Yeah, I showed up at your party

 (Elder Mackrory)

Boa noite pessoal! Tudo bem com vocês?

This week was good! Lots of things and some more. As usual, we're starting off with the fusca count. For those who are new and don't know, fusca is the Portuguese word for the VW beetle. There are lots of classic bugs here and I like to count them. We saw 13, bringing the total to 796. 800 next week!!

This week was interesting. I officially hit the point where I have less than a year left on the mission. Tomorrow ill be half way done, and on the 7th I'll be 1 year in. Crazy. Flew by.

On pday we chilled in the house. Not much happened. I like pdays like this one.

On Tuesday, two things happened. 1, in district council we set a goal to have 13 lessons with a member participating. We have 5 pairs of missionaries, so that's very doable. I promised them that I would provide breakfast on the next council if we reached the goal. Second, we accidentally showed up to someone's birthday party. We're teaching a dude named Palmer, and we visit him every Tuesday night. Except this time it was his birthday and he forgot to cancel. So we show up and there's a big ol’ cake on the table and lots of people. So we sang happy birthday and we taught the premortal life to everyone and went on our way with a huge piece of cake. And let me tell you it was the most bomb cake I've had on the mission. Best frosting of my life easily.

On Wednesday we had English class. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except the example conversation was funny. Were learning about how to ask and predict the weather. The example conversation went like this: “How's the weather in London?” “Not very good. It's raining again” “That's too bad. Will it rain tomorrow too?” “I Think it will. It usually rains a lot in April.” And I thought it was funny because British weather is often bad. It's a 50/50 shot that at any given moment that conversation could be real.

Thursday and Friday were pretty normal. Saturday was fun though. At lunch we watched the Olympics while the member family jokingly made fun of the French. It was very funny but I couldn't say anything. After this, we went home and started baking. There was an activity that night called “My origin and traditions” and the branch wanted us to participate. Elder Flores didn't really want to, but I did, so we made my favorite dessert, Milk Tart. It's a South African dish that's very good. At the activity I gave a little presentation about my family's history in the church and the history of the church in that country. So I explained how the church started in South Africa and the sacrifices my grandparents had to make to receive the full blessings of the gospel in the temple. After everyone's presentation, we served up. I cut tiny pieces so that everyone could have some, and after everyone had some, there were a few people who came up to me saying “man I didn't get a good taste of your dish, could I try it again” like yeah sure grandpa I know what you mean “didn't get a good taste”. Ok here's some more. So everyone liked it and I won first place for the desserts category. I got to take home a beautiful art piece of the temple that says “Home, sweet home”. Thanks for the recipe Sister Brummer! You're awesome!

On Sunday we had a fire lesson with an Argentinian family. We taught them the restoration and all, and the daughter was very excited to read the Book of Mormon. And we hadn’t even finished teaching it all, and the mom said “vos no podés solamente leerlo, necesitás orar también para saber la verdad”. Yeahhh they're the best. Anyway they also offered us real Argentinian pizza for free. This is an insane deal because pizza here is not great. And good pizza is realllly expensive. Also, the district met the goal for member lessons, so were having breakfast together tomorrow.

Yeah that's about it. Good week.

SummaRio:

13 fuscas, 796 total

Tomorrow I'm halfway done

Pday was chill

Showed up randomly to a friend's birthday party

The weather is probably bad in London

Made milk tart for the branch and they loved it.

More Spanish lessons, going well

Tender mercy:

This week, I read the book of Jeremías. It was really good. I liked it. But I was just studying, you know? And then on Sunday I called the Sísteres and they asked me where it says that Jerusalem was destroyed About 600 bc. Well of course I know that it's Jer. Chapter 39. So it was just cool to see my studies apply to what I'm doing and who I'm serving. Because even while it's personal study, it's always for the benefit of someone else, and I’m glad I got to see the fruits of it.

Spiritual thought: Guess what I'm gonna talk about… Repentance!! This morning I was talking with my dad about something he discovered in his studies that stuck with me. In Matthew 5, the Savior gives His famous Beatitudes. Something my dad told me is that they line up pretty well with the 5 principles of the gospel: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The second beatitude speaks about those who mourn, or those who remorse—those who recognize their faults and seek mercy. To those comfort, or forgiveness, is promised. Just this. Have fun studying the rest of the beatitudes now!

Fotos:

1. Acompanhamento com as Sísteres

2. Moto side shot

3. Moto rear view

4. Milk tart

5. Baking

6. Activity

7. Templo?? Para crianças???

8. My area

9. My meme

10. Flowers

11. English class

mmmm... sweet food

 (Sister Cummings)

Howdy y'all!

