Antares, Aniversario, e Felicidade

Hello Everyone!!!

Wow, I think I am the happiest missionary in the world! I got transfered back to my first area and it is the best because I can talk with everyone now! They understand me and I understand them- beautiful :) They are all so happy to see me and hear how I am doing. I cannot believe that when I left here I had 3 months of my mission down and now I have 11 down! Time goes by so fast!! I love being here though and I feel like I am reliving a fantesy. It doesn´t get any better than this :) 

My new companion is Sister Nielsen. She is from Florida and is super sweet. We live just the two of us in an apartment (that is about and hour from teh church building... good times :) ) but it is so nice because it is just the two of us! She will finish her mission in January- just 3 months before me. I will try to send a picture of the two of us next week. 

I celebrated my bithday yesterday going to church- it was so amazing to relive things! I also have an unoficial calling of being the ward pianist :) 

I was also able to teach my recent convert, Alisson again. Man he has grown in just 7 months! I am so grateful to Heavenly Father that He gave me this opportunity to return to where I was ´born´:) I always said I would love to go back. I love this ward, these members and being back in Maceió, but man it is hotter here than in Sergipe! I am turning real dark again and we haven´t even hit real summer yet :)

I know that Heavenly Father knows each one of us individaully and he loves us with an infinite love. I know that this Church is true and that Christ is our Savior. 

I love serving a mission and being a representative of our beloved Savior. What an honor it is. 

Thank you to everyone who sent me things for my birthday and gave me well wishes. I love you all so much and I cannot believe that I am 20!! I am so old! Haha :)

I hope you all have a fabulous week!! I love you and miss you!!

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

 

 

 

 

 

Itabaiana, Baptism and Transfers

Hello Everyone!!

What a crazy week this was! First off, probably what you are all wondering about is transfers- I will be leaving Itabaiana. I was transfered to Maceió, back to Antares! You maybe wondering, can that happen? It´s true, it can happen. The new mission president hears nothing about the other area we have served in, other companions, nothing, just where we are when he get´s here. I am so excited to go back to Antares. The area has changed because they made a new ward, but they meet in the same church building as before, and have som of the same members. I am so excited to show them by Português now :) There was something new with transfers this time with the new mission president. Before, we got a phone call Sunday night from our leaders telling us if we would be transfered or not, and this time we got an email today that told us if we would be transfered and where. It was much more stressful, but now it starts with the saying goodbyes, packing and all of that. I have to go to Aracaju, Siqueira Campos, at 2:30 tomorrow morning to get the bus to Macaió (don´t worry, this time I won´t go back :) ). I will let you all know how Antares is doing next week. I am so sad to be leaving Itabaiana, but so happy to be returning to Macieó :)

This week we also had Zone Conference and I decided to be ´springy´with my yellow shirt and skirt I borrowed from Sister Lopez because tomorrow is the first day of spring! :) Also in the picture is my LZ (they are so awesome) and Sister Nunes, Moura and Lopez. We are all getting transered, so none of them will be going with me to Maceió :( I loved this zone though! Zona Lagarto! :)

Saturday we also had a baptism for Nivaldo. He has been coming to church for 6 monthes now and the day finally came when he decided to be baptized. He always said he would, but just that the time wasn´t right, but he always said he would be baptized before Sister Lopez and I left and he was! I cannot describe the joy I felt when I saw him in white. Sister Lopez and I cried so much and it still doesn´t feel real... Such a wonderful day! Truly when you see people come unto Christ, everything- tears, pain, discouragment- is worth it.

Well, that´s all I have time for today! I hope you all have a fabulous week! I know that this Church is true and that Jesus Cristo leads and guides this church. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for everything and men cannot fustrate the plans of God.

I love you and miss you!!

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

Brasil

Hello Everyone!

I cannot believe that we are already halfway through the month of September! I hope you all had a fabulous week! This week was pretty uneventful again, life just keeps moving here in Brasil.

First a funny/gross story- Sister Lopez and I were teaching a 17 year old girl and she has two huge dogs, like HUGE dogs. One of them is part pit bull and the other is a full bred of something that I can´t remember, but when they stand on their two legs they are just up to my shoulder. They are also crazy heavy, but very loving, they just go a little crazy when we come over :) Anyway, the owner had given them each a piece of bread to calm down a little and one of the dogs walked up to me and coughed up some of the bread he was chewing onto my skirt... Sister Lopez just looked and was trying not to laugh and I was trying now to get too grossed out. Don´t worry, the dog ate it again, so there was nothing left. Needless to say when I got home, I threw that skirt in the wash :) Good times on the mission :)

This week we also had a Branch Talent Show which was fun and us sisters always go to every branch activity whether we had investigators there or not because we are really part of the branch here, especially when the branch averages on 60 people every Sunday- and we are 4 of them! I love being apart of the branch though even though it is small, but I know everyone by name and everyone is so sweet.

