our family christmas card

So i spent most of my time responding to people and send pictures, AND on Saturday i talked to my fam and already gave them all the deets on my life, but i share with yall what i have time for:

sister vera was transferred, sad :( she leaves tomorrow, but the good news is that shes going to SÃO GABRIEL my old area, so im already telling her ALL about and shes going to deliver letters for me :) 

We went to santa maria this week for a training, and we almost missed BOTH of our buses, there and back. HAHAHAHA i wished someone had video-taped it, because us and our zone leaders got to the bus station and 12:31, and our bus was leaving at 12:30, so we decided "elder ramos, you run and buy the tickets, elder cruz, you stay and pay the taxi and grab the receipt, and sister vera and i will run with all our luggage and these 5 boxes in our hands to the bus terminal" ohhhhhhhhhh it was the funniest thing of my life, we ran and almost fainted in front of the bus because we were carrying all these things in our hands and we caught the bus 12:35. good times, good times.

BEST PART OF THE WEEK:

Roni's baptism!!!!!!! it was the most SPIRITUAL baptism i have ever watched, EVERYONE cried! and almost all the missionaries in the city came to watched, and we sang "joseph smith's first prayer" and it was so beautiful and yeah many tears much happiness.

OTHER BEST PART OF THE WEEK:

skyping my family, even though i 100% couldnt speak english. i forgot how to say "fourteen". EMBARRASSING. i literally stayed there thinking for 30 seconds "how in the freak do you saying catorce in english???!" but, it was so wonderful to see them :)

and like always, my time is out. Keep praying for me because I pray for all of you too :)

loves,

sister lipps 

FRIDAY WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY WHOLE MISSION. enough said 

 last weeks surprise party me threw for a few missionaries (including sister gibson and falcão) who had birthdays this month!

Sister vera and i made like 70 sugar cookies for the missionaries at our meeting this tuesday :)

MATCHING SKIRTS! my mom sent me one in my christmas package, and sister vera had one almost identical!

RONI´S BIRTHDAY PRESENTS FROM US. cute right? the book of mormon in english, future missionary nametag, a new tie!

 

 

 

finally my computer is being cool and letting me send photos! This was the baptism of Fabi from last and another girl Maria, from the ward next to ours :) So sweet right: 

 

 

MIRACLES HAPPEN ONCE IN A WHILE---LIZZIE MCGUIRE

HOLY COW this week was incredible!!!!!!! It made up for ALL the other crappy weeks I've had here in Uruguiana! Okay so Im going to list the miracles the happened this week, starting with the small ones and then the most important ones.

1. NO ONE HAD TO TRAVEL TO DO EXCHANGES! It was our first week in like 2 months that we were actually together everyday and we didnt have to walk back and forth to the bus station :)

2. On Monday, I finished reading the Book of Mormon! Oh, how I am SO grateful for everything he teaches me, especially about the Savior and his role in my life :) So on Tuesday, I started reading him again, but this time in Spanish! Its going super well, and its so amazing how God is giving us all the gift of tongues and helping us develop our talents!

3. TWO of our less active members came to church yesterday, and we didnt have to drag them, they got up themselves and went because they wanted to and it was seriously a miracle because this never happens, we always have to drag people out of bed and on their butts to go to church every week

4, FABI (FAB-EE) WAS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY AND CONFIRMED YESTERDAY!! Oh it was amazing to finally fill up a font here in uruguaiana, but she was SO HAPPY and bore her testimony after and her family (non-members) came to watch, which is a BIG thing because usually the families that arent members dont come to support and it just makes me mad, but this time it left me FELIZZZZZZZZZ! (aka, happy)

5. OKAY so backstory: remember that family of recent-converts that we are always with? So for about 7 months, the running joke of the family is that Roni (hoe-knee), the 19 year old son, never wanted to be baptized, even though hes already read the entire Book of Mormon, has a testimony, wakes up everyone for church on sundays, tells us that hes already saving money to serve a MISSION FOR PETE'S SAKE. so usually when we teach them, we trying to make it spiritual, but his sisters or his mom interrupt with "so are ya gonna get baptized or what?". hahahaha i love them. but on friday, we taught him without his family for the first time ever, and we just read a few scriptures about small and simple things, how to seek God, how to feel the spirit, and i dont even remember what else because it was just God putting things in my mouth ya know? At the end of the lesson, we said a kneeling prayer, and he said the most sincere prayer i had ever heard from him, and the spirit was SO strong, it was such a wonderful moment. After, his mom walked in and said "so did you guys convince him?" and we said "no, but I think the spirit will".

flash forward to last night, when he said the opening prayer in our lesson, and then super quietly said "I decided" and we all said "wait what decided what?" and he said "this friday is my baptism" HALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEJUAH oh my you guys we all BURST INTO TEARS OF HAPPINESS. He told us how he kept praying after we left that night, and how he finally got the confirmation he was seeking, and this friday, on his 20th birthday, hes going to be baptized :) 

MIRACLES HAPPEN WHEN YOU HAVE FAITH YOU GUYS!!

