ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE! (tragic goodbye email)

Holy wow where do I even start?

These past 18 months have become the greatest adventure of my entire life (up to now). What is coming to mind is the image of my mom a month before I left in a discussion we had about brazilian dedorant. "Sure it'll be different, but it'll be an adventure!" HAHA I love my mom. It really has been an adventure from start to finish, (in more ways then just the deodorant, which by the way IS strange).

The moment I left my family in the Sacramento Airport basically set the tone for my entire mission. NO TEARS NO FEARS. (I hope my family wasnt offended that I didnt cry, its like I wrote in my very first entry in my mission journal 18 months ago "There is just too much to look forward to to be sad!"). Even though I certainly faced a few fears and shed a few tears, that doesnt change my "NO TEARS NO FEARS" attitude I tried to keep my whole mission.

Things they tell you before leaving on a mission: ITS THE BEST THING EVER.

Things they dont tell you, and even if they did you dont understand it very well: MISSIONS ARE HARD

Ever since the CTM, I have always found strength in chapter 26 of Alma in the Book of Mormon, verses 30-31

"30 And we have suffered ALL manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us."

Here is the truth: every know and then, you are going to suffer, its going to be freaking hard and you are going to question "dude why am I here". But then I always had to remember that my joy would be FULL AND COMPLETE, if I could help JUST ONE person here. and now I'm at this awesome part of my misson when I can look back at the "few fruits" of my labors, and I know that every promise that was made to me was kept!

In the mission calll letter, we are promised that "greater blessings and more happiness than you have yet experienced await you". I would just like to share a few examples of this happiness I have found in a MANY moments here in Santa Maria:

1. When our investigator Laisla's BF told her to wait 3 more months to be baptized because he wanted to baptize her, but we invited her to pray about it before making a decision, and the next day she said "I dont know how, but I heard something tell me I need to be baptized on March 5, so Im going to follow that voice" and she was baptized exactly one week later.

2. The day that Felipe, our recently-returned to activty in the church member, told us that he decided to serve and opened his mission papers. (HE has now been serving as a full-time missionary since june 2016)

3. The p-day I received a phone call saying that Irmão Noé, one of my converts from São Gabriel, had gone to the temple to week before and is now serving as the ward secretary.

4. One of the happiest moments on my mission was when Irmão Nelson, who took him a month to learn how to pray by himself without forgetting the steps, a week after his baptism was teaching his 50 year old daughter how to pray too.

5. I thought NOTHING could beat the day that Roni, from Uruguaiana, was finally baptized, but 6 weeks later I was proved wrong when I watched him baptize his older sister Patricia.

These are just a few of the best experiences of my entire mission, the moments that I can point to and see that EVERYTHING was worth it. Through all these experiences, I have grown so much closer to my Savior, as I have seen the difference He has made in the lives of these people I so dearly love.

Its like is says in 3 john 1:4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my [converts, less actives, friends, family, everyone] walk in the truth"

I have learned what people mean when they say "I really saw Jesus Christ on my mission" or "I have come to know the savior so much more on my misson". I'll use a quote from C.S. Lewis to explain.

"We can sya we believe in Christ as we believe in the sun at noonday, not that we can see it, but that by it, we can see every thing else"

THE THINGS YOU WITNESS ON YOUR MISSION IS WHAT MAKES YOU A WITNESS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

To see people change their lives, to love people from another place, is a testament to the existence of God and His son Jesus Christ. It is the light of Christ that allows me to see what I see, to live how I live, to be the person I am and the person I have become. I have become a fearless disciple and servant of God. MORE compassionate, worthy, prayerful, spritual, diligent.

In short, I have become more SPIRITUALLY ADVENTUROUS!

I hope to never forget this unconquerable spirit I feel I've become. To be able to walk off that plane and know that I gave it my all, will be the best reward. I hope to return home the exact same way I left, NO TEARS, NO FEARS.

I can safely say that my mission was not the best thing OF my life, because the best thing of my life will be the day I have my own little eternal family. But I can safely say that my mission has been the best thing FOR my life. I love the person I have become. I love the people I have met, I love missionary work and the miracles it brings, I love my Father in Heaven, I love my Savior Jesus Christ, and I testify of the reality of His life and His sacrifice.

The things I have witnessed here in Santa Maria are what have made me a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you for everyone that has taken the time to read what I have been writing all this time, all the letters and emails and prayers have been greatly cherished!

