MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE everyone!!! Igor has decicded to be baptized!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE everyone!!!  I can't believe it's almost Christmas and that I get to call you all TOMORROW!!!  :D  I'm super excited...and I will confess, a little bit nervous.  haha.  I CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH anymore, guys.  Seriously, it's going to be rough.  :P  :)  But STILL, I'm excited!  Just be prepared to help me transition back into English...and be patient.  haha :)

So.....wow, a lot has happened this week.  Transfers, first of all.  Right after I sent my email to you guys last week, we received a phone call from Sister Gomes and Sister Bullen... (they had gone to Londrina for the day so we weren't together like usual) ... and Sister Bullen had been transferred!  That was a HUGE surprise for everyone, because she only had ONE transfer here in Ibipora, and Sister Gomes had three.  Everybody thought that Sister Gomes would be the one transferred....but nope, President Tavares decided to mix things up and send Sister Bullen first.  She was transferred to Maringa, and Sister Ramirez arrived to take her place as Sister Gomes' new companion.  Remember Sister Ramirez?  We lived in the same apartment for my last transfer in Maringa, so I already know her pretty well.  It's been good to have her here with us.  :)

We also had an interesting change in our district.  Our district leaders worked in an area called Cornelio, but this transfer the area was closed and our district leader was transferred to a different district... so NOW, we get to go to Londrina every week for our district meeting with our NEW district leaders....the office elders!  Haha, it's different, and bem legal.  They are hilarious and a lot of fun, AND, bonus points, we get to pick up our letters there every week instead of having to wait for transfers.   SWEET!  :)  It's been pretty awesome so far... the escritório is basically the coolest place in the mission, but you can only go there with permission from the president....so having our meeting there is quite the privilege.  ;)  Hearing all the mission gossip, getting letters, Liahonas, packages, seeing all the other missionaries in Londrina....pretty legal. :)  

We also had the Branch Christmas Party last Friday, which turned out to be a pretty big deal.  CHURRASCO!  Okay, so I know that's not SO exciting for you Porto Alegre people, but it doesn't happen that often here in Parana, okay?  haha :)  But it was cool.  The chapel was ALL decorated for Christmas, FULL of people and FULL of FOOD.   Before the eating started, the Primary kids sang Away In A Manger (Jesus Num Presepio), and I played the piano.  Afterwards, the four of us sisters ended up eating behind the curtain on the pulpit, because all of the tables were full....it was actually really funny, kind of like a VIP area, or at least that's how I like to think of it.  ;)  Churrasco, rice and beans, salad (with TONS of tomatoes and onions chopped courtesy of yours truly), potato salad, and guarana.  mmmmm.... :)  and afterwards, ICE CREAM for dessert.  It was pretty great to have the whole branch gathered together to celebrate this wonderful holiday, in a wonderfully Brazilian way.  :)

As far as pesquisadores, I don't have TOO many updates - just one.  Igor told us yesterday that he's decided to be baptized!!!  That was SO exciting to hear.  We knew that he had a testimony and really had a strong desire to be baptized, but it looked like a lot of the problems he was facing were going to hold him back... but he said that he's decided for sure to make the changes in his life that he needs to be able to follow this path.  We set his baptism for two weeks from yesterday, and will be working with him to make it happen.  It isn't going to be easy, but keep him in your prayers and I know everything will work out!  :)

Well, family, I am SO excited to be able to talk to you tomorrow.  I am SO excited for Christmas, for this special day to remember our Savior and His birth.  I am so grateful for Him, for His life and His example.  I know that He lives and loves us, and I KNOW that this is His Church and His work.  I am so so grateful to be one of His representatives and for the opportunity to share this testimony with you as well as with the people here in Brazil.

Merry Christmas!!  I hope it's a wonderful day for all of you!  

Talk to you soon..

