Feelin' Brazilian

Oi gente! This week was a HOT one...and it's still spring. Sister Loisotto is dying in this heat because Buenos Aires is never this hot. But we're staying hydrated, etc. so no worries.

I was blessed with a nice big package from Dad this week full of American goodies and I couldn't be happier! I even shared some Reece's (who am I?) and the Brazilians loved it.

On a sadder note, an Elder in my zone got his foot run over by a bus this week. Not a joke. Needless to say he broke his foot and got sent home. Please pray for Elder Dew from Ohio that he will have a quick recovery and be able to return to the mission field, wherever that may be...soon. We're thinking he probably won't return to Brazil because of visa issues.

On a good note, I finally am feeling Brazilian! I've noticed how cultural things that were weird to me when I got here are just second nature now and I love it. Mostly in regard to food...obviously. Like mashed potatoes on hot dogs...always and I have to eat rice and beans every day. If not, it's a bad day. I'm loving this country minus the insanely strong sun right now. I'm getting so dark despite the fact that I'm using lots of sunblock! eh...normal for me. The one thing I have not become accustomed to is corn popsicles...eckk..so gross. Tried that and never again will I eat it.

As for last week, I didn't really celebrate Thanksgiving, but my companion made me tortas fritas which were great. It's basically fried dough with sugar and jam or you can eat it plain and they're a little salty. They were yummy. I didn't do anything big for the 1/2 birthday this year. Nothing tops last year with a homemade dinner from the besties.

We, as a zone, discovered that I have the most time here in Santo André than anyone else..it's like an accomplishment; out of 16 people I've been here the longest. I do love it here buuuttt...transfers are the 31st if you catch my drift. New year, new area I'm thinking. But I will definitely miss Utinga. Not a doubt in my mind.

This week I was working on recognizing answers to my prayers and something really cool happened. At first I literally couldn't remember the last time I felt that God had truly answered a prayer of mine but it wasn't because he wasn't trying, it was because I wasn't listening. So I prayed to be more aware of answers to my prayers and this is what happened...this requires a little bit of background. In the states when I was serving in Nauvoo I started having some weird health issues, things that had never happened to me before so I asked for a blessing from someone in the ward there. In this blessing he said that everything will be fine and that when I get to Brazil the people will love me like family. At the time it didn't mean much because I didn't know anyone in Brazil so it seemed like an empty promise. But this week we had lunch with Irmã Claudia...Fabio's wife and she was telling us how she thinks of us like her own daughters and that's why they do so much for us and are always asking us if we need something. This was when the light bulb went off. I have been here for 5 months and just realized that this was an answer to the blessing I got back in July. There are so many people here that help us every day and truly love us and that was an answer to my prayers. God is listening! Are we?

That's all for this week. Love you all and am counting down the days ‘til Christmas!!!

Sister Cox

Mais Uma!

7 months...hard to believe!

We got transfer calls today and I'm staying in Utinga! Again. This will be my fourth transfer here. It's good because I already know all the members so Christmas should be good but after Christmas I think I'll need a change. Sister Loisotto is staying here too so I'll be able to finish her training. It'll be a good one.

I hit my 7 month mark yesterday woo! Kinda crazy as always. It never feels real. This week we had lots and LOTS of visits and taught a bunch which was great. Jefferson was baptized on Sunday and it was the best baptism I've seen so far. All the support from his family and from the ward was just great and really spiritual.

This week at our last meeting, I made french toast for my zone and let me tell ya' it was not a fast process with a pan that only fits one slice of bread at a time. I made two loaves...I never want french toast again. I also made syrup! (still working on my homemaking skills) None of the Brazilians knew what it was or how to use it and jokes were made that it was hot glue haha. It did kinda look like it though. All was well in the end and very tasty! 

I want to celebrate Thanksgiving soo badly! I'm not sure how yet but I want to. What's a girl gotta do to get some mac n cheese? Doesn't exist here so vamos ver o que vai acontecer. Thursday is a very important day.

Not only is it Thanksgiving but IT'S MY HALF BIRTHDAY! I celebrated last year so why stop now? What a great day!!

Eu vou terminar este blog em Português. Tudo está bem aqui. Estou feliz e eu amo este obra do Senhor! Estou MUITO animada de falar com minha familia em 4 semanas só! Eu amo vocês e aproveite seu feriado! Até mais gente.

Sister Cox  

Patience Brings Blessings...

Sister Reis, A great missionary and friend

My little buddy - Danilo 6 and already a charmer!

