my life is super normal

Nothing super outstanding happened this week..........

We did exchanges

We taught the gospel

We got rejected

We got rained on the first half of the week, and sunburnt the second

We had a few miracles bringing our investigators to stake conference

We walked SO much, it was ridiculous

We studied the scriptures

We ate XIS

We ate CHURRASCO (brazilian barbeque, aka meat meat meat)

We found and taught a few ELECTS of God

We accidentally taught INSIDE of another church because our investigator lives there (but doesnt believe in it, its his grandparents church) and it was dark outside so they invited us in and we couldnt really say no so I just said in my head "HF I know what it says in our missionary manual, but please forgive me"

AAAAAAAAAAAND that is all for now.

Im sups tired.

I havent written in my journal in 2 weeks because i havent had time and it is killing me. 

BUT HEY I know that Christ lives and he is our Savior and nothing good ever happened without someone's hard work and sacrifice, so Im just trying to follow his example everyday as much as I can! 

Love y'all!

Sister Lipps

Classic exchange picture

We decided to be adorable and match with our recent convert family (and the 18 year old boy old us last night that hes decided to be baptized too, woohoo!) 

Us and our parents (aka Presidente and Sister Louza) 

*cue the music......"CAUSE YOU HAD A BAD DAY"

OK where do i even start.............

Saturday morning, as we were leaving the house, and it was pouring BUCKETS outside, thunder and lightening, I was praying with Sister Vera, and I said "We thank thee from this opportunity to test our faith today" and BOY DID HF TEST US! 

okay im just going to make a list of the things that went wrong, just to be funny:

1. as previously stated, it was raining ridiculously hard, we were drenched completely in 30 seconds

2. We had to arrange a blessing for the grandpa of a less active, and we call and talked to EVERY priesthood holder in basically the WHOLE city and everyday gave a different excuse as to why they could do it.........

3. as we were calling all these people, our phone minutes ran out for the month HAHAHA 

4. we were fasting with one of the members in the ward, and we had marked for us to pass by before lunch to end our fast and say a prayer, AND HE WASNT FREAKING HOME!?

5. so in the midst of all of this, in the street, in the middle of the storm, we were like "ok lets just get to lunch and eat a be happy" and so we walked an hour to our lunch appointment because she lives at the end of the universe in our area. *knock knock* silence..............................YEP SHE FORGOT AND WASNT HOME. I was like "yeah thats it im done"

I turned to sister vera and said "wow that was i like the most unfortunate hour of my entire life"

But hey, God answered my prayer with MANY opportunities to test my faith this week woohoo!!!!!!!!

But actually our week wasnt THAT bad, Im just being a little dramatic so you guys pay attention.

We did some exchanges this week, and I was SUPER blessed because we got to go to ALEGRETE and I got to visit my favorite recent convert IRMÃO NELSON!! Hahahaha I surprised him, because he didnt know I was coming, and we both cried. I love him so much!!!! and he was being such a dork when we were taking pictures so Ill attach a few of them below with some of this funny faces :)

SO we learned alot about hope this week, the God is preparing people, elects, to be baptized to meet the church here in our area! Ive had the scripture Alma 13:24 in my head all week, that talks about exactly that! We dont see it, but HF really prepares peoples hearts to receive us and receive the gospel! SO, even though the work is SLOW and DIFFICULT, we need to have the faith that there are still people here to be reached!! 

AMEN

Love, Sister Lipps 

fotos:

me and Irmão nelson!!! i love him to death

me and sister carriel, because she goes home in FOUR weeks!! QUE LOUCURA!

Sister Vera and i mentally preparing to leave the house in the rain......(not pictured: our tears)

LOOK I MADE CAKE AND IM LEARNING HOW TO BE A MOM!!! (everyone please pray that when i have children, i can learn how to make real food) 

Our weekly goals "dont say the word ídiot" "pinky promise?" "pinky promise"

You know how sometimes you dont do anything but just sit and look at the wall for like hours and then you literally start feeling sick just because of the fact that you are doing nothing?

THAT WAS MY WEEK.

Ok so on monday we went to santa maria for our mission counsel meeting, and i had an appointment wednesday after, so long story short we could only come home to uruguaiana thursday and start working in our area friday AND I ALMOST LOST MY MIND BECAUSE WE DIDNT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO IN SANTA MARIA FOR LIKE 4 DAYS. we literally sat in the mission office rotting away eating litle candies they keep on the counter. HA so our week was SUPER LAME

LOL but we made up for it because we worked super hard these three days we were here and ended up with a bunch of tasks to do this week! Last night i was a STRESS CASE after our weekly planning and i was ranting to sister gibson about all the things i had on my to-do list and after like 5 min i threw myself on my bed like "im done" and then i heard a crack and my bed broke and i fell and then we laughed and then we cried HAHAHA .

