Tests and Trials…

Oi Gente!!!

These past weeks were pretty interesting….

General:

-Soooo a couple weeks I had surgery on my toe and its been about 3 weeks and I still can’t move it. So Ive been to the hospital pretty much every week (Oh how I love hospitals) Anyways I went to the hospital last week to get an x-ray (they were thinking the doctor could have broken my toe in surgery…oh joy) and it turns out my toe isnt broken…BUT THE X-RAY SHOWED a needle or piece of wood that’s inside my foot..they’re thinking its been there for a while and Ive just never noticed…anyways we concluded that the doctor could have punctured a nerve or something with the..anisthetia (ughhh spelling is hard…let alone in english. The stuff that numbs your foot). Anyways we’re still figuring that all out. And what exactly does this mean for Sister Adelman….

HOUSE ARREST! Or at least that what it feels like. Anyways President and his wife called Sister Wheatley and I on Thursday after seeing my x-ray and told us we had 20 minutes to get to our apartment and that they were picking me up to go to the Hospital (Seriously I should have a VIP room). It just so happened that we chose to visit the end of our area that day and we were literally 50 minutes from our apartment. Anyways so we go to the hospital, Sister Noguiera gets all “mom” on the doctors saying they ruined my feet and he said some medical stuff in Portuguese and she said some sassy stuff in Portuguese andddddd I have an appointment with a foot doctor on Thursday…and until then I have specific orders not to the leave the house.

ITS BEEN SO BORING.

Im pretty sure none of that first part even really made sense so I’ll try to summarize

Right Foot:

-Cant move my big toe after surgery

-Needle inside my foot

Left Foot:

-Big toe will need surgery because I have an increpado…increvado? Something in english about nail.

BUT THIS WEEK WE HAD SOME PRETTY GREAT LITTLE MIRACLES 🙂

Sooo I had my x-ray done last week but didnt know anything for sure soo I continued working (that didnt make President happy…) Anyways this past week we only had about 2 days of good hard work.

-One night it was raining SUPER hard and there was NO ONE on the streets (seriously its like rain is a disease here!) we were praying that we might have a chance to do some contacting and we look to see one lady walking on the street and then she stops under a rain cover…building? So we start talking to her (literally Sister Wheatley started the conversation with “Hi, I broke my umbrella, whats your name?” and when we started talking to her about the gospel she began to cry and man the spirit was so strong! I felt like she was needing D&C 58;3-4 and we read it with her and she began to cry even more. We gave her a pamphlet and wrote the hours of church on the pamphlet and then parted ways.

THEN WE REALIZED Sister Wheatley wrote the wrong time on the pamphlet and we didnt get her address or phone number. Anyways for three days we were thinking about this lady and praying that we might be able to see her again to change the time. AND AFTER 3 DAYS of praying, what do ya know…WE found her! Blessing.

I love you all and I feel like this was alot of information all crammed in one but this church is true and Brazilians are INCREDIBLE. Also I ate quail eggs…which is normal I think because Ive eaten quail in the U.S. but yeah.

ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE WORLD’S GREATEST SISTER (that lives in Philly) WOOT WOOT BREN BRENNNNNN!!!!!

Until later

Fica Tranquillo

Sister (has to stay in the house and do nothing until surgery) Adelman 🙂

Obedience Brings Blessings!

Oi Gente!

This past week was definitely a week of learning and growth.

Spirtual Thought:

I learned a great lesson about obedience and its affect on our work here in the field. I learned first hand about choosing the harder right and not the easier wrong. Here on the mission, obedience really is everything, with out obedience we have no space to ask or expect for the promised blessings here in the field. I wish that each one of us could have an eternal perspective in all things. Its something that I have grown to learn about here on the mission, eternal perspective. Obediência is the answer to all of our problems, but its probably the hardest thing to do or want to do because of our agency.

Heavenly Father has given each one of us a plan, a path that will no fail. A path that will lead us to blessing we cant even imagine, a path that will bring us back to our Heavenly Father. That plan is explained and revealed in every chapter of the Book of Mormon. The gospel of Christ…five simple steps! Faith, Repentance, Bapstim, Recieving the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end. That last step is what usually gets all of us.

As Ive been studying the scriptures more, I begun to recognize the way that Satan works. And if you look through out the Book of Mormon and Bible the word “Blind” or “Blinded” tends to pop up every once and a while. Its always describing the way Satan hows power over us, the way he affects us. Just as we knew Jesus Christ before this life, we knew Satan as well. And vise versa they know us better than we know ourselves. Anyways many times he talks about “their hearts were blinded” or “their minds were blinded”. It just makes me think how many times we let our emotions get the best of us, when we say things out of spite or anger or frustration. Its at those moments that OUR minds our blinded or OUR hearts our blinded.

