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

Week 24

Hallo Folks! 

Another pday has come finally! This week has been incredibly long, but good. I am going to keep this email real short, but I do have a few highlights. 1. Last pday we went to the taikwando (sorry I have no idea how to spell that) of some kids in our ward. Everyone in the family are blackbelts. Crazy. The youngest is an 8 year old girl. I think I might look into being a blackbelt when I get back home. 2. This week Sister Coombs hit her 11 month mark. We celebrated by eating this delicious banana bread stuff and making a fort out of our living room to sleep in. 3. The weather here is starting to change. We havent had very much rain this week and the mornings are kind of cold. But the sun is definitely still shining. 4. I gave my first sacrament talk outside of the CTM yesterday. It went well and people actually understood me. Hallelujah! 5. Final news of the week... We had transfers today. Sister Coombs and I are both staying here together in Ceilândia! Yes. Best news. This means, family, you will meet Sister Coombs via skype here in a couple weeks! One of our Brazillians- Sister Damaceno got transferred and Sister Victorio arrived in our house to be companions with Sister Melo. 

No super thrilling news this week. But I am here. I am alive. I am sharing the gospel with people and I am staying pretty happy. Life is good. Love you all and I hope you all are well! 

Love Sister Hoopes

Week 23

Hallo Família! 

 

This week has been a rough one, but life is still going good and we had some good things happen, too. The start of our week was incredibly... awful. We were exhausted because we didnt rest at all on pday and we ran into a couple not so awesome people here. The first awful man we met is the dad of a girl that really wants to be baptized. Her cousins are active members of our ward and they live next door to each other. This girl comes to church activities when she can and is awesome. Her dad is the only thing stopping her from being baptized so she asked us to try to talk to him. We found him at his house and he talked and talked and talked. He told us how we were servants of the devil and that we are welcome in his house as long as we dont teach anything about the Book of Mormon. He is probably one of the most rude and stubborn people I have ever met in my life. We did not accomplish much talking with him and left a little disanimated. Our next appointment we went to was of Amelia a 72 year old woman who loves the church and her 45 ish year old son, Carlos, who uses a wheelchair. We talked to them a bit and they really opened up and they told us how one of her other sons who lives with them says all kinds of awful things to the two of them and treats them not so good. It was a really sad talking to them, we all cried, but in the end we left a little happier. It was a LONG day for sure. 

The next day we met the second not so awesome person... a drunk man at about 3 pm. We were sitting in a park cutting out little notes to leave at peoples houses. This man came up to us and started yelling at us and telling us that we were like Hitler (he thought we were from Germany) and started yelling about those Mormons and a bunch of other terrible things. We got up and left, but he did cause a bit of a scene for sure. 

The week did progressively improve though. We met a lot of new people to teach. We ate a lot of churrasco (bbq) on the road and we bought earrings for a $1. The other sisters had a baptism on Sunday that went well too. Sister Coombs and I have a man that sells fruit that likes to give us fruit for free when we pass by his shop. That is quite an enjoyable thing. 

One stupid thing of the week that we did... After one of our long days we decided that we needed some fresh air and that we wanted to star gaze. So we decided to climb the roof of our house. We locked the other sisters inside and we climbed our way up... it was harder than we thought. And once we got up we realized that it wasnt that fun and we found out getting down was a lot scarier than coming up. We figured it out though and made it down. We decided not to do that again. ha ha. 

Anyway this is all for now, I love you all and I enjoy hearing from you guys. Thanks for keeping me updated on life back home. I hope all is well with you all. 

Love Sister Hoopes

Week 22

Hello!

Hey everyone! So I this is going to be a short update, but I will try to make it full of good info. So this week has been full of a lot of good things. I ate my first churrasco, which is like a bbq on the road. It was delicious and I think I am addicted. Today we spent most of our pday visiting the main part of Brasília and looking at all the cool buildings. I took my first metro ride this morning. It was cool, but crammed and I stood the whole way. I have some pretty cool pictures so I will try to get them attached as well.

