(237) General Conference Weekend!

April 7, 2014

     There was SO MUCH that happened this week! We moved in with the Bosque Sisters (aka Sister Cozzens and her awesome Canadian Comp Sister Rodrigues) cuz our house is infected with bugs and getting exterminated today. We started our official English Class Wednesday and people actually showed up! I also had my first allergic reaction Saturday night! Don´t worry it was nothing serious. A bug just bit me and I guess I´m allergic to it or to whatever it had in it and I ended up with Hives all up and down my arms... Or maybe they weren´t hives... I have no idea what hives are if I´m being honest (I know nothing about allergies) but they just looked and itched like a bunch of misquito bites all over. I had at least a hundred, a hundred and fifty on each leg starting at my knee and going up and down my thighs and calves and all over my arms... Don´t worry though. Sister Cozzens and Dabelko took great care of me using her weird essential oil thingys... hahah And I am now itch free! hahah
    BUUUUUUUUUT! The big thing this past week was obviously Conference!!! It was wonderful! And did you guys hear?!?! President Tanner is going to be the 1st Counselor in the General Sunday School Presidency! Their mission ends this July and he´s starting up then! We were all so excited and cheered and everything when we heard! haha
    But yeah, Conference was so amazing! I have 32 pages of notes... mind you it was a small notebook but still... 32!! hahah I´m gonna try and share some of my favorite parts with you guys. I want to expound on all of them but there are so many so I´m probably just gonna list them all out for you guys! Enjoy!
Jeffery R. Holland: "Jesus is not a comfortable God" "Talk about man making God in his own image" (in reference to how Christ and Heavenly Father demand sacrifices of us to help us grow, and that if we are comfortable we are not growing or becoming closer to them)
Richard G. Scott: "He (Christ) can do more with our lives than we could ever do on our own."
Robert D. Hales: "When we obey, we accept His sacrifice."  "Claiming to love God while picking and choosing which commandmentswe will follow is NOT obedience OR love."
Dieter F. Uchtdorf: "We all experience times when the very fabric of our lives tear at the seams" "Because we are made of the stuff of eternity, endings are not part of our destiny. They are merely pauses, small interruptions. In this plan there are no endings, only eternal beginnings."
Jean A. Stevens: She quoted C.S. Lewis and I loved it. "I pray because I can´t help myself. I pray because the need flows out of me, waking and sleeping. It doesn´t change God. It changes me." She also said "The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not weight. It is wings. We choose if we are carried."
David A. Bednar: "Making and keeping sacred covenants yokes us to the Savior and together we press forward" "The Lord strengthens us. He does not remove the burden." "His atonement allows us to do good and be better than our natural capacities or even desires."
L. Tom Perry: "We must be willing to completely alter our course." "We must teach our spirits and our bodies to work together."
Marcos A. Aidukaitis: "One should not run through garbage."
D. Todd Christofferson: "Christ´s victory over death ended the Human Predicament. Now there are only Personal Predicaments." "Because He was ressurrected Jesus was no mere mortal, He had to have been a God. Therefore what He taught has to be true, for God cannot lie."

Sorry this is so long but Conference was just so good! If you missed it go online and watch or read it now! It was AMAZING! And even if you didn´t miss it, go online and watch or read the talks! I am so grateful to live in a time the has a living prophet and apostles! AHHHH! It´s so amazing!! =D
  I love all of you guys and am so grateful for the support and love that I feel from you! Have a fabulous week!!! =D

-Sister Rice

(230) HAPPY APRIL Y'ALL!

