Our district! I love them!
Monday, 20 October 2014
What a Bugger. ..
October 20, 2014
Well I'm not really sure what happened this week because I haven't
written in my journal since last monday! Ahhh! I never do that! All that I
really remember was that there were many different time that I was so very
tired, just tired to the bone. Physicaly, mentally, spiritually, you name it. I
remember that a couple of weeks ago I wrote that I was more tired than I had
ever been in my life and that I didn't think that it could ever get any worse.
.. . Hahah. But it was the last week of the transfer too ( we'll get to
that!) So that probably didn't help.
But, talking about being tired. That it why we have the grace of The
Atonement. Becuase we don't have to do it on our own, and in deed we cannot.
That it where grace comes in. The grace of Christ fills in our giant gaping
holes of inadequacy. I prayed many times this week for Christ's grace because I
was just without desire, or I felt inadequate to be walking around and helping
people I didn't know. But I prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing was made miraculously
easier but I kept putting one foot in front of the other and before I knew it
Sunday had arrived and so many people that I really love were there at church
and we were all together for the same reason and I took the Sacrament and
it was all worth it! This is the amazing part about being a missionary and I
think about being a converted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints, there are always moments or days or times where everything is made
worth it! It's amazing:)
Alright, it's time to address my title ^^ Dad, after this story I
don't want to hear smack about not eating crazy stuff. This should keep
me covered at least for another 6 months. So this all happened last Monday. Ok.
Deep breaths. Get excited folks! So I had this little deal on my big toe for 2
weeks. It looked like a calus or a blister but it wasn't raised above the skin
and it wasn't causing any pain. It had this weird scab looking deal that would
just bleed randomly throughout the day. But I didn't do anything about it
because going to the doctor here is horrible and I've found that usually your
body just heals itself if you wait long enough. Well last p-day I was bored and
decided to investigate a little bit more. I went to work with some tweezers and.
.. . you probably already know where this is going. Long story short. I ended
up pulling a sack of little tiny eggs out (yes OUT) of my toe. Literally. Yes,
this literally happend; to me; Sister Ventura. I can now officially join the
club of gross missionaries that served somewhere "crazy" and got a
worm/had a bug lay eggs inside of them. Sweet. I kid you not, one of my first
thoughts after the initial shock was how sweet it is that I get to tell this as
one of my mission stories for the rest of my life! The R.S pres took us to the
docter but it was just a local hospital here in Piraquara and it's all public
health and not very clean or organized or anything. They had no clue. They just
put on a bunch of antibiotic and told me that if I started feeling pain that
the bug (momma) probably was still inside and to come back and they would have
to cut my toe open and stuff. But they had no idea what kind of bug, etc.
etc. They then wrote a list of 4 different kinds of medicine for me to go get,
2 of which were painkillers. ...Yeah, I probably wasn't that polite with them
because they were so lazy and didn't know anything! We decided to go into
Curitibia the next day to get a second opinion. But. I had cleaded it really
well and dug out every last egg that I could find and I started thinking, going
into Curitiba takes almost 1/2 of a day and it would waste a lot of time. So I
said a prayer and told Heavenly Father that I wasn't going to go to any more
doctor's and just go on with life and please let me know if this wasn't the
right decision. But it turns out it was. The whole in my toe is healing and it
never ever caused me any pain, even after digging around and cutting skin off
etc. So that's that!
Sorry that this letter was kind of full of gross details and not much
else buuuuut, I think it's pretty cool and hope you all enjoy!
TRANSFERS: All 3 of the other sisters in our house are leaving and
I'm the only one staying. . . woooooo! I have mized emotions about it. .. I'm
excited for the adventure and more responsibility but at the same time really
nervous and freaking out. Yes mom, like you said, I own Piraquara! By the end
of this transfer I will have 6 1/2 months here! This is just about 1/2 of my
time in Brazil, in the same area! Crrrazy!