Love,

Sister Gee

Christmastime in Ibiporã; Two sister mssionaries, one small umbrella, BIG rain storm

Hello everybody!   Another week has passed and I'm still loving being here in Ibiporã!!  :)  Today is transfers, and as I haven't received any emails from the mission secretaries yet, I'm assuming that means I'll be staying here for another transfer.  woohoo!  :)  Sister Marques hasn't gotten anything yet either, so it looks like we'll be working together again!  I'm pretty excited about that.  :)  I was reeeeeeally hoping that we'd be able to stay here for another transfer.  We have a bunch of people that we're working with right now, and it will be so great to have some more time to keep teaching them and helping them progress.  That also means that we'll be here for Christmas, which I'm also SUPER excited about - we have some amazing members here that I'm sure will take verrryyy good care of us.  :)  Ibiporã is all decorated and beautiful for Christmas, and there has been A LOT going on in the city to celebrate.  The city center is FULL of giant Christmas sculptures made completely from plastic bottles - angels, candy canes, snowmen, and even a house for Santa Claus...it's really pretty incredible.  They have a stage set up for bands and dancers and other performances, a carousel and other rides for the kids, and a ton of little booths with different foods and treats.  It reminds me a lot of Summerfest, actually!  Churros, Krepes, Japanese food, cotton candy, candied apples... Sister Marques and I have definitely been enjoying this time of year.  :)  It's definitely different from Christmas in Utah, where everyone stays inside hiding from the snow! :)   Definitely different, and awesome.  :)

So, not a ton has happened this week...João's leg is still pretty bad and hasn't really shown any signs of improvement, and on top of that, he caught a cold this week, so yeah...he's not doing too well at the moment.  :/   We pass by every day to check on him, and to help in any way we can - which usually includes running to the store to buy groceries for him.  :)  He really is so sweet, and I'm praying that his leg will heal quickly.  It was sooo heartbreaking the other day - we stopped by to give a quick lesson, and afterwards, as we got up to leave, we shook his hand goodbye and he said "Tchau....and now I'm going to be alone."  haha!  It was so sad... :P :)

Oh, and another story - this week has been SUPER rainy, which is really a huge blessing.  We had been waiting for the rain for a loooong time, so when it finally arrived, it was a relief!  Friday we had scheduled a family night with some pesquisadores that live in Vila Esperança, the FARTHEST neighborhood from where we live.  That afternoon, we quickly made a cake to bring for a treat afterwards, pulled it out of the oven and ran out the door only to find the rain POURING down.  We only had one umbrella between the two of us - so try to imagine this - two sister missionaries huddled between one small umbrella, struggling in vain to protect a hot cake from getting soaked in the rain... yeah.   After a few minutes we realized that walking all the way to Vila Esperança wasn't going to happen, so we quickly changed course and caught a bus to take us there.  I couldn't help but laugh as we walked through the pouring rain with our umbrella and our cake.  And then we arrived at the house of the family and nobody was home.  ahh.  It would have been frustrating if it hadn't been so funny.  :)  But it still turned out to be a great evening.  We stopped by Rose's house and ate dinner with her and her family, with our cake as dessert!

Well, I can't wait to talk with you all for Christmas!  I think we'll be able to go to the house of a member here and use Skype...hopefully!  It would be so wonderful to be able to see you all.  :)  I guess I'll figure out all the details and let you know next week!

Love, 

Sister Gee

Christmas conference in Londrina; Christmas tree!; Investigators not progressing

Querida Família,

Oí once again from IBIPORÃ!  It's been another great week here.