MIRACLE OF THE WEEK:

we met this guy sitting on the sidewalk this week, so obvi we started talkining to him, and we ended up teaching him on the sidewalk mesmo and he was SO interested in the restoration and at the end of the lesson, he accepted our invitation to be baptized and come to church with us!! AND THEN, he told us that he lied when we first met him, that he didnt actually just move here from porto alegre, but that the day before he was released from prision..............SO instead of being kind of freaked out, my first thought was "WHAT THAT IS SO AWESOME! THIS GOSPEL IS GOING TO CHANGE HIS LIFE!!!"

And then we went on sunday morning to take him to church, AND HE WAS ACTUALLY AWAKE AND WAITING FOR US (which NEVER happens) AND HE CAME TO CHURCH AND LOVED IT!!!!

oh you guys, ill keep yall updated because i see SO much potencial in him its CRAZY!

I love being a missionary!!!!!!!!

ok so lots of other cool things happened this week that i dont have to type it all, but my message of the day is that we CANNOT look at people, and thing about how they WERE, but we have to see them and imagine who they CAN BE! God cares infinitely more about who we are becoming than about who we once were. (just look at alma the yonger, alma chapter 36)

I KNOW THAT GOD IS OUR LOVING FATHER, AND THAT HE HAS A PLAN FOR US, AND IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE CHANGE AND GROW TO BECOME MORE LIKE HIM!

love you all!!!!!!!!!

Sister Lipps <3333333333333

 

 

"MY MOM IS AN ANGEL"

OK so this week was marvelousssssssssssssssssss!

First off, OBVIOUSLY, it was general conference, its better than CHRISTMAS and christmas is pretty freaking good so that is saying something.

Ok we has this one experience this week that was SO INCREDIBLE for me!!! Me met this less active, Joseph, and he asked us to come and visit him because his grandparents were needing a priesthood blessing. SO we went to go meet them, and his grandparents must be 70 or 75, but they are both REALLY sick, and his grandmother is in a wheelchair and cant talk anymore because she has........(ok i dont remember, but its serious). So as we were talking to them, I saw a photo on the wall of a SUPER beautiful woman with a fancy dress flowing in the Wind, and i was like "wow this is the most beautiful Picture i have ever seen" and THEN i realized that it was his grandmother, 50 years ago!! So we started teaching Joseph and his grandfather about the Atonement, and how Christ doesnt only save us from our sins and mistakes, but also from our pains and illnesses (Alma 7:11-13). It was SUCH a spiritual lesson, but I could see how his grandmother WAS and how she IS now, and I felt the Spirit whisper to my heart "when we ressurrect, she will be healed, it will be her again"

Then the grandfather said that hes spent all these years that theyve been sick trying to understand what he did wrong, why God was punishing him. It was SUCH a wonderful moment when we got to explain that our trials are not to PUNISH us, but they are to STRENGTHEN us. to REFINE us. and after this life, we will all be healed PHYSICALLY, SPIRITUALLY, EMOTIONALLY, and MENTALLY. I felt in that moment, SO MUCH gratitude for our Savior, because I felt and could see the effects of his sacrifice for us, and I now that we cann all be healed, we can all be perfected, if we put our trust in him.

(also he blessed me because he helped me wait until after we had left the house to start balling lol #blessings)

Ok ONE MORE THING before i go (time is short because we are going to santa maria in an hour for our mission counsel!)

Yesterday, the talk that touched me the most was Sunday afternoon, K Brett Nattress, who said that everyday when he was growing up, his mom read the book of mórmon too him, and he never payed attention, and finally he said "mom, why are you Reading?? Im not even listening!" and she said "The prophet promissed that if a parent reads with their child the book of mórmon every day, she will not lose him. I will not lose you" and what came into my mind imediately was my precious momma, who also read us the book of mórmon every morning, and I have to admit that mom i never really payed the atention i should have, but THANK YOU FOR NOT LOSING ME! MY MOM IS A ANGEL YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love my mom.

I love the book of mórmon

I love brasil

I love being a missionary

I love the 12 year old less active who, when we said at the end of the lesson "do you have any questions?" responded "yeah, can you guys do this with your tongue?" and then made one of those hot dog butterflies with this tongue.

I love you all!!!!!!!

LOVE, SISTER LIPPS

pictures: our last night with sister barbosa because she was transferred, so we made cookies and accidentally stayed up talking...........

MY ZONE THREW ME A SURPRISE BIRHTDAY PARTY LAST MONDAY!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THEM

more pics of our zone, and sister vera and i and our (lack of) muscles. #SWOLL 

 

 

THE FALL OF ADAM AND SISTER LIPPS

Ok so I had a bunch of things I wanted to say, but I wasted all my time reading emails instead of writing so FORGIVE ME!

