing already! And well my middle finger on my right hand is extremely ingrown, and also infected (I promise I wash my hands! It's more that my body isn't fighting infections very well. Yes, I bought more Vitamin C) and ugly. Really ugly. I promise I'm taking care of them, and I have a doctors appt coming up, but not until next week because of the holidays. But yeah. It's been a fun week. If I told you all the other sicknesses that are attacking our house (which was basically a hospital this saturday), our district, and the rest of the mission (some people are IN the hospital) you'd all be amazed. But new year, new chance, and lots of prayers please!

Yesterday was new years! P-day we had churrasco with our LMR, and then pizza and cocktails and dessert pizza with other members at night. Later we watched the smoke (couldn't see the actual fireworks haha) from our balcony and made goals for the year.

Yesterday we had district meeting, and then after lunch a member took us out to açaí. He's and RM and was trying to tell us that there was no point in working yesterday because it was a holiday and no one would listen. So we proved him wrong! Really we had an awesome night :) and a productive one too!

The last thing I wanted to say is that my companion and I have been making lots of goals together, and understanding each other a lot better. This transfer has been hard for the two of us, but it's gonna turn out alright :)

Sorry for all the details about my hurt fingers. It was about the only interesting thing that happened last week. Good thing this week is already much better :P

Love you all! Until next week :) And a happy 2019!!!

-Sister Kirkham

January 7, 2019 - Creative Fingering on the Piano

Ok do you want the happy news or the sad news? The happy news is that my fingers are much better!! The one on my right hand is no longer swollen nor infected!! Buuut unfortunately it's still ingrown, and very ugly and sensitive. I am trying to get them taken care of today! But unfortunately, many doctors are on leave this time of year. There is a podologa (not sure how to spell that in english or portuguese, but it's a doctor that normally works with feet and also ingrown nails) that is a friend of a member that might be able to help, but it basically depends on how much it will hurt, because she's not in the office and doesn't have access to anesthetics. But I'm sure we'll get it figured out! Ooh and I even played piano for sacrament meeting. Sister Roy, I am proud to tell you that my talent for creative and non-conventional fingering techniques came very much in handy! I managed to play almost the full accompaniment almost without using the fourth finger on my left hand or the third finger on my right hand 😂😂

In even happier news, we had an incredibly productive week! Including a fun day of exchanges with Sister Parente and Sister Olson. And one of our miracles is the woman in the pictures I sent, whose name is Vanessa. She moved her recently, but left her children/family in another state, so she's pretty lonely, and also looking for a new church. She showed up at church all on her own yesterday, was very very well recieved, participated in sunday school (she even got given her very own manual) and then went to Almoço with us afterward. And basically, she's awesome. I'd tell you about more awesome people, but unfortunately I don't have much time!

Mom, dad, Spencer, and Sister Roy--have you been to the temple recently?? Everyone is letting stuff slip on the internet about all the changes! I LOVED the official declaration that the first presidency sent out! (and then we read all of the rest of the articles on the LDS newsroom, and there is tons of cool stuff!) But I have 3 more months before I get to find out about everything!! ahhhhhhh. Anyways, take your vitamins because the restoration continues.

Ok gotta go. We gotta go meet a member (an RM who's kind of annoying but does his best to occasionally support the obra missionária 😂) to buy new shoes for my companion because he broke hers yesterday. Yeah, if I didn't see it, I wouldn't believe it either. And then he went home and told his mom that my comp was turning into Cinderella--losing shoes and everything! hhahhah. Boys are terrible.

But anyways, have an awesome week! Love you all tons! :)

-Sister Kirkham