 

Also, this week we had some weird things happen. First, a man got on his motorcycle right in front of us as we were walking down the road. It drove it for about 15 feet before he wrecked in the road. It was one of those moments that we watched and we could see the whole thing happening before it actually happened. We started to run to help him, but luckily his friends were out there quick to help him up. He ended up walking away, so I am pretty sure he isnt too wounded and it was probably good we didnt get to him first becaue I am about 99 percent sure he was drunk. Drunks and missionaries dont go very well together. (See next story)

Second weird encounter of the week. Sister Coombs and I stopped by the house of a member real quick. As we were leaving his gate a man walked up to the three of us and by walked I really mean stumbled his way to us and started talking about those mormons and angel moroni and asked for a blessing. He was super drunk and super strange he tried to grab our nametags so we hustled back in the gate and stayed inside for 10 ish minutes and then tried to leave again. We checked and the coast looked clear, so Felip the member opened his gate and the main was sitting there waiting for us. He luckily had fallen asleep, so we snuck out real quick. Sketchy? I think yes. But, it all turned out good.

Third, funny thing of the week. Wednesday we had another Sister that came to serve with us for the day, Sister Tanaka. She is new new new to the mission, she has 3 ish weeks. Anyway this same day we had a baptismal interview for Debora and this same day it rained a ton. We had to walk Debora and her friend Sara about 2 miles to the church and we had to give them our umbrellas because they didnt have theirs... Therefore, we got really wet, and we made lots of jokes about how Debora was practicing for her baptism with all the water that was soaking us.

 

The final and best thing of the week, Debora got baptized yesterday! Aweome. Everything went wrong...The font overflowed, the woman who was supposed to give the talk didnt show up, and we couldnt find any pitchers to make the juice for the refreshment afterward... but, luckily the baptism turned out great.

K, folks this is all for now... Life is good. I am still loving my mission, brazil, ceilandia, and my companion sister coombs. I am super tired and my hair is falling out pretty quick these days, but other than that my life is great. I love you all and I hope that you are all doing well. 

Com Amor, 

Sister Hoopes 

Week 21

Olá!  

I realize that my emails have been depressingly dull as of late so I will do my best to update on the happenings of my life. Right now I am really loving the mission. I am loving my area Ceilândia. And I love my companion, Sister Coombs. I am tired all the time, but I think that just means that we are working hard. A lot has happened this week so I will try to get this letter going. 

So last week I failed to make any funny April Fools Day joke with you guys in my letter. My bad. Luckily, we didnt forget completely about ´´the day of liars´´ here in Brazil. When we called in Monday night to report to our district leader, we told him that Sister Coombs fell and that her face was pretty scratched up and not to say anything about it because she was pretty self concious. The next day... Tuesday- we had our first Zone Conference here in this area and one of the Brazillian sisters, Sister Damaceno used make up and jello to make shockingly realistic abrasion on the side of Sister Coombs face. It was hilarious because all of the elders noticed it, but no on said anything. It was hilarious looking at their faces when they saw it. I think we enjoyed the little prank quite a bit... 

Other notable things of the week. I got my first kiss of the mission.... from a 77 year old man in the street. Fortunately it was on the cheek. ha ha. Also, this week Sister Coombs and I have spent several hours helping out at a language school that one of the members of the ward works at. We have the same conversations in a million different classes answering the same quetions. ´´Hi, my name is Daniel, what is your name?´´ ´´Do your like your occupation?´´ ´´Are you married, do you have kids´´... and there are probably about five other questions that they asked repeatedly. I dont think they thought it was very funny when this 12 year old asked me if I had kids and I replied, ´´No, do you?´´ I thought it was funny though so that is all that really matters I think. One class that was a bit more advanced asked what kind of music we like. I said country. They wanted to hear what country was... so they asked me to sing. Sadly the mission has not made my singing voice improve at all. So I told them sorry I dont know how to sing. They refused to take that for an acceptable answer. Usually 5 minutes of saying no and people will give up and move on. Either these kids werent understanding (which I am pretty certain they did understand when I told them I cant sing) or they were oddly persistent. I was really embarrassed and I couldnt think of literally any music except the Kenny Chesney song about his tractor... which I thought would  be a bit inappropriate. So what happened? I sang the nationaly anthem. Ha ha ha. This I dont know if I have described this situation very well or not, but oh my lanta, probably one of the most embarrassing moments I have had. The rest of the classes that asked about music I told that I like listening to instrumentals to avoid any more embarrassing situations. 

