Brazil backwards starts with Liza!

Well I'm pretty sure everyone already knows what's going on but last Sunday night was when we got the call from our district leader that all of the americans are going home. We literally got the call at around 11pm and they told us we were leaving the next morning. So basically we spent the whole night packing up our stuff and having random breakdowns about things like not being able to wear sandals as a US missionary.  We all went to the mission office in the morning and our mission President and his wife had a super quick devotional which consisted of a whole lot of crying and hugging and ugly pictures from all the crying that was happening. But I wanted to share a few things my mission president said:  We need to go to our next mission and decide to be happy. Satan wants us to be miserable so if we compare our missions we will be miserable and Satan will win. We can't let him win. Nobody says "my mission" anymore, everyone says "the mission" b...

We use a lot of that these days^^ Something that an angry man said to me this week: Where are you from? The US  Well you can go back there bc that is where you belong, not here *shuts door OK thanks  Happier quotes:  "Joy endures in times and through experiences that are both good and bad because of our knowledge of the Father's plan and of the Savior's Atonement"  -David A. Bednar (Jesus Christ: The True Source of  Enduring Joy) Liahona Dec. 2019  "I have come to believe that one measure of our eternal progress is how much joy we derive from service" our man Kev (who is currently unemployed) RIP @BYU This week we had Zone Conference which is always really fun. One thing that my mission Pres said to me in my interview was "If you work for the Lord, He'll work for you". I really loved that bc a lot of times we can worry about what is going on in our life, but if we focus on helping others, then God will make everythin...

I don't even know how to explain what went down in RS this week but I can testify that the prophet was inspired to only have RS twice a month. It's basically just a rant sesh with old ladies that forgot all of their social skills and feel like they deserve to talk the whole time. At one point a lady walked out bc her sister was telling her to cork it and at another point one lady walked across the room to hug another lady in front of all of us after thoroughly explaining why she adored being her ministering comp last year. Nada ver. That’s a phrase that means whatever you said or did has nothing to do with what's going on.  But now I'll try to be more missionary for you: There's a couple here named Regilane and Marcílio and their son Manoel got baptized a month ago. He's 10 and he is so cute. This family is incredible. We are so happy bc they marked a wedding date for April 18 and then, they will get baptized. We had lunch at their house last Sunday and th...

Olá So yesterday we talked to this crazy lady named Claudia. She literally said: "I am not from a religion...I'm from THE STARS." (i don't even need to explain the rest, she was just super bizarre and the worst part is that we found her address in the old address book from Elders that were in our area with all caps and highlighted "ELEITO" (ELECT). idk what those elders were doing hahaha). Afterwards I told my companion that I felt SO NORMAL, BC she said the weirdest voodoo. Thanks for that one, Elders.  I got transferred from Ubatuba to Santos! My new area is called Gonzaga and we live with 2 other sisters. One of them was in my ward at BYU and her name is Eliza and she's from California too. It's fun to live with other sisters and do stuff together.  It's also cool bc we live really close to the mission office so we actually do a lot more stuff as a zone and service projects and stuff. (BTW's when you're a missionary you a...

This week i gave a talk in church and i'm pretty sure i've spoken in this branch way more times than I ever set foot at the pulpit in Santa Cruz. My talk was based on the conference talk from Terrence M. Vinson about sacrifice and effort, also a talk that my Dad gave and sent to me (thx dad). He shares the story about Oliver Granger when he had to sell the properties when the pioneers were leaving Ohio (i think) but i love this scripture:  12  And again, I say unto you, I remember my servant  a Oliver Granger ; behold, verily I say unto him that his name shall be had in sacred remembrance from generation to generation, forever and ever, saith the Lord. 13  Therefore, let him contend earnestly for the redemption of the First Presidency of my Church, saith the Lord; and when he falls he shall rise again, for  his  a sacrifice  shall be more sacred unto me than his increase, saith the Lord. (I LOVE THIS!) My girl Miriam finally came back an...

^^famous last words of the SLT(Sister leader person).  So we had splits this week and I stayed here in Ubatuba and another sister came to spend the day with me. In the large land of Ubatuba you have to (get to) use bikes to go to the lunches bc otherwise it would waste a lot of time walking there. This sister was telling me how it had been "awhile" since she'd ridden a bike but she thought it would be fine. Long story short, when we were going out of the gate of our apt I got on my bike and l looked at her and she said "I think I'm gonna need more space". (cars go in and out of this gate btw). anyways it was a very very slow ride to lunch and had a whole lot of stopping and whole lot of people glaring at me for all of the confusion that woman caused in the bike lane, ( i think I prefer taking the 13, 10 and 7 year old to church). haha. also i found out it had been 10 years since she had ridden a bike, a long while.  Isabel went to church!!!! She is so ...