Brasil, Campinas Mission: 5 Years Later

It's been 5 years ago today since I returned home from my mission and there still hasn't been a day that goes by that I don't think about it.

It was the best 17 months FOR my life! When I first got home I remember thinking that it was so hard that there was no way I would encourage my daughters to serve a mission, but within a week I realized what I had learned and saw the blessings and decided that EVERYONE should go on a mission! 

So, if you are considering serving a mission, my best advice for you would be to DO IT!

I don't even remember when I made the decision to serve a mission.  Ever since I was in young womens I said I was going to go on a mission.  I like trying new things, going new places and I love the gospel so it just made sense!  I don't think I ever really prayed to get a specific answer, it just always felt right.

I entered the Provo MTC on November 18, 2009 (The day after Kyle left the Provo MTC!)

I was in a trio with Sister Hart and Sister Pike and there with District 33E we waited 12 weeks to get our visas to go to Brasil.

 At first it was hard to adjust to the busy schedule and feeling like I barely had time to even use the bathroom, but we got the hang of it and even had some fun in between.  Plus Sunday devotionals were AMAZING!

 "You ate my apple?!" 

Yes, Sister Hart took a bite of Elder Martinez' apple that he left on his desk, but we made sure to make up for it.

And Sister Pike liked to shake hands with the pine trees as we walked, but one day she touched one and said, "That is not a friendly pine tree!"

We spent Thanksgiving in the MTC,

then Christmas in the MTC,

 

 and then New Years in the MTC.

 Melanie had a box of treats, including FROZEN YOGURT, delivered to our room!

 We had matching Mondays,

 And I got to be the Host for Sister Perez!

Then that blessed first week of February we finally got our visas and were able to shave our legs again!

I flew with Elder Christensen to Brasil and the day we arrived our mission was having a multi zone conference.  Before I had ever even met my mission president, President Castro Deus, he stood up in front of half the mission and asked us to come up and bare our testimonies. In Portuguese. Otimo...

My trainer wasn't at that conference so I stayed the night with Sister Castro and Sister Santos, unable to understand anything they said. The next morning I got a bloody nose.  All over Sister Castro's pillow. I got up to try and clean it before they woke up, because the only word I knew to explain what happened was sangue, but she caught me! I felt SO bad. Then we barely made it onto the bus we needed and just as I jumped on, the doors shut between me and my backpack.  Super cliche.

 Later I met my trainer, Sister Monteiro.  We took a bus for a few hours on our way to my first area, Avare.  The very edge of the mission.  We had to stop in Botu Catu for the night though and stay in one of the Elders apartments.  Having to stay in the Elders apartments was always the worst.

For breakfast the next morning we had to walk to a store and bought what was like a little french bread and a yogurt drink.  I was still so hungry.

Avare was HARD, but I met Juliana there and she was one of the members that SAVED us and became one of my best friends!  She had a car and would come teach with us as much as she could.  We ate lunch with her family every Sunday and sometimes they'd bring us food after we got home at night too.

We had no such thing as a washer and dryer.  I spent most of P-day washing my clothes in the sink, hanging them up to dry and then walking forever to a lan house so that we could e-mail family.

We walked a lot, up really big hills too!  Far away from the church building.

I didn't understand why we didn't stay closer to the church so that people would actually walk to it on Sunday, but that's not the way it worked. We would do contacts in the streets so the people we would find to teach never lived near one another.

Avare had a little branch.  There were maybe 5 families that came to church and we ate lunch with every single one of them, every single week.

Everyone served in every way to help their branch, and the missionaries!

This is President Machado and his family.  They didn't live in Avare so it was a drive for them to come to the church a few times a week.  Once they came to our apt. with bags and bags of groceries and gas for our stove.  I wanted to cry- they were so sweet.

Sister Monteiro was only with me for one transfer, but I stayed in Avare when Sister Martinez came to be my new companion!  She is cousins with Elder Martinez, from my MTC district- small world!

The first week with her we got lost trying to find our lunch appointment and didn't have any more credits on our phone to call anyone that could help.

We'd have to have phone cards on hand to use the pay phones whenever our phone credits ran out.

We really enjoyed teaching Francielle and Alif and seeing them get baptized! 

I saw 18 people get baptized in Avare.  2 never even made it to being confirmed though.  Retention is horrible!  Mostly because a lot of investigators were only taught 3 times, visited church 2 times (one being the day of their baptism) then were baptized without ever having time to be converted in the first place.

 Irma Lucia and her family.  

She was one of the other members that helped us so much!  She took our laundry to her house a couple times to use her washer! She found my basketball shorts in there and loved them so I let her have them when I was transferred :)

Family Home Evening!

 I was with Sister Martinez for 2 transfers and then it was my turn to go to a new area.

 The night of transfers Juliana drove us to Botu Catu and I cried the entire way!

I was transferred to Jundiai with Sister Fidencio.

It was the WORST transfer of my mission.  For many reasons.  But I won't focus on those reasons here...

We got a new mission president, President Tanner, and the first time meeting him was in the middle of this horrible transfer.  His first impression of me was a person completely different than who I am.  I broke down in the interview, but whatcha gonna do?

 Luckily there was Isis and her family.  The only good part of this transfer!  And they even watch FRIENDS so it was meant to be. They took care of us and I will love them forever for it!
Oh, one other fun thing was that one of the ward members was my brothers MTC teacher in Sao Paulo and would deliver secret letters back and forth for us!

After Jundiai I was transferred to Anhanguera with Sister Batista.