Yesterday I had a little bit of a culture moment again. The son of a recém convert (she has been a member a little more than a year) passed away yesterday morning so the other sisters went to her house instead of church of help comfort here. After church and almoço Sister Lopez and I went too and stayed there the whole day. I don´t know if every death is like this because it is the first one I have really been apart of in Brasil, but he died, they had a wake, funeral and burial all within about 12 hours! I guess it is nice, because you can move on quickly, but it is alot. It was an emotional day yesterday for us and I didn´t even know the person who died! I had a lot of time to think yesterday and it is so hard to see the heartbreak that seperation brings, espcially when unexpected, but I thought that maybe that was what it was like for each on of us when we watched loved ones and friends come down to earth and be born while we stayed up in the premortal world until our time. Just like death here on earth, in heaven we knew that we will be able to see our loved ones again, we may just wait years here on earth and then years after when we meet in the spirit world after we had died. Seperation is always hard, but we had the assurance from a loving Heavenly Father that this life is not the end. Each one of us one day will leave this earth for a better world, one without suffering or pain. I know that this is true. Our loving Heavenly Father made a perfect plan for each one of us that allows us to grow, that be with our families forever.

Well, not much else exciting happened. I had a Zone Conference tomorrow in Aracaju which means that I can see some of my friends who are in other zones, that we are getting up really early tomorrow to get to the church by 7:30 in Aracaju, but it will be a good day :)

I know that this church is true. I know that we had a living prophet today. I know that the priesthood power is real, that it can bring miracles. I know that we are never alone here on this journey of life. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants the best for each one of us.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you and miss you!!

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

The Church is True

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous week! This week was pretty much normal for us here, just teaching, eating and sleeping :) This past Wednesday we had the mission tour with the general authority. We had the meeting in Aracaju with the rest of the elders in our zone and a few other companionships. We up at 5:15 to get ready and get there in time and then things started late... but we were there on time :) The meeting was good. It is always amazing to hear general authority speak and we learned alot of things of how we can become more productive in our work. Our mission president also used this time to change some rules in our mission, which ruffed the feathers of some people. It was nothing major, it is just hard to change :) This Saturday there was also a wonderful Relief Society activity about virtuous women. I don´t have time to explain it all, but there were women who dressed up like virtuous women from the scriptures (Eve, Sarah, Mary, Ruth etc.) and talked about the faith and such they had and then the actual RS sisters shared their testionies. It was to show how we are all important, all of us have faith and just because these women in the sciprtures did these amazing things, we are all the same. It was such a great activity and I will be keeping it in the back of my head for when I come home and have a calling in Relief Society  and we have to plan an activity :) I just wanted to share a quote this week from Preach My Gospel about hope. I don´t know what the exact words are because I was too lazy to go through my suitcase to find my English PMG, so I just tried my best to translate it in English from Portugues :) But more or less it says- Hope is the trust in God´s promises, faith that if we act today, the desired blessings with come in the future. James E. Faust. Hope can be dificult to have, but we can cling to the faith that we have, the examples in the scriptures that God´s always keeps His promises and that if we do the right things now that all with work out for our good and we are promised we will have eternal life in the world to come- happiness with our families without end. I know that this church is true! I love you all so much and hope you all have a fabulous week!! Com amor, Sister Chilson   Pics   Pizza Sister Lopez and I made my district right now (4 americans, and 4 brazilians) When Sister Lopez and I bough açaí açaí Us 4 sisters and the conference this week

Setembro!

Hello Everyone!

Happy Labor Day! How is it already September... School will be starting this week... Man, how time flies!

This week was a pretty normal week again. The entire town of Itabaiana celebrated the birthday of Itabaiana, so it was a holiday, everything was closed and the only people in the streets were the ones drinking... needless to say we tried to visit some people, but then headed home until we had our reading class because no one wanted to talk with us. There was a concert in the afternoon/at night and there was a amusment park too. I was right about one thing about Brasil before my mission- that they like to celebrate and big. The phrase ´go big or go home´ yeah, that´s Brasil :)

This week I celebrated 10 monthes of my mission and Sister Lopez and I went to eat açaí again. I took a picture this time. It is dark, so may be hard to tell, but hopefully you can get a better idea of what it is. I ordered açaí with cashews and sweetened condenced milk- yum!! I love açaí and it actually has some good health benefits too. Well, maybe without the sweetened milk, but whatever :)

Everyone here has a hard time saying and remembering my name, so I usually just end up ´sister´, but yesterday the brach president asked me to say the opening prayer for sacarament meeting. I was waiting to see how he said my name, and without hesitation he said ´sister chilson´´. After he sat down he gave me a look like ´was that right?´ I smiled and nodded and he gave the biggest smile in the world like he was so proud that he got it right. Then I just laughed. Good times in Brasil :)

Yesterday we were walking in the street to someone´s house and there was an older woman with popcorn that she has made and she was sitting there with two other people and as we passed by she told us to take some. Yup, we just took a handfull of someone else´s popcorn in the street. She was so persistent though and it smelled really good. That describes two things different about Brasil- first that people live in the street here. Especially after the sun goes down, people are just sitting in the street talking, eating, or whatever. Also, it shows how Brasil people love giving. Especially here in the NE, people always offer food, even if they have almost nothing, they always offer food to us and always tell us to eat until we are full. It doesn´t matter how humble they maybe, but they always give. I love Brasil and it is such a wonderful example of selfless people giving to others before themselves.

Well, I guess that is about all for this week. I know that this Church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today. We have a living prophet who speaks with God and then tells all of us- how amazing is that! We can know exactly what Heavenly Father wants us to know and we will have the opportunity to hear from the prophet, apostles and other leaders in about a month! How blessed we are!

I hope you all have a fabulous week, a wonderful, relaxing labor day and if you are starting school this week- good luck! I love you and miss you!

Com amor,

Sister Chilson