Tabis first letter from the mission field oct 31,2012

mama! so longest day so far!! we woke up at 3am tues mornin and got into salvador about 930. prez and sis hart are so amazing!!! they are sooo nice! we had lunch and hung out at their place for a while. the mission office is actually in the salvadaor sul boundaries, its safer!!

 our trainers came later that night and prez hart didnt even know who our trainers were going to be until later. we left the mission office bout 6pm, 45 min drive to the bus station where we sat until 1030 pm and got on a fancy duplex bus for an 8hr bus ride to petrolina!! which is a different state entirely from bahia!!! it hasnt rained here for over a year! its my first day but man its so hard!!!!...

oyah im in a trio! sis olivera who is Bahiana e sis namara who is mozambique...mama it is sooo tough!!! icant speak the language!! sis olivera is a firefly and just talks and talks and talks lol i love her! i pray i learn the language fast!

anyways we took naps this morning when we got in..which was 7am! took an hr nap n then got ready and walked 30 min to a house that was supposed to feed us lunch! i dont think she was there i dont really know i couldnt understand her haha but we walked to another house and she fed us rice n beans n some pasta! it was pretty good. man its hot here!!! definently! pretty sure i already have a sweet tanline!! mama please pray that i learn the language, so far thats the most discouraging thing. its worse than the heat and all the flies and mosquitos here. not being able to communicate is SO hard!!

 i havent had a whole lot happen to tell you about!! this day is sorta weird and diff then others will be i think (i hope)! from what i understand from my comps, their are a lot of inactive families here so i knowim supposed to be here. i want to do everything i possibly can to be the best missionary i can be. i already had a breakdown here!!! i offered the prayer! i think im just extremely overwhelmed with everything...that and the 3hrs of sleep the past 2 days probably doesnt help either haha please say an extra prayer for me! im not going to complain about anything i love it here, mas it is difficult!! i knew it would be! i cant wait for the next 18 months :) 

 oh tambem theres another address that yall can write to, i wont get mail until every 2-3 weeks depending. so write me as much as you want!! they help!! ill get you the address next week. oh and pday is tuesdays!!!
i love you, i love this work! i know the Lord has something in store for me!! hes really humbling me and i feel like im going to eat a lot of humble pie these next little while! i love you so much!!! tell everyone i love them!
love sister benedict

Sister Benedict arrived in Salvador Oct 30,2012

hey so rapigino!!!! im in salvador, no big deal!!! woke up at 0300 left ctm at 0450. plane left at 0745 and landed in salvador about 0945! we had to set our clocks back because they dont have daylight savings time!! so i have no idea what time it is over yonder in the U.S!!! but its BEAUTIFUL here!!! so many trees and life! prez n sis hart are so superly duperly amazing!! I am already so blessed they are my mish president. sis hart always has the hugest grin on her face!!! I still don't know who my trainer is, and neither does prez hart, but he said we will have them tonight!!! one of us might be on a 12 hr bus ride...pray its not me  haha anyways were in the salvador sul mission boundaries. They have the mission office here, its safer!!! but i love yall so much!! i have not been happier and I cant wait to start working!!! Im safe, Im happy Im loving life!! love lots

sister beneidct

Oct 24, 2012

omylanta I have so much to say!!!

first off! love you! second..I’m so jealous about the temple!!! I keep telling everyone here y'all involved with it!

um this week we did our first proselyting thing...it was soo interesting haha sis king n I actually could understand a lot and I found it was easier to talk to people than I thought!!! there was a drunk guy who went on about joseph smith and stole my ldm and was preaching to someone else about it haha then he pretended to strangle me and pretended to put chains around my wrist haha just a typical day as a missionary!!! the last guy we talked to, Hobson, was definitely the best. come to find out he’s inactive and I asked him how he felt when he was baptized and he was talking about the fire in your heart and felt the spirit!! I was just thinking it IS real!!! I’m not the only one who feels these types of things! and I did learn something in the mtc haha but I made him pinki promise that he would go to church Sunday. It was awkward at first cuz I stuck my pinki out and said pinki promise and he just looked at me like...what the junk are you doing haha it was so funny! but he pinki promised and he said he would go, i really hope he does!!!

I’m so stoked to go to Salvador!!! 6days!! aaaah I’m sooooo excited!!!! um couple things that happened this week. I had my hair down one day and curly...naturally it was frizzy and big right, well we were sitting with brazilians and one looks at me and as serious as a person could be he says in english..with his thick brazillian accent "what..happened...to your hair!!!" it was soo funny! I died laughing lol so that’s our little joke now between us!! also my hair felt long 1 day last week!! idk what it was but it felt so long..I was freaking out lol granted its still short but were making progress haha also....dangt I forgot what I was going to say! I love yall! it’s hard being here, can’t wait to leave the mtc but at the same time I don’t want to leave!

