*raining outside* *wind feels like knives* *got rejected 7 times in a row* *starts singing "i hope they call me on a mission" crying*

yesterday on the phone with our District Leader

Him: Ola sisteres! como foi a semana de vocês?

Hello sisters ! How was your week?
Me: Foi boa! 

Was good!

Him: Foi mesmo?

Really was?

…

Me: Sim! Porque se eu falar que foi ruim, Satanás ganha...........

Yes! Because if I say it was bad, Satan wins ...........

…

Hey, everyone has rough weeks. Lol last night EVERYTHING fell through, and we walked around in the cold at 8 at night looking for houses with the smell of "love, compassion, and tea and crackers"

AAAAAAAAAAAAND i already ran out of time. but here are some pictures:

last moments with Sister Neves! We had a family night and it was AWESOME and we made pizza and I drank coca cola for the first time in 9 months.

MY NEW COMP SISTER CARRIEL! She is AWESOME! We get along so so so well. its a hoot. I love it

We had a baptism!! Actually it was in the ward of our Zone leaders, but the guy used to be in our ward and moved 2 weeks ago so it was kind of our baptism too.

LOVE YOU GUYS,

SISTER LIPPS

im sitting in this lan house thinking about how hungry i am

this internet is being super sucky right now, so forward apologies for the brevity of this email

Okay so transfers came out this week and I survived but Sister Neves didnt :( we are currently mourning. My new comp gets here tomorrow! And itll be kind of weird I think because she has 6 more months than me, but Im going to be the Senior still. talk about an awkward turtle amiright.

So lots of things happened this week and I already ran out of time to tell them all, but we had the visit of our new mission presidente and his wife! Presidente and Sister Louza! They are super sweet and already seem SO different from Presidente and Sister Parrela. For example:

Sister Parrela: "milk and bread are from the devil and will give you bacteria. Just eat lime and itll solve all your problems"

Sister Louza: "Eat whatever you ate at home, just try not to eat pizza and xis every day" #LIBERDADE

Hahaha all jokes aside, I think theyre going to be super awesome and very loved here!

I had a REALLY awesome personal study today about Faith, and how we can really build a foundation of faith in our lives. Its like it says in ether 12:6, we arent going to have this UNBREAKABLE, UNSHAKABLE  testimony, if we dont have a TRIAL of our faith. Everyone read the talks "mountains to climb" and "faith is not by chance, but by choice" :)

LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY AND LVOE YOU ALL!

Sista Em Lippsies

pictures:

a one foto summary of why Im going to miss sister neves so much. HAHA shes a crack up. I love foot rubs.

a bunch of pictures from our conference! I love my zone. Its cool being the only sisters because it automatically makes you the favorite sisters of the zone. true life 

"ADOPT AN INVESTIGATOR" -> BIG SUCCESS YOU GUYS

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! I woke up and started singing the star-spangled banner for sister neves and she said "please stop" #AMERICA. im wearing red white and blue and ate a hamburger for lunch so im about american as you can get in Alegrete, Rio grande do sul, Brasil.

ALSO today im 8 months old. I DONT BELIEVE HOW FAST THIS IS GOING. also i dont believe that after 8 months in this freaking country, i still have moments with portuguese when im like "wait what the heck is going on? what are you saying? sister neves please fill me in" lol @ this life. 

OKAY SO OUR ADOPT AN INVESTIGATOR THING WAS A BIG HIT. and my that i mean we have low expectations due to past failures and we thought no one would do anything, but like half the people actually visiting their "children" we gave them!!!! WOOHOO. Actually it was really awesome having the members telling us about the visits they did and how they were so courageous to go out and find this person theyd never met to read the Book of Mormon with them and invite them to church and I was so proud of them because everyone was like "have you visited your kid yet? My kid is coming to church this week!" #proudmomma.

