Week 28

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! 

It sounds like you all are out doing fun stuff for Memorial Day. Unfortunately, they arent celebrating here. Obviously right? But, hey maybe I will find some BBQ to eat in remembrance of you all having a good time! So I am going to probably make this a quick update for you all so sorry if it is lacking in quality.  

First....last pday... We had some serious drama in our house. Sister Victorio and Sister Melo were not on good terms at all. They both were angry and upset at each other. Sister Coombs and I had to each talk to them to try to help them clear up their differences. It didnt work out too well... the next day they had emergency interviews with President Gaertner. He has magical powers... or the spirit of God on his side, because they came back from the interviews and are now liking each other alright and are willing to finish this transfer together. I am mostly glad that things are super tense anymore. 

This last week was Alicia´s birthday! Happy Belated Birthday! I bought you spandex as a present. I ended up getting myself some spandex too. They are terrible. But funny. 

This week we didnt get a ton of work done because we spent a day in our house because Sister Coombs got sick. I didnt spend this time super well. I just sat and stared at the wall for a while and I looked down at my watch and 2 hours had passed. I dont know how it happened. We came home early another day because we ate chicken hearts that we bought on the road that didnt end up sitting well with either of us. Bad idea. No more chicken hearts on the road. I did end up finishing the BOM for the 2nd time in Portuguese. We spent 2 other days with our zone doing practices... ALL day long. It was awfully long. We will be doing practices again like that tomorrow. So pray I dont lose my mind.  

Yesterday at church Sister Coombs and I had to teach the gospel doctrine class on the spot. It was on repentance. It actually went way easier and smoothly than I ever imagined. The funny thing was that we had gotten a couple who have fallen away from the church to come back and yesterday was their first Sunday and they got a hardcore lesson on repentance. Another funny thing about yesterday... we saw a ton of people riding horses down the road which is unusual... and this woman barely hit a branch on the side of the road and PLOP she fell of her horse. We probably should have gone to help her, but I think she was drunk and Sister Coombs and I were trying to hard not to laugh. Luckily there was a man behind her that helped her out so it all worked out in the end. 

Okay so this is my news for this week. Not super detailed, but it happens. The work is still going along here. Unfortunately for us Amelia, our investigator is moving to Taguatinga Sul, so unless I get transferred there it looks like I wont be seeing her baptism. But, thats all right. I love you all and hope you all had a great holiday weekend and an even better week after and that you all send me letters because I like them a lot. =) 

Sister Hoopes

Week 27

Hello Family, 

 

This week has been long and good and bad and sad, but all in all it´s been alright. I will again try doing a bullet point list and see how that works out. 

 

1. Dogs. So dogs here are not very scary, most of them are little and dont do much of anything. Proof of this is the Dead Dog Road picture that I sent. They just lay there and do nothing a lot. So the other night we went to a house to find a member who we have never met before that was on a list that the bishop asked us to visit. We got to the gate I clapped and they had a dog laying in front of their house. It didnt bark or anything it just got up and walked behind a car. I didnt think much of it. A woman came out the door and started talking to us so I stepped closer to hear her better and BOOM the dog jumped out of nowhere and nearly bit me. More accurately I think he nearly killed me. It scared me to death... almost. I screamed, the woman laughed and I survived. Hallelujah. 

 

2. Choir. This weekend was stake conference for the folks here in Ceilândia and our stake president asked all the missionaries in the stake to sing during the conference. The funny thing is that we dont have very many singers in our zone. What made it even funnier is that we dont have very many Brazillians in our zone either. We have a bunch of North Americans, Bolivians, Argentinians, Mexicans... and maybe 5 Brazillians. Ha ha. But we got together, we practiced and we wound up singing in the middle of the stake presidents talk. It turned out alright I think, at least I think they appreciated our effort. 

 

3. Other good news that come with meeting together as a zone. I got more letters this week!!!!! AND I got a package from Mary with notes from people at the candy counter/bookstore. It made me quite quite happy. I ate all the candy already because I couldnt control myself. Turned a long day into a very very good day. 

 

4. Family of Mateus Zita and their 3 sons. So the bishop asked us to visit some inactive members of the ward and on the list was Mateus and Zita. We got to their house right when Mateus got home from work. He works with the police in Brasilia. So we bounded over his occupation and the fact that it is in the same line of work that dad has. He is actually really awesome and really wanting to come back to church, so he will next week. They have 3 sons Washington, Romario, and Rafael... I think that they might be the most beautiful Brazillian family that I have ever seen in my life. That is the truth. We are going to get them all back to church mainly so we can take pictures with them for when they become famous. 

