Monday, January 27, 2014

january 27, 2014 whoaaaaa... wait, this is real life!

good
●on Tuesday our bus didn’t leave for santiago until 2… so we had 3 hours at the rodoviara. a group of us went to SUBWAY (#merica)… and guess what? i was the only american. i feel so cool. 
bad
saying goodbye on tuesday to my camobi fam. not easy. 
got here and the following didn’t work- washing machine, stove, oven. oh yeah and our cell phone isn’t activated. cool. thanks guys. 
took our first shower in the rain here in santiago. daaaaang it rained lots. and we didn’t have umbrellas #newcompanionbondingexperience
                yes... here we are. me and my new companions. totally DRENCHED!
                                           
awk
our neighbor who lives underneath us has 17 cats!!!!!! 
our third lunch this past week in santiago was with a member who lives waaay far away. and we were kinda lost as we were walking. the member got worried, called the relief society president and she came looking for us hahahahha.
awesome
i loved going to the rodoviara! it’s where all the missionaries being transferred or who have companions being transferred meet up in ALL of our mission. it’s so fun to see people from old districts or zones and meet new missionaries too.  transfer day... the bus station
     running into elder edwards... #provomtcreunion
so… this may seem like a bad point but hang with me and you’ll see it’s really awesomeJwe got here in santiago on our first day and didn’t have money or food or means of making food... so we found an address in an area book of a member and just starting walking… basically hoping we could find a member who would feed us. we had been walking for about 15 minutes when all of a sudden someone yelled SISTERS!! and well, Heavenly Father, as ALWAYS, was looking out for us... it was a member. she took us home with her, fed us, and then took us to the relief society president’s house and we now have a calendar with lunch scheduled for us every day until march. :)
cutest thing ever. remember that awk lunch where the RS pres went looking for us because we were way late? ok well, i love the family that we had that lunch  with. yesterday the mom told me that her son (she has the cutest son and daughter, ages 7 and 5) said he liked all of the new sister missionaries, but he felt like with me, i am a member of his family that he already met before. it was the cutest thing ever!
you may not believe it, but… it was a little chilly these last two days and i got to wear boots and leggings :)
okay this week was crazy. remember how i was trying to play it cool and what not about opening the area or being first sister missionaries in the area? yeah, well that went out the window tuesday when i got here. we got here.. our phone wasn’t activated (and still isn’t activated), the house was a mess (thanks elders. we know who you are.), nothing worked, we didn’t know who the bishop was here, or anything!!! then, to top it off, we later found out no one knew we were coming… no one told the ward that they were getting missionaries again.
              we're heeerrrreeee... santiago. and all the stuff of three sister missionaries
                                
 we also found out that this area was closed for a transfer and had no missionaries, so they didn’t haven’t had missionaries for 6 weeks. we literally were starting from ground zero. so we cleaned the house into Tuesday night... then wednesday we searched for addresses of members in the area books, then lived on a prayer and hoped someone would take us in :) 
almost a week later, all is well-- for the most part anywayJ. the members here are great. we already have investigators (and LOTS of less actives in this ward to work with....) and yesterday at church we had an investigator attend. another miracle really. i was pretty proud of us,  not gonna lie. so… we will see how this goes! 
this fine young man is leaving for a mission & had his farewell at church on our first sunday in santiago.
                                 
no, but really it’s cool. on one hand i feel like we have nothing, but at the same time we have everything and have already seen the blessings we have received from God here as He helps us work. and it’s all been a good bonding experience for me and my two new companions. it’s an adventure, that’s for sure! wish us luck. and pray for us lots
J
love you all! stay classy. over and out from #santiagobrasil
xoxo sister faldmo



















Monday, January 20, 2014

january 20, 2014 time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin...

into the future. i don’t know why… but that song is stuck in my head when i think about transfers. 
here we are for one last shot:/
good
we had chili for lunch one day.... SO GOOD
we played a joke on the sisters and said we knew where they’d be transferred... they totally bought it and both said the area we told them was an area that they had been thinking about lots this week. oops. sorry. (neither of them ended up going where we said #allinfun)
sister jackman came to camobi yesterday! we had a little surprise party for her and her companion sister robinson who started her mission her in camobi too. 
sister clay & sister jackman                         surprise!!!!
 
