MONDAY - September 24, 2012

and now its time for sister sackley to tell short stories 

querido amigos,

I have a few stories I have been forgetting to write about the past few weeks, and then a few random ones from this week. Please note they are completely random and I think the perfect description for life in Brasil (for me at least).

1. Sister Arnell and I are two americans and we are companions. When we had sister f. silva with us we could get a better grip on things because well, americans are known to have lots of money. When we take a taxi they drive all over town because they figure we are rich and that we can be taken advantage of. which to some extent, we can. Here is the perfect example: we were very hungry one p day and we dont get fed by the members on mondays. it is the only day we have to fend for ourselves and if we were in america, it would be quite easy-run to mcdonalds, grab a burger and you are done! Whereas here in brasil, there are NO food places. Its all make it yourself. We were feeling lazy though so we decided to grab a pizza at the pizzaria down the street. (by down the street i mean like only a 30 minute walk.) So we get there and tell them all we want is a small cheese pizza. They take the order and twenty minutes later its done...and it costs us a whopping 23 bucks. At first we thought they were joking. Nope. So we give them our life savings, and leave with our pizza to realize all the pizza is is bread and cheese. no pizza sauce, just bread and cheese. For 23 bucks. Needless to say, it was the first and last time I ate ´´pizza´´ here in brasil.

2. I am very impressed with a lot of the Brasillian Elders here in our mission. There are countless numbers of them who were baptized into the church around age 17 and they are here now serving missions. These elders are firm, incredible men and I feel like their missions mean a whole lot more to them then mine did to me (to begin with). We are also experiencing a lot of sickness here in the mission. Its a lot of dizziness, a lot of throwing up and a lot of...other problems. Among these ´´other problems´´ is a Brasillian Elder who went home about two weeks ago. Elder Silva was experiencing serious headaches and one day his tongue went completely numb. After being released from the hospital on account of having no idea what was wrong with him, he passed out in the street. I think it was a few days after being released...not quite sure. But he passes out and he has an American companion (just keep this in mind). He gets rushed to the hospítal and by the time he wakes back up, he is in hospital clothing and hooked up to tubes. When his companion started talking to him though, Elder Silva had NO idea who Elder Frosyth was....after talking to the doctors for a few minutes they realize he thinks its 2005-and in 2005 Elder Silva was 16 years old and living with his abusive mom and dad. He wasnt a member of the church and has no feelings towards God. So wrap your head around this-He went home to a loving sealed mother and father, who had moved homes to a nicer home, with siblings he cant remember, and a fiance who is a member of the church he has never met. Sister Fortunato said she spoke with his mom about a week ago and they took him to a YM activity and he really liked it..(hes like 22 now but it was YM since he thinks he is 16) .It blows my mind just thinking about how strange it would be to not remember ANYTHING and wake up in a hospital with an American companion and a nametag proclaiming your religion. Think about that one for a while.

3. There is a number of things I dont think I will ever get use to here in Brasil, and one of those is the babysitting system here. EVERYONE works, Everyone everyone everyone. Moms have jobs working all day and the dad is absent as well. Especially in the favelas. This past week I noticed multiple children, they couldnt have been older than 6 or 7 caring for their 1 or 2 year old younger siblings. Everything from feeding them to carrying them around. It just blows my mind that children who should be cared for themselves are caring for babies. We helped a little boy carry his sisters bicycle up the hill while he carried her this past weekend-she was a year old and he was five. Mom was at work all night and dad didnt exist. I think I am starting to put into perspective the problems I had as a child as compared to these kids-just kind of makes you appreciate everything a little more.

4. Along with suffering children, the rain came this week. And it came hard. Thursday night all of a sudden lightning and thunder started rolling and before I knew it, we were drenched and running for some sort of over covering. Along with us, was a boy not 14 running with his beaten old dirty suitcase full of clothes and his cardboard box he literally lived in. He was running for the bridge we live by, (it reminds me a lot of the burnside bridge with the homeless people and the trash). So we run after him and we are all just sopping wet carrying his suitcase through the mud. I think he about broke my heart because as we set up his stuff by the other homeless people, i realized how small he was and how little clothing he really had. We gave him the crackers we had in our backpacks and walked away realizing how little we could really do for him. Sometimes mission work isnt knocking doors, its helping the little boy with his suitcase full of rags get to the bridge to sleep under. It made me think of the talk ´´a little child shall lead them´´ from this past General Conference...I am forgetting who its by though...ah you can look it up.

