Awkward Moment, Chili, and Transfers!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week! We found out about transfers last night and... *drum roll* us 4 will stay here together for another transfer! We are excited! Hardly anyone was transfered. Presidente is still getting to know people, so he didn´t change much. I only have this transfer and 5 more left in my mission... I have already done 7 transfers... What?! Time goes by so quickly!

So the awkward moment this week was went we were teaching a woman and we started talking about the Word of Wisdom and how it talks about things we should and shouldn´t eat and then her neighbor comes out and gives her a cup of coffee! S. Lopez and I just looked at each other and kept going because we couldn´t turn back now. We got to the part about coffee and she was like, Oh, I know it is good for us and she said she would stop!  Woah! There was that moment when S. Lopez and I just looked at each other though and wondered what should be do... I was all good though :)

Also S. Lopez and I made chili this week without a recipe! We were walking home one day and I don´t know exactly how it started, but we decided to make chili. We thought about how we ate it at home and fumbled our way though and estimated things and thought about what things we could substitiue here for what we have at home and it worked! We tried out best and asked each other Does things seem right? multipe times, but it turned out really good, so now we are doing to try some more things. American companions... love it! :)

Well that is about all for this week! I hope you all have a fabulous week! I read a quote from a conference talk this week that I love. It says ´Prayer doesn´t change God. It changes me.`I realized that is so true. That God is not going to change His plan depending on what we ask and pray for, but prayer humbles our heart and turns our will more to God´s.

I love and miss you all so much!!

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

Adventures in Brasil!

Hello Everyone!! Well, I made it to my new area safe and sound, but with quite an adventure. There is so much to tell, but I will try to make it simple and that you can understand... So when your District or Zone Leader calls Sunday to tell us about transfers he only tells us if you will be transfered and if you will be staying in Sergipe or Maceio. My LZ told me that I was getting transfered to Maceio and I had to be at the church at 5AM, so I got up at 3:30 that morning to get ready, shower, get all of my stuff down the the taxi and such. We got there, but the person with the list of people who should be on the bus said my name wasn´t on it, so I talked with my LZ who called the secretaries in Maceio and said it was fine and so I made the 6 hour ride to Maceio. Once I got there I was so excited to find out where I would be serving and one of the secretaries came up to me, looked at the list of areas and companionships and then looked at me and said, ´Sister Chilson, uhh, there was a problem... a little mix up´ and he started walking away and I was like Élder! Where is my area? He told me that I was be staying in Sergipe, serving in Itabiana with Sister Lopez- significa that I needed to make the 6 hour bus ride back to Sergipe. So that´s why my name wasn´t on the list... Sadly, I walked back onto the bus and made it back to where I started at 5AM. I am serving not in the capital though so it is another hour bus ride to my area and it was late, so I ended up sleeping the the exact same apartment that was slept in for the past 4 monthes... Literally all I did was take a 12 bus ride... The following day though I headed to Itabiana and met my companion- Sister Lopez! She is an American! We are already planning our 4th of July party :) She just has one more transfer than me in the mission. She is so awesome and I am so excited for this transfer! This transfer is 7 weeks so by the time it ends we will be in August- crazy! We did not work much this week because where I am there are always partys in the street and it is not safe to work. Some fun facts about my area though- it is a branch not a ward and we don´t have a chapel- we meet in a house! How cool is that! I will send pictures next week, I promise. There are woodent benches and it felt like I was in Little House on the Praire because of the wooden benches in a house. I love it though and am so excited to work here! Presidente and Sister Gomzaga went home this week and we meet Presidente and Sister Gomes tomorrow! I cannot believe that tomorrow is July... this year is half over! I also hit my 8 month mark today... I am almost half way done with my mission! This is crazy! I love Brasil so much!! I know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that The Book of Mormon is true. I know that the power of the priesthood is real. I love this gospel!! I hope you all have a fabulous week! I love you and miss you! Com amor, Sister Chilson

Festa de Nina, a Lesson, and Transfers!

Hello Everyone!

I spent some time this week things of a fancy title for this email... I hope you like it :)

My goodness so many things happened this week! First off, sobre transfers... I am getting transfered to Maceió! I leave on a bus at 5AM tomorrow as we will end up in Farol at about 11AM/12PM. I have no idea what area I will be serving in or who my companion will be, but I am excited. I am so sad to be leaving Grageru! I love this area, but I have a wonderful 4 monthes here and I know that I need to move on. The worst part about transfers though is packing your suitcases. At least I am the only one getting transfered so I have my stuff basically everywhere, but the other sisters are fine with it :) I somehow always get more and more things every transfer... Oh well. I will let you all know where I will be serving next week and who is my companion!

