TRANSFERÊNCIAS!;

TRANSFERÊNCIAS.  AAAAHHH.  Transfers are always kinda stressful, but it's SO MUCH CRAZIER being here in Aeroporto.  It's here in Londrina, the center of the mission, so there are allllways a billion people coming and going through here as they travel to their new areas.  The sisters that have to travel almost always stay in the house here in Aeroporto, so we always have a lot to do around transfer-time - sisters to pick up from the bus station, finding rides from the members for all the missionaries, suitcases and spare mattresses and and and....etc. Anyways, so I was expecting this week to be a little crazy.  Our phone has been ringing nonstop since yesterday.  :P  Last night we got a phone call from the secretaries telling us that a sister would be arriving Monday afternoon to stay in our house, and that we would have to pick her up from the bus station.  Tudo bem.  Tranquilo.  ...and then a few minutes later, the zone leaders called and asked "Are you on your way to the bus station to pick up Sister Ramos?"  Us: "...Now??!"  Haha, so it was a surprise and we had to scramble to find a member last second that could pick up Sister Ramos with her suitcases, but fortunately our ward mission leader is AMAZING and always willing to drop everything to help us out.   Remember Sister Ramos?  She lived with me in Maringá.  :)  Now she's finishing her mission and will be headed for home early Thursday morning!  Crazy!  But it has been sooo much fun to have her in our house last night and this morning.  :)  We'll be headed to the bus station shortly after finishing with the internet here to pick up Sister Ramirez, and I think several other sisters will be arriving today and tomorrow.

And now, the big news.  Yep, I've been transferred.  I was definitely not expecting that.  I arrived here in Aeroporto 5 WEEKS ago and just when I started to settle in, I'm leaving again!  I'm going to be so sad to leave all the members and investigators and recent converts here.... they've been so much fun.  :)  But I am SO so grateful for all that I've learned and all the experiences I had here, in just 5 short weeks.  It's been so amazing!  And I'm going to miss Sister Cardoso!  She was called as Lider Treinadora Sister (I think I explained about that in a past email...), and is super stressed about the new calling, but I know she's going to be amazing!  She's a wonderful missionary and it's been so much fun to be her companion.  :)

My new area will be........ CIA NORTE!!!  It's a ward in Maringá, so I'll be going back to the city where it all started. :D  I'm so HAPPY and nervous and excited and I am so grateful that I at least am a little familiar with the city.  I'll even be living in the same apartment...it's going to be so weird going back.  :)  But good.

My new companion is Sister Saldanha....and I literally know nothing about her.  haha :)  She's one of the newer sisters in the mission so I haven't had the chance to meet her yet.  BUT I'm sure it's going to be an adventure.  AAH.  So much happening.  My brain is still adjusting to it all.  :)

Anyways, that's the most exciting part of my week.  The rest of the week was just walking and contacting references and knocking on doors in the rain.  :)  It's super rainy here, and has been verrryy chilly.  Hello, Winter.  But whenever the sun comes out, it heats right back up again!  We met some very interesting people, but nobody that really seemed very interested.  :/  Just gotta keep going until the Lord helps us to find the people He's prepared for us.  

Oh, and we had a ward activity on Saturday, SUPER fun - Noite Italiana!  I made Mom's famous lasagna and everybody loved it!  (The lasagna here in Brasil is very different, so they were excited to try "American" lasagna)  :)  It didn't turn out nearly as good as Mom makes it, but it was sooo good to eat it and feel a little bit at home. :)  The Relief Society decorated the church in red and green and white, played opera music, and we all ate pasta até o pó!  (translation=A LOT)  :)

Well, this has become a long email, so I'll end here.  I hope you guys are having an awesome Memorial Day!  I have really felt a deeper appreciation for our ancestors here on the mission and I love learning about their lives and experiences... Family history is definitely going to be a new hobby of mine once I get back from the mission and have more time for it again.  :)  

Love you all so much!  Keep sending emails and letters and let me know how you are all doing!  I'm sure you guys are keeping plenty busy, sounds like a lot is happening back home. :)  

Until next week...

Love,

Sister Gee

Double baptism in Aeroporto! Gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting; Lots of changes coming!

Hello Family!!!  It's been another great week here in Aeroporto...and to top it all off we had a double baptism on Saturday!  Woohoo!  Both Taiz and Luana were baptized, and it was such a special day.  

Taiz is the little sister of a member here in the ward, she is 10 years old and is awesome.  :)  She has been living with her sister, Irmã Lucimar the last few months after she lost her husband and daughters in a car accident, and it was so special to see how the two have helped each other through these difficult times, and how the gospel is making a difference in their lives.  Taiz is so sweet and it has been so much fun to teach her and help her prepare to be baptized.  

Luana is a young woman that we have been teaching the last month or so.  She is a good friend of a recent convert, Isabele.  The two are 13 years old and are super excited to be able to go to the temple to do baptisms in June!  Luana had a hard time committing to baptism for a long time and was really hesitant, but last Sunday she finally made up her mind and on Saturday she was baptized.  We were all so excited that she had made that decision and it was beautiful to see how happy she was at her baptism!  You could tell that she really did know that it was the right thing to do, and that it felt good!  

