November 9, 2015 - Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Change...

´´just face the strange, ch-ch-changin´´ that one goes out to all you shrek fans out there.

SO. Big news. the end of an era has occurred here in Itabaiana. Transfers are tomorrow, and both the other sisters got transferred to different areas. Sister Barbosa got transferred to be a sister training leader, and I am gonna stay here in Itabaiana and train a new sister!! More news. There were 2 areas here in this city because it is literally huge, but Presidente combined them and now i´ll have to cover BOTH areas with the new sisters. Oh yeah and im gonna be in a trio with Sister Davis, the other Americana that got here the same time as me. But i am kinda confused because all the other sisters that’ll be training have AT LEAST 9 months on the mission. and i have 4... so theres that. And to top it all off, ill have to be the most experienced one here in the area when 1. i am horrible with directions and am gonna be lost 97% of the time and 2. i barely speak portugese. So this will be an adventure! I already had my little breakdown and now i just feel like whatever happens happens. Obviously if the Lord thinks i can do this, Im just gonna trust in Him and let myself grow and help this new sister as much as i can! but i am also freaking out a little bit. I am nervous about having such a huge area to cover when Sis B and i didn’t even have enough time to visit all the people we needed to in our own area, and now times that by 2... holy cow. I am very confused but very humbled to have been called to get to serve another new sister, and i know that because i was so so blessed to get such an amazing trainer who gave me nothing but support and love and help, i get to give that to someone else now too. 

so thats pretty much all that i can even think of that happened this week, the rest of it was pretty much just dreading this day and leading up to it and trying to be focused. but me and sister b were just so depressed all week cuhs we knew we´d be separated. she really has taught me so much and is one of those people that you know god handpicked to put in your life to help you along your way. we are so similar its like she knows exactly what’s going on in my head or im feeling before i even tell her. one day we left a members house for lunch and they had forgotten we were coming so there wasnt very much food. we left and i said ´´we gotta go to the market.´´ and she said ´how come? just kidding i could tell by your face you were still hungry.´´ haha. in brasil they call the person who trains you your ´´mom´´ on the mish and i was the daughter. sis b never called me that because it demeans you and literally you cant treat someone like a small child and then expect them to grow into a regular missionary but that is a separate issue. but having to leave her will really be like having to leave my sister when i left sydney and julia at home. but i know with the lords help he´ll help me see my new purpose here.

so sadly this week i felt like my world in itabaiana was crumbling. for one thing, our baptism with irmao marcio fell through although we have no idea why. the day of his interview our district leader came and we had called him earlier to check in and he said he´d see us at the church at 7pm. so we all met there then, but he never showed. we called and called, but he had turned off his phone. we went all the way to his house, and his daughter said he´d never come home from work. still today he wont answer our phone calls or come to the door if we go there. so we are confused and sad because we have no idea if he just got scared to be baptized, if he really didnt know the things were true he told us he knew, or what. its just frustrating to me that he went through all that trouble with all these shenanigans, when if he didnt wanna be baptized he coulda just said so!!!

but back to happier things. we had a great family night hosted in Rio das Pedras with all our investigators that live over there, because its hard for them to come all the way into the city when we have one there. we have this great new investigator Ronaldo, who literally asked me if he could be baptized this saturday. how often does that ever happen in real life?? i had to explain he had to have a few more lessons but that sure enough he would be. how amazing to meet someone so ready to put everything on hold to follow christ!

dang i cant think of any other cool things this week cuhs my heads filled with worrying about transfers. i have to go to maceio tomorrow morning at 6am to have training and then to pick up my new companion and then we´ll get back here wednesday or thursday , im not sure when. i know the lord is on my side right now and will help me through every difficulty i have with this new part of the mission. good thing i got comfy here because now ill be here for the next 3 months, totalling 6 months here altogether! yikes... but itll be great. know that the lord is on your side too! he is ready and willing to give you all the capacity to help, if youre doing whats right and if you ask. i love you guys!

