January – 2012 – Wanderings and Ponderings

Brazil

mais uma transferencia em Quissamã!

28 January 2012

Just finished a splendid transfer full of faith and miracles and lots of work here in Quissamã with Sister Cunha! And gooooood news (….geico….)! We’re staying here together again! So much to do here and I hope I’ll get to stay my last two transfers here with Sister Cunhazinha. It is going so well and we are helping lots of blessed souls.

But whatever happens, the Lord knows best and knows very well what he is doing.

Heavenly Father made miracls happn here this transfer! So good. From an area without leadership, with the frequency going down everyweek, with only two baptizing weeks in two years, and now to an area with frequency going up evry week and weekly baptisms! Woo hoo! Lots of lovely peeps waiting for the gospel. The field is white!

This week drove back from the bach with 7 peeps in a little green vw bug, and did ti dy with the yw and had lots of lovely fun. I love Quissamã! Yay for missions! And good souls!

Brazil

I love Quissamã!

25 January 2012

I love Quissamã! It’s the last week of the transfer and I hope that Sister Cunhazinha and I will stay together here another transfer or two. We’re seeing so many miracles and milagres and so many good things! The frequency was up to 56 on sunday! We brought lots of new peeps to church and lots of less actives are coming back. Yay! And baptisms every week! Including a miracle baptism this saturday that came out of no where. Woo hoo!

But when you have faith and do what the Lord asks you and work a lot a lot a lot, you see miracles! Yay! There’s lots of little (and big) angels working around here helping us share the gospel and bring happiness to people’s lives. Make the world a better place than when you found it.

Muito obrigada for all the letters and little packages and love that you all send me. Makes me a happy little Sister Owens.

Sister Cunha and I get home every night so tired and sweaty because it is soooo hot here. I put my hands in the freezer today and pretended it was snow. Thank goodness there’s a lovely little wind here. But it is all worth it and I hope I stay here in Quissamã and that Sister Cunha stays here too!

I’m learning lots of lovely things and we’re teaching wonderful people and I love them all so much. We’re teaching a guy who wants to get baptized and receive the gift of the holy ghost so badly, but he is not understanding that he has to keep all of the commandments in order to do this and to have the spirit. We had his baptism planned for this week (in a lake!) but we’ll work with him a bit more, do some sweet fasting, and next week it should be all good. :)

And I found out that someone we were teaching in Itaparica is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ! Woo hoo! No effort is wasted. Every leaf counts!

Been watching the Preach My Gospel dvds too and they are fantastico! Life is so funny and weird on the mission. It’s like the world outside of my little area doesn’t exist. You forget about music and movies and things of normal life. You gain such an eternal perspective and just want to help others do this too.

Because basically the Second Coming is coming and now is the time to prepare (Alma 34:32), a hora é agora! :) Good thing God loves us so much to send Jesus Chirst to be our Savior and that He always forgives us of the errors and sins we commit time and time again. But Heavenly Father’s plan is perfect, and He will do everything He can to help us, but the choice is ours.

Thank you all for being so lovely and have a happy day and week and life! :D

Brazil

Quissamã

25 January 2012

Wooo hoo we had another baptism here in Quissamã of a delightful
family who is coming back to church! Enter the fold. :) And we’ve got
another baptism this week too. Quissamã is so wonderful and it is
fulllll of good souls who want to live the gospel. There are of
course, plenty who don’t want to hear too much, but you get what you
look for, né?

There were some lovely sunsets this week and nature is so wonderful. I
love it here in Quissamã because it’s like a little town in the
inteRIOr and there are good people and it is so nice having so much
green around, and seeing cows and horses in the middle of the street.

Twas fantastic in Campos this week for conferência de zona!
Conferences and transfers and soooo good. I love missionary festas! :)
Learned lots of wonderful things and was reminded about D&C 18:10 “the
worth of souls is great in the sight of God.”
And also about when Christ asked Peter is he loved him and Peter said
of course, and then Christ just said “Feed my Sheep”.