I love you guys so much! I hope that you all have a lovely week and
that you are making an effort to not just read but to LEARN from the Book of
Mormon every single day. I'm trying too:)
Loves and hugs (and bugs),
Solzão
13 October 2014
The first thing that must be said: All of a sudden Summer decided to
show up and I was woefully unprepared. Oh my gosh. No they do not have
a.c here. And yes, we spent many days this week walking an hour or more in
between appointments feeling like we were melting. I was thinking yesterday how
cool it is that in my mission I got/get to experience super extreme cold and
heat and walk through all of it. . . . . hahah ha. but really it's kind of good
because it will help me know later on in my life that I'm not really dying of
heat. . . or cold. Ever. And I can tell me kids to suck it up becuase, "
In my mission we had to. . . . .
Ok, second thing, I wrote all of you individual e-mails!! Wahoo!
You're the best Sister V! Yeah, I know, but that means that I literally have 2
minutes to write this e-mail. . . .
So. Since Wednesday was my 1/2 way mark I spent a big part of this
week having a mid-misiong crisis and wondering if I've used my time the best I
could etc. etc. and how/what I need to improve to do way better for this last
1/2. To really do what Heavenly Father has for me to do. I was worrying,
worrying worrying. Friday we had a conference with President and he spoke about
our call letters. How really they are like scripture, how every word and promis
is very significant and that we should read them weekly. He showed us how our
call letter has a promise. That we will have more joy than we've ever
experienced as we work with ALL of our might mind and strength to find those
that ARE ready to recieve this Gospel and these ordinances. I realized that I
need to work so much harder to consecrate myself.I need to sacrifice more of my
mind, time and energy into being a missionary. But howww???
Well I'm still working on that and praying every day but yesterday I
had a really lovely experience that was a little bit of an answer. Yesterday we
had fast and testimony meeting, and it was one of the most spiritual sacrament
meetings that I remember. We started out by singing " I stand all
Amazed," and I was just hit with the love that the Savior has for me; of
the reality of what He did for me; that He really is grateful for my desire and
He will continue to help me. So many times when I feel the Spirit it's when
singing:) I thought that I would like to bear my testimony about what I was
feeling but decided not to because I thought it would be impossilbe. In this
ward everyone goes up to the front that wants to bear their testimonies and
there are always so many people! But then, when there were just like 7 minutes
left, miraculously there wasn't anyone waiting! I felt like I should very
strongly, so I basically ran up there before anyone else could. Again when I
was talking I felt the Spirit so very strongly. I don't bear my testimony very
often ( ok, like besides every day being a missionary, but before the mish!)
And I hardly every cry in front of people, seriously, like never. But I felt
the Spirit so strongly and I'm really glad I went up there. Afterwards
when I returned to the congregation I just KNEW. I just felt so peaceful. I
absolutely know that this Gospel is true and we HAVE to live it and help others
live it in order to live with Heavenly Father again. I remember when Elder
Bednar came to the MTC and told us about how many missionaries come home and
eventually go inactive because they weren't absolutely converted during their
missions. He said that we have to become converetd during this time, we have to
build a foundation to last for the rest of our lives. I remember thinking I
didn't know if that was possilbe. Well, now I know:)
I want you all to know that I KNOW that this is the Gosple of Jesus
Christ and that He loves every single one of us personally and infinitely.
Being a missionary is groovy:)
Loves!
Monday, 6 October 2014
The Errand of Angels ( and Nozes)
October 6, 2014
Ok, dear family, I have a lot to say this week, so I hope that I can
say it all. None of you will be getting personalized letters:( Soooooory, But i
really want all of you to read THIS letter! I'll do better next week, and
please know that I appreciate your letters ever so much! Coltran buddy, I LOVED
your purple letter with a Brazillian flag, it was the best! I'll write back
next week!
