Tag: Sister Ribeiro II

Quarantine

Sister FaulconerLeave a comment

[This blog is dated March 23rd because of when it took place, but Sister Faulconer wasn’t able to write down all the details until she returned home].

Part of our food storage

The Monday I wrote the last blog post we left to buy two more weeks of food storage.  It was seriously difficult! The hard part is taking bags of heavy things home — you underestimate transportation to the grocery store until you don’t have any!  The bags ripped several times, we stopped to take a rest a couple times, and I bruised my shins with bagged cans. But it worked out! I am very grateful to be able to do food storage and not have to worry about going hungry.  I’m sure many here don’t have that luxury — there are a lot of street vendors (popsicles, corn, tapioca) and farmer’s market sellers here. I can’t imagine Covid-19 is helping them out. We went on splits with the sisters from Olinda.  Olinda is more than two hours from Goiana. We asked the bus driver three times to tell us where to get off. He said he would but didn’t! I stayed with Sister Ascanta in Goiana. She was trained by Sister Barros! I really want to see Sister Barros — it’s been a while already!  

Splits with the Sisters serving in Olinda

We switched back Wednesday morning.  Wednesday afternoon we got new rules — no more splits, no talking to senior citizens or pregnant people.  Sad that we couldn’t follow up with our investigators that are senior citizens at all, but we would also hate to get them sick.  When the phone rang we were afraid we would have to stay in quarantine. But since there were new rules we figured it would take at least several more days to get to full-on quarantine.  Nope. Thursday the district leader [missionary leader of a group of 6 missionaries] called us with rule clarifications. He started out by joking that we would be in quarantine. We believed him but it was a lie. Literally five minutes after that the zone leader [missionary leader of the larger group–about 30 missionaries] called us to say that we really were in quarantine.  We didn’t believe it!  

Quarantine in Goiana offered a good view of the cemetery

Quarantine is crazy.  We did studies like normal in the morning but just studied for as long as we wanted (and could stand it).  We learned a lot together — I love doing companionship study with Sister Ribeiro II. We spent more time studying, cooking, more studying, talking . . . repeat times infinity. That is all there is to do! I decided to read the Book of Mormon in quarantine. If you read 100 pages per day you can finish in just over five days!  Also we called Giovanna,* who was marked for baptism that Saturday. She is awesome and really wanted to get baptized. But a few minutes before the zone leader called us about quarantine, she called to say she couldn’t leave the house. That was too bad — baptisms were still allowed that Saturday, albeit with a ton of health precautions (us, her, the person who would baptize her, the branch president — six feet apart, face masks, hand sanitizer).  But unfortunately her dad didn’t feel good about that. But she is amazing and I am sure she will get baptized when Coronavirus blows over (hopefully it will blow over enough for her to get baptized soonish!).  

  • It was a blessing to be quarantined with Sister Ribeiro II.
  • We fixed our own lunches during quarantine, but were able to go out briefly and grabbed the fries while we were out.
  • Lunch Paulista style, because Sis. Ribeiro II is from São Paulo. The sriracha sauce is Sis. Faulconer’s!

It was strange to go into quarantine already knowing I would leave the mission.  I had thought I would do contacts and lessons Sunday night knowing they would be my last — and then leave Monday.  But all of a sudden I had taught my last lesson and done street contacts for the last time without knowing it! We had been teaching Pedro.* We had stopped teaching him, but during the division (splits) he stopped on the street to talk to us so we went back. I hope he reads the Book of Mormon — he has promised to many times but never gotten around to it.  You can’t say God won’t show you the truth if you never experiment just reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it! It’s not that hard, but you do have to do it.

On Sunday at 10:30 pm we got a text that said all the foreign missionaries were going to leave the country.  It was sad. I am so grateful to have been able to serve a little over a year and a half as a full-time missionary.  But sad to miss even a little bit of it! And my heart hurt to think of all the other missionaries going home. It was hard to sleep! I know it must be hard for people who are going home early, and it’s hard to see so many missionaries going home and not feel that God’s work is stopping.  But I remembered this scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants, and then President Houseman sent a text with the same verse!

49 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to any of the sons of men to do a work unto my name, and those sons of men go with all their might and with all they have to perform that work, and cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them and hinder them from performing that work, behold, it behooveth me to require that work no more at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept of their offerings.

D&C 124:49

God just asks that we do what he says.  Sometimes he will call us to a mission for 1.5 or 2 years and then ask us to do change our plans or do something else.  We just have to work diligently, be obedient, and he will accept our best efforts.  

