Feliz Natal!!

Feliz Natal, everybody!!! I have a lot to share today!

1) Júlia, Lindalva, Sane, and Pedro got baptized! They are all people that I taught in Areia Branca, but I didn´t get to see their baptism. When I heard they were baptized, I cried here in the internet cafe. It is such a blessing to really see people´s lives change, and I am sooooo happy for them!

2) This morning, Sister Ortiz and I went with a new member, Erika, to a cool little cliff thing that overlooks the ocean. It was really nice to do something a little different. The beach here in Enseada is really beautiful. Also, I saw a sea turtle!!!!!! And to top off the morning, we bought coconuts. It was better than I expected, so yay. 

3) Yesterday morning, before church, we climbed a little morro hill thing to wake up/bring Messias to church. While we were there, our phone fell and opened and the battery fell out. We looked for the battery for about half an hour, but couldn't find it. We said a prayer, and still couldn´t find it. Later in the afternoon, we climbed the morro again, and we found the battery in about 5 seconds. It was a little miracle. It´s interesting how the Lord really hears all our prayers, but He doesn´t always respond the way that we think He should. But tudo bem, we need to learn patience.

4) Last week, we bought a big bag of peanuts and tried to make peanut butter. It kind of worked....

5) I heard English Christmas music from the tabernacle choir, and I cried a little bit. I don´t know why, but Christmas music isn´t really a big thing here. Only a little. And half the time it´s in English. 

But overall, it was a great week! We´re very excited for Christmas, even though we won´t have presents or music or family because really, the most important part of Christmas is Christ. And of all the different things here in Brazil, Jesus Christ is the same. 

Feliz Natal! Eu amo vocês!

Sister Herron

Juliana foi batizada!!!

Bom dia, gente! This week was awesome, stressful, and tiring! Juliana was baptized on Saturday! Yay! The service was sooo beautiful, and the spirit was so strong. After she was baptized, we helped her a little in the bathroom, and she just cried tears of gratitude. She is amazing. In order to be baptized, people need to live the commandments to a standard and that requires sacrifice sometimes. Juliana, like quase todos aqui, never married her husband. In order to baptized, they needed to either get married or separate. And Juliana actually changed her life, and separated. Not because we told her she had to, but because she knew it was the right thing to do. It was incredible to be part of her conversion even if I only had a small part. Saturday evening at the baptism was wonderful, but the rest of the day, it was apparent that Satan wanted us to give up.  A lot of really frustrating things happened on Saturday to discourage us, but we overcame the day! Yay! 

Other notable things from this week:

A baby bird flew into our ceiling fan, but didn´t die.

Our ward has 5 missionaries right now. Sister Ortiz and I, and 3 elders. Our ward also has an English and Spanish class every Thursday, taught by the missionaries. Nobody told us about it last week, but this week I taught the English portion without any warning or preparation....mas tudo bem. 

Sister Ortiz and I made a banana cake without any sugar and it turned out really ugly but really good too. But we forgot to take a picture...sorry. 

That´s all! Have an ótima semana!!!

Tchau,

Sister Herron

Enseada 1!

 The New District

The View at Lunch

Sister Ortiz and Sister Herron at the Service Activity

Bom dia, gente! It´s been a great week! We got to do a lot of good stuff here in Enseada. It´s a little difficult because we don´t know the area or the people here very well yet, but we were still able to do a lot. This area is a bit bigger than my last area, but my last area was tiny so its ok. It´s all along the beach, and the praias here are really really beautiful. So, this area is a bit richer too. There are some really nice houses and apartments here, but that’s not generally where we find the most success. We had lunch in a house up on a hill overlooking the ocean, and the lunch was made by a servant because the owners don´t generally live there. It was kind of strange but really cool. We have less people that we´re teaching here, but the people we are teaching are awesome. One of them, Juliana, is going to get baptized this week! Yay!

Outras coisas: 

Here, I was called Sister Harry Potter. That was a first. 

We had a service activity on Saturday where we painting a school and that was fun.

My new district has two Americans who have less experience than me, so my Portuguese isn´t the worst anymore! Yay

Sister Ortiz and I are the only sisters in all of Guarujá, which is kinda different, but tudo bem. 

Ok, I´m out of time. Have a good week everyone. Love you all!

Sister Herron 

Transfers!!