sister walker

November 2, 2015 - A Week Of Wonders

                              Greatest thing ever is when a ward member's dog has puppies!!

hope everyone had a feliz dia das brujas this week!! my companion kept calling it ´´the day of sister walkers´´, but i´m gonna forgive her for that one eventually.

so this week was the week of wonders people! lots of cool things happened. For one, we had a really cool zone conference where presidente gomes and sister gomes came to talk to us. the stuff they talked to us wasnt exactly super wonderful because get this; the mission brazil maceio has almost the worst numbers in all of brazil.... lol awkward. like almost approaching european missions in lowness. so we got to talk about lots of ways to help that. personally i have lots of ideas on how to have people work more efficiently, like things including obedience to schedules and other rules that should naturally apply to missionaries, but i figure its not exactly my place quite yet to try and fix all that. but whats really great is that i got a package from grandma and grandpa at that meeting!! ahhh they are so nice to think of me. everyone was asking how to say my first name haha. no one was even close. i did get called corny though which sent me into a spiral of horrible memories from my past life. 

anyways, another great thing that happened was that we got a washing machine!! boooyah, say goodbye to half washed clothes in a bucket and say hello to a heavily used washing machine! ahh life is good. also this week, a funny thing in brazil is that sometimes the water just stops running and you dont really know why but you just gotta wait til it comes back on. lots of times there’s not enough water to flush the toilet so you have to pour a lot of water in after you use it but thats no biggie. the complete drought never happened to our house but in rio das pedras it happnes a lot. but this week it was our fate. we got home one night and didn’t have water to shower or anything so we lugged buckets of water from outside where we filled it with the faucet inside. then i boiled some of it on the stove and we showered with that water. it was quite the adventure!

but this week we got some really good lessons with some really great people. wow i wish i could write about all the people we meet cuhs they all have such great stories! but this week is the baptism of marcio if everything goes smoothly. this week we were in one lesson with a guy named ronaldo who is really torn up beacause his girlfriend left him and took their little baby with her and now he only gets to see him on the weekends. and we were teaching about why there are lots of churches in the world since he asked. we had brought his neighbor who’s a member but is kinda a more or less rambly old woman but she’s still really nice. anyways i was teaching about prophets and all of a sudden she butts in and says ´´isnt she speaking so well?? and its a good thing too, because when she got here no one could understand anything she said!!´´ so kinda got wrecked by an old woman during a spiritual lesson but hey what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. note to self, don’t bring her to important lessons anymore.

this week was my week of training to be the senior companion which kinda stressed me the heck out. sister barbosa thought it was so hilarious to sit back and do literally nothing, which was really dang hard but also good for me to see how many responsibilities and things you need to remember day to day. but this week i also got kinda sick and gross like with a bad cold and sore throat so i was like a hacking old man during lots of the lessons so that was fun. the funny thing about brazil is that everyone and their mom has a fool proof remedy for each ailment, when i kept saying it was just a cold and not to worry about it. they’d say ´´don’t drink cold water´´ or ´´don’t use a fan at night when you sleep´´ or ´pretty much ´´don’t walk out in the sun´´ which isn’t exactly possible now is it?! but now I’m better so it’s all good.

today we got to go to this really cool activity for all the branches in the district at like this resortish place. it was like a nicer ensign ranch, tropical edition. and they had stayed there last night but we went just today to hang out and eat lunch and talk with the members and play games out on the field and play some noncompetitive soccer. i have never wanted to swim so bad in my life cuhs they had a nice pool and its steaming outside, but also it was sad cuhs they were playing just dance and it made me miss our big family just dance sessions (shoutout to when mom and dad danced to rihanna #nightmares)

i realized this week that my heart is growing a lot for the people here, which is great because that’s what I’ve been praying for. I’m gonna be sad when i leave them, or when sister barbosa gets transferred next week, but i know there´ll be others i need to meet and help too. I’m really learning to love being a missionary! It’s amazing to be able to think 100% about others all day long, and do everything you can just to maybe make their life just a little bit better. I’ve always loved to serve and help others, and now i know this is the best and most efficient way you can ever do that. i love you guys have a  great week!!

sister walker

October 26, 2015 - Count Your Ble$$ings...

