Tag: Brazilian Food

Approaching Christmas

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Commercialism is international. Image, Needpix.com

How was Thanksgiving?  I might buy some sweet potatoes here for a belated Thanksgiving mashed sweet potatoes.  It’s funny– there isn’t any Thanksgiving here but there is Black Friday!  There were lots of signs with “Black Friday” and “Black Week” “Black Month,” etc., all in English.  Commercialism is international!  There are also tons of Christmas lights — that has been the case for many weeks already.  It is funny to be in a place with skyscrapers.  I don’t remember having been in a big city at Christmas time before.  People in skyscrapers decorate their own window.  So all of the windows have different lights!  I thought there were tons of Christmas lights, but this week on Sunday a member said there are very few lights nowadays which just goes to show the lack of belief in Christ.  I guess I would have liked to see Christmas in Recife several years ago!  I am always surprised at just how many people believe in Christ (and post signs and stickers proclaiming said belief on cars, houses, stores, etc.) so it was an interesting viewpoint to hear.

Documents are important for marriage in Brazil. Couples who live together need to be married before they can be baptized. Image, Pixabay.com

This week was great!  We had a new investigator at church this week — Bruna.*  After teaching her we found out that she had already been to church four times and has a family member who is a member.  She is ten and likes to be taught.  Unfortunately our other investigators mostly didn’t manage to go, but there were two long-time investigators who always go.  I am grateful that they persevere!  Hopefully one of them ( Juliana) went to the marriage office today to start the marriage process (or at least see what she needs to be able to start).  The other one ( Daniela)’s husband had a little change of heart.  When I got here she said he didn’t want any documents at all (makes it hard to get a job, let alone marry) and now he does want documents.  Good first step!

New sister missionaries (including Sister Nogueira in the white shirt and Sister Faulconer in the red striped dress) arrive in Recife, October 2018, Courtesy Lori Houseman

My new companion is Sister Nogueira from São Paulo, Brazil.  She is awesome.  We actually got to the mission together.  It’s funny, because when people ask us how much time we have left or when we got here we have the same answer! I’ve never had a companion who got to the mission at the same time before.  

Our investigator Jeniffer is progressing a lot.  She had said she was reading the scriptures but had difficulty in remembering a part that she had liked and said she was still awaiting an answer from God.  This week she opened a scripture she said she especially liked the part around 2 Nephi 2:25.  She had truly had a spiritual experience!  Later someone randomly mentioned to her baptisms for the dead [longer, in depth discussion of baptisms for the dead] I was initially a little sad that our lesson was interrupted with that because it didn’t seem like the right moment.  But it was cool to talk about baptisms for the dead after having refreshed my memory with the Come Follow Me reading of the week.  It was amazing because she was initially confused about the concept and had been convinced that people don’t live in families after this life.  But after talking about family history and baptisms for the dead, she started thinking about family members who had already passed that she thought ought to be baptized!  She seems a lot more confident about her baptismal date as well. We are excited!  She definitely felt the spirit of Elijah.

We had less time in the area this week because I was in Jardim Massangana until Wednesday but we managed to find a lot of new people to teach.  Hopefully we manage to find them at home this week and they turn out to be really great!  This week we will go to the Mission Leadership council.  We are also going to do a division with the sisters from the city of Escada.

We are having a fun time thinking about creative things to do at Christmas — we are going to try knocking on a few doors and caroling this week.  Caroling is not a tradition in Brazil but we are hoping that the general good-feeling and belief in Christ means people will appreciate it.  We are also planning an activity to show people the new Christmas video “The Christ Child” (It is super great!) and give out free cake (as a lure).  It sounds like the Christmas zone conferences will start pretty soon.  I can’t believe it is Christmas already! 

One Christmas tradition here is Panettone.  It is like a cross between bread and cake. You cut it like a cake and it is quite sweet but has a bready texture.  It has dried fruits or chocolate chips and is very tasty.  I have only eaten it twice but liked it both times.  

Panettone. Image, needpix.com

Davi [recently baptized] still needs prayers — we still haven’t managed to see him.

*All investigators’ names are changed for privacy.

Robbed–annoying, not scary!

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The horchata Sister Anaya made was very good.

This week was a rollercoaster.  We spend one day walking  all over trying to teach people and nothing —- no first lessons, nobody marked for baptism, nobody at home.  Then the next day we teach four people a first lesson, five people marked for baptism.  That was a pretty great day!  Then another day of nothing.  Sometimes we struggle to find two investigators, sometimes we have a ton. 