So I’m just here in Rio, feeding sheep and it is excellllllent.
Our João (was a pastor), blessed the sacrament this week in white
shirt and tie. Woo hoo. Job well done.
And good news, I’m not sick any more. It was funny at zone conference
because there are four of us sisters here in Rio, one has a cast on
her leg, one went to the hospital before our conference started, one
more with a fever, and I was getting over a month long cough. Don’t
know what was happening with us, but all is well now. :)

Sister Cunha also informed me that I was teaching lessons in my sleep
this week, talking all about the spirit and how we have to pray and
ask Heavenly Father for answers, and how because He loves us and is
our father, He sends the Spirit to teach and testify to us. There’s so
much to do during the day, that I guess I’m starting to practice
teaching at night too. And last night I dreamed there were a bunch of
cockroaches on me and it was not too lovely, but hallelujah we don’t
have cockroaches in our house.

Hope you all are swell and thank you for the love and prayers and
mail! :) Got wonderful letters this week from all my grandparents and
some lovely sísteres and some grand ol´ buddies and a little package
from my mtc comp and mail from fam and lots from dear Cottam fam and
mail and letters brings pure joy to my little soul. Obrigada! Boa
semana para vocês! :D

Brazil

Rio De Janeiro!!!

23 January 2012

Hoppy New Year!
New Years wasn’t too eventful here in Quissamã, but twas lovely.
Sunday morning we met with the leaders of the branch to (buscar?)
fetch a bunch of lovely souls that promised to go to church. It was
raining and peeps don’t really like going to church in the rain.
But… there were a few faithful that came with us! Woo hoo! And the
frequency was up to 35 this week. Hallelujah. It needs to just keep
going up so that the church building can be built here. The meetings
are held in a rented house and it is not too nifty, fazer o quê né? I
loooove Quissamã and this transfer is gooooooooood good good.
First of all, let’s talk about saturday, new year’s eve… João got
baptized! Woo hoo! He was a tender mercy from the Lord and he is super
fantastico! He’s got a looot of biblical knowledge and faith and is
sooo good. And recent discovery.. he’s a pastor. :) He didn’t ever say
anything to us but you can tell he’s done a lot of churching in his
time. :) But we asked him and sure enough, pastor João, new and
faithflu member of the Church of Jesus Christ. And sunday afternoon he
was already doing visits with us. Yay! I looove finding the elect.

We’re teaching lots of peeps here in this wonderful place, so many to
teach. And it is so wonderful when you find those elect, who are
waiting for the restored gospel. We had some baptisms marked for this
week too, but we all have agency and make our own choices and
unfortately, some people choose not to live or accept the gospel. But
agency is wonderful and so central to Heavenly Father´s perfect plan.

What else… we have zone conference this week! Woo hoo! Here in
Campos. So yay I’ll get letters again and we’ll get another nice box
of Book of Mormons to give to all of Quissamã. I love this place. And
the members are really wonderful, the few that go to church at least.
:) There’s a lot of less actives here too, who are also wonderful, but
need lots of help in coming back to church. It’s not too easy, but it
is always worth it to the what God wants.

PS Good news… I just saved a bundle on car insurance by switching to
geico. Okay, not really, but actual good news… I found some celery!
I looove celery (especially with delightful peanut butter) and I
haven’t had any in over a year. I’ve never seen it here, but
hallelujah I found some this week.

There is so much to do here in Quissamã. Sister Cunha and I are
working a lot a lot and doing everything we can think of to strengthen
these souls here. There’s just not enough time! Adn the transfer is
already half over. But we’ve got a bunch more baptisms that will have
to happen in these next three weeks. We’re looking for the elect,
they’re out there. There’s good things and people everywhere!

Time for me to go home and write letters and finish preparing for a
wonderful week. Thank you for your prayers and everything and eu amo
vocês! Feliz 2012!

Brazil

Hoppy New Year!!!

23 January 2012

Happy day after Christmas!

Yesterday I opened a lovely Christmas english cracker and would like to share a nice little joke… hehe

Q: What do you call a fish with no eyes?

A: A fsh.

heheehee kkk cracks me up every time!

I love Christmas and giving (and of course it’s nice to receive) presents. It is so lovely to give.

At midnight on Christmas eve, dear Sister Cunha and I read some St. Luke chapter 2 about the birth of Jesus and then we opened some chocolicious presentes and then Christmas morning finished opening our lovely little Christmas presents under our nice paper tree. :) Christmas as a missionary is a bit different (especially when you’re in Quissamã, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, and it is wicked hot), but Christmas is so very splendid!