5. So walking to lunch takes forever, And its walking up and down san francisco sized hills for 40 minutes and then about 3 minutes to get your breathing back down to normal and dry off your sweat. you are welcome for that picture. Anyways, we started walking friday for lunch and at the very beginning of our walk we saw a man on the other side of the road with a nice professional suitcase and suit on. The only thing not professional was his broken arm. Sister Arnell even commented he looked like a member of the church. We caught his eye and smiled and continued on our walk. After about a half hour of walking (sprinting) I had the impression to turn around. I turn around to find our friend with the suit and the suitcase running after us, him looking a little more frazzled then he did 30 minutes before. I stopped and walked towards him and he started talking very quickly. His name was Roberto Batisto and he went to the Deus e Amor church (evangelical) and he wanted to know where we went to church because he was going to start coming to ours. In his words- ´´I saw you two and I just knew you were women of God´´. We got his name and number and gave the reference to the Elders. It made me realize that everyone is watching you, whether you know it or not.

Welp thats all folks. Hope everyones day is going great!
love, sister mad. 

MONDAY - September 17, 2012

becoming jungle woman and a year mark

dear family and friends. 

i thought i would let you know what is currently happening as i am typing this email to let you get a feel for where i am. there is currently a HUGE cockroach climbing up the wall right next to my computer. And when I say huge I mean HUGE. like size of my palm no joke. 

Which brings me to becoming jungle woman. I should say right up and front that the pictures that have been sent home are when we are looking somewhat decent and arent doing a whole lot of walking for the day. Its the days where hair has been washed the night before and we felt like putting on mascara. NOT to freak anyone out or anything, but this is not a regular occurance. the hair washing or the make up using. Hair is washed every few days and make up gets taken out only on sundays and when we are taking pictures. You have been decieved. Until now. For some reason I feel like telling you what really goes on for a sister missionary...

that is to say, the sister missionaries that are americans here in the mission. There are six of us total out of the 21 sisters in this mission and I feel like I can say for all six of us this is what goes down. Dont get me wrong, the brasillian sisters straighten their hair every day but for us, its up in a bun. And the bun is messy and sweaty by mid day. And it is HOT here. like we are melting slowly and Im not even in the north of Brasil...which just goes to show you heavenly father knew what i could and could not handle. 

We have a lot of bugs. In fact if I am being honest I will just say that this 18 months of my life is 18 months of camping. There are MILLIONS of ants that live in our house and crawl all over all our things. This morning I found a nice infestation of them in my clothes. They are EVERYWHERE. And it has gotten so bad I have no problem using my fingers to kill them. Same with mosquitos. I am getting very good at clapping them dead. But I have yet to kill a roach....although I am getting close....the roach on the wall is getting a little too close to the screen...

Oh a side story about roaches-they like our house. We dont like them. on our way home the other day one ran into my chacos and I literally felt it get smashed into my arch. (you are welcome for that picture) and this is becoming a rant about bugs. So anyways....

We walk a lot and by the time we get to lunch I am literally dripping, which is always really cute you know-hug the sister hello sopping wet. And it just goes down hill from there. We eat lunch, then run to the favela or an appointment or down to the other side of the area and by the time we are walking home around 9 at night, our feet are caked in mud and other unmentionable things. I think every few days something happens where a roach runs across our desk or we decide on going for fourth day hair and we look at each other and realize what we are becoming-jungle woman. oi. 

the average sized roach

mud caked feet!

On a completely different note-tomorrow, september 18th marks the day I decided to go on a mission. I was sitting in church and I remember reading my patriarichal blessing and feeling just this overwhelming feeling of GO ON A MISSION. And it was definitely a light switch moment, and i knew in that moment in a classroom in the romney building in rexburg, idaho that i was suppose to go on a mission. And I couldnt deny it any longer. Its quite strange to realize its been a year and I am now living in Brasil, speaking Portuguese (kind of) and killing ants with my fingers. So much happens in a year. 