Yesterday we left the house at 10:30 — the sun is super high, it might as well be noon, there are people in the street, and . . . we were robbed right in front of our apartment.  We saw the guy before he robbed us, but he looked like a normal person — on a bicycle!!  He stopped right next to us, and for a second I thought he wanted to talk to us or something (hey, it happens).  Sister Anaya was calling our lunch appointment and he tried to grab the phone out of her hand.  She sort of reflexively moved away but then realized he was trying to rob us and gave him the phone. [For safety, missionaries are not supposed to resist in robbery situations.] It is almost a little annoying to be robbed by some guy on a bike whose only recourse is shouting “Gimme the phone! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” in order to get what he wants, but on the other hand, way better than being robbed by someone who is actually scary, right?  He took the phone, started leaving, came back and demanded my phone as well . . . ha ha, joke’s on him. “I don’t have a phone.” “Gimme the phone, let’s go, let’s go!” “We only have one phone! Her phone is my phone.  I don’t have a phone.”(I was almost laughing because it was such a ridiculous situation at this point).  He decided to give up. 

Note to the wise: missionaries are easy targets because they don’t resist, but robbing missionaries = not a lucrative way of gaining a living! We were glad he only took our phone, and afterwards we marked lessons with five new investigators before lunch.  After tribulation cometh the blessings?  We joked that next time we will give him our bags as well so that we can help people go to Sacrament Meeting!   Sister Anaya didn’t get robbed until the last month of her mission!  I was hoping to go a whole mission without getting robbed, but if I had to get robbed it was definitely one of the least scary ways to get robbed.

Yesterday we had an interesting experience. We were teaching a great family.  They had already been to church in the past and were interested in the lessons.  But unfortunately they think it is interesting to find super crazy doubts/questions about everything but less interesting to actually read the Book of Mormon and pray.  If you never knock, God may not respond!  We prayed before the lesson for discernment.  We retaught the restoration, and it was a spiritual lesson. But it was so obvious that we should stop teaching them — one of them kept standing up and leaving, the other one kept saying totally unrelated things . . . Sad, but we were grateful to not be confused about whether we ought to teach them or not.  We have some investigators with potential who will said they would go to church next week.  I think our teaching pool is improving — hopefully they really go this Sunday!

Broa is a northeastern specialty — it is a lightly flavored biscuit-sort of thing. Although it looks like a donut, sadly it otherwise has very little resemblance to one. Okay with milk.

Today (for preparation day) we are going to get a new cell phone and hopefully we will get to visit the oldest synagogue in the Americas.

I can do all things through Christ–Goodbye to Casa Forte

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Sister Barros and Sister Faulconer at the mission office, Courtesy Sister Lori Houseman

Good news: Willian* still wants to get baptized. He is reading the scriptures and praying every day! We managed to follow up with a couple more of our contacts than usual this week, which was good. Some of them seem to have potential. We also got a cool reference from the elders today — someone stopped them on the street and asked how to visit the church!

We really thought Willian would get baptized this week but it did not work out. We saw him several times, we finally managed to take a member there, and he said he was excited! He has been saying he wanted to be baptized for a while! We have been teaching him for more than three months. On Friday we got a baptismal jumpsuit and carried it around only to get a call from him. I immediately knew this was a bad sign but hoped he was just calling to double check his interview time. Nope. His mom is going through some difficulties and asked him not to get baptized. He was going to get baptized anyway, but decided to wait in order to help her out. So anyone who can offer prayers on behalf of Willian’s mom and Willian would be greatly appreciated.

We have an investigator, Erick, who went to church two weeks ago. He is from the religion “Spiritualism” or “Kardecismo” which is related to the teachings of Allan Kardec. Everyone thinks I ought to know who this is because he is American but I had never heard of him. Anyway, one thing to admire about spiritualism is that it is very focused on charity. Erick was very focused on getting answers through dreams. We tried a lot to help him understand that you could get an answer in a dream but it could also come in a variety of other ways. We thought we hadn’t had any success, but the other day he said he got an answer reading the Book of Mormon that it is true! Unfortunately he hasn’t gone to church these past two weeks because he likes to stay up late reading and then doesn’t feel like going to church until nighttime. He reads and studies a lot and is very excited about sharing his finds with us. We are working on having a balance between us sharing about the gospel and hearing about his opinions as well. Hopefully he goes to church this Sunday.

