Kylie's letter 2-27-12

This week was good, marked two dates for baptism! Wahoo!!!!! But I am pretty sure, almost 100% I will be transferred, Presidente keeps dropping hints like I have been in this area for two long etc. So who knows where Sis P will be next week.

But this week was the official day of carnival, I really do not like doing missionary work during the holidays with carnival and everything. Basically everyday is traveling and the work was really really slow. But I am excited for this month to start up and get going again. Tuesday - the actual day of carnival we had a conference of sisters. Sisters conference I mean - I cant speak English any more. It was very fun. We had all the sisters from the mission in the house of presidente. I mean presidentes house. We also had a few of the sisters sleep over at our house the night before sisters conference and after it was a fun fiesta in our little house. But we had a few training things and got to watch movies two. Watched tangled and enchanted. Foi muito bom!

Suali is really stuggling with cigarettes still. But we are still going to visit her and support her. she is starting this nicotine patch program which she thinks is her last hope. so I hope it works for her. She is so ready to be baptized it is just this stupid addiction.

Tais - she has a lot of questions and a lot of doubts which is really good because she is searching. It is better than the investigators that just accept whatever, get baptized, and after their missionaries leave never come to church. When she accepted the baptismal date she said, Yes, this is what I have been waiting for! It will be next transfer, bummer. But still grateful that I got to get to know her.

Jonathon- He is the most humble and religious young man I have ever met. He is so sincere and really wants to know if everything we are saying is true. He has a date for next transfer too, hope and pray that he will follow through!

Love you all! Hope all is well with you and the rest of the family. Thanks for letters, love, and your prayers! You are all in mine tambem.

Beijos,

kylie

Kylie's letter 2/20/2012

So this week was the carnival. And the streets were basically dead. Even the bars had less people in them. Everyone was traveling for Carnival so the work was a little slow. But we had to spend the night in the apartment because the men are a little bit more forward than usually.  We spent it with Presidente and sister playing scrabble. And yes, I lost in English and in Portuguese to Brazilians. Same ol' same ol'. I hate that game.

 

So I will start out with the funny story of the week. And add a little bit more spiritual stuff. I just got one of dads letters the other day with a whole list of all these questions about my spiritual experiences here. I  just remember with Brice I didn't really like hearing about the investigators because I didn't know who they were, but I will try to be better and make everyone happy.

 

This week I got to hear a woman speak in tongues. We taught her the first lesson and she told us she was Buddhist but she believed in the Bible and in God. I don't think she really understood what a Buddhist is. Anyway, we concluded the lesson and we asked her to pray and she did. During the prayer she started speaking in "tongues". Just sounded like the same mumble jumble over and over again for about 3 minutes straight. Pretty sure she had no idea how to say a prayer. It was quite impressive. She finished and said amen. And then said. "Oh excuse me, I never know when I will speak in tongues, it's just that relationship I have with God, you know how it is...." Cant wait to teach her again....

 

Okay now the good stuff for mom and dad. So Suali  came to church and she has been coming to the family nights that the members hold for investigators and she has been reading and asking a ton of questions. She has some health and emotional problems and when we first started teaching her she always looked drugged and really sad and really down, but now here eyes have a light in them. They are brighter and she you can tell she has the light of Christ and she is understanding and gaining a testimony. It is an actual physical change. She is happier, and she is understanding that this happiness is coming because she is keeping the commandments. She still has this stupid addiction to cigarettes. She is still struggling to drop it. She is smoking sometimes 3 sometimes 6. She is so close.

 

Other thing is the blessing we have of having temples so close. There is a recent convert here that is saving everything she has to go to the temple. She told us she didn't travel for carnival because she is saving for the temple--6 months from now. These people sacrifice so much and the temple is such a huge deal. We really do have such a blessing to be living so close to temples. Don't take them for granted. I am learning in my studies the importance of temple work that we can not become perfect without them and neither them without us. So way to go mom with all your work you are doing. We as missionaries don't have the opportunity to go to the temple and I am definitely missing it.

 

That is all for now. Love you all!

 

Ky

 

Kylie's letter 2/13/12

Querida Familia!

