July 23, 2012

Hi family!

This hour always happens really fast and I wasnt really focused when I was reading and doing things. SO this letter will be really fast. Sorry!

But this week was a good week. It was really busy and we had TONS to do and that didnt get done. We found an investigator (in reality, the assistants found him) and he lives at the VERY edge of our area and down a hill. And so this weekend we walked up and down hills like all day. My body is really really really really really tired. I cant wait for this afternoon...to sleep! And I had a lot of stress this week. So you know how your body sometimes just gets run down and you crash? If it wasnt for Heavenly Father helping me, I would have already crashed haha.

But this tuesday was really cool. We had a training/conference with all the sisters in the mission. It was in Londrina. It was really cool being together with all of us. We learned a lot and want to start putting all the things into practice. I will admit it was really funny because there was like 20ish sisters and then 2 assistants (because they were giving training all day). Haha. Really funny because they felt a little out of place. But it was really cool.

Lets see....ya I ran out of things to talk about....but the work is going really well here in Londrina. And our mission is seeing A LOT of miracles happen.

The church is true....I love you all...and this week is going to be a week of miracles. For ALLLLLLLL of us!

Good luck with this week! Sorry this is so short! Next week Ill have a million of stories to tell! I promise Ill be focused next week!

-Sister Empey

My "Hump Day" party...I'm half way!!!

All the Sisters in our Mission at a Training Conference last week.  It was awesome!

Halfway mark this week! July16, 2012

Hello my loved ones!

How are you all doing?!?!?!?!?! Wow this week was crazy! Remember when those elders were working in our area. Welp...we were teaching a 10 yr old (his mom is a less active member) but the parents of this kid weren't allowing him to get baptized....because he was so young. But through some miracle, the elders being the crazy guys they are...they got permission for this kid to be baptized! And so we baptized and confirmed him this week!!!!!!! He has a lot of spirit and is a handful. But it was super cool to be able to see him baptised. And his parents went to the baptism tooo! The mom afterwards said that he will be the pride of their family and he will grow up to be an example for everyone else. How exciting! Anyways...hes really cool and he is liked a lot...obviously! Haha. Anyways..he is a "Present" for the ward from us :D

Anyways so Im training. In the picture Ill send is a picture of me and Sister Bullen and Sister Neves and the boy we baptized. Sister Bullen is from Alaska. And she has a really good spirit. She has a really strong will and desire to learn portuguese and to be a good missionary. I hope that she likes me and I can help her! She doesnt say it...but Im sure she is a little stressed out because of the language....ya, that was me just a few months ago! But she is really awesome and she is going to be a powerful missionary. The other night...she fell asleep with the lights on before she was praying....haha I forgot how tiring the field is at first. Now that Im an "old person" in the mission, I can say that I am experienced and know what it feels like....hahahahaha just kidding! Geez....sometimes we feel so inadequate and feel like, "what was I thinking?" or "what is Heavenly Father thinking?!". But I know that nothing in our life happens by circumstance and Heavenly Father really is shaping our lives and our spirits for His Kingdom.

Anyways....sorry it was so short...I feel like my time in the field...time in the day....is literally running by and I never have time to do all I want to do. Oh well...welcome to life!

Love you all and have a fabulous week!

-Sister Empey

My new companion, Sister Bullen is by my side, and Sister Neves with our baptism this last weekend!

A bunch of Sister Missionaries getting together!

July 9, 2012

Hi family and friends!

Guess what??!?!?!?! Im going to be a trainer for 12 weeks! Ya....talk about responsibility! This person is BRAND new in the mission. And Ill have to train her the ropes on the mission and stuff. WOW...these 12 weeks will be interesting! Im a little scared....haha

And look...I told you I would have a good week!

So what happened....welp...Ill tell you!

This week was super good. The Zone leaders and Assistants were thinking about helping out our zone. And they decided on helping out our area for a few days. So Thursday-Sunday, we had 2 elders helping us out. So they ate lunch with us with the members and then they just worked. Contacting people, talking to our investigators, and helping find people to be baptized this weekend. It was super fun and I think they liked it too. The first day was with an assistant and our zone leader. The next day was an assistant and other zone leader, and the next 2 were the 2 assistants. It was really fun and it helped us too. It helped us because we got excited during the day and we really were excited to work and talk to people. So it was really fun and really good too. It was also good because our area has only had sister missionaries for like 4 years. So they could do some work and talk to people and teach people that we cant do. So they had a lot of success.

Anyways. Remember me talking about that family that was inactive but the mom is a really good cook? :) Well they are coming to church every Sunday now!!! AND her son got ordained and he passed the sacrament yesterday. It was super cool and I was really really happy to see that! Success!