The highlight of the week was CONFERENCIA DE NATAL in Londrina!  All of the missionaries in our zone met together to celebrate Christmas and learn together.  It was a WONDERFUL conference, and I loved being able to spend time with some of the other missionaries here.  President and Sister Tavares both spoke to us, as well as a member from Londrina.  The Spirit was AMAZINGly strong, and I learned so much that I'm going to be applying every day.  We practiced teaching a few lessons together, had some musical numbers, a delicious lunch, cake for all of the missionaries who celebrated birthdays from July to December, and of course Christmas presents!  The conference lasted the whole day, but it seriously passed so quickly.  I felt so grateful to be able to be there, receiving the spiritual reinforcements that I need to do this work every day!  Mission conferences are amaaazing.  :)

Oh, and I got your Christmas package!  It was sooo funny, everyone was surprised that I had actually received a Christmas tree in the mail, and that I was actually going to carry it all the way home on the bus.  I lugged it all the way from Londrina to Ibiporã, opened it up, and the sisters and I spent the evening decorating the house for Christmas.  It's BEAUTIFUL, thank you so much!  The other sisters are convinced that Mom and Sister Bullen's mom were planning everything together - Mom sent the Christmas tree, and Sister Bullen's mom sent presents for everyone to put underneath it!  :)  It's so exciting to be decorated for Christmas - I love this time of year!  

Unfortunately João wasn't able to be baptized this week... We went to his house on Thursday to set up the baptismal interview and everything, only to discover that he had two ulcers that had opened up on his leg... big, nasty, painful ulcers.  He said that they're causing a lot of pain, and he hasn't been able to walk too much because of them.  We had the elders come to give him a priesthood blessing, but it looks like he's going to have to wait for them to heal before he'll be able to be baptized.  

Our other investigators haven't been progressing too well so far either.  We haven't been able to get people to commit to come to church, and that's been causing a lot of problems. We haven't been able to teach Igor in a while either, and he didn't show up to church yesterday...I'm pretty worried about him, and REALLY frustrated that we can't get out to teach him more often.  I know that he needs our support and help to make some changes, but he's not getting that because we live SO far away and really can't afford to take the bus out there very often.  I don't know what to do, and am kind of feeling like it's out of my control at the moment.  I'm just praying that everything will turn out alright, and that we'll somehow be able to find a solution to the problems that are keeping us from being able to help him progress.

Well, I think that's it for the week.  Things are going really well here in Ibiporã!  I hope you're all happy and getting ready for Christmas - and THE HOBBIT, jealous!!!   Haha, but I love you all so much!  I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful, supportive family.  :)  You guys are amazing!

Love,

Sister Gee

Awesome birthday!; Sweet, little, old man João; Aparecida finally meets the missionaries

Hello everyone! 
So, I had a pretty awesome birthday.  Like I mentioned last week, we had a branch activity that day and spent a while that afternoon getting everything ready.  The activity went really well, we had quite a few pesquisadores, a TON of food, and even though the karaoke machine never showed up, we had a lot of fun listening to music and singing along in the microphone.  Sister Marques and I gave the spiritual thought, with a message about letting our light shine through sharing our testimonies with others.  And of course, everybody sang a nice loud rendition of Parabens Pra Você for me!  Afterwards, when Sister Marques and I arrived home, Sister Gomes and Sister Bullen brought out a tray with some of the leftover food from the activity (tuna sandwich-type things), with a few candles stuck in.  I was a little surprised, and thought it was a little strange...but remembered that it must have been a pretty busy day for them, smiled and thanked them, and blew out the candles.  They started to laugh and brought me into the other room where we found a FESTA that they had put together for me - cake, balloons, brigadeiros... it was AWESOME, and so funny.... :) Ahh, those sisters.  They´re crazy.  :)
Highlight of this week was our lesson with João.  I dont think Ive mentioned him yet... He is a sweet little old man who has been coming to church for the past couple weeks.  He lives all alone, so I think he really enjoys our visits, but he was feeling a little apprehensive about committing to baptism... We were really trying to avoid being pushy about it, but THIS week, he told us that he´s ready to be baptized and has already invited his kids to come to the baptism.  Sister Marques and I were so excited!  He is so sincere in his prayers and so accepting of what we teach.
We also spent one day this week working in a neighborhood reeeeeeeeeally far away from our house.  We found quite a few great people there, but my favorite lesson was with Aparecida.  The reference that we had was for her daughter, but when Aparecida answered the door, she told us that she had moved out more than a year ago.  But she invited us in, and we sat and visited with her for a while.  She started to tell us about her life, her family...and then told us about her daughter.  Apparently a few years ago she was going through some REALLY hard times, struggling with depression and some other challenges in her life.  One day when she was feeling particularly discouraged, she ran into two young men in white shirts and ties.... :)  She gave them her address and later that day told her mom, ´If two guys show up here, they´re from the church!´  The elders never showed up, and eventually she moved away... but this week Sister Marques and I found her mom and were able to share our message with her.  :)  Aparecida actually started to cry a little bit while telling us the story of how her daughter met the elders.  I just felt so excited to be able to be the one to find her and teach her what she and her daughter had been waiting for so long.  :)
Anyways, time´s up again!  I love you guys so much.  Thanks again for all the birthday wishes, for the presents, for the love and ALL that good stuff.  :)  Hope you are all getting ready for the Christmas season, and enjoying the cold for me!  I can´t wait to be able to talk to you all in a few weeks!  :)
Love always,
Sister Gee

