Lucas do Rio Verde 5-12-13 to 5-19-13

Oi família!

Once again, it was so nice to hear from everyone on Sunday. I can´t believe that it´s already been 5 months! But then again I think about my next call home for Christmas and it feels like forever away. Mainly because at that point I´ll just have two more transfers and then I´ll be home. I can´t believe this Saturday I hit my 8 month mark. That´s almost half-way done! It feels super fast, but a long time too, lol. Anyways, I had a great time talking with everyone (even though my English was kind of all broken up) haha! I blame my other companion Sister Carvalho. She speaks English fluently and helped me change my grammar to how Brazilians say things. So my English has been coming across how Brasilians speak English, haha!

 Idk that anything really that important happened this week besides yesterday. It was a holiday here (something for one of the Catholic priests) and EVERYTHING was shut down, so we explored one of the little parks here and took a lot of photos. So that´s what you´re seeing. Yeah, I took a lot of photos yesterday. And there will be more to come. I´d just gotten in the habit of forgetting my camera at home, but I'll try to do better this transfer :P  Well my time is running out and this e-mail has been pretty long, but I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and hope that you all stay safe and happy :)  And I´ll have to try to lose my Brasilian accent when I get back. There isn´t really much I can do here, lol!!

///

So once again, we had a busy, busy week. No baptism yet, but we´re getting going on the right track. We have several couples who are great possibilities, they just need to legally marry. It´s really a problem here because it´s really expensive to marry. So a lot of people just skip the legal step and just start living together and call it marriage. Gosh, it´s lame because even after they´re together for a while it´s hard to legally marry and all-in-all takes about a month. Or more if they were already legally married. Yeah, it takes forever! But whatever. They just have more preparations to go through before they can be baptized. 

It´s really hard for me to get a feel for the time here because the whole winter season here was hot too so it all just seems like one endless summer. Summer, summer, and more summer, lol. But it´s been good. I´ll just be super happy when I get home and can utilize our pool! Haha! One of the best parts of summer :)

Other than that, it´s been a normal week. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened. We just walked and worked, and walked some more. Oh, I heard someone say that when you eat watermelon when it´s hot outside, it´ll give you a headache. Haha! Yeah, the person who told me said she didn´t believe it either when she heard it. I told her about you Dad, how you always like to come home from work with a nice cold watermelon. Yep. I really miss it. They have it here, it´s just a little complicated walking home with a watermelon. So we just eat it when the members have some. And they don´t have the tradition to stick it in the fridge to get it really cold. But I like it anyways!

So this next week will be super awesome! Oh, backup. So a little history. It´s just me and my companion here in Lucas. We´re an hour away from any other missionary. The Elders were going to come here for District meeting last week, but at the last minute they discovered that the bus was full (they have to use a charter bus that schedules seat by seat). So it´s been two weeks since we´ve seen another missionary. And our cell phone has been acting up. Acting up by turning off whenever we want to call someone. Unless it´s plugged into the wall. So... it´s really felt like just the two of us in this area. But this week the Sister Trainers are coming to do some splits with us! Yeah, it´ll be awesome. Not just to have more people to talk to, but also to have one more set of missionaries here for a couple of days. So that´ll be cool. And then on Friday President Reber (our mission president) is coming to give a fireside for the youth about Missionary work! It´s going to be really great! And, we should get a new cell phone this week too, lol. So basically we´ll be in touch with everyone this week. It´ll be really nice and refreshing to have others to talk and work with. 

Até mais!

Sister Grimes

  

Lucas do Rio Verde 4-28-13 to 5-5-13

Bom día família!!!

Então... So... I think Dad was inspired... lol. Yeah, I was transferred. As I thought. But it was strange because I thought of all the places I could be transferred (aka had Sisters or are opening for Sisters) which is another area here in Campo Grande, in Cuiabá, or a new area right now for Sisters, Dourados. So, I thought of at least one good thing about being transferred to each one of those places (and something good about staying too) so that whatever happened, I´d be excited.

And then transfers came...

And it wasn´t any of the places I´d heard of...

And I was like ´What?? Where am I going?´ (except I said it in Portuguese, lol)

So guess what, I´m opening a new area for Sisters! And I´m training!