We had our last meeting with President and Sister Gonzaga this week. They are so amazing, but President Gomes is officially my mission president on the 28th of June. I am excited to meet him and his wife, but so sad to see the Gonzaga´s go, but with President Gonzaga´s new calling he get´s to travel to the states once a year (and probably to Utah), so I will see them again and we will be friends on Facebook after the mission :)

This Friday we had the Festa de Nina activity at church (São João) and let me tell you- it was a festa! Brazilian know how to party :) Don´t worry, I obeyed all the rules that I have, but I have made it a personal goal that I will return to Brasil and Sergipe during this time of year because it is the best time of year. There was SO much food- so many things will corn that I could eat! I will have to get the recipes and make them when I get home. I will have a tradition of Festa de Nina in my house :) There was also a trio that played music and let me tell you. You think the music is loud at the stake dances... nope. You literally can not hear people talk, but everyone is dancing and it is so much fun. Totally not something I would normally like, but I think I am becoming a Brazilian :) Speaking of becoming a Brazilian- I am becoming a Northeastern Brazilian because now I always sleep with a green kind of flees blanket every night and in the beginning of my mission I would wake up sweating with just sleeping with a sheet. I tell myselft that it is not cool at all, but my body is used to the weather now... I think I will actually die when I get back to the states, especially when I spend the winter in Logan, UT... Anyway, I am becoming a Brazilian and loving it :)

So the lesson I learned this week (well one of them, I learned many). We were suppose to have a baptism this past Saturday and we talked with him Friday, everything went great in his interview, he came to the ward activity and he was so excited. Then Saturday came and he did not show up for his baptism and he doesn´t have a cell phone. We went to his house and he wasn´t there, but we talked with him mom and she said she was tell him to go to church yesterday, but he didn´t come. We have not been able to talk with him again, but Sister Araújo will keep trying to find him after I leave and make sure he is baptized. The change in him is amazing and I know that Satan is working hard on him.  My heart literally broke when we got home and I literally just cried because I was so sad that he didn´t show up for his baptism and I realized that is exactly how Heavenly Father feels. He is so sad when we don´t follow the path and do what´s right. But I now Heavenly Father has a plan for him and He can see the bigger picture. 

Well, that is all for this week! I have attached pictures. I took so many pictures this week, but because I took so many I have to choose which ones I will send, but it´s so hard! Well, anyway, I hope you like them :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week! This church is true and Jesus Christ is our Savior. Heavenly Father hears and answers every prayer. Pour your heart our to Him. He is listening and He will comfort your heart. 

I love you and miss you!!

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

The Best Week of the Mission

Hello Everyone!!

What a wonderful, miracle filled, joyous, amazing week this was. This week really was the best week of my mission thus far. My heart is so filled with joy and happiness that I wish I could tell all of you in person, but I guess an email will have to do for now. 

First off, We found out about transfers yesterday and I will be staying in the same area, but my companion, Sister Castro, is getting transfered to another area in Sergipe. This transfer went by SO fast and I was hoping that we would have one more transfer together, but the Lord always has a bigger and great plan for us. I will find out tomorrow who my new companion will be for this new transfer. This transfer will only be 4 weeks though which is not really a transfer espcailly because we will have stake conference, entravista com Presidente and skype with our families this transfer... Many things to look forward to! It has to do with switching over to our new mission president in July (the different weeks in transfers). I will let you all know next week about my new companion!

So this week, we taught 23 lessons and had 3 investigators come to church...3!! I complete miracle. We are teaching one man who has some addictions, but it is so amazing to see the change that is already taking place in him. He has such a sincere desire to change and it is so beautiful to watch him take it all in as we teach him the gospel of Cristo. I cannot describe to you the joy I felt when we walked up and knocked on his door to take him to church and he was already to go. I love serving the Lord and His children!

We also taught a woman this week and we actually knocked on her door on accident looking for someone else, but she welcomed us right in and we taught her about the Plan of Salvation with her son and she came to church with us on Sunday and loved it and she is already taking about her next visit. Teaching our first lesson on Friday and then they are at church Sunday... it is all the Lord. It is so amazing to see the miracles unfold and I am so grateful to help these people come unto Cristo. 

My testimony was also strengthened so much this week. At our Reunião de Distrito esta semana my district leader said something that really hit me. He said that if we as missionaries study in the morning we don´t have to worry about what we are going to say when we are teaching.We just need to listen to the Spirit and we will know what to say. That really hit me because I am always worrying about what I am going to say after Sister Castro and if I will know the words in Português, but this week I really tried to just listen to the Spirit and it was amazing to see the Lord work through me. I love teaching and I love this work! The Lord will always give us what we need if we diligently seek Him. 

One last experience, this week I was able to see the promise of John 17:26-27 happen. Sister Castro and I went to teach a less active and Sister Castro asked if I would give a message and I was super calm, said a prayer, thought of a scripture and found it so easily and I haven´t look at that scripture in weeks. If we study and do our part, the Lord will help us in our times of need. 

Well that is all for this week...an amazing week! Oh, also, I am enlightening the children of Brasil about snow. They love that I am from the states and speak what little English they know with me, but I showed them the pictures of my house with snow because it is so sad they have new had the experience of snow. 

I know this gospel is true with all of my heart. Our Heavenly Father is so loving and merciful. He is in the details in our lives and if we just trust in Him, He will work through us and we will be able to see miracles unfold in our lives. I love this work!!

I hope you all have a great week and a wonderful Easter!! I love you all!!

Com amor,

Sister Chilson