Thanksgiving dinner-ish sort of meal; An answer to prayer for Rose; Igor taught *us* the lesson

Hello everyone!!  :)  First of all, THANK YOU to everyone for the birthday messages!!!  It was a pleasant surprise to log on to my email today and find it FULL of Happy Birthdays from all of you.  :)  It means a lot to know that there are people thinking about me and sending their support and love.  I'm super excited for my birthday - it definitely will be different than usual, but good.  We've actually been planning a branch activity for that day, so it will for sure be busy, getting everything organized and put together, and hopefully still squeezing in a little time for a piece of cake.  ;)  Our plan is to have a Karaoke Night, which should be LOTS of fun, especially since the other sisters have told me that the branch here is really enthusiastic about activities and always has a pretty good turnout.

It's been a gooood crazy busy awesome week.  Sister Bullen and I somehow managed to pull off an almost Thanksgiving dinner-ish sort of meal, with a real live apple pie with vanilla ice cream, mashed potatoes, and gravy.  :)  The most important parts, right?  But it ended up being a lot of fun, and we were both really excited to be able to at least SORT of celebrate Thanksgiving.  Our Brasilian companions weren't quite as enthusiastic as we were, but they humored us and went along with it... and of course we went around the table and each one of us said what we were grateful for.  It was fun to be able to bring a little bit of our American culture here to Brasil.  

The next day, Friday, was the 9 month mark of Sister Gomes, so we threw ANOTHER party to celebrate.  Cake, cachorro quente, balloons and the other crazy sister missionary traditions to celebrate the half-way point!   So yeah, it's been a week fuuuullll of things to celebrate.  :)  Don't worry though, we've been working hard too!  We've had some amazing lessons this week, taught some great people, and it's been awesome.  Remember last week I told you about Rose and her two daughters?  We've visited them a few more times this week (it's hard to go very often since it's sooo far away - bummer :P), and had an AMAZING lesson on Saturday.  We stopped by to see how things were going, if they'd prayed about our message, read the Book of Mormon, etc.  Eduarda had some more questions about how she would get an answer to her prayers, so we shared a message about the Holy Ghost - it's purpose, how it works, and how we can recognize it.  During the lesson, Rose shared a story with us that had happened earlier that week.  Her other daughter, Heloise, got reeeally sick all of a sudden and they took her to the hospital to do some tests and figure out what was happening.  Rose said that she was verrry very worried while waiting for the results to come back, when she suddenly remembered us and the things we'd taught her.  She said that she prayed there in the hospital, asking that if our message really was true, Heloise would be fine.  She told us that she immediately felt a calm assurance that everything was going to be fine, that there would be nothing wrong with her daughter and that she didn't need to worry.  Sure enough, the tests came back and everything was normal.  She told us that she knew this was an answer to her prayers, and that she knows that our message is true.  It was SO soo so amazing to hear her share that...the Spirit was definitely present, and Sister Marques and I were both filled with this amazing happiness and excitement for her - and gratitude for that answer to her prayers.  :)