Oxborrows wrote me, that was so nice of them! I love yall so much! OH I remember! for one person we contacted, it was in a tiny lil halloween store and before we left I just felt like we needed to sing so sis king n I sang nearer my god to thee in portugese and I could really feel the spirit! that n the store had amazing acoustics!! also we sang last night for devotional, we sang our saviors love! another quartet. I love to sing but I get sooo nervous when I do!! ok gota go

love you so much

sister benedict

ps got a free lakers hat the other day!! check me out haha

love ya

 

 

Oct 12,2012

This week was uneventful as well! but a couple thoughts I have....1st off i heard kobe bryant is retiring!!! dad is this true...please tell me its not!!!! let me know!          

also, OH!! my shoe broke! the ones with the strap, the nice ones that were from the store that were supposed to last! yeah they didn’t last a lap of granny walking on the track haha it broke! i need to fix it today! umm o que mais!

Our melhor amigos left têrca-feira and it was so sad! but before they left a few days before we promised irmao raphael that we would speak só portuguese!! So all of that on top of my week was hard! I can’t tell you how freaked out I was to promise to only speak Portuguese!!! I felt like I was completely out of my comfort zone! I slipped up here and there with my Portuguese, but its way better!!! haha I feel like I can communicate!!! miracles do happen!!

I was just sitting there and thought, I should get a blessing..and then elder grigg popped into my head! (I have a pic of him! I love this elder!!) but he left Tuesday and he was in the other district in our zone.  I asked him to help me and he gave me a blessing and it was like night and day difference! I felt sooo much better after that! He said a lot of things I needed to hear! idk why but it’s so hard for me to ask for blessings. I love blessings sooo much! every single time! I needed it and I am so grateful for the priesthood! I hope anybody who holds the priesthood realizes the power that they have if they use it correctly. I have such a deep respect for priesthood holders! I can’t wait to marry one haha.

Being spiritually and self-reliant. Well I can tell you that it doesn’t matter how much faith your companion has, if you don’t have any. Your out of luck! we just had a really good devotional (area 70 came!) and he talked about faith and conversion! I was reading in alma 14 and I don’t know how this pertains to faith, but i really like alma 14. alma and amulek were treated SO bad by the ammonites believe! They were imprisoned and all these things, but they held their peace and didn’t strike back or anything. then at the end of the chapter, the Lord delivered them, the prison collapsed and everyone died except for them! I like how the last verse says that the people were scared like goats running away from two lions! I just read a talk(I forget who) but he said that the Lord will give you courage to be bold like lions!! I just really liked that! also another scripture alma 56:47-48..strippling warriors and their mothers! mama, I want to be like these mothers!!! they had so much faith to teach their sons that their sons didn’t doubt them and none of them fell away! none of them were killed! heck you know the story of the strippling warriors!!! i just really want to be like that.

i love you so much!

beijos e abrazos!!!

sister benedicta

 

October 10,2012

te amo! so this week was nuts. conference was soooo exciting! i love conference. i wrote down 6 questions and seriously..every single one of them was directly answered!!

It’s funny that you ask about my experiences with Christ like attributes because my comp n I read that section every day and pick a trait to work on!!! We read moroni 7.45 cada dia and pick something to work on! I picked kindness, :) as far as experiences...I don’t really know if I have one in particular. I have been studying on charity and love and trying to love everyone here. It has made an impact on me. I notice that I am so much happier. The gospel is a happy thing!!!

I was at the temple this morning and the person I was going through the whole time during the session I just felt her presence. I felt her excitement to go through the temple for the first time! I was so excited for this deceased person I was going through the temple for!!!! 

Tell your young women girls that as soon as I heard the announcement for sisters to go on a mission at 19 I immediately thought of them! If I was there you know I would be talking in everyone’s ear to go! it’s such a great opportunity for them! I’ve been here 6 weeks and I have already learned leaps and bounds! Tell them to be exactly obedient!!! If we are, then we become one with God. Charity has been one way I feel the spirit the most. Have you ever tried to love like Christ does, it’s hard!!!! I strive for that every day!

Sis king and I had a really good talk yesterday about obedience. I have been feeling the spirit so much here!!!

oh I leave 30 Oct then I will be in Salvador!! woooot woooot! idk where my first area is but I’ll be sure to let you know when I do go! Last night for devotional we did a number after! elder olson, grigg! sis king and I sang if you could hie to kolob, elder hatch played the piano..I just love that song!!

