Of Rainy Days and Rejections

OH YOU GUYS, this week tested me hard. It seems like everything that couldve gone wrong basically happened, WOO HOO WHAT A WEEK. A summary of the highlights (lowlights):

One day we walked around lost in the area of the elders in our ward for an HOUR, in the 100 degree sun, looking for the house of the member of our lunch appointment. When we finally got there, no one was home. HA. I almost flipped a brick. Oh joy.

We had 4 days that started out over 100 degrees, so we prepared for hot weather, and then halfway through started STORMING. Like, hard. Soaked, down to everything we were wearing within 30 seconds, even with an umbrella because of the wind coming at ya from the side. HA one day we didnt bring an umbrella (actually, every day sister Saavedra didnt bring an umbrella *sighs to not flip a brick*), so we borrowed one from our investigators and it broke in 90 seconds because of the wind. I also learned that sister saavedra screams when she is cold and gets rained on. Oh joy.

Our baptism didnt happen. I dont know what happened. He went out of town and we havent been able to talk to him all week. UGH

47549 people broke up with us this week, or rejected us when we were doing a contact. I wanted to take off my shoe and throw it at them and say "YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU JUST TURNED DOWN YA BIG DUMMY" But that would not be very christ-like of me. So I kept quiet.

Sister Saavedra literally walks SO slow. And i know its not a big thing, but it drives me crazy. Especailly when we are late to things and I swear she walks even slower. DEEP BREATHS  SISTER LIPPS, DEEP BREATHS.

The one good thing that happened this week was that this 6 year old girl told me that Im pretty. I just gotta take what I can get.

Everyone's homework for the week is to read the poem "The Race" by D.H. Groberg. I read it probably over 10 times this week, and I think it was the only thing that kept me walking. It really doesnt matter how many times we fall, or how hard, or in front of whom we fall, as long as EVERY time we do, we get back up, we win OUR race. We get back up because we receive strength from Christ, or savior. We get back up because God loves us, he only gives us what he knows we can handle, and he will extend his hand to us, to pull us through the storm (the literally storm I walked through this week). Eu testifico a voces que Deus vive, ele nos ama, que ele nos deu Seu filho, para que possamos voltar a viver com ele e com nossas families para sempre. Convido voces a reconhecer as forças que recebemos dele todos os dias. Eu amo todos voces, e eu quero que voes tenham esperança em suas vidas, a esperança que vem de Cristo.

Com Amor,

Sister Lipps 

1. Two very wet Sisters standing in the kitchen we flooded because we left the window open in the morning. Lols

2. Bouta be tri-lingual people. Got my hands on Spanish pamphlets and a Book of Mormon! 

That one time my investigator leaned over and woke me up in church

Oi Querido Familia!

Fun fact, Presidente Parrela always starts his talks or anything he says with "Queridos elderes e sisteres" but jokes on him because he's the querido!! (querido=dear). (not the animal). Seriously him and is wife are so sweet, I love them.

SO YEAH I FELL ASLEEP DURING STAKE CONFERENCE ahhhhh it was only for like 15 seconds and then ou investigator Laisla leaned over and said "Sister Lipps! You fell asleep!" HAHA does that make me a bad missionaria. NO. It just makes me a tired one. 

I've been striving so hard this week to make EVERY hour count in my time here. 18 months sounds like alot, but it is so short considering all the work there is to be done here! I have a feeling the next 14 1/2 months are going to FLY by and I am determined to have no regrets about how hard I worked or how many people I talked to or that I should have ran more all over my area to make it to our teaching appointments in time so that we could have more lessons in a day. BUT one thing I'm stuggling with is the members in our ward. The problem is just that they LOVE the missionaries so much, and are accustomed to having missionaries vist them alot, hang out, make lasting friendships, and those are all good things, but they don't understand that that is not neccessarily our purpose. And then they get hurt because we dont come by and visit all of them every week, and then I feel bad that they don't like us anymore, but I want every hour of my time to be used wisely, and Im just trying to find a balance here. Its a tricky situation. 

Remember that ex-voodoo priest I told y'all about? He's getting baptized this Saturday! We are so excited! It will be my first baptism of an investigator that I really helped find and teach! AH pictures and stories to come next week. His kids arent going to be baptized yet, because we really want them to be converted, and not just let them get baptized because they think it'd be cool and their dad is doing it. But we're going to work alot with them to develop personal testemonies! 

We had splits this week with the Sister Training Leaders, and I was with Sister Moss, so it was my first time "having" an american companion! We both still dont have perfect accents yet, so a few people had trouble understanding every thing we said. It was so funny, this one investigator of theirs was like "Oh brother, TWO AMERICANS? Yeah Im not gonna understand anything" Hahahaha so thats life as an american missionary in a foreign country.

Yesterday we found a new family that we started teaching, and we told aout baptism by PROPER authority, the priesthood, so that that is sealed on earth is also sealed in heaven, and then invited them to pray to know if they need to be baptized by this authority, and we were explaining how to receive answers to prayer, and the husband stopped us, turned to his wife and said "Wait, Honey, they're right!! Our baptism didnt count! That dude didnt have the authority!! We have to be baptized again!!" hahaha and we were like "YAAAAAAAAAAAS EXACTLY" and now that I write it i feel like it might not be funny to people that arent missionaries but it was hilarious and we were all laughing. and then we still invited him to pray about it and he was like "Dont i already have my answer?!" LOLS 

Being a missionary still rocks. Even though I fall asleep in church sometimes, I'm still ridiculously happy, it doesnt even make sense. 

