Septmeber 24, 2018 11 meses.....

Alright fam. So the Internet is slow so I am going to type what I can, sorry for the stuff that gets left out. So first off.

My comp. She is so awesome. S Rodrigues is from Recife. I spend the whole day laughing my head off. I cannot tell you how many silent dance parties we have already had or how many times we have started something only to get side tracked talking about something completely unrelated. I feel like I have known her my whole life, so it is easy to just talk to her an be completely open and honest with her. She also is obsessed with star wars. Like obsessed. 

Everybody here thinks that I am Sister Hoover because she was the last American to serve her. I don't think I look anything like her, and she has no accent so these people are crazy, but it is funny watching everybody get super excited and then confused when they see that I'm not her.

Also, everybody is asking me to teaching an English class. Which I think we might actually do. But I don't know how to teach English, so that might be a little bit of a problem. I speak really wrong too. E Southwick always laughs at me when we speak in English.

When E Southwick saw that I really did get transferred here after last week him telling me that I was going to come here, he just laughed and said, "I told you so". chato... 

We had this man come pick us up when I got to Sao Luis and I knew that I remembered him somehow. But he started talking about this American that came to his house the day that he was interviewed to be baptized that didn't speak almost any Portuguese. And then I remembered. My first week in the mission field, I came to Sao Luis to go on splits. And I went to this mans house to go through the interview questions with him. He remembered me. So did his daughter. They both got so excited and said that they have been looking for me since I left. They wanted me to come to their baptism but I was too far away. He is now the 2nd councilor to the ward mission leader. How awesome is that?!

We had a baptism! His name is Alberi. When I got here, he didn't even want to get baptized this week. But he loves music, so we started singing hymns to him to help him recognized the Holy Ghost and he decided to be baptized this week. It was awesome. When the elders called Saturday to see if everything was still all lined up, I might have fake cried and told E Southwick that Alberi was really mad at us and wouldn't talk to us. He got super serious and told us that he was willing to come to our area to talk to him if we needed him to. When I started laughing really hard, he got "mad" and in English said, Two can play this game, watch your back Sister Heiner. Which made me laugh even harder. Oops... sorry elder...

so yeah, I'm sorry this is really short. But Like I said, this internet is killing me. I'll write a real letter with more details. I love you guys like crazy!

Sister Heiner 

  

September 17, 2018 another transfer has come and gone...

Well, this week was an adventure. But what else is new. 

We started our week out by going to visit Rogerio after pday ended. We decided to sing for him because S Marino really has an amazing voice. We told him that we were going to sing and his son in law that was taking a shower yelled, WAIT FOR ME. So we waited for him to finish his shower and put on clothes (obviously) and we sang for Rogerio, Vinicious, and Vanessa. We sang first together in Portuguese, then S Marino sang in Spanish, and I sang in English. For an impromptu music recital, it went pretty well. Vinicious started crying which was rather startling because he's this big bald macho man and sat there crying like a baby. Not that it lead to anything because he hates churches for whatever reason but it was still good.

On Tuesday we had a conference with President Jones. He was showing us the new format that the church wants us to do our district meeting starting with the fact that they are called district councils. He did interviews at the end and more or less told me what I would be doing this transfer. He gave us his phone to call some of the other elders for him and we changed his wall paper, haha, and then he gave me his car keys to grab something for him and I wanted to take a picture in the drivers seat but the assistants were with us so I couldn't... chata... but it was probably better that way, hahah.

We went to Porto Alegre on Wednesday for a conference for S Marino. I hung out with some of the other elders there and they all told me I would be going to Canoas this next transfer to hang out with them there. Made me laugh. Going back to the rodoviário, there was a fight on the onibus with some drunk men and they had to call the police. All of the missionaries just sat there like .........uh........ and then some of the elders started singing I Am a Child of God. 

President Jones talked with the new missionaries about how we need to show more love and kindness in our teaching. He said that some of the older missionaries have gotten so focused on the numbers that they have forgotten that we are teaching people. That made me really think about what I do during our lessons to show that I really am there for them, not just my weekly report.

