Back at it Again

           This week I was finally able to get back to work with Sister Malta- Thank goodness! By Wednesday she was up to par and ready to go. In the days before that though I still managed to get some good work done. But goodness gracious- it is a lot of work to plan out splits with sisters from the branch for the entire day and also find sisters to take care of sister Malta while I was out working... I am grateful to have a healthy companion again! It is also much easier to teach when you have a companion that knows what is going on and won't go off on crazy tangents about deep obscure doctrine. Haha, that made for a few interesting lessons. It was a really good confidence booster for me though. 10 days basically without a companion forced me to step up and do everything on my own. It was a bit stressful, but helped me realize that I actually can do a lot more than I thought. I am a bit more confident in my português and other missionary skills now. I also realize that I still have a ton to learn though! Good thin I still have plenty of time here in Brasil.

           We have had some new company in our house here in Alfenas this week. Sister Bicaleti was transferred and we now have Sister Sandrine from Recife. She is pretty cool. Haha, I swear she talks non stop though. Seriously. Other than when she is sleeping I don't think 5 minutes have passed when she hasn't said something (haha, sister Malta and I tried timing it one night). I am glad to have her here though! Our other newcomers I am not too excited about... A family of cockroaches moved in. They mostly just come out into the bathrooms in the evenings, so it isn't too bad, but still not my favorite thing in the world. I am super grateful for Sister O'Reilly. She is the only one brave enough to kill them! Maybe by the time I am heading home I will have reached that level. Right now I can only manage killing ants. 

          I also discovered that my voice changes when I speak português now! It is a higher pitch. It is really weird to switch between português and English. It's like my voice switches to a different place. So English feels a little weird in my mouth, all jumbly. On p-day after writing to you guys in English it isn't a problem, but during the week when I am only speaking and thinking português it is a bit rough at first. You may need to start learning português so that we can still communicate on mother's day!

          I had a really cool experience this Sunday. Someone that I contacted on the street actually came to church! This alone isn't unusual, but we hadn't visited or taught anything yet. He just decided to come on his own. He is only 14 years old. He lives nearly an hours walk from the chapel. He doesn't know any members or anything about the church. Yet all on his own he got up early Sunday morning, made the hour long trek to the chapel and stayed for all three hours of church! Holy moly- why can't all of our pesquisadores (investigators) be like him?! We try everything possible to help people get to church, often with little or no effect. And then along comes Marcos. Haha, it was really cool. He had a good experience there, seems to have made lots of friends already and wants to come back. We went to visit him Sunday night and he readily accepted a baptismal date. We also met another boy with 14 years and he is super interested too. He accepted the same date. i hope all goes well n the next two weeks and they can be baptized together! How cool would that be?! 

Love you all!

Sister Maxwell

Talk about this weather!

         First off - the hail storm. Holy moly that was one heck of a storm! It was actually a miracle (yes, another miracle!) that we weren't caught out in it. So this week both Sister O'Reilly and Sister Malta came down with Dengue. So Sister Bicaleti and I did a lot of work together while our sick companions were at home. On Sunday, we finished up a lesson and were heading to the town square to do some contacting and it started to rain a bit. I realized I had forgotten my umbrella (that never happens). It wasn't raining to hard though, so we were just going to keep going. But then we felt like we should head back to the house to check on our companions. Minutes after we reached our house the storm hit full force. Hail, super strong wind, lightning... the whole shibang. The house was shaking and we ran around to close up all the metal shutters on the windows to keep them from breaking. Our doors don't really seal though so we had hail and rain flying in the house through the space under the doors. It was crazy! We lost power for a bit and then our laundry room area started to flood (yes, the two pictures are of our laundry area. The one with the clothes lines is open to the sky and the other has a bit of an over hang roof but is basically outside too). Thankfully it is slightly lower than the level of our kitchen. It was within centimeters of flooding our house though! Post storm, trees were down everywhere, power was out almost everywhere and there was a pretty good amount of damage. We were so blessed to make it home in time! Between our house and center there are mainly just shops which are all closed on Sunday, so we would have been caught outside in the full force of the storm. Heavenly Father definitely protects his missionaries!