The title pretty much sums up our week. It was amazing! What a turn around from last week. This has definitely been the busiest and best week we've had in a while. So one thing I learned this week is that the Lord always places people in our paths for a reason.

We taught a woman a few weeks ago, Fran, who had already been taught a lot and had been to church a lot with other missionaries here about a year ago and just never decided to get baptized. We left thinking oh we'll never see her again, she doesn't want anything... and that was that.

This week Sister Loisotto and I went to buy chocolate at this store we always go to and we literally ran, into her on the sidewalk but she was yelling "meninas, meninas!" which is"girls, girls"...and she looked a little frantic.

To set up the scene a little better...it was pouring rain so she had an umbrella, her purse, and this big bag with her. She asked us to hold this huge bag because she had to run across the street to pick up her son from the bus and didn't have an extra hand. So we walked to  her front door which was close, handed her the bag, chatted a little bit, and she told us how much we saved her and how she needed us at exactly that moment.

She invited us in (that was a surprise) and we got to share a message with her. Turns out she was getting surgery the next day and was really nervous, so it was just perfect timing that we could be there at that moment to help her out, even if it was just a small thing.
Moral of the story: when you feel the need to buy chocolate...DO IT :)

We had a lot of experiences like that this week where we hadn't been able to contact someone in a long time and Bam!, the person we wanted to see happened to be home or we saw someone on the street we were hoping to teach. What a blessing!

We saw lots of miracles this week. One includes a boy we have been trying to teach, Jefferson. He's 11 years old and his mom and sister and brother are already members. We started teaching him on Thursday and he'll be baptized this Sunday the 17th! We are so excited! Another soul coming unto Christ. It's such a beautiful thing.

A little update on Sister Robinson...She's doing ok. I have fortunately never lost a parent so I can't say I know what she's going through but with our knowledge of where we're going after this life I know she'll be ok. President allowed Sis. Robinson to watch the funeral here in our area this week at Irmão Fábio's house Wednesday night. We watched just the burial and it was so sad but also really cool to see how unified her family is. She's one of 8 and they just all love each other so much so that was the cool part. We spent Pday with her last Monday and will again today. It's so hot today! But we're all going to a park where I will be writing a nice long letter for my dearest friend Janelle. Love you! Keep praying for her...She is one trooper I'll tell ya. 

To end on a happier note I was reading a talk from President Uchtdorf this week titled 'Your Wonderful Journey Home' and here is the link:  http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/general-young-women-meeting/2013/03/your-wonderful-journey-home?lang=eng I highly encourage all of you to read it.

He talks about how once we were all together living with God before we came to earth and we left His arms with the promise that we would return home to Him. We are all brothers and sister here with the same purpose...to find our way home. We all chose to follow Christ before we came to earth but some of our brothers and sisters here are lost and it's our responsibility to help them find the path again.

Laira & I at ward activity-Festa da Nacoes, she was representing Spain

See others as God does and the way we see people now will be different. I really loved this talk and I know that all things are possible as we try to follow Christ. I wanted to share two of my favorite quotes here....1) "Of one thing you can be certain: every person you see—no matter the race, religion, political beliefs, body type, or appearance—is family. The young woman you look at has the same Heavenly Father as you, and she left His loving presence just as you did, eager to come to this earth and live so that she could one day return to Him." and 2)  Yes, the road has bumps and detours and even some hazards. But don’t focus on them. Look for the happiness your Father in Heaven has prepared for you in every step of your journey. Happiness is the destination, but it’s also the path.

What a beautiful statement. I love this gospel. There is nothing better in the world.

And I love all of you! Boa semana gente!

Updated with photos 11/25/13

PDay with Sister of our District

Another Wonderful Week...

Hope you all had a happy Halloween...

Extent of my Halloween..:)

This week, I went on a division with one of our Sister Trainer Leaders on Friday, Sister Melo, which means we switched companions for a day. It was a good experience to learn form someone who is about to end her mission. She goes home in February.

We got word that Sister Robinson's Dad passed away today (the sister in my zone from New Zealand) so please keep her and her family in your prayers. It was pretty sudden. She is surprisingly doing really well but we're going over to spend the day with her today and hopefully help out in any way we can...mostly just want to eat chocolate together. But she's so strong and not going home. What a champ.

Happy 18th Birthday on Sunday to the "Best Little Brother in the World!!"  I love you so much but I can't believe it and I'm kind of in denial - sorry I can't be there to celebrate.  I'll be thinking of you bud!