Anyways I LOVE YALL! Thank you all for the updates on your life and checking up on me!!

Fica Tranquillo

Sister Adelman

New Companion, Same Area!

Oi GENTE!

QUE SEMANA MARAVILHOSA!

This week was a pretty great week filled with many ups and downs but tis the life of a missionary!

Divisions:

Because my companion Sister Pivari was sister training leader she had to go on splits with other areas in our zone. Which also means that I had to go on splits in our zone. But our zone is pretty big so I ended up spending the night in different lugares cada..almost every night!

Ahhh and I dont really have time to explain my week.

Bullet points will have to suffice:

1.) Today was transfers and my companion Sister Pivari went home to Sao Paulo because she finished her mission! Anyways I cried, it was great…not used to having emotions but thats one thing I have definitely gained on the mission. Im sensitive as heck…Im turning into my mom…WHAT IS THIS?!

2.) New companion! So my new companion is Sister Wheatly…its actually pretty funny because before I came to the mission I had been reading her blog every month to learn more about the mission. But I think its weird if I tell her that…so instead I will tell all of my friends and family and facebook. Anyways she’s American too! She’s from North Carolina, super blonde curly hair and blue eyes. (I already get called “americana bonita” on the street….this will be an interesting transfer!) She has 10 months on the mission and this will be her first time as Senior! Im super excited and I feel like this transfer will be INCREDIBLE! Also Im staying in Mangabeira and probably will leave the next transfer, but man I LOVE the members here!!!

3.) We celebrated my 4 months this past Saturday..Im actually kind of stressed that time is passing SO fast! But Sister Pivari and Tota and Goes made a chocolate thing… for me. With sticky notes and a big sign that said happy 4 months. And Im rambling about things that really arent important lol.

4.) Our district made t-shirts this transfer and each person needed a phrase in portugues they always say. My companion and Sister Tota chose mine for me….sooo it was “Mae preciso papel”. So the sister that trains you on the mission is your “mom”. So I always yelled that I needed toliet paper….anways I have a t-shirt with this…so thats great. I will wear it with pride. Also for my 4 months the sisters wrapped toliet paper and put a bow on it.

Scriptural Studies:

-So Im reading the book of mormon each day in Portugues for 30 minutes. I just started this past week and Im in 1 nephi chapter 15. Anyways I was thinking about how incredible the story of Nephi and his family is and how it can help us in this generation. Anyways an overall lesson Im getting from the story is that we have two examples of ways we can live our lives. We can be as Laman and Lemuel or Nephi and Sam. Both had the same experiences and were on the same journey the difference was their attitudes!

Here on the mission, if you dont have a great attitude your day is going to be horrible. Because honestly there are so many things here that you can find to hate.

Anyways I dont remember what verse it was buttttt Laman and Lemuel are complaining about not being able to understand the dream that their father Lehi had. The Lord promised them that if they just ask in prayer having faith that the Lord would give them an understanding. But Laman and Lemuel literally said “We will not ask because the Lord with not give us an understanding”.

Its this lack of faith, that gets us sometimes. We all have a promise that if we lack wisdom we can ask of god (Tiago 1:5….James). And as well we have a promise that if we read the book of mormon and ask in prayer if these things are true. WE WILL RECIEVE AN ANSWER. God will make it known unto you that the book is true. (BECAUSE IT IS. IT SO IS TRUE).

I have a strong testimony about this church, this gospel. A testimony that I didnt have before the mission. I honestly didnt realize how little I actually knew, how little I actually was doing to be productive in this life. God if the same God yesterday today and forever, and it just wouldnt make sense if we didnt have prophets and apostles like we had in the time of the bible. There are SO many things I have yet too learn and I regret a little….about sleeping in Seminary every morning. Because I was there physically but lost so much of an opportunity to learn. But there’s no way stubborn high school me would listen to (older wiserw, beautiful, incredible, amazing….lol jokezinho) me right now.

*We have yet to try the giant ants…but they only come out after rain (and its raining right now) so soon very soon!

*Also Sister Pivari and I went to another church with one of our investigators and it was really interesting BUT I DON’T HAVE TIME. And it wouldn’t do it justice if I talked about it now. So next week!