                                                     Courtney At A Parade In Itabaiana

Another week come and gone holy cow!

This week I learned alot of things that i am grateful for. Hence the title of this email. Im starting to not think of everything in Brasil in comparison to things in the States, but the things here just being normal. its helping me adjust better. But what really made me realize im adjusting is when a ward member gave us a ride to pick up an investigator for church (which is rare in itself-there’s 4 families in the branch that own a car-no one here has a car they’re sups expensive), and i got in and it had carpet and the windows worked and the seats werent torn or anything and i thought ´´whoa this is a really nice car´´, and then realized that everyone and their mom has a car like this or nicer back home. the things im grateful for i didnt realize i was grateful for until now. cliche but true. here are some of those things:

Public bathrooms, libraries, no littering laws, lightbulbs in every room, free schooling, health care plans, mutual and youth activities. Its funny the little things that you dont realize you love until you dont have them anymore. and the things you realize you dont really need! but i really feel so grateful and humbled to get to meet these people and find out about their lives. sometimes when we´re teaching in a cement house with people who have 1 couch and 2 beds for furniture and 1 lightbulb in their house and have more faith than i could ever dream of, i feel almost embarrassed that back home i know i have a closet full of clothes, a fridge always full of food, 3 tvs, who knows how many cars now (i cant keep track). it just goes to show what’s really important in life. wow the people here are teaching me so much. 

anyways this week we got big news from the sister training leaders when we had splits with them. this transfer, nov 10, we´re gonna get 10 new sisters!! that is so crazy and never has happened before! and 2 are americans. the only downside is that its almost guaranteed that sister barbosa will be transferred out of this area, if not all 4 of us. and also there is a high possibility i will be training one of the new missionaries which makes my stomach feel sad everytime i think of it. how could i ever train a brand new missionary when im basically a small child who barely speaks portuguese/?? ok no i will do whatever the lord calls me to do. we´ll see. 

for one of the family home evenings we went to this week with our investigators was at the branch presidents house. we were all enjoying waiting for him to start the message he´d prepared and he said ´´we´re gonna watch a mormon meessages video. but it happens to be in english so sister walker is going to translate what they’re saying for us´´ i was like are you kidding me hahah. so im there watching the mormon message Climbing Mountains and listening so intently to what elder eyring i think is saying and trying to translate super fast into words that will have some particle of the same emphasis and spirit as the video. gee whiz that was hard. but i think i did okay. also we watched parts of this really cool movie called Rescuing Ephraim if you guys wanna watch it.

this week i dunno what happened but we had 7 investigators at church!! oh the joy of missionaries. the great thing is that the people are so welcoming that if youre new, you’ll have  a friend no matter what because whoevers next to you will just talk to you like you’ve been friends your whole life. one of them who came is Marcio who has told us the past 4 weeks he´d go to church but hadn’t. one week he even told us he was on his way so we waited outside for him and he said he was ´´almost there´´ but we waited and waited and he never showed up... lol people are funny. but he’s preparing to be baptized and just loves hearing our messages. his baptismal date is nov 7! we´re also working with a woman named Aparecida whos kids are members but not active. i met her on accident when i went to visit her kids with a woman in the ward last sunday, and she is so so interested in the gospel. she said when the elders used to try and teach her years ago, she´d shut the door and tell them not to come back, that she didnt want to hear it, but now she is ready and open and wants to be baptized! it just goes to show how the lord has a certain time for everything, and how all of the paths in our lives are prepared and organized. 

well thats about all folks, im still learning the ropes and how to do things the ´´brazilian´´ way, but i sure do love being able to represent my savior and my family on my missionary plaque every single day. thanks for all your love and support, i love my family!!

sister walker

October 19, 2015 - Lookey, Lookey....