Júlia and Lindalva

Sister Bouwhuis and I in front of a cool plaza thing in Gonzaga

Tatiane and family

Hello, everybody! This was definitely an interesting week, but as of last week, I only have 1 hour to email, which is very short. But, it was Sister Ferreira´s last week as a missionary! She flies home to Sergipe tomorrow, so we said goodbyes and gave hugs and worked hard. It´s a little sad that we couldn´t have a baptism together, but we left Areia Branca 2 better than we found it. Júlia and Lindalva and Sane and Montes de Gente will be baptized but weren´t quite ready yet. Last p-day, we celebrated Sister Ferreira´s last week by going to the fancier part of Santos with Sister Bouwhuis and Sister Ortiz. It was fun to just see a different area and go to McDonalds. (all the Brasileiros love McDonalds so it was treat. Idk why..) We had two different Family Home Evenings this week and lots of cake :) 

But last night, I found out that I´d be transferred! It´s strangely really sad and exciting at the same time. My new companion is.....Sister Ortiz!!!!! It´s crazy that of all the Sisters in the mission, my companion was someone I already knew. Sister Ortiz is muito legal, and I´m excited to be with her. She´s from Argentina and only has one more month in the mission than I do. We´re in Enseada, Guarujá now! We don´t know anybody here, but we get to meet them all now! Yay! I´ve officially finished my training now, but I think I´m going to learn a lot from Sister Ortiz. Have wonderful weeks everybody and até próxima segunda!

Com Amor, 

Sister Herron 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Interesting things from this week:

One year ago, my companion´s dogs knew more Portuguese than me :/

We found a home for a kitten yesterday. She is less than a week old, but she was thrown in the trash. But we think she´ll survive!

My accent apparently sounds like google translate trying to speak Portuguese. 

Christmas started right after Halloween. We sang a Christmas song in church yesterday. 

Sister Ferreira completed 18 months of the mission on Saturday! We celebrated with balloons and ice cream! 

She only has 1 week left in the mission, so next week I will have a new companion. And talvez, a new area too. We´ll see. 

Also, this week was divisions and I went to Gonzaga. It's the chique part of Santos. Really pretty, and it smelled better than Areia Branca. 

Also, do you guys remember the talk by Elder Holland about being perfect, eventually? It´s really good. And if any of you are having a rough time, give it a listen. I love you guys. Have a fantastic week. 

Com Amor, 

Sister Herron

Ação Total

Hello, gente! I don´t have a lot of time, but sorry. This week was a little challenging, but I made it through and I got to take a nap today. This week we had a lot of difficulty with people not being home for their scheduled appointments with us. But this week is going to be amazing! I'm very excited. One really good thing that happened this past week was that we had a stake activity here in Areia Branca. It was a Ação Total. The church offered a haircut, eye exam, manicure, activities for kids, used clothes, info about the stake English classes, and a bunch of stuff like that. All totally free for the whole public. It was all day Saturday, and it was great because as missionaries, we got a lot of references, people who said we could come visit them and teach them. It was kinda fancy. They had a firetruck, and the police had a little band that played. It was awesome. Made me miss my trumpet. The national hymn of brazil is really cool, and I´m totally going to learn how to play it when I return. It was nice to do something a little different, but talking to strangers all day is a little difficult for me. Being a missionary really pushes me out of my comfort zone, but this is how we learn and grow. That´s essentially the point of life. So I´m grateful. I´m also grateful that we got a new washing machine this morning. Washing machines truly are blessings. Have a wonderful week everyone. Eu amo vocês!

Com gratidão e amor,

Sister Herron

Finally Some Pictures from the CTM

At the Campinas Temple 

At the Sao Paulo Temple

At Stake Conference

Hello, everybody. This week was pretty normal. We worked hard and people are progressing. We had stake conference yesterday, and I understood a lot more than I thought I would. A member of the 70 was there and he talked about fasting, which was really good. Fasting is something that we don´t focus on very much, but really it´s a commandment. After his talk, I´m motivated to improve my fasts. Conference was also nice because we got to see our mission presidents, President and Sister Obata! yay! that´s always a treat. 

This week, Lindalva went to the hospital due to intense pain in her spine :( Her baptism was scheduled for this week, but that´s not going to happen now. Hopefully she´ll be able to recover soon without a surgery but we don´t know yet. We did get to visit her in the hospital yesterday which was really nice. She was so excited to see us. It was really cute. 

Another thing that happened this week was our washing machine broke. It's kinda annoying but as long as we have water it will be fine. But also, we´ve been having a little trouble having water...sometimes we have it and sometimes we don´t. Hopefully this will pass pretty soon. But it´s all good. Portuguese is getting easier with more and more time. Still really hard but I´m learning and progressing bastante. Have a good week.

