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

September 21, 2015 - "I Don't Believe In God, I Only Believe In Science"

                                                    Sister Courtney Walker in Itabaiana

Olá Nacho!

(´´how did you find me? ´´we saw you from the road´´)

Wow another week already come and gone! Its funny how this week our numbers for goals and stuff were really good but im sad cuhs i dont feel like we did enough because our investigators arent progressing as much as i want, but last week our numbers were sad but i felt like we helped a lot. oh well. Its all good! All these things shall be for our experience. I love Doctrine and Covenants. Did you guys know that? Seriously love that book. oh and the book of mormon. and the new testament. pretty much all scripture and we only have an hour each day to study which is defs not enough time but oh well. its funny how i want to study the deep doctrine and increase my knowledge about that but i know i need to be studying in portuguese so instead i think the lord is trying to remind me about gaining a solid testimony of the basics of the gospel first. (because it takes like 3 hours to read one chapter in the BOM in portuguese so thats why). speaking of knowledge, its funny how the people here are on such a different level here in spiritual knowledge. we cant talk about foreordination because we´re just working on reverence and the kids not throwing cheeseballs during sacrament mtg. (which they did not share) theres one guy in the branch named irmao nelson whos been a member a while and hes been to the temple so hes pretty much revered as the o wise one here. but i was thinking, this guy has nothing on sister kersh, patriarch hall, uncle kim and tim, people who have a really deep understanding of the gospel. but its okay! because all they need right now is to know god loves them and they need to be baptized. im grateful the gospel is line upon line and precept upon  precept. 

oh so the conference was this wknd! holy cow it was good. we had 210 people literally packed like sardines in that tiny little building. prez gomes and sister gomes were there and they spoke but somehow i got ousted to the hallway to be the ringleader of the rugrats during sacrament mtg so i didnt really hear anything that was said but im sure it was good and uplifting. but they did come bearing gifts because i got a PACKAGE filled with CANDY AND TREATS from the best people ever the WHEELERS! ahhh i was so pumped. it said it got sent the 28th of august so theres a time gauge for you mom. but ethan and riley and ashton (and sis wheeler) wrote me the best notes and drew me pictures and im working on writing them back! letters take about a month to get there so be a little patient. 

but this week was cool literally because it rained 3 or 4 days so i was in heaven because rain=clouds=less sun blazing down on you. but the down side you smell like a sad soggy dog the rest of the day. you win some you lose some.

this week i gained some major street cred while we were doing service for some people outside their house. i took a short break to play soccer with some little kids in the street and just pulled out some christiano renaldo stuff on em. jk. but for real they were impressed because apparently girls dont really play soccer here, its only the boys... some kid took a video of me on his phone so look for that video when it goes viral on youtube.

im still amazed at how receptive the people are here. almost everyone loves to have us come visit them and talk with them. the problem then is that they just want us as friends and dont really want to read the scriptures or get baptized and i just wanna throttle (momism) them sometimes and say ´´im trying to change your life here and youre making it really difficult!!´´ but we´re trying really hard to get the people to keep their commitments. theres one guy named irmao genaldo we’re trying to teach who is an exact replica of the teacher from the incredibles that dash puts a tack on his chair (julia you know who im talking about). and he always says he wont be home for us to teach him and then is always sitting on his front porch... haha awkward. and one day he was talking to us and told us he belongs to a secret Mason group of people here and i was so stoked cuhs we were like in National Treasure or something and he was all worried ´´i cant tell you guys very much...´´ haha it was crazy!

anyways we taught a lot this week about prayer. and i kept remembering how when i was little one night mom came into me and julias room and i was on the bunkbed and she taught us that we need to pray every night by ourselves and thank heavenly father for all he helped us with that day. because ever since then thats what ive tried to do every night before i go to sleep. and now im  teaching that to the families here! its crazy how many people dont know you can have a  real and normal conversation with god, instead of reciting a prayer. i know god hears and answers our prayers! Hes helped me so much since i got here. but hes waiting for us to show a little bit of faith and humility by asking for help first. and that is my spiritual thought for the week. pray with real intent if you have a question or need help! i promise you’ll receive it. i love you guys so much! talk to you soon,

sister walker

September 14, 2015: "Oh Ann, You Beautiful Tropical Fish"

In case you missed the Parks and Rec’s reference, this sums up how I feel when i walk around here everyday. I wish for one day people would quit staring at me like i have a big piece of food stuck in my teeth!!

