Week 11

Bom dia família e amigos!!

This week was SO amazing and FULL of miracles! I know that God hears and answers our prayers! 

on thursday we taught our investigator arthur. we asked him if he wants to be baptized and he said yes! then he told us that before we met, when he saw us in the american store, he already knew who we are. he had talked to the missionaries before, a few years ago, but he wasnt really ready to accept the gospel then. he said that he had a feeling he needed to talk to us, so he did! (he already recognizes and follows the promptings of the Holy Ghost!) he said that as he was talking to us he thought "i need the gospel in my life right now, i am ready to accept it" Next time we teach him we are going to set a date for his baptism! I am so thankful that God lead us to find arthur. and i am so thankful for the opportunity to help him come unto Christ! I know that God has a plan for ALL of His children. 

Our investigator Vanilza we have been teaching for a few weeks, but she has been going to church with her friend for a while. She kept saying that she didnt feel ready to be baptized, and we encouraged her to continue to pray about it. Sister Lee and i prayed a lot aswell for her to receive an answer. during our lesson with her on saturday, she said that she is ready to be baptized this month! she wants to be baptized on christmas day. I cant think of a better gift. It is so amazing that she knows what Christmas is all about! It is a day of rememberance of the birth of our Savior. on this day she wants to make a promise to follow Him. I have been thinking a lot, what will i give back to my savior for Christmas this year? He has done everything for me, what can i sacrifice for Him? I think this Christmas will be a very special one. 

also on saturday, we taught our first english class! it was really cool. there werent a ton of people there, but i think more people will come to the next one. i think it will be a great way to meet new people to teach and to help our investigators feel more comfortable in the church, and with the members. 

 we have two investigators, Carol e Beatriz, they are sisters,  and they will both be baptized this saturday. Sister Lee and i were a little worried about them because it is so difficult for them to focus during our lessons, and they rarely remember what we talked about after. (they are 14 and 11 years old) sister lee and i have started doing kind of a memory game with them after our lessons. they love it! it works so well to keep them engaged and remember everything! now we are just praying that beatriz will be able to give up coffe. shes 11 and she drinks four cups a day! hahaha we are praying a lot for her. 

This week my faith has increased so much! When i prayed for help, God helped me with everything! He answered our prayers about our investigators, and the prayers of our investigators. This week i tried to forget myself and focus more on serving and teaching these people. it was incredible how much the Lord took care of me! even with little things, i would say a little prayer and say "Heavenly Father im so tired, and hungry please give me energy" the next house we visited, they gave us food. also when we prayed for our investigators to feel ready for baptism, they did! The power of God is real! He knows each of us, loves each of us, and wants to bless us so badly. all we have to do is ask Him. 

alma 37:37-Turn to the Lord in everything you do!

Com amor, 

Sister Jones

Week 10

Olá!!

This week has been crazy and amazing, but here is my day by day:

segunda:

was my two month aniversary!! it was so cute my roommates surprized me with a little celebration. First they blindfolded me and poured flour and water on my head hahaha (they took a video and it is hilarious) then they had a cake and fresh mango juice (my favorite) and they bought me a mosquito net (because the mosquitos LOVE me.. hahaha they always say "you poor brancinha") and they wrote me notes it was so sweet! I felt so loved! also today we found a golden investigator! we met him at the lojas americanas (american store) and he is trying to learn english. he came up to us, and he already knew who we are.  he asked US if we would visit his house and teach him more! we definitely dont get that every day hahah. 

terça:

the funniest thing happened this morning, we went for our morning run, and sister seixas and sister deschamps came with us. I was running by myself and everyone else was sitting in the middle of the square stretching and all of the sudden five wild dogs start chasing me (there are wild dogs all over coité). i was SO scared! i seriously thought "today is the day that i get attacked by a pack of wild dogs. im going to die." i was sprinting in circles trying to out run them, and finally i ran towards sister lee because i didnt know what do do! all she did was stand up and the dogs ran off hahahaha. We were all cracking up I looked so ridiculous! sister lee said there were a ton of brazilians watching and laughing at me hahaha (again "poor brancinha"). sister lee and i have not stopped laughing about this all week hahaha. 