Wow!!!!!! And I´m super excited!!!!!!

And a bit nervous too... but all the Elders say that it´s an awesome area and that I´ll love it so much!

So, a little more information for you all. First, as you know I´m in the South right now. Matto Grosso do Sul. And I´m going to take the bus for about 12 hours up to Cuiabá (in Matto Grosso) where I´ll pick up my new greenie (Sister Silva) and we´ll get on another bus and head up north for about another 6 hours to arrive in.... Lucas do Rio Verde.

So, as for what I hear about Lucas do Rio Verde (translated it´s something like Lucas from the Green River) I hear that it´s linda! Very beautiful! It´s a city that has a big river running right through it. And as for the church there, they have a branch right now. How cool! I´ll get to work in a branch. One thing that is really cool here is that the majority of people here the first in their family to join the church. I´ve learned so much about what it must´ve been like for the early pioneers in the first days of the church. And I feel like I´m going to learn even more. I´m excited to be able to work in the city. And guess what? It´s just going to be me and my companion for now until more Sisters arrive, so we have the whole city to ourselves. Or at least that´s what I hear. So... it´ll be an adventure. And a lot of work. And a lot of fun. And really rewarding. And I pretty much described the mission right there. But that´s about it about it in regards to the area. I´ll let you know more when I get there. I´ll be leaving tonight and pulling in at about 10 pm tomorrow night to my new area. Wish me luck!

And as for this week, as the photos will show, we had a baptism! It was so neat to see how Eliene changed. When we met her she was really depressed and discouraged. And  she´d already lived with members in São Paulo, she just wasn´t ready to attend yet. And then she got a divorce and moved here and was wandering around the city one day, super sad about her life, and she found herself in front of our church building. Talk about modern miracles. I was just so happy I had the blessing to take part in her conversion and see how the gospel really does bring peace and happiness in someone´s life. Wow. It really happens because it´s really the fullness of truth.

We also had a P-day with all the sisters here in the South (Matto Grosso do Sul). So that´s a photo of all the sisters in the mission except for three in the north (and a curto-prazo; short-term). Yep. But two more arrived this transfer. There were supposed to be 9 arriving, but I hear there have been a lot of problems with the visas. It´s all politics. I heard that President Obama promised free-travel for Brazilians, but didn´t follow through and now the Brazilians are shutting everyone out until he backs up his promise. That´s just what I heard. That´s what the common Brazilian is saying, so idk if it´s true or if it´s just propaganda. You´ll probably know better than I do.

Oh, and I´ve been walking a lot, so I bought the shoes for the rain, but I think I´ll have to buy some more just as the soles in mine are starting to get pretty thin.

///

Bem-vindo á Lucas!!!! Haha! Well, yep, I´m here in Lucas do Rio Verde. And as all the Elders say, it really is like I´m in the middle of nowhere. The middle of a well-sized small city (if that makes sense), but in the middle of nowhere. But it´s really cool here...

First off, this city is really new. It´s only like 20 years old, which for a city, is really new. So all the buildings and roads and stuff are really planned out well and the main areas have that new-and-glistening look, lol. The river runs right through the city, so there´s a lot of water, lakes, and a whole lot of green. It really is pretty here. I really have to take some photos. The city has one interesting thing though, about half of the people here work in the Sedia. It´s a factory that makes microwaveable foods. So there´s a whole neighborhood here with tons of people in cookie-cutter houses with at least one, (but usually more) person who works in the factory. It´s quite interesting. So people are recruited from all over to work here for minimum wage. For some people it doesn´t cut it and they move back home after a couple of months, but others use this to really give them that boost to improve their lives. Then they start a different job that pays more and they move out of the Tesseli (the Sedia bairro). So it´s been really interesting here learning about all of this and seeing what it must have been like in the Industry age of the US when whole cities worked for the main factory. It´s really interesting.