           Like I mentioned earlier, Sister Malta and Sister O'Reilly caught Dengue this week. Both have it a bit worse than I did. And Sister Malt has it really bad. I don't know if I just have a higher pain tolerance or better immune system, but she is way out of it. We spent a whole lot of time in the hospital and at home this week. Last night I had the joy of sleeping (sort of...) in a hospital chair. And not the reclining kind. Just a  normal chair. That was pretty great. I am still feeling better than her though, so no complaints. She is on the path to getting better now though. I think she is still going to be pretty out of it though. It is killing me to not be able to work though. Even when I am on splits with Sister Bicaleti half of our time is spent in her area, so my area is suffering a bit. I couldn't do much teaching this week. So hardly any of my pesquisadores showed up for church on Sunday and all of my baptismal dates for this upcoming week fell through. I am not too happy about that. But we did have a baptism this week! Laudo was baptized Sunday morning before church. He is absolutely amazing! He is already such a strong member. I have no doubt that he will stay active and contribute to the ward. He is really one of the Lord's elect. Now I just need to get to work on his family! As for Diego, the friend of Tales who was baptized last week, I wasn't able to visit him at all this week and he wouldn't answer my phone calls. Tales really needs a friend in the church though. he is kind of alone right now. He knows it is true, but I worry that alone he won't have the courage or motivation to stay strong. So Diego and Laudo's Family are my challenge and goal for this transfer. Oh, I will be staying here in Alfenas for another six weeks with Sister Malta :) I would love to have your prayers in his behalf! Every little bit helps. And Mom, your comment about tearing up reading about the miracle for Tales' baptism is kind of funny. I told Sister Malta that if they couldn't figure out the water problem we would just cry... And fill up the font with our tears! Thankfully, the Lord came in and didn't let us cry that much.

 

          The "Sisters de Alfenas" sign was the result of me being stuck in the house with a sick companion. I laid into our Liahonas and started to decorate the house! So no, the pictures aren't of us... just pictures from he Liahona. We are going to make it into a commemorative wall that all the sisters who live in that house will add to though. Years from now it is going to be even cooler. Oh, and the picture from last week wasn't a baptismal program, it was a little booklet I made with testimonies from everyone at the baptism to give to Tales. We don't have programs for sacrament meeting here, let alone baptisms... haha. For the minha família(My family) booklet I just want the individuals like you said. And maybe a couple of our whole family that I can paste on the cover. Thanks!

I love you all!

Sister Emma Maxwell

 

(Pictures of the Hail Storm will be in next weeks letter)

Pictures from last weeks baptism

The Baptisimal Miracle

          I have just been dying to write you this week! So much to say and (as always) so little time to write! I will start off with some info about the pictures. All of the cooking and baking with corn was last p-day during carnival. It was just a couple ladies in the ward getting together, not an official activity or anything. It was really fun though! We made Cural (the corn pudding stuff) e Pamonha (tamales). Both are super duper delicious. Holy moly, I could eat that stuff all day! It was super fun to go through the whole process with them- starting from scratch. And yes- that was an actually fire there in the kitchen- pretty awesome, right? Haha, I don-t think I have ever shucked that much corn in my life though. It was awesome. (PICTURES ARE IN LAST WEEKS LETTER!) The cookies were the next p-day (one week ago). We held a family night with a member, a recent convert and a pesquisador-  all older single ladies. So I taught them how to make cookies with an analogy about o evangelho de Jesus Cristo (the gospel of Jesus Christ). I think it was a pretty good lesson and a super fun evening. The cookies turned out pretty good too. I thought they were a bit off, but no one else knew the difference and loved them. I found something pretty similar to brown sugar- it wasn't quite the same but worked alright. And yes- I splurged and bought chocolate chips! 

 

          So this week was absolutely amazing! First off, as this is week 11 here in the field, I am now Senior companion to finish up training. It is going pretty well. I like having a bit more control over and a say in things :) We ran out of cellphone credit last week though and don't get more until tomorrow so that added a bit of a challenge to the week. Haha, first week as Senior and I can't call anyone! But everything worked out just fine- phew! Transfers are next week. Yes, we have transfers every six weeks here. But one transfer every year is only 5 weeks long. I don't remember exactly when that is though... so sorry Mom, but you can't quite plan out the next 15 months yet! 

Apparently I started talking in my sleep a couple nights this week too. At least so Sister Malta tells me. She was even able to have a bit of a conversation with me. You know what that means?? I was talking in Português! So it is now official- I am dreaming in português! I am pretty sure I have been for awhile now, but now it is official.