                                       Courtney, Irmao Manoel, another girl being baptized,
                                           Lucas (young man baptizing them), Sis Barbosa

Greetings from the sweat capital of Brasil,

I´ll just start off with what everyones wondering, we had a baptism this week!!! Irmão Manoel who we met on the street about a month ago. It was so cool. He is a very interesting guy. He has a few problems that are somewhat evident because he suffered a huge trauma when he was 20, and now he’s 45. at first i just thought he was different because sometimes you have to be really really patient cuhs he gets distracted easily, but he gets so so happy when we talk about the gospel and teach him. its amazing to have been able to see the light that grew within a man without a family, without a job, without anything really, but that faith in christ gave to him. it was also amazing to tell that although a part of his mortality and mental, not disabilities but challenges, hold him back sometimes in social situations, he understands everything we teach him. its like his physical mind can hold him back but his spirit recognizes all the things that we teach him!

well because of the baptism, the week was kinda scrambled and crazy, but it was good. i love brazilian families here because they just know how to relax and be together and take a break from all the craziness. last pday we went to jessica and tiagos house which if you remember was the family that got baptized when i got here, and they are just gold. we ate lunch with them and then they pulled out their mattresses and put them all on the floor of the living room and they took a family nap and sister barbosa slept in the hammock and me on the couch. they just know how to have family togetherness time without having to be doing anything! i love being able to take little parts from each family i meet and store away for my future family. 

we also had a surprise family night with a less active family in the ward. it was seriously a surprise, we all just showed up at their house one night with ward members and said we were gonna have family night there. its funny cuhs a lot of times i still think ´´this so would not be okay in america´´ but it just works here! i knew if a bunch of people showed up at our house on a wednesday night we´d all be crabby that they intruded and didnt call ahead and that the house wasnt clean (only mom cares about that one). but the family was so so happy and excited we were there and kept saying how grateful they were that we´d come to their house. i love brazilian openness. i also love about brasil that the people are much less full of stigmas and social norms that hold people back from just being themselves. people just are who they are and arent embarrassed. theyre not afraid to talk about religion like i sometimes was back home with my friends. so dont be like me! people are searching for this light and truth and hope we have, but you just gotta be brave enough to bring it up.

also just for future reference, ive learned the mail here is pretty sketchy. they lose things a lot or it takes ten years to get anywhere. also right now theyre on strike so that put a damper in things. everyone’s on strike here at one point or another, the mail, the banks right now, even i want to go on strike when my alarm goes off at 6:30 and i feel like i slept 4 minutes.

i was thinkin about christmas lately and decided its never too early to come up with a list. so here are some ideas mother dear; sticky notes (regular and those little ones to put in books), white cami (2 for $15), nikon camera memory card, Ricks Ready Reference pocketbook, tape, sydneys christmas mish cd/any church music cd, markers/colored pencils, $1 bills, mascara, stud earrings, gluestick, any recent conference talks, copies of my piano sheet music including hallueljah from shrek. tis the season! :)

a little girl just came up to me and asked me if i teach an english class here she can take. oh and her mom made her ask me. okay back to the week. 

oh so as far as the language goes. i pretty much can get by in whatever conversation now. unless its about some really obscure topic. but the thing is that i dont want to just get by, i want to be able to speak everything i think, without having to dumb it down to fit my portugeuse vocabulary. i dont want to be just ´´good for an american´´, i want to be good! but sister barbosa says i worry too much and i already speak better than most americans but i think shes just being nice. 