Newsy news:
I am going to be a sister training leader in Candeias. It is a bairro (neighborhood) in the city of Jaboatão. I will go there this Wednesday. It is 2-3 hours from here. Apparently you can see the sea in Candeias! I am very excited. I always thought it would be super cool to see the sea! That means my companion and I will be in charge of doing divisions with a couple of companionships of sisters in the Litoral zone. Also we will present something at the zone conferences. My companion will either be Sister Anaya (Mexico) or sister Vargas (Sao Paulo). Sister Vargas trained sister Barros, so that would be funny. Probably it will be Sister Anaya because she is newer in the area, but I won’t know until Wednesday! I am sure both of them are great. Next week I will go to new leader training and afterwards the mission leadership council. I am nervous but I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me!

Today I said goodbye to Casa Forte at Pura Vida, the vegan shop I went to a while ago. I am going to have to figure out how to make jackfruit coxinhas at home. Tasty tasty.

Aline, the investigator I talked about the other week, has disappeared. We keep calling her and going to her house but only manage to talk to her mother! Sad, but hopefully she is just busy and it works out in the future. Also, the only person who went to church was Viviane. That was sad, but it is great that she always goes to church.

One scripture that really helped me out this week was Alma 8. Alma goes from a city where he baptizes tons of people to a city where no one is interested in the gospel. He pours out his soul praying for and caring about the people but they spit on him and cast him out of the city.

14 And it came to pass that while he was journeying thither, being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul, because of the wickedness of the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, it came to pass while Alma was thus weighed down with sorrow, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto him, saying:
15 Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you.

Alma 8:14-15

A good reminder of the importance of caring about people, praying fervently, and being obedient. Also the importance of joy — I hope I can always be joyful for the same reasons as Alma — because I have been faithful in keeping the commandments of God. Reminds me of Elder Eyring’s talk: Holiness and the Plan of Happiness. It is great! Also the Come, Follow-Me this week is wonderful and talks a lot about joy in trials as well.

*Names of investigators are always changed

Three heavens

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We visited one contact, Alexia* who had read the entire Plan of Salvation pamphlet we had left with her and all of the scriptures from the Bible in the back. She even called the number on the contact card to ask for a Book of Mormon so she could read the rest of the scriptures! We are a bit perplexed because we haven’t received her referral yet, but hopefully it happens soon; I would like to trust the pass-along card system!

English language pass-along cards

When we went there she said she hadn’t known that there are three heavens (Doctrine & Covenants 76:30-113) but the Bible verse cited in the pamphlet [probably 2 Corinthians 12:2 and 1 Corinthians 15:40-42] is totally right! She also went to church this week; she said she hadn’t been baptized but was looking for a church to be baptized in! She said she´ll keep praying but thinks she will be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! It was very exciting. We found her when we tried to visit her grandmother. Her grandmother was not the least bit interested. She didn’t even let us in, but we started talking to Alexia and she accepted a visit! I had been feeling kind of stupid for marking a visit with her grandmother — she didn’t seem like the sort of person with a lot of potential — but God works in mysterious ways.

One of our other investigators, Willian, went to church for the second time this week. We taught him for basically 2.5 months before he could go to church. It seemed like he had so much potential but I was starting to wonder if he was just making excuses. I guess not! He has a testimony, he just needs to feel a confirmation that he ought to get baptized this Saturday. We are thinking a lot about the mission newsletter said about people preparing for baptism. Hopefully it works out!

***

Fun fact: Brazilian shoe stores don’t believe in shoes larger than size nine. Guess which shoe size I need? . . . not nine.

Stock Image, Peakpx

I have been drinking a lot of tea and cool juices as usual. Recently I have drunk cidreira (what is that in English? — tasty!) hibiscus, chamomile, and peppermint tea. Also eggplant, kale and lime, beet and lime, carrot ginger, and the usual variety of tasty fruit juices –ginger cinnamon passion fruit mmmm. [Apparently the answer to Sis. Faulconer’s question about cidreira is that is is either Lemongrass or Lemon balm tea–apparently “cidreira” is applied to both plants and both are used for tea].

