I love being a missionary!

Hello Everyone!

Nothing too crazy happened this week, Brasil lost 7-1 which was really hard and everyone was pretty mad here and they lost on Saturday too... But at least the states played well this year! Anyway, it is good that Argentina didn´t win because there would be alot more people angry because there is always the rivarly with Argentina.

This week though I had a Zone Meeting in Lagarto and us four sisters are the only sisters in our zone, so that´s fun. Also, after we had almoço with the four elders in our district in their area because we were just going to eat almoço in casa and it is an hour ride back, so we asked and they said sure (after they checked with the irmã of course :) ) 8 missionaries... we wook a picture becasue the family was so happy to see sisters. We are a rare thing in some parts here :)

I got to play the piano at church yesterday and it made me so happy. That is one thing that I miss you much- just being able to play the piano (and a good piano) when ever I want and play whatever I want, but I am grateful for the opportunities I have to play here and everyone is always so grateful.

The transfer is going by so fast! I cannot believe that this week is week 4 of this transfer! Luckily this transfer is 7 weeks, so we still have 4 more. The days go by so fast with Sister Lopez as my companion and the weeks go by even faster! Being a missionary is so amazing! The one goal that I had before my mission of what I wanted to be better after was be better at following the Spirit. I think it is a lifetime thing, but this week I was able to feel the joy more when I followed the Spirit. Don´t worry, I always follow the Spirit the best I can, but this week there were experiences where I could look back and say- Wow, that was the Spirit telling me to do that and I did it and this amazing thing happened and I feel so amazing. Oh, how grateful I am for the Spirit!

I am so grateful to be serving here in Itabaiana! I love being a missionary and watching the gospel change people´s lives. This gospel is amazing! The church is true!

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

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

Church meeting house

Feliz Junho!

Hello Everyone!

I cannot believe that is it June! I realized that it will be one year ago that I recieved my call on the 14th of June. I feel like happened yesterday and here I am with 7 monthes of my mission gone! I really am no longer one of the new ones :)

This week was a normal week for us,but we did have Conferência de Zona this week. We spendall day at the church and Presidente and Sister Gonzaga speak to us, the AP´s,secretaries and have other training. It iswith all the missionaries who are serving in Sergipe so it is fun to catch up with people. I was able to talk with two Hispanic elders who left the CTM with me. I can understand everything they say now! Before I rarely talked to them or ifIdid it was notmuch because I don´tknow Spanish, Ididn´t know Portugués and they don´tknow English (although one of them had an American companion and theamericancompanion is teaching the hispanic elderabout the US,includinghow he shouldroot forthe Giants :). How wonderful it is when you know the language and you can communicate with people :) They are so awesome! 

As some of you may know, my mission president wascalled to be an area seventy and was atGeneral Conference in SaltLake inAbril and they hadsome training from some apostles andSister Gonzaga told us themain reasons for lowering the age for missionaries,one being theneedformissionaries andtwo to strengthen the youth. The world is not getting any better and it will notget any better and the youth needto stand strong to their values and keep strong testimonies and I canpromiseyou that there isnothing else that willprepare you for life,strength your testimony and keep you on the path likeserving a mission. Itis unbelieveable the growth you have,thethingsyou learn whileservingamission. I am SO grateful forthe missionandeverything I havelearned this far andI am soexcited to seewhatthe next 10/11monthes holdforme. 

Idon´t have any other amazingstories to tell, so I thought Iwouldtell you alittleabout the culture (because I have heardsomepeople have asked :) ). For foodhere,every mealwe have rice,beans, somekindofsalad/vegtables, chicken or meat and pasta.Sometimes there isalsopotatos andvariousfoods thatpeoplemake,butthisisthestaple. Thereisalways juice todrink too (juice thatismadefrom realfruit... yum!). It sounds borning, butit isnot that bad andI have yet toeatsomethingthatI had chokedown :)

Also, we are starting into The World Cup season and lifewillbedifferent here. Wewillnotbeabletoworkduringandafter gameswhereBrasil, the United States or Germany play. Literally everythingwillclosedown though when Brasilplays.Likeitisaholiday- no onw will go to work. We will have to stay in ourapartment...lifewill beinteresting :)

Also São João is aroundthecorner here too. It is really big here in the NE. Itisonly oneday, butit is the wholmonth of June here really. I don´t exactly know what thepurpose or reason for the holiday is,butyou can googleitandfindout more:)

Well,that´s all I havetimefortoday! Iam sorry that a bunch ofwords are puttogether- the space bardoesn´t really worktoowell...I hopeyou can understandthough. 

Ihopeyou all have a great week!! I knowthisgospelis true with allof my heart.JesusChristisourSavior. He died that we can each livewith ourfamilies again.How beautifulis thisgospel!!

I loveyou allandmiss you somuch!!

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

Happy St. Patrick´s Day!

Oì Tudo Mundo!