So the crappiness of last week got made up for because we were BLESSED with 8 investigators at church on sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And i bore my testimony and in summary said, "im happy the church is true amen" and it was a GOOD day! ALSO my prayers were answered literally because we had 4 days this week that it was actually warm and not raining!!! i didnt even have to use tights!! I was so blessed. For reals.

Fun fact: we have a less active that we found and he's 70 and he came to church this sunday and he is so precious, and every time he prays he starts out with "Good afternoon my heavenly father" AND ITS SO PRECIOUS. I love it.

 OKAY SO we have this family that we are working with, Isaac and Glaucia and their two sons, and it is going AWESOME! We found her knocking doors, and she was super stressed and said basically "my kid is sick, i dont have time for this" and we said "PLEASE LET US HELP!" and after some persuasion she let us in and we went at it and cleaned her entire house for an hour and talked her her about her life; We found out that she had moved here 5 months ago because her husband is in the army, and they dont know anyone and dont go to any church but shes always relied on God in her life. So  its kind of a long story, but in summary we left that day just saying a prayer, and we came back the next day with a member, and a few days later she TOTALLY had a spiritual experience and knew that the Book of Mormon was true, and they husband was super shut off, but we introduced them to people and took them to activities and THEY CAME TO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY and they are saying prayers as a family and her husband is gaining a testimony and she told us she never felt this desire to get to know a church un til she met us and basically IT IS PERFECT (except the fact that they are not legally married yet....................)

And yesterday after the fast and testimony meeting she said "if i went up there to bear my testimony, i would talk about this...." and bore her testimony to us about all the changes happe ning in her life, for the better, since she started meeting with us. SO basically they are so prepared and a blessing from on high.

My message for y'all this week is about bearing your testimony, because we all gotta do it and if not were going to lose it!!!! 

I LOVE THIS CHURCH. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

SISTER LIPPS

pics: The son of our ward mission leader is going on a mission this week to argentina!! We gave him a present and went yesterday to say a prayer with their family and it was super special and reminded me of my departure and we all cried. 

Family home evening with investigators!

Our district!! love those guys

Me and sister neves were super legit and made lunch one day when ours fell through.

(lol another day our lunch fell through and we went to a members house and read them Alma 8:19 and they let us eat with us hahahahaha every missionary has to use that scripture) 

 

going to find people sunday morning!

happy 8 months to me!

my american lunch hehe

 

WHY I PRAY FOR PATIENCE AND NOT FOR STRENGTH

"Sister, let's pray for patience, because if we pray for strength, I'm going to hit someone"- a one sentence summary of our week. 

YEAH THIS WEEK WAS KIND OF SUCKY BUT ITS OKAY BECAUSE I HAVE 40+ MORE TO IMPROVE.

Here's the thing: everyone in this city has depression. EVERYONE. I personally believe its because of the cold and because they dont have a movie theater, but thats just my opinion. But really, we just deal with alot of sad people and sometimes I feel it rubbing off on me and have to think "STOP AND BE HAPPY SO THESE PEOPLE CAN BE HAPPY TOO"

okay Im just going to summarize some of the good points this week:

Sister Neves and i had A REALLY GOOD IDEA to make the members not be so lazy and get them PUMPED about missionary work!! We basically made up our own visiting teaching program but with our investigators and the members but were making it an "ADOPT AND INVESTIGATOR" and basically we ran around church on sunday giving all the members pieces of paper with one of our investigators or less actives and yelling "CONGRATS YOU HAVE A KID! ITS A GIRL! SHE'S 30 AND LIVES ON SUCH AND SUCH STREET! TAKE CARE OF HER!" and it was pretty awesome so we'll see if these people actually take care of the kids we gave them haha. 

On Sunday morning we were running around trying to bring our investigators to church (no one came btw............................) but we ran into a 17 year old girl in our ward and she was also running around trying to bring her friends and some of our investigators that she knows and it was super funny and we were so proud of her.

AT church I also gave a talk in sacrament meeting about missionary work and rescuing lost sheep and all that, and the WHOLE TIME sister neves was sitting in the back row making hearts with her hands and making kissy faces at me HAHAHA i couldnt even look at her, I love my companion. 