Soooo, this past week wasn't too eventful, but the festivities and apostasies of Carnival are commencing. Part of Carnival is people dress up in costumes and such. And the all time winner for costumes and disguises would be female clothing. I have never seen so many men in my life wearing little mini skirts and bikini tops. A lot of the people in the ward have told us that in ancient times carnival was more of a cultural activity, lots of costume parties, samba (clean samba), and just another fun holiday to celebrate. But now it is quite different. Just another excuse to get drunk and party. Luckily it is pretty calm hear, and so we will still be working during carnival but we will be leaving the more poorer neighborhoods before it gets dark.

We are teaching Rute and Caludio and their two kids Eduardo and Isabel. Rute is really spiritual and all for going to church and everything but Claudio is a little harder. He works all day and gets home at 8:30 and missionaries are usually the last things he wants to hear at night. But we have been fasting almost every single day this week for them. From what President has been telling me it sounds like I will be transferred this next transfer. I really really really really want to see them baptized before I leave.

We also found another family. I think I mentioned them before. Arnoldo and Stelita. They are sooooo nice and compassionate. They always send us off with little snacks for the day and they made us lunch the other day. It was my first real sea food here. I have been waiting to taste the sea food here since the ocean is right here. The traditional seafood dish here is called muqueca and they cook it in a big clay pot with tomatoes and onions and herbs. It is almost like a stew. We ate shark, fish, and other sea food things that I didn't know the name of. It was amazingly delicious. We haven't taught them yet, but we have established a strong friendship. They are catholic but they are really close to the spirit. But we are also fasting for them and we are waiting for a miracle.

And this week suali CAME TO CHURCH!!!! Miracles of miracles. She also received a priesthood blessing and I really think she will get baptized not this transfer just because of her smoking problem, but maybe in the next.


Love you all so much!

love,
ky

Kylie's letter 2/6/12

This email is going to be great, so I suggest you settle down, maybe grab some blankets and popcorn and hot chocolate and enjoy, A lot of great things happened this week.

I will start off with the not so spiritual stuff.

So as Brice described the mission is really awkward, weird, and just random. You see and hear the darndest things because you are walking the streets all the time. So here are a few of the things that happened to us this week.

Drunk man 1 - we were sitting down and resting for Sister Johnson, and she was sitting with her eyes closed. A drunk man walked past and commented Shes sleeping. Then asked me if I wanted his autograph. I said no but kind of regretted it after, maybe he was someone really famous.

Drunk man 2 - In one neighborhood we walk past this bar several times throughout the day. And this one particular day there was a man there all day. And he just happened to speak about 5 phrases in English. Pretty girl, Go to the beach with me, how are you, 12345, etc. Very impressive.  The Brazilians here love to show off every little bit of English they got. So we talked with him a bit just to make him stop talking to us. And he started leaving us alone. That night we walked to JArdim Camburi which is a neighborhood clear in the scuz on the other side of town and it is right by the beach. So while we were walking the edge of town. We heard someone yelling pretty girls pretty girls. And lo and behold it was the same man in a little black speedo who was at another beach side bar still drinking. Random.

Javelin Man- We were walking home one day and we walked past a man carrying a little fishing spear. Lots of men here are fisherman and they do all their catching by hand. Anyway, nothing weird completely normal. While we were walking past there came another running man trying to catch a bus. He ran past this fisherman and in a blink of an eye he was in javelin stance ready to chuck his spear at this guy. My little heart about broke in half as I thought- I am going to watch this man spear this other poor man who did nothing to him. The face on the fisherman was the most horrid angry face I have every seen. But as quick as it started- he stopped and kept walking. Random.

Lunch and Aliens - Also this week I had my most entertaining lunch ever. We ate at the house of a member who was not present--just her dad. Her dad was afastado - which means less active basically. Anyway - the conversation somehow turned to aliens And I have never before met a man that believes so  much in extraterrestrial. And we played along and asked him all sorts of questions about this imposters so here it is. There is a civilization that lives in the core of the earth, as well as in the sea. They live in the Bermuda triangle which is where when pilots fly over this part of the ocean their equipment gets whacked up - which is true. But he claimed that it is because of the people that live in the sea that are doing it. There is also a group of people that live on the dark side of the moon. They are very intelligent they live on the dark side of the moon so they don't get spotted. They can't come to earth because they are not accustomed to the gravity difference and the diseases and sicknesses we have. He also showed us every Youtube video on UFO siting and the Top Secret files (on youtube mind you and top secret--who would have thought) of actual aliens. There is this area 51 which has a really weird background you can look it up. But he thought bush was communicating with aliens there and contacting other worlds. To end lunch I shared Mosiah 4:19 about God and He is the creator of all things. He loved it. He told us that the third of Gods children that followed the enemy (Satan) they are the extraterrestrials and they are trying to destroy our earth. They are real. They are out there. They are everywhere!!!!! I have never had such an intense conversation in my entire life.