We were talking to Cinara and she told us that all of her coworkers got into an argument because of us. We always go to her work to say hi, and they always look at us. Anyways, one of them asked Cinara if I would be interested in getting to know a Brazilian and she told him that no. I would not. He got mad and asked why he wasn't good enough and another started arguing that he needed to go to church if he wanted to get anywhere near us and this first one got mad and said that church isn't everything, and then another one chimed in and said that I would never get serious with a Brazilian when I could have an American and then there was a fight. When she told me, I felt bad at how funny I found it. I laughed really hard. But then I told her that next time, to tell them all to come to church and ask me myself. She told me that she would. We went back a few days later and she said that the first guy said that if he had to go to church, it wasn't worth getting to know me. How sad, hahahaha.

We have gotten to be really good friends with Rogerios granddaughter, Yasmin. She is so cute and funny, I just want to kiss her cheeks. I do that ;) she has started calling me her tia chata (annoying aunt) which is super cute.

Side note, there is a 5 year old ish girl sitting on the other side of me and she is trying to read this and she keeps looking at me like, uh this is not Portuguese, no, and it is super funny.

Neiton came to church on Sunday in a tux. He said that if he was going to get the gift of the Holy Ghost, he needed to be fancier. It was really cute, I wish I would have taken a picture but Sundays are the most stressful days. You've got your investigators, your less active members, your recent converts, and the members all trying to talk to you and I only have one mouth and two ears so I just can't do everything at once. But it was good.

S Marino and I started talking about Disney movies walking down the street the other day and when we talked about Mulan, we both just started singing LETS GET DOWN TO BUSINESS TO DEFEAT.....THE HUNS. And it was awesome! made me think of Amanda.

So the transfer news. I'm leaving Taquara. I was called to be a Sister Leader in Sao Luis, Canoas. So all those Elders Tuesday were right. S Schmit that lives in our house will finish S Marinos traning. I'm kinda sad because I wanted to finish it but at the same time, I'm happy because I am ready to go to a new place. 

Anywhos, that's all the news I've got for now, I'll let you know how next week goes, like usual. But for now, I love you guys a lot, please pray that I figure out how to help all these Sisters because I am lost and confused myself, hahaha.

I miss you guys!

Sister Heiner 

S Schmidts hair in the wind...

We changed the wall paper on Pres Jones 

phone to our picture, hahahahha, 

he will never trust us with his phone again...

This bright yellow tree.

Selfie.

The sky was pretty.

This statue is in one of the members houses 

and we always said it looked like S Santos

 from last transfer and the cat broke it, haha. 

September 10, 2018 This week was really short but somehow we fit in a million lessons so that was cool...