The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught.

D&C 3:1

Covid-19 isn’t more powerful than our omnipotent Heavenly Father. His work doesn’t stop, even when thousands of missionaries go home. 

*Investigators’ names are changed to protect their privacy.

Blessed

Sister FaulconerLeave a comment
Sister Faulconer and Sister Ribeiro II

This week was great.  Our investigator/friend Rafaela* was baptized and confirmed this week.  It was wonderful to see her having spiritual experiences and gaining a testimony and wanting to be baptized and confirmed.  Three-ish weeks ago I think maybe I wrote about an experience I had in the street one day.  I was praying in my heart to know who to contact because we had a few minutes  before our next appointment.  Suddenly I thought about all the people my companions and I had street contacted. How many had been baptized? I saw other people’s street contacts be baptized, and I contacted many people who had spiritual experiences, were marked for baptism, went to church, and almost got baptized.  But in terms of actual results there was one man who was a street contact that was baptized.  He didn’t go to church one of the last weeks that I was in that area (after going faithfully every Sunday!) and it sounds like he never went again and is super inactive. But I thought about it and realized that he could be reactivated someday. Also, I contacted a young woman who I later found out was baptized a few transfers later when a change of job suddenly let her go to church on Sunday.  I hope she is still strong! One soul is an accomplishment. And I know that sometimes God wants our sacrifice, not necessarily our success.  So I knew it was important to keep talking to people on the street.  But regardless, it was a pretty depressing thought in the moment–I don’t think that thought was inspired by the Holy Ghost.  I recommitted to continue working hard regardless of how other people use their agency . . . and then suddenly one of our very molle investigators we were persistent with got baptized this week!  We had stopped her on the street to admire her dog near the beginning of last transfer and did a contact.  

Rafaela’s baptism

Rafaela was very excited to be baptized.  After we taught her about the Word of Wisdom we asked her what she was going to do with her coffee and she said she would throw it out.  We were going to help her throw it out but had to leave because it was late and we forgot.  The next day she mentioned that she had thrown it out of her own volition! After being confirmed (she was confirmed on the same day because of Stake Conference [our regional meetings]) she said that she felt really good and at home.  She said when she went home she would know she wasn’t alone!

View on the way to Itambé

We have also been very blessed in terms of marcados [people marked for baptism] this week. It is amazing how different some weeks are than others.  Sometimes we have trouble marking anyone for several weeks in a row!  Last week and this week we have been blessed with many opportunities to invite people to baptism — and they have accepted!  
We are going to Itambé twice a week recently and teaching Júlia and her family.  This week we had a lesson just with Bernardo, who is Júlia’s nephew. His parents and sister were baptized in December and missionaries have been teaching all of them since June.  He almost got baptized twice and had accepted a baptismal date the other day in a group lesson.  In our lesson together we discussed his concerns and he said he feels better about baptism now. He said he really would be baptized this Saturday!  He went to Stake Conference this Saturday with his family. We are excited!  It will be interesting because there is no way to personally visit him during the week! He gets out of school at 5 or 5:30 and the last van to Goiana leaves at 5.  So we are going to call him during the week and are thinking of trying to do a video call with members.  

We are working hard to follow up with the people marked for baptism while still meeting new people.  That is a bit tricky because we want to prioritize the people marked for baptism but don’t want to neglect our responsibility to talk with new people! 

Another side note — everyone who comes to Goiana (for district council or splits or to do an interview) says “It is really hot here!” Apparently it is hotter in Goiana than in Janga or Timbauba (and Timbauba is part of our district!)  I said I wanted a t-shirt prize of “I survived the hottest area in the mission!” But then I realized that if everyone is deserving of said t-shirt it would be Sister Ribeiro II! I’m not sure if I said this the other week, but Sister Ribeiro II started her mission in Goiana 2 (the other half of the city). She often had lunch with members from Goiana 1 so she already knows a lot of people here.  After this transfer she will have spent 6 months — a third of her mission in Goiana — and she will probably spend more time here!  Those six months include two summers, so she is a trooper.  Going from Guaranhuns (cold enough to use a blanket at night!) to Goiana is a bit of a shock!

Splits (companion exchanges) with Sisters Ribeiro II, Faulconer, Chaves and Fernandes

This week we went on splits with the sisters from Janga. I spent the day with Sister Chaves — for the third time!  I hope she doesn’t get tired of me!