I love being a missionary. I know that Christ lives, that He is the Redeemer, the Prince of Peace, Wonderful, the light of the world. 

Love, sister lipps

ps in 5 months ill show you guys a video of me trying to kill a cockroach with a broom in our apartment this week. you´ve been warned

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

1. we made paper christmas countdown chains for all the sisters with an activty for us to do everday!

2-4. our zone conference with elder costa! Me and a few of the sisters, me and my arrival group :) 

 

THANKSGIVING!!!! WE ARE POOR SO WE DIDNT HAVE TURKEY BUT WE WINGED IT AND MADE MASHED POTATOES AND STUFFING :) and we made hand turkeys and wrote all the things we are grateful for 

 

 

 

1. 13 months! holla im old

2. me cleaning and trying not to barf 

3. my (very expensive due to brazilians import taxes.............) christmas package. thanks mom and dad!!!!

4. our daily challenge one day this week! feliz natal! 

OUR CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WOOHOO! 

not pictured: the video of us in the talent show singing our mission hymns in tune with the cup song, it was flippin sweet and everyone went crazy, and ill show y'all in 5 months

 

 

 

1 and 2. me with irmão nelson this week when i visited alegrete!!! i love this goofball

3. family home evening of the week!

4. miriam, roni, and bia with the nativity set that my mom made and sent! they loved it :)

5. me and the former elder cardoso, now marcelo, who returned from his mission last week from rio de janeiro and just so happens to me the former companion of my pal elder danneman :) SMALL WORLD AM I RIGHT? 

 

 

yeah today was a little crappy

Good things that happened this week:

I went to Livramento on an exchange and it was cool and I was blessed that I didnt get car sick because i passed 7 hours in a bus!!

FINALLY WE ARE PROBABLY MAYBE GOING TO HAVE A BAPTISM! Her name is Fabi (fab-eee) and she is 15 and she is dating a less active member who is coming back to church and she is so adorable and yesterday she bore her testimony in sacrament meeting!!! her baptism date is set for the 17th :) 

and everything else was kind of ehhhhhhhhhhhhh

and i thats all for today because i just found out that both my memory card and my flash drives have viruses haha i love brazil 

okay bye,

sister lipps

my best friend is from the bus station

My BFF of the week is named Neri. He's 35 years old, from Uruguaiana, Rio Grande Do Sul, and works as a security guard at the bus station. His favorite item of clothing is a yellow polo, a bulletproof vest, and a big black thing he always carries that is probably a weapon. And he is my best friend of the week because I probably saw him more than I saw Sister Vera because we were travelling and doing exchanges and I went 4 days without seeing her, when on the other hand I was in the bus station picking up and dropping of sisters every day. COOL RIGHT?

This week has been so hot and humid ive stopped using a towel after I take a shower because my skin basically never dries.......................(ok thats an exaggeration, but really the air is wet and gross and I sweat more than my whole life combined)

Yesterday we had a lesson with this girl and she was kind of a jerk and said "you know who i hate? mormons." because she didnt know we were mormon and i almost punched her in the face because i got flissed and it was great true story ask sister vera.

OKAY so this week was actually REALLY tiring (sometimes i feel like im a nanny when we do exchanges because I want the sisters to feel really taken care of in our house) but REALLY amazing!!
 

On tuesday, we went to Alegrete for a zone conference with ELDER COSTA, BRASIL AREA PRESIDENT (also he told us that if hes alive when Christ come, he automatically because presidente of brazil hahahaha i hope thats true thats awesome) AND he talked with us for THREE hours without pre-prepared notes and it was INCREDIBLE everything that he taught us and his life experiences and I was loving every second of it. First, he gave us leaders a training and talked about how when we do exchanges, we arent there as much to evaluate the missonary as we are to be a MODEL and be like Christ and show them how to work and them say "come follow me" and I was able to apply that this whole week with the sisters :)

other things he taught me:

1. Dont ever make a "plan a" with your life. Always make a "plan b", because plan A will always be whatever the lord has prepared for us

2. There are two types of missionaries (and people). Locomotives and boxcars. People that pull and people that get pulled. "things that act and things that are acted upon" (2 nephi 2). Without the locomotive, and boxcar does what? NOTHING. So lets all be locomotives and move ourselves in the direction we want to go!