This week was crazy. Why is there no such thing as a calm week during the mission? Don't they know that my heart cant take so much crazy in one week? ME AJUDA!
So starting with some little missionary news. Sister Leite had to go back to her house in Recife. The other sisters had a meeting in Porto Alegre and brought me back a ton of mail!! And one of them was a letter from her explaining that she is having a ton of problems with her knee and back and such so she has to go home and do some physical therapy. So that was a little heartbreaking. BUT I got 12 letters! Best birthday present ever! It was all I wanted, so I was really happy. Grandma sent me a talk about remembering who we are and who we have always been that I love. I have read it over and over again this week. I read it every day for personal study and I took it with us heading to Gramado and read it on the bus and aha! It is so good. I have spent this whole transfer feeling like something was missing a little bit so I have been praying to feel Heavenly Fathers presence more and that talk really helped me.
So I realized this week that I have been in Taquara for a long time because the bus driver that always takes us to Gramado drove by and honked and waved at me. And then when we got on the bus a few days later, he said. hello my dear. I am ready to be transferred but I think Ill be here a little longer, so it's time to baptize the bus diver.
We also had the man that sells churrasco stop us and he started asking us questions because he always sees us walking by. I thought that was really cool. He unfortunately lives in the other area, but what can you do.
We have spent a ton of this week at Neitons house teaching all the lessons because he decided he wanted to be baptized. We were teaching the commandments and when we started talking about tithing, this drama queen pretended to be stabbed in the heart. MAN UP. But other than that, he thankfully didn't have any problems. He was interviewed on my birthday (BEST PRESENT EVER... this year was full of good presents that I will never have again on my birthday, haha) and he and E Villegas decided to pretend like he didn't pass to give us a heart attack. I could have killed them both but one of them is a representative of Christ and the other needed to be baptized first. Neiton bought us a birthday cake to celebrate.
My birthday was really good. The relief society president lives on a ranch, so they took us out to the ranch to see the horses because I was telling her about how last year, we went horse back riding. They tried to convince us to break the rules and ride the horses which not gonna lie, I was tempted to do, but I didn't. So they settled with me saying that when I come back to visit one day, I will ride their horses. They were happy with that response so it was good. They also made me a cake! So I ate a ridiculous amount of cake. But it was good. Just getting fat over here, hahaha. S Marino is really afraid of birds, and they had chickens running all over the farm, so S Schmidt and I got to chase all the chickens away so S Marino could leave the house. It was really entertaining. Reminded me of Luke with the turkeys in Oregon, hah.
Neiton was baptized!! and the pia exploded hahah. There's a hole in it or something so all the water was leaking, so he was baptized real fast, and then we spent a solid two hours cleaning up the water that had leaked out so that the church wasn't flooded. Things that happen only on the mission...
We had a mission tour conference with Elder Bassett from the 70. It was really cool. He talked to us about sacrifices. What we are sacrificing to be here to show that we are grateful for the sacrifice that Christ made for us. He mentioned that we were sacrificing music and everybody groaned, and he looked at us like, seriously, that's what you guys are most upset about? It was funny. At the end, he told us that we need to be the missionaries that our moms think we are. That made me stop and think a little bit. I always tried to be the missionary that President Campos and then President Jones thought I was, but mom has a whole different level of expectations. So I have been trying to be better about that this week. S Pompeu was there and S Wiese and S Silva and E Peterson. It was really nice to be able to talk to them about how they are and about their areas and all that. It was good to see them all.
Anywhos, my time is up again. But as fast as time is going, Ill be emailing again tomorrow. I love you guys so much. Thank you for all of your prayers, I need all the help I can get, hahah.
Sister Heiner

Letters!!!

My daughters :D

S Wiese.

S Silva.

Birthday cake!!

Horses!!!!!!

Tire swing :)

Neiton had cake for us too!

The elders with us and cake.

Baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 3, 2018 what do you mean it's already september..........

