My Week In Pictures!

Somehow my time got caught up in other things this P-day, but heres a weekly summary in pictures. All is well here! Tudo Bem!

1. We went to Burger King last P-day and it was bomb-tastic. I miss hamburgers

2. Our fridge after P-day. QUE COISA BOA! Isnt it beautiful? Oh yeah if you cant tell, all we eat at home is fruit haha I love it!

3. The view from our bedroom window when we get home at 9! So beautiful!

(NAO HA NAO HA NOITE MAIS AZUL AZUL DO QUE AS NOITES DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL)

4. We survived our 115 degree day! It is so hot here now, I am melting!! But seriously, is 115 degrees even real? That's not allowed! Especially when all our day is spent walking outside and AC is not a thing here. AHHH calor

Reading Assignment:

John 20. Mary Magdalene is my new Home girl

Mosiah 4:9-10

"Eyes to see and ears to here" Elder Kim Clark. (so good!)

Ate Proxima Semana!

Com Amor,

Sister Lipps

This week we had I think 8 investigators break up with us and it was so dumb. "it's not you guys, it's me" "sorry, there's someone else" "I just need some time to think" YEAH I'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE'! Haha but yeah we just have to laugh instead of cry and remember to respect people's agency and try not to be Satan and force people, ya know?

Sister Chaves and the elders in our ward have starting joking that Im going to turn from Barbie to Suzy (the pudgy doll) because I'm always one of the last ones eating at our lunch appointments, but I'm sorry, I just get really really hungry so LAY OFF YA BIG JERKS. Just kidding. Kind of.

We had a lesson with the moms of one of the little girls that are obsessed with us, and the girl, Pietra, told her mom as I started talking "Mom can you understand her? She doesnt speak Portuguese, she speaks English" Hahaha so Sister Chaves and are certain that Pietra thinks that "English" is just really bad Portuguese with an accent.

I sneezed over 100 times this week. Not exaggerating. I think it was just allergies, but Sister Chaves and Sister Parrela ordered me to take a nap (so i didnt complain), and eat limes. Sister Parrela swears by limes, and i probably ate 7, and I literally think it didnt do anything, But i wont tell her that, because she's the mission president's wife HA.

On the few occasions I hear english coming out of my own mouth, it sounds so weird. I read a scripture in English the other day, and it didnt sound real. So that's where I'm at right now.

BEST moment of the week: We had a second lesson with this woman, Daniella, and out first lesson was 2 weeks ago and we could never find her after that and it seemed like she didnt want more because she kept pushing off our appointments. But we finally taught her again! We asked her if she prayed about what we taught the first time, the Restoration, and she said "Yeah, I read the pamphlet again, and I prayed, and I thought alot about it, and....when did you guys say you were holding a baptism again?" WHAT. That whole sentence is missionary gold. So end of story, we thought she was breaking up with us but now we're preparing her for baptism!!

Scriptures to study:

3 Nephi 17:5-7 (vs 5 makes me cry because the people cried)

Alma 23:6-8

James 4: 7-8

Moroni 7: 29-30, 37

Love Love Love,

Sister Avocado (because Im wearing my green dress today)

Pictures:

1. MY FIRST XIS. (procounced chiz hahah) it's like a hamburger, and about as close as I will get to in n out for a long time.

2. One of our less actives, this 20 year old guy, MADE US CAKE AND ICE CREAM to bring back to our apartment. WHAT A DOLL. We ate the entire cake ourselves. #SAVESUZY

3. LOOK GUYS IM IN THE MISSION FIELD. BA DUM CHHHHHHH

Photo update January 2016

1. Selfie Sunday still goes strong on the mish

2. One of our investigators Laisla. Shes only 12! But we have her baptism set for March 5!!

3. Baptism of Marta this past saturday! #SLAYYYYYYYYY

1. THE NAME OF THIS PICTURE IS "I PUT ON SUNSCREEN LIKE A DUNCECAP"

2. My 2 months in the mission picture! (the day after)

3. My real 2 months picture hahaha

1 & 2. New Years Eve at a Member's house with almost my whole district (we didnt stay til 12 though haha)

Day 27 of my Jejum Ingles

That's right guys, tomorrow makes my 4 weeks in the field! and 10 weeks in the mission in total! The days and weeks are beginning to fly by so much faster, it is crazy. You know what else is crazy? The emotional rollercoaster that is being a missionary. In my movie metaphor for the week, remember the scene from Tangled when she final gets out of the tower and is like "this is the best day of my life" and then "this is the worst day of my life" and goes back and forth for 5 minutes. Yeah that's me everyday. UPS AND DOWNS I tell ya.

