Blessings

Olá Tudo Mundo!

 

I hope that you all had a fabulous week! Things are doing well here, but I cannot believe that this is the last week of this transfer! That means I have been in Maceió for 3 monthes, that I will finish my training and that I could be training someone else! I don´t think I will, but just the thought is a little scary. I know that the Lord knows what´s best for me though :)

 

We didn´t have any baptisms this past week, but we will this coming Saturday, the 1st of Março! It is a boy who is almost 13 years old. He is part of a less active family, but he and his grandma came to church yesterday and we are doing to this house tonight to do Family Home Evening with them. He is so sweet and listens to everything we teach him and he is so excited! Oh, how I love this work! :) We will also have another baptism the 8th of Março, but it is after transfers, so I don´t know if I will be here or not, but it is still exciting :)

 

Yesterday we had Ward Conference and I played the piano for the choir and for all the other hymns. It was funny because I didn´t know what the hymns were until about 5 minutes before I needed to play each hymn... I was oddly at peace though, so that is nice. Blessings! :) They don´t have bulitens for sacrament meeting like we do back home. Ward Conference was good, but when the stake president got up to speak it was weird because when I hear stake president I still think of Cary Jensen. :)

 

I had Zone Conference this past Friday so we had lots of instruction from President and Sister Gonzaga, the APs, Zone Leaders and the secretaries. We spent pretty much all day there and it was fun to see other missonaries who I haven´t seen in a while.

 

Random thing this week- me and then other sister I live with decided to do a secret sister candy swap. So we each picked a name from a hat and we had to buy something with chocolate in it for her that day and at the end of the day we shared who we had and gave her the chcoclate... I feel that this is something elders that wouldn´t do... only sisters :)

 

Well, that is all for this week! I hope that you all have a great week! I love this gospel and have recieved so many blessings from this work. It feels like I give all I have, but that I recieve more than I give. That is what happens though when you serve the Lord- you can never pay Heavenly Father back in full because He always gives you more.

 

I love you all and miss you like crazy!!

 

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

Another Week!

Olá Everyone!

 

I hope that you all had a great and a great Valentine´s Day! I forgot to wish you all a Happy Valentine´s Day last week... sorry! :)

 

Nothing really amazing happened this week, but we have an investigator come to church yesterday!! My first investigator at church!! She is so amazing (the same woman I talked about last week) and she will hopefully be baptized either this week or the following Saturday, 1st of March. We are also teaching a 11 year old boy who is part of a less active family, but he is so excited to learn and talk with us and hopefully he will be baptized in the coming weeks as well. Sister Martin and I worked to find new people to teach this week, so alot of tracting and talking with people in the streets.

 

Nothing else really amazing happened this week... sorry it is kind of boring this week, but this week I will have an exchange with another sister and we have Zone Conference on Friday, so I will let you know how those go.

 

Random thing about Brasil, they have so many coconut flavored things because it is Brasil, but I am falling in love with coconut! Coconut ice cream with chocolate is one of my new favorites :)

 

I know this gospel is true and I am so grateful to be able to represent our Savior here in Maceió. Everytime I meet people or people see me in the street they know that I am a missionary because of my tag and I love that. Sure we get some weird looks, but I am proud to be able to represent Him and help His children come unto Him. I know that the Plan of Salvation is real and that we have the opportunity to live with our Heavenly Father again someday with our families if we do what´s right here on earth. I know that our Savior lives and that He loves each on of us so much. He wants to help us in our stuggles and trials as well as be happy with us in our moments of success, but we must reach out to Him first. I know He is always there, waiting. I love this gospel and am so grateful to be blessed with this knowledge and be able to share it with people here.

 

I miss you all and love you so much!! I hope that you all have a fantastic week!

 

Com Amor,

Sister Chilson

Hello!

Olá Everyone!

I hope that you all had great weeks this week! This week went by so fast for me and I cannot believe I am already halfway done with this transfer! I only have three more weeks left of this transfer and my training! 

Sister Martin and I have been working hard and walking alot. We have one investigators who we have been teaching this week and we are so hopeful and have faith that she will be baptized this transfer! Her many is Maria Josè. We have been teaching her and she is reading O Livro de Mormón and praying. She didn´t come to church yesterday because she had another commitment, but next Sunday she should hopefully be there. She is friends with members so that is awesome because she already has a support system and the members are amazing! 

