So I have been transferred and I am SO happy! I am currently with my DREAM companion. I love her so much. Before the transfer we talked on the phone a bit because sister silva and her are friends and we kept joking about opening an area together in the interior. The morning of the transfers, " And sister Reibero will be opening Cocaia A with Sister Neptune!" Yessssss! So I am opening an area, again. And I am in the zone of Grajau, again. Yes, I have moved literally 2 miles away from my old area. I have passed in my old chapel about three times already since the transfer. I have seen everybody from my old ward and so its like nothing has really changed. Anyway, after we cheered and decided that we are in fact prophetic we headed to our new home.
And then died. Because our new home is the sickest thing you have ever layed eyes on. And I dont mean sick as in cool I mean sick as in "what have I gotten myself into!?" The house is actually relatively nice just very poorly taken care of. We spent to days cleaning it until 12 am. It was horrendous. There was an civilization of mosquitos living in the kitchen and bugs in the fridge and green potatoes. I almost died. But thank goodness Heavenly Father knows my tolerance level and I have yet to see one coackroach. No one had lived there for over a month. Its just.... just 11 more months until a clean house! ( I found out this week that Brasil isnt a 1st world country, it makes a lot more sense now) But dont worry, the house is much cleaner now there is still unsighlty mold all over the walls but we did what we could. We have a tankina! Which is like a wash machine but isnt a washing machine! Its all the rage here in Brasil. And our neighbor has a dryer! a dryer! I was so excited when he offered it to us I said to my companion "ill be just so happy when the clothes come out warm (because the days were cold) " and she said " sister (while laughing) the clothes wont come out warm theyll just come out more or less not so wet. TUDO BEM!
Our area is strange because we share one ward with another set of elders. So its one area for 4 missionaries and we have lunch together every day. Its strange. Its weird being around elders for so much of our day. It just isnt right! But they are great and so we all have fun together. The area is huge and has tons of favelas! I was walking in the biggest favela I have ever sen the other day and I was just in awe. Nut dont worry, it was the elders area. And we have a list of areas we arent allowed to go near after dark due to the drug trafficking. And when we do walk past the areas the elders are always there. What gentleman.
Our ward meets in a chacora. I dont know how to define it except it isnt a chapel. Its pretty and there is one building for the chapel and one for the classes. Its like a camp almost. And there are tons of banana, avocado and mango trees! I personally love it. The ward is so warm and we were able to view a baptism for our ward this saturday it was a baptism for the elders but we have managed to mark someone for the 10th of this month already! The ward of miracles. The feeling is really different hear. I love the members!
And my companion- shes probably a a tiny bit shorter than my Anna and just as cute! Shes from the interior of Brasila Goiania and shes as white as me with green eyes! Oh she is so pretty! She baptized 3 years ago and she has one year in the mission. Its really hard to sleep because we just want to talk until way late. Really I adore her. We have the attitude towards work and towards obedience and relationships with our investgators. Really, i couldnt be more happy. Shes one of those friends where you know you knew her before this life and we have found eachother again! She talks as fast as anything but boy do we laugh! I am learning so much from her and she has the greatest testimony. Shes really good at commiting people.
Other than that the week has been a bit slow. We are starting from square one. Just finding people and teaching and working hard! And luaghing a bit harder!
I love you all, I miss you all. The summer is coming soon and I am afraid. Keep me in your prayers!
Kensie!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
"Sister Silva... you are being transferred..."
The transfer calls came last night and I was so surprised when the secretaries wanted to talk with my companion. But dont worry because as soon as they told her she was being transferred they then asked to me too. And I have been transferred as well! Yes, thats right. I opened this area with sister fonseca just to close it with sister silva! And they arent replacing it with sisters, it will be an elder area! i am a bit sad that my JD Mirna is going to be elder teritory not to mention the awesome house we live in but I really hope/know its all for the best. i think its the boost this area needs, a complete new change!
I wont know until tomorrow where my new area is or who my new companion will be but its all up in the air. Every single sister companionship was mingled with. So I could go anywhere. i am excited though because I love all the sisters who will be recieving a sister. It's exciting! The ward members are bummed to lose us though.
As for my last week in Jd Mirna... it was boring. How can this be? im a missionary, life is never boring! Unless your companion gets a 102 degree fever and you are confined to the house for a week. Then to add insult to injury I had to go to the DMV of Brasilian health care with my companion. Its completly free but completly the DMV of healthcare- just think about it. Theres no such thing as free! Then the next day I got to go to the DMV of laws to get a paper signed for my companion by a notary of sorts. All in all its a relief I havent gotten sick;caught a strange disease from all the oublic, confined spaces.