And as for the ward... I mean the branch... It´s just like the pioneers... lol. The church here is really new. They organized a branch here 4 years ago. That´s really not that much time. And we meet here in a re-modeled house. And the number of members here has really varied (as people move in because of the Sedia, and move out because of the Sedia - all within a couple of months). But this week we clocked in at 65 members! And next week our Relief Society President said to expect 80. So we really have to grow just a little bit more and stay constant in order for the church to buy land and build a chapel here. The members are really excited for the future of this little branch. It´s hard here though as there are a LOT of Catholics in the area. Catholics who actually practice their religion. Which is basically the majority of the richer people here. So it´s one of the challenges here - to find people who are willing to accept the restored gospel. But everything will turn out great. I feel like we´re going to have some great success here. 

Well, I think that´s mostly it about the city. My companion is from São Paulo, just like my last one, but more in the suburbs. She´s really excited for the work here. 

Sister Grimes

Campo Grande 4-14-13 to 4-21-13

Oi familia!

I got a little cold at the beginning of the week, but all's good now and I´m up and running. (Literally, a few times this week, lol) It´s been interesting this week as we´ve had the usual ups and downs of the work. Some investigators that we´ve been working with for a while now just stopped progressing, so we´ve had to cut them. This was especially sad for my companion who´s been working with them for a lot longer than I have. But for the good news we´ve started working in a new bairro in our area and I think it´ll be a great thing. We´ve just not had much success where we´ve been working, and we just kept having the other area come to mind. An answer???  I think so. This area is quite a ways from the church building, which is why not many missionaries go there much, but this week we stopped by and did a little contacting and found some good possibilities. In a very short time. And we´re also waiting for a member to get back from vacation as he said he has two families he wants to visit with us. So I think things are looking up. 

I feel bad for my companion sometimes as she is completely awesome and dedicated, but the Lord is trying to teach her (and me this transfer) some important things. It´s just that she hasn´t had a baptism in her area for three transfers now. We´re working hard to turn that around, but the Lord is definitely trying to teach us through these experiences. Like one thing I learned is that this work is not about us. It´s not about numbers (though numbers are a reflection of hard work), but this is about people and the Lord. This is His work and He makes everything possible. It´s how we can do everything we can think of and work and work and work, but without the Lord, nothing will happen. It is when the investigators are open to receive an answer, and when the Spirit touches their hearts. The Lord truly knows who needs what. And sometimes, they need a little bit at a time. Just to prepare them. So when they taste of the truth, then pass through the experiences here in life, they will know where to turn in the future. I don´t know. Each person needs something different. It just shows how perfect the Lord knows us and knows what we need. Everything in His plan is just so perfect.

Other than that, the rain pretty much stopped here and went back to the heat. I still don´t know which I like better. The sun is hard to work in, but when it rains every just shuts themselves up in their houses and no one wants to go anywhere (like church, lol). Pretty much just enjoy what we have when we have it.

///

So this week was really good. Me and my companion worked like crazy and finally began to see some fruits. It´s really cool how when we do our part, sometimes things still won´t work out because of agency, but the Lord will bless you with people who are really ready to accept the gospel into their lives. This week we received a reference of a lady who is so ready to accept the gospel and change her life. She just moved here from São Paulo and she knew a member there and so when she felt really lonely and felt like she needed help, she found the church building here. Que chique! We´ve already marked her baptism for this Sunday, she just is working on stopping smoking. She´s already cut down a lot and since the first day we met with her she´s said when she gets baptized she never wants to ever put another cigarette to her lips. It´s really cool how excited she is. And she´ll help out so much. She really is an example in that she wants to serve and serve and serve. I´m sure this ward will find ways to put her to work!

We also have two other possibilities for this Sunday, but we haven´t marked it yet. But we will! I´m excited. I just feel like we´re finally clicking with the members in the work and our bishop will start calling ward missionaries. It will be really nice to have their help!

As for the weather, it got really hot again. I lost the habit to use sunscreen, so yeah, I kind of burnt a little. But oh well. It´ll get better soon. It´s not the first time, and probably won´t be the last. I feel like I´ve gotten tan, but compared to everyone else, I´m still ´bem brancinho!´ (really white, lol). But you guys can say for yourself. When I return I plan on being a lot darker. After all, I still have another Brasilian summer! 