adVENTURA=adventure in Portuguese right? Well, for good reason:)
This past Tuesday we had the craziest adventure ever! So we were headed to this
part of our area that is like 20 minutes away driving so we always take th is
shortcut that is like hiking up and across a bunch of muddiness, more or
less,and some train tracks and the freeway. .. . So we headed off at about 4:00
in the afternoon. Straight into a bunch of evil looking storm clouds. (Yes,
there was a predicted rain storm.. . . )When we were about 1/2 of the way there
(our app.) It started pouring. I have never seen anything like it in my life! I
had my little polk a dot umbrella and Sis. Cox had nothing. Cara. Within about
1 minute or less we were absolutely, soaking wet. I am not exagerrating my
friends. EVERYTHING. but we were already 1/2 there and really far away from our
house. . . . .so we kept going, there wasn't anything else to do! We were
screaming, laughing, and crying at the same time as we climbed up a giant hill
and across the freeway. We finally got to our app. ringing out our clothes with
mascara dripping faces. Those poor people. The lady insisted that we switch
into a dry skirt at least so that was nice of her. It was like 6:00 so we still
had 3 hours before we could go home and were too far away to go home and swith
clothes a little bit. So what did we do? Taught lessons of course! It finally
got to be 9:00 and we went to the only member's house in that area and they weren't
home. . . so we decided to call for someone else to come and get us. Credito
acabou. . . . . (we ran out of credit!) Seriously, we were still dripping wet,
and didn't know what to do. .. . so with chattering teeth we asked our newest
friend Joao Beuno if we could borrow his little wooden bench to sit and wait
for a miracle. So we sat, and dripped and planned for the next day. . . and
waiiiited. And then at 9:20 that member drove by! Miracle! Man, I wish you guys
could have seen me! It was so crazy!
Alright so "classic Mun" moment here: So, noses in
portuguese= narizes right? And Nuts in portuguese=nozes right? Yes, weeeel, no
matter how hard you try does narizes=nozes in portuguese! This has gotten me
into trouble many times and always makes for everyone laughing their heads off.
For example: A member family was asking my what kinds of cakes I do and don't
like ( for my b-day) me," Yeah, well, the only kinds of cakes I don't like
are cakes with coconut and narizes." *silence* everyone,
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH! Me," hahah. ha." Hahahah oh man. I have to stop and
think every time I want to talk about nozes now;)
Remember all of my stories about these crying suffering woment that
we have found exactly at the right moment? Well, here's # 5: Saturday morning we
were running around trying to gather people for Conference and our apt had
fallen through. We were left with 10 minutes before we needed to head off for
almoço and we didn't have anything to do. We had returned to a road because I
had seen a family I wanted to talk to, they weren't there. Hmmm. We just
stood there in the middle of the road a bit frustrated. I saw 2 women outside a
house. " Vamos la sister?" So we went with the idea of just inviting
them to conference. They didn't really want to talk and I thought, "Ok, so
much for that idea." Sis Cox asked if everything was ok? The only lady
told us that her aunt had just passed away that night, and because of this her
mom was outside crying. Sis Cox asked if we could just enter and say a prayer?
She let us in, we walked in a few steps and I don't really know how but before
I knew it the crying sister was in my arms, holding on to me and sobbing
uncontrollably. Wow. In these situations I feel so unexperience and so
inadequate. But I know that Heavnely places us there with His suffereing
children because he trusts us and that He will use me in spite of my
inexperience and inadequecies. We were able to tell here where her sister is,
and comfort her, and of course invite her and her family to conference promising
them that they would find peace. They didn't show up wich is really sad:( But
I'm glad we were able to help a little bit:)
OK, CONFERENCE!!!! They fixed a little room for the missionaries and
it was awesome:) I loved how they had the different languages and that I could
just switch and listen to the talk in Portuguese! All of our recent converts
were there and 2 investigators:) This is what Conference did for me on a
general scale: Strengthened my KNOWLEDGE that this Gosple is true. I know
it without a shadow of a doubt. I have really gained a very strong testimony in
these past 9 months, i could not have said that before my mission. I love this
church! This time passed soooooo fast. Seriously, I could not believe it! I
felt so close to you guys knowing that you were doing the exact same thing at
the exact same time! I could just hear you mom, saying how "it's true, we
need to do better at morning prayers," and dad saying, " it's pretty
cool that Mun can understand this guy too huh?!" I cannot say a favorit
talk or anything becuase it was all so good but I loved Elder Scott's talk
about the 4 things we need to do every single day to truly understand the
Atonement and have the promised peace and power necessary for these days. Daily
personal and family prayer, scripture STUDY ( "take time!") and
weekly FHE,and going to the Temple frequently. He promised peace and power if
we will do these things, I loved it!
Well, I love you guys! I will write personal letters next week and
the big letterl won't be so long:)
Keep keepin' on!!
Love,
Sister Ventura
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