Monday, February 24, 2014

february 24, 2014 everyone gets a chance

good
•had a little water balloon fight last p-day. i was the only one that didn’t get hit. #skills. 

•one of our investigators has THE CUTEST little girl ever. erica. shes always always smiling. 
everytime we leave her house to go home she grabs our hands and leads us out the door and tries to leave with us… then cries when her mom takes her away.  
they call me the negotiator:)
bad
•noticing that i’m missing all of my friends 22nd birthdays and thus, a chance to blast taylor swift frequently. NOOOOOO…. it feels like the perfect night, to dress up like hipsters...............
•lightning storms that probably should have killed us. jk i’m being dramatic but, just know that Heavenly Father takes care of his missionaries. 
awk
•we were teaching a lesson and well, long story short the neighbor next door to where we were teaching had a friend over and the friend brought his dog and his dog ate the neighbor’s bird. yeah. the neighbor’s dad came home during our lesson and starting yelling and then crying.... everyone next door was crying and we could hear it all. this was awkward all around. 
•having a movie night at the church but we missionaries don’t watch movies, so we just serve popcorn every now and then. 
         josiani's children at the church movie night... they got there early and i entertained them:)
awesome
•personal study. my favorite hour of the day.
  
                                   this is my inspirational wall where i study every morning
•sacrament meeting with four year old girls. always a good time. even though all my highlighters are destroyed now :) #drawingfordays

love little maria

so um,  this week is the last of the transfer... and the month, holy cow! where did the time go? but seriously, this month/transfer (president doesn’t want us thinking in transfers, just days months etc.) went by SO FAST! and i feel like i’m just figuring it all out. this area, the members, our investigators, etc... 
buttttttt one of our investigators is planning on being baptized this saturday. Her name is josiani. she’s a gem and has totally been prepared for baptism and was already taught lots before but now, she’s really ready. gosh, i love missionaries who do all the hard part before
me :)
 josiani's little boy... soooo cute:)

no, but seriously people. whenever you share the gospel it is NEVER for nothing. you are helping someone maybe not for that moment but, you never know what will happen later. and you know what? maybe they never will accept. but isn’t it beautiful that everyone gets a chance. they may be sorry one day… just know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that the Lord’s hand is outstretched to give every single person the chance to change.  we can always improve and get better.
i know that i need to do better and make contacts and talk to every single person on the street. The Lord wants everyone to get a chance to hear about His Plan of Happiness and to hear our message.

but,  know this. i love you all. i love this work. i love the church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. i love my Heavenly Father. and I SPEAK PORTUGUESE! life is good. 

xoxo sister faldmo

my address: write please:)
Sister Ashley Faldmo
Caixa Postal 29 - centro 
97700 - 970
Santiago - RS
BRAZIL

happy 1 year anniversary on the mish to elder nascimentos



Monday, February 17, 2014

february 17, 2014 sometimes you just have to throw your hair in a high bun and go to work!

GOOD
rain! 
and colder… 80s!!!

BAD
when it rains apparently that means nothing works out for us.
big areas, references, and getting lost. *see below
for a complete day… and a half, ALL of our scheduled appointments fell through. every. single. one.
AWKWARD
getting mad at the elders when we found them in our area... only to then get lost and end up in theirs... #embarrassing
after lunch at zone conference… shoving as many people into our van as we could. 
surprise visits from president. always a good time. 
oh yeah... when president visits us and gives us a watermelon but asks us to cut it in half so he can take the other half to the elders… i take it to the kitchen but then forget everything he said and just put it in the fridge... THEN he comes to inspect our fridge and saw it and messed with me... saying i was trying to hide it because i didn’t want to share. oops!!
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AWESOME
zone conference and seeing friends. 
saw sister clay again for a moment at zone conference
me, my companions (sister pereyra form uruguay, sister marinho from maneus... near amazon) other missionaries from columbia & sao paulo
companions that super glue your shoes for you because they are falling apart.
#gettingghettouphere
it was a year ago i decided to go on a mission!!!

ok so last week we got this awesome reference... so tuesday we had district meeting, lunch, then we went to find the house of our reference. on our way, we found the elders in our area. no big deal they needed to use the bank but we acted like it was the worst thing ever and gave them a hard time. then we kept going and walked about an hour longer to the end of our area and found the reference’s street. we turned and starting walking on this semi sketchy dirt road. the house numbers were at like the #30 and we needed like 3500 so... yeah. that was a good start. so then we walked. and walked. and walked. in the sun. and along the way asked for water from strangers. and walked. then we got a little worried because we were in the middle of NOWHERE and we were pretty sure we weren’t in our area anymore. so we called our dl (district leader) and he said he would come find us. #embarrassing. so… we just kept doing our thing, which is… walking. and after more than two hours we got to a real road and later found the elders and they told us how to get back to our areas. oh yeah. and we never found the reference’s house. buttttt we talked to the member who gave us the reference and apparently she lives on the part of the road that isn’t on the map. cool. 
when you walk for miles... you become friends with the animals
but what do you do??? in other news… the jehovah witnesses keep visiting our sweet investigator. they told her she should burn the Book of Mormon we gave her. don’t worry, she stood her ground. when i heard about it, i was shocked!! i couldn’t believe a representative of a church would say something so harsh about another church... but it strengthened my testimony. this church and THAT book is a BIG part of who i am and i would do much more than sacrifice these 18 months for the truth we have. people can talk all they want, but in the end that’s not what matters. that’s why we ask EVERY PERSON WE TEACH TO PRAY about our message… someone higher needs to testify that these things are true. aka Heavenly Father and the Spirit. it’s one thing to teach but it’s another to teach with the Spirit so that those you teach have their OWN testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for them. 
but… really, i love the gospel of Jesus Christ so much. people can say whatever they want… i know it’s true. i know that there are lots of good people and lots of good churches but Christ organized ONE church... and i’m lucky. lucky. lucky. and blessed to represent HIS church and bring the truth to those that are searching for answers. 