Oh, I also bought some shoes for the rain. Their gellies!! lol. Basically, they´ll just let the water run through, so they won´t stay wet all day. I caught a cold last week and I think it was because I was walking around with wet shoes all day (and was in the church building for conference, the only area I know with air conditioning). So this will be good to not have wet shoes all day :) 

I´ve been looking forward to going home and watching the movie Rio again. My first companion, who already went home, said this about herself too. Really this is the only place in Brasil that has those kinds of birds just flying around. It´s really cool. She said when I go home and watch it, I´ll miss being in Brasil, lol. But it´s so cool. When I first got here it was the season of the blue and yellow parrots. All blue above, but with a brilliant yellow on the under side of its wings. One of the Sisters found a feather that was just amazing. Pure blue on one side, and pure yellow on the other. That´s why our state´s colors are the vibrant blue and yellow. But recently I´ve been seeing more of the other kind of parrot, with red and blue. The typical image we see in the US. Bright red with bright blue under their wings. They really are beautiful. Oh, but they are also really big. And squawk really loud. Some people find it annoying, but I like it, lol. 

 We have transfers this Sunday, so I´ll let you know if I stay or if I go. The chances are good that I go, but you know, the Lord´s ways are not our ways. So if I stay, there will be something for me to do here. Or if I go, there will be work for me there. Either way, I´ll let you know. Have a great week and keep on keeping on. Like one of my professors always said, onward and upward!

Sister Grimes

Campo Grande 3-31-13 to 4-7-13

Greetings once again from Brasil!,

Well, this week was pretty normal. My first week in the new area, lol. The same ward, just covering the part that I already covered when there was just one set of Sisters here. But it´s okay because I´m going to get to know every little hole in the ground before I leave this ward, haha!

So really not much happened this week. There was Easter, so Happy Easter! Here people celebrate a little different. The big thing that people buy here are Easter Eggs, but with a twist. They´re big hollow chocolate eggs with a little surprise inside. My companion´s mom sent her one and sent one for her companion (me) too! So I got one and it had a little stuffed animal inside :P  It was super cute.

As for Easter, people have a lot more days off here. They have at least Friday Saturday and Sunday off. Friday is considered a ´holy´ day here as most of the country was Catholic and they consider possibly even more holy than Easter Sunday, is Friday, the day that Christ died on the cross. So a lot of people stay inside, or stay with family (and/ or drink). We even had a member cancel on us because she didn´t think that we should be visiting people on this day out of respect for the Catholic´s holiday. But that didn´t stop us though and we went right along doing our work, there was just barely anyone on the streets. Oh, and we ended up talking to a lot of people drinking (because there were just a lot of them around). It´s kindof sad how many people here drink.

Everyone here is excited for General Conference! It´ll be my first in Portuguese (as in the MTC they were nice and we watched it in English). I´ll probably just have one more after this and then I´ll be home for next year´s April Conference. Crazy. But then again, right now I feel like a year is a long time.

///

Well, this week we had rain, rain, and more rain. I think I just might have to buy more shoes in order to let each pair dry out before I have to use them again. lol. But it was a great week with Conference. My first Conference in Portuguese. Gotta admit, I felt like something was missing when I couldn´t hear their actual voices. Just the inflection and the tones of voice that the speakers use, the translators don´t have time or the ability to translate live, and get the inflection right. They´re just worried about getting the words right. But I´m so glad for their service. I imagine it would be really hard to translate on the spot.

So we were a little disappointed this weekend with one of our investigators. My companion has been working with her since December, and she´s so close to baptism in that she knows everything is true, she just has to get married. And her husband doesn´t want to. It´s rough. I couldn´t imagine being together for 15 years and just not wanting to sign a paper  to make it official. I just don´t know what is stopping him. Other than the fact that he is really Catholic and knows that she just wants to get married to be able to be baptized. Anyways, things are rough between the two and I just get so sad that people here don´t see the value in marriage. Legal marriage. I just thought of all the conference talks this weekend about families and unity and love in the family and how it all starts with making promises with your spouse, and not just saying it, but putting it into action by having a legal marriage. It´s just strengthened my testimony that much more about the importance of marriage and how Satan is trying so hard and succeeding so well by telling people that it doesn't matter. It´s just sad. 