  • Lemon balm–erva cidreira
  • This box says lemongrass in the small print

*Investigators’ names are changed, as always

Loving and Welcoming Visitors

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This week was good. We have one couple, Caroline and Luan,* who we are teaching.  When we arrived in this area we were very confused because we couldn’t find Caroline’s teaching record.  A teaching record is a form we fill out to say what we taught people.  That way if both the missionaries get transferred, or if you can’t remember what you taught, you can look at the teaching record and see what’s already been taught. I turns out that she doesn’t have a teaching record because she’s never been taught! Her daughter was taught, and she had already been to church and knew the missionaries quite well, and had already reached the Isaiah sections in the Book of Mormon, so we thought she must have been taught something already. But it turns out that she had been drinking and smoking a lot– so much that she was too nervous to sit through a lesson.  The Sisters tried to teach her but she would leave.  But now she sits through lessons, listens, learns, and is reading the Book of Mormon a lot!  She has been to church a total of three times. She wants to get baptized and understands the importance of faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, etc.  All without ever being taught!  

Caroline also really wants to get married in order to keep God’s commandments and be baptized. And our ward is helping them out!  They already went to the marriage office and things are progressing!  I have taught lots of people who needed to get married before, but nothing really ever worked out.  Her husband Luan could use some prayers that he can find work.  He seems very driven — he is really working hard to find a steady job to support his family, but now he is just doing whatever odd job he can find.  

Recife Temple
Courtesy of ChurchofJesusChrist.org

One thing I would like to remember as an ex-missionary is the importance of loving and welcoming visitors.  As a missionary I am definitely better at not unrighteously judging people and focusing on encouraging them in their successes. As a member who just sees a visitor or recent convert show up to church without knowing the backstory, it is sometimes easy  to think judgmental thoughts about their behavior or dress or attitude.  But as a missionary I am thrilled when people show up to church!  Being a missionary has definitely helped me develop more charity and empathy for people.  Our investigators are very rarely accustomed to the way church members act or dress (and frequently don’t have the resources to buy church-y clothes anyway), but that is normal.  We are just so happy when they show up to church, because we know it will help them get closer to Christ.  There is a huge difference between people who go to church and people we teach who never visit church.  There have been a couple of times when members’ feathers got a bit ruffled because of someone’s odd behavior, or because a recent convert talked about a weakness they have.  That is sad because it can make that person feel unwelcome and stop their forward progress.  But the majority of members are very welcoming, and we appreciate all the people who visit investigators, give car rides, and help in other ways.  

We are teaching another young woman, Viviane, who has been going to church for a year but hasn’t been baptized. Her mom doesn’t want to give permission.  She could use prayers as well (and for us, so we can run into her mom and know how to help!).

Arthur is still struggling with cigarettes.  He has made huge progress but the last cigarette is really hard to give up.  But we have high hopes for this week!  

Caju fruit
Photo Credit: Victoria Rachitzky Hoch, Flickr

Fun fact — a while ago I sent a picture of a caju fruit.  This week I bought another one to eat.  It was tasty . . . and burned the side of my mouth!  The first time I ate one it burned my throat a bit.  My companion said I needed to buy a sweeter one.  This one seemed sweeter . . . until I noticed afterwards that my lips were a bit burnt!  I am starting to wonder if I have some kind of weird allergy just to caju fruit.  Other fun fact — cashews are taken individually from that weird thing on top of the caju fruit!  Now I know why they are so expensive — they have to remove them one by one!  

I have been studying the church´s Come, Follow Me manual. This year we are studying about the New Testament. This verse really touched me: 

40 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

Acts 5:40-41

Here Peter and John are arrested for preaching the gospel, told not to talk about Christ, beaten, and then let go.  And what do they do? They rejoice in their sufferings . . . and continue preaching about Christ, because their allegiance to God is greater than their allegiance to man.  I  have known about Christian virtues all my life–if someone slaps you, turn the other cheek, trials help us grow, if someone makes you walk one mile with them, walk two, etc. — Sometime it is easy to get so used to hearing these things we don’t really think about them.  It is really difficult to do these things!  And are we doing them?  I certainly am not yet on Peter and John’s level.  I haven’t gone through anything anywhere near as difficult as they did, and yet I am not as Christlike as they were.  Luckily, we have this scripture from the D&C (the Doctrine and Covenants are a book of scripture that has revelations from God given to modern prophets like Joseph Smith) to guide us:

13 Ye are not able to abide the presence of God now, neither the ministering of angels; wherefore, continue in patience until ye are perfected.