So this week passed by IN A BLINK! 

On monday night, the mission office called me and said that tuesday at noon I had to be on a bus to Santa Maria to renew my visa, so I spent tuesday, wednesday, and thursday travelling/in santa maria with Sister Chaves and Sister Lira.

HAHAHAH I TRIP SO HARD TUESDAY NIGHT WALKING FROM THE BUS STATION AND IT WAS DARK AND I HAD MY BAGS ALL IN MY HANDS SO I COULDNT CATCH MYSELF SO I FELL STRAIGHT ON THE GROUND ON A BUNCH OF ROCKS SO IT WAS A WICKED SOFT LANDING (NOT) AND IT WAS SO FREAKING FUNNY AND EMBARASSING AND I STAYED THERE LAYING ON THE GROUND FOR LIKE 3 SECONDS WHILE THE SISTERS FREAKED OUT AND IT WAS AWESOME. but now, a week later, im basically healed :)

We went to a stake activity in Santa Maria and I got to see a bunch of people from my first area and it made me feel so loved that they remembered me and wanted to take pictures and kiss my cheeks and everything :´-)

When i finally got back to Uruguaiana with sister vera, we spent SO much time just walking because they had marked appointments all over they place and our area is pretty big so we were EXHAUSTED.

Theres a cute little grandma member with 83 years and she cant walk or hear very well but we visited her a few times and she is probably the STRONGEST and most ADORABLE member of out ward and her name is Merência and I love her and im going to take her home with me!!!!!!!!!!

OH YEAH I ALSO TURNED 20 THIS WEEK SO THAT WAS WEIRD. I had a bunch of people calling or singing me happy birthday and I got strangely sentimental and emotional and I think a little trunky because their singing made me cry HA 20 YEARS OLD AND STILL A BABY AMIRIGHT

We were having an AWESOME testimony meeting yesterday, until there were these 2 20 year old guys in front of me that would NOT stop talking, and I was already planning on going up to talk because i always do, but I went up and instead of saying what I had planned on, I looked right at them (but they didnt look at me, because they were still talking lol) and I talked about 3 nephi 11 when God is trying to talk to the nephites to present jesus christ and he had to say it THREE times because the people werent LISTENING, and alot of times this happens to us, God is talking and we are literally not even paying attention. SO yeah I kind of burned them from the pulpit but i tried to say it with love but who knows how it came out hahaha.

EVERYONE STUDY 3 NEPHI 11 PLEASE!

okey have a good week, I know God lives and loves us :)

Sister Lipps 

1. We ran into our zone leaders at the grocery store and they literally just had a cart full of cookies and a bag of sugar........................

2. I found my state WOOHOO!!!!

3. OK SO OUR ZONE T SHIRTS ARE AWESOME. its a play on "mormon helping hands" ("mãos que ajudam") and it says basically "monsters that help" (monstros que ajudam) and has this giant muscle holding a thing of whey protein bursting out of the church building HAHAHAHA I love my zone

4. Tuesday was Dia do Gaucho, the state holiday that is basically bigger than christmas here!!! There was a giant parade with proabably more horses than people and it was super smelly and AWESOME! 

MY TRIP TO SANTA MARIA VACAAAAAAAAAAAATION!

1,2,3. Me and my old friends from my first little area, parque pinheiro!!!!

4. Me and Sister Chaves pretending like she gave me all these wounds but really im the big idiot head that tripped hahaha

5. Sister Chaves, Sister Lira, and PÃO DE QUIEJO THAT A MEMBER MADE FOR US!! 

1. Selfie stick pic from our family home evening!!!

2. My thought process : oh sister vera take a cute portrait pic of me because its my birthday and itll be super cute. Result:...............

3. MY FAVORITE FAMILY OF RECENT CONVERTS IN URUGUAIANA that made me a surprise cake and little party for me on sunday!!!

4.5. And sunday night, the sisters surprised me with an ice cream bar and we had another little party!! they are so cute 

mi lyfe is so boreeing

YOU GUYS, the weeks are passing by SO fast I feel like yesterday was P-day and that basically nothing has happened since Ive last written!! (thats a lie, a ton of stuff has happened, but im so tired i dont even remember anything)

Things I remember:

HAHAAAAAAAAAAAA YOU GUYS I LOVE SISTER VERA. SHES THE MOST ADORABLE FUN AND FORGETFUL PERSON IVE EVER MET IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE. Seriously. HA she forgets EVERYTHING so its forcing me to have to be the one to remember everything.

example: she had a SUPER important doctors appointment one morning that we were doing exchanges, so for like a week we figured out how to make it work so we could still study and do exchanges and get to lunch and everything. At 10 oclock, i asked her "are you guys getting ready to leave for your appointment?" Sister Vera "what appointment" me: "HAHA SISTER YOU ARE KIDDING"

and things like that happen every single day, forgetting names, appointments, streets, so it keeps life interesting and is keeping me sharp on my feet and more organized

We had a whole day this week when we did visits with our bishop to a ton of less actives and recent converts and it was SUPER cool because our bishop is awesome and a hard worker and loves the ward SO much!!