But on the brighter side, we had a baptism of the other Sisters. Whose area I left two weeks ago, but in the same ward. And this young woman is a friend of a member who I made the first contact with her and helped get her started. So even if it didn´t count technically as I moved areas, I still can see how the affects of one missionary can last for quite some time in the area. I was so happy to be able to be in the same ward and watch her baptism. It was very special

Well gotta go,

Sister Grimes

Campo Grande 3-17-13 to 3-24-13

Mais uma vez em Campo Grande (Again in Campo Grande),

As for this week, my companion got sick, and will probably stay home for the next week. So I´ll be working with Sister Carvalho (an awesome sister from São Paulo). My companion will stay with her companion, a mini-missionary who is from here in Campo Grande. I think she´s coming down with something too. We´ll see.

This week we talked with a lot of people on the street, and because of it, we have a lot of new investigators. And we found a lot of people ready to accept, so I´m really excited. I just hope I´m not transferred before then. We´ll have several in the next two weeks and transfers are in a week. But we should have three baptisms marked for this Sunday if everything goes according to plan. Idk. I want to stay in the area because of the people we are working with, but then again, I´ve been here for a while. But then on the flip side my companion isn´t getting along super well with the ward, so I might stay for another transfer here to help her assimilate more. So this transfer I really don´t know what will happen. I´m putting it on a 50/50 chance. But if I stay another transfer here, I´ll probably have a 90 percent chance of leaving after this next one. Because really, I´ve been here for 4 1/2 months. If I stay another transfer that will put me at 6 months here in the same area. But we never really know. Only the Lord knows where we need to be and when we need to be there, even if it doesn´t make sense to us.

But other than that, the work just continues on. I feel like I´m growing so much, not just my testimony, but my application of my testimony in my life. Our mission president has been talking a lot about the difference between testimony and conversion. It´s only when we are truly converted that we will put our testimony to action and stay firm until the end. This is our goal for each and every member. They may be baptized with a testimony (or at least better be :P) but even then, members are really tried in their lives in order to bring about true conversion. It´s remarkeable. 

Oí! So, transfers passed yesterday, and guess what, ... , I´m staying in Campo Grande! That means that I´ll stay here for at least 6 months of my mission. But I´m switching companions. My mission president said that he wanted me to learn different techniques from different people, so that´s what´s up. My new companion is Sister Carvalho. She´s from São Paulo. I knew her in the MTC and she´s been in the same ward and house with me for three months already. Just now I´m going to be her companion. I´m super excited though. We worked together this past week as my companion was sick. She works super hard and is very focused to the work. I´m going to learn so much from her.

And as for this week... we had two baptisms!!!!!! Yeah, two young men from two different families. They both can feel the Spirit very strong and will be amazing missionaries. I seem to just be growing the youth program here, but that´s a great thing as now I can see how much it will grow as they get older and serve missions and marry and start new families within the covenant of the gospel. I´m so grateful to the Lord for allowing me this opportunity to be an instrument in His hands and to be able to share in this process. Their names are Kennedy (like the president...) and Dhioni (said like Johnny, pretty cool, I know, lol).

Sister Grimes

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

Dear Familia,

As for this week, things have been going good. We had the usual ups and downs with steady investigators falling and finding new investigators with real potential. Good lessons filled with the Spirit, and lessons where the investigators didn´t understand anything. Just a ´it always feels good to pray´ and ´all we need to do is have God in our heart´. Yeah, the usual ups and downs. Even the weather was hot and sunny one day, then crashing rain the next, then returned to hot and sunny. It was interesting, lol.

Oh, as for a story, one of the Elders in our zone was almost struck by lightning. Yeah, when I said crashing rain it always comes with a lot of lighting and thunder here too. People say that Campo Grande is the city in all of Brazil with the most lightning. And i´d believe it too. Every time a storm rolls through there´s always a lot of lighting. I´m not exactly sure what it hits though. Maybe trees. With the Elder in my zone it was a light-post. Or maybe it hits a lot of cows. There are a lot of them here. Maybe that´s the target, lol.

