another week!!

January 26, 2015

Wow... this was probably the fastest week yet… and hottest! No, it's
always hot, except when it rains!, then the weather is comfortable,
haha. Speaking of last week, we did laundry and all of our clothes
were hanging up outside, we were in some neighborhood visiting our
investigators ,then we got on the bus to come home and it starts
DUMPING! It was raining so hard! and so we got off the bus and are
basically swimming back to our apartment. All of a sudden Sister Pense
looks at me wide eyed and goes ``NOSSAS ROUPAS!!!!`` hahaha, so our
clothes got a little extra rinse last week...

Also there's a girl who got baptized in October, her name is Ligia,
and she's so awesome!! She's 14 and loves going to lessons with us!
She also helps me with my Portuguese and it's really funny. We were at
her house once talking to her and her mom, her mom is just as awesome
as she is, and Ligia's mom was telling us about her mom and how her
mom is really closed minded and doesn't think she needs the church and
such, but she was really scared to give us her mom's address so we
couldn't really do anything. BUT, one day NONE of our investigators
were home so we were just clapping (yes clapping, not knocking..
weird, and very cool) at random houses and NO ONE was answering and
then we turned to walk away and who do we see? LIGIA!! and where is
Ligia going? TO HER GRANDMAS! So we went with her and taught her
grandparents and I bore my testimony and it was awesome and the spirit
was awesome and I was feeling so good and then all of a sudden her
grandma, Rosaline, turns to her husband and goes ``did you understand
any of that?``
.........................................................................
-_-
So obviously I was pretty down about my Portuguese and I was thinking
this was hopeless and that I'm never gonna learn anything in my life
(dramatic stuff) and then I was studying about diligence and somehow
found the scripture Matthew 10:20 ``For it is not ye that speak, but
the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you`` wow…it was kinda
like a smack in the face. Haha. But then later that night we were
teaching a lesson to this little girl who got baptized in December and
this was the first time her whole family has stayed to hear our
message (her dad is ALWAYS drunk) and as we were teaching the little 4
year old girl, Marcela was crying and people kept leaving and coming
back and it was really distracting. but then I started bearing my
testimony and since everyone has to focus super hard when I talk,
everyone stopped everything and just listened to me and it was dead
silent while I was talking and as Sister Pense says, ``the spirit was
exploding out of me`` so I definitely learned my lesson. Haha

Then we had divisions with the sister training leaders and Sister
Pense decided it would be a brilliant idea to have me stay here and
run the area.... hahahahahahaha yeah... Sister Barrett was my comp for
the day and let's see... we got on the wrong bus, were 3 hours late to
lunch... then all of our investigators weren't home after we walked
around in circles for a good 2 hours trying to find their
houses....yeah.... it wasn't a good idea. OH also, there's these
Charge candy bars here and they're basically a snickers and milky way!
and so I got some for me to eat when I do something cool and I had one
left that I was saving for when I really deserved it, and so I'm
eating dinner and Sister Barrett comes in holding the charge bar and
asks if she can have it........ and I said yes... then she ate it
right in front of me... and that was probably the worst thing that
happened the whole day....

Also one Elder in my district is from Terecena, but he knows English
pretty well, and the other day in English he told me ``you get more
black everyday, your parents aren't gonna recognize you!..... it's
okay... it happens to the best families.`` hahaha
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannd... thats all.
Sis Lloyd

CUIABAAAAAAAAAAAAA

well i arrived in cuiaba safe and sound. and hot. very very hot. haha then we went to the mission home and met all these people and then i hopped on a bus.... FOR 11 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!! to campo grande!!! luckily i was able to sleep during most of it...

my companion is sister pence and.... SHES AMERICAN!!!!!!!! ah i almost cried with joy when president reber told me that. shes awesome though. very hard working and loving, its perfect. she basically talks for me too. haha but brazilians are seariously so nice!!! i say ´obrigada` and they go off about how amazing my portuguese is. haha i actually had one girl ask me if i was british and her mom thought i was french because of my accent... it was pretty funny. also during one lesson the lady asked me to pray and i totally slaughtered her sons name... but the good news is i blessed the street. its rough. and i get really nervous and start to sweat (even more than i already am) whenever anyone speaks to me. hahah its awful. 