ALSO IF ALL MY FRIENDS COULD STOP GETTING ENGAGED AND MARRIED. THAT WOULD BE GREAT. YES THAT MEANS YOU MICHAEL HAROLDS AND AMANDA HORTON. SHEEESH!!! I WOULD LIKE TO BE AT YOUR WEDDINGS.

Fica tranquillo!

-Sister Adelman

Needles, and Surgery, Singing Oh My!

Oi gente!

Essa semana foi uma semana maravilhosa e uma semana de bênçãos!

Funny Happenings:

-This week I was at the hospital…yet again lol. But not for anything stomach related. I has “mini surgery” (its what it translates to I think…or minor surgery) but it really wasnt even a surgery I think. I’ll explain in bullet points of what happened…

-So my big toe was swollen and started bleeding one week during proslyting and anyways long story short it was infected and to spare yall all the details…I had mini surgery lol

Anyways we enter the hospital and its like a DMV here. You take a number and sit and wait until your number pops up on the screen. Then you go into this little room and talk to a consultant about whats happening with you. (It was funny because I walked in and he was like “what is it this time?” with a little chuckles). Anyways after you tell him whats wrong he gives you a wrist band of a different color….yellow if its super urgent and green if you can wait a little longer. Then you talk the the receptionist about insurance information and then finally the doctor…AND then you get treated. And they dont really have privacy here…when I had the IV it was literally in a room full of other people sitting in chairs getting an IV tambem!

Sooo when I had the chance to talk to the surgeon he explained what he was gonna do. Im sure it wasnt exactly this…but this is what I heard “Alrighttt ehhheeemmm sooo now Im going to cut open your toe and its going to hurt tremendously…and its going to happen right now.”. Anyways Im a drama queen so it wasnt exactly that…and he was actually really funny.

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During the “surgery” the doctor numb’d my toe…WHICH BY THE WAY STICKING NEEDLES IN YOUR TOE…HURTS REALLY BAD! The doctor’s lie when they say “Oh this will only hurt a bit” Mhhhmmm. Anyways while he was numbing my toe I was holding onto Sister Pivaris arm and said…

“I really dont like this….I mean you…I like you (to the doctor)….I just really dont like what you’re doing to me right now…” then I started singing “Why cant we be friends” in english to him. Of course he didnt understand but I thought I was pretty clever. According to my companion the doctor was laughing the whole time…So atleast some one finds humor in my pain :))))) Also I have no idea how Im going to give birth some day….I am a big baby when it comes to hospitals….Thank you to all the mothers out there, yall are like hulkmina!

-The members in my ward call me “Sister Big hair” and Sister “Adele” pronounced “Adelie”

-ANNDDD Sister Pivari and I flooded the bathroom area…where the bapstimal phew (oi…nao sei como escrever phew…) is. That was an interesting Sunday.

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Investigators:

-Cesar!!!

So his story is pretty much a miracle story, its a miracle that he was baptised this past Sunday. He actually talked to us first, he saw us walking down the street and wanted to talk to us but had shame…(was shameful…ashamed?) He decided if he saw us on the street again that he would talk to us. And what do you know, he saw us walking around the corner (probably lost lol) and gathered up the courage to talk to us! He had been a hardcore alcoholic his whole life, and had been using drugs since he was a teenager. He had been 6 months sober when he saw us, and was looking for a way to change his life. BOOM enter the missionaries lol. Anyways we gave him the lessons and he was really receptive. Hed call us every couple days saying he had read something exciting and wanted to just share it with us. We marked his baptism to be I think two weeks ago. Anyways he started talking to other people about our church and they of course we telling him he was wrong to be baptized and our church was the devil. What not. Anyways long story short, he didnt want lessons any more. Then one day we fasted for him, fasted that he could have a desire to be baptized, that he might not have doubts and recieve a clear answer this is the right thing to do.

The very same day of the fast we passed his house and he told us that he would like to be baptized, that he had prayed and thought about it and that this is what he needed to do to change his life. The next day he had his interview with the Elders and Sunday he was baptized. He was really nervous but SUPER excited!!

Questions:

How does the money work there?

-So we get about 130 real every two weeks, which in American dollars is about 33 dollars every two weeks. It is as little as it sounds, and by the end of the week we are eating bread and cheetohs lol.

Ex: McDonalds cheese burger….is like 22.50$ real!

UHhhmmmm shampoo is about 13 real

Anyways Im doing great. The mission is super hard, Ive been spit at, Ive been yelled at, had the door shut in my face and chased down the street. The mission is one of the greatest and most difficult things I have ever done in my life! I know that Ill be blessed for the work Im doing here in the long run and this is what keeps me going every day!