Thats about it for my week, we got to meet a lot of great new people this week because most of our other investigators hit a wall or a fear or some obstacle that only a miracle will help them progress forward now. sad but god always blesses us with new people to teach. im even getting so happy im already nervous about transfers in 3 weeks!! i dont wanna go. *cheaper by the dozen when the twin boys are in the carseats*. okay thats all for now folks, i love you guys lots!!

sister walker

October 12, 2015 - Tres Meses!

Hey people!

okay first off, i sent you guys a letter about a month or so ago, so if you didnt get it then houston we have a problem and ill have to send letters from a different envelope pouch thing. also package update in case i ever get one here, for christmas it’ll need to have arrived in maceio by december 10 because thats when we have christmas conference in maceio and when id be able to get anything like that. 

but back to the good stuff. this week was kinda sad tbh. we are teaching lots of people that learn of gospel truths like god loves them, the book of mormon is true, we have a living prophet, they need to keep the commandments and go to church every week, but then use their agency wrongly and choose to not act on the witnesses they receive. i sure am not a fan of agency this week. but sister barbosa said something in our lesson with katia who is a single mom all ready to be baptized but her member bf kinda messed things up. she said that we cant put in her heart all the feelings and inspirations the spirit has given to us. and even if we could, we wouldnt because we fought for this spirit and knowledge of the spirit that we have. we fight for it every single day as we study for 3 hours every morning, as we choose to not follow temptation, when we chose to serve a mission, we literally fought against the adversary to have the level of conversion we do and she wouldnt give that up for anything. i was in amazement because that is exactly true. the gospel is something you have to experience for yourself and feel, no one can convince you of it!

im also learning about how really amazing and great the book of mormon is. it changes peoples lives! its amazing because sister barbosa taught me, you dont need to put your hand in the fire to know that it burns, because someone before you put their hand in and it burned. just like in the book of mormon, we already have examples of what happens when you doubt the power of the lord, or murmur against him, or need guidance and turn to the lord, or your family needs to be strengthened. we already know what happens so we dont need to pass through the same afflictions to know the result. and we can take strength from the stories in there because we know the good results too! that book is great. What’s sad is that we teach every single day, almost every single lesson the power of reading every day and praying morning and night. thats what we teach to people investigating the church but then we go to all the members house for lunch and ask if they’re doing those things and they say no! it just breaks my heart! theres about 3 youth in the ward that go to seminary every day, and the one girl thats the firmest in the branch said shes never read the book of mormon ever... i was like are you for real. (but she also said shes embarrassed to wear a skirt that goes down to her knees but thats a whole separate can of worms that is an issue here). its like the smallest things can make or break your testimony of the gospel and the strength you gain every day.

But on a happier note, today is Dia das Crianças! (Kids Day). everyone gives presents to their kids and theres little trampolines and balloons everywhere. but somehow i got jipped because i definitely sat at the 1 foot tall kids table every year for christmas eve dinner but no one gave me a present today... Oh and big news, i started the bottom pinching tradition during fotos here in brasil so that is a win for the walkers. zinger.

update on maycom: he is ready to be baptized but now his dad doesnt want him to be, so that put a damper on things. but his dad works all week except sunday and on sundays he is lets just say less than capacitated to have a coherent chat with... we are praying for him. its still so funny to me how different things in brasil are. the people here, especially in the northeast, are SO trusting. we meet people in the street and within 3 minutes we have their name, address, phone number, age, marital status, days they’re at home, and their favorite color. everytime we do it i think of when mom accidentally put our address on facebook and everyone freaked out at her hahah. and i think of dad always freaking out saying not to give personal info out to anyone *cue dad saying ´´oh im sure, freak out *crinkled finger movie arm quotes**

its also funny with the language, because I’m pretty good at understanding what people say now. i just dont always have all the words i want to respond. but people can actually have a real conversation with me now and dont just look at my companion the whole time. but its funny theres one lady in the branch who still thinks i dont know a word of portguese, so she always talks with big hand motions and makes her eyes really big when she talks to me and talks really loud like that will help me understand better haha. sometimes i play dumb and make her do lots of ridiculous arm movements until I ´´understand´´. then i repent.

but things here are going pretty well! we´re hoping this week the lord will help us meet lots of new people to teach because most of the people we were working with have reached some sort of bridge and got stuck progressing. but i know there’s other people here ready for us. the people here are so open! We just have to have the courage to talk with everyone. i love you guys. I’ll talk to you next week!

