October 29, 2018 Its already been six weeks

So transfers have come and gone and last night was really pretty stressful. The assistants didn't release the transfers until every zone had passed their numbers so we were up until 11:30 just waiting to know if we were going to need to pack our bags or not. I was pretty confident that I was going to stay, but S Rodrigues was up in the air about it. Anywhos, Transfers came a few minutes before 11:30 and thankfully, we are both staying. Because imagine trying to pack your bags at midnight and then try and sleep before leaving first thing in the morning. Thanks but no thanks, haha, worked out good.

This week. I made cookies for our zone because Elder Southwick asked me to, and we all know that I love making cookies. When the American elders saw that they were real cookies and not the excuse they use as cookies here, they started fighting over them which was really funny. E Abretch told me that I can get married now. If all I need to know is how to make cookies to get married, life would be a lot easier, haha, thought dad would appreciate that comment. ;)

We had an impromptu lesson with a bunch of members this week. Usually there is a night every week when one of the organizations does an activity that we can bring our people to meet the members. But nobody told us that this week, it was cancelled. So we showed up with a bunch of investigators and there were a bunch of members that also didn't get the message, so we put everybody in a room together and taught about faith. It was really cool because people started opening up and talking about how faith has helped them, and how repentance shows our faith, and it was the best not planned lesson with members I have had in a year. 

Oh yeah, it was my year mark this week. WHAT?!

There was a dance at the church this week, so the day beforehand, we went to Irma Rose's house and did her nails and gave her a facial and it was really fun. She didn't know we were coming which just made it so much better. She posted the picture of us on facebook and said that the elders that taught her that are at home now all got super jealous that she posted pictures of us because they said that she never posted pictures with them, haha.

We had a really awesome lesson with Paola and Tony this week. We went to teach them about the plan of salvation, and Paola just sat on the edge of the bed like she couldn't get enough of it. Then when we started talking about the different kingdoms, she got up to grab a notebook because she didn't want to forget anything. Ah, I wish everybody was as excited and cute as this family. But they need to get married CURSES but it'll work out, it´s the Lords will so it has to. 

We also started teaching a widow that was meeting with the missionaries before coming the Brazil as well. She knows the bible crazy well and described the great apostasy perfectly. It is really interesting to see how the gift of tongues works because we are speaking in Portuguese and they are speaking in Spanish but everybody understands everybody else perfectly. I love the gifts of the spirit.

We had our baptism!!!! It was awesome!! Everybody was super excited and happy. His girlfriend was crying, of course which was super cute. The mom of said girlfriend told us last week that they will never get married but at the baptism, the mom was so excited as well, so I think she has changed her mind. They are already planning the wedding in April, so that should be awesome. Sealing next October.

We had a devotional with Sister Franco from the general primary presidency and her husband. It was really good. They talked about how we need to always have the conviction that the church is true no matter what hits us in life. I really liked that. Funny moment, the American elder who was introducing her accidentally called her Sister Frango which means Sister Chicken, haha, whoops.

We watched part of a pioneer movie with a family yesterday and I was able to talk to them about our family who were pioneers and bare my testimony to them. It was really cool because they said that they have only seen videos and heard stories but that they have never actually met somebody that the pioneer stories directly affect. It made me think a lot about how our family history is very different from the people here because in the US it isn't news if you have pioneer ancestry. 

Anyways, I love you all. It takes a ridiculously long time to send pictures in this place but if I have time, I´ll send some more updates.

Sister Heiner

fruit tree and the inside of said fruit. 

We eat these all of the time walking 

down the street. They are really good.

Our last district picture :(

Painting Irma Roses nails.

 I kept laughing at the green goo on her face

 and she got "mad".

When you drop your fries and your soul dies...

 I'm glad they weren't ours, we just found them

 on the side of the street and took a picture.

Selfie filling up the font.

JULIANO!!

Juliano and Victoria.

Selfie waiting for Juliano to put

 on the baptismal clothes.

In the font! I love baptisms!

October 22, 2018 um ano depois.............................................................