Fica tranquillo,

-Sister Adelman

Some of My Favorite Things!

Oi gente!

Its been a pretty uninteresting past two weeks, but I’ll try my best to make this email as interesting as possible!

Weird Things:

So I was trying to think of things that are different here than the United States, but I’m not really sure what isnt normal any more?

-The sun here in Joao Pessoa rises at 4 am I believe…so its not to hard to wake up at 6:30 every morning with complete day light!

-Our most prominent form of transportation is the Onibus (literally the name is like On-A-Bus lol….LOL) my first experience on the onibus I felt like….idk its literally like a can of sardines….like Oh lets play a game of how many people we can cram on a bus!

Food:

I LOVE the food here…

So I think the way they do things here is great because all along the street they just have people vending food…and its like if your hungry at any moment in the day…BOOM there’s someone with magically delicious food.

-Coxinhas….these are deep fried deliciousness. I dont know how to describe it but its like a fried thing with meat and cheese in the middle. Its wonderful and we have a place that we call almost every night and they know our names and its great.

-Açai….its a fruit that they have in Brazil and they literally have carts of it in the street. Its like a icee/ice cream and they put granola and stuff on top.

-Paçoquinta!!!!! GENTE ISSO E MUITO BOM! It a candy that they have her and its just a stick of the inside of a reeses. its incredible and the wonderful people on the street never fail me. Its my go to pick me up. Investigator doesnt want to have any more lessons…bora comprar paçoquinta…

I would like to add that right now as I am writing this there is a rooster walking around the computer house…lan house (idk in ingles)

This week was conference and it was incredible! I had the opportunity to watch in ingles with another american sister. It was just her and I in the secretaries office and what a blessing that was! I love that we have an opportunity to here the words of modern day prophets and apostles. One thing that I feel was a common theme between all the talks was that trials in our life are always there to help us learn something. They’re there to help us grow and learn some kind of lesson. Whether it be paitience, humility, love for yourself and others. Its always something.

I have like no more time to write but I LOVE YALL. Thank yall for all the love and support and emails. Its nice to know sometimes that I havent completely fell off the face of the earth!

Love,

Sister Adelman

Fica Tranquillo

Cockroaches and Wet Floors…

Oi todo mundo!!!

Sister Adelman here coming to you from Mangabeira, Brazil!

This week was definitely a good one!

Questions:

What’s your schedule like?

6:30-> wake up, shower, exercise (lol), write in journal and EAT! (Seriously the bread here IS SO GOOD. And we have a little ma and pop shop right next door to our apartment and so every morning we’ll buy feshly made bread)

8:00-> Personal Study (Scriptures, Liahona, Pregar Meu Evangelho)

9:00-> Companionship study (Pray for our investigators, traning, find scriptures to share according to the needs of our investigators)

10:00-> Language Study (Study that Por-tu-GUESE)

Lunch or “Almoço” aqui is the big meal of the day. SO we have Almoço at the house of a member (LIKE EVERY DAY. THEY LOVE TO FEED US HERE) and then we’ll usually just buy something off the street while we’re working for dinner!

12:00-> LUNCH

1:30/2:00-> Start Prostylting, visiting our investigators and service projects! And this goes until about 9:00 or 9:30 each night! Just walking, knocking on gates and talking to people about the gospel, helping people clean or move!

9:30-> Plan for the next day (where we’re going to go, what we need to study the next day, how our day went, and what our blessing was that day!)

10:00-> SLEEP (AKA: Drop dead on my pillow)

Cultural things?

-We have lots of dogs, horses, and cats on the street, ocasionally a cow or two walking in the road. Oh and donkeys as well!

-Our oven…is weird. But you have to light a piece of paper on fire and turn on the gas then light it manually. The first day that I tried this, I nearly blew up the kitchen. It was great!

-We dont have dryers here so we just use racks in our kitchen…just like college 🙂

-We buy jugs of water “Agua Mineral” each couple of weeks and this is our drinking water. Some one brings the jugs on a motorcycle and delievers them to us!

-The view from my apartment window is INCREDIBLE. Everything is SO green here!

My Week:

-So this week we were in a part of our area which is more humble. Its literally a dirt road through the jungle and we’ve been having SO much success there! (This week we had 12 people from that area come to church with us!)

Anyways the houses there are very humble and the people are SO loving! One day someone made popcorn and went from house to house giving it to everyone on the street and the people were so happy (it reall is the little things!) Anyways we were at the bottom of a hill talking to a new investigator inviting her to come to church and I notice that there are lots of people picking stuff off the ground and putting it in a jar. I asked my companion what it was and turns out it was GIANT ANTS. The investigator that we were talking to laughed at my reaction and picked up one of these giant ants ripped its head off and handed it to me. THE THING DIDNT DIE. Apparently they rip the head off of these alien like creatures and fry them and eat them!