We've also been teaching a young man named Igor.  He is 16 years old, and heard about the Church through his cousin, who is serving a mission now.  He has been coming to church for the past 3 weeks or so, and really enjoying it.  The problem is that he lives in a little city outside of Ibiporã, so it's REALLY hard to find time to teach him.  We FINALLY were able to take a bus out to where he lives on Sunday after church to visit him.  He is the MOST amazing investigator I've ever had.  I've never seen anything like it....We started to teach the Plan of Salvation, right?  Sister Marques - "So, Igor, where do you think we came from before this life?"  Igor - "Well, we were spirits, and we lived with God, and He created this plan for us .... " etc.  And he basically taught the lesson to US.  It was incredible...afterwards I asked him how he knew so much without ever having been taught by the missionaries, and he told us that he's been studying the scriptures on his own, and has almost finished reading the entire Book of Mormon.  His mother-in-law was there during the lesson, and when she asked a question about the Holy Ghost, how to receive an answer about the Church, HE opened up to Moroni 10, taught the scripture to her, and bore his testimony.  Seriously, blew my mind.  He is so prepared to receive the gospel, it's crazy.   The only thing that's keeping him from being baptized a few problems that he needs help to resolve...it's SUPER complicated, but I'm praying that Sister Marques and I will know what to do to be able to help him be baptized.  

Okay, super long email today.  :)  Probably should run and write President Tavares before my hour's up...  Hope you all are doing well!  CONGRATULATIONS to Kyle on the Eagle!  And to Megan for her fancy hoop skirt!  ;)  I love you all so much, and pray for you every day.  I'm sooo glad the house situation got resolved - an answer to prayers!

Well, thanks for everything again!  

Love, 

Sister Gee

New area, Ibiporã! Really great family - Rose and twin daughters;

Hello from my NEW AREA, Ibiporã!!!  :)  Like I mentioned last week, it's a little city about 20 minutes away from Londrina.  It's definitely different than Maringá, but this last week has been really good and I'm definitely enjoying being here.  Sacrament Meeting yesterday was the biggest difference - we have about 50 people who are active members here.  It was not exactly the kind of congregation that I'm used to, but the members here are very friendly and supportive of the missionary work, excited to help us however they can.  The branch president is AMAZING, and really such an inspiring person.  Last night we spent the evening with him and his family, and it was sooo cool to hear him talk about his experiences and testimony.  He was called as branch president after just ONE year as a member, and even though he felt completely overwhelmed and didn't know much about how to lead a branch, he trusted enough in the Lord to accept the calling.  He's seriously been an example of faith already, and I'm excited to be able to work with him this transfer.  Also, good news for me - they don't have a pianist in the branch, so I get the opportunity to play the piano in Sacrament Meeting now!!!  That was exciting.  :)  I wanted to play SO bad EVERY week in Maringá, but never had the chance...so yeah, I'm happy.  :)

My companion, Sister Marques, is GREAT!  She is from São Paulo, 26 years old, beautiful, loving, and, after 9:30 pm, CRAZY.  :)  She likes to laugh and joke and be goofy (once we finish daily planning, of course ;), and it has been so much fun this last week.  She also really wants to learn English, so we've been teaching each other - She teaches me something in Portuguese and I teach her in English.  :)  We also have another companionship of sisters here in Ibiporã - Sister Gomes (Brasileira) and Sister Bullen (Americana).  If that name sounds familiar, it's because Sister Bullen was my roommate in the CTM for 3 weeks!  I was SO excited when I found out that she was going to be in the same area as me.  It's always nice to have someone you already know close by.  :)  She already knows Sister Marques too, so everyone gets along really well, and we have a lot of fun. 