ive come to terms with the fact that im gonna be soaking wet every day either from the random rainstorms or from sweating. constantly. wet. oh also ive eaten rice and beans everyday and havent died!!! woo! seriously though i think thats all people eat here. also `everyone and their dog` has a whole new meaning.. theres dogs everywhere!! and on the way to church yesterday this little puppy hopped out of the bushes and started chasing us (he didnt make it all the way to the church since its an hour away...) and my feet are basically just two big blisters but tudo bem. :) haha i got rid of the dead skin on one blister and guess what? THERE WAS ANOTHER BLISTER UNDERNEATH IT!!!!!!!!!!!! why??? 

sister pence and i always look for any opprotunity to do any service, and so the other day there was this old lady carrying all these groceries and so we chased her down and sister pence yells ``CAN WE TEACH YOU??.... I MEAN HELP YOU?!´` and the lady looked really scared and was just like ``no, i dont need help!`` hahah we still laugh about it.

also at the beginning of the week we got a referal of a 13 yr old boy who i guess was saying he wanted to get baptized and so ALL week we were searching for him but he was never home because he was at his grandmas so later that week we found his grandmas house and he wasnt there... SO last night we prayed really hard that we would find him and guess what! WE DID! woop! he was home! and sister pence was like ``so i heard you wanna get baptized?`` and he said he was going to be baptized in either the catholic church or our church since his whole family is catholic and so sister pence was beautiful and said ``can we teach you more about our church so you can make a better decision?`` so we taught him and his two friends and his brother about the gospel and about baptism and all of them said theyd prepare to be baptized!! WOOP! except then vitor, the referal, said his mom wanted him to be baptized into the catholic church this week! no wonder satan was fighting so hard for us not to find him. but were going to visit them every day this week and keep our fingers crossed! 

but i love it here even if i cant understand anyone :)

tchau tchau!! 

sis lloyd
​​

2015

this week was pretty good!! the beginning of it started rough because the AC broke for a good couple days.. but then it got fixed and i was back to normal :) also theres a new district here of all brazilian elders ALL going to cuiaba the same day as me and every time they see me they fist pump and go "CUIABA!" its hilarious. and during choir the other night i heard a super quiet "cuiaba" so i turned around and one of the elders was like "HOW DID YOU HEAR THAT?!" and i just whispered "i always here cuiaba." but anyway their all hilarious and im glad i can somewhat communicate with them. haha

 

also we got new roommates this week and they both are 22 and make me feel like a giant!!!! theyre TINY!! but one of them is from Mato Grosso de Sul which is in the Cuiaba mission!! so she was telling me all about it and had me drink this weird drink and told me i was gonna drink it every day there. its basically plants and water... yum. OH also i had to bear my testimony in front of the whole CTM on sunday. in portugues. i felt like marz at maryannes wedding. (hahahaha) but the good news is my roommate told me she could understand every word i said so that was a relief!!

 

the best part of the day is physical activity. and theres a district thats been with us since we got here (they all left yesterday) and we had phyisical activity with them so it was awesome and we all were super good friends by the end. but anyway, one day this week before phyisical activity i was giving myself a pep talk in the mirror about my volleyball game and sister bunker did a little jig and sang "get your head in the game" while i was giving myself said pep talk. haha we laughed for awhile after that one. then during that same phyisical activity i was in the zone because of my peptalk so i was about to make the most amazing spike ever and two elders from the other district, elder silk and elder bench, were both going for the ball at the same time as me. i almost became a sandwhich and elder silk goes "oOHH!! you just had a brush with death sister!!!!" hahahahaha it was so funny.

 

another thing that happened, we usually have like "role play" teaching every day with our district and so s. walker was teaching e. summers about eternal families and such and she was in the middle of bearing his testimony and all of a sudden we heard like gun shots outside and e. summers eyes go huge and he goes "MINHA FAMILIA!!!" hahaha i was dying.

 

its crazy that this is my last week here!!! im freaking out!!

 

also apparently the "i love you" sign you make with your hands means "rock and roll" in brazil.

 

tchau tchau

 

sis lloyd