The best part was the skype festa with my beautiful family yesterday! Woo hoo!

We also had a grand Christmas turkey lunch with a member’s family in the roça. Roça is like farm, bush, boondocks, don’t know the translation. But we were in a lovely little house surrounded by lovely green fields with scrumdiddlyumptious fruit trees too.

Other news from the week, João is getting baptized and confirmed! He is so good and just gets better every day and every visit. He has the desire to go to church and to get baptized and things are going nice and smooth with teaching him. Oh how I love the elect! Que bênção. It is pretty much not the easiest thing in the world to get people to go to church, but when they want to go, they go. When we teach people and the want to keep the committments, they keep them, if they don’t want to, they don’t. So basically, if we really want to do something, we’ll do it. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

And Sister Cunha and I are loving this transfer and there’s so much to do and so many people to visit and pretty much all of our lessons are with members. We bring the members with us pretty much all day long. This transfer is and will be full of miracles! Woo hoo!

Well tis time to go, I’ve got some water and bananas to buy. :) But I’ll end with my other english cracker joke:

Q: What did the alien say to the garden?

A: Take me to your weeder.

Claaassic. :) You’re killing me smalls.

Muito obrigada for the letters and prayers and all of the good and lovely things you are all doing for others. Service is at the heart of the gospel. We’ve just got to love everyone. Woo hoo! Amo vocês!

And of course…

HOPPY New Year!

Brazil

Feliz Natal!!

20 January 2012

FELIZ NATAL! Woo hoo! I love Quissamã! This area is excelente! And it is so good working with Sister Cunha. She is excellent and this will be a transfer full of miracles (and work work work)! And miracles need to happen here… :) On sunday there were only 29 peeps and the past year there has only been one week that they’ve had a baptism. But now… enter a gente… and many good things ahead! After all, everyone needs the gospel and the promised blessings of the Lord, so we are here to work along with the wonderful members to baptize, reactive, and complete families!

We have members with us almost all day every day and they showing us lots of peeps we need to teach. I’m so happy to be here. And Quissamã is such a cute quaint little town. And woo hoo, I’m still in Rio!

Well, considering Christmas is coming, it is time to bust out the Christmas Santa Clause troll earrings… okay, I’ll just stick to the parrots. :D

We found a girl that really needs the gospel and to be baptized and receive the gift of the holy ghost. We taught her and asked her if she had a cell phone. She said that she traded her cell phone for crack. Hugs are better than drugs. But I am realizing more and more that everyone has freedom of choice to choose good things or bad things. Everytime we keep the commandments, we are blessed. Lots of blessings !

Unfortunately, I was dead sick girl for a couple days. Sister Cunha worked with members and I stayed at a member’s house sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, with a bad bad cold and a high fever. But with a nice blessing and lots of prayers, I’m much better now, and excited for a week full force. :) And excited for a feliz natal and mele kalikimaka!

I’m enjoying verrry much presentinhos of 12 days of christmas too! Muito!

Merrrrrrry Christmas to you all! Don’t forget to give Christ a birthday present for Christmas. :)

Brazil

Bird Attack-see video!!! :)

19 January 2012

It’s almost Christmas! It’s weird being here down under where Christmas is not cold and snowy, but thank goodness it’s been nice and rainy here do it’s not deathly hot. But with all this rain lots of peeps are sick and my companion was pretty sick this week too. (And I hope I’m not getting sick too, so I’m drinking lots and lots of water. Basically, water is the cure for almost eveything. :) ) We stayed home wednesday and thursday and she rested and recuperated and I read and studied lots and lots and wore tie dye and my new mc hammer pants and listened to christmas music and made about 1000 paper snowflakes. Good times.

I tried making brownies this week with brasilian ingredients and a recipe I made up, and it didn’t turn out too fantastically. It was basically like costco chocolate chip muffins which are uma delícia. But I just gave them to our dear zone leaders and all is well.

Sister Johnson and I sang lovely Christmas hymns for some delightful senhoras this week. Twas grand.