Also...we were going after a reference given to us by a zone leader in Londrina. So we found the house and the lady that answered is actually a member....but really inactive. So we talked to her for quite a while. She is super awesome. She is one of like 11 kids in the family. And the only member. Talk about hard. And she gave us food :D And the whole family live close together. Its really cool. They are a huge family and it is really cool to be able to see that. So I hope we can help her and her family. But its gotta be hard to be the only member in a family so big! Also...we taught part of the family 2 days ago. It was SO cool! Her son was there and listening A LOT! He was a rebel when he was younger...but we talked to him and invited him to church. He accepted and he showed up...by himself! And then during church he said he was praying to receive an answer...and he said yesterday that he received an answer and he wants to change and be better and change his life. WOW! SOOOO FREAKING AWESOME! So we were really pumped and excited! Go him!

Anyways....I forgot to mention...but I started to dream in Portuguese! Go me! Haha

Anyways...Ill get going but I hope you all have a fabulous week! Love you alllllll!

-Sister Empey

Yup...that's all!  (my favorite candy...how sad...it's all gone, and Mom just sent this to me!)

So this was us together with the 2 elders that helped us out. These are our 2 assistants. But Elder Angerbauer (the blond) is leaving this week for his house! Anyways....ya....good times

July 2, 2012

How are all of you doing this week?!

This week was good for us! And holy cow it was hot again! I was sweating this whole week! Its always like this! The Saturday and Sunday of fasting just happens to be the hottest day of the week and month haha. But anyways. It was super good.

But anyways...happy 4th of july! Dont worry, probably here Ill get fireworks too. They go off like every night. Especially on the weekend. Its because of soccer games that are going on. Haha. When the team that the people are rooting for score, they light off fireworks. Its kind of crazy...but welcome to Brazil. EVERYONE loves soccer. EVERYONE. And you know what team a person is with what they show in their house, what they wear, what they have in their car. Hahahahaa its really funny. But anyways...Happy 4th. Maybe Ill wear red or blue or white on 4th of July just to commemorate :D

Anyways this week we started visiting and teaching a girl and her mom. They are awesome. I love them. You can always tell if an investagator likes you if they cook for you. Did I mention that already? I think I mentioned that before like 10 times. But anyways, these investigators cooked dinner for us. It was super simple but it was perfect :D And this week the daughter ( 14yrs old) said that she and her mom likes it when we come to visit them :D The mom. Wow the mom is soooo busy all the time. And one night she was having some serious problems with her family when we came to visit and she was SUPER stressed out. BUT we talked to her, we read the BOM with her and when we left she said she felt sooo much better and was super happy we came by. But her problem is she is so busy she doesnt want to go to church!!! Haha she said she has too much to do and doesnt want to go. BUT we will keep working with her so that we talk her into going. Once she goes, she´ll never look back :D And she has a son that is like....HUGE!!!!! Like 7 feet tall I swear. And their family eats A TON! Like when we filled our plates (when we ate dinner with them)...they were all flabbergasted because we had so little on our plate. But really...we had a normal amount. But ya...really funny.

We have a recent convert here. She is 12 yrs old. And she is reallly awesome. But she was a little weak this past couple of weeks. And we found out why! She wasnt reading the BOM! But we made a plan with her to read every day. Anyways, it was reallly good. This last sunday we didnt have to wake her up for church. She was waiting outside of her gate for us to pick her up. And she is really excited because she wants to work with us this week. Like walk and teach with us. So we are really excited. Because she lights up when she can show others that she has a testimony. Anyways...our focus this week...lessons with members!

Ill send you guys a picture of our zone conference now!

Anyways, you all have a fabulous week! I know I wiiiiiiillllllllllllllllll!

Love,

Sister Empey

Our Zone - check out the really tall American Elder in the middle - he's our District leader -he's hilarious! :D

June 25, 2012

How are alllllll of you?!

This week was a really good week! We had Zone Conference Tuesday. It was really fun to be with President and Sister Tavares and the assistants and things like that. We learned a whole lot this week to put in practice in our work. We learned about the story in the bible about that one king or army leader that had leprosy and he wanted a prophet to come heal him and instead the servant came and told him to take 7 baths in the river. Anyways it was really cool learning about that. And then we put that in the mission work and that we have ideas of 7 things that we need to do to have success in our missions. One of these that has been our focus is lesson with members present. Its sometimes hard to have members in our lessons. So we have been thinking really hard on how we can have more members. So we are going to have members do the work with us...walk with us, do lessons and all that kind of stuff. Anyways also...we are trying to do more FHEs. And have investigators, less actives, and members in all of these FHEs to help them be more strong in the gospel and have friends at church too. So we are excited to see what will happen this week in our area.

We had lunch with a family saturday. And it was really cool because I talked to the son that is 18 years old for quite a while. In Brazil, young men can serve when they are 18. But he wants to wait until after he does some college before he goes on a mission. And I talked to him for quite a while about how he should go on a mission now and not wait and stuff. I think I FINALLY convinced him! Haha in Portuguese!!! I was super happy. He walked up to me at church and said that he is thinking about starting his papers in about a month so that he can leave soon. How exciting! Anyways I was proud of myself about that :D

Anyways...we had an FHE this week with a family. They have 3 boys. The mom is strong in the church and the dad isnt a member (yet of course). But shes a little weak right now because she feels like she is raising her boys alone in the church (logical because the dad isnt a member). Anyways...it was an AWESOME FHE. It was a good lesson (it was about choices and choosing the right). We had a fun game. And everyone was laughing and having a good time. We left away really positive and good about that. And we thought FOR sure the dad would go to church sunday....but he didnt. But thats ok....NEXT WEEK!

