Still Alive!

My wonderful family and friends!

 



Heading to the field!

What a crazy week this has been! I made it to my mission safely and got straight to work! I am serving in Alfenas right now with Sister Malta. She is from São Paulo. We are actually opening up this area. It had Elders a while back, but now we get to reopen it with Sisters! It is pretty exciting , but it means we are basically starting from scratch. All we have is a an old, outdated area book. There is just a branch here in Alfenas, but the church is growing. They just finished the construction of a brand new chapel- it is pretty cool because everyone we talks to knows about the "beautiful new chapel". It makes it easier to invite people to church!  But I had better not get ahead of myself here. I am going to start with leaving the CTM.



New companion Sister Malta

 

So I left the CTM on Tuesday morning at about 3 am... so yes, I was exhausted by the time I finally made it to field. Hopefully it doesn't show too much from the pictures the president and his wife sent. When we first arrived we went to the chapel in Juiz de Fora for some orientation and then we walked to the President's house for lunch. They have a beautiful home with an amazing view of the city. Great food,  great people... what more could I want? After that we went to the mission office for some more orientation and interviews with the president. As part of that rotation we went out street contacting. I was paired up with Sister Su'a. We did pretty well, but by the end of our time out there, it was obvious in comparison of numbers that we were the only companionship that didn't actually speak Portuguese fluently! Haha, I am so grateful to have a Brazilian trainer to help me out! That night we stayed with the Sisters in Juiz de Fora. The next morning we had some more orientation, went out to lunch and then received our new companions and areas. The build up for that was crazy. We had to wait so long and we were all so anxious to know! But it was worth the wait. Nearly immediately after getting our companions we were rushed off to the bus station to go to our separate areas. My bus wasn't until around 6 so we just sat around for quite awhile. We  then had a six hour bus ride... that wasn't the greatest thing in the world. Haha, it was pouring rain and the window I was sitting next to leaked. It was quite the adventure. You know, I was really wanting to take a shower... I guess the Lord really does hear and answer our prayers ;) That bus took us to Varginha where we spent the night with some other sisters. We got in around midnight and a member took us to their apartment. We couldn't take our bags though... none of us were prepared for that! So we all just shared what the sisters living there had for the night. The next morning we took another bus and  finally made it  to Alfenas! We were greeted by the branch president and his wife. They took us to our little house in the city to unpack and get settled in. Alfenas is a small city. We cover some more rural parts too. It is absolutely gorgeous here! Rolling green hills and colorful little houses- I love it! I will try to send some pictures. We are sharing this house with another set of sisters that is opening the area with us. Let's just say that is was pretty obvious that Elders lived in the house before us... It was pretty nasty. We did a bit of cleaning then and a lot more this morning. It is now clean and wonderful! Perfect for all of our needs. No spiders yet even (fingers crossed that it stays that way!). We do have a ton of ants and other little bugs though. I am hoping the cleaning helps with that. But nothing too bad. I saw gecko in our house last night- he is my new best friend. I love him because he eats all the bugs :) 

 



Alfenas

We had lunch with the branch president and his  wife that first day. Guess what we ate?  Yep, rice and beans! Good thing I like rice and beans! But to make things a little more exciting, we had chicken heart too! It wasn't bad. The texture was kind of weird, but the flavor was fine. So now I have eaten chicken heart on a stick roasted over a fire. Bam. The boys should be proud of me for that one. That is the only really crazy food I have had here so far though. The members feed us lunch everyday and then we just work all day. I usually have a little snack when we get back to our apartment at night, but we don't stop for dinner.

 

Those first couple days we spent most of our time meeting members and getting to know the area. After that we really got down to work though. I thought I knew Portuguese when I left the CTM, but it is all too clear here that I still have tons to learn. Anything outside the gospel is pretty hard for me to understand. But it gets a little better everyday. And hey, it's only my first week. So I am not too worried about it. I know it will come with time and practice. On our first day of real work here, I got kind of discouraged. We were knocking doors (well, clapping outside of gates... that still feels a little weird!) and no one was wanting to talk with us. It was raining, and we were exhausted! We then decided to say a prayer. We huddled under my umbrella on the corner of the street and offered a prayer. The very next house that we went to let us in for a lesson. And then the next three after that too! It was a miracle! I know that the Lord really does hear and answer our prayers. We cannot do this work, or make it through life without Him. I am so happy to be out here serving as a missionary! I love this work and I love this people!

Sister Emma Maxwell



Final week in CTM