D&C 67:13

Repentance is not the backup plan, it is the plan!

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

*Investigators names are always changed to protect their privacy

The Book of Mormon

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This week was good!  It’s transfers and I will be . . .  transferred to the heart of Recife!  It sounds like both me and my companion will be new. It’s going to be very, very different.  The Casa Forte neighborhood is full of skyscrapers and it’s super close to the mission house. I’m not going to spend any time travelling to anywhere!  We will go to the temple this transfer (finally!!!) and we won’t have to stay overnight in another apartment because we can just catch the metro and be home in twenty minutes!  I am afraid I will lose all the hill-climbing muscles I’ve built up.  Talking to people on the street should be quite different as well.  I have never lived in a huge city (that I can remember anyway) and it will definitely be a change.  I am a little nervous but also very excited.

Sister M. Ribeiro amid the São João decorations

São João/Festa Junina is in full swing.  The streets are full of colored flags, lanterns, houses are wrapped in floral fabric, there are scarecrow heads everywhere, and the streets are full of food made of corn.  There are a lot of accordions and colorful dresses and loud music.

This is canjica. In São Paulo, they call canjica “munguza” and they call canjica “koral.” This is confusing because in the Northeast where I am serving, canjica is a different thing than munguza. Canjica is a thick corn paste with sugar and cinnamon and other stuff. By contrast, munguza is coconut milk and other stuff with cinnamon and pieces of corn. I like munguza a lot!
According to Sister Faulconer, Sister M. Ribeiro was a great companion and so well prepared–a trainee who didn’t need any training. We’ll miss seeing her excellent photographs here on the blog as she will be staying in Gravatá while Sister Faulconer is transferred to Casa Forte in Recife.

We had trouble finding people at home this week, so we did a lot of contacting. In our mission we count how many times we read a scripture with someone (but it only counts once per lesson) and we did that this week more than I have ever done until now. It was good to meet a lot of new people. We met a number of old investigators. There are two families who were taught seven years ago. We went into their house and there were huge pictures of the missionaries on the wall!  Huge like 1 foot by two feet, maybe a little bigger!  We never would have known if we hadn’t decided to do a contact with them after asking for directions, because they hadn’t said. That was a miracle for sure.

It seems pretty obvious that they didn’t get baptized because they weren’t interested in switching religions and never put in the effort to ask God about what was right. So I think there is the possibility that none of them will end up progressing, but I am hoping that there will be at least one person that will progress.  It is cool to think about it from the missionaries’ point of view.  Apparently this family still talks to the missionaries on Facebook. It would be so great to find out that one of my old investigators was baptized!  Also interesting to think about where I will be in five or seven years — both of the former missionary sisters are married and have children (one has twins!).  

Recently we have been focusing on the Book of Mormon in our contacts rather than the message of the Restoration. The Restoration is essential, but it is hard for people to understand on the street.  I have noticed that a lot more people reject a visit, but this is good because it means that we don’t waste our time visiting people that wouldn’t be interested. Also, some people remember what we talked about and seem really interested in getting a book!  Sometimes we show up and they ask for a Book of Mormon before we even mention it!  We talked to one person, Carlos,* at his work.  We were trying to mark a visit with him for a different day and he said “So do you have the thing for me?”  Bystanders might have been worried that a drug deal was happening, but actually he was just excited about the Book of Mormon!  The results don’t seem to have quite gotten to the marking-for-baptism-and-having-them-show-up-to-church quite yet, but I think it will. 

Michele is reading the Book of Mormon and loving it.  She still can’t go to church because she is taking care of her aged aunt, but it was very rewarding to hear that she is recognizing that the Book of Mormon is true!  She said she feels good when she reads.  Maria Eduarda couldn’t go to church this week, but told us that since we are visiting her her life has improved 60%.  She said before we visited her she wasn’t praying and nothing went her way.  She says that now she  feels better, she is better off financially–everything is a little better!  Reminds me of the last verse of Mosiah 2.  Keeping the commandments (like pray every day and go to church) really does bless us!

This week we deep cleaned our house.  You would not believe how much dust can build up on the tops of doors, etc.  I hope my new house is clean too!  

*The names of all investigators are changed in order to protect their privacy.

Festival of São João

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This week was interesting!