Anyways why is my hour taken up always soooo fast?! Its time to go for the week. Sorry...a little lame I know! Next week I will concentrate on doing better. I promise!!!! :D

Love you all and wish you all a fabulous week!

-Sister Empey

"Showing off my new look for the winter time here...haha a little ugly eh? But what can I do?!!! :)"

(Sister Empey is having to wear her running shoes because of minor back issues)

June 18, 2012

Hello family!

Well this week was really interesting believe it or not! We got a phone call from President Tavares at 10:15. He said that Sister Brooks (who was living in the house with us) was getting transfered...the next day! (It was Friday night we got the phone call). And she was leaving at like 6 the next morning. So she had to pack everything up. The house was in a complete wreck and us four didnt get to sleep until like 1 oclock because we were helping her get packed up. And Sister Dos Santos...my companion traveled with her to pick up her ner companion. So I have a new companion for 3 weeks! Sister Neves. She is actually doing a mission that is like a mission before her mission. They do this in Brazil. So she is 20yrs old and she is from a city within the Londrina Mission. And a president of the mission (in this case Pres Tavares) calls a young woman or young man that have more or less the age of a missionary that is thinking strongly about serving a mission. And they are come and help out the missionary. So they do everything that normal missionaries do, but they havent gone through the temple and they dont have an official calling and they didnt go through the CTM. But they are set apart and everything. So anyways, President Tavares said that after this transfer (that will end in 3 weeks) she will go home to start preparing to put in her papers. Anyways pretty cool. And shes a really good missionary so Im excited to work with her for 3 weeks.

This week we made a fancy birthday cake. It was chocolate with like a filling in the middle and a huge chocolate layer on top. Actually it didnt turn out really good.....BUT now I know how to make it better :) It was the birthday of an elder in our district. Anyways...it turned out pretty good. I have a picture with us and our cake that I will send you guys :)

Also...yesterday we had a lot of investigators in the church. It was really exciting to see. And a couple of inactive members were there tooo! And we are seeing a lot of good things happening in this area. We have 2 investigators right now that can be baptized this Sunday. So we are exciting about that. We will see what will happen! We need to do all we can to help them to get things moving. And its intersting because you can really see the hand of God in our work. Because really we are doing almost NOTHING. But its Heavenly Father that is actually really helping us a lot. Anyways. This week looks really promising and exciting. We have some really good investigators that want to learn and go to church and want to study more. Thats always a really good sign! We have Zone Conference tomorrow. Its going to be really good. The food is always soooo good! Anyways...I dont have any more time! Ill send that picture!

Love you all! Hope everything is going well for all of you! Brazil is doing great and little chilly too :) Great for walking a lot! Haha anyways...until next week!

 

-Sister Empey



We made a birthday cake for an Elder in our District...it didn't turn out as good as we hoped, but it got eaten!

 

June 11th, 2012

Hello family!

Another fast email week! Sorry! But I did want to tell a couple of things. I only have about 10 minutes left and this keyboard...pain in the butt...anyways!

the Manaus temple was dedicated yesterday! Whoop whoop! We got to go to an extension of the dedication service in our stake building yesterday! How coooooool! It was awesome. I felt such a spirit there :D President Uchdorf dedicated the temple. Man for some reason yesterday, he was funny. Anyways, it was such a good experience. And you could really feel the sacrifice that the people in Manaus and all of Brazil put into that temple. I think sometimes us in the US take for granted that we have temples so close. But it was really cool. This was my favorite dedication that Ive seen so far. Maybe because Im on a mission in Brazil, or Im getting older and I understand a little bit more the significance of a temple, or maybe I could feel the spirit more for some reason or another...haha but in any case...it was really neat. And I miss the temple. One of the first things we are doing as a family when I get home....going to the temple (and Madie...you cant drive anywhere when we are in the session ok?)

Also..we had a ward activity this Saturday that we were in charge. It actually turned out really good. And I dont know if you guys remember or anything, but the game where you are all holding hands with your team in a line and then you sqeeze the persons hand when your other hand gets sqeezed...its called Shock i think. Anyways........ya....haha try explaining that game (that I can barely explain in English) in Portuguese...haha great fun :D Anyways good stuff. It turned out well. And the lesson was given by me and one of my companions. It was really good and I actually looked at people in their eyes (a big improvement for me compared to before my mission :D)

Ok I think thats all I have time for! Wow already 1 hr?! Sorry....more experiences next week!

Love you allllllll!

-Sister Empey