also today we visited a less active family. they have two teenage boys and a nine year old girl. they want to start coming back to church, but i think they dont know where to start. it took a lot of work, but we got the teenage boys to come to the church with us to play volley ball with all of the youth after our visit. It was amazing!! everyone was SO happy to see them and i could tell they felt really welcomed. it was such a sweet reunion. and then when bishop stopped by and saw them he was SO happy!! it made me so excited to help their whole family come back to church. 

quarta:

we taught the most amazing family today! their names are rita and tico, and they have two kids bruno and bruna (its normal here for brother and sister to have basically the same name hahah pretty confusing) they were so open with us and asked a ton of questions. the spirit was so strong. All i could think is how badly i want for their family to be sealed in the temple so they can be a forever family. 

quinta:

today we taught this girl named ana paula, she is 16 years old. she is a friend of one of the members of our ward. we gave her a book of mormon last week and invited her to read it and afterwards pray, and ask God if it is true. she did! and when i asked her how she felt she said "amazing!" she said that she said a prayer of gratitude for the book of mormon after. i asked her about what she read and she actually understood it and wants to learn more! i am so excited to teach her more!

seixta:

today we taught our golden investigator and it was amazing! his name is arthur. he was so excited to learn he wanted to know everything! the spirit was so strong. 

also today we went out with an irmão in our ward to teach some of his friends. he is SO dedicated to the gospel it is amazing! he told us that before his family moved to coité, he had a feeling that they needed to move. his whole family fasted and prayed and asked God if/where they needed to move and they all got the anwser that they needed to move to coité (they already had family here). They packed up and moved! the ward of coité really needed them! both the parents have leadership positions and serve SO much in the church. Irmão sergio is the choir director and he is in the bishopric também! they serve so much! it is such a good example to all of us!

sabado:

we visited a member of our ward today who is having a hard time. she is basically my mom here in coité i love her so much! even though i we cant communicate very well (she speaks really fast hahah) we communicate heart to heart. I loved doing service for her! 

Domingo:

today was amazing! we had 5 investigators in church and EVERYONE in our ward welcomed them so much! even the little children shook their hands and gave them hugs it was so sweet! i am SO thankful for my ward! 

This week was so amazing! i am learning so much and i love these people more and more every day! I am so thankful to be here doing the Lords work. 

com amor, 

Sister Jones

Week 9

Oi tudo mundo!

Today is my two months!! I cant believe it time has FLOWN by! I feel like i left for Brazil yesterday! these two months have honestly been the happiest of my life. I have never felt closer to my Savior, I have never felt more love, and i have never felt more joy than knowing that i am doing the Lords will. Helping others to come unto Christ is the best work in the world. This is for sure the hardest thing i have ever done but it is the best thing i have ever done! 

We taught so many people this week! one of my favorite lessons was when we taught Ana Paula. she has two little children and her husband died. we taught her about the plan of salvation and i could  tell the spirit was touching her heart. her eyes lit up as we taught that she can see her husband again and live with her family forever. It is so amazing to share this good news with others!! 

I am learning how to teach by the spirit! this week we were teaching a woman named tamazia. I was having a hard time understanding what she was saying, but i knew we were talking about prayer, and she asked a question. the thought came to my mind "maybe she doesn't know how to pray" i looked at sister Lee and she nodded for me to say what i was thinking. I began to explain simply how we pray and i was right, she had never prayed before! later sister lee told me that in that moment she had the same prompting, but for some reason she couldn't think of the words! I am so thankful for the Lords help every day! The gift of tongues is real. so many times while i am teaching, words are brought to my memory that i didn't know i knew! 