April 1, 2014

 Well really nothing much happened here this past week. For some reason the first week of transfers is always rough... even when nothing changes. We only had 8 lessons total last week (which was ROUGH, let me tell you.) The few lessons that we did have marked pretty much all fell through. We spent a lot of time knocking doors.... BUT we had 6 lessons yesterday, so we are already making up for it.  I am so excited to still be here in Mirandopolis.  4 transfers now! Only 2 more and I will have spent a half of my mission here. =] I hope so!
      But yeah... there´s not much to say about this past week... I decided it would be a good idea to see what would happen if I put Fanta in my super fancy water filter waterbottle... it was not. It might have been the worst idea of my mission so far... It tasted like carbony nothing with a hint of orange... but now all the little purifying ball things are permanently stained orange and any water I try to drink out of it tastes like straight baking powder with a hint of old stale orange. It is literally the worst. I don´t know why I am such an elder sometimes with all these stupid ridiculous ideas... fanta through my water filter, sucking the bone marrow out of chicken bones... JK! I have never done that, would NEVER do that... I´m just making fun of some disgusting elders.... =D And I mean I guess I can just put in the replacement filter that I have but I was totally planning on saving that one for when the zombies come...  I´ll probably just buy a cheap new water bottle. Who needs super fancy filters here anyways?? We buy all our water anyways... haha
       Oh and then we went to the temple today! I love the temple! It was great! SO  much better than last time, way less stressful and I could actually understand pretty much almost everything! Which was awesome!
      But yeah that´s pretty much it for this week... i know super lame... Oh and speaking of super lame I cant believe yall havent listened to the talk yet. =] Seriously though, it is the greatest! Listen to it when Boy Boy gets back =] and then I´ll give you another one.
     I love you all so much! Beijos!
-Sister Rice

(233)

  So I don´t have too much to say which is good cuz i only have like 15 more minutes but this week was pretty good. I can´t believe we only have one more week until the end of this transfer!! It feels like I was literally just telling y'all bout how this transfer was about to start and how weird it was going to be cuz it would be almost april when it ended and now... here we are. so weird.
     But let´s see. Real quick so stories for y'all.  So we live next to a 7th day adventist church right?? And they´re always singing and everything and Sister Dabelko and I actually now know a bunch of their songs cuz we hear them all the time, and so last night they were having a service and their doors were open like always and we went and asked if they had any cds we could buy of their music, cuz we like it so much.  They were so excited. Two mormon missionaries, asking for cds! hahahah we both ended up with two books, a dvd, and a cd that they just gave us! hahaha of course i cant use half of it for like a year still but it was so funny and awesome! haha plus we got to see what the inside was like, which I have been dying to know since I got here. haha
    Let´s see. what else. Oh also, I spent half an hour picking little baby ants out of my bowl of granola.  I accidently forgot to put the bag in my big tupperware to keep them out and they were swarming! But it was kind of the only thing I had left since it was the end of the week. and so like half an hour and 40 ants after i poured my bowl I gave up and decided i need the extra protein anyways and drown it all in yogurt! hahah oh the life of brazilian missionaries.
     But yeah I have no more time... I love you. Look up the talk "His grace is sufficient" by Brad Wilcox this week! But you cant just read it. you HAVE TO find a recording of it! Listen to it together. It is AMAZING!
     Sorry this letter is so lame. Love you bunches and bunches!

-Sister Rice

(226)

Weellllll....

    It´s only been like 4ish days since I emailed cuz of silly carnival buuuuuuut I am so grateful for Pday today! Sister Dabelko and I have already taken one 2 hour nap today and I most definitely plan on taking another if I can! But yeah this past week was pretty good... goodness I really dont have that much to write about... ummm ok.

    So the good news of the week! So last week all the youth of the church went camping right during carnival to get away and we had 4 investigators who went and one of them, Ian, came back and wants to go on a mission now! He´s not even baptized yet and he went to mission prep this past week! He´s been coming to church the past month so we are hoping to finish up teaching him this week and for him to be baptized this Sunday! We are so excited! It will be my first baptism here! =D and he is so cool and so solid and so excited!

     Also. more big news... well... "big"... but apparently starting this next transfer any missionaries who have been waiting on their visa for longer than two transfers and finally get it have to go back to the MTC for two weeks when they finally get down here.... bahahahaha. Goodness. That SUCKS. Seriously. Some of these people are more than halfway through their missions....(Sister Ray, my MTC comp is still in New Mexico waiting... and we´re about to hit halfway...) and they finally get their visas and have to go back to the MTC... wow. I am so glad I got here before that... BUUUUT  it will probably be good cuz it will help them adjust better I guess, and get used to the language again and might get rid of the first week depression/culture shock/general feeling of complete death.... hahah I hope.

