Being sick is no fun

         This week I heard your voice of advice through the scriptures. Seriously, it was as if you were there in the room talking to me! I will explain more a little bit later. So before I relate the events of this week, I need to start off by saying that I am now healthy, happy, and you have absolutely nothing to worry about. With that said, we can start in on the week!

          Last Sunday evening I started to have a horrible headache. The kind where it feels like a knife s stabbing your head. I didn't want to have to walk all the way back to our house just to get some medicine though, so we just kept working. Monday morning I felt a bit better, just sore and still with a bit of a headache. It was p-day though so I was able to take it relatively easy. The next day the Sister Training Leaders came out to Alfenas for splits with me and Sister Malta. I had a very full day planned for us! It ended up being a very successful split. We taught tons of lessons, set several baptismal dates, made a lot of good contacts- and I didn't even get us lost! I think I was so busy making sure that everything went well during the day that I didn't have time to think about myself. By the time 9:30 rolled around and we finished planning for the next day though, I wasn't feeling too great. I just hurt everywhere, my eyes were burning and my head ached like crazy. I took my temperature and had a fever too. I didn't want to slow down our work or the next day though or inconvenience anyone, so I just went to bed hoping I'd feel better in the morning. The next day though things were even worse. I took some pain reliever and fever reducer and got to work though. The meds didn't help much though. I made it through morning exercise, getting ready for the day, breakfast and started in on personal study. I was reading in Jacó 6. Even though it was in portguês, when I read verse 12 it was as though you were right there talking to me. In português it starts, "Oh! Sede sábios!  Que mais poderei dizer?"  I'll let you look that up in English :) (I looked it up for you! Jacob 6:12 "Oh, be wise.  What more can I say?") I then remembered you telling me to take care of myself and not just push through pain and sickness. I had an internal struggle over the matter briefly- I really wanted to visit our investigators we had planned out for that day. They really needed us! Yet the Mom voice won out. I told Sister Malta what was going on and Sister Bicaleti happened to be walking by. She asked a bit more about my symptoms and then told me that I probably had Dengue... (she took a medical course pre-mission). So we called up a member in the ward and they took us to the hospital. After several hours there, they diagnosed me with suspect Dengue and told me to just take some pain meds and come back if things got worse. So we did that and then went home. The next day we tried to continue on as normal. After our first lesson though I wasn't doing too great. So we went back to the hospital. This time we got them to run a blood test and sure enough, I had Dengue. There isn't really a cure for dengue. They gave me an iv again and a liter of a saline solution (I think... something to keep me hydrated and flush my system. I finally go to go home at about 1am... After that I was on orders from President and the doctor to rest up, drink a crazy lot of water and stay home for a few days. They gave me some better pain killers and fever reducers. The first day the pain killers were doing nothing. It was miserable, I just hurt everywhere. Then I was able to get a blessing from some Elders though. Within the hour I started to feel better. By Sunday I felt fine again and was sick of being stuck in the house. Today I will finally be able to return back to normal missionary life and teach my investigators again! Like I said when I started off, I am back to normal health wise. I feel great and am good to go. Don't worry, I will definitely be careful still and take it easy if needs be, but I am so happy to be getting back to work! 

         So things that I learned this week: 1)People in a hospital waiting room are pretty open to a gospel message, (2) if you are sitting next to a bunch of people who also have IVs in their arm, you should share the gospel. They can't go anywhere (3) Nurses are more likely to help you if you say thank you often and give them a pass along card (4) Juice is heaven (5) My medical vocabulary could use some work (6) Not being able to visit my investigators is torture (7) a companion isn't quite as good as having a mom (8) Priesthood blessings have amazing power

        Needless to say, after this week I will be using my bug repellent religiously (and not just because I am a missionary)! I don't have much else to write about this week... weird, it's like I didn't get to do anything! Haha! 

 

Sister Maxwell

Nice apartment.. don't mind the weeds or barbed wire

American Food!!!!

