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