Hey guys!
6 months on the
mish aka I’m singing sunrise sunset like dad always played and mom always
cried. jk. People always say it passes fast but I’m still kinda waiting for
that to kick in... haha. The sisters here made me a surprise cake and sang the
happy birthday song in Portuguese and even had these crazy sparking candles on
it that I think are illegal in America. So it was great!
This week was full
of new stuff for me. For one thing, I had my first splits with one of the
sisters I live with. Turns out splits aren’t so bad. You just kinda teach like
normal, pray for what the sister is needing to hear right then, then you just
let the spirit guide you and turns out you say everything that she was needing
to hear as a new American missionary in Brasil so it all turned out okay. This
week I’ll get to go to Itabaiana to do splits with the sisters there yaaay!! I’m
excited to get to go back there for a bit.
Oh yeah we are
officially B2B here in Estancia, well technically we have been since I got here
because our washing machine is broken here too. I heart buckets people! Still
hoping somehow my clothes are actually getting clean and not just sitting in
stinky dirty water... oh well.
Also this week we
got a new companion, Sister Chagas! She got transferred from Maceio and now she’s
here with us until the end of the transfer. She’s from Rio and pretty cool. But
now I am officially the big weenie on campus because she has a year on the
mission too and actually knows Portuguese like Sister Helm and likes to take
charge so I’m working on making myself stand up and be heard. These people will
listen to me and they will like it!
The problem we´re
having with our investigators isn’t that we have no one to teach, we´ve moved
on from that, but it’s that no one really wants to progress with our lessons. This
is our problem: all of our investigators want to be baptized, already accepted
it, but don’t want to go to church.... so something is missing here. I feel
like it should be the opposite problem haha.
It’s funny how you
get to learn a lot about the saviors life here on the mission, not just because
you study a lot about it, but because you’re kinda living a small part of it. We´ve
been working with a man named Cleonancio for a few weeks who has a really hard
time with going to church, but again wants to be baptized and be a part of the
church of christ. so all this week every day we saw him and he said ´´I’m going
to church with you guys!´´ and then we went to pick him up and walk with him Sunday
morning and he was getting ready to go fishing with his buddies... I could have
been filled with a lot of anger at him but instead it was more of a deep hurt
and disappointment. After all we´d done for him, all the paths we’d prepared
for him, all he had to do was walk to church, and he deliberately chose to do something
else. It’s a sad day when I have to tell a grown man on the street that he is
telling god that fishing is more important to him than our heavenly father is. I
was thinking of all the times the lord reaches out to us, gives us commandments
to help and guide us and warn of danger, who often times ´´comes to our
house´´, tired, weary, sweaty and frustrated, metaphorically and invites us to
come with him, and we just tell him we don’t have time, or don’t need him, and
how sad that is for our savior. Sometimes it’s really sad seeing the people here
negate their potential or not understand the one true plan that is available to
them, but I am learning a great love for my savior here. And I’m grateful I can
be here to show him that I am trying to do all I can to heed to his counsel
when he invites us ´´come follow me´´. So that is my thought for the week! I
know our savior lives and loves each one of us and knows how to help us during
our trials, because he already passed through them!
I love you guys. Have
a great week!
Sister Walker
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