This week flew right by. I blinked and it was over. Do you guys remember my first few weeks when I was convinced I was going to die here? Yeah, I no longer have that feeling. I swear, weeks are getting shorter. 

We started the week off by going to Campo Bom and going on splits. It was an adventure. Turns out that there are a ton of mosquitoes there, and my legs look like Amanda's always do in the summer, haha, but we are blessed that our area does not have mosquitoes until now, so I am very happy with that fact. I worked with Sister Bento for the day. I learned a lot from her. She has a very unique teaching style that I liked a lot. We ended our night buying pizza and then eating all of it on the way home so we didn't have to share with the other sisters, hahaha. I feel like I should feel bad about that but it made her happy that we were doing something just the two of us that wasn't working, so I don't feel bad at all. Also, we didn't tell the other sisters, haha. 

We spent a few hours helping a less active pregnant irma clean her house. She has a high risk pregnancy so her sisters asked us to go there and help her out. It turned out to be really entertaining because her 3 year old wanted to help too but their house is pretty small and they have a dog that goes crazy if you get near the kid, and it seriously was a mess. But it turned out good. The mom stayed in her bed, we locked the dog out of the house, we cleaned, and then I did the daughters hair because it looked like Jamie's when she wakes up but  then decides not to do anything with it for three days ;) Irma Luanna was happy at the end, and asked us to come back and do a family home evening with her family some time this week. We shall see if that fits into the schedule we´ve got going on in this crazy life.

We decided to go visit an eternal investigator that never wants to get baptized because he feels like he isn't ready. We read through the baptismal questions with him without him knowing that we were doing the interview with him. When we told him at the end to show him that he really is ready, he just needs to have the faith to actually do something, he got really quiet and just sat there thinking. So we asked him to fast with us the next day and told him that we would talk about it afterwards. When we went back, he just told us, "your president asked me to invite him to my baptism, can I have his number?" Bah. I about cried. Sister Rodrigues and I just sat there staring at him like, did we hear that right? We heard that right. Juliano will be baptized this next week. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We had 8 people come to church yesterday, which made us really happy as well. The refugees from Venezuela are all really excited to be at church. Our ward has already adopted them, it is really awesome to see. The only problem is that they are not married, gosh darn it. And marriage is already a challenge here for Brazilians so imagine how its gonna turn out for refugees. I have faith. It'll work out. 

We went to teach Sara, and her son, Pedro (who likes to be called Peter) was bouncing around the house making a ton of noise. So I told him to come lay his head on my lap, and I started playing with his hair while talking to his mom, and he just got super quiet. Not gonna lie, it made me want to have kids, haha, when we were leaving, he came and kissed my cheek and said, "tchau titia". Super cute.

We stopped by an irmas house last night to get a ride home, and she made us egg sandwiches. It kinda startled me for some reason, and she thought I didn't like them, so I had to quickly explain that mom used to make them for me and that I hadn't eaten one in over a year. She ran to me and gave me a huge hug saying that while I'm here, she´ll make them for me. It made me laugh a little but at the same time feel really special, sabe?

Sister Rodrigues and I had a rough few days this week and I spent a lot of time on my knees praying. I had a song come into my mind that talks about how we should tell Heavenly Father all of our thoughts and hopes and dreams and fears, so after a really rough day, I decided to do that. I laid on my bed and said a prayer out loud in English just explaining how I was feeling to Heavenly Father, and I had this sense of calm come over me as if He was sitting on my bed listening saying, "i know sweetheart, it'll get better, don't lose faith." It was a really cool experience. 

Anywhos, I hope you are all doing well. I laughed really hard at the picture of woody and buzz and jessie. 

I love you guys!!

Sister Heiner 

Splits in Osorio… 

S Sandoval!!

Name tags near the ocean.

Playing in the water.

Selfie with S Quintel and S Domingues.

S Rodrigues.

Gremio! 

Snickers to celebrate after talking to Juliano.

Pedro laying on my lap.

Pedros selfie on my camera, hahah.