 

5. Amelia. Amelia is an investigator that we have been teaching for a while now. Her baptism was planned for this past Sunday. Aka yesterday. She was all ready to go. She passed the interview for baptism on the condition that she wouldnt drink coffee at all. This was hard for her. And hard for us. Its the weirdest thing, as a missionary it feels like all of the problems that other people have suddenly become my problem. Even though in reality they arent. We spent hours this week helping her, talking to her, reminding her not to drink coffee. Mentally and physically it was kind of draining. She made it all the way to Sunday morning and she called us and sad that she had had a terrible headache and had to drink coffee at 4 am. So she drank coffee and she didnt get baptized this week. It was really a disappointment. We are trying to help her so she can get baptized still, but she pretty much is certain that she cant quit coffee. So that is my number one struggle for this coming week. Her and Sebastian. His baptism is planned for this coming Sunday and he needs to quit drinking alcohol. 

 

6. Alan... We were walking down the road the other day, Amelia called and asked us to go talk to her, so we turned down the first street we came to and we ran into this man named Alan. He stopped us and started talking to us in English. He stopped us by saying HEY you guys are American Mormon missionaries! We talked to him and he was not in good shape. He lived in the US California growing up for 24 years and has been back in Brazil for the last 13. His life he said isnt going good and he told us that he was about to go do something stupid. We kept him talking so we could figure out how to help him. As it turns out he had and LDS friend growing up and he went to seminary with him and played football with him. His name is Chad Ram or something like that. I guess he played football at BYU but i dont remember that name. Anyway we tried to get his address, but he said that he lived in Guara II with his mom. Suddenly I remembered i woman that I talked to in an apartment builind in Gurara. I asked him if his mom was this woman that I remembered and she was. It was the craziest coincidence. He was really stunned that I knew his mom and had her phone number. We ended up leaving and he still wouldnt tell us the stupid thing he was about to do, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet with our phone number on it. Later that night he called us and said he went home and that he didnt end up doing the stupid thing and that he is going to read the Book of Mormon. That was a pretty awesome and miraculous experience. 

 

Okay, well this ought to do it for now. My week wasnt that bad it was actually more good than bad. I am still doing good. The weather is hot, the wind blows a lot, it doesnt rain anymore and I am permanently red because of the sun. I miss you all and I hope that you are all praying for President Monson. LOVE YOU ALL A TON! 

 

Sister Hoopes

Week 25

HELLLLLLOOOO! 

 

Hi family. Things here are going pretty good this week. Actually the start of this week was incredibly and rough for me. But things got better in a real hurry. Sister Coombs gave me an idea of how I could write better letters home by making a bullet list so I will give that a shot. 

~The first part of the week was long. Why? That I dont know. I think lots of things played a part in that. It was a little bit of a rough switch with Sister Victorio moving into the house and Sister Damaceno leaving. We got Sister Victorio introduced to some of the people in the ward and reorganized things in the house and the week got better. It definitely is a lot quieter though.  

~ Churrasco. My week started going uphill Tuesday at lunch. I think I have expressed my love for churrasco already... but I will just one more time so you guys remember. I really love churrasco... (bbq) We stop and buy it on the road sometimes which makes us both pretty content with life. But, Tuesday we went to lunch and the members made us churrasco and it was wonderful. We all ate way way way too much. It was delicious though. 

~The mission kind of messes up your  body a little bit I think. Physically I am doing pretty well still, but Sister Coombs is starting to have some troubles. One of which is her knee. One of her knees is like permanently swollen. I tried to wrap it for her, but it turns out I dont remember how to wrap knees good at all. I think I will have to literally re-start school when I get back because everythings has left my mind that I learned. I am just praying that learning it the second time will be easier than it was the first time. 

~We experienced a miracle this week. One of our investigators, Renan decided to get baptized. So this coming Sunday (Mother´s Day aka Day I get to call home) we will have a baptism for him. I am really excited for him and its going to a good day. I am sure I will tell you all about it face to face via skype. =) 

Okay this list thing is going a little rough... I will think. Things here are good though. I am happy and healthy. We are working a lot and I really really love the people that I am getting to know here. AND... I am really excited to call home next week. So this is all for now LOVE you all a ton,  

Sister Hoopes