Sister lee is helping me SO much! every day i teach something new and i struggle so much to explain sometimes, but the spirit helps my investigators understand. and sister lee is always right there waiting to help me if im really stuck. I am SO thankful for sister lee! i don't know how i got so lucky to have her, she is an amazing trainer!

yesterday was an amazing day! before church we went to houses of some of our investigators to bring them to church and everyone made up excuses for why they couldn't come. I just wanted to say "after all the savior did for you, and you cant give him even one hour to take the sacrament?!" i was a discouraged. but when we arrived at church, two of the inactive members we have been working with were there! it was so amazing to see how happy they were! and 7 of our other investigators ended up coming to church! it was a miracle! half of them were brought by members of our ward. I am SO thankful for our ward! they are all such good missionaries. they know the gospel is true, and they share it with everyone. there is no greater joy. everyone here loves everyone, and because they love each other they share the restored gospel! 

something that is hilarious about Brazil is everyone loves English, but they dont understand it. all of the clothes, and accessories have English words on them. for example there is an old man in our ward and the other day he was wearing these shorts that said in huge letters "bad boy" hahahaha sister lee and i were DYING. also, our friend manuela got a new phone this week and she was showing us her phone case. it had writing in English "legendary beer" and she asked what it meant and i told her "Beer!" her mom just about had a heart attack hahahaha her mom was just screaming at her in Portuguese and i was dying laughing hahah. the people here are so funny. we laugh a lot together. 

I am learning so much and gaining so much perspective about what is really important! these people really know what is important. i am so thankful for the opportunity to learn from them. 

yesterday in church i was looking at all of the families in our ward and how much they love each other. i was really missing my family. then the man giving a talk explained that our Heavenly Father misses us! all He wants to do is wrap His arms around us and hug us. He wants SO badly for us to return to His presence. i realized that the feelings of saudade i have for my family right now, Heavenly father feels for all of us! The least i can do for Him is spend 18 months apart from my family, in order to help some of His children return to Him. Never forget how much your Heavenly Father loves you! 

1 nephi 8:24 hold to the iron rod and dont let the mists of darkness in your path lead you away from our savior. 

Com amor, 

Sister Jones

all of the missionaries leaving the CTM for salvador! (im for sure the only american hahahah)

me and sister lee and our agua de coco!

[She titled this one "My cute little house." Ashley thinks she is so funny, its not really her house!]

Week 8

Olá amigas e família!

I am in LOVE with Coité. I never want to leave. it is the cutest little town and everyone here is so happy! sundays are my favorite day because i get to see all of the ward members and they are all so sweet. Coité is already starting to feel like home. I LOVE my companion sister lee and my roommates sister dechamps and sister seixas. my roommates dont speak english so it is kinda difficult to communicate sometimes but we always get a good laugh out of it hahah. Today they taught me how to make brazilian pancakes! they arent really pancakes at all hahah. I love preparation day because we get to bond so much! and we get to go shopping and all of the fruit here is AMAZING!!! with every meal we drink juice and its always fresh fruit blended up i love it so much. 

this week we worked so hard! today is much needed. Sister lee and i made a goal to really share the gospel with everyone and we talked to so many people!!! sister lee made me have a full conversation by myself too. it was so difficult but i did it!! I am learning so much portuguese! sister lee pushes me so much to go out of my comfort zone and it helps me so much! this week two of our investigators commited to be baptized on the 12 of december! i am so excited for  them! 

this week we met the most amazing family. the moms name is valda and she has 4 little children. they are all so sweet. they are really humble and were really excited to hear our message about jesus christ. I taught the oldest one how to pray and it was such a sweet experience. we are going to teach them again tomorrow and i cant wait! 

the people here are just so amazing! I feel so blessed to be serving here! everyone takes us in and just loves us. every time we stop by a house to ask for help finding someone, they say "come in and sit down! do you want water, cake, anything? oh its so hot let me get a fan for you!" total strangers! everyone in this town just loves everyone. i have so much to learn from them. sister lee and i were cracking up because on saturday all the missionaries in our zone fasted, and EVERYONE offered us cake. all day! seriously we came home with 3 different cakes that day and now our fridge is just full of it hahaha. 

this week i have been learning a lot about faith and hope. this past week i struggled to have faith in my investigators. it is kinda rare that they keep their commitments and i found myself just expecting the worst. i realized that i need to believe in them and hope for the best!! if i dont have faith in them how can i help them? this week i made a goal to have hope and faith in my investigators, and more faith in Christ. 

pray for my investigators! love everyone and listen to the promptings of the spirit!