This week was so amazing! We had Zone Conference and our Mission President instructed us to focus on the youth and YSA in our wards. Which is amazing because they're literally my favorite people to interact with! Soo, we got to go to young women's this week and it was so great! The activity was on budgeting and I feel like Sister Yochim and I learned and took in more from it than the youth! It was great!

On Saturday, Sister Yochim and I caught the train to Gawler and then literally walked ALL DAY. Our feet are still recovering but it's okay because now we can empathize with those pioneer children that walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and etc...

Anyways, the spiritual stuff:

I want to talk about these verses:

" 12 For the Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire, as we journeyed in the wilderness; for he said: I will make thy food become sweet, that ye cook it not"

(1 Nephi 17:12)

Y'all may be wondering, why did I choose to share that verse? Valid question. Let me answer. Because of Nephi's family's faith and sacrifices for the Lord, the Lord made their lives so much easier so that they didn't have to prepare their food. I would honestly love to never have to prepare food again but that's not the important part. Because of their faith in their Savior, the easier their lives were. Reading this made me reflect on how my Savior has made my life easier (aka made my food sweet). During this reflection I was overcome with just how much simpler my day to day life is because I have my Savior and I have my faith. It's amazing.

With this, I just want to ask y'all to reflect on how Christ has made your food sweet. You can respond and tell me about it or you can take the time to answer it in your notes app or in a journal. It'll change your perspective. I promise.

I hope y'all have a fantastic week! I love y'all!

- Sister Cummings

3 Time in a row has got to be a record

 (Elder Putnam)

Dear family and friends,

What a vibe of a week it has been. Thank you to all those who shared their stories from their missions or their friends' missions about inspiration while finding. The training went splendidly.

Monday was very chill in the end of ends. We went to Bible study and learned about hope. We also met with a new friend Antons set up a return appointment. Then we found on our way home and ate pelmeņi for dinner.

Tuesday was the classic district counsel, grab lunch in center, mission devotional, and then go on with lessons or finding if we don’t have teaching appointments. So nothing crazy there. But exchanges did start that night and Elder Roberts and I just chatted it up after 9. It was a good chat.

Wednesday I hit a crazy workout in the morning. For whatever reason I woke up mad. And then we used that motivation to go finding in Jelgava for several hours. Although we didn’t see a ton of success, I felt like we had accomplished a lot and we did well for ourselves.

Thursday we switched back from exchanges, planned our week for our friends, and drove down to Liepāja for zone conference. We planned actually pretty efficiently and I set a goal for myself that to develop more charity and humility I was gonna serve my companions a bit more. That led to 3 humbling graphics on the whiteboard at home. I'll include a picture of them at the bottom.

Once we got to Liepāja we all hiked over to the church where we were able to meet Markuss, Vilārs, President Birkenfelds, and Max. It was super cool to see them and talk with them. Then we went home after eating kebabs for dinner.

Friday morning, due to the fact that Elder Trollenberg and I's training was still not completed, we skipped on Baltic ball and worked on it. We trained on using a map to more effectively find people to teach. The Zone Conference was uplifting, educating and spiritual. Afterwards, as is tradition, we ate dinner with President M.T. which was homemade gyros (literally so delicious).

On Saturday morning I finally got to play Baltic ball on the beach. We lost one of the chairs so we used two trashcans that were already set up. I played well for my last zone conference Baltic ball. I did kinda clock Elder Kane though. He's recovered. Later that day we had a missionary-member finding blitz where we walked all around Liepaja. I got to meet and talk with Raitis which was awesome. Later I went finding with Jāzeps and he was telling me all about the cool stuff that was happening in his life recently. Pretty cool. After the zone blitz it was tough to say goodbye to Liepāja for the last time as a missionary. On the ride back I had a beautiful wonderful conversation with Elder Bastow which honestly changed my perspective on a few things.

Sunday culminated of course with the sacrament. It was hard to concentrate though since our friend who was sitting next to me kept making jokes to me. But I just Kobe Bryant'ed that Chris Rock. Sunday was Cozy's birthday so I got to call her. That was the second highlight of the day (sorry, Cozy, Jesus takes first place)

Thats pretty much all I have for the week. I'll attach some pictures.

Conference Talk of the week: The Doctrine of Belonging by Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Spiritual experience of the week: Taking Elder Philips' advice and writing down who Christ is to me. I discovered that to me, Jesus Christ fills the role as the fulfiller of the laws of Justice and Mercy. That to me is very personal. I know God loves you and I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Have a wonderful week!