We have a family of a mom and her two daughters that we are working ALOT with and they'll probably be baptized sometime to July, because they're not ready yet so we dont want to throw them in the font just for fun ya know. We had an awesome lesson/FHE with them yesterday and they had other non member friends there so we talked about the book of mormon, and I asked the 8 year old girl Raqueley "what is the book of mormon?" and she yelled "TRUE!" hahahahahaha it was so perfect. i love her.

We also talked with the mom, Kelly, about how she can really receive a solid answer that the BOM is true, and it strengthened my testimony of prayer, but not just prya but SEARCH, PONDER, PRAY, AND LISTEN. We invited them all to find a quiet moment in their day to really read, and really pray, and after just listen, find some time to search for peace and invite the Spirit to enter into your mind and your heart. SO in summary, it was super great and totally what they were needing.

We had a movie night this week in the church building, and we were sitting in their with our investigators when the 6 year old daughter of out ward mission leader ran in and said "SISTERS! COME HERE! DAD'S TALKING WITH SOME GUY THAT BELIEVES IN THE GOSPEL!" so obviously we were like "NOBODY MOVE!!!!!!!!!!!" lol and then we went and started talking with this guy that isnt active in the church and has alot o problems and we had a really spiritual lesson with him talking about repentance and we all cried.

Yesterday we had another lesson with him and I started talking about the difference between testimony and conversion, and i read alma 23:6-8, when the lamanites were baptized, and it says that those of them that layed down ALL their weapons of rebellion, as to not fight anymore against God, were the ones who were truly converted. After I explained that, this guy were teaching looked me straight in the eye, and said "So, what are your weapons of rebellion?" BOOM. SPIRITUAL PRICECHECK. 

We all have things that are holding us back from being truly converted to the Lord, be in pride, stubborness, laziness, selfishness (all of which are some of my weapons). But step by step, we can really overcome these weakness and give our whole soul unto Him! And the first step is recognzing it!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY, even on the pretty sucky weeks lol.

Love,

SIster Lipps 

also i just remembered that one night this week sister neves woke up at 1 am and said "sister, SISTER!! do you think im robbing god because im not paying enough with my fast offering?" 

just a good glimpse into life as a missionary....................

Pictures:

When you let a 9 year old do your makeup and she makes you straight up barbie

Mini waterfall! the only up side to all this stupid rain

COOKIE DOUGH! i teach everyone here how to make cookies lol. also they thought I was crazy because i was eating the raw dough, and then Raqueley took a piece of the dough to eat and said "LOOK IM AMERICAN!" hahaha #VERDADE 

I'm such a lazy person

im such a lazy person.

my problem is that I really like to READ emails instead of write them. but we'll see what cool things I can make up to tell you guys lol.

Sister Neves and I this week are having a problem and the problem is that THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE HERE THAT PREACH BLASPHEMEY. hahahaha our weekly goal is "dont argue with people that teach apostasy". as my testimony has gotten stronger, and my portuguese better, its just getting harder to not call people out when they try to tell us false doctrines and all that crap. highlight of this week was someone telling us "jesus christ doesnt have a body"???????????? brb praying for patience because if i pray for strength ill end up hitting someone (jk) (kind of)

We are getting alot of new investigators and teaching more than ever before, but still our baptismal propsects are looking so so small. BUT we make goals to show our faith and and the end of the day we look at what we did to count our blessings :) weve started the good habit of talking with EVERYONE on the street! even when were late for something (which we always are) we try to use 30 seconds to invite someone to learn more about the gospel! 