Cat-woman. We found a woman when we were walking down the street. She was sitting in front of her house so we stopped to talk to her. She has a ton of stuff around her house. I think she would be identified as a really extreme hoarder. Anyway we talked for a few minutes and she started talking about her cats and she said that she was sad because someone killed 9 of her cats. I was thinking wow that is horrific and odd. I started to look around better and I realized that she had several living cats around her. They were all on leashes about 2 feet long. Literally 2 feet... and attached to random objects around the area. I hate cats. But somehow I felt bad for these cats. I counted I think 7 that were tied up all over the place.  

I finished the Book of Mormon in Portuguese for the first time. I read it all outloud which was probably annoying for everyone around me. I still dont speak super well... so I think I will read it again. This time it will be in my head though. We also have a new rule in our zone that we always have to have a book of mormon in our hands while we are walking. It was kind of an annoying rule and we complained to each other, but the night of the first day we did it, a man stopped us on the street and asked for a book. We gave it to him and we are planning his baptism for the 21 of Abril. Needless to say we have stopped complaining about that and we learned a pretty valuable lesson. 

This week I had my second interview with President Gaertner. He came to interview everyone in our zone in our chapel. We were told by our leaders before hand that we absolutely cannot show up late. So, what happened. We had lunch before with a member. We left as quickly as possible, but we realized that we were going to be late. So Sister Coombs and I literally ran to the chapel (My second time literally running in a skirt with all my stuff to avoid being late). We showed up 2 minutes before the hour, all the elders in our zone were already sitting and President and Sister Gaertner were already up front waiting to start. We were both really red. In retrospect I think it would have been less embarrassing to show up late. But, its funny to think about now. What made it even more ridiculous is that our interviews werent until the very end so we waited 2 hours for our interviews. Everyone was taking a long time in their interviews, but by the time I got in there President asked me how I was if I was happy, how the people here in our area are etc. I stayed in there for maximum of 4 minutes. I think I broke some sort of record. 

I got news that Duke won the NCAA and that BYU didnt win the NIT. To be completely honest I think I am a little homesick for basketball. Luckily the work here is going good. We have an investigator, Debora who has been visiting with the missionaries for almost a year now, she is 16 almost 17, and her mom refused to let her get baptized. Her mom is seriously one of the most stubborn people I have ever met in my entire life. My best news of the week is that Saturday morning before conference we visited them and got her to sign the permission for Debora to be baptized. She said no again at first, but we waited and finally I just took the paper and the pen and stuck it in her lap (Probably one of the bolded things I have done on my mission) and we waited and she looked at it and looked and finally signed. It was seriously a wonderful moment to get her to sign it. So, everyone pray that our baptism of Debora next Sunday goes smoothly! 

After we saw a man in his car rocking out to Girls Just Want to Have Fun. I dont know if he knew the translation of the music he was listening to alone or not, but it was funny either way. General Conference was good. I missed several talks so I will try to get them real quick before I end my internet time, but the talks we heard were great. We had an investigator that made it to the last session and loved Jeffrey R. Holland. His talk was perfect for him and for me too I think. 

At the end of a rough day we had last week, we decided that we were hungry and we didnt have any food at home. So we bought a carton of eggs. We boiled them and ate them all. It was a terrible decision and I am pretty sure that are Brazillian roommates put something about it in their journals on the page that says... ´´Remember that one time when those weird Americans did...´´ I can honestly say that I dont have any sort of desire for eggs right now.. still. 

 

Okay this was a scattered letter, but hopefully somewhat informative. Yesterday I made it to the 5 month mark of my mission. Time is going fast and slow at times and my body is pretty tired. I am loving my life though so all is good. 

I love you all, 

Sister Hoopes