I did learn how to be a great Brasilian house wife though. I cooked, i cleaned and practically read the entire book of mormon. Have I mentioned how to clean houses here? Its great when you dont have carpet because you sweep everything and then throw water on the ground afterward. swish swish swish! I washed all of my clothes by hand because our wash machine (ish) broke. then i put it in the sun to dry. I cooked manjioca and farrofa and rice and beans. All in all I am grateful to start over in a new area and return to missionary work!
I gave my 1st talk in Sacrament yesterday. I wrote it all in english 1st and then translated. I thought it would tae an eternity but it was actually really quick! I felt good about the talk. I talked about alma 37:6-7 and focusing on the small, simple and important things like family prayer, scripture study and church attendance. And oncewe fortify ourselves we can help with the missionary work. I hope it helped someone, I hope they understood when i spoke! WQe had an all time low of 40 people in the chapel and 0 investigators. I love this area, but a change will be nice.
Thats really all the general news i have for this week. I love you all and i am grateful for the support from everyone. thank you! The church is true. The book of mormon has power beyond imagination! I love you!
(and all the kids in this LAN house are trying to speak english and are using some choice curse words. im pretending like I cant hear them)
kensie! sister neptune
I wont know until tomorrow where my new area is or who my new companion will be but its all up in the air. Every single sister companionship was mingled with. So I could go anywhere. i am excited though because I love all the sisters who will be recieving a sister. It's exciting! The ward members are bummed to lose us though.
As for my last week in Jd Mirna... it was boring. How can this be? im a missionary, life is never boring! Unless your companion gets a 102 degree fever and you are confined to the house for a week. Then to add insult to injury I had to go to the DMV of Brasilian health care with my companion. Its completly free but completly the DMV of healthcare- just think about it. Theres no such thing as free! Then the next day I got to go to the DMV of laws to get a paper signed for my companion by a notary of sorts. All in all its a relief I havent gotten sick;caught a strange disease from all the oublic, confined spaces.
I did learn how to be a great Brasilian house wife though. I cooked, i cleaned and practically read the entire book of mormon. Have I mentioned how to clean houses here? Its great when you dont have carpet because you sweep everything and then throw water on the ground afterward. swish swish swish! I washed all of my clothes by hand because our wash machine (ish) broke. then i put it in the sun to dry. I cooked manjioca and farrofa and rice and beans. All in all I am grateful to start over in a new area and return to missionary work!
I gave my 1st talk in Sacrament yesterday. I wrote it all in english 1st and then translated. I thought it would tae an eternity but it was actually really quick! I felt good about the talk. I talked about alma 37:6-7 and focusing on the small, simple and important things like family prayer, scripture study and church attendance. And oncewe fortify ourselves we can help with the missionary work. I hope it helped someone, I hope they understood when i spoke! WQe had an all time low of 40 people in the chapel and 0 investigators. I love this area, but a change will be nice.
Thats really all the general news i have for this week. I love you all and i am grateful for the support from everyone. thank you! The church is true. The book of mormon has power beyond imagination! I love you!
(and all the kids in this LAN house are trying to speak english and are using some choice curse words. im pretending like I cant hear them)
kensie! sister neptune
Macumba!
I thought id add a nice picture of macumba (voodoo) with this weeks email. Its a lovely dead goat head, legs and tail. They leave offerings at the crosses in roads. Its black magic its evil and I wont delve much further into it because brasil is 100% the safest country ever! (but really, I just wont go to there "candy for all children for free" open houses)
We had a few hot days this week. Hot then the next day cold with the nasty misty rain. But all in all it hasnt been too bad yet. I am still prepping myself for the worst. Im like my grandma, i dont like being hot!
There isnt much news to report today but today is my 6 month mark! I cant believe Ive been on a mission for 6 months, I cant believe I am 1/3 of the way through. I cant believe I can speak portuguese! All in ll its a pretty amazing life im living right now. Never ever easy and I often find myself just wanting to be exploring folsom lake or studying but what a great opportunity I have been given!
We had a lot of fun with our ward this weeend and of course lots of fun includes lots of references from ward members to visit.
There is a transfer next week and I am kind of crossing my fingers to be transferred. 4 months is a bit of a while to be in once place. But I know whatever happens is for the best.
and im out of time. sorry! i hope the photos make up for my lack of letter! the church is true!
I love you
kensie
We had a few hot days this week. Hot then the next day cold with the nasty misty rain. But all in all it hasnt been too bad yet. I am still prepping myself for the worst. Im like my grandma, i dont like being hot!
