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