Goof and Grow

Brazil/Uruguay flags

June 16, 2014

Oiiiiiii familia!!

I hope everyone is doing well!  Sorry in advance for the grammatical errors I will have--it is sooo weird to be thinking and typing in English.  Well we had a great week and I love my new companion!  I am training Sister Moscoso and SURPRISE she is from Peru so we are learning Portuguese together!  There were three sisters who arrived the same day--two from Brasil and one from Peru.  The other sisters training have much more experience with Portuguese but sure enough I am training the Peruvian.  I can’t tell you how grateful I am though.  She really is exactly what I needed!  

Sister Moscoso was born in Peru but moved to Spain six years ago and she was waiting for her visa as well!  She ended up serving in Spain for two transfers and then came here. It is such a blessing she already knows how to teach and how to be a missionary and such.  She is teaching me so much and we love using the things we learned from our previous missions here in Brasil.  

This week has definitely been a week of goof and grow.  We have had some pretty funny experiences because I really have no idea what I am doing, but Sister Moscoso has been patient with me so I am really grateful.  I feel like I have learned so much this past week and I am starting to feel really confident with Portuguese which is a huge blessing!

Here are some funny goofs from this week:

1)  We decided to visit some less-active families.  We have a HUGE list with members in the ward and Sister Vieira crossed out all of the people who are active so we won’t visit them.  (90% of our ward is less-active so we have a lot of options to work with!) Anyways, we knocked on a door of a casa and who came to the door?  The bishop’s wife! Sister Vieira forgot to cross out the bishop’s family so that was funny trying to explain why we were there.

2)  I accidentally scheduled two lunch appointments for us yesterday.  And both with people who would have been upset if we cancelled . . . I don’t think I have ever eaten so much in my life.

3)  During a lesson I was trying to tell an investigator we would pray for him but I ended up saying we would pray TO him--oops.

But despite all of these goofs, I have had some huge growing experiences and I have learned so much about patience, charity, and the atonement.  So I wouldn’t trade my mishaps for anything!

The World Cup was interesting.  The day Brasil played, we had to stay in our apartment because it was too dangerous to be out working.  Brasil will play again tomorrow so I am guessing we will have to do the same.  But it is really cool to be here during such a historic event!  The streets are all decorated and the people are super excited, so it is really cool to be a part of it all!!  

We get to go to the temple tomorrow and I am really excited.  President Tanner will be leaving very soon and President Broadbent will be arriving!  So many changes are happening and I feel very blessed to serve right now!

The work has been a bit challenging during the World Cup, but we are still teaching Nickoly, Leticia, and Celia.  They are all ready for baptism except Celia and Leticia need to stop drinking cafe.  Pray for them!!  I am sure they will be baptized this transfer though.

Well sorry this was so random, but I am happy and loving the learning experiences I am having!  Love you all!! And thanks for the birthday wishes!  I don’t know where the time has gone--twenty-one already? Sheesh.

Eu espero que voces tenham uma boa semana!

Sister Dixon