There isnt much news to report today but today is my 6 month mark! I cant believe Ive been on a mission for 6 months, I cant believe I am 1/3 of the way through. I cant believe I can speak portuguese! All in ll its a pretty amazing life im living right now. Never ever easy and I often find myself just wanting to be exploring folsom lake or studying but what a great opportunity I have been given!
We had a lot of fun with our ward this weeend and of course lots of fun includes lots of references from ward members to visit.
There is a transfer next week and I am kind of crossing my fingers to be transferred. 4 months is a bit of a while to be in once place. But I know whatever happens is for the best.
and im out of time. sorry! i hope the photos make up for my lack of letter! the church is true!
I love you
kensie
Monday, August 15, 2011
1st bible bash
6 months into the mission and I just had my 1st bible bash! What is a bible bash? Its when youre teaching someone and they want to argue about how youre wrong with the bible, where in the bible does it say that? Prove it with the bible! and they are usually crazy and loud and argumenative (how do you spell that!?) But of coursewe just sit there politely. Its not lady like to argue about the bible!
We were teaching about the plan of salvation, about the spirit world and this womans husband stormed in and wanted to know the bible foundation for these ideas. We showed him 1 peter and he wouldnt have a word of it. He went on and on and on. And finally said " so whats youre message, whats your point?" I responded without missing a beat " Our message is that we have the only true church on the face f the earth!" that took him a back and he just looked at me and said " thats quite a claim" and I said, "and if it wasnt true itd be craazy" he shook his head and said " ill tell you one thing, you have a lot of faith" and I said thank you. It was awesome. Were going to bring ernesto to talk to him. He knows the bible like no other and acted like this with missionaries before he converted. Ill just make some popcorn, sit there and watch them "discuss"
The more I thought about the situation the more glad I was for a perfect, flawless gospel. Because it is. Because its not the gospel of man its the gospel of christ and well never be able to understand it through the logic of man because men are imperfect. I love the gospel, its so intelligent and deep and wonderful! But you have to learn it precept on precept.
Yesterday we set up a table of materials in a crowded location. We invited some members to help us talk with people and 12 people came, it was awesome! The street was full of members talking and stopping people. We have a lot of references to visit now. In the end everybody asked if we could do it again on saturday and of course we agreed. http://sistermackensieneptune.blogspot.com/
It was hot and gross but its a lot easier to talk to people in the street when you have the ward backing you up. And we had a couple RMs there who werent afraid to stop every single person.
Yesterday I was able to translate for a man from england in our ward. Its so nice to be needed. To be the only person who could help him communicate with others. Its nice to be needed, even with my minimal language skills.
In other language news, I was teaching jose and familia and jose stopped me to say 'filha, youre speaking so well! I remember when you got here I couldnt understand one thing you said" and then I spoke some more, messed up and he said ' oh and then you go and mess up!" Hes a brat. I bore my testimony again the ward and it was so much better than the 1st time, my 1st week there. How grand! I love communication. What a blessing.
I love you all, the gospel is true!
sister neptune
kensie
We were teaching about the plan of salvation, about the spirit world and this womans husband stormed in and wanted to know the bible foundation for these ideas. We showed him 1 peter and he wouldnt have a word of it. He went on and on and on. And finally said " so whats youre message, whats your point?" I responded without missing a beat " Our message is that we have the only true church on the face f the earth!" that took him a back and he just looked at me and said " thats quite a claim" and I said, "and if it wasnt true itd be craazy" he shook his head and said " ill tell you one thing, you have a lot of faith" and I said thank you. It was awesome. Were going to bring ernesto to talk to him. He knows the bible like no other and acted like this with missionaries before he converted. Ill just make some popcorn, sit there and watch them "discuss"
The more I thought about the situation the more glad I was for a perfect, flawless gospel. Because it is. Because its not the gospel of man its the gospel of christ and well never be able to understand it through the logic of man because men are imperfect. I love the gospel, its so intelligent and deep and wonderful! But you have to learn it precept on precept.
Yesterday we set up a table of materials in a crowded location. We invited some members to help us talk with people and 12 people came, it was awesome! The street was full of members talking and stopping people. We have a lot of references to visit now. In the end everybody asked if we could do it again on saturday and of course we agreed. http://sistermackensieneptune.blogspot.com/
It was hot and gross but its a lot easier to talk to people in the street when you have the ward backing you up. And we had a couple RMs there who werent afraid to stop every single person.