October 15, 2018

So my camera died and this computer isn't charging it so I'm afraid there aren't going to be pictures today... I'm sorry.. But in a day or so, there will be pictures from our p-day with President and Sister Jones today. I'm sorry, I know I promised to always send pictures but I didn't realize my camera was dying until we had already left the house and then there was nothing I could do about it. I'm sorry, Mom.... 

This week was really fast. And we spent little time in our area which made it pretty hard. I'm afraid S Rodrigues was pretty upset with how it all went down in our area.

We started the week teaching a bunch of people in the refugee hotel which was really cool. We speak really really slow Portuguese throwing in all the Spanish words that we know which isn't a ton, but they just laugh with us and it works out okay. But as we were leaving, we had a lady yell at us in Portuguese because apparently the rules have changed that you cant just walk in and talk to people. So our mission this week is to find a man named Wagner and get him to sign a permission thingy so we can enter. The annoying thing is that we already talked to Wagner and he is a member. So he already knows that we are there to teach. But PATIENCE. haha.

There is a 19 year old that lives in our ward that is part of the army and he let me wear his army hat around the church during our activity Wednesday night. It was really cool. I would love to have one for myself but I don't want to be part of the army nor do I want to marry somebody who is part of the army so I think I will be keeping that as a thing I want that will never happen, haha.

So we left Wednesday night and headed to Osorio. We got there about 11pm which is really late for missionaries, haha, but it was good. I got to go on splits with S Sandoval!!! It was awesome to see her!!!! We didn't get a whole ton done, sadly, there weren't a ton of people at home but we spent the whole day talking about how our missions were going and what had happened. It was also a little strange because she hasn't changed a whole lot but she is really different still. She had a really rough comp a few months ago that she was telling me about and I could see that the things that this comp had told her were still in her head. Which made me think a lot about the kind of companion I want to be. I never want anybody to talk about me with as much pain as she was talking about this companion. It was really sad to hear. But she is with an amazing person right now, so she is doing a lot better.

Then on Friday, because we spent Thursday in Osorio, we went to Capão da Canoa which is next to the ocean! I spent the day with S Quintel who was comps with S Sandoval last transfer and is in the same stake as S Pompeu so we had a lot to talk about. After lunch, we went to the beach and took some pictures which I might send next week, if not, it'll be something to look at when I get home in six months. We were dancing around and it was really fun. There was a ton of wind which reminded me a lot of Oregon. We were walking around and the power in one half of the city went out. When we got to the other half of the city, the power there went out too. So there weren't really any good chances to talk to people. But that's okay. We had a good day. We met up with S Rodrigues and S Domingues to go to the store and it ended up being a bad idea, haha. S Domingues and I went to the store while S Rodrigues and S Quintel said that they were going to go back to the house to wait for us. When we got back to the house, they weren't there. So we waited until 930 but they weren't there. So I called E Southwick panicking and he thought I was joking. Because we might have called him Thursday night and had S Sandoval tell him that we had been transferred. Anywhos, he didn't believe me until he heard that I really was panicking and he told us to be careful leaving the house late at night and to call him when we found them. So S Domingues and I went running back to the store trying to figure out where these girls had gone. We found them panicking trying to find us, hahah. It turns out that when they had said that they would head home, they really wanted to say that they would walk a few blocks and then sit on a bench to wait. But we went home on the other side of the street. Long story short, everybody ended up a little ticked off at everybody else and we got home late. But then we made popcorn and sat around looking at everybody's pictures from the mission. It was good. 

We got back to Sao Luis on Saturday at like noon. So we went straight to lunch and then went to a gas station to wait for Esteio to get here. We went to the refugee hotel because both of them speak Spanish and they talked to a few people for us, inviting them to come to church. Which they did!! It was really awesome. We have some Venezuelans in our ward that are members, so they helped with our people there. Which was really nice of them.

We went to teach Sarah again this week. We taught her husband too. He was baptized when he was a kid but his mom stopped going to church so he stopped going to church and basically thinks the church can't be true. Which made the lesson we had with them really annoying because he just kept talking about all these doubts but he wasn't looking for answers, he was looking to fight with us. But Sarah just sat there and explained everything for him which was awesome. They need to get married though. Which they both want to do, it just takes a lot of time here. 