This was the second transfer in a row that we were replacing Elders in an area.  Which meant again neither of us knew the area at all and again we had to spend 2 days cleaning the Elders disgusting apartment, but we survived lots better this time than before! Even though our water got turned off for a few days, then our power, then the apt. flooded.  Good times!

 Family Home Evening.

Later Maria and Loucas were baptized too!

 This is also where I met Marlene! Her son was able to get baptized, but she still needed to be married.  She wanted to though! So she started saving money, but I was transferred before she was able to get married.

 P.S. Chicken hearts are delicious! 

 I went to Piracicaba with Sister Poast!

That day she found out that it was my birthday and took me to McDonalds and bought me lunch.

This perfectly describes Sister Poast.  She knows how to LOVE and SERVE amazingly!

This was a great transfer! and Piracicaba became my favorite area.

Not only was she my partner in killing cockroaches, but when she found out that carbonation hurts my tummy she would drink all my Guarana for me when anyone served it to us!  Once it was dusty, spidery juice though... That time we both poured it in a nearby plant!

 Remember Marlene from Anhanguera?

This was the day of her wedding! I was at a multi zone conference and Sister Batista and Sister Monteiro brought her to see me since they were nearby! Such a happy day!

 Sister Poast was only with me for one transfer.  It was my first one being senior companion and the first one that nobody was baptized. My leaders gave me a hard time, but we worked HARD!

I have no regrets.

Sister Ferreira came to Piracicaba after Sister Poast and helped this family, that we had started teaching, get baptized!

 Rossana, Francielle, Thiago, and Guillerme.

David was one of the power members of this area too.  He came to teach with us all the time! And would climb the mango trees for us so that we could take mangoes home with us to eat at night!

Not long after they were baptized Thiago received the priesthood, one of the members gave him some church clothes and he was able to pass the sacrament.

One of the times I felt the spirit the strongest on my mission was when Thiago passed the sacrament to me.  I had been able to be an instrument in God's hands to help their family be baptized so they could return home, then Thiago was able to in turn use his priesthood to help me renew those same covenants so that I can make it home too. The ways we are able to bless others lives are innumerable.

 Family Home Evening!

 We spent Christmas together and went caroling to some of the members.

  

 Another amazing friend I made on my mission! Flavia helped and strengthened us so much! Another person I'll be forever grateful that I met.  This was a P-day that we went trying to find a capivara!  We never did see one though.

 After that I was transferred to Jau with Sister Stapley.

Another place with a lot of hills to walk, but that also has amazing Romeo and Juliet pastels! (goiaba and cheese inside)

This was also the part of my mission where we got lice...  So gross!

 Remember Juliana from Avare?

Her sister lives in Jau and she came to visit! I was so excited to see her again that I started crying!

Seeing her again was another tender mercy from Heavenly Father.

I stayed in Jau for my very last transfer with Sister LeBaron.

So grateful that my last one was a great one too!

 Sister LeBaron helped me WORK hard all the way until the end, with her super heavy backpack. :)  It rained a lot and we sweat a lot too!  But she knew when it was alright to have fun as well.

And she is a saint because she combed lice out of my hair.

 Family Home Evening!

 

 I got to see Aparecida and Ana Amelia be baptized before I went home and it was so happy!  We had so much fun teaching Aparecida and since then Thiago and Ana Amelia got married!

We got to do a session in the Campinas Temple,

then just like that it was over. 

I thought I still had another transfer.  My 18 month mark was 3 days before the next transfer date, but I was told that I wasn't allowed to stay later than my 18 month mark...

It left me feeling like I must not have been a very good missionary though because 6 new sisters were coming and instead of letting me stay to train, they were having a sister train during her second transfer.  Why was I going home?! Kyle wasn't there yet and I couldn't start school till the fall.

But the day I came home I had one of the top 5 most spiritual experiences as a missionary when I taught my family the first lesson.  Blessings came from that, which made coming home worth it.

I learned SO many great things on my mission and saw so many blessings!

1. I can do hard things, enduring to the end is possible.  It happens by doing the little things, daily.

2. The Lord helps you accomplish what he asks of you.  Somehow I learned Portuguese! I could have never done that on my own.

3. I came to know my Savior better and His mission here on earth.  It was never easy for Him, but He loves us and has made healing possible.  When we apply the Atonement it works.  I learned how to trust in and rely on Him.

4. I learned how to see others the way God sees them and how to love them as His children.

5. I learned so much more about how simple the gospel is and how it all fits together and makes perfect sense!

6. I learned the scriptures better and how to teach and talk about the gospel with confidence, which will help me be a better mother to my children and better serve in future callings.

7. The point of anything/everything we do is not just to be baptized, go to the temple or make it to the Celestial Kingdom, but to BECOME LIKE GOD.

8. God puts people in our lives for a reason.  Sometimes they bless us and sometimes we need to bless them.

9. If you want to love someone serve them.  Serving others helps you feel God's love for them and you.

10.  Happiness and fun are not the same thing.  There were fun moments, but my mission was not fun.  However, I was truly happy.  Choose to be happy.  Living the gospel makes people happy.

11. Getting rid of unnecessary distractions helps you feel the Spirit in your life SO much more! Having the Spirit in your life is necessary in finding true happiness.

12. True testimony comes not by convincing, but by feeling love and having spiritual experiences.

13. I became more grateful for the immense amount of blessings I have been given.

14. I saw how serving a mission blesses those we leave at home.

15. I learned how to sacrifice, work, TALK to people (like face to face) and notice others needs to put them first. 

I will forever be grateful for the opportunity that I had to be the Lord's full time missionary.  It definitely changed my life for the better by strengthening me and my testimony!

Serving a mission was not easy, but it was worth it!