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"