And last but not least, an inspiring story for your week-Manuel is probably like 60. I have talked about him before, his wife is Daisy and his son is Tiago. Manuel is a recent convert and THAT is an inspiring story as well-he had been a drunk his WHOLE life, since he was about 17, he cant remember a moment of NOT being drunk after that age. One day the sisters invited him to be baptized and he gave up drinking that day and was baptiized that sunday. And he has yet to drink again. Because of all the drinking and the age and all that, he has a very bad knee and two weeks ago he got surgurey and they twisted and tweaked a few things. Now the knee and ankle are in place but for the next five weeks he has these HUGE nails digging into his skin to keep the bone in place. There are tons and tons of nails all over his leg and then this huge metal bar holding the nails all in place as well. Sorry I cant be more descriptive then that, just realize it makes you queezy when you look at it. Well anyways, he has strict orders to stay in bed and not get up for anything. But guess who has been at church the past two sundays? Manuel. The man is determined to stay active. And thats not the most incredible part-manuel lives at the bottom of 26 steep stairs. I counted them the last time we went over to see him and as I was climbing back up I realized he climbs them himself to get to church on sundays. He climbs all the way up and then crosses the cobblestone road on cruches and gets a ride from some of the members in the ward. If Manuel can climb 26 stairs with nails in his leg and orders from the doctor not to go anywhere, i dont think there is any excuse for anyone to ever miss church. I asked him about it Sunday, why he came to church when he knew he wasnt suppose to. He looked me square in the eyes and was all "i have to go to church if i want to be blessed!"

Oh if we were all like Manuel. 

Pictures!

This is Hoversio. He is my favorite crazy old man. Sundays are spent playing the recordion and singing with him. Not all sunday. Just a solid few moments. hahaa

1. wear belo horizonte pants (i am not kidding that is what the women wear here. in public)

2. put on your doo-rag. (panty hose cut up...women wear them for cleaning and making food)

3. fill up a TON of water in a big pot

4. dump it all over the floor

5. move it around until it looks clean. 

6. youre done!! 

Love, sister mad

MONDAY - September 10, 2012

the miracle of Carlos

dearest darling blog, 

first and foremost it is this blogs 3 year anniversary this week! How crazy is that?? Also tomorrow is 5 months on the mission. I feel like I left yesterday and it is weird to think its already september. 2012. oi. 

I have been wanting to write about this man for a soild 7 weeks now. Because for reals, he is the first Brazillian man I have ever loved. And now that I have your attention, I will tell you the miracle of Carlos-

My very first day knocking doors we went deep into the favela. I mean we were way far in and going up and down little roads that lead to nothing. We had been knocking for maybe 30 minutes when we went down a very, very long becco. (a lot of stairs) Like in the 100s amount of stairs. We continuted all the way down, turned down an alley way and knocked the door. A woman came to the door and YELLED. Keep in mind this is my first day in Brasil, so my comprehension level is very low. But I still could understand she didnt want us there. 

Instead of turning around however, we knocked the next door down. And no one came. So we knocked the next. We could hear someone in the house, but no one answered. For a very, very, long time. And to be honest I still dont know why we waited so long in that cramped little corner because when Carlos finally answered the door, it was not what we were expecting. And I daresay, he wasnt expecting to see three cute young woman in dresses waiting for him either. It was very obvious he was first excited about that fact. Carlos is tall, dark and very attractive. He has a bum leg and he has made MANY mistakes in his life. We began asking him all about himself and very quickly he had told us his entire life story. 

After about a half hour of talking to him in his doorwell all four of us were in tears and the Spirit was STRONG. We invited him to be baptized August 4th. He accepted. We also gave him a Book of Mormon and marked 3Nephi 11. I didnt understand a whole lot of what he had told us and I didnt quite understand what we had told him, but I could tell he felt the Spirit and I could tell he was elect. 

Fast forward the next day, we get to his house and he has read 3Nephi 11 four or five times. And he loves the Book of Mormon and he has a strong firm testimony of it already. We give the lessons over the next few weeks and find that he has only one problem, only one sin he has to repent of. The man is SO ready to be baptized and he wanted so badly for a fresh new start in life. Unfortunately, he did not pass the baptismal interview and within the week after not passing, he was dropped. (He just could not give up this sin, and the sad part was we as little sister missionaries that couldnt speak very good portuguese had no idea how to help him). 

Weeks went by and we didnt hear from him. He didnt come to church, he didnt answer calls nothing. Finally I begged sister arnell to return to his home and see if he was ready to change his life for real. This was three weeks ago. He was not. The sin was still happening and he wanted to get baptized, but his will wasnt there. We told him to read the Book of Mormon and left. We couldnt do anything more. 

September 2nd was Stake Conference in our ward. It started at 10am not the normal 8:30. We got there late with investigators, sat in the back and I will be honest, I fell asleep. It was a hot sweaty sticky day and i was tired of not having anyone to baptize or anyone interested in what we were saying. After conference we looked for our other investigators and as we were scanning the crowd we realized no one had come. I started to feel defeated when sister arnell said ´´oh my goodness Carlos is here.´´ I didnt believe her and so she took me by the shoulders and steered me all the way to Carlos, who was wearing his futboll jersey and a very very big smile. We both screamed CARLOS!!! And the first thing he said to us was he was ready to be baptized. 