Day of the Gays - Yep - day of the gainhas in fact. It is a holiday or something where all the men dress up like girls. Makeup wigs, and everything. The poorer neighborhoods really go all out. And we were in one of those neighborhoods. At first we didn't know what was going on then. We just thought oh just another random person in Brazil. But then practically every man was in a little bra and mini skirt with makeup and a wig. They had a little fiesta in the middle of the street lots of drinking and lots of disgusting looking men.  Can't wait to see what carnival is going to be like.

Okay enough of the random stuff. These past couple of weeks have been a little rough if you can read through the lines of my trying to be positive emails. But I am learning so much. Amazing how God works that way. This week I learned what Charity is. Everyone always says that charity is the pure love of Christ. But what is the pure love of Christ? I realized it is knowing the faults of other people and loving them anyway. Really loving them. It also means realizing that God and Christ love you despite all of your faults too. All of these silly little things that have been tripping me up really don't matter. I am a missionary of the Lord and I have 1 year and a half to do the work of the Lord full time. It's just God and the people of Brazil that should be my worries. So I decided to stop worrying about everything else and focus my thoughts on the things that matter.  And it is helping. We also talked to a returned missionary here who is a member. And she helped remind us that we have the authority of God to call people to repentance and tell them that each day they are living in sin they are causing more drops of blood to be shed by our Savior. When it comes to calling people to repentance I have a backbone of jelly. I just want to tell people that God loves them and will bless them for living righteously. But it is true. And so I am trying to live up to my calling using the authority and power that comes with it. We had some amazing lessons this week preaching hell fire and damnation in a softened sisterly like way.

Found an amazing new family this week. So nice. Everything in Brazil in a family. They opened their home to us, fed us, drove us home, invited us over again for lunch. Only problem they are way catholic. So Pray for them, that the spirit will touch their hearts. Arnoldo and Stêlita. Also, remember that psychopath that I told you we started teaching and he appeared to be the perfect investigator. Well we found out he is a member and he has had some problems with drugs. But he gave us a reference of his girlfriend and she is awesome! Definitely an elect of God. But it is kind of a weird situation I don't know if we should tell her who she is dating. They met on face book and have been dating for a month. But she has a lot of potential. Her name is Tais (Tayees) Pray for her too.

That about sums up my week. Love you all! Thanks for all your letters and prayers and everything.

Ky

Kylie's letter 1/30/12

Querida Familia,

This marks the first week of transfers. And our ward is starting to have more of an emphasis on missionary work. The bishop gave a almost hell fire and damnation talk about how the members need to help the missionaries. And it worked. Thus far anyways. We have been having everyone giving us references, everyone is wanting to family nights with us, so the reaction is really good. Hopefully this stays up and we can start seeing some progress with the people here.

This week was a little different. Monday was p-day Tuesday we had transfers went and picked up the new sister who Sister Vieira is training and ended our day with a dinner at presidents house with the elders that finished the mission. We are so spoiled living close to president! There I ate my first feijoado which is a traditional Brazilian black bean dish with all the parts of a big. There was a lot of unrecognizable pieces but one that I did recognize was the tail. Completely intact with bones and skin and fat and everything. I didn't eat it though. It was also so weird to be with all the elders who have that squeamish sick feeling of going home and leaving.

So our week really began this past Wednesday. So basically all of our baptismal dates fell but we have a lot of hope for the rest of our investigators. This week was a little slow and a little hard because sister Johnson has been having problems with blisters and so we have been walking so sllloooooow. Because our area is so widespread we haven't made many visits. But hopefully this week will be better. We are still working with Suali, she has reduced smoking to 5 cigarettes and the other day she said she was going to stop completely. But she is getting a little stressed with the baptismal date and so she has been smoking more. She is so close. And she didn't come to church.  It the small simple things that they need to do. pray, read, and go to church.  That is one thing I am learning on the mission that the gospel is really so simple. We are learning the same things over and over again, because we need the reminder but also each time we study we are enlightened a little bit more. Things click a little more in our minds and our testimonies are strengthened. I love this gospel! But this week will be better with visits and our investigators.