     Also as a random side note, can I just say how HIL-LAAAAAR-IOUUUSSSS it is how terrified people are of us here.  And like I don´t know how I am just now noticing it... but seriously, people are down right terrified. They see us coming down the street and will literally do anything to avoid us talking to them.  Most people just like all of a sudden have a terribly pressing phone call or something like that but some people are just so hilarious with the things they do to get away from us.  One guy saw us coming like two minutes ahead of time and apparently had to spend that time bent over tying his already perfectly tied shoes... and quite literally the second we passed they were magicallyall done and he booked it... hahah and then yesterday! We stopped to talk to this lady and she freaked and started walking across the street as fast as she could... the street full of heavy traffic.... Sister Dabelko and I completely lost it. It was so funny. This lady would rather risk getting hit by a car and dying than talking to us for 15 seconds at the most and accepting a picture of Jesus... It´s completely ridiculous.  Especially when you think about the fact that we are just two completely clueless americanas who really have no idea what we are doing ever... buuuuuuut apparently we are terrifying... because we want to talk to people about Jesus... tudo bem. tudo bem.

   I don´t really have that much more to write about today... I hope yall have a fantastic week full happiness and joy and love and ice cream and your favorite movies. =D Love you all!

-Sister Rice

P.S. haha look! a ps! I guess I did have more to write! So I have an assignment for yall actually. Go and look up the talk "Lessons from Liberty Jail" by Jeffery R. Holland and read it together as a family this Sunday night, or I guess whenever you have time... It is fantastic. Read it. Do not forget. I will be asking you about it and expect everyone to email me and tell me their favorite parts and why. =D haha yall wont regret it! =] love you!!

(219)

  I´m not quite sure how to start this... This week has been really really big actually. Full of fabulous stories and wonderful insights and lots of crazy people.  But let´s see.... I guess I´ll start with Carnival... Oh Carnival! ...turns out Carnival in Sao Paulo is actually extremely disappointing... at least in our area. The whole world leaves and goes to the beach or to family or just somewhere else to party, members and non members, which leaves us missionaries here by oursleves with no one to visit and a normal work schedule... It was interesting... Actually it wasn´t as bad as I thought it was going to be... We did a booth!! On the side of the road! And handed out pamphlets and talked to everybody waiting at the bus stop near by and gave out candy! It was kind of one of the most exhausting things I have ever done! hahah But we figured it would be infinitely more effective than knocking empty houses and really it was... We got 80 conversas... ummm aka "conversations".... The goal for the mission is 70 for a whole week. And we got 80 in one day... We ended up with 126 conversas for the whole week!! It was crazy! But yeah so that was a great met a lot of people... met a lot of crazy people.... but it was good. =]
     Annnnnnnnd then one of my life long dreams finally came true this past week!! I finally ate from a Food Truck!! hahah We pass this food truck every single day and I know it´s recommended that we don´t eat off the street but OHMYGOODNESS I dont think I´ve ever had a better hot dog IN MY LIFE.  The hot dog was fried and put in this delicious roll thingy with melted cheddar and catipury ( a type of cheese that is literally straight from heaven...) corn, tomatoes, mustard, and mash potatoes!! NOOOOOSSSSSAAAAAA. It is offical. I am eating all of my hot dogs with mash potatoes for the rest of my life... Oh it was delicious.
    Oh and also I ate corn ice cream this week... also surprisingly delicious.
   But on to the important thing... The big thing of this past week... I was brushing my teeth the other day (isn´t that when all the big things happen haha =])  and I realized that I had changed... Like I have really changed. And it´s funny. I remember before I came out on my mission I did not want to change. That sounds bad but I was afraid of changing... I was afraid of coming back different. Of not being me anymore. And I realized yesterday actually that it´s happened... I´ve changed. And I can barely write it out to you guys with out starting to bawl like a baby in this puny little lan house. I am different and I don't really know how to explain it. I know my Savior now and I think I am finally starting to understand Heavenly Father´s plan for us and what it means to be trucly converted to the Lord and to have no more disposition to to do evil... Because I truly feel that way.  I realized today that absolutely nothing is worth risking being with my Heavenly Father and Savior forever encircled in the arms of their love with my family for all of eternity.  There is nothing that the world could offer that would be even the tiniest bit worth risking that happiness and love.  And I want to promise everybody who reads this, with all the power and authority that comes with my sacred calling as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ that He loves you and will help you no matter what you may have done or even not be doing. He loves you. And you can accomplish anything through Him.