Telling all the rich folks anything they wanna hear

 (Elder Mackrory)

E aí? Belezinha?

This week was incredible. Full of new and cool experiences. Vamo lá.

We saw exactly 20 fuscas this week, making for a total of 783.

On pday we didn't do a whole lot, since our money was scheduled to drop on our cards that day, we planned to do our purchases. But as some of you know, there was some sort of tech problem in the system of the church, and our money was delayed a day. So since neither me nor my companion had money, we decided to get our stuff on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, we had district council! This was my first time leading it, so I was pretty nervous and worried about it all. But it went well, and we were able to feel the spirit. That's what matters. Next door to the stake center is a Brazil's Costco: Assaí. So we did our shopping there real quick and I saved about 40% shopping there than shopping at our local stores. Since it delays 1 day after the money drops to withdraw from an ATM, we actually had to walk back home after our lessons. The maps told us it would take an hour and twenty minutes, but we made it home in less than an hour.

On Thursday, we had a youth night, and so we played ping pong (pingy pongy) and foosball (tostos or something like that). I sucked at Foosball, so I mostly played ping pong. But that wasn't the cool thing that happened that day. We had a lesson with some millionaires. They live in the wealthy neighborhood already, but I had no idea how rich we were talking. We knocked at the base of their driveway, and their cook answered us and let us in. Upon further entry, we come across their Porsche (an SUV, not pictured), seconds later, their two motorbikes, both BMW and huge. One is a race bike, and the other for comfort riding. The lesson was great, and they had prepared dinner for us. So that was nice. We had to postpone weekly planning, but free dinner was worth it. We talked more about the gospel and how missionary work goes. In the end I don't feel so bad about a 2.5 hour lesson.

On Friday we had zone conference. It was awesome to be able to play the piano and have had time to practice too. We learned lots of great things, especially about repentance, which you all know I love. More on that later. We also received some house materials. Knife, spatula, serving spoons, ladle, and bucket. Not sure why we got a bucket, but we got one. Got to see lots of good friends including my bestie Elder Patterson. After the conference I stayed with some other missionaries to practice for our musical number that we plan to sing for when we get an apostle visit. I also got to rewrite the sheet music to include the Portuguese lyrics and melody. That was fun. Afterwards I had a baptismal interview with one Hamilton, the goat (I am not making a formula one reference). He has one of the strongest testimonies I've seen and it was inspiring to be able to interview him. He was baptized yesterday. In the end, we didn't get back to our area until 9. Exhausting.

Saturday was a good day. We taught a pretty full and productive English class and helped a little with the chapel cleaning. The family that was there to clean it has a little toddler who loves me. She always blows me a kiss and gives me heart hands 🫶. She's not yet used to having hands, so the heart looks more like an H. But it's still cute. Well anyway she randomly ran up and gave me a hug. I know the standards say I'm not supposed to hug children, but I cant do anything about getting hugs. The family thought it was cute too, so we're good. Then after a long day of not much success we come to our lesson with Theo. He's awesome. We shared our message, and he shared some of the things he’s going though and I could see that our message was inspired and truly for him. The spirit was really strong and we all left feeling strengthened. We also got free food which was nice.

On Sunday the family who was giving us lunch said they wouldn't be able to receive us until 1pm. When we found this out, we were already on our way. So we got off of the van early and did some visits in that neighborhood. We ended up finding a less active family and they were happy to receive us and commit to coming to church next week. So there's the tender mercy this week. Would not have happened if we had lunch right away.

SummaRio:

1. 20 fuscas, 783 total

2. Went to Brazilian Costco

3. Taught some millionaires, dominated at ping pong

4. Zone conference was lit

5. I got a hug from a girl 😯

6. Delay in lunch meant we could find some new people (they were actually pretty old)

Spiritual thought:

Repentance cannot be realized if it is incomplete. Our president spoke about this and how we can't just commit to keeping the commandment we broke, but need to recommit to keeping all the commandments. This really struck a chord with me. In pondering the principle, I came across an object lesson. This day, I was wearing my suit. Everything was in order, I was looking my best. Shaved in the morning, did my hair all perfect, brushed my shoes clean, ironed my shirt, pulled hair and scrubbed marks off my suit, made my beautiful tie perfectly knotted and set off. Everything was in order. But the fact that I was carrying a freaking bucket ruined the entire look. Just a big black bucket.  You can clean up your look by doing lots of things, but you won't look good if you got an ugly bucket at your side. We need to clean everything in order for the change of one thing to mean anything.

