good

●so no one came to church that we are teaching (shocker. no jk be positive) so we stood in front of the church and invited every single person to come visit our church. it was kinda fun! 

sister silva found a way to be taller than me:)

bad

●some of those great new investigators already are gone from our teaching listL

●our heater broke....

●a cute little girl got gum stuck in my hair so for (what i can remember) the first time in my life i had to cut gum out of my hair. ok well pior ainda actually i let elder nascimento cut it. haha

i'm very trusting here....

●taking a member to teach and every SINGLE appointment falling through (for the record… it was the day of a brasil world cup game but stillL

awk

●one of our favorite grandparent investigators said they didn’t have time for us to teach them this week because it was his bday and they would have visitors.. so we got creative a brought him brownies and a church dvd the night of his bday.!! WRONG his bday was the actually the next day. 

●we got invited to our investigators bday party kind of a thing... he’s probs in his 60s.  it was his 4 sisters and us. hahahha. it was like a cute birthday tea and he escaped midway through with his son. but good news is one of them already visited our church and was telling everyone all about it. 

  

●i did maria fernandas hair then she did mine :) (see pics)

●this week the mission president visited every house/did interviews with everyone in our zone other than us haha. 

●but don’t worry… we spent the week deep cleaning everything and were prepared.

awesome

●family nights!

 

quenchin our thirst here in santiago

ok so hate me but that’s all i have to say. but really don’t hate me. it’s because USA ended in a tie with portugal. yeah so until they win again you won’t get a good letter. JK

my baby brother leaves on his mission this week! that’s weird. like way weird. but. so right. missions are the best. when it’s all said and done, isaac and i will be separated for three years. (let’s be real-- nothing really changes with him on a mission because he’s the worst at sending letters and emails) but it’s worth it. as a RM said in her talk this week “during your mission you will feel the happiest you’ve ever been but also the saddest. it’s just part of the job. but it’s all so worth it. we know it wasn’t easy for Christ, so why should it be easy for us, as His representatives and servants? and we don’t even come close to what He sacrificed.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is SO true. the more i learn, study and share and the more i bear testimony… the more i know this. i testify of this to anyone reading now, but you don’t have to lean on my testimony… you can find out and know for yourself. 

before i take off, I just to give you an update on an amazing youth here in southern brasil… paloma.  many of you remember when I wrote about her baptism.  paloma got to go to  the stake youth activity this week! it was a big deal to make it all work because she didn’t have what she needed to go on the bus (the poor girl doesn’t even have an ID of any kind) but she went with some members in their car. it was an activity about mission work... even pres and sister parrela were there. then they had a dance after the activity. she loved it all!! she asked us questions about a mission and said some really touching things to my companion and i. she loved what our mission president said about how lots of members of the church don’t have the support of their family but they sacrifice because they know gospel of Jesus Christ is true. she told us that at school everyone stopped talking to her when they found out she got baptized. she said she doesn’t care... she doesn’t need their help anywaysJ i love that girl so much!!! she’s quiet, but when she talks her words are so strong and smart. 

paloma in white... one of the happiest moments in santiago

we know that our family can be together forever so we are doing what we know is right to help other families have the same blessings. eternal life will be oh so sweet together. 

working with this girl in santiago too:)

love you all. 

xo sister faldmo

11 Novos June 16, 2014

good

·      so since its impossible to work during the world cup when brasil is playing, and literally the city stops
    and everything closes.... we went to the church, studied and watched church movies. whose life is
     sweet? mine is. 

      but brasil won!!

