5/28/12 Kylie's quick email after the computer deleted her real one.

So the computer kicked me off and didn't save my email and my time is up basically sooo....

I am in Rio.

My companion is Sister Cunha.

We ride BIKES!!!! and I love it!

Sister Cunha is a power house from Manaus Brazil- I am super intimidated to teach with her but she is awesome and learning so much even when I am feeling super inadequate and super talentless next to her. She is the best missionary on the mission. She has baptized 40 people. She has baptisms every week.  She was sent to this area we are in, after 20 years of not having a baptism. And then she came and they have had a ton. She has been here for six months.

I will try and write more later.....

sorry, i had a beautiful email written.....

                                                                                     

love you all

ky

My dear sweet little family.
 I hate this computer. By the way. It is a little to hi-tech for me and
every word I type it is helping translate the word into English.
Annoying....got to figure out out to make it stop. Stop. stop. Okay we
are good.

Anyways. So this week began with hippies!!! There are a group of
people here that the people of Brazil call Hippies. They have some
pretty awesome dreds, tattoos, and smell like marijuana. They travel
all over Brazil and live off of the money they get from selling
  jewelry they make. So we made friends with some that were visiting
Teofilo otoni. They had traveled from São Paulo to Minas by bike.
Which is a long long long ways away. They stopped in a bunch of cities
to sell their things and took baths in the rivers. They live in tents.
And basically just live. They earn enough to eat. And they just travel
and visit places all over Brazil and South America. Well, we made
friends with Tim, (pronounced chee) And I was talking to him about all
his travels and where he had been, and he was showing me his pictures
of Rio and some other places. I also bought a bracelet from him. He
told us he would make us a present. We came back the next day to chat
with him and he made us a ring with a star on it. Here in Brazil there
is a tradition of namarados (boyfriend/girlfriend) that they wear rings
of sliver on their right hand ring finger. So he made us this ring and
asked us if we accepted and of course we accepted. (I wonder how many
other girls in Brazil have this same ring he made ha ha) So it is
official. I now have a hippie boyfriend that is on his way to Bahia.
And I am determined to find him after the mission in the Amazon and
travel this half of the hemisphere with him on a tandem bicycle. He
also invited us to come and camp out with them. But we politely
declined. They were a cool bunch and it was fun talking to them. I was
trying to send pictures, but this computer is frustrating....I will next
week.

This week, we marked another baptism with Jenifer a reference from a
member. She is super excited for baptism and had some really cool
spiritual experiences with her member friend! Yay for members. If all
goes well she´ll be baptized next month on day 9. Estefanie is
progressing really well. He is so elect! He still doesn't have
certainty about baptism and so we pushed back his date, but he will
get baptized and he will make an amazing member.

Transfers.....drum roll please. I will be transferred to who knows
where! Hallelujah! I am so grateful for the 9 months I have had on the
mission. 9 months I know - I cant believe it is half way over. It is
going by way way way tooo fast. But I am learning so much and I am
excited for a new area, new ward, and new companion! I hope everything
goes well! I will miss this little city here in Minas. It was a lot
harder leaving here than Vitoria. My last Sunday here we visited a
bunch of members and the day was filled with lots and lots of cheese
bread, cheese and cevada (type of Mormon coffee), (they eat cheese
like slices of bread with this drink. *gag*), and the brother of
cheese. Bet you didn't know cheese has a brother. In Minas Gerais there
is a whole family of cheese. But it was a wonderful Sunday. And I am
headed out tonight for another looooong bus ride to Espirito Santo.

I am ready and waiting for my new adventure to start this next transfer!

Love you all! Jealous I missed the black sun! And summer is just
around the corner! Yay for summer!

ky

Kylie's letter 5/14/2012

I am in the city of Téofilo Otoni, Minas Gerais. And here there are a bunch of different neighborhoods. Some are super nice and ritzy like the house I was in when I skyped. We live in this neighborhood. And we have a really  nice apartment, but you would never ever know because there have been countless years of elders living there. But it's liveable. And there aren't so many cockroaches now. The neighborhoods in our area are super duper poor. Like two room houses with a whole family, dirt floors, dirty everything. Kids wear the same clothes ever day etc. But these people are so happy! This city is famous for precious stones, people from all over the world come to buy the stones that are mined here. Minas is famous for cheese. Soccer is as popular here as it is in Vitoria just that people root for different teams. I am still trying to find my inner team--it is a toss up between Flamengos and Cruzeiros.