Com amor, 

Sister Jones

Week 7--AND PICTURES!

Oi amigos e família!!!

this week has AMAZING!! i am SO happy!

i left the ctm on terça-feira [Tuesday] and arrived in Salvador, where we had a "transfer meeting" with all of the missionaries who are serving in Salvador, who changed areas this week as well. it was so fun! Brazilian's have so much energy! i got to meet my mission president and his wife and they are amazing. at this meeting they reveal everyone´s companions and areas where they will be serving for the next 2-6 months. my companion is Sister Lee. I LOVE HER. she is from Spokane, Washington! shes already fluent in Portuguese and doesn't really remember English so we speak Portuguese almost always. the other day she was giving me a break and we were speaking English for a little bit and she asked me "como se diz dois e meia?' (how do you say 2:30?)  i was cracking up hahah. she helps me with my Portuguese so much and i am so thankful! I'm learning so much from her. she is such a good missionary and example to me. we get along so well! i seriously couldn't imagine a better trainer. i am so thankful for her! every time i pray i thank God for her. 

i am serving in a little town called Coité! i LOVE it here. seriously it is a wonderful place! the people here are SO humble. i strive to be like them every day. EVERYONE here loves Jesus! it is actually funny, pictures of Jesus are EVERYWHERE. the other day i saw a car, and the spare tire case one the back of it was a picture of Jesus hahah. 

 i love the people in our ward! they are SO loving!! they greeted us when we got of the bus and had cleaned our house for us and put food in the fridge and are always trying to help us and feeding us it is so nice! the people here don't have a lot, but they are the most generous people you will ever meet. a girl in our ward named tais is especially awesome, she has been helping us a lot. we are the first sisters to serve in this area for a while so we are "opening the area." its difficult because we don't know where anything is, where anyone lives, who people are, etc. we have been walking a lot hahaha. but it is also really fun! our ward is really excited to have sisters! yesterday at church was one of my favorite days every! i think i was hugged by every single irmã and shook hands with every irmão. they all love each other so much! i have never seen such a tight knit ward before. i am loving it here so much!!! i have never felt closer to the Lord. i rely on him every second of the day. i wouldn't be able to do this without Help. the first few days were physically difficult for me, but still so amazing because i am here! my body does not like Brazil at all.. haha but my spirit LOVES it here. i am SO thankful to serve in this town with these people, and to have such an amazing companion! 

trust in the Lord with all your heart! 

com amor, 

Sister Jones

this is me and sister madarani! my last companion, at the CTM

these are all the sisters in my district at the ctm

 this is my CTM district at the campinas temple

Week 5

this week has been so fun!!! in one week i will be in salvador teaching people! it is so crazy how fast my time at the CTM has already gone by!! i am SO excited to finally get to salvador!! i have been praying for these people for months and months and i already love them so much and i just cant wait to meet them and serve them and teach them about the gospel that can change their life! it has been really fun because a bunch of brazilians got here a week ago who are going to salvador aswell and we all sit together at lunch and all of the brazilians chant "SALVADOR SALVADOR" and fist pump its pretty funny! i love it because we are already a big family and i cant wait to serve with them out in the mission field!! 

 i keep switching back and forth between being nervous and not, but i know that God will help me through every step of the way! as long as i am obedient to God´s commandments, and the promptings of the Holy Ghost, i can be a successful missionary. and the people of salvador, ive heard, are AMAZING. people say that the further northeast you get, the more kind and humble and loving the people get. and i already LOVE the people in são paulo!! 

whenever i tell brazilians that i am going to salvador, they seriously just crack up at me because im so white! well all of the elders and irmãos do, but when i tell a sister or irmã, they get really concerned look on their face and say "sister, você PRECISA protecão do sol!!!" its pretty funny. i just say 'i know i know, eu tenho!"

i love my brazilian roommates right now!! they are so loving! and we told them one time that we were a little nervous about going to the mission field and speaking portuguese and now every time they talk to us they tell us that our portuguese is really good and hug us a lot and look us in the eyes and say "como você está?" because now they think that were about to burst into tears any minute or something hahah. it is so sweet how they want to help us feel comfortable in their country?

