June 11, 2009

Tudo bem?! How is everyone? I think the weeks are progressively speeding up...it´s been a good one :). My companion and I made a ton of pancakes yesterday for a Family Home Evening thingy with an inactive family...it´s funny because I never really loved pancakes before but everyone here wants american sweet pancakes and it´s a nice taste from home. If anyone has some good american recipies for me feel free to send them...the people here always want to try american food and all I have is cholate chip cookies, brownies, pancakes...um...yep...that´s about it. Good times. I love this work. I feel like as missionaries we just get to do the most exciting things all the time. Teach the gospel and strive to bring peace and joy to people...lol...sounds way cheesy but seriously it´s exciting and fun. We get to be very involved in many peoples lives which is great and emotional...but I love sitting with the families here in there tiny very humble homes talking about and learning about things that matter most in this life and eternity! It is the perfect plan of our Heavenly Father! This week was good...I have been pretty worried about some investigators with a baptism date but my companion told me that we can´t worry on p-day until 6 pm because we have 6 days to worry and one day to rest and clear our minds...so thank you for your emails and letters and support...it has helped me clear my mind for now. We had interviews with our mission president. It went well and we learned what we need to do better which was good, he is a very good and dedicated man and Sister Cooley is extremely open and loving, it´s great I love them both. My companion is as great as ever! She is trying to learn some English so that´s been good. Next week is transfers and I´m pretty confident she won´t be transfered yet because she´s my trainer and I just got here but...she has been in this area for 6 1/2 months so it´s a possibility...I´m hoping for one more transfer with her! Well I love you all! I hope summer is going well! Have a great week!Muito amor!
Sister Richins

June 3, 2009

How is everyone this week? I hope you are all well and that you are enjoying the nice summer weather! Happy June! It´s getting cold here. Yesterday was really cold and they tell me it is going to get colder so I´m kinda nervous...I figured Brasil is always HOT but nope. It´s been a good week here. We are preparing for two weddings and four baptisms so it has been a lot of fun and we have seen a lot of progress and the hand of the Lord in our work here! I also attended my first zone conference of the mission and got to bear my testimony...I still get way nervous to bear my testimony in Portuguese but I need the practice so it was good for me. It was also way good training and our mission president gave an amazing talk about the Plan of Salvation. It was great and inspiring and made me want to be a different and better missionary. We also have our first interviews with him this week and then by the end of next week I will have experienced my first transfer of the mission. It´s an exciting feeling. We also had stake conference this week and Elder Ellis of the seventy spoke. It was a great conference. We had three of our investigators there which was good and they loved it! There was a stake dance the night before conference as well for families and 5 of our investigators were there so we went with some of them just to bring them introduce them to some people and leave. We were only there for a short time but my companion and I both felt the lack of dancing in our lives...miss it. And they have some different fun dances here I want to learn...one day...after the mission. My companion and I made pancakes and maple suryp for some of our investigators and members in the ward...I thought they turned out well but she didn´t really like em :) they eat salty pancakes here with meat or cheese inside...kinda weird but our investigators really liked the sweet pancakes. It was fun...and nice to have a taste from home. The diet here is way different for me...I like the food but it´s different. We eat rice and beans everyday and a lot more meat then I am used to. I´m getting used to it but it´s funny when my companion and I cook in our house because I always want to buy fruits and vegetables and she always wants to buy meat so we compromise...I make salads and fruit salads and she cooks the meat.I am so grateful for this opportunity...our investigators that are preparing to get married and baptised are truly inspiring to me. They have so much faith and love for the Lord. We are witnessing miracles in their lives. Thank you all for your letters and support and prayers and love! I love you and pray for you everyday!!Have a great week!
Te amo!
Sister Chelsea Dawn

May 27, 2009

Wow, it´s such a weird feeling to sit down and try to write about my week on the mission...I feel like I can explain what I did day to day but that is pretty standard and doesn´t vary much if I were to just write about it but in the another sense I feel like there is no way I can explain the feelings and experiences that my weeks, days, and minutes are full of! This is the Lord´s work! He loves each of His children so much...I can feel that love for these people here so apparently! I am so grateful to be a small part of this great work! Everyday I am in awe at the humility and dedication to Christ the Brasilian people express and at the same time I am in awe at how lost so many of them are. I also learn something new everyday through the experience of acquiring a second language. I thought that learning another language would just...happen...so many missionaries leave not knowing a language and return speaking fluently...it´s easy right? Honestly Portuguese isn´t too bad and I really do feel like I am learning more and more everyday and I can express what I need to. But the hardest part is the feeling of almost being a different person at times. I have moments when I am completely stoked because I realize`I am conversing in a different language´ sweet! and I have moments of feeling completely discouraged! Ha! I have formulated about 1000 analogies about the language learning process and how to apply it to life in general. I am grateful for a patient companion and I am grateful that the Lord is blessing me with patience as well! This week was awesome! We have been blessed with some amazing investigators! We are teaching a couple named Danielle and Sergio who we met my second day in the field. They readily invited us in and have and many questions since day one! They have also kept their commitments since day one and have progressed quickly! When we met them we recognized right away their great faith and desire to find the truth. They both smoked `de mais` (a ton) and are not married but we knew that all that could change. We had a family home evening at their house on Sat with 4 members of the ward and it went really well (it has been a miracle how much the members have been helping us and it really makes a big difference!)...we watched the restoration and had an activity. The have begun to quit smoking and are down to one pack between the two of them per day! It is incredible to see through faith and help of the Lord lives are changed. They are so excited! On Monday we invited them to be baptised and they accepted and we talked to them about the need to be married first and they accepted with excitement and enthusiasm in living the way the Lord wants them to! We also marked a baptismal date with another investigator of ours Maria who is also not married to the man she has been living with for the past 16 years but she has great faith and desire to be baptised and is ready to do what she needs to. It´s somewhat of a crazy thing inviting people to totally change their lives but it´s an amazing feeling because I always know that it is the right thing no mater how they react. The invitation really isn´t from us it is from the Lord. I feel extremely blessed to be a part of this great work. Life is good! I am learning a lot from the Brasilians they are so open and loving! I hope you are all doing great! Have an awesome week!!!
Muito Amor!
Sister Chelsea Dawn