But this week:

Estefani - he is progressing super well, and is the investigator of gold. He was a reference from someone in the church and he and his family and constantly support Estefani and helping him integrate in the church and supporting him. This is how missionary work should be with the members. He is really searching and studying to know if this is right. He accepted the word of wisdom without hesitation and was asking about what music he should listen to. He also asked if he should play soccer on Sunday and we said no and explained why and he gave it up--which is HUGE for these Brazilians. Soccer and Sunday go together like Frosting and cake. He just needs a really strong spiritual experience and testimony builder. He has a date set for May 26


Random thing of the week  We always see these kites in the sky and they are little homemade kites from grocery bags. We were walking by a bunch of street boys flying these kites and we stopped to talk to them. All of the sudden they stopped talking to us and they started frantically pulling in the line and everyone was looking at the kites. Its a game they play here. They have kites with string with little miniscule pieces of glass they use to cute the other kites string and so with proper maneuvering the battle of the kites begins.  Their fingers get little cuts and bleed because of the string.
Also this week - spiritual thought. I was reading more about the church in the New Testament and 1 Cor 12 talks a lot about how the church is a body with Christ at the head. Paul goes on to talk about how the members make up the parts of the body, he talks about apostles and prophets, etc. At this point the reader is thinking - Oh I am just a member - I might be a part of the body, but definitely not something vital. To respond to this doubt Paul says in verse 12 that all the feeble parts are necessary. Thus I concluded I may just be a pinky toe in the body of the church, but everybody needs a pinky toe and I am going to be the best pinky toe this church has ever seen!

We are all important in the eyes of God. and we all have our own gifts and talents that are necessary in the building up of the kingdom!
 Love you so much!  

ky

Kylie's letter 5/7/2012

My dearest of dear little family,

My favorite part of p-day is this little hour I have to sit at this computer and read your emails and send you emails. It is an hour filled with lots of love and happiness. I think the celestial kingdom will feel like this.

This week - the work here is ho hum. We are still teaching Joice and Merivauldo and family. They are not taking huge steps in progress but they are still interested. They haven't come to church the past three weeks, so we might have to cut them and move on...but I not going to give up on them yet.

We are also teaching Estefane - a reference from one of the members. He is super quiet, and very pensive and thoughtful, I think he will get baptized. He has been coming to church and doing the readings, but he won't accept a baptismal date because he doesn't feel ready....but I really like him.
He was a reference from Pedro, who when we came here was going through the repentance process, and he couldn't do anything--pray, speak in church, take the sacrament etc etc. But he stayed firm in the church. Now he is the president of the elders quorum and he is like a lion that has been kept in a cage way to long. He has a lot of fire in him and he is helping this branch a lot. It was really cool to me to see the repentance process and to see the thirst and hunger he has and all that he is doing. He has been helping us a ton - doing visits with us, he is teaching seminary now, he is also the step in missionary leader, and he has been helping us plan activities and carry them out with the youth here. It was a Testimony to me that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real. And it is so worth it, to go through the painful process of repentance to receive the new clean slate and to get to start over again. I love this gospel, every time I teach, it is another testimony to me that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much and he will provide us every possible opportunity to reach our full potential and live with Him again someday. We all have mansions and thrones waiting for us in the Celestial Kingdom, but it is up to us to get there. I know that every sacrifice, every trial we go through will all be worth it in the end.

Random happenings of the week:
- everyone here loves to help the lost missionaries find the street they are looking for. They will go way out of their way to help us and walk us to the location we are looking for. They are way helpful to the point it is a little bit frustrating. But when we are ready to stop looking for a bogus address that someone gave us, these die hard Brazilians will walk with us and knock on every door to find this address that doesn't exist. Well, on one of these days, we had an old man, 102 years old, walk with us to help us find a street. We didn't even ask him but he told us he would take us there, and what would have been a 10 min. walk ended up being 45 min. It was well worth it though - he rambled about all the people he knew in every single house. These mineiros just love to help.
- the other day we clapped on a door of an old man who played the accordion. He played and sang for us. He was the first catholic I have met that has read the bible (3 times no less) and liked and accepted other religions. It was so fun to listen to and watch him play! I took a video of him and I will try to send it.

Love you all!! Cant wait to talk to you next Sunday too!!!!

beijos!

ky

The pics are of some of the widows here that I love so much. They say the funniest things. One of them commented about the Pearl of Great Price (in Portuguese it is the Pearl of Great Value) and she said she didn't really like the book and didn't think it had very much value. The other one always strokes our stomachs and tells sister J she is losing weight and I am gaining. There's a pic of some vultures eating a dog. and a pic of the green beautiful hills of Minas, and the accordion man. oh and there is a pic of me in front of a gym rec center appropriately names scorpions.... this area is full of them.    Enjoy

Kylie's letter 4/30/2012

This week was wonderful. And you all now have a sister/daughter that has shook/shaken (my English is going down the drain) the hand of an apostle!!