But hey people!

This week was busy but we didnt get as many lessons in as i wanted to. I hear thats how it goes around here most of the time. We are working hard because we have a big branch conference this sunday and the mish prez is comin and everything. if we have enough people turn out for that then we´ll be able to have a chapel built here!! woohoo! This week I learned about how to use my exoticness to my advantage. That sounds sketchy but let me explain. When we meet someone on the street or are teaching them for the first time we introduce ourselves and tell a little bit about what a mission is. And i found out that when i tell them that i left my family and everyone i love and my schooling way back home in America to come here and share this message with them because i know its true, they can tell its serious and they listen. Its cool.

Okay so we work with a lot of less active members here. Theres a tonnnn. They make me sad inside to hear about when they were active or to have them talk to me about the things they know to be true, but then i dont understand if they know these things are true, why they arent living up to them. Theres one 14 yr old boy who was baptized just before i got here named Gabriel and he is a rockstar (phrase coined by syd). He is so spiritually in tune and would study the scriptures everyday and tell me about the chapters in the book of mormon hes reading. but this week he told us he doesnt want to go to church anymore.... that just about broke my heart. so we´re working with him. he asked me if i had a $1 bill from america and i said yes and he could have it if he goes to church. boom. missionary work at its finest. people always want to see american money, and i can pretty much live on $1 a day which is apparently 6 reis here now so theres that. Another somewhat sad story is my friend Fabihno who is also a recent convert. He is 18 and never wears shoes but is very faithful. But he also said he doesnt want to go to church anymore. Sister Barbosa and I were talking and talking to him, trying to figure out why not, and finally we found out it was because the last time he went to church, someone had made some offhand joke about his clothes because he was wearing bermuda shorts, but turns out those were the only clothes he had to wear :( makes me think about all the dumb comments ive made to people that probably werent very nice...)

This week we had divisão with the sister training leaders which i was wicked nervous about but was really fun. and turns out i can actually speak a little portuguese! i got paired with the sister who was asked by the mish prez to extend her misssion here for a month so you can say shes a pretty awesome missionary. but the people we went to teach actually understood me and respected me as being the lead missionary for that one day. i had been praying and praying that they would and then it turned out! prayer works people. 

Also this week we helped with this ´´Dinner for Married Couples´´ we had at the branch for all the married couples (i guess that explanation wasnt needed but still). There arent very many married couples, and even fewer who are both active but we had about 20 couples there. The missionaries all were serving the plates and the people would get up and give little love shoutouts to their spouse, it was so adorable. we even had 2 young men put on bowties and serve drinks #classy. And idk who was in charge of the music but at one point complicated by avril lavine was playing so you better believe i was jamming out. (and repenting afterwards). 

speaking of repenting, all 4 of us went to an evangelical church last night because one of the other sister’s investigators said he wouldnt go to our church til they went to his. it was pretty legit, it was like an efy rock concert and everyone was swaying back and forth and yelling amen and hallelujah. i wont lie i snuck in a few of my own in there while i could. but the pastor was like the hypnotist at the puyallup fair with the cheesy music and a headset and everything. but i couldnt help but feel a little sad for all these people who were honestly searching for christ and to follow him and could be so much happier if they had the whole complete truth. maybe we´ll proselityze near there this week...

Brasil is funny, people will come up to us in the streets and ask us to pray for them. Also its the best, if you dont have money for food, you just go to a members house and ask if you can have something to eat and its totally normal. One of the members we were at this week for lunch said that like we have families at home, they were our family while we were here. the people here are so good to me :) 

Other than that, Im doin okay. Missions are fun! who knew? portuguese comes a little at a time and depends on the day/how much i pray that the spirit will be with me and ill have the words to speak. 

one really cool thing this week was that we were in a lesson with 2 women from the ward teaching a less active. and brazilian women like to talk. holy cow they like to talk. and they pretty much talked the poor woman to death and i kept feeling prompted to say this one thing and kept feeling prompted but they were talking so finally i cut them off and said ´´as a representative of jesus christ i promise you that if you pray for strength you will feel the desire to return to church.´´ and it got really quiet and she said that she would go this week. the lord is good.

thank you for all your emails and pics, i love being updated on the world out there! i love you so much and miss you guys! have a super week

xoxo sister walker