September emails
September 7th
Well, this week was great. But today is a holiday. So the merciful internet house will let me have this email. Thank goodness! But I will see what I can do! Next week will be better.
Monday this week out washing machine broke and we have been without a way to wash our clothes. Then Wednesday our water was cut and we do not know why. But since this weekend is a holiday, no one is working until tomorrow. So tomorrow we have a person coming over to look at it. Thank GOODNESS! We went over to the relief society presidents house this morning to shower and wash clothes because it has been a week! SINCE I SHOWERED! EWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!
But now I am clean! And good news! I don't have my camera agora, but Junietson found a place in Natal that will fix it! So next time I will have pictures!
Sorry, it is so short!
I am still alive! Love Brazil! Miss showers! But I cannot complain....or at least I am trying not to complain about the shower thing :P
Love you all!
Sister Thomson
Monday this week out washing machine broke and we have been without a way to wash our clothes. Then Wednesday our water was cut and we do not know why. But since this weekend is a holiday, no one is working until tomorrow. So tomorrow we have a person coming over to look at it. Thank GOODNESS! We went over to the relief society presidents house this morning to shower and wash clothes because it has been a week! SINCE I SHOWERED! EWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!
But now I am clean! And good news! I don't have my camera agora, but Junietson found a place in Natal that will fix it! So next time I will have pictures!
Sorry, it is so short!
I am still alive! Love Brazil! Miss showers! But I cannot complain....or at least I am trying not to complain about the shower thing :P
Love you all!
Sister Thomson
September 14th
This week was really weird. I don't know why but it was just weird. We talked with a lot of people. Went to the beach again. But only got to look at it from afar. But it was cool! I have pictures because Elder Carvalho let me use his camera. It was legit!
We found this new kid Christian. He likes to be called Kikito. He went to church and Sister Rodrigues was sitting with him and I was sitting with another investigator and Sister Rodrigues was talking over Cristian, And he told her that he wanted to pay attention to the speaker and that she should stop talking. Then after in his house he was telling me about this and he said more or less: Just think my first Sunday in your church and the MISSIONARY was talking during a talk! How would YOU feel? haha, he has a great sense of humor. He is now just giving her a bad time! But he is crazy funny!
Marcos and Graça will be baptized soon! just a little bumpy road there.
We found a road. Rua do Quadro. The road of the quadro. I think quadro is square. But almost everyone of this road is already baptized. They all know the missionaries, but none of them is in church on Sunday. So we are going to work really hard in reactivation. IN the branch we normally have 40 o1 r 50 people in the church. lots of primary, But we have almost 500 less active. How horrible! We are going to work on that one.
Love you all! miss you a lot!
Working hard here! So I hope you are all working hard there! One thing that I wish I did more before my mission is to invite more people to come to church. to listen to the missionaries. I remember my little sister invited one of her friends to a church activity. Sammie is such a great example for all of us. Invite our friends and neighbors. So invite someone to come to church with you! talk to the missionaries. And then send me an email and tell me about it!
Love you all! Until next week!
Sister Thomson
We found this new kid Christian. He likes to be called Kikito. He went to church and Sister Rodrigues was sitting with him and I was sitting with another investigator and Sister Rodrigues was talking over Cristian, And he told her that he wanted to pay attention to the speaker and that she should stop talking. Then after in his house he was telling me about this and he said more or less: Just think my first Sunday in your church and the MISSIONARY was talking during a talk! How would YOU feel? haha, he has a great sense of humor. He is now just giving her a bad time! But he is crazy funny!
Marcos and Graça will be baptized soon! just a little bumpy road there.
We found a road. Rua do Quadro. The road of the quadro. I think quadro is square. But almost everyone of this road is already baptized. They all know the missionaries, but none of them is in church on Sunday. So we are going to work really hard in reactivation. IN the branch we normally have 40 o1 r 50 people in the church. lots of primary, But we have almost 500 less active. How horrible! We are going to work on that one.
Love you all! miss you a lot!
Working hard here! So I hope you are all working hard there! One thing that I wish I did more before my mission is to invite more people to come to church. to listen to the missionaries. I remember my little sister invited one of her friends to a church activity. Sammie is such a great example for all of us. Invite our friends and neighbors. So invite someone to come to church with you! talk to the missionaries. And then send me an email and tell me about it!
Love you all! Until next week!
Sister Thomson
September 21
This week was pretty strange.
Funny Things:
Milena (8) was doing my makeup one day. And she put some lip gloss on my and João (4) Yelled ´´I want to smell´´ and grabbed my face and got really close to smell my lips and almost gave me a big kiss.
We were at mateus´ house asking him why he was not at church and his grandma who is really old sat down in a chair without a seat and got stuck. And didn't say anything for like 5 mins. Until my companion saw her and asked her what she was doing. But she was just chilling there.