But we still had this sin we had to deal with. We called the rescue of our ward mission leader, a convert to the church himself. The three of us plus the ward mission leaders daughter walked up and down the hills to carlos house on that sunday afternoon. He let us in and filled us in on the past few weeks we had been absent. He had read the Book of Mormon every day. He was in Alma 37. He wanted to be baptized and had come to church at 7am waiting for sacrement meeting, only to wait another 3 hours for church to start. 

The miracle in this whole thing however was the fact that this sin we had no idea how to tackle, was the same sin our ward mission leader had faced years ago. And the ward mission leader had this sin three or four times worse than Carlos´. GO WITH THE MISSIONARIES TO LESSONS. MEMBERS BRING SOMETHING THE MISSIONARIES CAN´T. He stopped sinning this week and was interviewed and baptized this past Sunday. 

I think my favorite part about Carlos though is his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He knew first and foremost that it was true. That is the power of the Book of Mormon. 

That is all I have for the week, the week was VERY long with transfers (sister arnell and i are still here in gutierrez) but we had a lot of sisters come stay with us and we are both very drained from the drama of sister missionaries. 

Oh also I caiu´d in the rua (still my favorite sentence) I fell pretty hard in the favelas on saturday into liquid we are betting wasnt water....its totally fine, we went to the hospital last night with president and mom Fortunato and they gave me some medicine and the swelling went down completely. I just kept saying over and over it was a miracle i have had 7 weeks in brasil and this was the first fall. 

hope everyone is fabulous! 

sister mad. 

question of the week brought to you by Ms Katie Webber
Do you ever miss home? How do you cope?
Amazingly enough, I dont miss home a whole lot. But I do have a few moments every night where I hear something and wonder what I am doing walking streets in Brasil. When this happens (and it does every day) I find the moon and do the cheesy thumb over the moon thing from the other side of heaven and I feel just at home. Cheesy, but it totally works. 

MONDAY - September 3, 2012

a millionaire, Olympians and a miracle. 

Hello Blog Family!

This week I will be telling three stories that describe this week perfectly. First-the millionaire.

Her name is Taise (Tai-ee-zee)  and she was a reference from a sick elder. The elder went to the hospital and was sick in bed for a while a few months back. Taise was in ICU because she got extremely sick on her way to Paris to go shopping...yes. she was going to paris to go shopping and she got so sick she had to turn around and fly right back ``without even trying on a pair of shoes!`` she added. The reference was given, Sister Arnell visited her a few months ago with another companion and because Taise rejected a baptismal date, they couldnt go back and see her....until this past week. We decided to try her out again.

So first to start out with, we had to walk a solid hour to get to her house because it is so completely dead center in the rich area. After walking for an hour we get to her apartment. We talk to the doorman, he lets us in, she lives on floor 2002. And she has two stories. She opens the door to her home and its like we just walked into a flat in downtown new york. Huge paintings and expensive lazy boys and an INCREDIBLE view. Her mother was visiting which was awesome since her mother is just by chance a member of the church. So we sit down and before I know it, i am counting her house workers. She has at least 4 women and two men waiting on her, cleaning her stuff and setting up a little tea party on the table. We talk and she tells us she would love to come to church, but she is flying to portugal this weekend to go shopping....umm yeah....and she will be in touch with us within the next week to set up another appointment. After the lesson she is all okay lets dine! And we go to the table and eat cakes and milk and juice and crackers and expensive cheese and we talk about america and when she will be baptized...It was seriously a modern day Jane Austin movie and we left the house giggling like little girls.

Next, The Olympian. She was found a while back as well as a reference from her taxi driver. The taxi driver is a member and she commented on how great of a man he was and how she wished more men were like him. Long story short, her name is Ilma (ill-ma) and she is a former brazillian vollyball player. she has a silver medal as well....and we called her this week to set up an appointment to meet with her again. We called just in time as it was her seven year old son, Calvins birthday. And she wanted us over that night to give a prayer on the seven wonderful years!!! (please note the sarcasm in my imaginary voice). So I wont lie, we were working in poor areas that day and our clothing was,,,,well, fine but it wasnt anything great. and I was rocking a third day hair bun and just imagine the rest. We walked to her house that night expecting it to be just her and calvin, talk to the doorman, he lets us in, we get in the elevator, get to her floor and open up the door to find not just Ilma, but Ilmas sister and friends and Ana Flavia. Ana Flavia is a former team mate from the Olympian days. And both Ana Flavia and Ilma are SOOO TALL. And they hug us and ask us to sit down with them...so we find ourselves sandwiches between two former olympians...you know, just chatting casually. The house had photos of when Ilma was a model and shes walking down the catwalk and then photos with famous people like nelson mandella (i kid you not i almost died) and photos with her teammates and their medals. The night ended with us saying a prayer in a prayer circle and saying our goodbyes to everyone and another elevator ride we just giggled in.