sister madarani and i are a power companionship!!! i am going to miss her a lot. our lessons have been going really well!! we are a very good team! she helps me out a lot. i am going to miss her a lot next week, but i will get to see her a couple times throughout the mission becase were both going to salvador! this week we are doing a 7 day english fast together. probably one of the most difficult goals i have set. but we have been very successful so far!! i am starting to think in portuguese, and now i always pray in portuguese even my personal prayers! i can feel God´s help with this language SO much!!! i am so thankful! 

this week i have been learning a lot about obedience. every day at the ctm they tell us that we need to be exactly obedient!! i didnt really understand why until recently. when we are exactly obedient, God trusts us and gives us promptings through the Holy Ghost. when we obey these, we receive more! i have had wonderful experiences with this this week. 

the biggest challenge right now with obedience is helping other sisters be obedient! haha since i am a sister training leader, i am responsible for making sure the sisters go to bed on time, and are in their rooms on time, etc. my first couple weeks of  reminding the sisters in the bathroom "cinco minutos sisters!" everone ignored me but now they listen and they are in their rooms on time! the other day one of the brazilian sisters saluted me hahahha. and now whenever i see sisters around, they say to me "cinco minutos sisters!" and wink at me hahah. brazilians are so funny i love them all! 

até a mais!

com amor,

sister Jones

Week 4

This week was so amazing!!! on friday we went proselyting out on the streets and it was SO AMAZING!!!! I LOVE BRAZILIANS SO MUCH!!!! every single person i talked to was SO kind! people are so loving here! everyone treats me like family, even if i am just meeting them for the first time! i love it here so much!!  

before we left to go proselyting, i was really really nervous!! i didnt think i had any chance at being able to communicate with these people! but when i was sitting on the but, a brazilian lady sat next to me and the still small voice told me to "open my mouth." i did! and i am SO glad that i did!! she was the most kind lady and i am so thankful that i met her! she was so grateful for my message about the gospel of jesus christ! she started reading the book of mormon right then and there and i could just see in her eyes how much she needed it, and the light it was already bringing to her life!! 

I LOVED talking to people on the streets in são paulo!!! i was a little scared to approach some of the people who didnt have a happy look on their face, but as sister madarani and i started talking to them about jesus christ, i could see their hearts soften right in front of us!! and we were actually able to communicate with them!! brazilians speak VERY fast so it is really difficult to understand every word, but as we spoke with them, God helped us understand what is in their hearts. I am so thankful for God´s help! i really couldnt get through any second of the day without Him. i am constantly praying for His help, and to feel His love. 

I have been working really hard this week because i am realizing that i only have 2 weeks to prepare for the mission field! at that point ill probably have a brazilian companion who doesnt speak any english! i am doing an english fast every day this week! i let myself speak english to the new sisters so i can help them but other than that, "somente português!!" my district loves to say "português até o fim!" hahah. i am SO tired!! and it is really frustrating sometimes not being able to express myself, but all the hard work is really paying off!1 the more portuguese i speak, the more God helps me and i can really feel the gift of tongues!!! it is AMAZING! miracles still happen today! 

I am SO thankful for my calling!!!! bign sister training leader has blessed me SO much! i love getting to know the new sisters and helping them. i feel SO much love for them!!! the new sisters that came in last week are especially amazing. they work so hard! on their second day i was talking to one of them and she says to me "posso falar ingles por favor?" hahahah (may i speak english please?) i was shocked. she had already been speaking português ALL day!! hahah and she didnt even know much at all hahah. they are very sweet. 

i have one last story that i really love. 

this elder who is companions with the zone leader shared this story during a leadership meeting, he has a speech impediment and really struggled to even tell us this story in english. but he said that when they went proselyting he was REALLY scared. he said "i can barely speak my native language! how can i speak to a brazilian in portuguese?!" but while he was on the bus, he made a reallly big effort to talk to the man sitting next to him. he said that he could barely communicate anything! he said "all i said was `outside-hot. i no like hot" hahaha but then the man sitting next to him looked at the books he was holding and just grabbed one of the book of mormons and started reading it! God knows when we are doing our best, and He is AWLAYS willing to help us. 

