Portuguese Dreamin'

Bom dia minha gente!

It has been such a good week and I don’t have a ton  of time but I will try to explain everything.

Sister Aburto, one of the leaders of our church, visited our mission this week!! She was in Maceio so we watched her devotional broadcast to our chapel here in Sergipe. It was so fun to see all the missionaries in Sergipe and her talk was so good. She spoke about her story in joining the church, her husbands story, and a ton of other things but my favorite part was when she talked about how our purpose is to bring joy to the people we serve. Happiness can be temporary, but real, pure joy comes from the message we have to share.

We had divisions this week and I got to be companions with Sister Leite for a day- LOVE her. She is from Sao Paulo but we always make fun of her because she is practically American. She taught me a lot in just one day and I am very grateful because part of me,actually most of me, still feels like I don’t know what I am doing. As I am training, I am realizing all the things that my trainer didn’t teach me and it is frustrating because I have to teach things that I never learned myself. As a companion, she was great and we got along, but as a trainer, not as much. I am grateful to be training because I am learning so much along with my filha.

Speaking of Sister Galdino- she is still doing awesome. We do a LOT of walking in this mission, especially in our area, so she is completely exhausted but she is trying so hard and never complains which is so important. I feel so bad sometimes because I can tell how tired she is but she will adjust eventually. I remember feeling the same way. We celebrated her 1 month anniversary in the mission this week! She is still very quiet but very sweet and easy to get along with.

Visited Joiro again this week and he is almost 200 pages into the Book of Mormon!! We had a great conversation with him and his family about what he is reading and the importance of covenants. Covenants are promises between God and yourself, and it is our job to help people make covenants to draw closer to Christ. We invited them to pray about baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost, the first covenants of the gospel. They couldn’t come to church this week because of the election but are going to try next week.

Jailton… visited him again and he said he doesn’t feel like baptism is right for him. But he wants to come to church next Sunday, so we will see what happens.

Tried to visit Joice again… no luck. We will keep trying…

Miracle of the week: Eduardo and Jacira!! I don’t know if I already mentioned Eduardo but he stopped me on the street a few weeks ago and asked for help with English. I have been teaching him at his house these last 2 weeks and the last time we were there, his wife joined us too. We got to know them a little better and they asked about the church and what we do as missionaries. We explained everything and invited them to church with us, and they actually came!! Jacira especially LOVED all the classes and they said they are going to bring their 2 kids, 18 and 12, next week! All the members loved both of them and they already have friends here in the ward. I love them and am so excited to visit them again tomorrow.

Alexandre also received a calling yesterday! Nobody in our church is paid, so we all receive ‘callings’ to work in different programs and areas of the ward. Alexandre received a calling to work as the director for all the sports activities in the ward. We have soccer every week for all the youth and other sports on the weekends as well so starting this week, Alexandre will be in charge of organizing all of that. He is so excited and will be PERFECT working with all the youth. So excited for him and his family.

Another miracle of the week- I am dreaming in Portuguese!!!! Had a day this week where for some reason, I could not speak for the life of me. Sometimes I speak and people don’t understand, but this day in particular it seemed like I was back in my first month trying to form sentences. I came home feeling frustrated with myself and in my prayer that night, asked a little more desperately than usual for help with learning this language. The next morning I woke up and realized that ALL of my dreams that night were in Portuguese!! Tender mercy, for sure. Still not fluent, but I am getting there.

I think that just about wraps up our week. I am learning so much from training and we are seeing results from the work we are putting in. So tired, but I am so happy. I have been realizing this week how quickly I have come to feel at home here. I love Brasil!
Love,

Sister Lauren Mather

Photos and videos:
 Centro for pday last week
 Divisions with Sis Leite
 More monkeys(sorry they are just so cute)
One month!!!
Lizard I caught in our apartment…taking name suggestions?

Proud Mom

Someone said that my group email from last week didn't go through so apologies! Tried to find it but my inbox is a mess so I am just sending this week's update:

Yes, I am officially a ‘mom’ in the mission and my new companion, ‘filha’, is Sister Galdino! I love her already and these next 12 weeks are going to be so good. She is from a state in Brazil called Espirito Santo, which has a bunch of touristy places so I will definitely be visiting her after the mission. She is 22, and was baptized at 17 years old. She is the only member of her family so I think it shows a lot that she chose to serve.

Spent the first half of this week in Maceio for training and to meet my new companion. We left Aracaju at 1am Monday morning, arrived there at about 7am, and had training all morning with the other trainers. It was SO fun to see my CTM friends(2 of which are training too), and friends from my first transfer here in the mission as well! After training, we had a few hours to get lunch and wander the city before coming back to wait for the new missionaries to arrive. There are 19 that arrived so they came later than expected and we waited in the church for what seemed like an eternity-bless the heart of whoever brought face cards. It was fun to play with everyone and get to know some more people here in the mission. When the newbies finally arrived President spoke to us and then called the missionaries up one by one to assign them to trainers. I felt like I was gonna puke but as soon as he called my name and I went to give Sister Galdino a hug, all my anxiety left. I still feel nervous and very inadequate, but I have got some help for sure. We stayed in Maceio with some other sisters that night and came back to Aracaju Wednesday. Sister Galdino is awesome and even though I can tell she is exhausted, she is trying so hard to help in our lessons, connect with the members, and put in her full effort.

