Pictures from the MTC in Brazil and Sao Paulo Temple

Re: I thought of a really funny subject header in the temple, and now i forgot it

Ola!!

YOU GUYS I LEAVE FOR THE FIELD IN 5 DAYS. Am I ready? LOLS NO. But I dont think anyone is ever really ready. Its like when you just throw your 3 year old in the pool and say "swim!! And do it with the spirit too!!" Ok not actually, but it kind of feels like that.

There is still SO much i have to learn, sometimes when i flip through the dictionary i get overwhelmed by all the words i dont know in this language. But it's a coming!

OK HEY MOM, I thought it would entertain you to know that I still "scream-sneeze" and it still scares the pants off of everyone around me. I did it after a devotional in front of the whole CTM and it was freaking funny, but its okay, at this point im used to getting those "wait that was you???" looks after I sneeze.

Inside look into mine and Sister Mcknight's relationship: the other night we were in the bathroom getting ready for bed, and she was all finished, so i asked her if she could brush my teeth for me while i finished scrubbing my face. And she did. It was a beautiful moment of companionship service :-)

We also came up with the best ice breaker question ever: if you were to film a music video taking place in a public restroom, what song would it be to? My choices were "grandma got runover by a reindeer" (classic) and "partition" by beyonce. Other answers included: love the way you lie, cheerleader, the star spangled banner, and so on. SO if you want email me your answers!!! hahaha or not...........

HERES THE THING: My district is a freaking hoot. We have so much fun together its ridiculous. It makes it difficult to "Jejum ingles" (english fast=no speaking english) when were all together because we just tell so many stories and have such a ball.

There's a whole district of brazilians going to Santa Maria with me!! everytime the elders see me we all just yell "SANTA MARIA!" and it's a good time. I also have this district of elders that likes me because they think it's cool that im from california, so every time they see me they say "hang loose" and we do that hand signal back and forth to eachother. It's funny because mcknight is always like "HEY IM HERE TOO" and she calls them my "posse". 

OK so in one of our devotionals, the speaker shared this really amazing quote and that i want to share with y'all too:

"The more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. We become more significant individuals as we serve others. We become more substantive individuals as we serve others-indeed it is easier to "find" ourselves because there is so much more of us to find" - President Spencer W. Kimball

I love that! I definitely do not want to be the same person when I come home as I was when i left. I want that substance, that pure love of Christ to guide my life and my actions. Being a missionary is so amazing because i have 18 months to focus on the needs of others, not myself. So that is my message for this week. Serve and love everyone and Christ would, and you will find that when you fill your heart with Christlike love, something wonderful happens in your heart and in your life. 

 

Bouta jejum ingles for 17 months,

Sister Lipps

PS I don't think ill have another pday until next next monday, so ill talk to y'all in 12 days!

The week we forgot to invite our investigator to church.... oh wait that was every week

HEYYYYYYYY,

Tomorrow is one official month since I left the states! It simulataneously feels like its been 17 weeks and also 17 hours. Its hard to explain... Ok let's just jump right in!

S/O to my three years of high school Spanish courses for coming in clutch the first three weeks here. But by week four Ive officially forgotten all my Spanish and replaced it with Portuguese. You ran your course, Tchau Espanol!

Thanksgiving last week so pretty cool, we had a solid traditional Turkey lunch, and then had a devocional that was broadcasted from the Provo mtc. No traditional Thanksgiving nap though :/ Maybe in 2 years! The day after Thanksgiving officially means Christmas, so we sang a bunch of hymns together and had a countdown to light a bunch of Christmas Lights in the courtyard. THEN WE ATE SORVETE! (ice cream).

Oh okay so pertaining to my subject line, YEAH OK MCKNIGHT AND I ARE DUNCECAPS. Basically theres no good excuse, we just freaking forgot. And he was supposed to be "baptized" this Saturday and he couldnt because he hadnt been to church and it was an awkward conversation to have because hes like "my family is coming to my baptism! even though were having all these whatever problems" and we were like "Oh yeah so we have to talk about that........." and then we told him and he said "But i believe in God and the whole church and everything" and we just said "SENTIMOS MUITO SO SORRY WE ARE NOT PERFECT BUT THE CHURCH IS STILL TRUE". And thats a basic summary and I already cried about but its safe to say that we learned our lesson.

OH i was giving a lesson about the Word of Wisdom (physical health) and I accidentally said "God wants you to have saudade" instead of "saude" (health) and saudude means "longing" or to miss someone and he was so confused but it was hilarious.

Okay heres a short list of other funny things that happened this week:

My district always sings the harry potter puppet pals song and we've gotten pretty good at it and we sang it for our instructor and he cried laughing.

I got hit in the face with a volleyball, like smack in my cheek, after one ouf your Hispanic elder friends kicked it and he felt SO bad but really it was hilarious and was only numb for a few minutes HA.

One morning i woke up and watched Sister Mcknight bang her forehead on the side of our bunkbed, really hard, and i tried to rush down the ladder to make sure she was only and i slipped on the ladder and fell and banged up my legs pretty good but we both just looked at eachother after all these events conspired in a period of 10 seconds like, "we're a mess" and it was so so funny and i still have the bruises to prove it.

I wore a green dress the other day and ever since then my instructor has called me Sister Avocado.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT THAT WE WENT PROSELYTING LAST WEEK. LIKE ON THE REAL STREETS IN REAL BRAZIL TALKING TO REAL PEOPLE IN PORTUGUESE. It was such a cool experience!! We met loads of interesting people and I couldnt understand them all the time but we gave out 6 books of mormon, got 2 addresses for follow-up visits, and probably had 4 drunk homeless men calling at us the whole time LOL. But for 90 minutes i felt like such a real missionary!!

Ok i forgot my study journal in my room, but my chapter for this week is John 14, especially verses 18, 27, and 31.

STILL love this church and STILL love being a missionary!

TCHAU TCHAU FOR NOW.

Sister Avocado