Fotos:

1. Somehow my garbage phone can take good eye shots

2. Mayara and Marcelo, Thursday's dinner/car show

3. Matando saudades de oreo e leite

4. Lasanha de chocolate?

5. Loja bem colorida

6. Bom meme

7. Ping pong

8. Foosball

9. Membros podem participar online!!

10. Nossa zona + os APs

11. My little fan

12. Big bike

13. Nosso distrito

Week 2, holding up strong

 (Elder Putnam)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I present to you my 1st two week email streak since the MTC.

This week's main event was MLC, when I got to see Elder Nolan again. The Estonian ZL's stayed with us and brought chocolate and juice down.

On Tuesday we had district counsel which is essentially a district counsel with other districts on a zoom call. We did it with Tallin and Vilnius since they have most similar style of work to us. Afterwards we visited the Šostaki in their garden. We walked by the river on the way and there were a ton of people sunbathing there. We all just had to look down. The šostaki taught us what it meant when in the doctrine and covenants it says "be thou humble and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand..." When we got to the garden we ate some weird berries, Sister šostaka taught us how to properly wash our hands (I got it wrong the first time). We also ate waffles with jam with them. It was great. I'll include some pictures.

Tuesday was also Elder Woods' year mark so he made a video for that. As according to year mark tradition he was in the shower bath with something eatable/drinkable, this time a kebab.

On Wednesday we had a finding activity for MLC. Nothing crazy there. But we did film an awesome video for the Latvian Come Unto Christ Facebook page.

Thursday we had MLC and we decided to get rid of our mission focus in order to more fully focus on our missionary purpose. We also decided that all communications between missionaries within the Baltic mission need to be checked by our companions. That includes transfer notes but excludes notes from departing missionaries for some reason. So that doesn’t apply to me. lol

Friday and Saturday didn't really have much going on.

On Sunday however I had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting. I felt inspired to speak on the sacrament itself and its importance in enduring to the end. I didn't prepare much to share, but I was able to speak as guided by the Spirit which was a really good experience.

On that note, I am preparing a training for  the missionaries at zone conference about receiving revelation, especially in regard to finding. If you have an experience from your own mission about following the guidance of the Spirit while finding on the street please share it. I'd love to tie it into the training.

Conference talk of the week: Christlike Poise from Mark A. Bragg

pictures:

1. a Georgian drink that tastes like cough syrup

2. and 3. pictures from the Šostaki's garden

I rode a horse

 (Sister Cummings)

Hey y'all! Sorry I missed last week! Pday was crazy and we had to cut it short because we had to drive to go have dinner as a district with the new mission president and his family. So I didn't have time to write an email. But, honestly, I'm not complaining because dinner with President was a blast!

These last two weeks have been honestly kind of insane! We got transfer calls last week and my freakin AMAZING companion Sister Woodbury got transferred and is now an STL (Sister Training Leader). Which is awesome because I know she's going to do amazing. I trained her well. But that's not the only thing that changed during transfer calls! The new Mission President is now sending sisters to the Northern Territory! Y'all don't understand but that's amazing because it's been an area for only elders for the past couple years and us sisters have been having mega FOMO (fear of missing out). So we're all so excited!

To tell you about this last week though, I'll explain my email title:

The other day, my new companion, Sister Yochim, and I were out contacting and came across this cutie little playground so we decided to take a 5 minute break and check it out. While doing so, I got on this little metal horsey thing that rocked back and forth. I think I might have been a little too big for it because I absolutely fell off of it but as I fell, my foot got mega stuck and Sister Yochim LITERALLY had to pick me up completely to get me unstuck. And we were in public! It was embarrassing! But yeah, I rode a horse.

One more thing that happened this week is that we have a friend that's on date for baptism! It's such an amazing experience seeing people make the choice to further their conversion and relationship with God. It's top freakin notch!

Okayy now for the spiritual stuff:

I loved the responses I got to my question about where the line is between being humble and being too hard on yourself and I want to share with y'all a basic summary of what I learned from y'all!

Humility is only found through Jesus Christ. It's found through trusting in His grace and understanding your own imperfect nature. It's joyful and sprouts happiness. It involves recognizing the gifts you've been given by the Lord and by continuously attributing them to the right Source. Humility is a product of faith in your Savior and is one of the integral ingredients involved in partaking of the Savior's Atonement. Humility is real and attainable but only through Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, being too hard on yourself is the opposite of humility because it is denying Christ. When you're too hard on yourself and you beat yourself up, you are denying yourself the ability to practice Christ's grace and atonement and try again with patience and love.

So, be nice to yourself and turn to Christ always!!!

Amen? AMEN

I love y'all! I've been learning so much from y'all! And Jesus loves y'all!

