The hills in minas gerais are ginormous. For reals people sometimes i look up the hillside at all the houses and all the things that are constructed into the mountain cliffs and realize....i gotta climb all the way up there to get to our referral!? Contagem is FULL of just...mountains. I have no other words to explain climbing, just that really-sometimes i can put my hands on the pavement without bending a whole lot to climb up the cliffs.
And sometimes, to get from one cliff to the next, you got to go all the way down the mountain, and then climb all the way back up. Its super annoying, especially because it always seems to happen in the heat of the day-and I am just DYING and sweating and the roads arent paved too well and before i know it, i am literally falling down the mountainside. It happens a lot, so much so that this past week when i fell, my companion fell over laughing too. Except I totally got bruised and she felt a little bad about it afterwards. But you see my point.
This past week I have been reminded a lot of a poem i heard in the MTC way back when I was on top of the world.
come to the edge, he said
No, we´ll fall.
come to the edge, he said
No, we´ll fall!
COME TO THE EDGE.
So we came to the edge,
and he pushed us.
and we flew.
Sometimes the Lord allows us to get a little scraped up in falling. He pushes us to our limits, and before really flying, we get bumped and scratched.
This past week I was talking to a woman in the ward. A few years back she had it all. A home, active children, marriage in the temple. As we sat eating lunch she told me how her children had gone inactive, one of the sons had become involved with drugs and in the process, they ended up losing their home. They now live paying rent, visiting their son in prison and working on getting everything together again. She then said with a smile to me
``I had unmoveable faith, back then I had a firm, strong faith. But now I am just going day by day, and I rely a whole lot more on the Lord.``
Its totally how I feel. The mission continues to break you down and mold you into what the Lord wants you to be. And I can tell you that last week was rock bottom, and this week I went up a bit, but it is still a long way from the top. But I am happy-truly, i am happy. Without trials, you would never know the joy-and really, I have never understood the meaning of crying on the Lord as well as I do now.
...Not sure if this letter will help anyone, but i thought I would be real with you-because rock bottom one week doesnt result in butterflies and roses the week after.
love you all,
sister mad
Pictures
i love this family. they are like a little pot of gold in contagem. for reals.
we won a plant from an investigator-best thing i have gotten in brasil ever. i named him ronaldinho. and he protects our apartment.
my comp doesnt know how to kiss. hahahahahaha
my favorite little cactus. hahaha
if i wrote a childrens book, i would definitely add these people into my characters.
so it is FRIGID in our apartment and the weather is starting to get cold. i thought my outfit made total sense and it was okay to go out in brasil like this. until my comp gave me a look like i was cyndi lauper or something and i remembered brasillians arent use to sister mad....yet.
ADVICE
things i would bring if i was starting over-
1. a little book to write a letter to God every week (a letter home, a letter to the president and a letter to God)
2. a little binder for everything from language study to conferences
3. JESUS THE CHRIST
4. our search for happiness
5. a little book for all comps and members to write in
6. a book of all the people you baptized or helped-their stories, names, emails, birthdays everything.
7. a million colored sharepies-theyt dont bleed through in preach my gospel=the best.
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