Something I wish I knew before I left for my mission-mission life brings you all sorts of adventures you would NEVER EVER experience in your real, normal life.

Then the Miracle. It requires a back story as well-so lets begin with Tiago (chee-ah-go) the brazillian version of ´´james´´. Tiago read parts of the book of mormon 6 years ago. He was a drunk smoker then and had no interest. Six years later this past march, tiago met the sisters and quit smoking and drinking within the week and was baptized. (miracle enough.) I love tiago. He is 26 and he is VERY outgoing and cracks me up. He also has a tattoo of John Lennon and the lyrics from ímagine´ on his arm, that definitely helps him out. Anyways, Tiagos father Manuel was a drunkard and smoker as well. Manuel followed suit in May and got sober in three days and was baptized. He is an incredible man, I LOVE HIM. He is like the happy version of eeyore. Everything bad happens to him but hes just kinda like oh this is my life oh bother. Love him. ANyways, Manuels wife Daisy is the miracle. Daisy has been our friend all transfer long. She is the hardest working woman I have ever met in my entire life. She works all day every day monday through friday so early and so late at night that we cant meet with her because she is gone all day. Our visits are only on sunday nights because it is the only time she can talk with us. She cleans and cooks and provides and does EVERYTHING for her family. She is the hardest worker i know, and she is also the most unhappy person i know. She is so worried about having a clean house and good food and money that she has forgotten all about her family and everything else. She is so busy yelling at everyone around her, she has forgotten how happy her family makes her. Her husband is SOBER and finally can hold a job and she is too busy being mad at him.  Anyways, she has never been to church. A few transfers back they got her completely ready and she started walking up the stairs of the house but then started yelling and blaming all the problems on the fact that they go to church and she is stuck at home making food. That was the closest she has been so far. Tiago wants nothing more than his mother to just GO TO CHURCH. It is all he has wanted since march.

So Sunday morning comes and we decide to go to their house. We can hear her yelling already and we are a little nervous. We say a quick prayer, knock on the door and tiago answers. Tiago looks at us and we can tell, today is not the day. But we go in anyways and talk to daisy. And here is the miracle-she looks at us and shes all okay i have to get ready. And she gets herself ready. Like, in a skirt and blouse and nice shoes ready. And shes all ready to go and we begin walking up the stairs holding our breath. And Tiago is behind her so she cant turn around and the whole time tiago is air punching. And she makes it all the way up the stairs and all the way to church. And she liked church. And when we visited her last night she talked about how she wanted her daughter to come with us next week too.

I think the one lesson I have learned this week is that even if you dont have the car or the girl or the first choice school or the job, if you have your family, its enough. And you should just stop and freaking smell the roses. If Daisy could just stop and breath and look around her, she would realize how great she had it.

I almost forgot-fruit of the week-mangos. we eat LOTS of them-cooked, steamed, grilled, or fresh. they are delicious. also they have mango juice here and it is SOO GOOD. I wish we had it in the states because for real it is to die for.

 Pictures!! 

even the flies are prettier here.

things you would never see in america take two. we see him everywhere and i finally got a photo! 

FAVELA please note the horse in one of the photos. hahaha

favela again

Adamuelson. one of my favorite recent converts. he is a little creep and we love him. 

doesnt it just LOOK like rome? these people were drunk and singing loudly and i wanted to join them

 sister arnell makes fun of me when i stretch. 

our feet. you are welcome

 its the winter here. and i am already sweating. LOOK OUT SUMMER. 

we drink a lot of water here. seriously. 

Zone Conference 

On completely dfferent news-my birthday is in a month! And all I want for my birthday is a letter from YOU (whoever you are) telling me whatever you want. Here are some ideas-
1. How did you know the gospel was true?
2. An embarassing moment you have had. Because I have a lot of them these days.
3. Good Advice. 

Have a great week!
sister mad