Feeling like the most loved Sister Missionary in the world,

Sister Lipps

ps
"wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream" (jacob 7:26) 

*laughs* *cries* *hyperventilates* *eats cake*

"how are you handling your final two weeks in the mission field?" ^^^^^^^^

I basically have almost ran out of worlds at this point, I feel like alot of the things I could say or stories I could tell would seem a little superficial and wouldnt describe well my feelings about these past few weeks. I have been trying to focus all of my thoughts and all of my studies on Jesus Christ, So I wanted to share a few things I took away from it!

John 6:66-69

66 ¶ From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

Some of my fears about coming home is my fear of losing this testimony, this spirit, of not "walking more with christ" of "going back" to the old me. But when I studied this part, I remembered that my testimony is rooted in Christ. I know that HE has the words of eternal life! Duh that I will not "go away" because I KNOW that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

John 14:6

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

These are things that I KNOW because I have FELT them. I am not very good at expressing my testimony over the internet, but I can promise that we have a savior, redeemer, that he knows us, loves us, he knows my name and my struggles, and that especially as we are preparing to celebrate this easter, his ressurrection, I know that he grants EVERYONE a second chance, a new beginning, and that he is the prince of peace. (go watch the video on mormon.org "prince of peace").

I love my mission! It is an experience that, if I had it my way, everyone would have :)

Love, Sister Lipps

Pictures:
1. ROOMMATES LOL (MY comp is the one in front of me, shes adorable)

2. Me vannawhiting it at the cathredral

3. 17 MESES WHAT!

4. My 17 month cake. after 16 mission anniversaries, you start to get bored of the same-old same-old pictures.

One of the family home evenings we held this week!

RAIN! AI YOU GUYS WE GOT DRENCHED. But it was all in the general conference spirit

"go out in the rain, look up to the heaven, open your mouth, and drink it!"

I FEAR NO RAIN

"stop being annoying" thing i teach my comp to say in english to the elders

My life is going really awesome right now, so I kind of sucks that it'll be over SO SOON. Sister Leite is one of my FAVORITE companions I have ever had, we get along so well, we are always laughing and working hard and pushing eachother and she does my eyebrows and I teach her english (more or less)

It's only been 2 weeks here, but I already find myself so connected with the people we are teaching! We have a recent convert Mauricio (19 years old), who was baptized the week before I came, and he is SO SWEET. His circumstances are very humble, and he had to let go of along of things for him to join the church, but he is AMAZING and always invites is friends to church too, and this week we went to visit him and he didnt see that we were coming so we snuck up and saw that he was reading the Book of Mormon alone and we almost cried because it was so precious. Love him.

Other high point of the week was when we met this little old couple in the front of their house and we decided to sing them a hymn and the second we started singing the lady started clapping her hands to the "beat" and then stood up and started dancing to "count your blessings" and I loved it so much, we could not stop laughing.

OKAY REAL HIGH POINT OF THE WEEK: GENERAL CONFERENCE:

I'm not trying to play favorites, but the best two talks were on saturday, bu Russell M. Nelson and Neil L. Andersen, and I am going to need everyone to read, and strengthen your testimony in Jesus Christ, and  OVERCOME THE WORLD!

AI YOU GUYS I LOVE MY MISSION SO MUCH.

LOVE,

Sister Lipps

photos:

a giant leaf 4 times the size of my head (hahaha brasilian leaves are so cool)

last week´s p-day: slack line at the church building!

HEY GUYS

WOW I am so blessed. I thought it was going to be awful, being transferred with only 5 (now 4) weeks left, but I LOVE SANTO ANGELO! I feel like I am being rewarded because Uruguaiana is such a COMPLICATED place, because this area is awesome and we have progressing investigators and the members are helping and we got like 8 referrals this week WOOHOO!

My companion is sister leite, she as 3 months on the mission, just barely finished her training, and she is a DOLL! She is from sergipe, brasil, and she is so excited to work, has so much energy, and she is all trained and armed and ready to lead us to success! (literally, she is leading me because i am so lost here) 

ok so my time ran out and the computer didnt let me send pictures, but pray for me and our investigators, and have a good conference weekend! 

MISSIONS: where adversity becomes an adventure!

Quote that I found that basically summarizes everything that a mission is

"Weaknesses become strengths, challenges become opportunities, trials become triumphs and adversity becomes an adventure in the service of the Lord"

SURPRISE IM BEING TRANSFERRED WITH 5 WEEKS LEFT.

what?

pois é 

i was surprised too.

im going to santo angelo tomorrow!

so if someone wants to send me a letter my address is:

caixa postal 1021

centro- santo angelo- RS

98801-970

brasil

so that was a shocker! but im coping about have to leave my daughter sister freire :( BUT itll all work out well! 