- Sister Cummings

Question of the week: What qualities make someone a good teacher?

Pics

I’d be a fearless leader, I’d be an alpha type

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia família e entes queridos!

This week was very different from any other week for sure. From the beginning to the end. Vamos que vamos.

This week I saw 20 fuscas, bringing the total to 763.

On pday, we went as a district to center of Búzios! Now I know why everyone calls my area beautiful. As missionaries we usually stay in the neighborhoods doing our stuff, so I was thinking “well it's not ugly, but there's not a whole lot here worth a vacation”. And then we went here. Wow. I would spend a week here as a tourist. We met up on the beach and went to lunch. I had just gotten a haircut and I had already eaten sufficiently, so I just sat with the district and chatted. That and the extremely high prices killed any hunger I did have. We then took a buggy ride around the city. We got to see all the beaches on this little peninsula, including a beach with red sand! Needless to say, I took some of that home with me. After that, we went home and chilled. Then everything was not chill. My phone rings. It's President! So we chatted for a second and then he says “Would you accept a calling to be a District Leader in Búzios?” “Yes, I would accept that calling” “Thank you Elder Mackrory, the Zone Leaders will call you to give you some orientation”. To my remembrance, I was never officially called as DL. But yet here we are. Oh well. Transfers were announced that night and Elder Flores and I are staying together here in Búzios, only I'm District Trainer. President also announced that this transfer there is an apostle coming to visit us and the Rio South mission this transfer. We are not sure which one he will be, but were excited anyway. That night we taught a lesson in Spanish and went home again. Then I did a little bit of stress cleaning.

On Tuesday we got yelled at by a Chilean dude. Not exactly sure why he was mad, nor did I have the slightest idea of what he was saying, but we were able to calm him down and get back to normal activities. I later asked Elder Flores what he said, and he said he only got like 50% percent of it. So that's the Chilean accent for you guys.

On Wednesday we had the fullest English class I've ever taught. There were only about 15 or so people, but it made it extremely difficult to walk around and help people one on one because of a new hand being raised every 10 seconds. But it was better than 3 people, so I'm happy.

On Friday we spent about 6 hours on the bus. We left our house at 7am for the Zone Leadership meeting. At 9, we arrived. At 10:30 we left, and got to lunch on time at 12:30. At 2, we left for another area in the district to do some baptism interviews. At 3, we arrived, as planned. We then Waited almost two hours for the ZL's to show up and tell us where we were going, not as planned. The interviews went well, and yesterday we had two baptisms. Then we traveled An hour back to our area. After standing on the bus for most of the trip, we decided to do our work online and go to bed early.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty normal, English class, church, amazing member lunches and lessons. On Sunday night my comp came down sick, so we will see how that works out. This week is zone conference, and so I will have the opportunity to practice our musical number as we are preparing for the apostolic visit.

SummaRio:

20 fuscas, 763 total

Had a great pday in my area, and I realized why my area is so envied

Was called as District Trainer! this means I will continue training Elder Flores and be district leader

An apostle will come to visit us this transfer and we will get to do a musical number

The Chilean accent is really hard to understand

English class was really busy

We spent 6 hours on the bus on Friday because of baptism interviews and leadership councils

Comp got sick yesterday, started working on our special musical number

Tender mercy: On Sunday we had a few lessons with a recently returned missionary. Since I've basically been the senior companion since leaving training, I've been looking for new or better ways to teach. Having the perspective of someone who has already fulfilled their two years in the field was really nice for me to see and learn from him. I love training, but I always need my own training.

Spiritual thought: These last few weeks I've really been focusing on repentance, so much so that my predictive text suggested the first word of this paragraph to be “Repentance”. I've not stopped on that process, instead I'd like to focus on one aspect of it. Prayer. My companion's favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon reads, “But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.” (2 Nephi 32:9). Prayer is an essential part of repentance. It is not just a process of realizing mistakes and becoming better, it is also a process of confession to Him, seeking forgiveness and guidance on how to move forward. In some cases, it is necessary to go to the proper priesthood authority to seek this counsel. Prayer will change the night to day because this is how ideas flow. Light bulbs of understanding fill our minds, and the once dark areas of our knowledge are filled with light. It is through the essential step of prayer that forgiveness and true repentance is brought about.

Fotos:

1. Predictive text

2. Random engine

3. Random tundra??? Nunca vi aqui Antes...

4. Nossa! Nossa area

5. Some beach

6. Some garage

7. The Telephone pole decided not to hold the wires anymore

8. Clean house

9. Red sand

10. The island on the left looks like a turtle

11. Buggy ride

12. Red beach