May 20, 2009

How is everyone this week?! I hope life is great! Things here in Brasil are good! The past week was fun...getting used to the routine here and the language. I like the area a lot it´s like the outskirts of São Paulo city so it is a little smaller and less busy but still a city and still a lot of people. My companion and I live in a nice apartment for the area and it is plenty big enough for two of us! We teach a ton of lessons because people are incredibly open and accepting of a message about Christ and we had 7 investigators at church on Sunday which was awesome! It´s a crazy and incredible work! It amazes me because everyday I feel the Lord´s hand in the work more and more! It is great! This week has been a little different because my companion got sick on Monday so our work was slower and we couldn´t even leave the apartment yesterday which was hard but there was no way. She is doing better today so we are hoping to visit all of the investigators that have baptismal dates tonight after p-day is over. It was hard to be in the house...I had a lot of time to study...and to think about the people who we weren´t able to teach that day. But it is better that she get well and so we can work hard. Mom did I already thank you for the cookie recepie? I made them for a family in our ward that always helps us and they loved them. They don´t do homemade cookies here really so I gave her the recepie and I think she´s going make them...she was excited so thanks! I feel like there should be a lot more to write but I don´t have a ton of time and can´t think of much else except that I LOVE you all!! You are in my thoughts and prayers! This gospel is incredible and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be teaching it and to be learning more...I have learned a lot out here! Life is sweet! You are all in my thoughts and prayers! Thank you for your prayers, letters, emails, etc etc.
I love you!
Muito amor!
Sister Chelsea Dawn

Temple trip taken April 2009.

May 13, 2009

Oi!
How is everyone? Family it was so good to talk to those of you that I was able to talk to on Sunday thanks for your words of wisdom and encouragment! :) I´m glad to hear you are doing well...I love you all! Thanks everyone for the letters and emails!! Carly you are hilarious seriously I was laughing so hard at your email! Mom I hope you had an awesome Mother´s Day!! This week was great! It´s great to be in Brazil because people are warm and pretty receptive to missionaries wanting to share a message about Christ with them! We taught a lot of lessons this week which was great for my Portuguese and I feel like I´m starting to understand a lot more too. We had a baptism on Saturday...it was great. I only was able to teach him one lesson but it was so great to be a small part of it and see how happy he and his family are. His wife has been a member for awhile but was inactive and when the missionaries visited her she was excited and her husband was receptive so they started going to church and he decided to get baptised as well. On May 23rd he is going to baptise two of his sons one is 8 and one is 11. Our area is awesome it´s like a city built in the middle of a mountain range all of the roads are very hilly and we walk up and down hills and stairs all day it´s great! I´m in awe at the use of space here people live in the smallest cracks in the wall all concrete and hardly any room it´s kinda crazy! They are great people! My companion is so patient and helpful with Portuguese and we have fun together! Today p-day has been great...marking my first week in the field. We had an activity with our zone at the church we had cake and ice cream to celebrate some Elders birthdays and we played uno and some soccer and our President let us watch Mobsters and Mormons which was kinda funny...it was fun and a nice break but it already felt kinda weird to me to feel unproductive. Well I am excited to be here. I love you all! Have a great week!!
Muito amor!
Sister Chelsea Dawn

May 6, 2009

Olá!!
HAPPY MOTHER`S DAY mom, and sisters, and all other wonderful mothers reading this! I am in my first area! It is called Novo Osasco...as if that means anything to anyone...not even me yet but it will very soon! I got here today and met my trainor today...her name is Sister Correia. She is so sweet and seems great! She doesn´t speak any Engish which means I better learn Portuguese really fast. She also wants to learn English so we are going to help each other out! It feels so good to be out of the CTM and walking around...my feet need to create some calusus after sitting for two months...ha but all in good time. It is also a little overwhelming but exciting. Oh and now that I´m in the field our mission rule is I can receive emails from anyone but respond only to family so friends if you want to email me the address is chelsea_dawn@myldsmail.net...:). Sweetness! So this week I had to say goodbye to my companions and district from the CTM. It was sad...we had really bonded! But it was time to get out of there. Yesterday my mission president and his wife took me and the other new Elder out to lunch to a really nice and delicious resturaunt!! Apparently it´s like rodisio grill but better, the real deal ya know :). It was so good! I love my both President Cooley and his wife a lot! They are very warm and loving and open! They shared there love story with us which was hilarious! And we pretty much just laughed all through lunch. After lunch I went and taught with some sisters in that area. It was awesome to just jump into the work however I mostly just prayed and bore my testimony and tried really hard to understand what else was going on. I can usually catch the general idea of the conversation but sometimes I miss key things and then I am totally lost. I just need to focus on what I can understand and realize that it will come. The Lord will provide! I am excited to be here! I love you all and hope you have a great week! This is an awesome work and I am excited to share the gospel...even if it must be in very broken Portuguese at first :).
Muito amor!
Sister Richins