Yesterday I was able to translate for a man from england in our ward. Its so nice to be needed. To be the only person who could help him communicate with others. Its nice to be needed, even with my minimal language skills.
In other language news, I was teaching jose and familia and jose stopped me to say 'filha, youre speaking so well! I remember when you got here I couldnt understand one thing you said" and then I spoke some more, messed up and he said ' oh and then you go and mess up!" Hes a brat. I bore my testimony again the ward and it was so much better than the 1st time, my 1st week there. How grand! I love communication. What a blessing.
I love you all, the gospel is true!
sister neptune
kensie
Monday, August 8, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The Great Missionary Idea
And it worked! references and contacts galore! And well do another this saturday... oh and some pictures with Ernestos garden, naturally....
Monday, July 25, 2011
Hi HOW ARE YOU?
This is what Sister Silva says to all the children in the street. It's endlessly funny. "I don't to understand English!" which is great because I don't to understand Portuguese all the time. I thought it would be a lot harder than it is, having a companion that doesn't speak English, but its not at all. Its really fun. Sister Silva is just truly a kindred spirit for me. Its not hard to have a friendship or laugh until the wee hours of the night (aka 10:45). I will be disappointed if I only get one transfer with her. But I am starting to adore this area so chances are Heavenly Father will want to teach me a lesson.
Last night I had a Portuguese break down. It's just so frustrating. I miss being smart! I miss big words. You all know how I am. Last night I found out I was constructing sentences with prepositions incorrectly and I felt so dumb. Learning a new language is like a continual uphill climb and when you get to the top you realize theres a another, bigger hill. So I cried a little. Because of prepositions.
But that's ok because today is a new day, and a new week. 3rd week of my 3rd transfer and in exactly one year (minus one day) I will be back in the USA. Not that I'm counting.
This past week was great though. I mean we got cut by 2 15 year old boys whose parents are already members. And 5 of our 6 lessons on Saturday were burned. And our district leader and his companion went crazy and decided they would make 500 contacts in one week (plus all their normal lessons) and the mission goal is 140 and believe me 140 is nearly impossible as it is. But they bumped it up to 500, not for us but when your DL makes a goal like that you feel really obligated to reach all of yours.
Oh and we had interviews with our new pres. Hes really different than pres Jackson. Kinda nuts. I think he will change a lot. Because right now hes authorizing everything (pres can we go to santo maro to go shopping? Sure! bring sister pinho... ok pres!)
The work is still going great and please keep Jose's family in your prayers. They all want to get baptized but Jose wants to quit smoking before he gets married. he wont get married with a cigarette in his mouth. And they want to get married and baptized the same day. Miracles happen people. Keep up the prayers!
My 2 cents for the week. Pray more, read your scriptures and go to church.... oh and attitude! Remember that we have influence on everyone whether or not we recognize it. What has a negative attitude ever done to help anyone?
Love you! I'm happy I'm healthy and I'm not sunburned!
kense
Last night I had a Portuguese break down. It's just so frustrating. I miss being smart! I miss big words. You all know how I am. Last night I found out I was constructing sentences with prepositions incorrectly and I felt so dumb. Learning a new language is like a continual uphill climb and when you get to the top you realize theres a another, bigger hill. So I cried a little. Because of prepositions.
But that's ok because today is a new day, and a new week. 3rd week of my 3rd transfer and in exactly one year (minus one day) I will be back in the USA. Not that I'm counting.
This past week was great though. I mean we got cut by 2 15 year old boys whose parents are already members. And 5 of our 6 lessons on Saturday were burned. And our district leader and his companion went crazy and decided they would make 500 contacts in one week (plus all their normal lessons) and the mission goal is 140 and believe me 140 is nearly impossible as it is. But they bumped it up to 500, not for us but when your DL makes a goal like that you feel really obligated to reach all of yours.
Oh and we had interviews with our new pres. Hes really different than pres Jackson. Kinda nuts. I think he will change a lot. Because right now hes authorizing everything (pres can we go to santo maro to go shopping? Sure! bring sister pinho... ok pres!)
The work is still going great and please keep Jose's family in your prayers. They all want to get baptized but Jose wants to quit smoking before he gets married. he wont get married with a cigarette in his mouth. And they want to get married and baptized the same day. Miracles happen people. Keep up the prayers!
My 2 cents for the week. Pray more, read your scriptures and go to church.... oh and attitude! Remember that we have influence on everyone whether or not we recognize it. What has a negative attitude ever done to help anyone?
Love you! I'm happy I'm healthy and I'm not sunburned!
kense
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