                                        use google translate if you want to know:)

      sister jackman heading back to the states:(
bad
we were so excited to have our first lunch at adriana’s (our recent convert) and then… she totally forgot about it! hahahhaha. it was perfect. 
and then… the elders found out about our little prank and pulled it on us!!! they were totally wrong too. #whatgoesaroundcomesaround
getting stuck in pouring rain without an umbrella.

telling people you’re getting transferred... especially your converts. 
saying good-byes. 
awk
a new area tomorrow where I know NOT a single person and am the only american sister missionary.
awesome
lidia (the first young girl I taught who was baptized) has been visiting her mom and i haven’t seen her in over a MONTH!!! i’m not kidding, it’s been sooooo sad. but her uncle came to say good-bye to sister jackman yesterday and called lidia and let me talk to her!! 
a little trick to keep us the same size for the photo op:)                 
word on the street is i have to leave camobi tomorrowL. i’m not okay with it but i’m excited for a new area and a new adventure. i think i’ve been mentally prepared to leave. i started packing even before we knew who was getting transferred… just in case. 

the weekend of transfers is always crazy. we were hoping to know Thursday, but it wasn’t until friday night when we found out. i am being transferred to santiago. (no not chile.) it’s a small town 2 or 3 hours away. i will be in a trio. we will open this area for sister missionaries. i don’t really like the phrase “open the area” because right now they have elders there, but santiago will now have more missionaries and sisters (even better for themJ)!! i will be the only american sister so it will be interesting for my portuguese… but i know i really need the opportunity to better my accent and my vocab because let’s just say having companionships that are “portuingles” and “portupanol” has made things interesting. 
these good-byes are sooo tough
leaving camobi is the worst. i love it here SOOOOOOO much. i have learned so much and the people here have become another family to me. luckily yesterday they gave me an opportunity to share my testimony at church and i tried my best to tell them how much love and respect i have for them all. it has been an honor to work with the members here. they are ALL examples to me.  but as they say-- every ward is what you make it. there are NO bad wards. so my ward in santiago will be awesomeeeee and another family to add to the tree. right? J right! 
had to teach sis         clay to do #theashley before we parted
that’s all folks. do the work. read your scriptures. help the missionaries. oh!!! ps we FINALLY got the last conference liahona with all the talks. it’s my reading material for the bus tomorrow. i’m so excited! 
also… Adriana will be sending my new address to my mom to post and the first letter i get in santiago wins a prize. i’m not even kidding. 
with lots and lots of amor, 

sister faldmo. 

Monday, January 13, 2014

january 13, 2014 cockroaches and sleep talking

good
remember the guy that said he wouldn’t pray until ano novo? Well, he kept his wordJ so after the new year he prays with us!!!!!! #dreamscometrue
we got lots of rain which means I’m not dying of heat at the moment!!! yay!
5 months on the mish... check 
 went to a brazilian baby shower
bad
ew! ew! ew! we had a visitor this week in our bathroom. a giant cockroach!!! also bad is we were talking on the phone with our district leader when he was discovered so all of the elders heard our screaming. don’t panic…we killed it with a gallon of raid. 
so we were cut lots this week. (explanation below) we’re down four investigators now. we also now have a house we’re not allowed to visit… but a member lives there. 
i’m like 99% sure my companion get electrocuted during a storm... scary but kinda hilarious after the fact. after she said ´´i feel different.....´´ hahahhaha. 
awk
some less actives at church wanted to hear our mission song (which if you haven’t heard it you should get on you tube and check it out… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAZJ7QigrHI ) the video they found on youtube was of some elders with their rendition of our mission song… featuring one of our zone leaders. It’s kindaaa funny. I’ll send a snail mail letter to anyone that finds it and writes me about it:)
aaahhhh... hillary and here you are. in brasil with me:)
new year’s resolution to get rid of this word in my english vocabulary…. one of the little girls in the ward at church, she’s 7, started saying “crap”. YIKES!!!!
we were emailing today at a place with only two computers. some people came in and were awkwardly waiting but we only get one hour and the place closes at noon for lunch (dang brasil) so we kept going. then finally this lady awkwardly tried to slowly ask how long we would be because she thought we didn’t speak any portuguese. hahahhaa. she used lots of hand motions. it was great! 




this is esther and she is sooooo cute!!!
awesome
this week we went with some awesome members (first string in our ward-- if you know what i mean) to visit the new investigators we have. we scheduled for 8:00, but our new investigator thought we meant 8:00 am... oops. so, they asked us to come back in 30 minutes. in that time this first string couple took us to visit some old investigators that they remember visiting with other missionaries here and so now, we’ve just added 4 new investigators to our teaching appointments! it was AWESOME and something that we will be doing every week now!!  i highly recommend this for other missionariesJ
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN--- I TALKED IN MY SLEEP IN PORTUGUÊS!!! i don’t remember ever dreaming in português but i sleep talked so that’s basically like the same thing. and sister gomes heard it so i have proof!!!! #imarealmissionarynow

the members here are all embarrassed of my bag. i've already gotten two new ones... but i still like this one better. but no worries,  irma neide said she'll repair it for me :)