3. MISSIONARIES OR FUTURE MISSIONARIES: THIS PART IS REALLY IMPORTANT. We all know that when we teach, we HAVE to teach by the spirit. Our goal is to leave it in the house when we leave so that he can keep working with our inv. even when we are not there. SO AT THE END OF A LESSON, WHEN THE SPIRIT TELLS US TO GET OUT, WE CANT STAY  SOCIALIZING EATING CAKE AND DRINKING TEA. WE WILL UNDO EVERYTHING WE DID IN THE WHOLE LESSON AND THE SPIRIT WILL BE LIKE "THESE DUMBHEADS, I TOLD THEM TO LEAVE, AND NOW I CANT EVEN STAY" wooooooooooooooooooow it was something SO simple, but when applied in our work, it 100% improves our chances to convert these people.

So it was wonderful :) and we had a few miracles this week that our new investigator came to church and the less active weve been teaching for two months finally came and almost ALL the members talked with both of them and were so friendly and they made friends and i couldve cried :)

my other realization of the week:

I dont know if im going to have a baptism before im transferred from this area, and before, that thought bothered me, like "why was I sent here if he's not going to let me baptize anyone?" but this week He made me realize "MAYBE IM NOT IN THIS AREA TO BAPTIZE ANYONE. MAYBE I HAD TO COME HERE TO THIS SPECIFIC PART OF THE MISSION BECAUSE THERE WERE SPECIFIC SISTERS HERE THAT NEEDED MY HELP" So im feeling very content :)

LOVE YALL!

Sister Lipps :)

PICTURES:

i tried to attach them but im computer is being a butt so next week ill send some!

i fell asleep in like 6 lessons this week is that a sin or what

this week left me a little pooped but whattayagonnado??????

SURPRISE THE BEST MOMENT OF MY WEEK WAS THAT MY BROTHER MATT CAME TO VISIT HIS MISSION (WHICH IS ALSO MY MISSION) AND MY PRESIDENT LET ME SEE HIM ON MONDAY NIGHT WHEN I WAS IN SANTA MARIA WOOOOOOHOOOOOO IT WAS AWESOME AND WEIRD BECAUSE IT HAD BEEN OVER A YEAR SINCE ID LAST HUGGED A MAN/BOY. 

But seriously it was SO amazing because he flew down to watch the temple sealing of one of his converts, and it motivated me so much more to work so that one day I can come back to see a family sealed in the temple :)

We also had our mission counsel again, and we talked all about EXCHANGES which was EXACTLY what I was wanting to learn more about how to take advantage of the time we have with each of the sisters to help them specifically and individually! We have a few sisters who are passing through alot of personal challenges, and I felt more capacitaded (is that even a word?) to love them and help Christ help them. I loved it! Also I love being able to take care of people! I think its one of my strengths to watch out and care for people. (just ask sister vera, because everytime the crazy lady almost walks in front of a car, im the one that sticks my arm out to pull her back and then yell ARE YOU CRAZY?)

the rest of the week was tiring, i think because 14 hours on a bus always leaves me nouseous (spellcheck?) and stays with me for a few days...

We dont have radical progress of anyone yet, still in that baptism drought ya know, but we arent giving up yet! The problem is that the more we try to find new investigators, the more we find people that were already baptized and already went inactive and it is so sad :(

Good story: I had a dream last night that I have returned home after the mission and that I went to our ward to say hi to everyone, and I started greeting everyone like they do here (which is ALWAYS A HUG AND A KISS ON THE CHEEK, even if you dont know the person) so i was going around to everyone kissing their cheeks and everyone thought i was weird and creepy and I think that is going to be my reality in a few months, so JUST A WARNING WHEN I GET HOME IM GOING TO KISS EVERYONES CHEEKS. <3

and my spritual thought of the week is.........i didnt have time to plan something, so everyone read moroni 7 and pray and be more loving :) 

love, sista lipps 

Pictures:

me and my bro (literal) Matt!! (mom dont cry)

SANTA MARIA! so beautiful!

me and sister vera on the bus :) 

ME AND SISTER VERA ARE ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Vera and I were SUPER blessed this week to find out that we'll be staying together for ANOTHER TRANSFER!!!!!!! so we'll have almost FIVE MONTHS together, which is incredibily rare, especially with sisters, so basically our love is eternal and other missionaries keep calling and congratulating us on our civil union <3 <3 <3

(for legal purposes, i feel i should point out that we are not actually getting married, its a joke)

BUT just to add to things, today we are going to buy fake wedding rings because guys and old men like to talk with us just because they think we're pretty, and at the end of a lesson they ask us if were single and we get SO annoyed hahaha so we just want to prevent more of that. 

and really nothing cool happened this week.......

we had a few miracles of having some less actives come to church so that was pretty sweet!