We had to discontinue a man we have been teaching this whole transfer. He told us every week that he would come to church and he never came. So we went there after church yesterday and basically said, "Look, we have a ton of faith in you but until you start showing your faith by doing something, we are going to stop coming here." And he basically said, "you're right, I've been a bum but I probably wont change but I might come to church next week." And we just said "uh huh. Tchau." Kinda sad, but he recognized that he was doing the wrong things so if he doesn't want to change, there's nothing we can really do.

We had a mini testimony meeting in our Gospel Principles class yesterday and it was awesome because our people were ready to give there testimony before the members that were sitting in on the class. They are all so awesome. BUT EVERYBODY HAS TO GET MARRIED AND THAT IS REALLY FRUSTRATING. But its good. God has a plan.

We also taught a man named Wanderson, he is really cool. He knows a ton about the bible so it is really interesting to teach him. We shall see where this goes...

Today for pday, we went to the Gremio statium with our district and President and Sister Jones! It was awesome. I'm not really a huge soccer fan, but it was fun watching the elders and the other sisters get really into it. We did contacts with the tour guides and they were really into it. President Jones was comparing everything to BYU which was really funny. The tour people had no idea what he was talking about but neither did the Americans so you can't really blame them, haha. Sister Jones said that she would put the pictures she took on Facebook so everybody look out for those. Next week, I will send as many pictures as I can as well, just because I can't send them this week. We all went to lunch together too and the Gremio museum which wasn't too exciting but it was fun because we were all together, haha. I think this is one of my favorite pdays I have had my whole mission. I am loving this district because they actually want to do stuff together more than just seeing each other Tuesday mornings for our district meetings.

Anyways, I hope everybody is doing well. Sorry again for not having pictures, but I'm trusting Sister Jones to get those to you. I love you all like crazy!

Sister Heiner

October 8, 2018 Conference was AWESOME

This week was exhausting. I didn't know that being a sister leader meant that we would spend very little time in our area... We worked our little behinds off and we saw good things happen. Just more proof that miracles really do happen. 

So our week started off with a zone conference. President Jones talked a lot about how we need to be able to see where people are in their journey to the Savior so that we can help them on their way. I liked that. He said that our mission needs to focus more on the people we are teaching and help them feel Gods love and not just give a lesson. Which made me really happy because I was starting to feel like I was just getting in the rut of saying the same things over and over and I was trying to figure out how to show more love to be able to help people more. We have focused this week on having our lessons more like conversations than like lectures which has turned out to be a really neat experience. People open up a lot faster when you do it that way.

Then on Wednesday, we had our leader meeting. Which I still couldn't believe I was going to. But it turned out good too. I was really nervous at the start because they put up our monthly report in front of every body and the monthly report of the sisters and ask us questions. But it turned out to be really relaxed. The sisters said that with President Campos he was really hard on everybody and they always ended up crying but with President Jones he just smiled and told us to keep working hard, that good things were coming our way. It was good. 

When we were going home, we called an uber to take us and some elders to the rodoviaria, and the lady that was driving lives near Sao Luis so she offered us a ride home. Normally we don't accept invitations like that because it is generally men driving, but we both felt safe with her, so we said yes. As she was driving us home, we started talking about the plan of salvation because she believes in reincarnation.  It turned out to be really cool. She has some beliefs that are very different from ours, but the conversation got really in-depth for a car ride home. She ended up sending her husband an audio message telling him that she was with two missionaries who were teaching her good things and that she would be home a little late. Sadly, she doesn't live in our area, but now she has the address to the church and a good first impression.

We went on splits with the Sister Training Leaders in Porto Alegre. I decided that I never want to work there. It gets dark really fast and there are a million people walking around so I think I would be paranoid the whole time. I stayed there with Sister Hoover. Funny because we had a man ask us if we were really sisters. I don't understand why this whole country thinks that we look alike. We do not. S Hoover started laughing and told me that she thinks we look nothing alike too but ya know. Brazilians.