This week I passed my 40 day mark, so I decided to start a 40 day fast of some things I'm not going to do during my last 40 days so they can be the best 40 days ever! (things like complain when we get rejected, sing music of the world, ect) I also made a goal with the number of people im going to talk to about the gospel before I leave, and its helping me so much to literally open my mouth with everyone! it's gonna be awesome.

clip of the week:

us teaching a less active about forgiveness using alma 36. the lesson was going SO well, sister freire had talked about how jesus christ and take away our anger and hard feelings, and i went to talk "I know that the things that sister frei....*cough cough cough* *hacking cough* uhhhhh you guys i think i just swallowed a bug" A MOSQUITO LITERALLY FLEW INTO MY MOUTH! hahahahaha it was so gross, we all cried cried laughing.

So, after 7 1/2 month I am FINALLY getting out of this city, and not everyone we talked to listened to us, not everyone we invited came to church, and not everyone we taught was baptized. BUT a few listened, a few came, and a few souls were brought unto Christ, including mine :) It makes me reflect about the ministry of Christ, that not every blind saw, not every deaf heard, and not every lame walked, but with the few people he healed, he changed all of humanity.

I love the mission, love my savior, love y'all :)

love, sister lipps 

ps this computer is being lame and probably wont let me send pics, but next week i have some SWEET shots of CARNAVAL. (jk we didnt go) (but we did take a few pictures with the costumes)

Mysterious Blue Leg Bruise

I have a new bruise on my leg this week, it's very blue and I think I was abducted by someone or something.

This week was very interesting, from thunderstorms, to a lot of rejections than normal, to a 24 hour stomach flu (that was a FUN day, sister freire learned that I am a very stubborn person when I am sick and dont want to be).

something that helped me last night when I was sitting in my bed reflecting "wow this is the 5th week that no one has come to sacrament meetting, that kind of sucks", a letter that I received more than a year ago with the poem "the race"  

"all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall

and when depression and despair shout loudly in my face

another voice within me says

GET UP AND WIN THAT RACE"

love the mission, love y'all :)

amor,

sister lipps 

Pictures:

Me and Irmã Miriam!

Me and Prince Charming

Family Home Evening with my favorite family when I was on an exchange! 

 

 

meu testemunho

Okay so this week I´m going to be a little more serious because usually my emails are kind of all over the place and then i run out of time at the end to bear my testimony.

In exactly 50 days from now, I'll be returning home from the best experience of the life. Actually not the best experience of my life, because that´ll be the moment I start my own family, but it has been the best experience FOR my life. I CANNOT imagine who or where I would be or what would be my future if I had never came on a mission. It´s hard to explain by email the change that has taken place in me, the spiritual growth I've had, the things I've learned, that HOLY COW I dont know how I passed 19 years of my life without this solid faith in God that I have now. REALLY LIKE HOW DID I SURVIVE. 

Here are a few things I´ve been pondering about this week that I would never know if I had stayed home:

When you exercise faith (in other words, when you do something a little out of your comfort zone, only because you know that God will provide the means) MIRACLES happen! Literally!! It is exactly like it says in Ether 12:12

 12 For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.

We had a few miracles this week, one of which was a less active member, who after a few years of not coming, and after a few weeks of telling us "I will not go back to church" SHE SURPRISED US AN CAME. Its like we say here "Só Deus memso", basically that only God could work a miracle like this. So, faith+works=miracles

On the same subject, Our Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. Everyone. Before coming to brasil, I knew that. Of course, I had only heard in 52753 times before. But now, I KNOW it, I TESTIFY that it is true! I have felt it, and seen it, every little prayer we say. I remember one time we were walking to the bus station at 7 am, and I saw a man on his bike, obviously going to work early, and by the looks of it, a little late, with an old bike as his only transportation. As we were walking and I watched, a part of his bike flew off and broke, and he stayed stopped for about 3 minutes trying to fix it. My first thought was "oh crap, what is he going to do? He needs to get to work!" and as we walked I said a silent prayer "Heavenly Father, I dont know this man, but help him fix his bike get to work on time" and NOT EVEN 4 SECONDS LATER he was riding past us on his quickly repaired bike, going to work. I was like WHAAAAAAAAAT THAT WAS SO FAST. And then I felt so humbled by the feeling of "wow, he real heard me. Even this little random prayer about a stranger at 7 am. He heard me, I knew a was capable of helping him, and he answered" It was the smallest little moment that I had never commented with anyone, but today is a great part of my testimony. He hears us, it every little insignificant moment, He really hears

Heavenly Father always keeps his promisses when we do our part. I have seen the fulfillment of so many promises made to me in so many different moments in my life here on my mission, because I KNOW I am doing my part.