bad

·      no one was at church yesterday :(

awk 

·      ok so one night before going home we all met at the church to celebrate sister marinhos one year anniversary on the mish. after we walked home together and this dog was following us, then he followed the elders all the way to their house which is like forever away. then the next day we got to the church to start a district fast and guess who was there? the same dog! they named him henrique i think? or something like that. then he followed us all the way to our next lesson, tried to enter, but when we finished he wasn’t there. then we walked forever away to our next lesson and out of no where, he appeared! since then we haven’t seen him but we decided he’s a member of the church in the dog world. maybe a bishop or something. (yeah, i can tell after this story….  i’ve gotten lame and weird on the mission)

 
the santiago district

awesome 

·      remember how last week was miserable and no one wanted to listen to us? this week we found ELEVEN NEW INVESTIGATORS.. many of who are fruits fromlast week. boy did i learn about patience. 

anyways. i really don’t have that much to say this week other than it was way better!! it started being better immediately after p day… monday night. i think it was because of all of your prayers. we went to visit someone an elder had told us about during the mission tour… he served here a while ago and gave us a list of some old investigators. no one was home. knocked at the neighbors house. no one answered. started walking and after a couple houses there was a house where they were obviously home. clapped… he let us in and told us he would get his wife. we taught just her. she said she had heard about our church recently because of a wedding (which she swears was here in santiago but neither chapel had a wedding last weekend haha) and she didn’t know anything about our church. she had lots of questions and we taught like 5 mini lessons in one. it was great and we scheduled to return. 

we went back a couple of days later and she wasn’t home! so… we taught her neighbor. in the middle of the lesson the phone rang, it was their neighbor (the husband of our investigator we taught 5 mini lessons to) asking us to come by their house after we finished. turns out after our 5 mini lessons she told her husband about everything and he was really interested and wanted to talk to us too! he had a ton of questions. we tried to teach about the restoration, but then he had questions about the plan of salvation, and then the lesson was just all over the place because of his questions. tonight she is making dinner for us and we will try and have a normal lesson with them :) haha. they wanted to go to church yesterday but her dad was sick (they are cute little grandparents, and it was her dad who was sick) so they had to stay and take care of him. 

the next day we went to a house where we had made a contact but she was leaving and said she really wanted to talk to us (this can either mean they are awesome or they are jehovah witnesses and are going to tell us we are going to hell… it’s a gamble).  after trying like 3 other times we finally caught her at home. it was theeeee BEST!! she told us about problems she had with her other church, but how she wants so much to be on God’s path for her but has a hard time. we taught her and then invited her to say the closing prayer. we knelt to pray--something i usually don’t do because of the house or the situation or what not, but this time out of no where I felt prompted and invited us all to kneel. we said the prayer... not gonna lie, it was like the craziest longest prayer ever, but so good and after she said it was the closest to God she’s ever felt and she feels like this is right! it was sweeeet. then we visited her again saturday and gave her a book of mormon. minha nossa if you could of seen how excited she was. we should all be that excited about the book of mormon. she said she was going to take it and make a cover made for it haha it was the cutest thing ever. she was so excited to get in her pajamas and start reading. the sad part is… it was FOR SURE that she said she would go to church on Sunday, but i don’t know what happened.. she wasn’t there yesterday. we went to her house and no one answered. I will keep you posted.

then there’s ana paula and her mom. (she’s the one all out for brasil in the pic). 

                                                                         ana paula
her mom was a reference from a member. ana paula is 11 and crazy. she was obsessed with my accent but at the same time said she didn’t understand anything i said. we taught her the restoration and then asked ana paula to say the prayer. she said it and it was super simple and she said ´´God is the church they are talking about really true?´´ and then after she ended the prayer she just kinda sat there. and we asked her how she felt. she just said.. “it’s true. i don’t know how i know but i just know. i feel different. it’s weird.” then we explained to her that she was feeling the Holy Ghost. then we asked her again if she wanted to prepare for baptism? she said yes :) her mom was crying… even though she still says she doesn’t know about all this, haha. 

then we taught another lesson at a house we had clapped last week but his wife wasn’t home. long story short, it was a quick lesson like 20 minutes but they both cried. i cant even remember how many people i made cry this week. 