And speaking of cows, beef is really cheap here, and also leather. So if you want something leather, just let me know. They have a lot of leather, like leather boots, leather belts, and leather bags. Oh, and leather bracelets, leather sandals, basically a lot of leather (and a lot of cows, lol)

But that´s pretty much it. I´m excited today because we´re going to visit Wal-mart! My first time in a wal-mart for almost 6 months, can you believe it!?! I hear they don´t have items imported like the Wal-mart in São Paulo, but it´ll be fun anyways. Really I just want to print some photos to send to Eric. He keeps sending photos to me, but I don´t have anywhere in my area to print photos to send to him. But I´ll get a couple printed today. I also want to see if I can find a battery charger. I was going to ask if you could send me one, but I realized I would need a converter too, so I might as well buy a charger here. Mainly for my camera. I don´t want to keep buying new batteries (the batteries here don´t last very long and I already brought rechargeables with me, just forgot the charger, lol). So if I remember, I´ll be able to let you know how it went. It´ll probably seem just as cool as when I visited McDonalds, lol

As for the poor, our area is interesting... sometimes we find people who are humble because of their poverty, but then sometimes we find people who are poor just because they don´t care and don´t have a drive to change anything in their lives. Or, they are uneducated and buy into the false ´milagres´ of the million churches here. Or, they´ve seen how the churches just want their money (it´s true here, all but one church was created to get money) and so they don´t trust churches and say that they just need to have Christ in their hearts. But it´s good if the only thing is that they´re poor and have a trail of faith to walk for an hour to get to church.

That being said, we´ve had success with one family who was exactly that. They are very humble. But they are also very loving and respectful. It´s sad when poverty turns men to beer and women to 15-year old mothers. And the other churches say that it´s fine. Gosh. I think one thing I´ve really seen here is the power of the great and abominable church over the hearts and the minds of men. I just can´t wait for it to fall and for all of the people to see the hypocrisy of all the ´powerful´ pastors.

I think it just shows that we really can´t judge who is ready and who isn´t. And it´s not our place. What we need to do is love everyone, no matter their age, sex, or social position. I´ve made really good friends with people dirt poor, as well as people extremely well off for the area. It shows that this church really brings people together. No matter what stages of life they are in, the gospel is here to help every single person who will just give their will to the Father, who then in turn makes bad men good and good men better.

Sister Grimes

Campo Grande 2-17-13 to 2-24-13

Oí família!!!!

This week was good. My new companion is Sister Mendes and she´s still getting used to the area. It will take some time though as it´s a big, oddly-shaped area. She´s from São Paulo, and even though she´s been out for 7 months, this is her second area. So this is the first time since she arrived that she has to meet everyone all over again. So we´re taking it slow and visiting more of the members for her to get to know them. Oh, and also, I gave a talk yesterday in church. I was a little nervous, just because of my Portuguese, but I wrote everything out and had my companion correct my grammar and then I was able to read it with some phrases and parts memorized so it didn´t look like I was reading it the whole time. But anyways, the ward was really nice and everyone complimented me like everyone does for all the speakers, except for me it was also them complimenting me on how well I speak Portuguese and how I´m learning really fast. Even the Bishop said that I´m learning really fast and really increasing my vocabulary. (I didn´t mention that there were some quotes that contained words that I didn´t know, lol). Anyways, it was good. We´re really having a lot of support from the ward to get the missionary work going once again.

When I arrived here in the field, idk why, but I´ve been put with Sisters who love to talk and talk and talk and talk. Probably it´s just with the whole fact that they´re girls. So with four of us, it´s hard to get planning done at night because as soon as the other companionship arrives back home everyone just wants to talk about everything that happened to them that day.

Also, Happy Valentines Day to everyone. Here, they have something like it, but it´s not until June or something like that, so I´ll just have to wait a bit longer here, lol.

I´ve just had a craving for Skittles. Don´t know why, but I´ve just been craving those little fruity pieces that they don´t have here. That and cereal, but cereal would be a little more difficult just because the milk here is different, so I´d need milk shipped too, which wouldn´t end well. Especially here where milk is so processed it doesn´t need to be refrigerated and the chocolate bars are found in the refrigerated section of the store, lol.