Weird things that happened this week:
We gave Graça a picture of the temple and it blew up. It was supposed to be something cool. A goal for their family to go through the temple. And then we started talking about why not everyone can go through the temple and baptisms for the dead and this is where you can be sealed to your family. And she started asking about how the sealing works and I told her that she needs to ask someone that has been through a sealing to see how it works because I have never done that. And Sister Rodrigues too has never been sealed. And then she was asking us how can we be on the mission when we do not know all of the doctrine and then she started telling us that we cannot invite her to be go through the sealing or to be baptized if we do not know the doctrrine of the church! WHAT! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! DONT KNOW THE DOCTRINE! ugh. but it was really weird because normally Graça is loving and open. But this day she was spitting fire. There was NO love here. And she also told us that if she has to drop coffee then she dosent want to get baptized. and that she can go be baptized in any other church without ditching coffee. WHAT DE NOVO! But this time Marcos is pronto! he is ready and waiting on her. But wait it gets better. Then last night when we were at her hosue she was telling sister Rodrigues that she cannot leave because she is a part of their family. But not me. That I need to have another family. So I was thinking about every other family that i have taught on my mission! Janet! Rosinede! Marlo! Manuela! Marcos! And then she said No I need to have a family here in Canguaratama with a mother and father and children. And I told her nope. I just have you guys and then she laught and gave me a weird look. SOOO moral of the story. I dont really know what happened to the investigators in Canguaratama but they LOVE all the other missionaries that came before me. But not me. So I can only hope that when I leave they will say the same great things about me.
And the MIRACLE OF THE WEEK!
Fabio. The kid that said he would never get baptized. There was a barbaque with marcos and graça this week and he was there talking to elder shakespear. And Elder told him some things pretty bluintly. Then at church Lessandro gave a talk from heaven. It was about the timing of the lord. And there is a time for everything. But he told a story about one of his missionary companions that died this last week in Gilbert Arizona. He was rock climbing and fell. Lessandro said that you have to do things now because tomorrow might be too late. Then fabio asked Sister Rodrigues if he wanted to be baptized if he needed to have an interview with elder Carvalho. She said yep. He went to elder on his own. Passed the interview. And was baptized within the hour. WHAT?! it was the purest baptism that I will ever see in my life. He cried afterwards and said for the first time in his life he is 100% happy.
Just remember. When you are having a hard time. When people are telling you crap like you do not know the doctrine of the Church. Just remember that miracles are real. your prayers will ALWAYS be answered. Heavenly Father loves you. He hears all of your prayers. He loves you and knows exactly what you are going through.
I love you all! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!
Até mais!
Sister Thomson
Funny Things:
Milena (8) was doing my makeup one day. And she put some lip gloss on my and João (4) Yelled ´´I want to smell´´ and grabbed my face and got really close to smell my lips and almost gave me a big kiss.
We were at mateus´ house asking him why he was not at church and his grandma who is really old sat down in a chair without a seat and got stuck. And didn't say anything for like 5 mins. Until my companion saw her and asked her what she was doing. But she was just chilling there.
Weird things that happened this week:
We gave Graça a picture of the temple and it blew up. It was supposed to be something cool. A goal for their family to go through the temple. And then we started talking about why not everyone can go through the temple and baptisms for the dead and this is where you can be sealed to your family. And she started asking about how the sealing works and I told her that she needs to ask someone that has been through a sealing to see how it works because I have never done that. And Sister Rodrigues too has never been sealed. And then she was asking us how can we be on the mission when we do not know all of the doctrine and then she started telling us that we cannot invite her to be go through the sealing or to be baptized if we do not know the doctrrine of the church! WHAT! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! DONT KNOW THE DOCTRINE! ugh. but it was really weird because normally Graça is loving and open. But this day she was spitting fire. There was NO love here. And she also told us that if she has to drop coffee then she dosent want to get baptized. and that she can go be baptized in any other church without ditching coffee. WHAT DE NOVO! But this time Marcos is pronto! he is ready and waiting on her. But wait it gets better. Then last night when we were at her hosue she was telling sister Rodrigues that she cannot leave because she is a part of their family. But not me. That I need to have another family. So I was thinking about every other family that i have taught on my mission! Janet! Rosinede! Marlo! Manuela! Marcos! And then she said No I need to have a family here in Canguaratama with a mother and father and children. And I told her nope. I just have you guys and then she laught and gave me a weird look. SOOO moral of the story. I dont really know what happened to the investigators in Canguaratama but they LOVE all the other missionaries that came before me. But not me. So I can only hope that when I leave they will say the same great things about me.
And the MIRACLE OF THE WEEK!