one thing we have started doing is have conferences with all the sisters we "take care of" before bed, and we give a spiritual thought and say a pray together, and it is being REALLY special for us to have more moments teaching and more spiritual time in our house and with sisters in other cities too! this week we talked about personal conversion, how we are our PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR. even if we left our mission with ZERO baptisms, if we are personally converted to the savior, our mission will be a SUCCESS! we all want to "change the world, change lives" but if the only life we change is our own, IT IS OKAY!!

so I'm changing my life and i love it :)

love,

SISTA LIPPS 

PICTURES:

sister vera's birthday!!!!

our last zone picture before transfers!

i made her birthday jello like a good companion :)

SEE THAT STRIP OF LAND IN THE BACKGROUND? ARGENTINA! we arent allowed to pass the bridge (obvio) but i picture is just as good! 

ME FALLING OFF A CLIFF

so..............this is what it feels like to pass your year mark on the mission...............i feel like im trying not to fall off of a cliff just because i dont want to reach the ground so fast, but someone already pushed me 3 months ago and i didnt realize it because i thought i was flying but actually im falling.

in summary, time is FLYING (aka, falling off a cliff)

This week we got rejected by so many people who had so much potential, who perfectly understood what we were teaching, but decided not to accept it, and it was so sad :´(

BUT i read a talk/letter this week that may or may not have changed my WHOLE mission. It's called "The Ricciardi Letter" and i reccommend that EVERYONE especially EVERY MISSIONARY OR ALMOST MISSIONARY READ IT!! It is an elder talking about his trainer, and all the crazy, bold, things he did and how much he learned from him, and it is AMAZING! Ive learned SO much this week putting into pratice what he says, how we CANNOT take rejection personally, because it will lessen our faith and our willingness to work hard for what we want! We need to take every rejection as a sign that God really IS guiding us, because he loves us enough to test or strength, our capacity to withstand, and when we are humbled, HE STRENGHTENS US! 

these are the kind of things i couldve ONLY learned on a mission, and not on any mission, THIS mission, MY mission. I am SO grateful for the decision I made a little more than two years ago to serve our Savior, to be a reprenstative of him. Ive learned that being a disciple of Jesus Christ doesnt mean that everyone will love you, because not everyone loved him. In fact, when he was here, only a few did. But being His servant means that we learn how to LOVE those IN SPITE of them not loving us, accepting us. 

okay so the work is being kind of difficult, but im still here, finding joy in the journey :) 

1. MY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ON THE MISSION WOOHOO IM OLD NOW

2.  SO I ATE PIZZA FOR THE THIRD TIME IN A WHOLE YEAR IM SO DEPRIVED (just kidding)

3. i love chacos and the scriptures

4.  FAMILY HOME EVENING SELFIE

5. me and a water thermic (spellcheck?) statue we found today! 

 

 

Ok so I was going to write something sentimental and spiritual about the mission and life because I pass my one year mark this week, but this week was pretty much super sucky and I cant seem to muster up anything on the spot because im still kind of upset haha BUT DONT WORRY IM FINE.

In summary,  the beginning of the week was awesome because we had our zone conference and it was AWESOME and I learned SO much about my purpose and Christ and we also gave an hour long training, which shows how much the mission has changed me because I wasnt even nervous, I LOVE giving trainings!!!

And then the rest of the week was really difficult, our investigators our lame, the members dont trust us because, it spite of our HARD FREAKING WORK, we havent had a baptism in a while, so yesterday night me and Sister Vera kind of had a break down like "why is nothing going right when we arent doing anything wrong?"

and then the cherry on top of my sucky sundae was that this morning I found out that my flash drive caught a virus and deleted everything :-) So yeah i cried for a literal hour but now im a little better, i think im going to buy ice cream after i leave this internet house.

So that was my week, and these pictures captured the things that werent so bad so, enjoy :)

AMEN.

Love, Sister Lipps 

1. Sister Vera taught me how to make "salshipapa" which is literally hot dog french fries hahah but she said that everyone eats it in Peru!

2. Exchange with Sister Da Silva!

3. Our microwave broke and we dont have hot water so i had to get creative softening butter.

4. LOOK MOM BE PROUD OF ME BECAUSE I MADE REAL FOOD (TOSTADAS) WITH HOMEMADE TORTILLAS WOOOHOO IM LEARNING HOW TO FEED MY FUTURE KIDS!!

5. Us and our best friends that always take us home when we visit them at the end of the night :) 

Ok so I was going to write something sentimental and spiritual about the mission and life because I pass my one year mark this week, but this week was pretty much super sucky and I cant seem to muster up anything on the spot because im still kind of upset haha BUT DONT WORRY IM FINE.

some pictures from our zone conference this week :)