Week 11-New Companion Sister Lavour

Oi minha famila! 

DONT HAVE MUCH TIME(: But thank you for all your letters and emails!!!

Curious questions...

1.  Do you cook for yourselves? We dont eat dinner because lunch is so big and we only dont have lunch once or twice a week and those days people give us food. So if I am hungry yes I cook for myself but we really dont need to. I think i have cooked 3 or 4 meals(:
2.  Do your own laundry? Yes! (: 
3.  Do you have running water (I researched news on Joao Pessoa and it looked like Centro was having some water outages of some kind)? Yes and we have hot and cold water! We do not drink that water though. We buy other water (aqua mineral)
4.  What foods are you eating (you noted some while in the CTM), but have not commented of food in the field. hahaha well I dont really know what things are called yet but A LOT OF RICE BEANS AND MEAT! hahaha and a TON of soda...... hahaha
5.  What interesting things have you done on PDays? Presidient really doesnt want us doing much on pdays. Our area doesnt have anything really good to do anyways! We are not allowed to leave our area to do things. haha We do a lot of crafts!!!!!!! (: haha last pday we went to a members house and they taught us how to make tampico. (and no its not pudding) haha Its this stuff we dont have in the US with cheese, cocnut, and meat. Its AMAZING! and really easy to make|! And the other week was independe day so we went to the other wards social... but we arent allowed to play sports or games. So we just eat and talked to people haha (:
6.  Do you see other companionships much? Yes! We meet up with sisters once a week for training (12 sisters in my district) we have to travel about a hour to meet them everyweek we take the bus, train, and cars! (taxi). We see the elders every sunday because their ward is after ours.

SO this week was transfers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got a new COMPERHEIRA!!! Her name is Sister Lavour. She is a Brazialian from Sao Paulo! All the americas I know left my area. For the next transfer I am the only english speaking person in my whole zone. I am a little nervous. A bunch of people left this transfer. There are only 30 sisters here now and 5 are american! Sister Bunch got sent to reopen an area for sisters NEAR Valentina! 

I am a little nervous, but excited because I am really going to learn portguese!!  Its going to be hard for the next few weeks but luckily I have God on myside!!!!!!!!!!  Sister Lavour is AMAZING! and so so sweet!

Well I have to go! Love all of you! Next week Ill send more pictures! 

Sister Wheatley

Week 10-1st Brazilian Parade

Oi minha familia e amigos!
Amo voces muito!!!

This week was long but good! hahaha This week as part of the mission training I was senior and my trainer went on divsao, in other areas and I was left in my area by myself with a Brazilian comp twice! .... I was scared out of my mind!!!! haha Thank goodness I had Heavenly Father on myside! 

With him, I didnt get lost once and I was able to teach full lessons in portuguese. Not perfect portguese but they understood and felt the spirit and that is all that matters!!!!!! I feel so blessed this week! AND I ALSO SPOKE PORTGUESe ALL DAY AND HAD CONVERSATIONS WITH PEOPLE AND MADE FRIENDS AND I SPOKE PORTUGUESe!!!!!! Everyone was telling me I spoke so much better by the end of the week!!! God blesses us when we do our best and have faith in him!!!!

I have developed an accent! haha People dont think I am american anymore they think im italian! haha (: Its great!

 

I got to see my 1st Brazilian Parade!!!! This week was independence week!!!! And Brazilians LOVE to party! haha I love it!!! I got to watch the parade ... the parade itself was 3.5 hours long and it was only school bands, groups with signs, and dancers. There were no blimps and only a few cars where used! It was really fun! But I got REALLY sunburnt! hahahaha worth it! (:

 

So my siblings had some questions I want to answer!

Catherine
I heard that you have lots of cats and I was excited to hear that.  Now I want to go to Brazil. ---> Katie its springtime soooooo all the cats have had there kittens and they are running around everywhere! So so so cute!

Zack
I hope your feet feel better.  Have you come up with a nick-name yet? YES!!! Its in portguese! I am sending it in a letter to you but as for now your nickname is Zman! 

Emily
How is the weather in Joao Pessoa?  Does it feel nice or is it hot? The weather. haha well take the hottest day in NC and its that everyday! hahaha But I have gotten accustomed to it! It slowly gets hotter everyday and I am a little worried! hehe (: There is a lot of wind and a little rain here too so that really helps!!!!