Fabio. The kid that said he would never get baptized. There was a barbaque with marcos and graça this week and he was there talking to elder shakespear. And Elder told him some things pretty bluintly. Then at church Lessandro gave a talk from heaven. It was about the timing of the lord. And there is a time for everything. But he told a story about one of his missionary companions that died this last week in Gilbert Arizona. He was rock climbing and fell. Lessandro said that you have to do things now because tomorrow might be too late. Then fabio asked Sister Rodrigues if he wanted to be baptized if he needed to have an interview with elder Carvalho. She said yep. He went to elder on his own. Passed the interview. And was baptized within the hour. WHAT?! it was the purest baptism that I will ever see in my life. He cried afterwards and said for the first time in his life he is 100% happy.
Just remember. When you are having a hard time. When people are telling you crap like you do not know the doctrine of the Church. Just remember that miracles are real. your prayers will ALWAYS be answered. Heavenly Father loves you. He hears all of your prayers. He loves you and knows exactly what you are going through.
I love you all! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!
Até mais!
Sister Thomson
September 28
Well, this week I think was one of the hardest weeks in my mission. We had transfers and although I like my new companion she is CRAZY! Everything has to be her way and the first thing she did was clean EVERYTHING in the house. Even things that were already clean. I mean this would make sense if she was moving into a house that had elders. But this is a house that Sisters have cleaned since 2009. Minha Nossa! And she is picky all the way down to the way that I walk. If I am not walking the right way she gets all upset. WHAT? It's the way that I walk! UGH! This will be a transfer to remember. But she is ready to work in Canguaratama, which is good because almost the whole city is baptized. So that is why we are now calling Canguaratama, Novo Utah. We will see how that one plays out.
Everyone in the city has changed over the last 2 days. Everyone loved Sister Rodrigues. Which is good because they need to love their missionaries. But now NO one of our investigators is being really welcoming to us. We went to help Graça with a party for her grandson and she was REALLY cold and told us that she didn't want help anymore. And we are going to pass by her house today but my companion wants to cut her and Marcos. BUT SHE DIDNT EVEN GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO LIKE HER!
Fabio. I cried. We passed by his house the first day and he was a little strange. But mostly just sad. Then 2 days later we passed by his house and was talking apostasy. He was saying HORRIBLE things and that he was only baptized because it was the desire of his heart and that he was telling sister Rodrigues to leave the church and a BUNCH of crap. He was not confirmed Sunday, and I don't know! I think the worst part was that he was telling Mozinho (a recent convert that is getting ready to go to the temple in December) that we brainwashed him and that he doesn't know anything because he hasn't read the bible. And it is easier to ´´get´´ people that have not read the bible. BUT on the contrary, I personally think that people who REALLY read the bible will know that the church is true because there are SO MANY things in the bible that talk about the church! It is impossible NOT to believe in this!
Yep. But we cleaned the chapel. And there is a big area behind the chapel that I got to use fire to clean! It was super cool! And we are going to finish it next week! I'll send pictures! We are going to make a field where people can play soccer and other games. BBQ. Uma coisa assim. It will be really cool!
And other REALLY cool thing! Last night I got to see the Women's Session in Natal! It was really cool because I got to watch it in English! With other American sisters! I am just praying that I can watch the other sessions in English too!
Love you all! Thank you for everything! For real!
XOXO
Sister Thomson
Everyone in the city has changed over the last 2 days. Everyone loved Sister Rodrigues. Which is good because they need to love their missionaries. But now NO one of our investigators is being really welcoming to us. We went to help Graça with a party for her grandson and she was REALLY cold and told us that she didn't want help anymore. And we are going to pass by her house today but my companion wants to cut her and Marcos. BUT SHE DIDNT EVEN GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO LIKE HER!
Fabio. I cried. We passed by his house the first day and he was a little strange. But mostly just sad. Then 2 days later we passed by his house and was talking apostasy. He was saying HORRIBLE things and that he was only baptized because it was the desire of his heart and that he was telling sister Rodrigues to leave the church and a BUNCH of crap. He was not confirmed Sunday, and I don't know! I think the worst part was that he was telling Mozinho (a recent convert that is getting ready to go to the temple in December) that we brainwashed him and that he doesn't know anything because he hasn't read the bible. And it is easier to ´´get´´ people that have not read the bible. BUT on the contrary, I personally think that people who REALLY read the bible will know that the church is true because there are SO MANY things in the bible that talk about the church! It is impossible NOT to believe in this!
Yep. But we cleaned the chapel. And there is a big area behind the chapel that I got to use fire to clean! It was super cool! And we are going to finish it next week! I'll send pictures! We are going to make a field where people can play soccer and other games. BBQ. Uma coisa assim. It will be really cool!
And other REALLY cool thing! Last night I got to see the Women's Session in Natal! It was really cool because I got to watch it in English! With other American sisters! I am just praying that I can watch the other sessions in English too!
Love you all! Thank you for everything! For real!
XOXO
Sister Thomson