-Sister Rice

(212) HAPPY ONE YEAR SINCE RECEIVING MY MISSION CALL TO MEEEEEE!

Yup. That´s right. It was one year ago yesterday that I received my mission call to serve in the Brazil Sao Paulo South Mission... and now look at me! Stylin my way through the incredibly uneven streets of Brazil with my disgusting strappy shoes, broken Portugues, and Americana charm.=]  How did I even get here?? I have no idea...
     But yeah. First things first. Rachy Rach. I got your letter! It was so delightful to hear from you! I would write you back but I kind of still havent figured out how to send letters there yet... but yeah it was wonderful!! And BEKAHHHHHH! You have a baby!!! I don´t know if you read these but OHMYGOODNESS I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU GUYS! I have been praying for you and every time I´ve been to the temple so far I´ve put your names in and I am so HAPPY!!! =D AHHHHHHH
     ALRIGHT! Now for the good story stuff! Starting with the best! We had NINE investigators at church again yesterday!! 6 of them walked themselves to church without a ride from a member and 2, Elaine and her daughter, where formers who we stopped teaching my first transfer here and just decided to get up and come to church for the first time yesterday morning!!
     Oh and we have SEVEN people on date right now!! Josy and her 4 kids, Diane and a girl name Nayara! They are all so awesome and I love them all so much!
     We also were invited to an English class this past weekend as well... It´s with the other ward (we´ve been trying to start our own for like a whole transfer now but its not really going yet...) and it´s actually really funny cuz the guy teaching it was one of Garrett Egan´s (one of my really good friends from out at school) companions while he was serving down here. He was just like "hey! do you know garrett egan??" And I was like "uh heck yes I know garrett egan!" And then he was all like "Awesome! He was my companion! You should come help with my english class!" hahha So we did. It was fun. It was mostly just a bunch of old ladies trying to learn a little english (this weeks lesson was on asking personal questions politely... It was full of "Just out of curiosity"s and "If you don´t mind my asking"s... I was dying the whole time...) from this super energetic 21 year old Brazilian.... It was fabulous. We are definitely going back this week.
     Let´s see what else happened? Oh. I officially became an elder... or at least when it comes to eating food. I may or may not have at one point this past week consumed a giant bowl of nothing but Jello, frosted flakes, and sweetned condensed milk.....It was the greatest and the worst thing I´ve ever had in my entire life... hahah There was also supposed to be fruit with it and those things were just supposed to go on top of the fruit (jello i understand... but frosted flakes?? really?? annd the brazilians have a crazy unhealthy obsession with sweetened condensed milk... they put it on and in everything....) and somehow I ended up just eating those things... Dont Judge Me. =]
     And now for the spiritual thought. =] This weeks spiritual thought is brought to you from my wonderfully fabulous friend Elder Lincoln Sherwood who is currently serving in Houston, Texas waiting for his visa for Porto Alegre Brazil.  Apparently they had a big something down there in the stake he is serving in about missionary work and this was in his email this week, and I really enjoyed it....:
   "Stop praying for the missionaries to find people and start praying for you to find people. Missionaries are not there so you can help them but so we can help you! Stop feeling guilty about not doing missionary work and start enjoying the blessings of doing it! The Lord is preparing people every day. Alma 13:29."
    BOOM! So yeah! Get on out there and start helping the missionaries in your ward!! They will love it!
    Sorry! I once again am out of time! But just know that I love you all very very very much and that I am so grateful for all of your love and support and prayers!! Love you!!
-Sister Rice