Our adventure began Tuesday night when we traveled with our zone full of elders on a 10 hour bus ride to Vitoria. Pretty sure I only slept 1 or 2 hours. I kind of felt bad for the other people on the bus, and hope our elders didn't ruin the church's reputation.... we arrived in Vitoria and had several tender mercies of seeing members in my previous ward. It was really good to catch up with them. Elder Cook came and we all got to shake his hand and he talked to us about our work here. He told us it is just as important to reactive people as it is to baptize. He was involved with the creation of preach my gospel and it was cool to hear how all that came about. He also gave us an apostolic blessing that we and our families would receive many blessings because of our missions. But I think my favorite part was when he just bore a simple testimony of Jesus Christ. As an apostle, he is a special witness of Jesus Christ and every time they bear testimony about the Savior and the gospel it is always super duper packed with the spirit. It was great! After we headed back to the bus station to wait forever for our 10 hour bus ride back. We played a lot of Uno in between and I was so exhausted when we got back basically having 2 days straight with no sleep. But it was all worth it.

Also this week I ate my first chicken foot. whenever we have chicken I usually fish around for a part that looks edible always avoiding the nasty looking parts like the neck, back, and feet. But one lunch one of the irmãs she just plopped the foot on her plate and started eating it. And I thought.... what the heck, I´ve only got one life to live. So I grabbed the other foot and ate it. It was the weirdest texture. It was like eating a big chuck of skin with little tiny knuckles crunching at every bite. Yum!

Also the weather is apparently getting colder. The members are telling us to get ready for the cold season. One of the members has long garments for the winters here. They are also selling little sweat suits for kids in the stores. We asked some members what temperature it gets and she told us 20 degrees. after calculating it to Fahrenheit we discovered winter here is in the  60´s. Hahaha, I think these people would die if they  came to Utah--so I am excited for some really nice weather here.

We are also teaching a little family. Joice, Maurivaldo, Yasmine, and a little boy ...I cant remember his name. I contacted them on the street and Joice said she was looking for the true church of God. We have only taught them 2 lessons so far but I hope they will continue to progress and gain a testimony.

Johnny and Cassio are doing great. We had some struggles with them the last couple of weeks they didn't come to church but the branch is started to be a lot better with integrations and such so they are good. Love those kids.

Life is good and the church is true!

love you all sooo much

beijos

ky

Kylie's Letter 4/23/2012

So another week came and went and I have got some great news......we are going to get to listen to an apostle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Cook is coming this week, which means I have 12 hours on a bus to Vitoria, a few hours of wonderful spiritual upliftment and maybe a handshake as well, a few more hours waiting at the bus stop and 12 hours back to Minas! It is going to be a long few days but so worth it. There was a little scare last week that we wouldn't be able to come because we are so far away and it is super expensive to have everyone get shipped in. but Presidente pulled some strings and we get to go!!!!


This week was pretty uneventful, I was looking in my journal to find things to write in the letter but didn't write anything this week. We cut a lot of investigators that are not progressing. but a new quorum president was called and he is super gungho about missionary work and has so many great ideas and he is just what we need to help this branch grow a little more. We made a mission plan for the branch this week with some great ideas and great goals so we have a lot of hope for this little branch these next couple of months.

Life is good, sun is hot (although everyone is telling us that it gets really cold here in the next month, they are selling coats, and little jumpsuits for kids and such, but I have my doubts. These people don't know what cold means), and the church is true. Love you all

sister p

Kylie's letter 4/16/2012

this week....

Quick Easter traditions of Brazil. They celebrate the week of Easter.  They call it the week of the saints. They have a huge fish market all week because all of the Catholics don't eat meat during this week. So we ate a lot of fish that week. Saturday they have a little party and they have a pinata of Judas. They hang him and hit him until he breaks. What a lovely Easter tradition to remember right?!.... Sunday is filled with lots and lots of chocolate. They don't have jelly beans or candies like that, just chocolate. Huge chocolate hollow eggs filled with more chocolate candies. We got a few of them from the branch and Presidente. Everyone and their brothers go to church that Sunday night. Walking home back to our apartment we just walked and listened to all the preachers yelling and preaching and speaking in languages; because literally there are churches every other building here in Brazil.

Our recent converts Johnny and Cassio are doing really well. They have so many questions and are so excited to receive the priesthood and it is so good to see this desire and hunger in their eyes for things about this gospel. After baptisms, investigators have to receive all the lessons again, in addition to a few new lessons about temples, priesthood, family history work etc. Johnny and Cassio complain when we share a message about something we have already taught, they want new stuff, and they are asking some really deep questions. Right now we are trying to integrate them into the branch better to make sure they stay there. We are also teaching their aunts and another cousin, so hopefully this next transfer will bring more baptisms.

Oh transfers are this week too. Nothing changed....i will be staying here with sister Johnson in Yeofilo Ontoni (the city in Minas that we are in...) But things are good. I feel like I have reached my avatar state as a missionary and we are working really hard. I have a lot of hope for this next transfer.

Thanks again for all your prayers and love and letters.

Love you all so much

kylie