anyways. so that’s the latest and greatest. pretty sweet huh? 

it really stinks that no one was at church because if they don’t attend church they can’t be baptized this month buttttt whatever, i guess i’ll just plant seeds and be happy with it. i’m just super happy to have found people who are seriously looking for the gospel. 

love you all. happy fathers’ day (late). go world cup. go brasil. go usa. 

god is love - rev run. 

xoxo sister faldmo

june 9, 2014... it's game time cougar fans!

good

●my warm boot search finally ended and i spent less than i was planning. ten points for sister faldmo!

in case you're wondering... cows are all good in santiago

●we had four family nights this week! yay. all with less active families but the investigators will come.

this is a video of games we play at FHE... not sure if you'll be able to view. May have to wait for it to load

●world cup starts this week....

bad

●one of the family nights was really interesting… it was with the elders recent convert. the whole family is less active and the message was really good but then the mom interrupted with some “strange” questions and soon I basically didn’t know what we were talking about. so, i just asked her if she loved her kids and she said “honestly… if i loved them i would be active in the church and sealed in the temple so no i don’t truly love them because i won’t live with them forever.” .........awkward silence, (all in front of her kids) i wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that one. 

●this week was way rough and this whole past weekend we didn’t teach. then sunday our investigator didn’t come to church because he stayed up until 6:30 AM on the computer gaming. hmmmmm

●world cup starts this week....

awk

●um yeah we kind of spent like way lots of energy this month because of our heater and i got a nice little call from the financial secretary... oops. #coldinbrasil

comps

●dia dos namorados aka like valentines’ day aka #notfunasamissionary

●world cup starts this week....

awesome

●rafaela (niece of paloma, daughter to paloma’s brother-in-law—remember him?) said the cutest prayer in front of her whole family and everyone… she said she liked our church and baptisms at our church and she knows it’s the only true church and true baptism. hahahahha. you go get ‘em tiger. She’s 7. #futuremissionary

●after months without-- we finally have a ward mission leader!!!!!! but now the young men are without a president... haha. sorry ‘bout that. 

●irma marcia is the coolest ever and made me a new skirt! and it cost me less than 3 US dollars!

$3 skirt folks:)

●yay paloma started seminary this week!

●mission tour with a visiting Seventy (elder soares from recife and his wife) who has the coolest accent everrrrrr

the labeled 14 yr old elder from provo mtc... aka elder knowles

the district

missionary favorite

provo mtc reunion during the seventy mission tour

●world cup starts this week....

this week was.... quite the week. why did it seem impossible to teach? we tried everything. talked to people on streets, knocked doors, prayed, walked and walked… but nothing worked. we couldn’t even teach our investigators. no one was home or no one wanted to talk to us. it was so hard. i still don’t understand it all. and i don’t know when it will get better. i hope soon. my time is winding down here in santiago and i really want to see people progress like paloma. i don’t know…but the Lord definitely works in mysterious ways, that’s for sure! also, with world cup starting this week we probably won’t  teach much unless our investigators don’t care about soccer… which is basically impossible here in brasil. I guess if we can’t teach then we’ll go home and study. wooohoooo. no jk i really like studying but I love teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to people! idk. any advice on finding new investigators would be great.

also on a happy note, because some of you may find this letter kinda depressing. i want you to know that i love irma mara. i think i’ve already talked about her. but let me just refresh your memory. she was baptized a couple years ago and has four kids. all of her children that are eight or older have been baptized. her husband isn’t a member. but minha nossa she is so faithful. the other day we had a family night with a less active that lives close to her. this less 

active invited irma mara to come but we hadn’t had a chance to actually tell her about the family home evening because she works. literally five minutes before it started we passed by her house to invite her and she truly dropped everything and said “let’s go kids.” she seriously is such an example of putting the Lord first  in your life. then at the family night the teenagers didn’t want to participate but she went in their rooms, talked to them, and got them to come out and listen! she changed the whole family night... it would have been a disaster without her. then yesterday she sent two of her kids to the mini CTM with a big thing of cake for everyone. who is this woman? i love her so much. one day i will be like her. 