Last thing for the week is that we had to say good-bye to Irmã Cida yesterday. She's traveling to the Northeast and doesn't know when she'll be back which means I'll probably be transferred before she gets back. I'll miss her and her cooking so much. Love that woman! It's people like her that really make me love my mission...sigh..haha anyway love you all! Til next week.  

Updated with photos - 11/25/13

Joao Pedro - the cutest boy you ever did see!

La Cucaracha... (and last week's blog too-Bolo de Mais!)

10/28/13 - La Cucaracha

So even though the title is in Spanish (not Portuguese), I figured it was fitting for this week. We had...and are having...some crazy cockroach problems! It's not really a problem. It's normal apparently. It's just we live under another house and right next to a sewer drain thing...they come out of there to play when it's hot...which is now. And it's awful!! It doesn't help that my companion has a crazy fear of these things so she screams every time we find one in our house and I have to get it out. We have woken up to one in our house every day this week. We even barricade the door, I have no idea how they get in!It's a nightmare.!!  Ugh. It's the worst.

Anyway, aside from that, this week was great and flew by! We were so busy prepping for the baptism and running around to all our other appointments and meetings that pday came quickly. Thursday was my 6 month mark and it didn't feel real. We had interviews with President on Friday and when he asked me how much time I had on the mission and I responded with "6 months yesterday" I almost cried! It's a happy thing though. Happy and sad because I love being a missionary and I can't explain how great it is unless you've been on a mission and experienced it yourself. It's amazing. One of the best parts about being a missionary is getting to be a tool in the Lord's hands and I know I've said this before but it's true.

Antônio's baptism was Saturday and it was great! We had a problem with filling the font because it was supposed to start at 7 and when we got there it had about 4 inches of water in it! So it got delayed a bit but all went well :)


Cake Surprise!

Yesterday (Sunday) our Ward Mission leader and his family decided to surprise us with a Halloween cake at their house BUT as usual I ruined the surprise by getting there early when it wasn't done yet. Oops. - typical me. But it worked out well in the end because we got to help make little figures for it which was a ton of fun...it's the little things as my momma says.

   I had to...we had black and orange! Still have Falcon pride :)

We are so blessed in this area. We have lots of love and support from the members and time is starting to really pick up now. I don't know how I feel about it.

We also had a family night with some members last night where we taught and discussed the Atonement and how we can use Jesus Christ's sacrifice in our lives every day. It was compared to a bar of soap and how soap cleans us physically but His sacrifice cleans us spiritually. I am so grateful for my Savior. He is the Savior of the world if we will just reach out to him. I love this work here in Brazil and love the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's about all for this week! Love you all! 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!



Cake we helped finish

Yum!!

10/21/13 - Bolo de Mais!

So this week was a week of bolo. Bolo is cake in Portuguese and I sound really fat starting out like this but I really love cake. And I swear every house we walked into this week had cake to offer us. I'm not complaining. Sorry Mom and Dad you'll have to roll me off the plane in a year.

 

Speaking of a year...Thursday this week will mark 6 months in the mission! How is that possible?! Nuts. So I'll give you all a little run down of my week. Tuesday I got my first pedicure on the mission...from an investigator of course and it was for a good reason too. I had been having some serious pain in my toes due to ingrown toenail stuff going on. Gross huh? It hurt like never before but now I'm pain-free and happy. :)

 

On Wednesday we had our normal District meeting but in a different place and we didn't get lost so I mastered the bus system here. Finally. #soproud. That was my accomplishment for the day. Thursday I ate the most cake of my life (you just can't say no). And the Elders were joking and jealous that we are always welcomed into homes. It's just because we're Sisters. The rumor about that is true. But also because we're sisters the members are helping us out with the missionary work more.

 

Because of them we are now teaching 3 new couples! Perfect families ready to accept the truth and find Christ. It's been great. As for Antônio, he's getting baptized on Saturday YAY! He's so great. Friday was a monsoon all. day. long. Sister Loisotto and I left our house for lunch and I have never seen anything quite like it. The streets were just flooded...so naturally we walked right through it. We had umbrellas (thanks Dad) but nothing could prevent our feet, shoes, and bottom halves from being soaked. So we showed up to lunch pretty wet. My shoes felt like those ugly water shoes I wore as a kid at Sesame Place. It was awful. But we just sloshed around in them all day still happy and doing the Lord's work. It made for a good story. Our skirts dried throughout the day.

