Week 32

Olá Família!  

So, this is going to be a quick email, hopefully packed full of good information. 

The first super exciting news that I have is that I received my package that Alicia sent! Yeah!! I have new clothes and I can officially start sending pictures from my camera! Thank you thank you thank you! The package was pure joy in a heavy box! 

Second news... RIOTS. Brazil is going crazy and from what it sounds like to me Brazillians all over the world are going a little crazy. I dont know all the information, but this is what I know is going on. There are riots... big ones happening all over the place in Brazil. Here in the capital is definitely no exception. It started with the people being mad about prices for transportation going up and the government spending billions on new stadiums for the world cup when their hospitals are lacking in a lot of things that they need. Right now their is a spotlight on Brazil because of all the soccer games they are playing to see who will be playing in the world cup next year. So the people are revolting, doing demonstrations and such. Everywhere we go the talk is either about the soccer games or the riots. Sister Victorio had to travel to the mission office this week and we got stuck at the bus stop for a while because of the people and the buses were having trouble coming a going. Luckily we got a member of our ward to pick us up for the trip back to Ceilândia. 

We have two investigators with baptism dates marked for this week. Mira and Amelia... So everyone pray that all goes well with them both. I bought Cervada which is fake coffee for Amelia, so I am hoping that will help her not drink coffee. We shall see. 

Funny story. Actually, just a funny fact. Cocaine is legal in Bolivia... I guess. Sister Victorio was offended when one of the recent converts we were talking to told her that it is a drug. She said that it cant be a drug because it is a plant, I told her that marijuana is also a plant and a drug. She still doesnt think Cocaine is a drug, but I thought it was funny. 

Things here are going well. We are working hard, we have a ton a people that we are trying to keep track of still, but things are going great. Last night there was a broadcast from the Marriott Center of all the new mission presidents being called. We got to watch and it was awesome. I highly recommend the talks for... everyone! I love you all and I hope that you all are happy and healthy! 

Sister Hoopes

Ps The ´pictures... 1. is at the mission office. 2. Is one of me and a recent convert ariane in my new clothes! ... yeah! 3. Sister Victorio and I... half an hour ago. =) 

Week 31

Feliz Dia Depois O Dia Dos Pais! 

So this past week has been good. The past couple weeks I have been all over the place emotionally. Up, down... everywhere, but, I am feeling back to normal hallelujah! Brasil didnt celebrate fathers day yesterday, but we did have a holiday and a soccer match which is basically a holiday here. Tuesday was Valentines Day and a lot of stores were decorated and there was a little more PDA in the streets than normal, but aside from that I think it was a fairly normal day. The soccer match- I actually think there were two here in Brasil this week, but one was in Fortaleza so it wasnt as big of an event. On Saturday Brasil played Japan here in the huge new stadium that they built here in Brasilia. The streets were basically empty during the game. I can proudly announce that Brasil won 3-0 a fact I know mainly because everyone we talked to after gave us play by plays. ha ha. 

We had some other significant events this week. Our first district meeting of the transfer was on Tuesday. We have a very unique district. We have 2 Brazillians, 2 North Americans, and 2 Bolivians. I dont think that the odds of that happening are very high but it happened here. Based on the second Bolivian missionary I have met here on the mission I think that my companion is a very normal Bolivian. ha. =) They also brought mail to the district meeting finally so I got some long awaited letters which made me pretty happy. 

Later in the week we had a zone conference and President and Sister Gaertner came and participated. It was really good. Sister Gaertner didnt realize that Sister Victorio and I are serving together again and she asked President about it and it sounds like the possibility of receiving another sister here in the mission before the transfer is over is pretty likely. It sounds like a trio could be in my future. During the conference President had a set of missionaries do a teaching practice in front of everyone. The elders had described two investigators that they have a girl and her grandma and president told them to practice inviting them to be baptized. One of the elders asked who they should use to be the investigators and and President said they could choose anyone. Logically, I think sister V and I would have been the most likely to be chosen to be the girl and the grandma since we are now the only sisters in the zone, but they surprisingly said that president and sister G could be the investigators. Sister G was the girl and President G was Luiza the grandma. It was funny to me. Especially listening to the elders call him senhora. 