Other than her, we don´t have any investigators we have been teaching more than once, we teach alot of 1st lessons, and some second and pretty much not third, but we are still new in this area, so we are working though the neighborhoods and working hard. A member told us this week that from our apartment to the end of our area it is 7km, so we start out walking 7km each day and sometimes we walk both ways and that is not even the walking we do tracting, walking to appointments... needless to say we have been walking alot, but we talk (or sing :) ) as we walk, so it is fun :)

Some other adventures this week, at one of our almoço apointments the elevador didn´t work so we had to walk up 14 flights of stairs, so that wasn´t fun, but during almoço we got to watch some of the Olympics so that was awesome. He was flipping through the channels and every channel had soccer except the one with the Olymics... you can see what is important to the people here :)

We had quite a but of rain this week, but it cools things off, so that is nice. One day this week it rained the entire 7 km home, but I was welcomed home with so many letters! I live with the Sister Training Leaders and they had a leadership meeting that same day and they brought home any letters that were for us. Thank you to everyone who sends me letters! They are always so sweet and it is like I have a little piece of home here :)

One last story, so we were visiting this woman at the end of the day and she brought out juice and crackers and when I wasn´t eating the crackers I explained that I had a food allergy and then she offered to make me a little rice and beans (emhasis on the little). She went into the kitchen and she came back with a plate full of rice, beans, chicken... My goodness it was so much food! She went back into the othe room and Sister Martin tells me in a nice, but serious way that I have to eat it all and that I have 10 minutes... ahh!! Don´t worry, I did eat it all, but not in 10 minutes. Words cannot describe how much food there was and how full I was after... That was a long 40 minute walk home... Anyway, it reminded me of the part of the movie `The Errand of Angels` where she is new in the field and they are at an appointment with a member and her companion tells her she had to eat it all... random, but I thought I would share :)

No other amazing stories this week for all of you, but things are well down here in Maceió :) I know this gospel is true and that the Lord watches over each one of us. We are each special, individual children to Him and He loves and knows each one of us. He is always watching out for us and is in the details of our lives. 

I hope you all have a great week!! I miss you all and think about Rochester and New York everyday :)

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

Happy February!

Oi Everyone! I cannot believe that February is here! Where did January go? :) I hope that you are all doing well. Our water came back on last Monday and we have not had problem since,so that´s nice :) This week I celebrated my 3 month mark of my mission! As Sister Martin reminded me, I am 1/6th done with my mission. We celebrated with tapioca at the end of the day. I will try my best to explain it and maybe you can google to try to find a picture :) Basically she took what I think is tapioca flour and puts a layer on the skillet, then she put coconut shavings on top, a layer of cheese and then you can pick what goes inside (I picked chocolate, I know, it´s surprising :) ). There are a bunch of different options like fruit, but why would you pick that? :) Then she folds it in half and cuts it in a half and it is perfect to share with you missionary companion :) It isso hot when you first get it, but oh so good!!  This week, the bishop in our ward changed our area boundaries so we have more members in our area which is great, but we now have to walk and hour and a half to get to our area and another half hour is our area... We walk alot, but Sister Martin and I talk and occasionally sing, so it´s fun :) Cada dia, we walk one way and take the ônibus the other way so it is not too bad.  The bishop is the ward I am in right now is so amazing! He is so willing to help us with anything and makes sure that we are doing well. Actually the ward I am in right now is amazing. They spoil us so much with rides, food.... I am going to miss this ward so much! I still have at least 4 weeks left though, so I can´t start crying yet :) Nothing else amazing happened this week.Sister Martin and I taught some more lessons, but none of our investigators came to church again this week, so that´s not fun,but we keep moving along.  I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve here in Maceió! My heart is so full of gratidue and joy to my Heavenly Father for blessing me so much. I know this gospel is true with all of my heart. I know that if we follow the commandments and teachings of the prophets we will be blessed and have true happiness in our lives. I love you all so much and miss you everyday!!  Com amor, Sister Chilson