On Sunday we went to Stake conference [regional church meeting].  We didn’t manage to take many people, but Bernardo went!  We really wanted to take Mariana, who is 12 and was excited about going to church and being baptized, but she woke up with a very bad headache.  She got up and went to the door, but when we talked to her she went back to bed.  So that was too bad.  President  Houseman [who was a professor of entomology before he became our mission president] gave a great talk about termites and recent converts. Baby termites can’t live off wood — other termites have to feed them.  Recent converts can’t be expected to be totally self-sufficient any more than babies can. We have to help them, care for them, visit them, and share the gospel with them!  

I noticed that I had written this scripture down earlier to use in my lessons but had forgotten about it. This scripture is interesting because it says “as a lake of fire” which seems to suggest it won’t be an actual fire.  People often say that the fire and brimstone in the scriptures isn’t literal, but it is nice to see what the doctrinal source of that belief is!

Mosiah 3:24-27

24 And thus saith the Lord: They shall stand as a bright testimony against this people, at the judgment day; whereof they shall be judged, every man according to his works, whether they be good, or whether they be evil.

25 And if they be evil they are consigned to an awful view of their own guilt and abominations, which doth cause them to shrink from the presence of the Lord into a state of misery and endless torment, from whence they can no more return; therefore they have drunk damnation to their own souls.

26 Therefore, they have drunk out of the cup of the wrath of God, which justice could no more deny unto them than it could deny that Adam should fall because of his partaking of the forbidden fruit; therefore, mercy could have claim on them no more forever.

27 And their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever. Thus hath the Lord commanded me. Amen.

Brazilian fruit of the week: Jaboticaba.  You bite it, throw away the peel and eat the flesh surrounding the seed or the flesh and the seed.  It looks like a blueberry but is quite different. 


All things work together for good

Sister FaulconerLeave a comment

My new companion is Sister Ribeiro II! [She is Sis. Ribeiro II here on the blog because Sister Faulconer was previously companions with Sister M. Ribeiro (the missionary who is a wonderful photographer)]. She is from Sao Paulo, just like Sister M. Ribeiro!  Until now she was serving in the city Guaranhuns with Sister Nogueira — so she had to travel for about eight hours to get here!

Sister Ribeiro II enjoys the fast food lunch at mission leadership council while Sister Faulconer looks on.
Photo, Courtesy Sister Lori Houseman

This week is Carnaval.  Carnaval is mostly celebrated on the other half of town that isn’t our area, so we have been mostly following normal hours here.  We have seen a lot of burras [donkey costumes] and bois [oxen costumes?] in the street as well as some other costumes that are hard to remember the name of. Look up images for “burrinha carnaval Pernambuco” and you should get some good pictures.  They walk around with a few people banging on drums and occasionally people with saxophones and marching band/battle standard-like banners.  But three guys with drums sound like two entire marching bands–those drums are powerful! 

We marked our investigator Rafaela* for baptism this week, which was great!.  Last week we were excited because she went to church, read the Book of Mormon, and progressed after being molle [soft = not very interested, doesn’t keep invitations to read, go to church, etc., consistently] for a while.  Unfortunately, at the last second she ended up going to the beach with her employer for a week and wasn’t able to go to church last week or next Sunday.  So that was too bad; it’s amazing how these things always happen with marcados [people who have committed to be baptized]!  But we re-marked her for two weeks later, so hopefully it will work out in the end.  But it was too bad because although we had a number of people who said they would go to church, no one did–not even the very long-time investigator who always goes. 

It was not the first time no one has come to church, but it is always too bad.  That morning we invited some people in the street to go to church and accept visits.  No one was very interested. There was one couple who was very against eternal families–they said what everyone here says: we will all be brothers and sisters after this life. There won’t be special marriage and family relationships.  I shared that experience in the talk I gave in church that day. A brother who works at the temple with FamilySearch mentioned my talk and talked more about eternal families.  It wasn’t until later we found out that a new family that had moved in had brought their son, who has been marked for baptism but not baptized, and the mom’s sister to the meeting.  The mom’s sister had a Book of Mormon and described feeling a great desire to read more and more!  She said that she had been deeply involved in the Catholic church — she taught crisma [confirmation] classes, etc.  But she had always had a few questions about Catholic teachings–like why we won’t be able to recognize or remember our family members after this life.  So all things worked together for good!  Our negative experience that morning helped her feel the spirit and recognize the truth at church!

Here is a scripture I like.  There are lots of sayings and quotes that talk about being in trouble, persecuted, etc., but not vanquished. What I like about this one is how Paul mentions feelings.  Although the trials he went through caused negative feelings (he was perplexed) all was not lost (he was not in despair)!

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

2 Corinthians 4:8-9