I hope you all had a fabulous week and are doing well! Happy St. Patrick´s Day! They do not celebrate it here in Brasil obviously, but it´s all good. I am not really a fan of traditional Irish food anyway :) It is also a holiday here in Aracaju tambêm. The celebration of the city or something. I don´t really know, but no one has to work and almost everything is closed, but thankfully not this Lan House or the grocery store! :) 

I don´t have any amazing stories to tell this week, but we are still teaching some people. Two people have baptismal dates. This week Sister Castro and I are going to work from the recent convert and less active lists that we got yesterday at church to find novos para ensinar. 

The ward here is SO amazing! They are always looking out for us and offer to help in anyway they can. This ward is really focues on missionary work which is great. We had Family Home Evening with a family in the ward a week ago today and it was funny because we sang, prayed and a message, but after we didn´t just have a treat, we had a whole meal complete with a dessert as well. It was basically just another meal. Brasilians love their holidays and food :)

I also had my first district meeting with my new district this week and I have attached a picture. Please ignore my awful tan line. I love that shirt, but the sleves are higher than my other shirts... You don´t have to wonder if I am working here :) In the picture it is me, Sister Barrett, Sister Caripuna (they are companions) and Sister Castro (my companion). They we have Elder Sampaio and Elder Godoy (he is my district leader). 

I also had Reunião de Zona esta semana which is will a bunch of elders and sisters in my Zona. I have also attached a picture of that. My LZ are both Brasilian. I got to see Sister Pew though (my comp from the CTM) because she is in my zona. It was so nice to see her and talk about everything that has happened in the past 3 monthes. 

Other than that, nothing else amazing happened this week, but we will keep working hard this week and teaching the gospel :)

In my personal study this week I read Enos in O Livro de Mórmon and I realized again how amazing it is! If you haven´t read it in a while, you should. Also, I read that conference talk by Elder Holland called `Lord, I Believe`. It is a fantastic talk about faith that definately strengthened my faith. I am getting to excited for General Conference in just a few weeks! It will be in Português, but I am still so excited!

I know this gospel is true with all of my heart. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He died for you and me. He suffered for each of us so He would know exactly how to help us in our pain and suffering. How selfless and loving! I know that families are forever and that this life is not the end. I love this gospel with all of it´s beautiful truths!

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

Com amor,

Sister Chilson

 

 

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

Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked and Walked and Walked...

Oi Everyone!!

It sounds like it is a really cold winter up in Rochester and I am very sad to be missing it because I love the snow, and I pretty much sweat all day here, but it´s all good :)

I am reminded of the Primary song Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked because sometimes that is how I feel here- we walk and walk and walk and walk :) But I know that this is the Lord´s work and that He never gives us more than we can bear.

So last P-Day we went bowling! It was me, Sister Martin, the other 4 sisters from our apartement and 2 other sisters who must live close by. It was alot of fun, and even though I am really bad, it was nice to relax a little and do something fun :)

On Tuesday I had my first Zone Conference. My zone leaders are awesome and we have the financial secretaries and the AP`s in our zone, so it is fun. Nothing too amazing to share, we talked about teaching and how we can meet our goals for this month. It is always nice to do someting different though and talk with other people- even if they are missionaries :)

I went on my first exchange this week with the sister training leader. She goes and spends one day in every area to see how the sisters are and the area is doing. She happens to live with me, so we didn´t have to go anywhere. but it was fun to take her around for the day and show her our area :) I stayed in our area and my companion worked in the other area that day. I learned so much from her.

We will hopefully be moving into a new apartment some time this week (an apartment made for 4 people and 4 people live in it... weird, I know :) ). I don´t exactly know when, but it is do beautiful and I am so excited to finally have space for my things and not be living out of a suitcase :)

Not alot is happening with out area. Sister Martin and I have lists of names that we try everyday and maybe one of them is home or answers the phone, so that is difficult, but I know that we are doing the Lord´s work and it has to happen in His time. 

We talked again with the other investigator that has a baptismal date again. She will not be getting baptized this Saturday and maybe never, but I am okay with that. She is really stuggling and I just want to help her and I know that we can provide comfort throught the gospel- whether she get´s baptized or not. 

I know that every person we meet, we meet for a reason. We either needed to learn something from them or they needed to learn something from us. That is such a beautiful thing. No one we meet is for no reason. There is a purpose behind everything that happens in our lives. 

If you have time, you should read 1 Nephi 22. I read it again this week and it is such a wonderful chapter. Nephi says many times that ´the rightoues need not fear´ and I know that is true. If we are following the commandments and trying our best to follow the Savior, then we never need to fear for the future or anything. 

I know that our Savior lives and that He suffered and died so that He would know how to help us in our trials, sickness, and pain in this life. If we turn to Him, He will help us- He will always help us, but we must turn to Him first. I know that Heavenly Father loves us each more than we wil ever know and that He is in the details of our lives. I love this gospel and know it is true with all of my heart. 

I hope that you all stay warm and have a great week! I love and pray for all of you!

Com Amor,

Sister Chilson