Brittany
I wore my boots and jeans on the beach today.  Someone even complimented me on the boots.  :-).  ahhahaha Well Bebop its burning hot here and people where jeans and boots! And the people in the parade even had on fulll outfits!!!!!!!

SO here are some cool facts about my mission!

there are only 174 missionaries in my mission. Around 40 are americans. There are only 5 american sister missionaries! haha And two leave very soon and they think not many more are going to come! Lots of Brasilinas and Hispanics! hahaha Its awesome! I love them all! <3

We teach 20- 30 lessons a week with investigators, 20-25 with less actives! There are a LOT of less actives in my area! And we have had 3 reactivations since I got here! I love them!!!

Please send me questions I love to respond to questions!
Awesome experience this week: We are having trouble with an area that is really far from the church because we have a lot of inactives and investigators living there but its a lot of money to take the bus and they dont have cars! We walk to pick them up but a lot dont want to walk 30 minutes or more to church and back!

We had been praying and an idea came up. The bishop has a 15 passenger van and we thought that maybe he could pick them up. When we had our meeting with the bishop we were so scared but we asked him. ANd he didnt even have to think about it... he just said I can do that and began setting up a plan with us! It was such a blessing and a help! We had a ton of investigators have the oppurnity to go to church because of our bishops amazing sacrfice! It mean the world to me and I know it will help so many investigators and members in that area! 

Well I have to go thank you all for your letters and for your emails! I love reading them!!!  They make me happy! hehe (:

Remember if you do your best God does the rest! Its not easy but worth it! I love my mission! I love everyday!

Oh some cool things: Eric in portguese is Icaro!!! I found that out and thought it was cool! haha 

Ate!!!!! AMo voces!!!

--

Sister Wheatley

Week 9 -First Baptism

Oi minha familia e amigos!!!

Amo voces!!

This week was really hard but ended with my 1st baptism!!!!!!!! I am so excited for her! She has such a strong testimony and she will do amazing things!!

Grandma had some questions:

So do you carry cell phones? Yes but we only use them to contact president and other missionaries. We have to be careful not to use them a lot because we are more likely to get robbed if we have them out.

What is your apartment like? complex or individual house? Its an apartment with 2 bedroms a kithen and a main room! Ill send pictures! We have cold and hot water that we use to take baths wash dishes and clothes, etc but we cant drink it. we have speacil mineral water we drink from.

is your water through using the church's filtering 3-step system? I am not sure. We have speacil drinking fountains at the church.

Ok because I dont have much time to write I have dedcided to get more organized with my letters!

Story- This week I had my first baptism. It was amazing! I had the oppurinty to sing at it with sister bunch and the spirit was so strong. I COULD FEEL THE SAVIORS LOVE FOR HER AS I SANG\! We actually got invited to sing at another baptism on Sunday and we did. It was amazing. I was struggling a little this week because I want to help people and its hard to without the language. But the Lord blessed me with two oppurinties to bring the spirit and it really helped and blessed me this week!

Update- In this mission u either lose a ton of weight or gain it. Luckily I am losing wieght like CRAZY! haha Some of my skirts are starting to be to big. I have to use a belt! haha! Its great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coisa Legal (cool thing) - I went to my first Brazilan Birthday Party!!! The CAKE WAS HUGE!!! The gave out these little stingy things with candy and it was so much fun|! The children flocked around me speaking really fast, they all wanted to learn about the american missionary and disney world?! haha

Ingressada (funny)- So there is a member who comes with us a lot!(he is amazing! A new convert of 5 months and is preparing to serve a misson. I am helping him learn english and he is helping me learn portuguese. But for some reason he is the only person I accidently insult in portuguese. For example, there is a hand gesture that we use in the usa that is really really bad in brazilian and I made it at him and he freaked out. haha he's really nice about it and helped me not do it again! hahaha Also I called him a monkey because he was bouncing all over the place and ends up when use call someone a monkey its really really bad! Poor kid! He has been helping me a lot!! I apologized so much!" (he comes with us and a another girl (its not just him and us), just wanted to clarify)

 

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful letters and emails!!!!!!! Eu amo vocªs muito e eu sei que a igreja de jesus cristo dos santos dos ultimos dias ¨ a igreja de jesus cristo!

 

 

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Sister Wheatley