What else happened this week... we got to go downtown to get a vaccine this week.  It was for a sickness called "gripe", that I think is something like the flu.  Blech, shots.  But the 40-ish missionaries here in Londrina all got to go in on the same day, so it was fun to be able to run in to a few of them in the vaccination clinic.  Almost as good as a zone conference.  :)

Oh, and I got to give a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday!  It didn't go as well as I would have liked, but I survived...and it was surprisingly hard to keep it within 10 minutes.  Haha, I NEVER thought I would have that problem.  :P  :) 

Next week is transfers.  There will be a lot of new sisters arriving, and President Tavares has been dropping hints that there will be a lot of changes happening....exciting!  Also, this upcoming transfer will be President and Sister Tavares' last transfer here.  Crazy...it's not going to be the same mission without them!  But we're all excited to be able to get to know our new president too.  :)

Welp, that's it from me.  I'm sorry I haven't had too many interesting stories lately, I'll do my best to have some good ones next week! :D

Love always,

Sister Gee

Mother's Day call was SO good; Two ready for baptism this weekend; The Lord is looking out for us as His missionaries!

Querida Familia,

It was SO good to be able to talk with you guys yesterday!!!!  Ahhh, it made me so happy to be able to see your faces and hear your voices and chat about everything that's happening in your lives.  It seems like our Christmas call was just yesterday, it seriously blows my mind that it's already May and Mother's Day has come and gone and the next time I'll see you all will be when I get home in December!  :)  But I love you all so much, and I'm so happy that you are all doing well and having exciting things going on.

As you know, my week was crazy....but we have a lot of things to look forward to this week, and a lot of work to be done!  Two people to prepare for baptism this weekend and one for confirmation!!  We are so blessed!  I'm so happy to be here in Londrina with Sister Cardoso!  We are learning so much together and teaching some amazing people and seeing amazing things happen!  I'm realizing more and more every day just how much the Lord is looking out for us as His missionaries and I am so grateful for His love and protection.  

I love you all so much!  Thanks for all you do for me! My love and prayers are with you ALWAYS.

Love,

Sister Gee

My new area, Aeroporto is great! more of the big-city feel; In a trio - My companions have been a lot of fun so far; Sisteres Treinadores Lideres

Okay, so first of all, sorry for the scare last week - the interview was no big deal, just one of the routine interviews we have every three months.  We weren't expecting it because President Tavares switched our interview slot last second, so it was a surprise for us!  But nothing to worry about, I'm still in the same area with the same companions.  :)  

So let's see....I hate when I miss writing a week, because then I have sooo much more to talk about in my email and I don't know where to start!  :P  But my new area, Aeroporto is great.  I've been having a lot of fun getting to know the members the last two weeks, they are awesome, and it is SO GOOD to be in a real live ward again!  :)  The bishop is great, we have an awesome ward mission leader, and the lunches have all been delicious so far.  It's been good.  

The work in this area is a little different than in Ibiporã.  There is definitely a little bit more of the big-city feel, and the people here are a lot busier and less receptive.  We get a looot more "no"s when doing street contacts.  :P  But it's all good, and despite the differences, we're seeing so many blessings here!  The eleitos are crawling out of the woodwork everywhere we look.  :)  We had a baptism yesterday, an awesome young man named Felipe.  He is 21 years old and a friend of a member of the ward here, which is how the sisters first met him.  He has been excited about his baptism since the first time he talked with the sisters a few weeks ago!  :)  So I got to help teach him the last few lessons he needed to receive and finish preparing everything for his baptism.  It was great. :)

My companions have been a lot of fun so far.   Being in a trio is different, very different, but I think we're all figuring it out.  Like I mentioned in my email last week, Sister Barros is CRAZY and we are always laughing together.  It is not always easy to be in a trio, but she is veryy good at balancing everything out when the three of us are not on the same page.  I don't know what I'd do without her.  :)  

More exciting updates from this transfer:  there is a new calling in the Brazil Londrina Mission!  Sisteres Treinadores Lideres!  Or something like that, haha, it's a complicated title, but to explain everything more simply - We get to do divisions between sisters now!  So I think 8-ish sisters were called to be Sisteres Treinadores Lideres, meaning that they will do divisions with every area of sisters once a transfer.  Here in Aeroporto we got to host the sisteres lideres this week and they worked with us in our area a little bit.  I think the plan is for us to go to their area, Assis, São Paulo, next week to do another division and learn from the way they work in their area.  It's exciting and new and awesome!  I always wanted to be able to do divisions and get to know/learn from the other sisters in the mission, so I'm excited.

Okay, so I know this email is SHORT, but I'm once again running out of time.  But I love you all so much!  I can't wait to talk with you guys on Sunday!!!  :D

Love,

Sister Gee