Another week- More Miracles

           This week was a rough week for Sister Malta. She hit her one year mark a little bit ago and was feeling very homesick this week. Then two families we were teaching cut us and that did not help with her optimism! So I had to definitely step up this week and be more of the senior companion. It was weird to be the one encouraging her when I am the one with way less experience with the work and language. One morning during companion study she broke down crying. After some hugs and hot chocolate I was able to get her calmed down though (chocolate works wonders!). I then shared the story of the sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon with her. We always remember them as these amazing, super successful missionaries. And while this is true, they also had a whole lot of trials too! I shared some scriptures about all of their difficulties with her and told her that when things are hard here we are in good company! We are among the greatest missionaries of all time! I promised her that if we had faith and worked hard that day the Lord would bless us with miracles. I also decided to fast for her too. That evening, sure enough, the Lord came through! We met a man while we were out knocking doors and had an amazing lesson with him. He was there alone so it was just standing on the street by his gate. Yet it was one of the coolest lessons I have had yet. I would ask him a question and then he would go off and explain his thoughts on the topic- which were always exactly what I was going to teach! At the end of our lesson he explained that he had seen our chapel several times and thought to himself, someday, God is going to send someone to invite you to visit this church. I got to be that person! This was on Friday night. Saturday evening he came to a baptism for the other sisters here and Sunday he came to church. We  have another lesson marked with him for Tuesday night with his whole family! I am so excited for him! The coolest part was to see everything come together- my promise and prayer for Sister Malta, his prayer about visiting the church... Nossa (WOW), God is real! 

         Remember that family I wrote about last week? Elsa and her kids? Well, her brother is in the hospital in a coma because of excessive drinking. He has been there for quite awhile, always with a fever  and not doing so well. She visits everyday to clean him up and stay with him. Saturday night when we met with her for a lesson, we had a couple in our branch come along. We talked a bit about the priesthood during the lesson and then she asked this brother to say the closing prayer. In the prayer, he asked a blessing upon her brother. The next morning she went to the hospital before church. When she arrived the nurses told him that his fever had finally broken! He was doing better all around. She asked more and found out that his fever broke around 8:30 the night before- exactly the time we were ending the lesson! She definitely has a testimony of the power of prayer now! It was definitely a miracle. The only problem is that she and her husband were only married in the state or something like that- so it isn't valid for baptism. So we have to figure out how to get that resolved with them and paid for before they can be baptized. Time and money :( We are going to try and mark baptismal dates with two of her kids who are old enough this week though. 

          Things are in motion for mixing things up in the branch here. We finally convinced the branch president to call an instructor for our Sunday school class! We really don't have the time to prep a lesson each week. We do fine, but with an instructor it is much better. So we had an amazing week with this recently returned missionary teaching for us. Then the next week the President called her to be a counselor in YWs... haha, so we are back to square one there! We are starting up some English classes this week. I am a bit nervous about that... I don't really know how to teach English, but hey, things will work out- they always do! We also have an activity planned for next week that I am really excited about! A night of desserts! So basically we are having a dessert show-down in the branch. Each family has to bring a dessert and then we judge them and the best dessert gets a prize and the title. I have high hopes for the activity. It is perfect for inviting our pesquisadores (investigators) and doesn't take too much time or prep on our part. We also want to do a big plan of salvation activity- where everyone starts on a plane, dies, and then goes to different rooms and learns about the spirit world and degrees of glory and such. It is  going to take a lot more planning and prep though. So we are in the process of working with the branch president to get members here to take over running everything. If it all works out how I see it in my head, it will be awesome! You could try some activities like that there too. We call them nights of integration. Simple (well, usually...) activities that members can invite friends to and we cam bring pesquisadores (investigators) to. Everyone gets to know each other and gets a look at the chapel. 

          And some of your questions : I wear my hair up everyday except for p-day. So it stays looking pretty good. Buns are like the best thing ever! We go out rain or shine. Though this week it was near constant rain. So my umbrella and rain jacket are getting good use! If it isn't too windy we can stay pretty dry, so we aren't too gross and soggy when we teach. I always look forward to lessons with our good investigators. I also love visiting the members in our branch and getting to know them better. Those are definitely highlights. I also love Mondays at about 12:00... that is a magical time!