Com amor, 

Sister Herron 

Olá Amigos

A Picture from the CTM

Hello, everybody. I hope you all had a great week. Sorry but again no pictures. These computers aren´t the highest quality...I´ll try again next week. One exciting thing that happened this week was I finally got to see the General Women´s Conference! Yay! I am very grateful that I we have a living prophet, and that I got to hear him. Also, it’s pretty awesome to hear the choirs in English. It’s always a nice breath of fresh air. Other than watching conference, this week was pretty standard. We walked, talked, invited, cried a little bit, ate yummy food, etc. 

Lindalva and Júlia went to church again this week, and they are awesome!! Júlia is 19 years old and Lindalva is her mãe. We, as missionaries, simply invite people to come closer to Jesus Christ and to learn the truth. It´s when they actually do what we invite them to do that miracles happen. Lindalva has dyslexia, but she has started to read the Book of Mormon. Júlia has already recieved an answer from Heavenly Father that our messages are true, and she wants to be baptized!! And they don´t need to get married first haha yay! It´s really amazing to see people progress in their faith. 

We´re also teaching another Júlia. She´s only 9 years old but she has so much faith. She´s really cute. She´s the granddaughter of some members of our ward. Originally she was going to be baptized this weekend, but some of her family that are not members of the Church told her that she couldn´t dance or play or do anything fun after she was baptized. We got that all sorted out though. As sister missionaries, we´re really popular among the 6 to 10 year old girls and we get lots of little hugs on Sundays. It’s wonderful!

Thanks for your words of encouragement and love. I love you guys! Have an amazing week!

Tchau gente

Sister Herron 

Miracles and Frustration

This week was a good one! We had 7 people go to church this week! YAY! It´s amazing. Satan goes through a lot of effort to keep people from going to church, but this week people overcame. It´s really amazing to hear people you´re teaching say that they really believe the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet because they prayed about it. As missionaries, we don´t convince anyone of anything. We just teach and invite them to find out for themselves. So when people actually do what we invite them to do, miracles happen. 

Last Tuesday, we passed a woman on the street who was crying. We stopped and asked if everything was ok and if there was anything we could do for her. She only accepted a hug, but thanked us for stopping. We didn´t say anything about the church or missionary work or anything like that. just a hug and left. Then, on Friday, she flagged us down and asked if we had any pamphlets or anything she could read because she felt like we were sent from God. :D So we took her address, of course, and marked a time to visit her and teach her. But... we couldn´t find her house. We searched for a good half an hour, but it doesn´t exist. :`(  I have faith that we´ll run into her again, but here is a prime example of missionary life. Big ups and downs. Miracles and frustration.

But tudo bem. Vai dar certo. 

Eu amo vocês. Boa semana!

Sister Herron

I Want Chocolate, But I Don't Have Money

Sister Ferreira, Sister Ortiz, Sister Bouwheis and me

View from their apartment

Boa tarde, gente. This week was transfers, but I´m staying here in Areia Branca 2 with Sister Ferreira. Sister Bouwhuis and Sister Ortiz are staying in Areia Branca 1, too, so all is well. Not a whole changed for me. Sister Ferreira is pretty awesome, so I´m glad that I´m staying with her. One fun thing about being companions with a Brazilian is that she is trying to learn a little bit of English. She has a couple of phrases, "I want chocolate, but I don´t have money," is one of them. She´s fofinha.

I´m really glad that I get to stay in Areia Branca. We have a lot of work to do here. Currently we are trying to teach 29 people, and a lot of them are progressing really well. Our area is small. It´s only 3 little sections of the city of Santos, so we walk everywhere. The only time we ever use the bus is when we need to go to the stake center or another church building outside of our area. The people here are a little more humble than other parts of Santos. Some of the people we are teaching are so ready for baptism, but they don´t have money to get married. It´s hard for them, but like Nephi said, The Lord giveth no commandment save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which He commandeth them.  

This has been a wet couple of weeks. I think it has rained everyday but 1 for at least 2 weeks. But it´s good because it keeps it cool. 

Have a boa semana! Beijo!

Sister Herron

Conferência Geral!!

What a weird week guys! I had my first day of splits, general conference, and my birthday! And I can finally send pictures!! Last Tuesday, I switched companions for the day. Sister Ribera is awesome, and I learned a lot from her. But it was weird to be separated from Sister Ferreira for so long. 