October 5, 2015 - "Wait, Not Everyone In America Is White??"

                                                  Courtney, Maycom and Sister Barbosa

Above is an excerpt from a real conversation I had with a real Brazilian adult yesterday during conference. Oh what a different world Itabainana Brazil is...

Hey!

Summer is definitely settling in here. Its gets hotter everyday and my shoes get sweatier. But all is well here in good ole Brasil. This week was kinda long tbh. Im learning first hand how hard the adversary works against you when you start on the right path and start doing what the Lord wants you to do. I feel like thats happening with all of our investigators! They’ll get to a certain point and are really progressing and then satan will put an obstacle in their path to try and keep them from pushing forward. And sometimes it does stop them, which makes us sad. I think I was really dumb when I left on my mission. Let me expound;

When I got to brasil i thought just because it was brasil, I’d be baptizing all the time, with people just so eager to join the church. well surprise surprise, because that is not the case in this area. Apparently the northeast is known for being a little more stubborn. But that doesnt mean there aren’t people here being prepared and waiting for us! This week Sister Barbosa and I were praying that we´d be able to find a new family to teach. And one day we went to Irmao Louis´s house and there was a 14 yr old boy named Maycom reading the book of mormon to him since he doesnt know how to read. Turns out Maycom is so excited to be baptized and have purpose and hope in his life through the gospel of Jesus christ! AND guess what else, he has 9 siblings. BAM. #miracles #blessed. I am so humbled to be able to teach the great people here. Their house is probably the size or smaller of the apartment I’m living in, maybe the size of our living room and dining room and kitchen put together at home. but the spirit that they have is just amazing. it really proves it, you dont need anything but the gospel and your family to be happy. 

Maycom told us about an experience he had this week too. he said one night he was praying to know if the church was true like we asked him to, and he didnt know why but he just started crying. we asked him how he felt in that moment and he said like god was right there beside him. I just wanted to hug the kid, for crying out loud!! Because god really is with us every step of the way! He said that he even felt someones hand on his shoulder comforting him but he looked behind him and saw no one. so cool! i know that our savior is with us during our triumphs and during our trials. and that makes Him all the more personal. The love our Savior has for each one of us individually is profound.

And who loved conference helllooo I did!! I agree with syd when she said that the best talks are on saturday to stick it to the people who just watch sunday. we watched Saturday at a members house on their laptop (most people don’t have internet at their houses or computers). well the members left when it started, but still. then sunday we took a big sweaty rickety bus with the whole branch to Lagarto where the nearest chapel is. Can we talk about how many times they told us to keep the sabbath holy? I guess that means no more granite flats for you pecadores. jk. kinda. I’m sad that people here really dont understand the importance or significance of conference. its hard enough to get them to go to church for 3 hours once a week, let alone 8 hours in one weekend. most of the members here didnt even know we had it on satuday too... haha. but i just loved elder hollands talk about moms. it is so true when he said moms carry us for a lot longer than 9 months. i knew mom was crying during that talk which made me tear up too. i miss my mom! we really are so lucky to have parents rooted in the gospel who taught us like the sons of helaman, who sacrifice everything for us. 

my new favorite pastime is teaching the kids here to say ´´i love you sister walker´´ in english. i am a great missionary. Sister Barbosa and i are kinda joined at the hip these days. We laugh alll the time. She says to me ´´if youre this sassy in portuguese after speaking for 3 months, i dont know if i even want to hear you in english..´´ true or true? ;)

if at any time you guys could email me conference talks so i could print them off (portugues or english) i would love that!! i love you guys!

sis walker

September 28, 2015 - "Just Smile And Wave Boys, Smile And Wave"

                                               Courtney And Her Roommates In Itabaiana
                 (Her Companion, Sister Barbosa, Is Next To Her  - They Call Her A Brazilian Barbie)

This has been the motto of my mission experience thus far.