I love you all! and i am having the most AMAZING TIME OF MY LIFE!!! I am learning and growing so much!! this is the best decision i have ever made!! I LOVE BRAZIL AND THESE PEOPLE!!!

Com amor, 

Sister jones

Week 3

OLÁ FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!

this week has been so short!!! i cant believe i have already been here for 3 weeks!! im halfway done with my time at the CTM!!! i am learning SO much portuguese it is amazing. sister madarani and i dont even need to look at our notes really when we are teaching a lesson!! especially the past few days i have been noticing God´s help with portuguese. in my lessons the investigator will ask me something and somehow i understand and am able to respond clearly. it amazes me every time! i never know how much portuguese i really know until i am teaching a lesson! i dont know how this would be possible at all without God helping me along. yesterday sister madarani and i did an english fast. we went the whole day without speaking english!! (except we took a break at dinner for our own sanity haha) it was EXHAUSTING!!! it is so draining to have to think so hard about every single sentence you say. it is worth it though because speaking the language is the best way to learn it! i have seen so many blessings for hard work. I am so thankful for prayer, and the strength that comes from it because it is really HARD work here!!! 

this morning we went to the campinas temple and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! except the bus driver got VERY LOST on the way there and it ended up taking over 3 hours for a 90 minute drive hahah. i took a nap in the begginning and woke up to the bus driver completely stopped on the freeway, then he started BACKING UP because he missed the exit he was supposed to take hahahha it was unreal. everything is very different here!!!

the temple was so worth it though!! i am so thankful for the peaceful spirit there. i feel Gods love so strongly. the temple is one of the best parts of the week! when we drove back to the CTM the whole drive was through jungle it was so cool!! I LOVE BRAZIL!!!

on the fourth week at the CTM you go proselyting on the actual streets of são paulo just you and your companion and it totally snuck up on me we are going in TWO DAYS!!! I am freaking out!!! i m excited and really nervous. 

this week has been a rollercoaster! mostly good!! the hardest thing is my companion has been having a really hard time. i have been trying to keep the mood positive but it is really difficult!! i am so thankful for all of the advice dad gave me from his mission. i know that being christ like is my first priority, when i do that everything works out. 

Every day here gets better and better and i am SO excited to get to salvador and start teaching people about the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!! i CANT wait to meet the people in salvador i have heard amazing things about them already!! I LOVE IT HERE!!! i have truly never been happier in my life. 

com amor, 

Sister Jones

Week 2

This week was amazing!! I really love it here! the "investigator" we were teaching last week became our teacher and he is awesome!!! he hardly speaks any english, but the other day we caught him singing alejandro by lady gaga to himself we were all cracking up ahahahah. We are really busy!! we teach about two lessons a day and the rest of the time we are either preparing lessons, in a portuguese lesson or studying more. i am picking up portuguese so fast!!! it is really amazing. the gift of tongues is real! 

i LOVE my calling!!! i felt really inadequate and unsure about it earlier this week, but after praying about it, i got the answer to just love the sisters! thats really all i need to focus on. Im so glad that my mom was such an amazing example to me as young womens president now i know exactly how to make people feel loved and find out what their needs are. I am LOVING getting to know the new sisters and some more are coming in today! being a sister training leader has been the most amazing experience!!

our brazilian roommates left last night and i am so sad!!! i loved them so much we had so much fun together! we even had inside jokes with them hahah. they would always laugh at us because whenever they say something to us and we dont understand we just go "tudo bem!" which pretty much means "its all good" and can be used in almost any situation. everytime they see us they go "tudo bemmmmmm!" and then we all crack up hahah. the night before they left they were lecturing us about learing more words than tudo bem ahaha. I LOVE BRAZILIANS!!! they are so fun and happy and whenever i talk to one it makes me 10x happier! it is so cool having friends from all over the world here, argentina, peru, england, africa, etc. i will never have an expericence like this again so i am trying to really appreciate it!!