Random happenings of the week

- We had a gecko in our bathroom. A big one. And Sis. J is afraid of geckos and lizards so I took care of it. I caught him in a tupperware Which was actually really hard. He was climbing all over the place, the bathroom tile walls was perfect for his little sticky fingers. But I caught him and threw him out the front door. Literally.

- We might be on you tube. There are several spots next to big apartment buildings where the updraft of wind is really strong and if you are careful your skirts will be flying up around your ears. So we were walking next to ones of these buildings and holding our skirts and there was a man walking past and he looked enthralled in his i-phone. But as we walked past he kept his iphone trained on us and we realized he was filming us. We couldn't decide if it was because we were Americans or because of our skirts. These Brazilian men....Luckily our skirts stayed down.

- Chocolate factory: i forgot to talk about the chocolate factory. It was wonderful. We had a tour and I understood almost nothing that he said. But it was like walking through the Willie Wonka chocolate factory. There were big machines making weird noises and people that looked like umpa loompas walking around in their little uniforms and ear plug things. We got to eat as much chocolate as we wanted. I only ate 6 because it is really hard to eat a lot of chocolate without water. you should try it. But an Elder broke the record and he ate 76 pieces of chocolate. We are talking about fun size candy bars here. Way to represent! 

- I got garbage thrown at me. It was the worst day with sister Johnson and her blisters and we had been walking forever with little results. And there were a group of young girls and one of them threw an orange peel at me and they all about died with laughter. It is so great to be a missionary.

- We had a random man come up to us and his first sentence was Excuse me but can I clear up some doubts with you. He then talked about how he was really interested in our church and what we believed in all because of the news with mitt Romney! We will start teaching him this week hopefully thanks to good ol' Romney.

That's all for now folks. Love you all so much.

ky

Kylie's letter 1-23-12

Minha Querida Familia,
Tudo Bem?
Transfers are tomorrows, but I already know where I will end up. I will stay in Jardim da Penha, the same area I was in with Sister Johnson. The same companion. I was with Sister Vierira also but she is being transferred and will train the new American sister that is coming tomorrow. I have mixed emotions about this transfer. I was ready for a change, ready to start over in a new ward, and just start with a clean slate and work work work. But the Lord had something else in mind. Appears like He always has something else in mind. At the same time I wanted to stay here and get some baptisms. It is the hardest area in the mission and I just wanted to show that this area still has the elect of God and God is still a God of miracles. So I have another transfer to do that. We have quite the large investigator pool 22 to be exact, I hope they all will receive testimonies this transfer. Let the work begin!!

But this week...

There has been more cockroaches. The cool thing about cockroaches is that they can still move and walk after having their intestines smeared all over the floor. It is true. The trick is to hit them hard enough so their heads pop off, that way their nervous system no longer functions. Just in case you wanted to know.

Also the government of Brazil has instituted some new laws that the people here are all in an uproar. The bus fare has gone up and people have been lighting fires on the buses. Don't worry mom, we don't ride the buses. And also they are making you pay for grocery bags in order to be more eco friendly and encourage us to use reusable bags.

On a more spiritual side note - the work is continuing, we have investigators, I am understanding almost everything and I am feeling much more comfortable with the language. People are understanding me and not  my companion who speaks very fast. Whohoo! I am very excited for this next transfer and hope to see more of Gods miracles in the lives of the people here in Jardim da Penha.
Love and miss you all!

Kylie

Kylie's letter 1/15/12

Oí gente!


So one week left until transfers. this was the longest yet shortest transfer in the history of my mission (since I only have one other to compare it to but whatever) I am kind of ready just to start over again with a fresh slate and just work my little legs off and clap my hands off.

But this week went well. More cockroaches coming out of the drains. Yay! Painted the house today. Took forever, thus the late email. So our p-day is practically gone. Bummer, but whatever.

This week all of our baptismal dates fell through. Suali is having some troubles so her date dropped. Her son isn't interested. Mari and Elber haven't been coming to church and following up on their compromissos - I can't remember the word in English. Their....assignment things....invitations...

whatever...commitments!  Great I cant speak English or Portuguese.

But we have started teaching Petra and Relita. I like them very very very much. They live right across the street from he church and they seem really interested in the plan of salvation. So we will be teaching them today and this week and hopefully setting a baptismal date.

This last week was a blur. Cant think of what else happened. But summer is upon us. It isn't quite as hot as it was in the DR but just about. I will come back barbie blond and Indian brown.

 

Love you all!

ky