Conference was awesome. I absolutely loved it. The new change for church hours is crazy. President Nelson is receiving hot revelation. This man is awesome. I loved hearing everybody talk. And it was really cool because we had a woman come and listen to all four sessions. She is so sweet. She has to get married (of course because this is Brazil) but she already talked to her husband and he is all up for marriage too so tomorrow we are going to the courthouse with her to get it all set up. Back to conference... I loved how the main theme, at least for me, was coming unto Christ. But not just coming unto Him, but coming unto Him with our families. Not gonna lie, made me super excited to get married and start my own family. 

After conference on Saturday, we went and talked to this couple Marcelo and Simara. When we walked in, Marcelo said, "look, I'm drinking so I hope that isn't a problem". Normally that is a problem, but it turned out fine. He was really into the conversation and in less than 20 minutes, he told us that we were welcome back any day that we wanted to. He asked a ton of good questions and really wanted to know that answer. I am hoping that the not drinking Marcelo is as cool as the drinking Marcelo. 

On Sunday, there were elections here so the elders from Estancia Velha came to our area because the Brazilians had to go and tell the government why they weren't voting because you have to vote in your town. It turned out to be fun. E Southwick and I stood outside the room that they had to go into talking in English while E Almeida and S Rodrigues went into a room to tell people why they weren't going to vote. Then we went to Irma Rose´s for lunch. They made churrasco. I am going to miss that a ton when I get home, haha.  We just hung out with her until conference was about to start and then we went to our building to watch. 

I cant wait for these 12 new temples. They are going to bless the lives of so many people. Our whole ward screamed when they announced the new temple in Brazil and then everybody started to cry. I never appreciated temples like this until I am in a country where temples are so rare. It is a good reminder of the eternal blessing that is found in these sacred places.

I love you guys like crazy, I have been thinking a lot about all that was happening a year ago during conference and it feels like a different life time.

I hope everybody is happy!

Sister Heiner

S Borchert and S Wiese.

S Silva.

Photo bomb.

We were told we could use sunglasses this week 

so S Rodrigues and I have been rocking

 them every day.

Isabelle with S Rodrigues glasses.

E Southwick picked up my name tag and 

wearing it for a solid 20 minutes.

CHURRASCO!!

Pictures from lunch yesterday! 

Fotos com irmã Rose.

October 1, 2018 Sister Rodrigues says she loves you guys.

This week is going to be different. This week my email will be longer, hahah, I am doing things in a different order just to get this email out there and then add to it if I have time. 

So this week was an adventure to say the least. We had a family home evening in the church with our ward mission leader that was AWESOME. First of all, how different is it to be in a ward than a branch? There are ward activities every month, seminary and institute that we can take our people to, every week we have a family home evening lined up with a member through out ward mission leader, and every Wednesday there is an activity just so that we can bring our people to meet other members and learn a little less formal. We have a chapel so we can teach in the church, and members are willing to give us rides home when it is late. We always have lunch, EVEN ON PDAY. Man. I am loving this ward. Right, back to the fhe. Ranan had a short lesson on Lehi´s dream and then we played a game called Peter, James, and John. We had three people there and a recent convert and the member that the said recent convert has decided to date. Two of our people were new this week and the other one is a guy who has come to church for months but when you call him, he always accepts the invite to go places and learn things but ends the conversation saying, "but I wont get baptized". I don't understand people. I was a little worried that Erick and Washington wouldn't be super into playing a game, because they're 24 and 23 year old guys who are too cool for school, but they both got super into it and laughed their heads off. Every time Erick lost, which was about every time, Washington would bust a gut laughing. He started crying he was laughing so hard. It was awesome. We went back last night to invite them to another fhe tonight and the first thing Washington asked was, Will there be another game? I love it. Then he told us that he had found the Book of Mormon that we had left Erick and he started reading it because he knew that it was us that had left it there. He asked if we could give him his own copy. 