i LOVE MY DISTRICT so much!!! we have gotten so close! we are already bestfriends. there is so much love in our classroom. at the leadership meeting this week, our branch president said that the second he walked into our classroom, he could feel the spirit so strongly and knew that we had so much love for eachother!! we are all so different and balance eachother out perfectly! about a week ago i had us start doing a positive circle every night and it has helped us so much!!! it is the elders favorite part of the day! hahah its so cute they get SO excited about it hahaha. Shoutout to Brian and Dirk for teaching me to end the day on a positive note it is making a difference all across the world! hahah 

I feel Gods love for me so much every single day! it is amazing! i know that this is exactly where i am supposed to be and i have honsetly never been happier! it brings me so much peace to know that i am doing what God wants of me and the blessigns are AMAZING!! i have never felt so much love in  my life! 

my birthday was on monday and it was also dia de crenças (childrens day) and it was so fun!! we walked into breakfast and there were huge balloons EVERYWHERE and the cooks were dressed up as clowns and giving out bala (candy) and wearing neon afros it was HILARIOUS they were so into it and so happpy!!! we were all joking that it was my birthday party hahaha 

i was feeling so loved! the elders wrote me the nicest note!! and i got lots of love. it is amazing how many true friends i have made in such a short time.

I LOVE BRAZIL AND THE CTM AND MISSIONARY WORK!!! never forget how much got loves you and wants you to ask for His help! He will always be with you if you keep a prayer in your heart. 

con amor, 

Sister Jones

Week 1

Oi amigos e familia!!

 

i have been here fo one week today! it flew by! tiem goes by so fast here, but it feels like i have been here for a month! i love it here so much!! its bvery different from america. i am spending my first 6 weeks at the missionary training center (CTM in portuguese) in são paulo to learn portuguese and how to be a missionary. the CTM is beautiful!!! it is in the city and we have the most beautiful view out our bedroom window! there are trees and colorful flowers everywhere i look  it feels like paradise. on november 10th i will leave the CTM for salvador and start teaching people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  

 

my companion is named sister madarani. (Missionary girls are called sister and guys are called elder+ their last name) I LOVE sister madarani!!!! we have so much fun together and work well as a team. she is from england and even though ive only known her for a week i love her so much!! in my district there are 4 sisters and 5 elders. I love my district so much!! we are all very different. we get distracted very easily, but we have been improving a lot in that area! the elders are a lot less mature than i was expecting haha but i am really impressed with how hard they have been trying to be bettter! they really want to do their best and learn portuguese! they are all very sweet. every night they say "we love you sisters!" we do everything together as a district. we spend about 9 hours a day in our class room, learning about missionary work , in portuguese. we have personal, language, and companionship study for about three hours in the morning, then after lunch we have class with our instructor for three hours. it is a really long class because we are only allowed to speak portuguese and our teacher doesnt speak english. our teacher is named irmão (or "brother") oliveira. he is awesome!! he makes that three hour class as fun as possible. he is really funny and helpful with learning the language. he kind of acts out everything he says to help us understand and sometimes its super funny. brazilians also use a ton of sound affects hahah. we also have a teacher named irmã (or "sister") liahonna. i LOVE her. she is SO funny and kind! everytime i see her it brightens my day! 

 

portuguese is the primary language here at the CTM and all of the announcements and everything are given in portuguese! its kind of intimidating but im starting to understand. we had a devotional last night in portuguese and they let us have headsets and they had a brazilian man translate it to english for us and his attempt was so funny. like five times throughout the devotional he would let out a long sigh or go "uhhhhhhhh..." hahaha. 

 

every day during our studies in the morning, we prepare a lesson for our "investigator" named Yago. we teach yago almost every evening. sister madarani and i always joke that we are accidentally gonna call him yoga during one of the lessons hahaha. it helps a lot to practice teaching him. our last lesson was a huge mess and ended with him saying "mi batismo fue FAKE?!?!" we swear that he said "fake" in english just to make it more dramatic hahahha. we were like "não!! não!!" but we couldnt figure out how to explain it to him. 