General Conference was amazing! I could listen in English, which was a huuuuge blessing. I learned soo much. And Paula, Jenifer, and Douglas were able to watch it too!! It was a little hard for them because they have young kids but they said they liked it. Paula was able to attend a baptismal service in between the sessions, too, which was really awesome. I´m really excited for them. We have a lot of really good people we´re teaching right now. Honestly we have more people than we can handle sometimes which is the best problem in the world! 

My favorite talk from General Conference was by Elder Soares! It was awesome because he talked about Brasil and missionary work. And members helping in the work! I´m inviting all of you to relisten or read that talk again, and think of something you can do to apply it!! We are really excited for the new temples!!! Salvador Brasil!!! This will be the closest temple for Sister Ferreira when she returns! and the temple in Argentina will be the closest for Sister Ortiz, one of my roommates! Yay!!!!!

Also, so yesterday was my birthday, and it was awesome! Since it was General Conference, my whole Zone was together with nothing to do for half an hour, so they threw me a little surprise party! They´re so sweet!! Also, my companion from the CTM was there too, because she listened to conference in English. It was really, really sweet. And I can send photos of it now! yay! I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Sister Herron

Ps. Yes, I’m wearing makeup in these pictures. No, that is not a normal occurrence. Don’t worry, I´m not changing thaaat much. 

Sister Arrow

Olá, everybody! 

It was a good week this past week. We taught a lot of lessons, and we have 6 new investigators!! One of which, Sandra, went to church!!!! Yay!!! It´s really awesome to be able to watch people grow in their faith! We´re teaching a woman named Tatiane. She is golden and is so ready for baptism, but she hasn´t accepted a date yet. But on Saturday, the sisters of Areia Branca 1 had a baptism, and Tatiane came! She cried a lot, and I think she really felt the spirit. I´m excited for our next lesson with her. 

Another woman we´re teaching is Paula! I love her! She´s awesome, and she really wants to learn and come closer to Christ. Her kids are adorable too. Very talkative. Last Monday, we had the opportunity to have a family home evening with some recent converts, Veronica and Ana Lívia. That was fun. 

A few other exciting things from this week: I saw wild parrots! We talked to a crazy guy on the street who tried to speak English to me because I was having difficulty understanding him, and I didn´t know he was trying to speak English. I tried a new dessert called Romeo and Juliet. It´s pretty much like Guava jam on cheese. It´s really good. Yesterday, for church, I played the piano for Sacrament meeting with only about 1 minute of warning, so that was fun. I may have just gotten myself a calling in this ward :) 

One interesting thing is it´s really hard for everyone to pronounce my name. So I´m learning to respond to Sister Arrow, Sister HHHharon, and everything else in between.  That´s always funny. But it´s great! They try. 

Have a wonderful week everyone! Don´t forget to watch General Conference! It´s going to be awesome!!!!! 

Love you all,

Sister Arrow

Casa Aberta

Hello, everybody! Guys, today marks 2 months in the mission. Crazy. But it´s pretty awesome. 

Fun fact about Português: Everyone always ends sentences with `neh´. They´re like Canadians. It´s kinda cute, and kinda annoying. 

Fun fact about Brasil: We had a lizard in our bathroom and a pigeon in our laundry room. 

Weird encounters: We were called ´Elders` by some lady on the street. A guy on the street stopped us and told us to keep up the good work, and Joseph Smith is proud of us. haha.  That kept me going this week haha People here are generally very nice. It´s really great. 

On Saturday, we had a CASA ABERTA! The church was open and anyone and everyone to come and learn a little more about us and the igreja. I was really afraid that nobody would come. Really afraid. But I put my trust in Heavenly Father and we got to work, and people came. It was a miracle. We got 12 references and a couple of lessons for this week. It´s pretty exciting!

In the Liahona for this month, there is an article about Pres. Oaks. It talks about how when he was called to be an apostle, he had to make a choice. Whether we would adjust the calling to fit his knowledge and experience, or if he would go through the painful process of growing to fulfill the calling. Whether he would be a lawyer trying to be an apostle, or an apostle who used to be a lawyer. I've been thinking a lot about this throughout the week. Yeah, the process of becoming who you need to be can be painful at times. But it´s necessary, and it´s worth it. And that´s all for this week. Have a great week, everyone. Work hard, and do good.

Tchau tchau for now.

Sister Herron.