Estudo:

John 3:16

Helaman 10:4-5

2 Timothy 1:7-8

"Ask the missionaries! They can help!" Russell M. Nelson

I love you all to brazil and back!

OH AND I GOT A PACKAGE WITH ALL THE LETTERS FROM THE YOUNG WOMEN IN MY WARD AND WAS SO HAPPY HUGS 2 YOU ALL I ALMOST CRIED OF JOY

Amor amor amor,

Sister Lipps 

BEST SMOOTHIE EVER. CLICK FOR MORE DETAILS DETAILS

Happy 3 months to me!

This week, as I was standing in our kitchen eating brazilian candy, I had the realization "I only have 15 more months to eat this Brazilian candy" And I got really sad about that. So I guess that shows ya where my priorities are at. Formal apology to my sister Eliza, who wanted me to bring home all my clothes so she can have them. I decided this week Im leaving all my clothes here so that I can fill my suitcase with FOOD. While I'm already on the subject, the food here is FREAKING BOMB. Ugh you guys I know that Im gaining weight. It's so bad. I am ALWAYS hungry, so I take advantage of it at our lunches. HA the other day Elder Oliver was like "Sister Lipps, I dont know how you are still eating?! It's impressive" so end of story: I AM SUZY.

Oh I also made the best smoothie ive ever made in my life the other day. 1 frozen banana+1/2 a brazilian orange (idk what it is, it's green)+1/2 cup of chopped up mango+1 tbsp of honey. I recreated it 4 times this week for dinner because it was so good.

News, I have a new companheira! Sister Saavedra, from Peru, she has 6 months in the mission, and she is such a doll. Like literally, she's so tiny. She's a little Peruvian doll. Every asks us how we manage to communicate because she speaks Spanish and I speak english and we are both pretty new, but its DOM DE LINGUAS PEOPLE. The gift of tongues kicked in so hard for me this week, I've improved so much and can understand 94% of everything, and instantly lost all my fear to mess up when i speak so GOOD THINGS ARE HAPPENING. I also learned what Ive always known about myself, which is that I thrive when Im in a position of responsibility. Just because Sister Saavedra doesnt know the area or our investigators, I think for that reason alone Ive improved so much.

The work has been tough, we get rejected more than accepted, but its just part of the job. I love the people here! BEING A MISSIONARY ROCKS.

Estudo Adicional para voces:

Matthew 14:25-31, When we need help, we just have to call out, and Christ will ALWAYS immdiately extend his hand to us.

Luke 10:38-42. Choose the good part! Our spiritual priorities MUST come before all else.

"of the things that matter most" President Uchtdorf. It's Uchtdorf so obvi he killed it

"The Resurrection of Jesus Christ" Elder Christofferson PLUS 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Literally you will read those two and there is NO way that it cannot be true.

I love you all and want you all to have the joy that I feel and the confirmation of the gospel and feeling God's hand in my life every day! Being a missionary rocks.

Sister Smoothie Master Lipps

Pictures: My old district. goofballs

It's not a baptism, but we reactivated him!

Sister Saavedra and I during our study! Her notebook matches her, because she's so tiny tiny 

Survived My First Reaping #transfers

Ola pessoas que eu amo,

That's right folks, I've officially finished my first transfer here in the field! The good news is that I dont have to pack all the stuff I brought (which is a significant amount) and move, because I am staying here in Parque Pinheiro. The bad news is that Sister Chaves is being transferred and Im freaking out that Im going to lose all of our investigators without her because they love her and I cant manage to really have conversations with them yet so thats cool. 

The best thing of this week was all the progress we've been having with A FAMILY! A WHOLE FAMILY GUYS. They should all be baptized soon, they all really have the desire and our striving to do everything they can to prepare. They rock. The dad, Juarez, quit smoking in ONE WEEK! We made goals with him about how many he can smoke each day, and the other day we went to follow up and he just said "Oh yeah, I stopped already" WHAT, it was awesome. But we also found out that he used to be some voodoo priest church leader something or other and I don't really know any more details but I just hope that's all in the past.

Speaking of voodoo, I think our washing machine is possessed. This morning it was spinning so violently that it had moved itself 2 feet in our little laundry room. HA pray for us, boutta perform an exorcism up in here. 

So this week was really hard emotionally. This whole mission thing is all about emotional extremes and it's driving me crazy. Sister Chaves had me one morning write my first name on a piece of paper and then tear it up because I'm not Em anymore, I'm sister Lipps. I cried. I'm having an identity crisis. I spoke English with someone for 1 minute the other day and I didnt recognized my voice. Missions are weird. Everyone said that the first 3 months are the hardest, and Im about to make 3 months on the 4th, but Sister Chaves revealed to me that people mean 3 months in the field, not including the MTC, and I was like " U R KIDDING, I still have another transfer to not understand things and cry all too often?" #lyfe

In all my struggle with the language and everything, I've somehow decided that I want to learn Spanish while Im here too. I am doida. (dont know how doida translates in english, sorry) My new companion speaks Spanish so we will see!

Tarefa da semana:

The ministry of Angels, Elder Jeffrey R. Hollans

1 John ch 4

Mosiah 14: 3-4

Mosiah 24:13-14

Alma 13:27-29

Amor, 

Sister Lippies (how they say my name here)