Life here is normal...getting hotter, but we all knew that!!! I’m still alive, I eat like 18 apples a day thanks to elder grigg...he is so nice to leave the cores on my desk. He’s in the other district in our branch that’s leaving next week. I don’t wana talk about that! all of my brasileros left this week and it was rough. You get so attached to people then they walk out of your life forever!!! that’s going to be every 6 weeks for me for the next 18-24 months! They might extend sister missionary times too while I’m out...who knows! here’s to hoping!!!!

Prayers were answered!!!! Everything I had questions about in my soul were answered! the Lord hears our prayers!! Tell your young women girls they need to take EVERYTHING up with the lord! don’t you dare ever say that the Lord doesn’t hear our prayers, because I testify that He does. If we submit ourselves to our Father in Heaven, He can and will work miracles through you! I am an example of this. I was nothing before I received that inspiration to serve. I’m here. I trusted in God and told Him I would do whatever he needed me to do! I know that the Lord knows me better than I know myself! In alma 5 he talks about having His image in your countenance! I think about that every day. I want to be able to walk the streets in Bahia and express the same love that Christ did!!! I love this gospel so much! I love being a missionary. Am I perfect?  No way!!! But am I trying?  You bet I am! Humble yourself before the Lord! Give your life to Him and watch what He does with it! Pres. Degn said this "The lord will shape your back to bear the burden placed upon it!!!" we are the violin in the masters hands!!! I am so grateful I was a tattered, torn violin! I know the master is fixing my strings and tuning me up!! I am so grateful to Him and His sacrifice!!! I would be nowhere without this gospel!!!

I love you so much

Sister benedict

ps good luck with the dedication! I wish I was there!! I’m sooo stoked for y'all and slightly jealous tell pres monson i said hi and he needs to come visit me because I missed him at the dedication!!!

 

 

October 3.2012

life is great!!!

 This week was kinda rough for sis king n I. when I was having a good day, she wasn’t and visa versa!!! We went to the temple today, and it was sooooo gooood!!! I was just so..happy! sis king and I spent over 20 min in the celestial room! I couldn’t stop smiling. I know that the Lord hears our prayers! it really is amazing all of the experiences I’ve had here, just little ones that let me know that the Lord is listening!

I sang a duet with elder olson(in my district) and his voice is so amazing! we sang all creatures of our god and king (my favoritest song ever!!!) and we did it before our big devotional tues nite. I prayed that I could sing like an angel and invite the spirit and I really feel like we did!!! I loved it! we sang in portuguese too..no big deal lol jk I love to sing, though. I feel like it really invites the spirit.

We had our halfway mark interviews and br. Bingham told me that the next 4 weeks is not for me to learn the language, but for me to figure out how to invite the spirit into my life and how to use the companionship of the spirit! so I’m going to really strive for that. our brasilian companions left Tuesday. They got up at 230am to leave at 5am....guess who didn’t get any sleep...yupp! yours truly!!! it really is amazing though, remember how I told you that I asked for a blessing for my sleep and ear. well seriously since that blessing, I’ve felt so much better. I haven’t slept any longer or any better, but it really is amazing that I don’t feel tired. I do but I have energy to do the things I need to, so if I feel like this every day, then I will be alright!

irmao viana, one of our teachers is hilarious! he likes to joke around; well, remember how my companion is sister king? when I have my hair down and curly (frizzy cuz wer in brasil) its really poofy. irmao viana puts us next to each other and says guess what movie!!!!........haha yupp. lion king! it’s actually pretty funny! also, he was trying to call me a little girl. like a lil cute girl and he called me fofina! the way he explained it, though was chubby! it was so funny. he basically called me a cute chubby little girl lol he also has an Idaho potato tie!!! I love it!

The language is...coming along. I still somehow manage to mess up things I say! and it’s not just a little bit, they always somehow are inappropriate haha i try to talk to my teachers and they end up laughing at me because of how inappropriate they are!! oopsie!

The fruit here is awesome! it’s starting to get warmer and they have abaxai and mango and meloncia!!! i loooove fruit!!!!! I can’t wait. I keep hearing that salvador, has lots of seafood and coconut and carnival!!! I really can’t wait to go! we leave this month, that is sooo crazy to me! the time has been flying by!  I feel like I don’t know enough to leave this month, it really does scare me!!! gah! I’m so excited though!!!

 I can’t wait for conference!! I feel like I’ve grown so much these past 4 weeks. I really do feel closer to the spirit. I’ve been trying to show charity and love! I decided to pick a Christ like attribute each week to improve. This week is charity and love!!!! I love you guys so much! I love this gospel. I love the scriptures and I love the people here at the mtc. Thank you for your support.

Tell everyone I love them! I wish I could write to everyone to say thank you. My heart gets so full thinking about all of the support and friends back home! i lovelovelove you!! eu amo vocês!!!!

com amor

sister benedict