Taught Max again this week and his family had something come up Saturday so we are working on finding another Saturday for his baptism. He is the cutest.

Visited Joiro this week and it was the first time we have met with his whole family together- miracle! He is already more than 100 pages into the Book of Mormon and is determined to find a way to come to church with his family. We had a really awesome discussion about the Holy Spirit, how it testifies of truth, and that it is what he feels when he reads. His wife and daughter had questions and insights and the whole visit was so good. They are trying to come to church this upcoming Sunday!!

Joice committed to read the Book of Mormon but when we went back to follow up she still hadn’t read it. We are hoping she does…Jailton hasn’t been home all week which is frustrating but we are still working on finding a time to meet with him.

Funniest part of the week was our visit with Marcos. We taught him twice and the second time, left a Book of Mormon for him to read. When we went back to visit this week, we were in for quite the surprise. He explained to us that as an honorable man, it was his duty to tell us what we don’t know because we are being brainwashed by the church. According to him, that is why we are on missions: to be brainwashed in the prime years of our brain development. That’s why we don’t have internet, and also why we are sent so far from home- So that we don’t discover that we are actually here to be brainwashed and follow the devil. After about 30 min of nonstop rambling, I intervened and kindly but firmly explained that I chose to be here, I am very happy here, we are very well taken care of, and that brainwashing does not exist in our church. Me and my companion bore testimony and quickly left. That night, when we got home, our phone had 40 new messages, ALL from Marcos. More rambling and mostly scriptures from the Bible about who knows what. I kept deleting them to clear storage in our phone and they just kept coming. All in all I think we received over 70 messages. He isn’t a fan of the church but loves us and invited us to study the Bible with him every weekend. Don’t think we will be returning but makes for a good story. We are still receiving Bible verses from him every day.

2 more people asked me to teach English this week… still trying to figure out the details since I was gone earlier this week. I am excited to start teaching!

Training is hard and I am very tired but it has been a great start to this transfer. Sometimes I feel bad because I still don’t speak amazing Portuguese but my companion is the best and seeing as that can really make it or break it, I am very grateful. We have a lot of people to visit with a lot of potential and I have learned that as long as we do our part, God has got the rest covered. Just in the last week, I have able to speak and understand significantly more than before and I know it is because He is helping me- because I need to be able to do more now. The Lord qualifies who He calls! So grateful for my mission and for what I am learning. I love Brasil.

Sister Lauren Mather

This Is A Novel...I Am Sorry!

Happy Monday!

First of all, the most exciting part of the week- we are getting a temple in SALVADOR!! Woot woot! When they announced it yesterday in general conference(a worldwide church conference we have every 6 months), everyone went crazy. The closest temple to Aracaju is in Recife, which is an 8 to 10 hour trip and pretty expensive. Salvador, on the other hand, is only 3 hours so everybody here is ecstatic. For those who don’t know, we believe in temples, just as in biblical times, as being holy places. It is where we perform ordinances in place of our ancestors, such as baptism and confirmation, and also where marriages are held that can last not just for time, but all of eternity as well. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, which is why we have many of the same elements of His church that Christ established during His lifetime. It is the same reason we have this conference every 6 months- to listen to our apostles and prophet. We believe in the same structure Christ established and so we have a prophet and 12 apostles who continue to receive revelation and guidance for the church. God has always provided prophets because each period in time has different challenges to face. I am very grateful for our prophet and the opportunity to listen to him and other leaders of the church.

The conference was broadcast here at a chapel about an hour away in Aracaju from 1-3 and 5-7 PM. Most of the missionaries in Aracaju were there so during the 2 hour break everyone brought food and we all talked and ate with the missionaries and other members that were there. After the last session, an older couple in our ward invited us to their house and fed us dinner. They are like our grandparents here and we love them so much!(pictures attached) All of conference was in Portuguese except for the music, but I was able to understand almost everything. I am grateful to have listened to it in another language because I found that I understood the things that I needed to hear, if that makes sense. I was mentally interpreting almost everything, but the Spirit helped me feel and really internalize the parts that were important for me to understand. Definitely a very cool experience. I loved the familiarity of conference and I love that the church is the same in every part of the world. Again, just as Christ established. I have no doubt that He is at the head of this church and again, I am very grateful for that.

This week was a longer one, seeing as we still don’t have anyone really progressing. We had one person, Jailton, come to conference and I am excited to talk to him more about what he felt.