 

Saturday I went to my first funeral on the mission. It was the mother of one of the women in our ward here in Utinga. It was sad because I had met Maria just this past Sunday and then she passed away Friday night. She had been suffering and unable to walk for these past 2 months so the family in general had been suffering, but she was so sweet. It was so sad to see the family hurting so much but we visited Alice (woman in our ward) last night to give her some comfort. We read a scripture with her about how Jesus Christ knows what she's going through and to hold firm to her faith in Him and that everything will be okay if she does that. Yesterday on Sunday I was so exhausted! I have a really hard time with daylight savings time. Summer is coming! But we lost an hour of sleep here so I'm am super sleepy. But this will be a great week! I love you all!

Amazing Week...have I said that already?

This week was amazing! My new companion is Sister Loisotto from Argentina. She's 19 and awesome. She makes training easy because she is so humble and ready to learn and WORK. She's great. She speaks Portunhol which makes things a little complicated...I'm hating myself for not being fluent in Spanish already haha!!  But that's ok because she needs to learn Portuguese anyway.

This week we had some great lessons and Antônio is preparing to get baptized! He thanked us so much this week for giving him a second chance for a new life and I almost cried. He is great. He has some difficulty walking and talking because of AVC...Accidente Vascular Cerebre but he is  such a sweet elderly man.

On a sad note, Sister Meireles called me on Friday to tell me she was going home. I was so sad. And obviously she was sad too. President thought it would be better for her to go home to figure out what is going on with her, so she left on Saturday :( I miss her already so please continue praying for her to adjust back to "normal life" again and to figure out what's going on with her health.

Que mais? Oh! October 15th is a special day in my family. Happy 2nd Anniversary to the coolest couple at home, my brother and sister-in-law, Frank and Jenelle, and Happy 25th Birthday to Nina! I love you guys, have a great one!

Not much more to update - we have LOTS of work to do this transfer and lots of people to visit. This weekend was Stake Conference and what was the theme? Missionary work!! - Share the gospel with everyone you know. You never know who is ready to hear and accept it!

 The stouts were our senior couple in the mission and we had to say bye to them this past week at transfer meeting it was so sad! Even though we're all smiles here

It was a great weekend and then we had lunch with the Bishop on Sunday. Arroz, feijão, salad and beteraba! I love beets now. Never thought I'd say that. I love you all!

Ednei, Irmã Cida and me in between sessions of General Conference last Sunday

Transfer Week...

Bom dia todo mundo! This week has been nuts! Seems like I say this every week but this is on my top 5. So Sister Meireles wasn't doing well at all this week. We couldn't work too much and even had a visit from President. We had a long night in the hospital Tuesday night and didn't leave until 1am...my poor companion. She is so weak and dizzy. Please continue to pray for her.

 

We don't know what is going to happen with her except that transfer calls came this morning and we found out that she is leaving me.  I get to stay another transfer in Utinga ward (so excited) AND I'm going to be training! I can't believe it. We have 12 sisters arriving and I'm nervous but excited to meet my new companion! I'm surprised at how much the Lord really must trust me to be the example for this new sister in the field. Kinda scary but amazing as well.

 

I cannot even begin to talk about General Conference!  I hope most of you had a chance to watch.  I had so many things come to mind through all the speakers. There were tears of complete joy this weekend hearing the words of our beloved prophet and apostles...there is nothing better. And it was really different listening as a missionary. I don't know why but everything was just magnified and I was clinging to every word. It was like every talk was meant for me to hear. Needless to say I took tons of notes and am so grateful for everything I learned. Maybe conference was different because in every prayer when they mentioned the missionaries I thought "hey, that's me!" and got chills. I thought also, "that was a prayer that millions of people all around the world said Amen to and it was really cool."

 

One of the things I love the most is the knowledge that my Heavenly Father knows and loves me. I know this without a doubt and am so unbelievably grateful for the gospel in my life. Every challenge in my mission is for my own growth and is necessary. I know the Lord is always by my side and His goal is to bless. For this reason I know that this next transfer will be great!!!

 

The Lord will help us through anything if we will come to Him with a humble heart, willing to submit our will to His and just do what He wants us to do. That is one great thing I have learned on my mission so far. I love my mission so much. I love the people here. I love being a missionary and being able to invite others to come unto Christ every single day. Pray for us to have a great week and pray for Sister Meireles' health! I have really come to love her and say that we are great friends and just want what's best for her. Thank you for all the love and support from home! Til next week :)

Sister Cox

If you missed conference, you still can watch.  Here's the link again.  Thinking especially of YOU!
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2013/10?lang=eng&vid=2721991129001