 

I love you all!

Sister Emma Maxwell

Hard work calls for a selfie

Little children and language mistakes make for a fun week

As a missionary, I usually walk pretty fast. I can get places faster, teach more lessons and waste less time in transit. But on Monday morning I always walk the fastest because I am heading to the LAN house to write to you! I always love your letters and all the news about home. You can tell Ian that no letter is ever too long ;) 

 

Today is the last day of my first transfer out in the field! That went by super duper fast I will be staying here in Alfenas with Sister Malta for the next six weeks! I am happy to be here still. I am just starting to get comfortable with the whole português thing and starting to really know the ward. I have grand plans for this next transfer to get the Branch involved in missionary work... Haha, maybe I should have been transferred ;) They are about to find out what it means to have a Maxwell in their midst! I feel like most of my first transfer was spent learning how everything works and trying to figure out what was going on because I couldn't understand português. I don't feel like I made much of a difference here yet. So I am glad that I have another six weeks to really crack down and put what I have learned into practice. Hopefully during this next transfer we will start to see the results of all of our hard work. I did have a cool experience this week that was the reassurance that I needed. We found this little family knocking doors  one evening- the father was at work and so it was a Mom and four  little kids all under 11. I connected with all the kids instantly. Within a few minutes we were making faces at each other and they were basically my best friends. (I have missed little kids!) Then as we started to teach, I was able to really connect with the mom, Elsa as well. For the first time here on the mission, an investigator was turning to me, not Sister Malta, with questions and concerns during the lesson. I felt like Elsa really needed me at that moment. Me. Not any other missionary. It was so cool to be able to share experiences about my family with her and testify of how the gospel would bless her family as well. It was just the reassurance that I needed that I am where I am supposed to be doing what the Lord wants me to be doing. 

Oh, I made a very bad, but very funny language mistake while teaching the Word of Wisdom this week. We were working with an investigator to overcome an addiction to smoking and coffee. Her in Brasil they have something called cervada that is really similar to coffee. I am not sure exactly what it is, but it tastes and looks nearly exactly the same as coffee, but it's not coffee... So it is perfect to help people stop drinking coffee. They just switch over to cervada instead. Same taste, but without the health drawbacks of coffee. Anyways, I was explaining cervada to our investigator,  and encouraging him to switch over. We brought a bit for him to try. As I was teaching though, I mixed up the word cervada and the word cerveja... For those English speakers out there, Cerveja is the português word for beer. So here I was, as a missionary, encouraging this man to stop drinking coffee ad start having beer every morning instead. Haha, thankfully my companion is native and corrected my mistake before too much damage was done. We had a pretty good laugh about that after our lesson. It was pretty hilarious. I will be sure not to mix that up in the future. 

I also saw Sister Morely this week! In the restoration movie! Haha, it is so weird to watch that with investigators and see people from our stake. It honestly makes me a little homesick to watch the restoration film- it is home! Haha, I think that is the only downside from living so close to the church history sites. 

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Sister Emma Maxwell

Walking a lot in the same shoes leads to some nice tan lines

"Crappy" endings bring New Year blessing

         One picture is of the family that we had jantar (dinner) with for New Year's eve. They are super duper nice. They are so supportive of us missionaries in everything! Giving our investigators rides, coming to lessons... I appreciate them so much. New Year's eve was pretty big with parties and fireworks here too. Though since we still went to bed at 10:30 and had to be up at 6:30 the fireworks weren't all that welcome... Haha, I thought about staying up, but I wanted to sleep more. Sleep is so precious here in the mission field! 