When we teach, we always try to ask questions to help the investigator understand and apply what we are teaching in their lives and truly to make them pay attention to our lessons hahaha. yesterday, we were teaching this lady about the restoration, and how joseph went to the forest to pray, and we recited the whole first vision (when God and Christ appeared to him) and we always seek to make it a super spiritual moment. so we paused, and asked "Maria, who do you think were those two people he saw in the light?" and she was LITERALLY like "He saw himself in the future, and he told himself that he didnt need a church, because the light was inside of him. He was the church" and it was one of those moments when i didnt even know how to respond without being like "yeah thats actually not what happened at all and i dont have any idea how you understood that but OKAY MOVING ON" HAHAHA it was hilarious and awkward...............

Other cool/weird thing: this week one of our investigators taught us ALL about Umbanda, which is basically the voodoo type religion that HALF the people here in uruguaiana belong to, and it was super interesting/freaky because they kind of pray to demons that they think are saints and make deals with them to "improve" their lives. SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (NOT) 

 

Alrighty then, today I was studying about humility (lol because I need alot of it) and I found this really great quote by Presidente Spencer W. Kimball: "How does one get humble? To me, one must constantly be reminded of his dependence. On whom dependent? On the Lord. How reming one's self? By the real, constant, worshipful, grateful, prayer"

How cool is that?????????? PRAYER IS SO EASY AND THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING!

Im so grateful for prayer, and for the relationship that I form with my Heavenly Father everyday. Im so grateful for this gospel, because it is SO freaking simple, everyone can follow it!!!

LOVE LIFE LOVE THE MISSION LOVE BRASIL LOVE XIS AND PIZZA 

loves,

SISTER LIPPS :)

photos:

I FOUND A BAG OF MAIONESE WITH MY SISTERS NAME ON IT HAHA COOL RIGHT!?

lol we played volleyball this morning and the big jerks forgot to tell me that we were all going to use our matching zone t shirt. ahhhhhhhhhh im such a reject.

 

 

OKAY THIS WEEK ROCKED AND NOW IM SO TIRED.

OKAY THIS WEEK ROCKED AND NOW IM SO TIRED.

So in short summary, we did MORE exchanges with the sisters, which meant we were back to back going to the bus station to drop off and pick up people! AND on friday, THE WHOLE MISSION WENT TO SANTA MARIA BECAUSE OUR BELOVED APOSTLE ELDER ANDERSEN WAS GOING TO HAVE A MEETING WITH US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS SO INCREDIBLE! Like, it was madness having 150 missionaries in one city, and everyone traveling and having to find places to stay, but on Saturday morning, our devocional with Elder Andersen made it all soooooooooooo worth it.

Ok so because our meeting, we have 45 minutes of personal study time city in the sacrament meeting room waiting for the apostle, and I found this scripture in D&C 6:14-15 that made a BIG difference in how i looked at my life and my mission and how I got to where I am right now

14 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time.

 15 Behold, thou knowest that thou hast inquired of me and I did enlighten thy mind; and now I tell thee these things that thou mayest know that thou hast beenenlightened by the Spirit of truth;

So basically, without even super realizing it, God has ALWAYS been guiding me, through way of his spirit, so that I could be here, in Santa Maria, serving a mission. Because it says "if it werent like that, you wouldnt even be where you are right now" and I read that and realized "holy wow, its so true. I never thought of myself of being instructed by the Spirit alot before the mission, but it says right here that I always was!!'

I know that Heavenly Father guides us, he takes us, not always where we want to go, but where he needs us to be!

I love this Church and this Gospel and this Week and Year and Life! 

Love,

Sister Lipps 

Exchanges this week with some more sisters!!

I found a mini me at a members house!!!!!!!!!!!! Literally we were wearing the same clothes and everything, it was awesome.

Us waiting for our bus, and all the elders to show up, before our trip to santa maria!

 

 

PARTY ON THE ÔNIBUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol just kidding

We had 16 sisters sleeping in ONE apartment so it was pretty pretty cooooozy 

Me and Sister Chaves :)

Me and Sister Vera :)

OUR AWESOME ZONE TSHIRT FROM ALEGRETE IN HONOR OF THE OLMYPICS!