São João

It’s the beginning of São João, a huge festival in the Northeast, especially the not-Recife parts.  It’s a festival of corn-based foods and remembering the roots of the Northeast.  The Northeast is like the West of the US — cowboys, etc.  So funnily enough, São João has some similarities with summer fests you see in the U.S. People dance square dances, eat corn, listen to music, and dress up.  They dress up like super cartoonified versions of hicks: huge colored patches, straw hats, and  beribboned frilly dresses.  There are also lots of fireworks (you wouldn’t like it Mom: Fireworks before 6 in the morning and at any hour of the day!)  Also, lots of campfires (see above picture).

Esqueceram de mim–They forgot us

One thing that happened this week was that we had zone conference in Caruaru, but the mission bus forgot us!  Apparently the bus driver just forgot to stop.  We ended up waiting at the bus stop for over two hours and then getting a normal bus to Caruaru.  When we got there the mission secretary called an Uber to take us to the conference.  We were quite late but it was still good. 

Finally at zone conference . . .

We started teaching twins this week, Gustavo* and Diego. They don’t talk a lot, but said they were interested in learning about what we believe in our religion.  When we taught them for the second time, they said they had prayed about whether Joseph Smith was a prophet, etc., but hadn’t received an answer.  We started to teach the third lesson about faith, repentance, baptism, etc., and introduced the new baptismal calendar that our mission has.  Now when we mark someone for baptism we give them a calendar with a picture of Christ being baptized and scriptures they can read and pray about.  This helps them understand the seriousness of our invitation and also the importance of doing things — praying, reading, and going to church, in order to receive an answer from God and better follow Christ’s example.  When we gave them a calendar, we asked them what they thought about it.  Gustavo said he knew the church was true!  He said he was feeling in that moment that it was the truth.

Sister Broadbent, Sister Faulconer, and Sister M. Ribeiro at zone conference. Sister Broadbent (former companion) is now a sister training leader.

When we left, we started talking about his mother, who we had talked with a little bit.  She hadn’t wanted to listen to the lesson.  Gustavo and Diego are 18 and have been finished with school for a while, but live with their parents, and we were a little worried that they might feel upset about their decision to be baptized.  Unfortunately, we were right.  We called them on Sunday morning and they said they didn’t want any more lessons and when could they give books back? So that was sad.  But I am hoping that maybe we can talk to them and something will change.

But . . . after weeks of only one investigator at church (Danilo), we had five this week!  Maria Eduarda and her daughter Isadora, grandson Marcelo, and sister Aline went.   They walked all the way from their house to the church — quite far! And after walking all the way up the hill back to their house they still want to go next week. Isadora had been very uninterested in church or reading, praying, etc.  But after church she was telling us about how she liked it and wanted to go back.  We asked and she said she had read the Book of Mormon on Saturday and felt really good.  She had prayed as well and received an answer!  She said she felt a feeling that was something she hadn’t felt before and didn’t know how to describe, but it was really good.  She says God was telling her the Book of Mormon is true!  She was smiling so much —  it was a light in the countenance sort of moment.  It reminded me of Mosiah 13:5 in the Book of Mormon:

Now it came to pass after Abinadi had spoken these words that the people of king Noah durst not lay their hands on him, for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him; and his face shone with exceeding luster, even as Moses’ did while in the mount of Sinai, while speaking with the Lord.

Mosiah 13:5

Another Book of Mormon scripture: This is what we should all aim for!

I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?

Alma 5:19

When we read the scriptures and pray we receive the image of God engraven more and more deeply upon our countenances. Isabela (Camilla’s little sister) also went to church! She is super awesome, wants to be baptized, is reading the reading the Book of Mormon every day (she’s already read to page 80!) and hasn’t drunk coffee in over a month. Emily’s daughter, Amanda, also came to church!

Cuzcuz with banana

This is cuzcuz with banana.  There are bananas — banana cumprida — here that you cook and can eat with anything — beans, by themselves, cuzcuz, etc., But not raw.  They are interesting — definitely a different flavor and texture. 

*The names of all investigators have been changed to protect their privacy.

Adding On

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9 months on the mission!
(Don’t worry, no rocks were defaced in the making of this photo, it’s just dust from another rock.)

This week we had an adventure!  We did splits with the sisters of Guaranhuns but while I went to Guaranhuns, the keys to the apartment in Guaranhuns went to my apartment in Gravatá! [hours away by bus]. We ended up sleeping in a vacant apartment with sheets borrowed from the owner. 

