Dear Family,
We have had a good week. I especially have had a good week. Now that we have a new mission president in the Sao Paulo West mission who is an American and whose wife is my friend, the senior missionaries are now being included in some mission activities. I think that most of us who have participated have really enjoyed it.
Last Thursday there was a zone conference just for the sister missionaries. Later President Thomas learned that they are not really supposed to do that as it resembles a Relief Society meeting too much. Our theme was Becoming a Woman of God and just before it started we all had to make sure that our talks reflected more on missionary work than just being a good woman. My talk was mostly in Portuguese so I had to scramble a little to readjust it but it worked out well.
The meeting started out with Ellen (Sister Thomas) and I doing a little skit on how not to do a door approach. I was chewing a big wad of gum, had my hair a little crazy and my clothes rumpled. Ellen had a raison stuck in her teeth and was wearing an old sweater (it was mine actually!) and we both were slumped. I did the talking and I made some bad errors on purpose, but I think the girls thought that I just didn't know what I was saying, but that's okay. Anyway, it was fun. Afterwards we did a regular door approach to show the difference.
There were four senior sister missionaries who went and we each did a little presentation or talk. Sister Cox talked about doing our work "with" the Lord and not just "for" Him. She quoted the scripture Jacob 5:71 and it made me think a lot. I usually just try to get through that chapter as fast as I can but I have learned some things from that chapter while being here.
I spoke about Esther and how she had courage and that it takes courage to be a missionary. I compared Esther to Sister Cox and said that Sister Cox has a lot of courage because she came here all alone, she is here for two years and she doesn't speak any Portuguese. Then I told them an experience that Sister Cox had a year ago, just before she came on her mission. She was asked to serve on a Task Force for President Obama to determine if the government should pay for sex-change operations! Incredible! Who would have ever thought such a thing, even five years ago! There was a committee of 12 people who were experts in their fields (Shirley is quite an amazing woman and has done work all over the world. She is a psychologist and has had considerable training and experience dealing with same-sex attraction.). The first vote was 11 in favor of the proposal and 1 against. Of course, that was Shirley. By the end of the week, the vote was 0 in favor and 12 against the proposal. I told the missionaries that Sister Cox has courage!
Then I spoke about knowledge and I told about my mother and how she continues to study the gospel every single day. I told them what Mom always is saying, "I am studying for my final exam!" Then I spoke about charity and love from Preach My Gospel. I told about Sister Thomas when she was at the Playmill and how Mom and Dad were so worried that she and Kim Novas would disrupt the whole cast because they were so pretty and popular and such close friends. Just the opposite occurred. Ellen and Kim went around, secretly, doing special things for each cast member and it made that summer one of the best summers ever! I did most of my talk in Portuguese and I didn't have to read each word this time.
On Sunday, yesterday, we started attending our little branch in Ibiuna. It took us a little over an hour to get there. We were surprised to see two ladies from our department at the office there. Sandra's parents have been the senior missionary couple serving in that branch for 1 1/2 years and it was their last Sunday and Sonia lives in that stake and was the last speaker. It was nice to see familiar faces. The Branch President called on Sandra's parents to bear their testimonies and then called on Dad to bear his. I was relieved that he didn't call on me! Well after Dad had finished and was walking back, they told him that they wanted me to bear my testimony also. AAAHHHH! I didn't have any time to get my thoughts in order but I was able to do it, and in Portuguese with only a little help from Dad.
I spoke a lot of Portuguese yesterday with the young missionaries. There are 4 elders and 2 sisters serving there. I also made a couple of comments in SS. I think that this experience will really help my Portuguese. I felt like yesterday my language skill was bumped up a little. Dad said that he spoke more Portuguese yesterday than he had in the last 4 days. I told him that I spoke more Portuguese yesterday than I had in the last 4 months!
On Sat. we had a fun activity with our senior missionary friends. Dad and I have taken over the role of being the "tour guides" or "activity specialists" for our group. We went to the soccer museum and then went to a really good bakery/restaurant for lunch. It was a really fun day. We found everything, including the bus routes and we did just fine. The museum was really good. Elder Salisbury, who served at the same time with Dad and in the same mission, was taught how to play soccer from Pele! For those of you who don't know, Pele just happens to be like the Michael Jordan of soccer. Pele wanted to learn English so he did a trade with the missionaries. They taught him English and he taught them how to play soccer! Wow! How would that be?!
We are getting ready to go to Manaus, aka the Amazon! We are going on a little "mini vacation" for a few days. We leave early in the morning and will get back on Sat. night. The Burkes and Shirley are going with us. We are going to the temple tomorrow and then doing a city/jungle tour for the rest of the week. More on that next week.
I have included some pictures today. The first are of our zone conference. I'll have to send these in a series of emails.
I love all of you very much. It would be nice to hear from some of you once in awhile, hint, hint! Hope you have a good week.
Love,
Mom/Paula
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