         So here in Brazil (well, at least in Alfenas) there are tons of stray dogs. TONS. They are everywhere all the time. Big dogs, little dogs, cute dogs, scary dogs... you name it, they have it. I have already picked out a good dozen for Christian and Abby. They can come pick them up at their earliest convenience ;) The dogs are always eating out of the trash and cleaning up food that people leave on the streets. But the thing with dogs is that they also leave behind little gifts. Everywhere. You have to be very careful where you walk. It is like a battle field of landmines here! I am pretty pro now at looking around, smiling, talking to people, and avoiding all of these little (or in some cases not so little) landmines. Yet, with the end of 2015 my luck ran out. We were walking up this really steep hill to get to the house of one of our pesquisadores (investigators). It had just rained and so everything was wet. I had the great misfortune of placing my foot on a patch of sidewalk with some mossy growth that made it extra slick. Thus, I slipped, fell and planted my foot directly in a giant pile of fresh dog poop. It was seriously movie perfect. Or imperfect. I wish someone had caught it on film because I think it would be hilarious to watch now. It definitely wasn't so funny in the moment though. On the bright side, I am very grateful for good, waterproof shoes. And judging by what I cleaned of my shoe, my day wasn't nearly as crappy as the dog that left that wonderful gift for me. 

         2015 may have ended on a crappy note, but 2016 has taken off with a series of miracles. On the 1st, Sister Malta and I decided to open up a new area because none of our investigators wanted to meet with us on the holiday. So we went into a completely new area of the city to meet new people and hopefully find new investigators! The difficulty with that is getting where we need to be. We only have one big map that hangs on the wall in our house and we don't have gps or cellphones with that capability... So we ask for directions A LOT. I try to avoid asking drunk men on the side of the road for directions though. Just a matter of personal safety. And they don't give very good directions anyways. Yet as we were walking down the street, I felt like I should stop and ask this man for directions. I knew we were on the right street and headed in the right direction for the time being, so I didn't really need directions at the moment. Yet for some reason I decided to stop and talk with him. Sis Malta was obviously frustrated with my decision. We didn't need directions and it was clear he was in no state to listen to our message. But I stopped anyways. As we talked with this man, a huge limb on a tree just a little ways down the road spontaneously cracked and came crashing down. I am not talking a little branch here, no a giant limb. Nearly a tree  itself. If we had not stopped, I am positive that we would have been directly in the path of that limb. We would have been seriously injured. I know now that it was the spirit prompting me to talk with that man. I am so grateful for the protection of the Lord here as I go about His work. You don't need to worry about me at all, Mom. God's got me covered!

          I also experienced another miracle this Sunday. As it was the first Sunday of the month, we were fasting. I was fasting especially that our pesquisadores (investigators) would come to church and feel the spirit there. We had worked really hard all week long and had some great lessons. We had ten people committed to coming to church that week. We had everything arranged with people in the ward picking up older investigators (that's quite the feat when only about five members have cars!) and we had arranged to walk out and accompany the others to church in the morning too. So with that and our fast I was sure that everything would be perfect! Yet by 9:00 Sunday morning, everything fell through. Everything. Our investigators called and cancelled, the families that we walked out to either didn't come to the door, had already left for somewhere else, or just suddenly had other plans. I am embarrassed to admit that I was really frustrated. I had given up food and drink for the past 24 hours (quite the feat when you are hiking around in the hot, humid mountains all day lugging around a bunch of heavy books) and done all in my power, and yet I wasn't seeing any blessings. I felt like my fast was for nothing. So we went through church with no investigators and then went to a member's home for Almoço(lunch), ended our fast and then got back to work. But I should have known better than to doubt the Lord. He never lets us make a sacrifice without receiving more than adequate compensation. The second home that we went to after Almoço(lunch) let us in for a lesson. And let me tell you, they were prepared by the Lord. They are so ready. They ate up everything that we said and excitedly committed to baptism. They are absolutely amazing. The husband is a big smoker. We set a goal with him to diminish five of his 40 cigarettes each day by our next visit. He instead decided to cut it down to half! I am so excited to see this family progress. Their immense faith is amazing. I learned quite the lesson about faith here too. As it says in Ether 12:6, it isn't until after the trial of your faith- or after your fast and sacrifice- that you receive a witness- or a golden family. 

Love you!

 

Sister Emma Maxwell

The place I currently call home