Brazil backwards starts with Liza!

  ^pretty much what best describes 2020, my mission, and this week.  So our friend Luca that ghosted us for approximately 26 days just randomly called us back today and told us he had to be under the radar for awhile bc "life as an immigrant is complicated" if you know what I mean. Anyways we were stoked that he is back on board and specifically told us "I knew you would be mad at me, but don't worry I've been reading the book". So all is well. Tudo bem.  Our pal Bobbie from Hilltop farm gave us some good advice:  Be the kind of person that when you wake up each morning SATAN says "oh no she's awake" -Bobbie  Sadly the farm days are over bc it is too cold now to do anything but we said goodbye to our friends at Joe's farm (specifically 2 hilarious Jamaicans who go back to Jamaica over winter). In case you're wondering "yeah mon" is actually legit, we've confirmed.   Story time:  So we had a friend named Vitor for a little ...

  ^a good enough reason for me This week was the primary program at church and one kid said "I'm a child of God bc my mom says I am" . It was so funny.  Vivienne! She just moved into our ward but she is originally from Guyana! She is the coolest lady you will ever meet and she told us that she was praying with her friends to find the truth and a few weeks later some missionaries went to her friend's house and they all got baptized after a few months! She has been a member of the church for 27 years now.  This week at Joe's farm we just dug up carrots for 3 hours and our hands got so dirty and stained but it was 75 degrees and it was SO nice! Right now it is literally 35 degrees (,:  Ganel-lyn Condie (an lds author/speaker) spoke to us and she said some really cool things about self worth. One part of her talk was about judgement and she said usually we judge people for things that we are uncomfortable about ourselves. It's so crazy but we all do it! We have to...

  Olá!  Highlights of this week include: -working at Bobbie's farm and Joe's farm! We harvested watermelon radishes, beets and brussells sprouts! He let us take some brussells sprouts and carrots home (:  -Chris!!! He was self-referred and he quit smoking (and swearing hah) 3 weeks ago! He is super awesome and he wants to change his life! He also speaks English which is kinda nice.  -Debbie. Still doing good and in our last lesson she said she feels way more peace in her life. Also she let us borrow her pumpkin pie spice so shout out to Debbie.  -We had TWO in-person lessons on Saturday that both went really well! We also got to see the prettiest sunset ever reflecting off the city buildings and it literally looked GOLDEN!  -THE WEATHER HAS BEEN SO NICE! It has been up to the 70's for the past 4 or 5 days and we have been studying and planning outside a lot!  -our friend Fagner (yes you read that right) came to church! A gem from church:  "Its ok ...

  My last zone conf was underwhelming and over zoom, am I surprised at this point?  Some gold quotes from it:  "Pull your chair up to the lord's table and pull a chair up for a friend too" prez mav "It feels so good to do the right things for the right reasons"  We went back to the farm w/Bobby. Sis Simp and I pretty much carried pallets to a dumpster and then chucked them into the dumpster. It was a good time.  Our ward had a drive thru Halloween party and our friend Keity came with her 3 kids! It was fun to see all the ward members and me and my comps dressed up as the wizard of oz. I was the lion and Simp was Dorothy. Pretty legit for a missionary costume I guess.  We finally talked to Debbie! (The neighbor whose mail we got). It was #worththewait bc she is going through some rough stuff and really liked talking to us! We are hopefully meeting again on Wednesday!  I shared my departing testimony at our mission fast Sunday devotional which felt weird...

  So, a new elder in our district got a positive covid test back on Sunday morning and he had been with all of us at district council. They called us and told us we had to quarantine (we were already at the church) so we left and went home and none of our friends went bc we didn't (RIP). Then they told us not to get tested. Then they told us to get tested.  So we went... Then they told us not to bc either way we would have to quarantine until Friday.  So we left.... Then they called us like 4 hours later and told us we are fine.  (^bc it had to be within 6ft for more than 15 mins w/out a mask so we are good). HALLELUJAH  Basically I went through the whole spectrum of emotion in a period of 6 hours.  This week we got to work at another farm w/our new best friend/part time G'ma Bobbie! We planted garlic and picked raspberries. It was SO PRETTY!  We did service with Foodshare where we go to certain neighborhoods and people line up and we pass out bags of ...

  This week was awesome!  We taught Luca a few times he said he just feels way happier and he has no idea why. Something funny that he said:  É muito top ter um profeta vivo -Luca (It's top to have a living prophet) like basically it's the best! YES  Another friend we found through FB watched our Portuguese Sunday school this week! His name is Charles. Good job, Charles.  A place we did service at last week called us and asked us to come back next week bc we were "the best volunteers they have ever had". Hah I guess we are just REALLY good at sorting clothes. SIS. SIMPSON'S BDAY was on Friday and we went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate! We also had to give a "training" in district council about planning which is super ironic bc I am supposed to sign up for my classes this week and I have NO LIFE PLAN.  The nicest stake missionary named sister Everette saw that we were dressed up as the cheetah girls at Zone conference and she bought us matching ch...