This week we went to the temple. Let me tell you. I love that place. I miss being able to go more often. I had an awesome experience there. We were in the Celestial Room, praying to feel God´s love because that's what I have been studying and such this transfer too but I wasn't really feeling anything differently. So I started watching this woman that I had seen crying in the changing room. She got up and started walking to the door but stopped near me and just covered her face and started crying even harder. I got this super strong urge to hug her, I felt that Heavenly Father wanted to talk to her but that He wanted even more for her to feel His love. But I don't know her. So I fought with myself for a few seconds before just standing up and hugging her. She clung onto me and just sobbed and sobbed. She tried to tell me what was wrong, but through the tears, and she was whispering, I couldn't understand anything. Not that that matters. It was just important that she felt like somebody was there for her. In that moment, I had a thought pop into my head that just said, You aren't here today for you, you are here today for her. I don't know who this woman is, I highly highly doubt that I will see her again, but the love I felt for her in this moment was the strongest form of love I have ever felt in my life. I know that Heavenly Father was using me to tell her that it was all going to work out okay. How many times I have wished somebody would just get up and hug me when I feel alone, I cannot tell you. But I have a stronger testimony now that Heavenly Father uses the people around us to show us His love. 

We were walking to an appointment this week and went to make a contact with a woman on the corner and it turns out that she is from Venezuela. The government here is bringing planes full of them to the south to live because things there are really horrible. So we helped her find her way back home, because she was lost, and invited her to the ward activity that night, which she agreed to. When we went to pick her up, we started asking her about her life and such. She is here all by herself, she doesn't have a husband or any kids. She had gotten here that day. She speaks like I did the first few months here, broken up Portuguese with a little bit of Spanish, but it is easy to understand her and she understands everything if you talk slowly. She loved the activity on Wednesday and she showed up for church all by herself yesterday. I was so happy. Her name is Dalia, guess I could have mentioned that, hahah.

On Thursday, our whole district went to the other sisters' area to help them out a little bit. They had 14 people come to church last week but weren't able to go talk to all of them. So they gave everybody addresses and we just went out to talk to these people. I stuck with S Lazo, so she knew where she was going, but the elders just walked around asking people how to get to different streets. It was really fun and actually really affective. I enjoyed it a lot. 

So on the Sister Leader side of things.... it is really weird having to worry about areas that you have never been to with Sisters that you have never met, but it is good. Its fun because Sister Sandoval is in one of these areas so I get to call her and we are going to go on splits in a few weeks together. But it is also rough because one of our sisters lied to President Jones so there was an emergency transfer and I am sure that she knows that it was us that told him. Whoops, but what can ya do? I went on splits for the first time on this side of things and it is weird. Because it is normal but you have to ask a ton of questions and they always tell you things you weren't expecting so you know a lot more than you did and a lot more than you really want to. But that is my life at this moment.

We have gotten to know our weird neighbor this week. S Rodrigues was cleaning the bathroom and the broom fell out the window. When we went to go get it, it was no longer there, so we have been using his about every day until we get around to buying a new one. He has some really weird ideas about who God is. He tried to tell me how the USA was formed but it was a different story than what we are taught in history, but its good. He gave us cookies the other day, and he said he will make us dinner sometime which will be nice. Also, there were termites in S Rodrigues' chair so he was a dear and took care of those for us. He really is a nice guy, just a little off his rocker. 

During my splits with S Lazo, we went to talk to this couple that she had made a contact with. When we finished, we got up to leave, and the woman told us that we couldn't. We were like, what....? Her husband left to go to the store and she literally didn't let us leave until we had eaten bread with them. It was really strange, but it was really important to her that we ate with her. But I am a fan of bread, so I didn't complain too much, it was just strange.

Anywhos, I hope this email makes up for last week. I love you guys like crazy, I'm glad you had fun with Glenna and Nelson, I miss them.

Love you!   Sister Heiner 

This had a sign over it saying the path way

 to happiness but I think it was a little sketchy.

TEMPLE!!!

District attack.

A picture to show how 

much my hair has changed.

My feet tan lines are coming back hardcore.

How we teach the first lesson.