We started teaching a new family — Marcos and Carolina, and their daughters Fernanda and Raissa.* We taught Carolina the The Restoration the other day.  She said she believed that the Book of Mormon is from God.  We could tell she understood the lesson because she told us she was sad that her baptism, something very special to her, hadn’t happened the way Christ told us it needs to  — with the proper authority.  We had the opportunity to tell her that we don’t share our message to take things away from people, but to add on to the wonderful things they already have.  She already chose to be baptized to follow Christ, and for sure she’s been blessed for that!

Bring with you all that you have of good and truth which you have received from whatever source, and come and let us see if we may add to it.

General Conference 2002, President Gordon B. Hinckley

One funny moment was when we did a contact with a Catholic lady.  People here are very loud in their devotion to Mary — it’s very common to see people with t-shirts that have Mary’s face on them.  Sometimes her face is the size of their entire chest.  This woman didn’t have a Mary shirt but she had a little Mary necklace.  We tried to tell her about the Book of Mormon, set up an appointment to talk more about the scriptures, but she was not interested.  She kept saying “you have a mother!!  You don’t just have a father in heaven, you have a mother” really loudly, because we aren’t Catholic and therefore don’t worship Mary.  It made me think of the wonderful doctrine of our Heavenly Mother.  She’s right, we have a Heavenly Father, and that seems to suggest we ought to have a Mother in Heaven as well.  And we do, and she is just as divine as our Father in Heaven.  

  • [Click to Enlarge]
  • Capybaras in real life!

Capybaras are related to guinea pigs, but much larger–as big as 145 lbs! The world’s largest rodents, capybaras are herbivores, semi-aquatic mammals that live in groups near the banks of rivers and lakes.

We have zone conference this week, so we are preparing talks.  I haven’t had to talk at zone conference yet, but it could happen!  

Bolo de Chuva– Raindrop doughnuts
After this step, we rolled them in sugar.  They are supposed to be rounder but they were good.

Other cool fact: our ward had a temple trip and two recent converts went — 
Lucas and Victor!! 

We have had a lot of trouble with getting people to church and finding people at home this week, but we have a ton of new contacts and we’re excited to meet them all this week!

[*As always, names are changed to protect investigator privacy].

The Way of Happiness

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The way of happiness
The living Christ–Cristo Vivo

Last week we went to Cruzeiro to see the Cristo Vivo.  You can see it from the city.  Cool fact: there is a staircase that goes up to a big cross next to Christ.  It is called the Way (Path) of Happiness.  Cool that the the Way of Happiness leads to Christ, right?  **Deeper meaning**  Wickedness never was happiness!  

I forgot to tell about a miracle we had last week.  We had a district meeting and then the car that takes us home was super late.  We needed to visit Victor to teach him some things he had to know before getting baptized.  We had moved the appointment forward an hour but we ended up leaving lunch at the time we needed to be at his house . . . and he lives 40 minutes (walking distance) away!  Just as we were talking about how late we were, we saw a member of the church in the distance.  As we walked towards her her neighbor passed by and offered to pick her up.  She invited us too!  We arrived about eight minutes later and had enough time to teach the lessons we needed to. 

Sister Ribeiro and Sister Faulconer

One awesome experience we had is teaching our investigator “Maria Eduarda.” When we met her she started saying that she didn’t believe in God.  We listened and tried to read some scriptures with her, but she was pretty upset and kept cutting us off.  But it quickly became obvious that she did believe in God — she was just upset about the situation she was in.  She didn’t understand why God lets so many people suffer so much.  She felt he didn’t listen.  But we listened, testified of our belief in God’s love for us, invited her to pray, and marked a different day to go back.  When we went back, she hadn’t prayed.  We taught her, invited her to pray again, and left. The next time we went she had prayed!  She said she felt so much better, and she knew that our visit was an answer from God.  She felt like he didn’t listen, but our presence was a sign that he cared about her.  She is reading the Book of Mormon too!  She did not go to church because of a headache but we have high hopes for next week.  This is a huge example of someone changing their life through the gospel for me.  She feels better and she is praying and reading the scriptures for the first time in a long time!

Acaraje: These brown things are fried bean balls.  Like falafel but not quite as amazing. 

Easter

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Carrying an umbrella to block the sun is common in Brazil. This is a bridge we walk over quite often.
Look closely . . . the water is filled with turtles!