life is good. but, transfers are next week. i’m super nervous... like that my time in camobi is about to come to an end. also i know i also always talk about her but my first companion, sister jackman goes home next week... what will i do without her?! 
remember how i said this week we got cut a lot. in case you’re confused, that basically means people tell us they don’t want to be taught anymore or receive our message. usually it’s us that has to do the cutting but it’s always awkward when THEY do it. especially when we still visit them anyways because a member lives there in their home! it is sad and awkward-- but this week it was ok. at district meeting one of the elders said that some people have no real intention of learning or changing their lives, and that they really become opposition for us because they are taking our precious and limited time away from people who DO want to change, that need our help and we could be teaching. also, last sunday we fasted for some of our investigators who haven’t been progressing because we needed to know what to do and how we could help them. i think the long story short is…  Heavenly Father knows i have a hard time cutting people, especially people who i love and love teaching or i really personally want to see accept the gospel and improve their life.  so this time, Heavenly Father stepped in and did the hard part for me because i don’t have the heart to do it.
so, the good news is… even though we’ve lost some who no longer want to see us, we gained some new investigators that are searching.  more time now to devote to them, less distractions, and as always-- good hard work
over and out from the land south.
xoxoxoxo  sister ashley faldmo
                      

Monday, January 6, 2014

2014, what uppppp???? January 6, 2014

GOOD
ballin it up in the streets with my homies (they're like 6...)

i'm the all time pitcher of the streets of camobi
shout out to lunches at irmã patricias!! 
good weather where i'm not dying in the streets
BAD
i think everyone died new years eve because new years day we saw about 10 people the whole day!
          
sister clay and gomes... alone in the streets on new year's day
i started the 30 day plank challenge that isaac and sam (aka mom) sent me. my abs hate me.
a chapel in our mission caught on fire this week and was destroyed:(

AWK
new years eve at midnight i woke up to a war outside my window i swear. it was like a free for all with fireworks everywhere and some i think were just bombs.. it was cool though. 
20 minutes into the first hour of church the power went out until the final 30 minutes or so
AWESOME
pizza to celebrate sister gomes serving one year on the mish!
movie night/day with the young women of our ward and an investigator *details below
members in camobi >>>>>>> any other ward
president gave us two more fans in our apartment so we can sleep now!!!
i’m not sure exactly what happened this week?? it came and went so fast, but so slow at the same time… if we’re being honest. new year’s here was... interesting. it’s a big deal in brazil if i understand right. not that it’s not in the US but i’ve never minded sleeping through midnight on new year’s and what not but that didn’t happen.  and remember that one time i went to college and this semester would have been my last semester...? ooops. shout out to everyone graduating this semester! can’t say i wish i was in your placeJ
saturday we did something really fun (or at least we thought)… we needed/wanted the daughters of our recent convert rose to understand the restoration of the gospel better, and more about joseph smith and his role so we planned an activity with the young women in the ward. one of the members brought his movie projector to the church and we set things up in the bishops office (because of course it has AC yes please) to watch the joseph smith movie. we made popcorn and we were really excited about it. but the hour before it started,  i almost cried. everything was all ready when we called our investigators and one said she didn’t want to come and she didn’t want to learn more (you can imagine my reaction) and the other said her cousins were at her house (ya, they’re at her house every weekend....). then finally she said she would come if her classmate came with us to come get her (classmate is a member of the church). alright. sooooo then we called someone else to find out where her classmate was (originally when we had talked to her and her mom, she was coming) but…. come to find out she couldn’t come unless we came and personally got her. she lives on the opposite side of town as our investigator, and not to mention it was already about 430 at this time… start time of our activity and NO ONE WAS THERE! but, everything was set up and we couldn’t just leave the chapel open and go get her and what if we locked it up and any young women that were late would think the activity got cancelled or something?? we really didn’t know what to do. but then prayers were answered and ONE of the young women showed up! her brother was giving her a ride, and we asked him to take us to go get the other young women. we went fast, picked her up, then he dropped us off at the church and we went to go get our investigator. it was rough but it all worked out. .........sorry now!!!!  i’m noticing this is a kinda long story. 
stay with me
we started the movie. ate the popcorn, and after we had a little testimony meeting. come to find out, almost all of the young women didn’t want to come to the activity, and they almost didn’t, but for one reason or another they came and they stayed and they were all glad that they did. they shared their testimonies about the restoration of this gospel, that joseph smith was a prophet, and why they are happy they are members of Jesus Christ’s church. it was a success for all that came. sometimes, we have to face all of this opposition to experience the really good things. 
    all the attenders of our YW movie/popcorn night
welp gente. that’s all for now. the church of Jesus Christ is true. i love camobi. i love teaching. we’re coming in contact with new people every day that are looking for what only this gospel and this church has. it’s pretty legit not gonna lie... be jealous.

xoxo sister faldmo