aka sister faldmo: June 30, 2014 que choroso

good

•last minute splits/division… just because, with my favorite curto prazo (idk how to say it in english.. part time?) missionary sister ribeiro

•i made pancakes! for our last district meeting and sister marinhos birthday

the district seems to enjoy my cooking... sister marinhos is on far right

•a little visit from our sister training leaders.

i was already ready for bed

bad

•the last district meeting was supposed to be a surprise breakfast for sister marinhos birthday but the elders showed up late, we didn’t have keys, and long story short it was a distaster BUT thank goodness i’m a great liar and she didn’t know anything was up. #surprisewasasuccess

awk

•when the mom of an investigator we’re teaching tells us she doesn’t like it when we sing (she’s old and has alzheimer’s but still! #ouch) oh yeah and she still thinks were jehovah’s witnesses.

•the fact that the guy on the computer next to me is looking up things on youtube like ``lucifer’s temple...`` #scaryawk

•a surprise (ish.. we knew it was coming) visit from president and sister parrela. they took us out to eat!

•getting to my new area and no one knowing i was arriving today… so i had some alone time at the bus station.

awesome

•shout out to irma laise for making me CHINESE this week. it wasn’t orange chicken from king sea but it helped me stay strong for the next seven months until king sea will be waiting on the counter when i come home :)

•ok…. Paloma!!! i freaking love her so much!! the poor thing went to seminary this week but they are on break so we took her with us to teach. without any prep or anything she just owned our lesson.

if you only remember one thing... know that i love this girl paloma and she is AMAZING!!!

paloma's brother-in-law, sister, me her neice and nephew and paloma-- who i love

•and okay i don’t want to get all emotional but paloma wrote me a letter before i left saying she wants to serve a mission and hopes to be a missionary like i am. and a bunch of other things that made me stop reading the letter in front of others because i didn’t want to cry. #itsallworthit

so...... o que eu vou te dizer. where do i start?? i got transferred. yep. i’m no longer in santiago. in fact, this morning at 6:30 am i left santiago. this weekend was CRAZY. on the way to lunch saturday we got transfer calls. awesome. only three missionaries will stay in our district in santiago.. the crew is breaking up. it’s probably for the best. so saturday i really couldn’t do anything. i couldn’t decide if i should worry about packing or saying bye to people.

i know from this picture you're thinking i should have worried more about packing then goodbyes...

not to mention it was raining cats and dogs. thank goodness for my hunters. seriously!! i packed a little... then started to say goodbye but i just couldn’t do it. after saying goodbye to one family i gave up. (mostly because next on the list was paloma and i just never want to say goodbye to that girl.)

then sunday came. none of our awesome investigators came so that was extremely sad. one thing i will not miss is how depressing almost every sunday was in santiago. i got to share my testimony in sacrament meeting. gosh dang it was in that moment when i noticed how sad i was to leave. it was still super rainy and there was only about 45 people there but those people... who are the foundation of that ward, are incredible!!!

after lunch i had to get down to business. we made the rounds. we barely had time to make it to mini ctm (mini mtc) in time. we actully didn’t have anything prepared so we did a mini testimony meeting, asking about how the mini ctm and their perspective of missionary work has changed? minha nossa i already had cried enough but this put me over. there were lots of tears. i’m so proud of my youth in santiago! then i still had to finish packing and be ready by 6 am the next morning. you all know how that went.

then i got here in cruz alta and idk what it is but every time i’ve been transferred (aka the two times) no one knows i’m arriving. i awkwardly waited a while, then bought a phone card, then couldn’t get it to work, then a nice man let me use his phone, then i took all my stuff (aka 2 big suitcases, 1 little one, a box, a sack, and a laundry bag FULL) inside because i was cold and waited. wooohoooo. and here i am. i’m in trio until my companion’s companion leaves (ironically for santiago, but not my area) and so i am getting to watch her say all her goodbyes. it’s not easy.. the memories are fresh of yesterday and i’m trunky for santiago.

so what do we learn from all this? my five+ months in santiago were hard but obviously something went right because i miss it so much already.

i know you're all enjoying you're summer... but it's cold here!

such incredible youth here in santaigo

missionary work is really cool like that. i thought i needed to leave santiago and what not... but the Lord kept me there gosh dang it and now i just want to go back! no, but i’m ready for something new but idk. Heavenly Father knows us so well it’s not even funny. He pushed me to my limits but it all worked out quite well.

oh yeah and my little brother isaac’s a missionary now. so that’s weird. goooooooooooooo faldmos.

love ya lots!

xoxo s. faldmo