 

on my fifth day here, my branch president called me to be sister training leader! im terrified.. i have no idea what im doing!! haha. basically that means that i am assistant district leader and leader of all the girls in my branch and i run releif society on sundays. i have been praying a lot about how i can help these girls! and i keep reminding myself that God qualifies who He calls! 

 

the food here is pretty weird honestly hahha. every morning for breakfast they have bananas and slices of ham and cheese, and then fresh rollls. you make a sandwich and put it in a panini press. its the same every day! and yesterday for dinner they gave us hotdogs and the lady put mashed poatoes and potatoe chips on it hahah weird but kinda good. 

 

one of the best things about being here is all of the people. there are people from ALL OVER the world!!!! i absolutely LOVE brazilians. from the second i sat next to one on the plane, i knew that i would love them. they are SO friendly and wonderful. I especially love my two brazilian roommates, sister silva and sister dos santos. they are amazing!! it is so funny trying to communicate with them we always crack up. we pray together in portuguese every night and the spirit is so strong!!! its so weird that i love them so much even though we cant communicate very well. 

 

it is CRAZY how well we are all picking up portuguese!!! after one week, i already know so much!!!! every day we have an hour long "english fast" where we only speak portuguese. we usually do this during meal times. my goal is to do a full day english fast on saturday!! i LOVE portuguese. sometimes it can get really frustrating, but i have  only been learning it for a week! there is no way that God isnt helping all of us because it is truly amazing the miracles that are happening with learning the language. I have learned more in a week here, than i did in four years of spanish! every night i try to sleep but i cant for about an hour because there are hundreds of portuguese words running through my head! it is so weird!! I aboslutely love it here!! it is really hard work , there are a lot of difficult things. but there are SO MANY amazing things!!! every day i am reminded over and over of why i am here. Even though it can be stressful, and hard work, it is the Lord's work, so it is completely worth it. I feel His love al the time. He truly is on my left and my right. I love my savior!! and I LOVE being a missionary!!

 

 

com amor, 

Sister Jones

Day 1

Hi family!! 

I made it here safe! everything went smoothly except the phones in atlanta didnt work! sorry that i couldnt reach you guys. I love it here!!! I am SO happy to be here! I can already feel myself growing closer to my savior and learning what is REALLY important. I love you guys!! hope you are all doing well :) 

My pday will be wednesday so i will get to email you guys again a week from today. My companion is named sister madarani and she is so cool!! she has lived all over the world and cracks me up. I can tell we are going to have a lot of fun together! She is serving in salvador too! she has friends who have served in this mission and said that we will be showering out of buckets sometimes. That made me feel a lot better about the condition of the showers here hahah. 

The flights were pretty long but im so happy to finally be here! in atlanta I walked towards my gate and I saw a group of people dressed up and I went up to them and was like "are you guys missionaries?" and theyre like yeah! whats your name!! it was so weird hahah. there were missionaries all over the airport. 

Today we havent really done much except travel and unpack and eat. We have classes later today, and I just found out that we will be teaching a lesson in portuguese TOMORROW.. wow thats intimidating. 

It is so different than I expected here but I really love it!! It still hasnt really "hit" me that im here but i dont know that/when it will. I have just felt so calm about everything its weird because im never calm! what justin said about the walls around houses with sharp stuff at the top was totally true even teh mtc has it! 

When I open the window in my room we have a full on view of the skyline of the city and its so beautiful. but its for sure not a rich city, its really colorful though! just like the pictures! 

I love being around all of these new elders and sisters and feeding off of their spirits. I have so much to learn from all of them! its kinda weird because everyone seriously only speaks portuguese! im starting to get used to it though and kind of pick up on it a little bit. 

I sat next to this lady on the plane who lives in america now but she is from brazil and i LOVED her!!! she was so sweet and it just made me so excited to get here and meet all of the people. What everyone has been saying about brazilians is totally true!! they are so open and friendly. There were several brazilians on the flight with us that just took us in kind of. They kept giving me advice and trying to be my mom hahaha. They were so worried about us staying safe in this country. I love love love these people already! I am SO blessed to have been called to this mission. I can already tell that it is the best thing I have ever done. 

I love you guys!!!

-Sister Jones