And my dearest Alderina, (a blessed soul that Sister Morales and I taught in Jardim da Penha), she called me yesterday and she’s doing so well and she is so firm and always goes to church and does everything wonderfully. I love her and it is so good being a missionary making a difference in people’s lives and going about doing good.

It’s been hard finding people to teach and it is wicked hard bringing people to church, and it was hard to see if I was making much of a difference or not. But when Alderina called it was so great and made everything and all the hard days and hard moments worth it. It’s all worth it in the end and you never know what a difference you are making in people’s lives.

We had a missionary work fireside last night and it was sooooo good and the missionaries in this zone are fantásticos! This is the last week of the transfer and who knows where I’ll be next week. Hopefully I’ll stay here because I love this ward so much and I don’t want to pack my bags. :) But the Lord knows what He’s doing and where we all should be and when. When you’re in the right place and the right time, miracles happen.

And what do you do when you want a miracle, you pray for a miracle.

Oh PS…. I got attacked by a bird this week. (see video)

post script- Love you all and Merry Christmas!

Brazil

Blog catch up – Happy Thanksgiving

19 January 2012

I’m sorry to Chelsea’s readers… I’ve been such a slacker on updating her blog!!
So here it goes… I have a couple months to update… starting with Thanksgiving :)

Aloha e Happy Thanksgiving!
Tis my first Thanksgiving outside of the USA and should be quite eventful! Woo hoo! Okay, probably won’t be too icredibly eventful, but I’ll do what I can. And we’ll have lunch with some of our most favorite people in Vila Velha! Almoçooo!

This week was nice and full of miracles. Miracles happen all day everyday. The people we meet… they’re so life changing.

We were doing some visits with one of our dear members, Val, and we didn’t have many people to teach. We’re searching for good peeps to teach, but all of the elect are hiding from us. We need more referrals from the members. They know lots of peeps here in Vila velha. Anyways, we were doing some fun little door knocking, and no one wanted to listen. Fantastic. Not really.
But then there was this funny little old man walking down the street and Val looked at him and told us to tlak to him so we talked to him and he basically changed the entire day. His name is Angelo.
He said he was Catholic, and that he goes to church once a year. Then he said he was Pentecostal. Then we asked him which church he goes to and he just started laughing. :) And he was laughing so hard he was knee slapping. I don’t ever want to forget him so I asked if we could take a picture with him. He said no because it’d so be ugly we’d throw the picture in the jungle. :)

We also met a police officer and he talked to us and told us his life story for a couple hours. Twas grand. He has 46 years, aka he’s 46 years old. He talked a lot about family and when we saw him he was just sitting at his desk reading the Bible. Peeps are very good Bible readers here. Tis gooood. I learn a lot from them.

We may or may not have 3 batismos this weekend. We hope and pray so! But we’ll need a miracle. Good thing miracles happen all day everyday!

We had stake conference this weekend. It was sooooooo good. I loooove conferências! They talked a lot about FAMÍLIA! THat’s what it’s all about eh? Sim. And that the most important things are family prayer, family home evening, and family scripture study. Families can be together forever!

Happy Thanksgiving and be thankful alwaysssss!
Be not weary in well doing. Galatas 6:9-10

Here in Itaparica, Sister Johnson and I have been looking for the elect. And hallelujah, a member gave us a referral of threeeee of the elect. So Adriana, Igor, and Dayane were supposed to get baptized and confirmed this weekend, but they disappeared. And by disappear, I mean that they said we cuold stop by their house to share a lesson and when we went there, everything was packed up and they had moved. Fantastico. Needless to say, we didn’t have three batisms and confirmations this weekend.

It’s been raining a lot here, but it’s fun to get stuck in a good downpour now and again. The elders had a baptism yesterday and it was lovely to see people changing and becoming happier! Leaving the church, started to rain, a lot a lot, and we didn’t have our umbrellas. How lovely. :)

Thanksgiving we ate with some of our most favorite members and it was grrrreat. Don’t know what we’ll be doing for Christmas or if I’ll even still be here. We have transfers on the 13th of dezembro.

Some wonderful scriptures this week: D&C 9:7-9 adn D&C 6:22-23

The Lord answers and hears all of our prayers. Obrigada for praying for me and know that I pray for you too