i love irma mara! (far left)

anyways. go brasil. i’m sorry but the truth is, the US doesn’t have a chance in the world cup. Please join me in praying for success and the people in santiago. pray for miracles, because we literally need miracles here. it’s so hard but i know my time here will be worth it. maybe i’m just here to plant seeds for other missionaries... who knows? I’ll do my part, whatever it is. 

love you all. feliz copa. 

xoxo sister faldmo

june, say what??? june 2, 2014

good 

●it’s kinda weird serving in a country on the other side of the hemisphere because I’m so confused with what month it really is because of the weather, so when it starts getting warm again i will think it will be summer but really it will be time to go home… in january! yeah i’m kinda all confused. 

●elders had a baptism. he is the only member of his family who wasn’t baptized because he wasn’t 8 yet but now he’s 11 and his family has become less active but he wanted to be baptized… almost all of his family came to the baptism. it was so good to see them all back at the church after more than 8 years. 

●we had a less active irma we needed to visit and have been trying to for a while now... when we finally caught her at home she was so excited! she made us hot cocoa and basically dinner haha. now i remember why i love inactive members :) 

the things i do to entertain children... i read the story as the witch with my hood for little ana

●good news people... we fixed our shower. well actually an irmao fixed it for us. haha. 

bad

●it was an elder in my district’s birthday and the other sisters planned this surprise for him with members but while they were supposed to be distracting him because it wasn’t time for him to get the the "surprise" house... he got mad because they were basically just walking in circles and he almost refused to go hahhaha. that was fun. 

elder L the 20 year old himself:)

awk

fyi: the day of his little birthday surprise my comp & i literally completely walked this city of santiago with our schedule. i was ready to cut off my legs that night. 

awesome

●ice cream in any weather. 

#sorvete

●i made a pazookie!! (sorry…all of the awesomes are going to be food!)

serving up my pazookie

anyways. that what i have for you this week. it’s been kinda crazy. this week wasn’t way cold which was good but it did rain. always a fun time. especially when i decided to curl my hair that day. this week we have mission tour.. a member of the seventy is coming and will speak to us wednesday with two other zones… then two other days with the rest of the zones. i was hoping we could go to santa maria and i could see some friends from the other district but no such luck. 

this week i studied a lot about personal revelation. i worry that i am not sensitive enough to the spirit and that maybe there are things that could be revealed to me that i don’t receive because i’m not listening. but at the same time one thing i learned is you really have to do your part to receive personal revelation and search the scriptures for your answer.  then the spirit will show you that what you read or learned was specifically for you. it’s actually pretty amazing how it all works. as members of the church we are so lucky that we can always have the companionship of the Holy Ghost and that God speaks… not just to our prophets but He wants to guide our personal lives too. 

so i love you all. i’m jealous it’s summer there. go swimming for me. get pumped for the world cup! and don’t forget to do your part to receive personal revelation, to apply the Atonement in your life, to help the missionaries, or just to make someone’s day :) 

xoxoxo sister fald

mother’s note

we get snail mail letters about every month from Ashley… here’s something that was so sweet that she shared in her letter we got this week:

“today was an awesome day…. we went to a store we passed by yesterday while walking.   We were looking for winter clothes where I, being distracted and sometimes having blonde moments, left my planner.  But while we were there I found a skirt for 20 REALS! (less than $10) but I didn’t have my money with me so the owner said he would hold it for me.  While we were in the store looking around a less active member was also there.  after we left she secretly bought the skirt for me and a shirt my companion had been looking at for her and it was all wrapped up for us WITH MY PLANNER waiting for us.  It was the cutest surprise ever!  #brasiliankindness

a mac & cheese arrival is shared by the whole apartment:)