This week we were teaching a woman Teresa, whose daughter is in our ward, and we asked her to pick someone to say the opening prayer, and she looks at me and then turns to my companion and her daughter and says "Does she know how to say it? I know she doesnt understand much" and I was like "WHAT THE IS THIS REAL LIFE I UNDERSTAND YOU LADY IM SITTING RIGHT HERE AND HECK YA IMMA SAY A PRAYER IN PORTUGUESE THAT WILL BLOW YOUR SOCKS OFF" But really I was just like "Oh I can say it" and then I said it and yeah end of story people just think Im a big dummy.

Theres a group of 5 non member girls who are probably 6-7 years old that literally love SIster Chaves and I. They're insane. They will see us from a mile away and then sprint to us and then we get hugged and attacked by this pack of children and then kiss our cheeks a thousand times and we always pass the area the hang out and sometimes we are in a hurry and dont have time to fight the mob of girls so we take a different route. So basically we are a boy band or some thing of that sort. But I still love them, haha they always make me laugh when im having a rough minute. (refer back to my Tangled analogy).

Oh also theres this dog, well actually theres a thousand dogs, no exaggeration, but theres one that really loves us and hes a golder retreiver so hes pretty big and he always follows us around for like an hour and yesterday and jumped up on me and gave me a hug and I think it was a pretty big step in our relationship.

So numberswise, we probably teach an average of 7 lessons a day, but sometimes its 4 and sometimes its 10, depends on how lucky we get. We always have lessons scheduled for every hour but no one is ever home, the big jerks (just kidding). But sometimes its dumb because we have an AWESOME first lesson with someone, and then we go back every day for a week and theyre never in their house when they said they would be so we never teach them again.

Oh for those of you wondering about my Portuguese, I actually can teach pretty solid, haha Im not just Sister Chaves' backup chick. The problem is more when they respond so fast that I dont know what they said or how to respond back, and because conversation flows so quickly that I dont have time to think of how to say something in time before the conversation changes haha, but Ive definitely improved so much. The only thing Ive gotten worse in is my English spelling HA.

TMIBVTFOML: (too much information but very fact of my life): It is so hot and humid, so basically every part of my body is wet, and we hold our blue hardcover book of mormons in our hands, and my sweat lifts up the blue dye and by the end of the day my arms and arms and the side of my skirt is blue.

SCRIPTURE TO STUDY THIS WEEK:

Romans 5:10-11

Think about and have gratitude for the Atonement of Christ!

TCHAU TCHAU.

Sister Sweaty Blue Hands

That one time I didn"t email for a literal month...

OK HOLY GUACAMOLE, so much as happened, I dont even know what to say.

For starters, Im in Santa Maria. If you didnt know that, please try to keep up. (just kidding, luv u guyz). When we arrived in the airport here, PRESIDENT PARRELA HUGGED US ALL. It caught me so off guard. I was like "is this even allowed". Idk, it was so hilariously awkward. Imagine the hug in the final harry potter movie with draco and voldemort. It was that level of awkward. HAAAAAA good times. 

My area is called Parque Pinheiro, 20 min outside of the city of Santa Maria. And it's right next to the area where my brother Matt served for some months, and ive met so many people that know him or that he baptized, ITS SO COOL. Our legacy is living on in Brazil!

My companion is Sister Chaves, she's from Sao Paulo, and shes super cute. She doesnt speak English lols so we definitely have a language barrier sometimes, but we try to laugh rather than cry. She's been in the mish for almost 8 months, and she is SUCH a good missionary! So my example right now. She's so patient with me too, when I cry she hugs me and then we eat chocolate together. So best companion ever amiright!?

The weather here switches between hot as heck and thunderstorms so intense it scares the pants off of me (the pants that I dont wear. because, you know, skirts and stuff). Ive already gotten freaking tan though, My tan lines on my feet and back and arms are awful. (refer to the picture of my feet I already sent haha)

WE ARE ALWAYS LATE TO EVERYTHING AND ALWAYS RUNNING FROM PLACE TO PLACE. Its pretty funny, sunday mornings we are literally so annoying and go wake up all of our investigators to come to church with us.

PORTUGUESE IS KICKING MY BUTT. Ive learned so much, but at the same time, the more i learn, the less I feel like i know, ya know? Its a work in progress for sure. Guys, Ill just say its tough and leave it at that so I dont sound like a big downer.

SCRIPTURES FOR YOU GUYS TO READ:

Alma 29:1-2 (THIS IS MY SCRIPTURE. IMAGINE ME READING IT REALLY HAPPILY)

John 16:33

2 Cor 5:7

Alma 36

Alma 34:32-33

Moroni 7: 16-17, 9

THANKS FOR ALL THE LETTERS IVE ALREADY GOTTEN. You guys are darling.

Love love love, Sister Lipps

More pictures, but no update yet!