Christ is the light of the world, and serving him makes me the HAPPIEST person on the planet. HA all of my life everyone called me "smile-y" but that doesnt even compare to the constant smile I feel now, the TRUE happiness. And now that I am talking about that, ALWAYS SMILE, you don´t even know who is needing it. Last week I had two strangers come up and thank me for my smile, saying "you dont know how much I was needing that today, of all the days" And I realized, If TWO people came up and told me, imagine that people who thought it but just never said anything.

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, I love being a missionary. I am so grateful for His infinite Atonement, capable of curing any illness, spiritual, emotional, and physical.

COM MUITO AMOR AND SMILES,

sister lipps 

 

me, being a psycologist, using sister freire's glasses. HA 

My 16 months! holy wow i am old 

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"I am very grace for grateful"

^yes, the subject header is a real quote from my talk yesterday about grace in sacrament meeting. So you could pretty much say that I NAILED IT.

Update: due to that 5 year old boy in our ward that is probably my boyfriend who thinks i am alice in wonderland, most of the members actually think that my first name is alice now. HA sometimes I think its funnier that way, so I dont correct them. And in a few months they'll try to find me on Facebook as "alice lipps" and I will think its funny.

Everyone says that when you only have 2 months left on the mission, you started to get worn out, BUT THAT IS A LIE! I havent had more energy in my whole mission than i have right now, I wake up BEFORE our alarm goes off because Im not tired anymore, and its been over a month since ive accidently fallen asleep in a lesson. WOOHOO FOR BLESSINGS!

We had a "Master Chef" activity in our ward, so I decided to participate and I made banana bread. HA i lost so hard. I thought it was good, but everyone else made pizza and chocolate cake, so was it really a fair fight? also we are poor and i only made banana bread because my bananas were almost rotting, cool right?

Other events: We had our zone conference this week and Presidente Louza called us all to repentance because of our work with members, and it was great because this week we worked really hard to gain their confidence, gain the bishop´s trust, and now (our plan) they are all going to do visits with us and give us referalls!!

Love you all,

Sister Lipps 

Pictures:

GIANT XIS LAST P-DAY!

Our zone conference!!

Sister Bahmad and I (she goes home next month :( )

Me and minha filha wearing matching clothes because Im her trainer and I love color coordinating

Me and the assistants HA they are cool 

Me and my favorite family from Alegrete, Robinson and Tati! 

MASTERCHEF!

sister freire´s 1 month-aversary!

Our capeta wall (capeta=little devil, used with misbehaved children HA)

Me and my bombacha bermuda (didnt buy it though because it was too big) 

taking care of my newborn

TRAINING IS THE BEST THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD!! everyone always told me its the worst thing to train when you are finishing your mission because you're not focused and you're tired, but that was a bunch of lies because I LOVE IT!! Its making me feeling like I am learning everything all over again, and I am so busy being worried about my companion and trying to teach her every second of every day, that I feel mroe focused on missionary work then ever! Going home? QUE NADA.

It also helps that my companion is literally an angel. She came to the mission SO prepared, and so willing to learn everything, its been a breeze. Her name is Sister Freire, she is 19 and from São Paulo! (her accent is so cute, I die) (she probably thinks the same thing about me haha). But really, she is amazing, and answer to my prayers, we get along SUPER GREAT and i hope i can stay with their until the end to finish all her training!

Also Heavenly Father blessed me alot, because I kind of had a hard time accepting the fact that I was going to stay in Uruguaiana forever, but we havnt gotten lost in our new area (yet) and we have already (in 3 days) found 5 new investigators with a lot of potencial. SO okay if no one came to church (yet), whats important is that we are on fire and we are going to remain happy and positive and full of energy all day every day :)

other thing: Everyone in the ward has already started calling me "alice" from alice in wonderland because on sunday i curled my hair and used a blue ribbon hahahaha. This 5 year old boy ran and sat next to me and said "wow you are so pretty, like a beautiful princess, im going to give you a kiss" and then he kissed my cheek and i almost died. and at the end of sacrament meeting, his mom came to get him and he started crying and said "NO, I WANT TO STAY HERE WITH ALICE" AHHHHH my life is so funny.