(205) Stories Stories Stories

This past week was so crazy! Bobby, our dog/our neighbors dog, totally got our this past wednesday while we were trying to leave to go to District Meeting... and we ending up chasing him up and down all the streets around our house for like 20 minutes... it was horrible. hahah Everybody on the street was just staring and laughing at us, the two americanas, chasing after this HUGE black lab... AND THEN he straight up went out to the main road and almost got hit by a bus... A BUS. We almost killed Bobby! Do you know how horrible that would have been?!? The WHOLE mission knows about Bobby and for the rest of our missions we would have been the Sisters who killed Bobby! And how awkward would that have been to go back and tell Christine and Gilberto... "hi uh sorry but your dog is laying dead in the middle of the street up on Jabaquara... sorry bout that... uh gotta go...district meeting..." yeah that would have been a little awkward...

     Oh and then we had lunch with them this past week to and during lunch they tell us that if we see any strange looking little bugs in our house we need to come get them cuz Bobby has these bugs and you can´t kill them and they stick onto you......... aka bobby has ticks... TICKS.  and not like he just has one.... no this freaking dog has ticks like some dogs have fleas... I have no idea where they came from/keep coming from... We saw one on our ceiling Thrusday night and went and got her and were like "uhhhh one of those bugs are in our house" and so she comes in and is all like "yup. you´ve got them all over!" and she proceeds to collect up like 5 of them.... FIVE.  and half of them were the size of beans... BEANS.  It was one of the grossest moments of my life.... we have since found 5 more... aka we are living in tickcity... because of freaking Bobby... sometimes I really cant tell if i love that dog or just hate him... hahah

     Let´s see what else?? Oh one of the ladies we had lunch with this past week said that she was amazed with how much my Portugues has improved and that I almost speak without an accent! I have no idea when that happened but !!!! How exciting is that?? =] I will know this language and become Brazilian!!!

     Also just a warning... I am totally going to have hippy hair when i get back... I am NOT cutting it down here (I can only imagine what a nightmare that would be trying to explain a hair cut in portugues...) and it´s already halfway down my back... I´m so excited. =]

      OHHHH! Guess how many people we had at church yesturday?!?!?!!? 13!! Yup that´s right! Thirteen people!! Eight investigators and 5 less actives! Sister Dabelko and I pretty much had no idea what to do with all of them. It was so crazy. I never thought I would ever have that many people at church, it was wonderful. We have been having really rough weeks these past couple of weeks and this was just such a blessing. And I am so grateful!

      And also. So ever since I first got here and saw my first Brazilian Prostitute here I have wanted to teach all of them so badly (we have a ton since you know what have all the rich people of Brazil in our area. Seriously I never thought I would come to Brazil and work with people a bajilion times richer than me...) or at least give them all Law of Chastity pamphlets... you know, some literature for while they´re workin the corner... Well.... guess who taught her first prostitute??? That´s right. This Sister Missionary! And quite actually she is the most amazing person I have met so far here in Brazil. Seriously I don´t think I have ever loved a person more... well at least since coming here to Brazil. Her name is Marcela and like I said she is amazing. She has a HUGE testimony in Heavenly Father and totally lit up when she realized that we were missionaries and talked to us for like 45 minutes and told us we had to go and talk with her and her family (she lives with her mom and sister and nieces).  Talking with her about Heavenly Father and her testimony was wonderful and I was so full of love for her, but it was also one of the saddest moments of my mission and maybe even my life... She is 34 years old and have been a prostitute for the past 14 years because she was good at doing hair... I don´t think I´ve ever heard anything sadder in my life.  I was almost crying the whole time we were talking to her.  Here was that amazing wonderful person who really honestly thought that all she could do in her life was sell her body for money... I have never wanted to teach someone the gospel more in my life. I have absolutely no doubt that it would help her.  This gospel is for everyone and helps everyone in every single situation. I don´t know if I will get to be the one that teaches Marecela (she doesn´t live in our mission) but I do know that this gospel can help her.

   Buuuuut I´ve gotta go! I have 20 seconds! ahhh! how do i always run out of time! I love you all!

-Sister Rice