Sister Baker and Sister L in front of the Provo Temple holding the Brazilian Flag
This past week has flown by! Time goes by so weirdly here. (pretty
sure I just made up that word) But it's true. Yesterday was seriously
like an entire week packed into one day. I'm starting to feel sick. Not
good, I know. An elder in my district was bedridden
yesterday and I felt so bad for him. Luckily I only have a sore throat
and a headache. Mom, I used the doterra oils for my headache and they
really helped! So thank you!
This is pretty much how the past week went down:
Wednesday: New missionaries. I felt pretty old and experienced even
though I'm still not quite sure what's going on. Sister L and I
taught our "investigator" Lucas about the Book of Mormon and the
Restoration and it went well! I understood most of
what he said and I think he understood us.
Thursday: We committed Lucas to baptism! Hurrah! It was such a good
feeling! But, that lesson was so hard for me to teach. For whatever
reason I was having a super hard time understanding what he was saying
and trying to find the words to explain how I
felt. Afterwards I was disappointed with how I did. I guess it's really
easy to get discouraged when everyone has such high expectations, and I
have even higher expectations for myself.
Friday: Surprise, surprise. Lucas, our investigator is actually our
teacher! His name is Irmao T and is awesome. He actually reminds me
of Trevor Jackson in both looks and personality. It's kinda funny. But
he's an awesome teacher and told us how much
of a spiritual experience for him it was to be taught by us. He shared
with us something that he learned about the gift of tongues. He said he
always figured that God would change the incorrect words or phrases that
missionaries speak in the investigator's
heads. But that's not really how it worked for him. He heard the wrong
words and phrases we would say, and even when they made no sense at all,
the Holy Ghost would help him understand our intentions. It was nice to
hear that we actually did a good job.
Saturday: Don't remember much from this day. We did have a stress management class. That was pretty fun.
Sunday: Sunday Funday!! We heard from the general relief society president, Sister Whixom. She was awesome! So spiritual. And she reminded us how important it is to make a connection with the families we teach, so they know that we really do care about them. Sister L and I are trying to get to know our investigators, but it's hard when we don't know any normal vocabulary. So we just say things like muito bom! And they smile at us because they know we don't really know what they're talking about.
Monday: LONGEST DAY EVER. Seriously. Sister L and I taught our new
investigator Jefferson, who is really Irmao T. I was trying to get
to know him better, asking about his family and whatnot. So I asked him
where he was from, and all he says is "here."
So I'm like "Oh, Provo?" And he looks at me like I'm crazy and says,
"No, Brazil!" I was so embarrassed, and we all just started laughing. My
Portuguese is getting a lot better. This lesson I understood pretty
much everything, and I even understood some words
Irmao T had no clue I would know. S. Lewis and I make a good team.
She's better at understanding, and I'm better at speaking. Now our goal
is to even it out and work on our weaknesses.
In other news, we went to the temple this morning! It re-opened yesterday and it was awesome to go with all missionaries.
All of us sisters in my district do visa pushups. Every day.
Sometimes we do visa crunches and visa squats, too. Our logic is that if
we work hard during gym time and do enough visa pushups, our visas will
come! I'm trying to do enough for our whole zone
to get theirs. I'll let you know how that goes. Haha
The Elders in our district are a hoot. They keep us laughing all
the time. Sometimes it's hard to focus when they're around, so we have
to go other places to study, but they're hilarious! Sister Ls and I
started writing down their quotes and we've got quite
a few ones. Us sisters are also pretty crazy. (But mostly me and Sister L. The Elders admitted we're their favorites. haha) We are always
calling each other IIIIIIIIIIIRMAAAAAAAA! (That means sister) in a
really creepy voice, and the Elders have started to
join in. I would say our efforts are a success.
Elder E: *after making a biting motion in thin air* "I just felt like biting his nose off."
Elder O: *talking about praying during a lesson* "I couldn't
think of anything else to say, so I just went uuuuuuuummmm." (read that
like a soulful preacher)
Elder O: "Dude! My brother looks like a Keebler elf!"
Elder E: "Oh relief society... the society you go to to relieve yourself."
Sister L: "We're the Estados-Unidos but we're separados if you know what I mean."
Mo Vangkue from Albelmarle Ward is in the classroom down the hall from me! It's cool to see her all the time.
Oh! About devotional last week! It actually wasn't Elder
Christofferson. The Elders lie to us sometimes, apparently. : ) But I think
tonight's devotional will be a high up general authority because our
devotional is going to be broadcast to all the other MTCs!
I'm singing in the choir, so I'm super pumped for that!
I think one of the biggest things I learned was that nothing will
stop the work from going forth. This is the Lord's work and no matter
who tries or how hard they try to stop the truth, it's still going to
happen! That's why God is helping us missionaries
so much. He knows that we have an amazing work to perform for Him, and
is going to help us every step of the way. I mean how else would 18, 19,
and 20-year old's be able to pick up on crazy ridiculously hard
languages in such a short amount of time?! Heavenly
Father has people that He's preparing for us to teach, so He's helping
us get where we need to be for His children.
Well I'm going to try to send some pictures today! But I love you,
and thanks for the dearelder.com letters! They are amazing! When I get more than
one, I tell everyone in my district that they're from my various
boyfriends. haha.
peace & blessings
Sister Baker
Sister missionaries in Katie's MTC district. They are all going to Brazil.
Elder P and Elder C both got their visas last week. I don't
think they did nearly enough visa pushups, but that's just me. This is
the IIIIIIIIIRMAAAAAAA face.
Elder C!!! My BYU FHE brother. Denmark is getting a good
missionary. And Sister M had to be in the picture because elders
and sisters can't be in a picture together by themselves.
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