So this week was pretty normal missionary life. I could really see that we´ve been guided by the Spirit here. There were many things that happened that you just know weren´t coincidence that you were just follow the promptings in your head. It´s when you don´t exactly know why you´re doing it, it generally turns out to be the Lord guiding us. Gosh, I feel like my English isn´t flowing the way it used to. I had to re-write the last phrase becuase after reading what I´d written, it didn´t make much sense. Or maybe it´s just me. All I know is that it will get a lot worse (I was about to write ´really worse´)

But as for the week, the highlight was probably that I was on TV! On a local Brasilian channel. This lady in our ward organized a project with Mãos que Ajudam (Mormon Helping Hands, eu acho que em Ingles, não posso lembrar) anyways, I was with the other Sisters in our ward and we  helped collect trash around people´s homes to fight dengue (because water collects on the trash, and mosquitos breed with the water). So I was with another Sister, a guy from the military, and a supervisor who generally goes around and monitors people´s houses. Then the camera crew arrived and filmed us as we inspected this lady´s house that had a ton of trash in the backyard (and it was one of the normal houses; I think it´s a lack of trash cans here, lol) So the news lady talked quite a bit and they filmed us picking up all the trash. There was also a photographer for a newspaper, but Idk if he used our photos. But anyways, a lot of the members said that they saw us on TV and the reporter used a lot of our footage to show exactly how bad it was. (But don´t worry, I won´t `pagar o Dengue´!)

And as for the work, it was really cool seeing the Lord guide our steps this week. My companion was sick for two days so I went with Sister Carvalho (the Senior companion in her area of the ward) and together we covered both areas. It was hard to do everything we had scheduled, but it was time to just accept that we weren´t going to cover everything and that we just needed to trust in the Lord and let Him guide us to the things and the lessons that He knows would be most important. It was cool because even though we didn´t get everything covered in both areas, I still feel like we had great days and were really led to people who needed us. 

As for the work we had a confirmation yesterday (that was put off for a couple of weeks) and he also received the Aaronic Priesthood (same day). So it was really cool to see. He is 14 years old and will be a powerful missionary as well as a great help to his younger siblings who were already baptized last month as well as his older brother (who still needs to visit the church on Sunday) and for his mom (who has a date to be married this week and baptized the next Sunday). So things are going. We also have other investigators who show real potential, we just need to continue to visit them this week and help them make the changes necessary to join the church. But I really feel like things will pick up soon. The ward is starting to help out more and give more references and the more they give, the more baptisms we´ll have, and the more members will get excited and want to give more references. I´ve really seen that there is a cycle here that´s hard to build, but once it´s started will continue to get bigger and bigger. And our bishop has been helping a lot as he wants to grow our ward to be split by next year (because of a large frequencia). It was cool how he said that he isn´t happy with a ward that just sits. He wants a ward that is growing because that´s really a ward that is progressing. So its really cool to have such a support by the bishop.

Gosh, I know my English is getting worse. The flow is all wrong. But whatever. Just as long as you can understand me it´s good. I feel like my companion who speaks like a Brasilian as she translates and speaks more in phrases translated directly from Portuguese, which don´t make sense in English. But I´m not that bad yet. I just have a hard time with the flow. So just remember my e-mails definitely won´t sound like a novel, lol.

Oh, and one last thing... I saw President Reber and Sister Reber for the first time since Christmas and Sister Reber said that my hair is a lot lighter. And even members in my ward are saying how I´m a lot darker-skinned now too! Claro, I definitely won´t pass for a Brasilian, but I still think it´s cool. I feel like when I was younger and played soccer during the summer. I´d get darker and my hair lighter. Shows that I´m actually doing something. But at the same time, when I get home I probably won´t like having the stripes on my feet from my sandals. But whatever, haha! Just remember, I´ll come home looking like I vacationed at the beach (except for my really bad tan lines) and speaking like a Brazilian (I hope!) 

Well, I gotta go, mas tem uma boa semana!! Eu amo vocês muito!!! Fique segura e continua com força! Obrigada por suas orações. Eu posso sentir o poder delas. Até mais! Ou melhor, até a proxima semana!!
Translated: Well, I gotta go, but have a good week! I love you so much!! Stay safe and continue with strength! Thank you for your prayers. I can feel their power. Even more! Or rather, until next week!

Sister Grimes

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"