The work here has been a little bit slow this week.  I think we've been facing the effects of some things that happened here in the past - we've met a lot of people who have heard rumors about the Church and don't want anything to do with us.  It's frustrating that so many people here have become so closed up to the gospel, but despite the opposition, we've found a few people who have invited us in and listened to our message.  We met one really great family that I'm excited about - the mom, Rose, and her two 11 year old daughters (twins!).  We taught them the Restauration last week, and it was a really great lesson, I think one of the most spiritual lessons that I've had so far.  It actually went over the 45 min. time limit that we have because they had so many questions about the Church!  Rose told us after the lesson that she already believed our message was true.  It was so exciting to see her accept so willingly.  I'm excited to go back to visit this week and teach them more about the gospel.  

Well, that's about it for the week.  It's been really good to be here so far.  I love you all and hope you have a great Thanksgiving this week!  Seriously, enjoy it for me ... I don't think anyone here has even HEARD of Thanksgiving, let alone pumpkin pie ... so it's up to me and Sister Bullen to plan some kind of little celebration ...  haha, wish us luck.  :)  Hope everything's going well back home, love and miss you all, and look forward to your letters... (*hint*hint*)  :)

Love,

Sister Gee

Relaxing P-Day in Maringá; Stomach flu; Comfortable speaking Portuguese

Hey everyone!  I'm writing a little bit later today because the four of us sisters spent the afternoon in the city - looking at shops, visiting the cathedral, taking pictures...awesome, and so good to finally have a semi-relaxing P-Day, especially since next week is transfers and I might not get another chance to enjoy Maringá!

So.  This week has been....interesting.... haha.  I don't know what happened exactly, but it seems like almost everything has been going wrong, and we've been struggling to work through it all.  Sister Lopez said that our numbers this week were the worst of her mission so far.  :P  I think we're both a little bit tired...ready for a change.  It's a good thing that transfers are coming up, I think we need it.  But we talked a lot about the difficulties we've been having, and made some decisions to help us do better.  

It all started at lunch last P-Day.  A lady in our ward had called to invite us to eat at her house - for some reason she had a ton of food and wanted to share it with us.  We were pretty excited - free food, right? - and agreed to go there for lunch.

Cut to later that day, appr. 12 am. .... four sister missionaries all racing for the bathroom.  Haha, yep, SOMEthing we ate did not react well with our stomachs, and every one of us was SICK as a dog the next day.  We missed District Meeting on Tuesday and spent most of the day at home, miserable.  Not fun.

The next day it RAINED like crazy.  Rained and rained and rained, and we arrived at our lunch appointment COMPLETELY soaked.  I didn't mind too much, because it had been SO hot that the cool rain was a blessing.  :)  

Sister Lopez and I tried our best to celebrate Halloween, but it didn't end up being too great... haha.  We had plans to have a real party - "costumes" (aka those mustaches you sent me), candy, apple cider....the whole shebang.  The day turned out to be super busy, running around trying to visit all of our investigators ... and we didn't get home until it was too late to do much.  We each bought a sucker to eat on our way home and tried to remember the little we knew of the Thriller dance, and THAT was pretty much the extent of the festivities.  :)  Sister Lopez is determined to do better for Thanksgiving, but we'll see what happens.... How was Halloween for you guys?  Got pictures?  

The good news is that I'm definitely getting used to speaking Portuguese - there were a few times this week where people asked me to speak for them in English, and it was HARD!  It felt really, really weird to be speaking in English again, and took me a few seconds to flip the English switch in my brain.  :)  That's a good sign, right?  I'm learning this language!!!  Woohoo!  :)

Well, that's about it for this week.  I hope everything's going well there.  I love you all sooooo much, and it's always so good to hear about what you all are up to.  :)  

Love,

Sister Melissa Gee