Saddest part of the week was our visit with Lindinalva. We started with a great conversation about the Plan of Salvation and Gods plan for everyone on Earth. She had a lot of questions and we were able to answer all of them. But, when we invited her to conference with us she became quiet all of a sudden and told us that the reason she agreed to meet with us that day was to give us back the Book of Mormon and tell us in person that she didn’t want to meet with us anymore. She gave a lot of reasons and we tried to reach a compromise but she had aready made up her mind. It really was kind of heartbreaking because we saw so much potential in her and were so excited to keep helping her. We can at least take comfort in knowing we did everything we could.

Regardless, we had lots of great experiences this week as well.On Thursday, we were in the same neighborhood as one of the members here in our ward and we felt like we should stop by and see how she was doing. When we got there, it was clear that she was completely overwhelmed and almost at her breaking point. She had been tending 3 of her grandkids the past 2 days and it had turned into a bit of a chaotic situation. After talking and listening to her for a while, we went to work cleaning and playing with the kids. I love kids so it was so fun for me and by the time we left that night, the house was in a much calmer(and cleaner) state. She thanked us for being ^her angels^that day and it was one of those times where I really felt like an instrument in Gods hands. We feel that a lot as missionaries and it is one of the best parts of being here.

Speaking of kids, we always see the same kids playing in the streets here and I started carrying candy in my bag to give to them-so naturally, we are all best friends now Ç) One of them, Lila, insisted on introducing us new friends to her family and we went to meet them. They just moved here and don’t have a church to attend here so we are going to visit this week and hopefully they will be interested. I am excited! Met a lot of other new people and have a busy week which is always encouraging. It is the last week of our transfer so there is a chance it is my last week here in Aracaju but I am pretty sure I will stay at least another 6 weeks. Which means Cruz will probably leave, but we wont talk about that.

Almost forgot to mention the weirdest part of the week- for our personal/preparation day on Monday, we were at the Centro with the other sisters when we ran into a Ukranian who is traveling Brazil alone but doesn’t speak Portuguese. Yeah, not really sure about the logic of that… but he spoke a little English so we were able to communicate and try to help him. Long story short, we ended up buying him a bus ticket to the airport where we are hoping he stayed safe that night. If he had stuck with his plan of staying the night in the centro, he would have been robbed or worse for sure. Again, not much logic, but to each his own, right: Every day an adventure.

Sorry these emails just keep getting longer and longer so I will wrap it up here. I love you guys so much and hope you all had a great conference weekend as well!!

Love,

Sister Lauren Mather

PHOTOS&VIDEOS: Our adventure with our Ukranian friend Viktor // Miranda and all others who knew me at college will fully appreciate this picture and understand how happy I was to find peanut butter // after conference with Meg and Marcos // so very proud of my plant

3 Hours and 5 Buses Later

Oi meus queridos!

Another great week here in Aracaju. I love it here.

We visited a LOT of people this week but the person that stood out to me the most this week was Lindinalva, the sweetest little old lady. She has already been taught by missionaries a long time back and when we gave her a Book of Mormon, she told us that she has already read the entire thing!! We ended up talking for an hour or so and she told us she feels the Spirit when she reads the Book of Mormon but doesnt want to join the church because she doesnt believe that there is only one true church. We talked about how other churches have parts of the truth and how God loves everyone here on Earth so He guides people of every religion, but our church is a restoration of the very same church that Christ established during his lifetime. I am glad that we felt prompted to ask the questions we did because otherwise we probably never would have discovered what is holding her back. We are visiting her again tomorrow and I am hoping it goes well!

Visited Marcel and Elenilton one last time... Elenilton greeted us with big hugs and we are not allowed to hug men(as missionaries) so when he came in for the hug I awkwardly put my arm in between us to block it and it was so uncomfortable but also hilarious. Never a dull moment here. We will still stop by and see how they are doing every once in a while but are not going to continue teaching them. They asked for our Facebook too so I apologize for any one of my friends that recieved one of his friend requests. He explained how confused he was that no one was accepting them: Oh Elenilton...

I attached a video of our bus incident on Saturday. We took the wrong one and ended up more than an hour from the house we were scheduled to eat lunch at. 3 hours and 5 buses later, we finally made it. It was quite the adventure.

People have asked about the heat- yes, it is hot but it hasnt been too bad yet. I didnt wear very much makeup when I came, but I have given up on everything but mascara. Anything more than that isnt worth it because I sweat it off within the hour. Nobody has AC here so everyones windows are always open and we are close to the beach so we get a breeze which helps. We are only starting Spring right now, and I am told that the heat right now is nothing compared to what it will be in Summer...pray for me.

Lots of laughs this week, and writing about everything that happened makes me more grateful to be here. I gave a talk in church today and talked a little bit about how I was not planning on serving a mission until I really came to know for myself that the Book of Mormon is true and it became really important for me. Without it, my life would be a lot harder and have a lot of unanswered questions so I hope I can bring that joy to the people I meet here.

Wishing you all a happy week and conference as well!

Love,

Sister Lauren Mather

Photos/videos: Sister Cruz found a new talent this week // solution to wearing through my favorite pair of shoes(thank goodness for superglue) // bus adventure // successful arrival at our lunch with Karen and her sweet family