This week. Was good. And hard. But I'm happy, healthy, and safe so what more can you ask for? It was raining all week which means that we spent the week soaking wet and had very few people open the door for us, but the experiences we had were pretty cool. My study time was on fire this week too so I am gaining a really strong testimony of personal revelation.
Annnnnnyyyyywhhhoooooooooos. This week, I made it to the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi. And I'm reading in Portuguese. So imagine. If I barely understand what is going on in these chapters when I read in English, how do you think it goes when I try and read in Portuguese? Luckily, the gift of tongues is real, and I am actually understanding quite a bit. All thanks to dad reading Isaiah with us a year ago and explaining what was going on. Because by myself, I think I would have been lost. Especially in Portuguese.
So walking down our street a little bit, there is a barber shop. And the man that works at the barber shop always waves and says hi when we see him and such. He's probably 25, has a beard and a mustache and has a ton of muscles. Not the typical barber shop man. I want to talk to him, but he always has a billion and one people lined up for him to cut their hair. I have never walked past when he didn't have people waiting their turn. We don't know his name, but our whole house calls him the barber shop man, so I'm worried that when I figure out his name, I'll still call him the barbershop man.
We went to talk to Naiton last night, or Mr Necklace as mom so accurately named him, and we decided to give him the first lesson again because it was seeming like he just wasn't understanding a ton of what was going on. So we just gave a really short summery and asked him if he had any questions hoping that he could ask whatever it was that he wasn't understanding. And he just sat there for a minute and then turned and asked, Can I be baptized this Sunday? And I'm sure my face was just like 😯 and he quickly said, Because you told me that after I went to church two times I could be baptized. And I just started laughing and we were like, uh yes. You can be baptized this Sunday. But because we haven't explained the commandments yet, it might get pushed to next week. BUT I have faith because I think the only problem he is going to have is with coffee. I hope. S Marino was so happy she was dancing in the rain all the way home. I'm happy too, but its her first baptism, so she was literally glowing. I seriously am praying it all works out, because 1. He needs his salvation obviously but 2. I don't want to be here when S Marinos first baptism falls through. Ugh. Just pray please.
You guys remember Luana? Last Monday, I had something remind me of her and she has been stuck in my head all week. But I didn't want to go to her house because last time we all left crying knowing that she didn't want us there. But I could not get this lady out of my head. So when one of the irmaos asked us if we had seen her recently, I put my pride away and we went to her house. We got to her house, and I was soaking wet because S Marino forgot her umbrella so I gave her mine to use, and she just stood there looking at us. And then she asked us to come in. It was kind of awkward at the start, but at the end, she told us that she´s been thinking about us all week because she saw a picture of us on Facebook that one of the irmas had taken. Nothing overly excited happened, but she did invite us to come back, so that made me really happy. I really love this woman, I hope everything works out this time.
The sisters in Parobe had a baptism, but because they don't have a font, they came to our church to baptize Gustavo. He looks like he is 7 but he´s 14. We took a picture with him and all 6 of us and he just stood there staring at us until he said, There are 6 sisters here?! It was really cute and funny. We told him that he should think that its a privilege because generally there aren't that many of us there at the same time.
S Marino and S Schmidt do not understand each other. It is the funniest thing ever. In reality, S Schmidt doesn't understand S Marino. S Marino understand everything. But they are always trying to talk to each other and S Schmidt just repeats, Que?! over and over again and S Marino repeats whatever it is that she said louder and louder until she is yelling. It is super funny.
Yesterday in church, one of the men who bore his testimony talked about how life is like a rose, If we just focus on the thorny parts, we forget that the rest is beautiful. I really liked that. It was something I needed to be reminded of this week. I love that I am coming to understand how Heavenly Father uses other people to tell me the things that I need to remember.
I was also studying a conference talk and one of the things that caught my eye was how he said that we are never going to have an angel appear and tell us that our repentance card is full, that from now on, we are on our own. I loved that. It is something that we try and teach every day. We really are never on our own. We can always repent, we always will be forgiven. It doesn't matter what we do in this life, we will never be far enough away that we can't come back if we truly repent and change our lives. One of the things President Campos always said to us is that repentance is change. If we want to repent and stay the same, we aren't repenting. We are trying to lie to God and to ourselves and we are mocking the Atonement of Christ. If we are going to repent, we are going to change. We promise our Father when we ask for forgiveness that we are going to change. And when we change, that is when He forgives us. I have also studied a ton about forgiveness because that is something that I have always struggled with and I have learned a ton about how I need to let go of somethings so I can really be happy and stop worrying about the past.
Well, my time is once again up. But this letter is really long, at least longer than the boys´ were so my goal was met for the week. I love you guys like crazy, I am so proud of Jamie for getting her blessing and Amanda for getting her check. An accomplishment I could never make, hahah, oops...
I love you guys!!!
Sister Heiner

P-day on the pull out bed.
Everybody is cute and then there's me goofing off ;)
What else is new?

An Audrey Hepburn picture that we found in a
 Goodwill that I fell in love with
and would buy but I'm a missionary,
 imagine transfers with that thing...

E Kinnear on his knees is
almost taller than S Medeiros.

At lunch.

What I have looked at all week: S Marino
with an umbrella because it is flooding here.

Parobe had a baptism and they use our church.
This kid is 14, I promise.