             provo mtc reunion at zone conference...
maybe not the most exciting campus, but....


love you all.... like lots. hope your valentines’ day was good. you know it was super exciting for me here in brazil :)
xoxo sister fald

Monday, February 10, 2014

february 10, 2014... livin on a prayer and geladinhos

goood
had a little bday party before district meeting this week. it made me happy because i got to make some decorations. 
                 do you recognize my work???
this week we hit the jackpot and got fed a tonnnn/people gave us food to take home. it’s the simple things that make us happy....

bad
ITS SO HOT! YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND IT’S SOOOOO HOT!
took a little trip to the hospital this morning with the comps. not because of me. and everyone’s fine. always an adventure. 

awk
when we pass jehovah witnesses on the street/when they are teaching/when they go to our investigator’s houses. real awk. but awk turns to awesome when our investigators shoots them down when the jw says we don’t believe in the bible and then our investigator shows them the chapter we left IN THE BIBLE for her to read. #dowork
paid a little visit to our neighbor with 17 cats. 

awesome
a member saw us on the street one day and said we looked like we were dying and it was too hot... and said we needed ice cream. so she gave us some ice cream money and obviously that made me so sooooooo happy. we went to a ´´fancy´´ place we’ve been dying to try. 
#DOUBLE SCOOOOOP
some of the food we received was a sack full of popsicles… geladinhos--otter pop like. That’s basically been my diet the last couple days. oops.

so yeah. that’s kinda about it. I’m starting to really really love our less active members here. we have lots and we visit lots... so there’s lots to love :) many of them have strong testimonies and would be such a strength to the ward here in santiago... but unfortunately as life changes, they lost their focus on what’s important. they want to return, but i just think it’s a little scary sometimes. we have been seeing a little success and it’s so exciting to see them back and church and they really love it when they come.   why does anyone leave? i don’t understand! no just kidding i do. they all have their reasons but it’s nothing the restored gospel and the atonement of Jesus Christ can’t solve. 
                                 #thedistrict :)
so. i wish i had more inspiring words but i’m all out. i think the sun has fried my brain. did i mention that they say there’s a hole in the ozone above this part of brazil or something so the sun is more intense here? yeah… well i believe it. 

stay beautiful with your a/c and heating. think of me. call me maybe,  jk WRITE me for sure. 

xoxo sister faldmo







Monday, February 3, 2014

february 3, 2014 #fastsunday


                      
santiago, brazil welcomes the first sister missionaries... well, we like to think they do:)
GOOD
our cell phone started working!!!
zone meetings--- took a little trip to Santo Ângelo. saw friends and stuff. got some good training. life is good. 
a little ice cream outing with the district. yuuuuum. 
a great visit from irma patricia from camobi... and look at this darling clutch she made me!
BAD
references from the elders. i won’t go into details... but the trust is gone. we will do our own contacting thank you hahaha.
AWK
when people don’t understand the american, the uruguayan, or the BRAZILIAN. then you know you’re in trouble. (when i asked if we could share a message the lady said—“yeah! yeah! we can be friends!... alrighty then. that works too.)
AWESOME
patricia and elias from camobi were visiting family here in santiago this week. they brought us food, taught with us, and made me so so happy.
fasting-- it works. 
random sheep on the side of the road... #nbd in santiago, brazil:)

    maps are our best friends for now

the details this week are few. we just did our thing... it was nice to get into the regular routine of things again. meetings with the district, zone, & ward mission leader, and of course teaching:) remember, there are three of us now.  one companion from uruguay and one from maneus, brazil. but, honestly this week wasn’t that great… we had lots of appointments fall through, it was hot, and this area is huuuugggeeee. but… i do have one story:) 
this one particular investigator that we have taught more than once and is progressing—well, we couldn’t teach her this week because of her work schedule and she couldn’t go to church. so we were out of luck and disappointed that we wouldn’t  have any investigators at church on sunday. 
so, saturday after lunch we started our fast. all of our appointments fell through after lunch and that evening and we ended up walking lotsssss. i was SO freaking thirsty… not gonna lie. like i’ve NEVER been this thirsty in my life. but. you when you’re fasting—no food or DRINK. so, i did. i have never had that hard of a time keeping my fast. we finally got home and i thought taking a shower would help. it didn’t… really. anyways. life goes on. sunday was a little better. but it was really better when we got to church and had TWO INVESTIGATORS (references from members) there and FIVE of our less actives! my fasting and prayers had been answered. It’s AFTER the trial of your faith that you receive a testimony. i had to struggle a little but the testimony and the results were definitely worth it :) 
things aren’t picture perfect here, but i think i’m seeing the miracles of this work more and more every day in santiago. i know that if we keep working we will see the “fruits of our labors” and meet our goals (the santa maria mission goal is one baptism, every month, for every missionary--the math on that… we need three).
life is good. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. It’s simple. His plan is perfect... we’re just trying to find the people with a desire to learn more and do what is right. i know that it is only through His gospel and church that we can return and live with God again. we need this truth and the COMPLETE gospel, but more importantly we need the authority and keys to administer those saving ordinances... the priesthood. i love it all! it’s flawless. 

have a good week!

com amor, sister faldmo

NEW MAILING ADDRESS:)
Sister Ashley Faldmo
Caixa Postal 29
Centro-- Santiago   RS
BRAZIL

"toto, i don't think we're in south dakota anymore, or wait, are we?"