In the zone conference President G also talked a little bit about some of the things we should be doing... like exercising and such. The rule for waking up in the mission is that we need to wake up at 630. What happens a lot is people wake up at 630 and then kneel on their beds and pray... and then half an hour later at 7 ish they wake up. ha ha. Needless to say the new rule is we have to be out of bed at 630. While at the zone conference we got to see another zone that is close to ours which was cool. Some of my old district from the CTM were there.  

In other news things in terms of missionary work is going good here. We are super busy because we now have the investigators that I had been teaching and the investigators that Sister V had been teaching to visit which is actually kind of a lot of work to keep up on. We have had some good moments though. Mira a girl sister Coombs and I had been teaching has been reading the BOM like crazy she is already in 2 Nefi which I was excited about. And Renan who got baptized a few weeks ago finally decided he would were a white shirt and tye to church. Made my Sunday. Speaking of Sunday... Funny story. 

So in the past I dont know if anyone remembers- but I had a terrible filling up all the time when I gave talks in church. So this Sunday Sister V and I both gave talks and I talked for 15 minutes.... What?! I think that is a record for my longest talk. 

Everything in general is going good. I am washing a lot of dishes and teaching people the gospel and speaking Portuguese and walking a ton and staying happy. I hope that you all are doing good and that Summertime at home is going well too. I love you all! 

Sister Hoopes

 

PS If anyone has good FHE activity ideas or fun little games you should send them my way!!!! 

Week 30

Hello!

Hi guys. So I am going give you all a really quick update. This week has been really great. Really busy but great. We had a zone conference that went really well and my companion and I got back on track with the work and everything and really had a great week. I also went on two exchanges this week. I spent one day exchanging here in our area and served with Sister Victorio and visited her investigators. I did another exchange and went ot Asa Norte which was really an eye opener. The work their is a lot harder than it is here in Ceilandia. There are a lot of people there, but a lot are rich or dont live there and are just there during the day to work. It was good though. Yesterday a black cat crossed my path twice. Bad luck right? and Bad luck it was.... I gave the lesson in the Principles of the Gospel class today and lets just say it wasnt the best teaching moment of my life. It was a little rough, but we all survived. But I said the black cat crossed twice right? So the other piece of bad luck? We had transfers today. Our mission had 7 areas shut because we had a large group end their missions and we didnt receive anyone new. Anyone. One of the areas they shut was mine. So now we have one set of sisters in Ceilandia. Luckily I am staying here though. I will be serving with... Sister Victorio. Again... ha ha. Sister Coombs and Sister Melo both got transferred to other areas... So we shall see what the future holds. So right now we have a ton of work to do because we now have are going to be doing the work of both areas. Things in general are going well and I am excited for some baptisms we have on the horizon. I will give you all an update on that next week. Thanks for all the prayers and support. I love you all!

Sister Hoopes

PS I have to give another talk next week and teach the principles of the gospel class again next week, so you all can pray for me that I can do a good job!

Week 29

Tchau May and Hello June! 

So the rain has returned this week again in Brazil. It has rained pretty much the entire week and right now I am actually cold. I am wearing tights and a sweater... so that is really saying something. I dont have a ton of time to write, but I will try to give a quick update. 

1. I found out this week that one of the people we were teaching in Guara got baptized. He is the grandson of a member we had helped bring back to church. I was really excited to hear that and a little sad that I dont get to be there. 

2. Last Monday we (sister coombs and I) were feeling a bit homesick because it was memorial day and everyone we knew was camping and such. Sister Coombs resolved her sadness by putting hydrogen peroxide in her hair to make it more blonde. I dont think it worked. 

3. Next week I have to teach the gospel principles class by myself, so you all are more than welcome to pray for me because I need all the help I can get. 

4. Next week is transfers so I will be getting a new companion and possible a new area, so stay tuned for that. 

5. The only really funny of the story this week is that we were teaching a mom of one of the members here (she is going to get baptized her in a week or two!) and then a pastor showed up.... he did bible bash a little, but he really is interested in finding out what the BOM is. So I gave him a BOM... (he said something about how in Revelations it says that we cant add to the word... we explained that) but I still left him with something to read in the BOM 2 Ne 29... ´´a bible, a bible...´´ read it and maybe you all will think it was as funny as i did. Sister coombs did not fully appreciate it I dont think. 

Whelp this is all for now. Love you all! 

Sister Hoopes

PS I hope you enjoy the classy mirror that they are using on their car... seeing stuff like that is pretty common here.