           And the highlight of the week- Tales was baptized!!! Holy Moly, what an amazing experience! So the night before the baptism, we were at the church to set things up (the baptism was at 10 am because of his work schedule) only to find that the chapel didn't have any water. Turns out a couple pipes spontaneously broke and so all of the water storage was gone. You kind of need water for a baptism... So we started looking into other options. We were going to have to have water shipped in or find someone with a pool willing to let us use it. By 10 am the next morning. Haha, great. It was nearly 9 at this point and so Sister Malta and I had to head home. One of the members there with us said he would figure it out and sent us home and told us not to worry. Right... not worry. Haha, I don't think I got any sleep that night. After everything we went through to get to the point of baptism, it now wasn't going to happen because we didn't have any water! So rather than peacefully dream of bright white jumpsuits and saving ordinances, I tossed and turned and prayed like crazy. The next morning we rushed over to the chapel (remember that we don't have any phone credit here to make things even more exciting). We ran into the primary room and opened up the baptismal doors- to find a font filled with water. How?! We found the brother who was there the night before and asked him what happened. Who paid to have water shipped in? He simply replied that he turned on the faucet in the font and said a prayer. And the water flowed and the font filled with exactly enough water. Exactly enough. A miracle. The chapel did not have any water- none of the faucets ran, none of the toilets worked, yet the font filled with water. I am still in awe just thinking about it. Goodness, everything about this baptism was miraculous. I know that there was nothing I did or could have done to prepare Tales to be baptized or fill that font with water. Yes, I taught Tales and I prayed, but it was really the Lord who made everything possible. I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be a tool in the Lord's hands to bring about the Salvation of His children here in Alfenas! I am going to keep working hard, praying and hopefully you should be getting some more pictures this week :)

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful, wonderful week my dear family! I will be sending lots of warm thought your way!

Love, 

Sister Emma Maxwell

Crazy Work, Good Memories

          This week was absolutely crazy! We have so many investigators now in so many areas that we are running around all day trying to visit them all, teach what they need, and keep them all on track. Haha, it is quite the change from when I first came here to Alfenas and we spent nearly all of our time clapping outside gates and hoping people would let us in. This week I should have my first baptism! I am super duper excited, and a bit nervous. It will be for a young man named Tales. He is 17 years old and absolutely amazing. Yes we are teaching him, but it is blatantly obvious to me that it is the Lord doing all the work here! He has been working with Tales for a long time, now He is just working through us. Now the part that I am nervous about is that this baptism was supposed to be for Tales and his best friend Diego. Think Noah and Jonathan here. The live just across the street from each other. Both were progressing really well. Last week we met with their parents, taught the first discussion again and got permission for them to be baptized. All of that went really well and Sister Malt and I were on cloud nine. It was actually pretty funny. Before we went into the lesson with Diego and his mom we said a prayer and then I said that if she agreed to let Diego be baptized we would need to celebrate afterwards. So then we go in, teach the lesson, she agrees and signs the baptismal form and then she offers us some chocolate cake. Haha, I guess Heavenly Father heard that part about celebrating even if it was after the 'amen" of the prayer! It was pretty funny. We just looked at each other, responded affirmatively, and then tried to hold in the laughter. The next time we went to meet Diego though he told us that he didn't want to be baptized anymore. He said he and hi mom talked and he decided he wasn't ready. Wait... what (I can't find the question mark on this keyboard and I don't want to waste anymore time...) So then we had one of the most spiritually intense lesson of my mission up to this point. As we talked about his concerns and testified I could feel the spirit so strongly there. It was really cool to have all of the scriptures and ideas come to mind- perfect for Diego. In spite of all that though, he chose to not come to church on Sunday. My heart is just aching for him! I know that he knows this is true. I am nervous that his choices will affect Tales and he will back out too. I am praying so hard that it will be the other way around. That Tales will stay strong and be an example for Diego. 

One of our other investigators, Laudo, is super amazing. His wife and kids don't come to church at all, but he comes every week and is always willing to meet with us. We taught him about the temple this week and showed him a picture of the temple in Campinas. He then told us that without a doubt he was going to go to our "chapel in Campinas". It is awesome to see him so excited. Then on Sunday he was asking us how long he had to come to church before he could go to the temple and what he had to do to go inside and not just stay in the garden. He also told me that first he is thankful for God in his life. Second, he is grateful for me and Sister Malta for bringing him the gospel! He said he has learned more with us in this short time than he learned in the past 16 years in his other church. It is comments like that that make all the work worth it! I love being a missionary!