Greetings from Eat-Eye-By-Yana!

This week I learned I love the people here. Well i guess i already knew that but i really learned it. i feel like the grinch a lot of the time because i can just feel my heart growing in capacity every time we have a lesson with someone or talk to someone on the street who says they needed someone to talk to that day. 

i made it through my first transfer! We didn’t get word until 11;30 at night last night but all 4 of us are staying here for now so we were screaming and shouting for joy. our neighbors probably appreciate us a little less now. but everyone says that the sisters that serve in this area stay here a lonnng time. at least 4 months, some sisters are here 8 and the longest ive heard is 10. holy cow. so im gettin comfortable. 

But i feel like i should be a little more clear on my area that im in. Im in a little city, its not like im in the jungle usually. There’s nicer parts and more humble parts, depending on where you’re at. our house is in the nicer parts, i mean its all brazil so its all different to start with, but our house i think is considered nicer. There’s one part of our area called Rio das Pedras which is where i helped build a bathroom and where i cant drink the water at all. Thats where the real magic is, people. the people there are sooo ready for the gospel, so in tune with the spirit and the lord is preparing people there. but its far from the chapel so presidente doesnt technically like us working there that much... ugh. but there’s this one guy there named irmao louis, who is the oldest most kind and smallest and wrinkliest old man who just melts my heart every time we visit him. he was baptized a year ago and likes to hold your hand as you walk up the road to his house. When he says the closing prayer for us he always says ´´thank you for sending these sisters here to visit me even though they always have to go so soon´´ and if that didnt break your heart then i dont think you had one to begin with. sorry that was abrupt. but its true! the people that we just adore are the ones who dont need us as much. the people that need us, are the more stubborn ones. i feel a lot like my alter ego Nanny McPhee in these moments because ´´when you need me but do not want me i must stay but when you want me but no longer need me i must go´´ (*cue all the sad overused Nanny McPhee jokes*)

I’m realizing that adjusting to mission life here doesn’t just mean adjusting to always being tired and sweaty, but a harder part is adjusting to the culture. its one thing to appreciate and admire the culture from afar, but its another to be thrown right into it. and brazilians are very very different. for one thing they’re very loud, whenever we go somewhere its super loud and you have little to no personal space. which i can deal with except when you’re on the bus and don’t really want to snuggle with a stranger who smells like old barn. but that’ll come with time i guess. 

one night i was having a hard time and just feeling very isolated from everyone and everything. so i was just praying and praying and talking with heavenly father that he would remind me why I’m here, remind me that im loved and that i can do this. then we got to Rio das Pedras and it was honestly the greatest answer to my prayers because one after another all these little kids were just sprinting towards us to hug us and talk to us. kids that i didn’t even know would hug me. and when they left and we went to the next street, more would come. i know heavenly father knew that’s what i needed right then, that those kids would just touch my heart and remind me that this is my home, this is what i was called to do, to love and serve these people.

i also had a funny experience this week when a man we had invited to church asked me to talk to him in english. he said to invite him to church in english and tell him why it was important to go so i said sure what the heck. and i tried to start talking in english and the words honestly wouldn’t come out. in my head i had everything i wanted to say but my mouth couldn’t speak them, it kept getting jumbled up with portuguese words. it was the weirdest thing. other random fun fact, the funny thing about teaching the first vision here is that we have to explain what a forest is, because there’s no such thing as forests here nor has anyone ever seen one.

but that’s about it from me, I’m so ready to start my second transfer here and get the lords work movin faster!

i love you guys so much!

sister walker