OTHER OTHER THING: I went to santa maria on tuesday, picked up sister freire wednesday, and we had to catch the bus thursday at 12:30. But due to the fact that we lost the keys of our apartment for a few minutes, we ran REALLY LATE and got to the bus station (after asking a taxi to frive 60 in a 25 zone) at 12:32, without our bags that got mixed up in another taxi with some other sisters, and in conclusion, we spent 5 minutes sprinting inside of the bus station trying to buy our tickets, get our right bags, get to the right bus, and basically sister freire with never ever forget her first real day with me as a trainer. 

Other things i learned this week:

PRAYER IS REAL. EVEN WITH THE LITTLE THINGS. IT HELPED US THIS WEEK FIND LOST KEYS, LOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS, NOT GET BITTEN BY DOGS, FIND AWESOME INVESTIGATORS, EVERYTHING.

So just pray about the little little littlest things and you all will see little miracles too :) 

Talk to read: "improving our prayers" by joseph b. wirthlin.

Okay i love y'all!

amor,

sister alice 

1. Meeting my daughter!!!! (sister freire)

2. Me and elder campos freaking out because we only have TWO transfers left

3. HAHAHA I love sister Bahmad, we were comps for like 20 hours waiting to pick up our new comps

4. Sister Freire's first sunday! 

"transfers" <--- joke

MY LAST WEEK HERE IN URUGUAIANA (PSYCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)

I was 40000% sure i was going to be transferred because duh ive been here for 6 months.

and i was transferred.

To another ward here in uruguaiana.

AY AY AY YOU GUYS GOD IS TESTING MY FAITH. 

but its all good because im going to be a MOM (aka im going to train woohoo im kind of freaking out. ask sister de oliveira how many times this week i said "do you think she is going to hate me?") so tomorrow im going to santa maria to pick her up! 

other events of the week:

Sister de oliveira turned 26 and we had another mini dance party. This time i was lady gaga and i taped a few mini hamburger patties on me hahahaha

I made mexican food for Miriam and Roni and their whole family and they LOVED it and told me im allowed to get married now.

AAAAND RONI'S SISTER WAS BAPTIZED IN THE DARK BECAUSE THERE WAS A STORM AND A BLACK OUT AT THE CHURCH BUILDING BUT IT WAS A NIGHT OF MIRACLES!!

okay thats all i have time for BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Love, sister lipps 

patricia's baptism!!!! (insert that episode of spongebob "at night")

 

 

I few pictures of our beloved zone and i few missionaries that were leaving. also we found a castel!!!!!!!!!!!!

ZONA URUGUAIANA (eternal)

 

  

in 3 months ill tell you guys everything, for now here are some pics

1. district p-day (we didnt have a volleyball so we played dogdeball "quiemada", kill me now)

2. Me and sister santos in my LAST exchange as a Sister Training Leader ever. Haha she is from Salvador, bahia, she is awesome.

 

 

 FLASHBACK MONDAY

one time 4 months ago when i got chased by dogs and ran into mud and sister vera cried laughing and took this pic of me on our phone 

 

 

 

clicks of the week

and i ran out of time to write a life update, but just now that this week was MIRACULOUS and we have a few progressing investigators now, so I know that faith and hardwork pays off!! I feel that im going to transferred in a few weeks, because im started to feel in peace with the work ive done in this area. Only a couple baptisms, and a couple reactivations, but MANY HEARTS TOUCHED, including mine :) 

Have an amazing week y'all, and if you feel more or less, read 2 nephi 2, and you will understand why life is so hard sometimes, okay?

Love, Sister Lipps

ps, we had an improve concert for Sister Vicente's birthday, I wont give all the deets, but its safe to say thay beyonce and tay swift showed up (because she turned 22, duh) and alot of brazilian dancing was involved, hahaha sometimes being a missionary is ridiculously fun too 

…

1. Sister de oliveira and I with the presidentes wife, sister louza, and elder santos, one of the assistants that saw us going to take a pic and we didnt want to leave him out hahaha

2,3. Me and Sister Da Silvia, from brasilia, and she finishes her mission in 2 weeks!

4. Sister Vicentes 22th birthday!! hahaha we forced her to do her hair like that, we are so cruel

5. Us and Roni, with his "future missionary" tag because he did visits with us all day on sunday!