I recently started taking advantage of Family Home Evenings with members to teach my investigators. Holy moly it is one of the best things ever. It is the best way I have found so far to integrate pesquisadores with the member and teach them in a fun, less intimidating environment. It is perfect! Plus I can come up with and use fun object lessons and activities to teach for family home evenings that I can't use in normal lessons! I think you guys should try it out. Invite over some other families for family home evening! Whether you invite the missionaries too or not, it is a great opportunity to share the gospel in a completely non confrontational way. 

This weekend Carnival starts up here. Luckily it isn't too big here in Alfenas. Missionaries in Juiz de Fora have to be in their apartment by 6 every night. Here we just have to avoid the main square and surrounding streets in the evenings. That is a bit of a pain when we need to get from one side of town to our house on the other side of town, but we walk so much already it isn't much of a big deal to walk a bit more! All of the wards here have a huge campout for the youth during carnival. Like a regional youth conference over this weekend. They have their own sacrament meeting and everything. All of the youth love it and they stay far away from carnival and all of that craziness. Cool idea, isn't it!

I love you so much! Have a wonderful week!


PS (Note from Allegra, Emma's sister): I don't know how the photos relate but she sends them so I share them!

Everything corn...

Sisters of the district!

Dengue is frustrating!!!

           I had debated writing to you about Dengue or not because I didn't want you to worry too much. I finally decided to write about it because I was feeling better and I honestly didn't have anything else during the week that I could write about! I am still feeling good. Yes, I was a bit more tired than usual this week and still have a little bit of pain, but nothing worth worrying about. Not enough to slow me down in the work! Actually, we had more lessons and contacts this week than ever before. I guess I had a lot of catching up to do after my week down. I am happy, healthy and hard at work. So as much as I would love to see you all, don't be expecting a phone call about me coming home! I still have a lot to do here in Brazil before I am ready to come home. 

          Dengue has actually become a bit of a problem here in Alfenas these past couple of weeks. A lot of our investigators came down with Dengue. That has been really frustrating. They aren't exactly in good condition to hear and understand our lessons when they are sick! The good news is that I can empathize with them and understand what they are going through. So even if we aren't exactly able to teach the lessons from Preach My Gospel, I can share scriptures and experiences to help comfort and strengthen them. It has been a good week for building confidence, trust and friendship. The sad part is that because of Dengue my investigators with baptismal dates for this week did not make it to church. So we had to push back their dates for next week. We have so many investigators so close to baptism right now! I am so anxious to help them make it to the point of baptism and that wonderful covenant! Yet Satan is also very anxious. Goodness, he works so hard to stop us and our pesquisadores(investigators) from progressing. It is crazy how many things he throws in the way. From weddings to mudslides to dengue... I've seen it all. Seeing all the opposition to the work builds my testimony though. He wouldn't work so hard against us if the church wasn't true! So I just have to work harder than him and keep my investigators on track- challenge accepted!

          So this week we met a woman on the street who was very interested in our message. We went to visit and teach her later during the week. As we got to know her she kept repeatedly expressing how she was a "Christian". Over and over again. That was a little odd in and of itself (seeing as just about everyone here in Brasil believes in Christ). As we started to teach though, things just got weirder. Before long she was telling me that she really felt a connection to me. She decided that in a life before this one she was my mother. And I was black. Haha, okay... that escalated quickly. So in spite of her proclaimed "Christianity" she had a strong belief in reincarnation, and didn't trust much of anything in the bible. I can honestly say that I haven't been adequately grateful for the general knowledge and belief in Christ here before this experience. It is so much harder to teach someone without this foundation! Haha, who would have thought I would need to explain the difference between reincarnation and resurrection here in Brazil! Overall though, I think our lesson went really well. We will be going back to visit her again. She has a lot of potential and I am excited to teach her more. And don't worry Mom, I explained that the role of my mother is already taken ;)

 

          I get comments?! I didn't think my letters were comment-worthy, but that is cool. If someone says something important I guess you can pass it along. Haha, i don't know. It's up to you. Is it people I know or strangers?
          Thanks for another wonderful letter of updates and advice! I love reading your letters so much! I can almost hear your voice when I read them. Thank you for the prayers and all that you do for us. I am praying for you and the fam too. Haha, my companion teases me because I pray so long every night. I just tell her that I have a lot of people I need to pray for. Haha, she only has one sister. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week filled with much joy and happiness! Make someone else laugh this week for me, okay?

Love ya!

Emma

Making suco de maracuja.... a drink of some sort