Ive come to appreciate SO much our living prophet and apostles. THE LIAHONA (MAGAZINE) IS MY FAVORITE THING IN THE UNIVERSE!

i was studying an article about fathers, and how God is our perfect father. At times we open the box of life and get so confused and frustrated because we see so many little parts and big parts and dont know how it all fits together. But God loves us, he wants us to be successful, and he gave us the INSTRUCTIONS! Prayer, the scriptures, the words of the living prophets, they are all that "random" little white packet of directions that no one really reads as they should. He didnt send us here alone! He doesnt want us to be frustrated! Im grateful for a loving Heavenly Father (and an awesome earthly father, shout out to my pops) who gives us so many tools for success and happiness. 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! 

Sista Lipps 

pictures:

us being super housewifey and making pizza and wearing turtlenecks

Noite familiar and i taught them how to make cookies!

it was the birthday of our little investigator yesterday so we gave her chocolate and took a pic outside of the church building! 

impromptu photoshoot in the street lol 

GETTING PROPOSED TO ON BRAZILIAN VALENTINES DAY

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

story of my life. drunk brazilian men.

So we had a pretty pretty solid week but I already ran out of email time to tell all y'all about it, but just know that Im good and its all good despite the fact that im freezing my toosh off here because saturday night I saw A SHOOTING STAR. THE FIRST ONE IN MY LIFE. It was magical.

Here are some photos from this week: We had divisões with our sister training leaders so it was basically a missionary sleepover! And i got to see my dear Sister Macedo again!

And also me and Sister Neves bought xis at this (literal) hole in the wall place and it was also magical.

Im SO tired but that doesnt even matter because mini miracles are happening here!!

SO ANYBUHJEW, I love you all, I love this gospel and the happiness it brings, and I love being a missionary!!!

SISTA EM DAWG

hey hey heyyyyyyyy

So this week was pretty cray cray because of transfers and everything but IM SO HAPPY I REALLY LIKE BEING A MISSIONARY ITS KINDA RIDICULOUS.

Estou na santa terra de ALEGRETE! Im just this week getting to know the area, getting to know everyone here, including my companion lol. Sister Neves is from MANAUS so thatsd pretty legit because its straight amazon all up in there. She has 4 1/2 months on the mission, but shes a POWERFUL missionary, she's so awesome!! She's kind of a big dork but she's hilarious and sometimes tells me what to do because her personality is like that but I just let her always get her opinion out and then we decide together what we're going to do and it works out just grande! We live by ourselves because were the only sisters in our zone, so that's kind of lame but we make the best of it by being weirdos and jumping up and down in the morning to get eachother pumped! Lol yesterday we accidentally flooded the apartment (well it wasnt us, it was the toilet) SO THAT WAS FUN But we got it all sorted out so yeah thats life.

The people here are REALLY COLD. (literally, its cold here), but yeah theyre a harsher group of people here, not every opens their door for us and it takes everything I have sometimes to not call people out on their blatant lies when we try to do contacts and they make up something, or reject us straight up. BUT IM BUILDING CHARACTER AMIRIGHT. Lol but were working REALLY HARD and managing to teach and yesterday we had a miracle sunday because we had SIX INVESTIGATORS at church!!! (for those who dont know, thats a lot for me. most sundays in São Gabriel we had zero lol life is rough) SO were already super duper blessed.

We had our mission conference this week and it was the last conference of Presidente and SIster Parrela because theyre leaving this month to go home! So it was pretty sentimental but SUPER spiritual. Presidente talked to us alot of happiness, and the difference between being happy in every moment, and being a happy person. Its not possible for us to be happy ALL the time, because thats just life and emotions and its hard. But, we can CHOOSE to live happily every day! It was super awesome, everyone read 2 Nephi 5:27, everyone CHOOSE to be happy.

I love you all, sorry its kind of short this week, my email time was interrupted by a phone call from PRESIDENTE PARRELA, which is heart attack in a box but im alive, he didnt yell at me, were all good!!

AMOR PARA TODOS VOCÊS!

sister lipps

pictures:

MINHA COMPANHERIA SISTER NEVES

Pictures from our mission conference, and i got to see me beloved Sister Barbosa, my bff from the CTM.

IM TURNED 7 MONTHS OLD THIS WEEK! feeling old 

 Pictures from last week: