Campo Grande 2-3-13 to 2-10-13

"Oi!"

"Well, it´s been another busy week! As always. Hmm.... what happened this week? Not much out of the ordinary. We met new people, we taught new people, we had hopes for new people, and we saw some of those hopes turn realities, while others fell out of our planners and into the area book. Yep. Just another normal week here. Not really much else happened. Oh, I got to hold a parrot! This girl passed by a house we were visiting and she had a pet parrot and we got to hold it. I think maybe I´ll just have to get one when I return home. And teach it Portuguese, lol. But then again it would get tiring after a while because sometimes they can be like a telephone marketer that won´t stop talking, lol."

"...let me know if there will be more winter or if spring will come! Haha! Yeah, gotta admit, it´s been really hot here this past week. I´m getting ready to have a nice winter here. (Winter hopefully meaning that it will cool down to the 70´s lol) But all in all, I hear that I´m really lucky to be here in Campo Grande because it really is nice sometimes when we have a cool breeze or a storm rolls in it cools down to the perfect temperature for walking around in short-sleeves. Quite nice."

"As for the Portuguese, it´s coming. Slowly, but surely. I think it´s just difficult for me to have patience for myself and also the humility required to be corrected every time I speak. But i´m learning. It´s really getting better. I was frustrated at first because I was trying so hard, but it was just something that I just didn´t know how to express myself. I think that´s the problem with babies sometimes. They try so hard to express that they want something and nothing comes out, so they just get so frustrated that they start to cry, lol. But at least I know enough words that I don´t start to cry, lol. But a lot of people (members and missionaries who know other American missionaries) all say that I´m learning fast and well. So it´s encouragement, but still hard for me to have patience with myself. It also helps with the other sisters in my area as one Brazilian is fluent in English as well, so she helps me a lot. It is really nice. Oh, and as for dreaming in Portuguese, idk that I´m that fluent yet, but I had a dream that I was teaching a lesson to a lady and asking her about what she knew about Joseph Smith. She expressed that she knew ´nada, nada´, and I realized that she meant that she didn´t understand anything because I had asked her in English. Oops. So then I had to re-teach and ask about Joseph Smith in Portuguese. So it was weird in my dream how I recognized the different languages. And I´ll see if I dream more in Portuguese now."

"we stopped by the fair the other day! One of our investigators works there selling pastel (fair-food). Turned out he wasn´t working that day, but it was still cool to pass through and eat our pastel while listening to the samba music with the cool drums and everything."

"Other than that, the city is getting ready for Carnival. I hear it isn´t that big here in Campo Grande, so we won´t have many problems with our regular work, but the stores were packed with costumes and party items, so it was fun as I kindof skipped Halloween, lol."

"Minha semana foi muito bem. Mas eu não trabalhei muito,eu cinto. Só porque minha companheira estava saindo então ela precisava de arrimar as malas e também visitou muitos membros. Mas eu vou receber uma outra companhiera terca-feira. Então, vou continuar!

And as for everyone other than Dad, lol, this week was good. As my companion was leaving we visited with a lot of members and got everything together for her. She shipped off Saturday night and my new companion will arrive Tuesday morning. So yesterday I stuck with the other Sister in my ward and with a Sister in the next area over who is by herself until her companion arrives as well. So we went to both churches yesterday. (yep, that´s six hours of church yesterday, lol) and we´ll spend p-day together today."

"Things here are really up and down. One minute it´s great with your investigators, and the next, you have no one. The no one week was this one. No, we have investigators, but no one was at church yesterday. One problem is carnaval. It´s really not big here. I couldn´t tell much of a difference other than maybe more people in the bars and more loud music than usual, but really it´s not big here. But the problem is that people here travel to other places where it is big. So, we had hardly anyone at church yesterday, and a lot of people in the area are travelling. So I´ll really see what the area is like in about two weeks because when I arrived in November, everyone began travelling for Christmas, all through December, January was worse, and then through carnaval now in February. But after that school will start again and life will continue to a normal status that I have yet to see."

"So I´m just now getting to the point where I´m tired of rice and beans. Every day. But I know I´ll just get sick of it and sick of it, but then I´ll just get into the habit of eating it every day and soon my body will feel weird without it. Just getting used to it takes time. Oh, and here, we generally eat brown beans with rice. Black beans are more rare and more expensive. So it´s generally brown beans. Rice and beans and meat. Yep. A lot of rice and beans and meat."

"So this transfer I´ll stay in Jardim Imá (the same ward in Campo Grande). Another Brazilian Sister will be my companion. She´s been in Cuiabá for a long time, so it was  pretty  clear that she´d move down to Campo Grande. But as I don´t know much about here yet, I´ll let you know more next week."

"Oh, and Happy Valentines Day!! :P Here they celebrate it on a different day of the year, but all the same, have a great one!

Sister Grimes"

Campo Grande 1-20-13 to 1-27-13

"Greetings once more from Campo Grande!"

"So this week flew by. We had our two confirmations, and it was really special. I could feel the Spirit testify that they have entered in by the gate and are on their way to become strong members in the church. We also have a date for their older brother to be baptized this Sunday. I don´t have a doubt that their whole family will join the church in a short time. I´m really excited as this is a really special family whose single mother has taught each of her four children to have faith and believe in God. They are truly a special family that I can see going on and serving in many callings in the church, including at least three future missionaries!"

"Splitting the area with the other sisters really helps. We´ve been able to spend less time walking and more time teaching or contacting. We´ve also had our investigators cut in half, so a lot of contacting to find new people, but this is a common story here as we have a lot of lessons, but not many people truly interested, so we have to move on to find more. It´s moving along though!"

"So as for things here, there are quite a few things here in Campo Grande that they don´t have in Cuiaba due to the fact that it´s closer to the Pantanal here, so  they have a lot of tourist things for the jungle there. Things like t-shirts with the jaguars and native tropical birds and such. It´s kind of cool, but yeah, I don´t want to just buy everything here. It´s kind of hard though as my companion is finishing her mission this transfer, so all she wants to do is visit people, and shop for things. But it´s also been good to see all that´s out there to really wait and decide exactly what I want. Oh, and my companion already said she´ll buy me a real northeastern hammock that is apparently much better than the hammocks here, though I wouldn´t be able to tell the difference, lol."

" I just celebrated my four month mark on the mission. Crazy how time flies."

"So, another week passed by. They´re starting to go by faster as I´m getting into the hang of things. This week we had another baptism! One of the two older brothers of the two who were baptized two weeks ago. It was really special. He has a great testimony and will be a great missionary (when he gets there, lol. Right now he´s 15) We´re also working a lot with their mom who should probably be able to be baptized in the next transfer as she´s already been to church about 4 times. And the oldest boy will stop working once school starts again in a couple weeks and will get to sleep earlier than 3 am and hopefully it will be possible for this 17 year old to wake up Sunday mornings, lol. So this family is really special and I´m so glad my companion and I have the opportunity to get to know them and help them in their journey to return to live with our Heavenly Father once again. They already have a lot of faith and no doubt will be a strong family in the gospel."

"This week I also had the privilege to try out a couple new things. Mainly with corn. I don´t know why, but I found out that I don´t really like cold corn. One member gave us a thing to eat that I can´t remember the name of. I´ve had it before in the US. The spanish branch makes it a lot. With the corn husks around and meat and stuff in the middle. Usually served hot. It´s really good. But this was different. In that it didn´t have any meat inside, was mainly just corn (mashed and kernels) and was cold and more sweet. So... I didn´t like it very much. lol. Also, I tried out a popsicle that was corn flavored. Just saying, it was gross. But it was given to me by a different member, so I ate it all. But just saying, I like corn pops, but just as long as it´s cereal, lol."

"The transfer here ends soon. We have two more weeks to go. I´ve spent two transfers here in Campo Grande, but will probably stay as my companion is leaving and so is another one of the sisters in our ward (she´s here on a mini-mission just for the transfer) so we´ll probably get two new sisters and I´ll stay to have someone in each companionship who knows the area. But then, who knows.  It´s still all up to the Lord and where I need to be. But we´re getting 4 or 5 new American sisters from the CTM, so basically all the Brazilians will be training. So, it´ll be interesting to see what happens."

"I love you all and wish you all the best in everything you are doing."

"Sister Grimes"

Campo Grande 12-29-12 to 1-6-13

"Greetings once again from Brazil!"

"So this week was a hard one. We managed to get in more lessons than normal, but many of them were with less-active members (we have a lot of them here) and many of them don´t have the drive to return. Also, our investigators kind of all fell. We´ve had some regulars that have difficulty with baptism because they can´t be legally married yet or they are trying to stop an addiction, but none of our regulars were at church yesterday. So that was sad. But we just have a lot of work to do this week. Also, the lady we had set for baptism this Sunday turned out to leave the city for a week and a half to go travelling with her family. Sad day. But it´s kind of the story of this place. Everyone goes travelling during these weeks. Travelling and partying. The bishop wanted to start something with the ward, but will wait until the second week of January for everything to be at least somewhat normal. And then is carnival in February. That will be interesting."

"So despite the disappointments, my language is still coming. Slowly, but surely. I can understand more and more each week. And my companion helps me. Her name is Sister de Oliveira. This is her last transfer, so she´s pretty trunky. We just finished one transfer together and started our next. She´s already got her date in February to fly home. She was with another sister before me who finished her mission and my companion kind of finished it with her. But with me she´s more excited and willing to work again, so we´re doing our best."

"...hopefully next week I´ll have a baptism to talk about. I hope. But even without baptisms, I know that the Lord is helping me grow in ways that only He knows I need."

"With the new year it´s kind of weird to think that this whole year will be spent here in Brazil. 
I´m still getting used to the idea."

"So this week was up and down. A lot of up and down. We tracked down a lot of less-actives, but didn´t contact a single one as they had moved years ago or weren´t there, or were just acting like they weren´t there. And then we had a lot of investigators not home. But, through our walking (a lot) we got some new people to teach. And our one reference for the week I think has great potential to be baptized."..."she has great faith as well as her four children we´re teaching who can also all be baptized. And she was at church yesterday with her two youngest children and we all had a great time and really felt the spirit. So, I´ll keep my fingers crossed (as well as keep praying, lol)."


"as I said before the food here is different. So, here is the Brazilian idea of a HotPocket. A hamburger. And they also have pizza slices, lol. Just a little different. Then, there´s the sunsets here that are always really cool. Oh, and the birds are really cool too. I have no idea what kind of bird this is.... Sometimes I feel like Kronk from The Emperor´s New Groove when he was playing what was the name? Exotic bird bingo? lol. Oh, and the place with all the lights was A Cidade do Natal! This is where all the missionaries in my area went Christmas night. It was really cool. Didn´t want to wait in a huge line to pay to see Santa, but it was still really cool to see some Christmas lights again."

"But things are going along here. Still trying to get people to go to church (which is our hardest task here when no one has a car). But they need to show that they´ll commit to go to church and not just be baptized and added to the list of inactives that is already very much too long. The work is moving along though. And hopefully I´ll be able to start sending pictures of baptisms soon!"

"With all my love,
Sister Grimes"

Campo Grande 12-16-12 to 12-23-12

"Como está? Eu recebi sua caixa terça-feira, então eu senti que eu esqueci que vocês não puderam enviar um e-mail semana passada. So, how´s my Portuguese? lol. I´m learning. Slowly, but surely."

"As for our living situation, here in Campo Grande we have a small house... I heard that we´ll be getting four more American sisters in February! (and idk how many Brazilian sisters, we´ll see) and we only have 2 leaving in that time, including my companion, so hopefully we´ll get more sisters in this area and possibly open other areas for sisters to work here."

"So the week has been good. We still haven´t had any baptisms yet but we had 6 investigators at church on Sunday. One couple just needs to be married legally and the husband is working on stopping smoking; another lady needs to be legally married too, but has some difficulties with the legal part. I´m still not really sure about all the details. And another lady needs a bit more time to be taught (this was her first week at church) and I think be married legally. So we have people we´re teaching that are really close, there are just little things that are slowing it down. But it will come."

It´s kind of frustrating right now too just because it seems like everyone is traveling for Christmas. We had hardly any lessons with members this week and several new investigators said to wait until after the holidays to be able to meet with them. Busy and traveling."

"Today my companion and I went to McDonalds! It was so good to have a hamburger and fries again. And I also had a torta ( I think they called it) with hot banana inside. It was really good. I really like the banana desserts. Oh, and I also had my first cashew fruit on Saturday. I didn´t really like it, lol. Very acidic with not much flavor. I feel like my tongue and my throat are still not the same. Haha. The juice is better though."

"Oh, and I haven´t played the piano yet. The bishop´s son can play very well and they use him for everything. But last night they had a small orchestra and choir come to play and sing Chirstmas songs. It was really cool and I wanted to play the cello so bad, lol. I still miss playing in the Messiah every year."

"So we won´t be calling, but we will be using Skype this Christmas. I hope you can find that webcam I gave you last Christmas. We´ll go to a member´s home where they have a webcam and internet and skype from there. I can´t wait! I´m planning on 3 pm here. Which I think is 9 or 10 am there. I´m not sure. With the time change it threw me off as one of us went back and the other went forward an hour."

"Merry Christmas!!!!!"

 

Campo Grande 12-2-12 to 12-10-12

"Camp Grande is a pretty good-sized city, but our area isn´t really in the big city area. Well idk if there is really that big city feel anywhere here in Campo Grande. Maybe in the Centro (pretty much like the mall). But that isn´t in our area either. We have a really really large area. It took us about 30-40 minutes to bus from one side to the other one time. And that´s an estimate and not including the far east side where the chapel is"

"Most of our problems are with getting investigators to go to church. Mainly because it is so far away for most of them and generally only a few families have cars. So that leaves the bus or walking. And some families don´t have money for the bus. So that leaves walking. And a lot of the families farther away don´t want to walk for 3 hours to get to the chapel."

"We went to the farthest side of our mission the other day for lunch (we have lunch with the members here) and I seriously felt like I was in Africa. Well, the street was a dirt road, there were fields all around, and lets just say the houses here aren´t like the houses in the US. It kind of hit me when I came out here to Campo Grande that I´m in a different country. The CTM has a bunch of American things (like carpet in the classrooms) that people here don´t have. I went to the grocery store and didn´t recognize a thing. Maybe the grapes sealed in plastic but i need bleach first to be able to clean them. It´s not that it´s bad here, it´s just different. A lot of people live without a lot of the comforts we take for granted in the US. Like air conditioning and washing machines. But everyone here is so happy and so nice and welcoming. They all just sit in their chairs on the porch and drink terere (idk how to spell it, but it´s a drink I´ve had to get used to). And people actually know who they live by because they all sit and talk on the streets."

"So the other day I saw a blue and yellow parrot just sitting in a tree chilling. I hear there is a wildlife reserve here that we can visit and see all of the animals together, which will be cool. My companion wants to see it before she leaves in February, so I´m sure I´ll definitely have pictures by then. Gotta admit, we see some pretty cool birds here. It´s just hard to get pictures of birds when they´re flying overhead. Kind of like the superman pictures. Just too fast, lol."

"Because my companion is from Natal, the northeast, she always has things from there or things she would eat there that she likes a lot. Or things from Brazil in general. Like cuscuz. (I think that´s how you spell it). It´s kind of this cornmeal, floury crumble thing that people in the northeast generally eat with a fried egg. And it was pretty good. Like really good. Maybe I was just really hungry too, but I liked it. Also, we ordered some cozhinas this past week. Which were also good. But it´s amazing how little bite-size pieces can fill you up so much. But then again all of the food here fills you up like crazy. All of it is very good, very filling, and very good. And I like the rice and beans. Maybe in a year and a half I´ll be tired of them, but for now, I´m still liking them."

"Oh, and I think my favorite part here is that generally it is really hot and the food is generally hot too (hot rice, hot beans, hot meat, hot churrasca (yum)) so a lot of times for dessert they will have ice cream. It is really the best thing ever when you are really hot. Now I know why dad always comes home from work and wants a bowl of ice cream. It seriously tastes so much better here. But probably because we´re so hot and sweaty that it is really refreshing. Gosh, I´m starting to crave it right now just talking about it. Oh, and this past week we had pineapple ice cream. Good choice, second only to chocolate..."

"And because I still don´t know how to make cozinhas (I´ll learn), but there´s a really simple way to make rice. The Brazilian way. I can´t remember the name, but its translation is like ´rice with things in it´. Basically get some oil, put in some rice, put in some meat (beef shreds generally), and maybe some onions, or carrots, or raisins. I really like the raisins in it. They were different, but really good. Just fry it on the stove all together. Maybe add some salt. And maybe add the raisins and carrots later, I can´t remember. Anyways, there you go."

Campo Grande 11-20-12 to 11-25-12

"I made it safe to Cuiaba. It is really hot and muggy, but it feels kind of like how Georgia did. Not too bad."

"I´m going to head off to my first area in Campo Grande which means I´m going to have a ten hour bus ride tonight. Not as bad as some other elders coming in at 18 and 22 hours for their areas (by bus)."

 "It´s kindof hard to write on this keyboard because it´s different from the one I´m used to (in that it has a bunch more accents and stuff)..."

"So the long bus ride eventually got me here to Campo Grande. And where to start?! M companion is Sister de Oliveira. And she doesn´t speak much English. So I think that´s been my hardest challenge this week. Just having everything in Portuguese and not being able to understand everything. There´s also a lot of change in just the culture and different things around the house and stuff that´s strange to me and idk that my companion knows its strange cause it´s perfectly normal to her! So that´s been interesting."

"Yeah, a lot of people here have been commenting on how white I am and how I need to wear a lot of sunscreen. I have though. And I should have asked for aloe vera for Christmas. Lol. Just kidding. The other thing people like to tell me is that I´m going to be black when I get home and that you won´t recognize me in the airport, lol. I´m starting to wonder if they are really joking or not, lol."

"Aside from the sun we also walk a lot. We´ve taken the bus occasionally when we have to go to another district or farther areas of our district (which is huge btw). I really like the bus as I can agree with Julia that it is like a roller coaster, lol. But we also walk and walk and walk. It takes about 30-40 minutes to get from our house to the church building. We also stopped by someone´s house before church on sunday so it took us over an hour of walking to get to church. I don´t think I´ve ever been so glad to sit down for Relief Society before. It´s all okay though cause I tell my companion that I like the sun and am proud of my tan lines and that I also like walking so when we have to visit someone far away I just say that it´s good cause I like to walk. Truthfully I have to convince my feet now, lol."

"Bom dia!

Sister Grimes"

MTC 11-6-12 to 11-13-12

Oi!

"So, I only have two more weeks here in the CTM. I leave on the 20th of November on a plane with half my district out to Cuiaba. I'm semi-nervous, just because it's a change from the CTM and I know I'll have to learn a lot (of Portuguese still) but I'm also excited to get to my area."

"Everyone says it will be hot, but our President here (Pres. Degn) said Cuiaba is an awesome mission as the church is new and pretty much every member there is like a pioneer and he said there's this swamp area that hasn't been over-run with tourists yet and that there isn't corruption in the city yet cause it's new so he said it's like stepping into the Old West. Haha! It'll be fun!"

"I´m going to need to buy shoes and a jacket there in Cuiabá. A sister from Cuiabá said that we can buy particular shoes that won´t melt on the sidewalk. Crazy. I know. I think the soles are made of a different type of material. And depending on how bad the rain is (i´ve heard several different things) I may need rain boots. For flooding. But my mission president will let me know if I need to get anything else."

"They didn't do anything for Halloween."... "Anyways, my whole district all wore orange and black though and gave our teachers candy. So that was at least fun."

"One of my instructors, Irma Kikuchi, has us right after lunch, so a lot of us are tired and sometimes close to falling asleep, and she's so funny, she said she'll draw a mustache on the elders with her marker if they fall asleep. So every time someone's head is bobbing she'll be like (in her Brazilian accent) "Moostache!!" And everyone will laugh :p  So last P-day my comp and I were looking at some earrings and we saw some gold mustache earrings for really cheap so we bought them and gave them to her for Halloween, lol. She was so excited and happy when she saw them! She was like "Moostaches!!!" and put them right on. lol. She's worn them several times already!"

"the OJ here is full of pulp and I don´t like pulp. But the hot chocolate (with peanut butter in it) is amazing!"

"the time change was opposite here, so we actually lost an hour of sleep. Lucky!!!! :p"

"So this week we got to go proselyting! Just around the CTM. We´ll take a bus out a bit further next Monday. It was cool! I didn´t really understand everything the people were saying back to me and my companion (she is at my level as well in speaking the language) but I felt like I got the gist of what they were saying, though little details like if they were saying they liked their church only, or just that they felt the spirit at church, I couldn't tell. Ooops. I tried to read their facial expressions. We handed out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon though, and I believe that all of the people we gave them to will really read it. Two in particular I think really felt the Spirit touch them. It was really cool. I just need to keep working on the language, lol. I hear it´ll come even faster in the field though because I´ll be around it all day and will have to speak it all day. Basically, I´m going to be praying a lot the first couple weeks, lol."