There are lots of walls with photo-op graffiti here

This week was great!  Remember, Isabela, the girl on the bicycle who wanted a Book of Mormon from from my previous post? Isabela’s family is awesome — we are teaching her family, her friend’s family, and her friends’ cousin and other friend, her other friend, her other friend and her aunt now.  Isabela, as well as Guilherme*, and Ester (both friends of Isabela’s family) went to church.  Isabela’s older sisters had to work because of the craziness that is Easter here in Gravatá but will go in two weeks with her mom. Their other friends Matheu (a young adult) and Maria Clara (a young woman) and Rafaela (little girl) went to church too!  Their sister Marcela would have gone but she stepped on a nail the night before and had to go to the hospital. 😦 Crazy things happen Saturday night.  Because of Isabela’s family and friends, the number of contacts we taught a first lesson to improved quite a lot this week.  We often have trouble with not finding people at home but they have been great!

Sister Faulconer with Isabela and her friend Guilherme

Isabela and her friend Guilherme are reading the Book of Mormon and said they prayed about it and felt really good.  Isabela told us she wants to go to church next week!  Her sister, Camilla, who had to work, prayed and has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  Her aunt told us she said she wants to be baptized! Marcela read the Book of Mormon, prayed, and was describing to us how she felt.  She felt the spirit really strongly –“chills all over!” and really joyful.  She said she she has a testimony now!  Matheus forgot to read several times, but on Saturday he remembered!  He told us on Sunday that he had had a similar experience.  He said he started praying and had a feeling that God was there, and that they were literally having a conversation.  He asked about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and said he felt that God responded that they are true! He told us that he has visited several churches but never felt the spirit like that.

Their other sister, Maria Clara, didn’t recognize any response the first time she prayed but said she started to feel the spirit more as she continued reading and praying.  That is certainly more typical of my experiences — many times we don´t get an answer the first time we pray but it will come with patience and continued effort.

Anyway, finding them was a miracle for sure.  The day Isabela stopped us in the street we felt a bit frustrated because we had been searching for a contact’s address for a realllly long time and no one knew where it was.  I am so glad we didn’t find it right away — we needed to meet Isabela!

Missionaries with treats at zone conference
Formal picture with the Housemans

We also had zone conference in Caruaru this week.  It was good.   We have guides for our lessons with different topics.  We don´t have to stick to a specific script but often we present the topics in the same order — God loves us, so he sent us prophets to guide our families, the most important prophet was Christ, etc. etc.  President Houseman talked about treating our lessons like wheels rather than linear lists of events.  Present the topics in whatever order works best for the investigators!  This was a lightbulb moment for me, but now nothing is linear anymore!  It can be confusing.


I have lots of food art skills. “Soy meat” (TVP or textured vegetable protein in the US) is more popular here in non-vegetarian places than in the US. 

Several members have made some for me at lunch and they all already know how to cook it.  I have seen a few restaurants that have things like “Chicken with soy meat sauce.”  People make soy meat sometimes just for diversity´s sake.  I tried it out and it was super good!  I also discovered soy milk recently (pro tip– ask people where things are instead of assuming you know where they keep the milk — I had forgotten that they sell milk in cartons rather than in the refrigerator section here)

Happy Easter!

Easter is very popular in Gravatá.  At night there was bumper to bumper traffic on the roads. Gravatá is definitely a tourist-y city — this week the city was way way busier than usual.  There were also signs for chocolate easter eggs on all of the street corners.  People like to eat large (like ostrich-sized) eggs made of chocolate and boxes of assorted easter candies are also very popular. Sister Ribeiro wrote this on the wall in makeup — she is very creative.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  When someone gets an answer to their prayer about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon it sometimes feels like a yes or no sort of thing — either they can say they believe or not.  What is harder to measure, but also happens, is the repentance process.  That’s the whole purpose of missionary work — we invite people to pray about the Book of Mormon and to follow its precepts — repent, be baptized (i.e., take the name of Christ upon you, promise to remember him and follow his commandments), get closer to Christ.  We tell people that Christ is the center of our message — and it’s true.  I have been reading this scripture with people all week:

But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.


Mosiah 16:8-9

The scriptures are so beautiful! I can’t say it better than that.  I also love this Easter video: Because of Him

*Names are changed to respect investigators’ privacy.