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. 

Firsts

Hey everybody!! I had a lot of firsts this week. It was a good week.

Sorry, about the pictures from last week. Some of you might be able to see them now. If not, I think my mom should be able to see them, and she´ll probably put them on my blog thing. Also, I may or may not have a necessary cord for showing you guys my pictures, so it might be a week or two before I can send more....sorry.

Guys, learning a language is really hard. There are a lot of times when I don´t know what the heck anyone is saying. But, it´s amazing. Everyone is willing to help. I can tell that I am progressing. Every day, I can understand and speak a little bit more. I am learning so much. About mission life, Portuguese, the gospel of Jesus Christ, me, other people, how to teach, and more and more. It´s amazing.

Some of you might be wondering what exactly I am doing here so I´ll give a brief overview of an average day. We wake up at 6:30 and eat breakfast and get ready for the day and stuff. Then, until about noon, we plan and study. We need to plan exactly what we´re going to do for the rest of the day, and we study the scriptures, how to teach, Portuguese, and other stuff. For lunch, we go to a member´s house. Here, lunch is the big meal of the day. So we eat a lot and then we´re really tired, but it´s all good. After lunch, we hit the streets. We try to make contacts and visit people who said we could come teach them. It's good. We spend a lot of time walking, but it´s really awesome when someone lets us in. We don´t have dinner until we return to our house at 9. So yeah. That´s the average day.

It´s an interesting clashing of worlds here in Santos, I think. The other day, I saw a normal looking teenage boy with his headphones in, riding in a cart being pulled by a horse. I´m a little surprised how often I see horses on the streets here. I like it though. It´s really beautiful in a dirty city kind of way. Plus the mountains in the background. Once my camera situation is worked out I´ll send a picture. The weather is kinda unpredictable. I had my first day proselyting in the rain. That was fun. Umbrellas are nice. I think the rain might help us get in the door.

A thought on food: I love Brigadeira. It´s just like gooey chocolatey goodness. It´s really good as frosting for a cake too. Also, pretty much all the food here is good. Rice and beans are growing on me. Its just like a good staple for every meal. Rice and beans and some sort of meat and a salad. That´s pretty much every meal. Yesterday we had lasagna. That was good too. I might come back from my mission really fat....

Some exciting things about the work from this week:  I made my first baptismal invitation, and she accepted! Her name is Paula, and all her family are members, but her mother is inactive. She has a cute little family. On Saturday, the ward hosted a little birthday party for the daughters of two of our investigators, Jenifer and Douglas. It was their first party, and I almost cried when I thought about that. We helped prepare some food for the party. The girls were so cute and so excited and happy. Jenifer and Douglas should be getting baptized soon! They just need to get married first. So hopefully, the end of this month or the beginning of next month. So yay!!!! 

Tchau, tchau

Sister Herron

SANTOS!!!

Hey, guys! I made it out of the MTC, and I am in Santos now!!! Yay!! It was a little sad to say goodbye to Sister Gillis, but I´m excited to be here! My new companion is Sister Ferreira! She is super, super kind and patient. Which is good, because my Português skills are still a little lacking. It´s great though. She is from Sergipe, Brasil, and she is awesome. We are assigned to Areia Branca 2 ward. It is in the actual city of Santos, on the little island part. It´s awesome. We share a cute little old house with 2 other sister missionaries, Sister Ortiz from Argentina and Sister Bouwheis from Arkansas. They both speak English, so at times, when I´m super confused they can help me. They´re really awesome. We don´t actually live in our area though, so every day we have to walk to and from our house and area. 

My very first lesson was in an area that is pretty poor. I forget what they are called, but it was in a little ´house` built above the river. If you guys have seen the movie Coco, it´s like the place where the cranky guy died. They are very humble there, so they are more willing to let us in and talk with them. But it´s great. We taught more lessons this week than I expected. 

People seem pretty chill about talking about religion here, but usually they already have a religion that they are loyal to. 

Brazil is pretty awesome. The food is really good. Rice and beans don´t necessarily sound that appealing, but around noon everyday, that´s all I want. One kind of weird thing about being a missionary here is we don´t really have dinner. We´ll either get a little snack on the way home or order pizza or something. A couple nights ago we were eating at 1020 but we need to have lights out by 1030. It´s good though. 

I´m really excited to be here, teaching real people and helping them. It´s really hard because I can´t communicate with everyone very well yet. But each day I´m getting better. Except Saturday...But I know that the Gift of Tongues is real. Because, you know what? I can do the basics. I can introduce myself, and bear simple testimony. With more time, I´ll be able to understand everything they say. 

But it´s great! 

Tchau tchau for now!

Sister Herron