I will be trying this in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned for an update and picture! The investigator that we were talking to were leaving so we walked with them. They said they knew a short cut and we ended up literally walking through this jungle and there were tons of people with these jars of beheaded ants.

It was one of those moments where I looked around at the forest, the beheaded ant and the sunset in the distance and thought to myself. Man I love it here in Brazil!!

Funny Story of the Week:

-So this past Saturday I was taking a shower (cold I might add, because no we do not have hot water) and I reached for my towel. All the sudden I felt something latch onto my finger and I look down and it was a GIANT COCKAROACH! I screamed and flung it to the other side of the bathroom. It started flying towards me and I crawled to the other side. It ended up staying on the door (you know the thing I have to go through to leave the bathroom). So there I am huddling in a corner screaming for Sister Pivari (who didnt respond until like 3 minutes of screaming…because she was praying). Any ways I open the door just a crack so that Pivari could help me kill the thing. All the sudden I see a broom…but no Pivari. And she’s saying to me “Where is it, Did I get it” and shes just aimlessly wacking the broom around. I scream “I wanna leave…like go out the door” and Pivari says “Sol Vai!!!” (Like just go!). So Im soaking wet in nothing but a towel and I decide to make a run for it. AS I DO. I FALL FLAT ON MY FACE. Like body slam on the tile (because we dont have carpet here in Brazil). And I just start laughing SO hard and Pivari as well. But it wasnt like just a fall. It was fall…keeep going…keeep going… and now youre finished. Like a slip and slide in our apartment! When we looked in the bathroom again…the cockroach wasnt there…and so today we took like 3 hours cleaning our apartment!

*BY THE WAY. No Im not a wimp, I have no problem killing cockroaches, BUT THIS WAS SOME KIND OF GIANT ALIEN COCKROACH. It put all other cockroaches in Texas to shame!

Other Things:

-This week was my three month anniversary (its a thing :)) and the other sisters in my apartment made me cupcakes with a “3” candle! Sister Pivari made me a sign and when I woke up there were a bunch of sticky notes all around the room that said different things she loved about me, or funny stories we had!

-WE HAVE TWO more baptisms this week! With two investigators that ARE INCREDIBLE!

-This area has grown SO much in the past couple of weeks. When we first got here the frequencia for people at church was at 56 and this past Sunday we had 92 people! Sister Pivari and the other sister and I have been working SO hard here! Visiting less actives, teaching new investigators and old.

Final Thoughts:

I feel like sometimes we feel alone, abandonded or beaten down. Or at least I have or sometimes do and I see this every day in other people. We feel like there’s no way we can put one foot infront of the other (sometimes literally), take the next step. There are some days in life when you just wake up and think “I have no idea how Im going to make it through the day”. Ive experienced this many times on the mission already! For me its been physical pain, blisters, sunburn, back pain and intestinal. But one thing Ive learned about faith…is if we just push a little harder, exhaust all the strength we think we have. That if we do just as much as we possibly can. The Lord, our Father will show us we are who we doubted we could ever be. I dont know if that makes sense but I just know that this life is a test, a preparation period for a perfect and eternal future. That trials, doubts, guilt, shame theyre all temporary, its all temporary. Were here to learn and grow and the only way we can do that is experience first hand, oppostion. In times of difficulty it seems like its just easier to forget all the things that you already know, that youve already felt. But I know that our Hevenly Father lives, I know that Jesus Christ, our brother came to this earth and died for us; for the sole purpose that YOU and I can return to our Father in Heaven. I see people every day who dont know this, who dont have the hope and knowledge of the atonement. This work, the work of a missionary is SO gratifying.

Youtube: The Refiners Fire Mormon Message!

Love yall,

Thank you all for the love and emails!

Brazil is incredible, this work is like nothing else!

Sister Adelman

Second Transfer Baby :)

Oi!!!

Bem-Vindo to my 2nd transfer in the field!!! WOOT WOOT! Im not the mais nova ainda!!!

This past week was absolutely incredible. The week before was absolutely HORRIBLE. BUT the bad makes me appreciate the good. Yay for opposition!

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1.) Last week I was sick. Not too bad, I think I just ate something anyways. I went to the “Hospital” two times (BUT DONT WORRY MOM) because the “hospitals” here are…just like doctors offices. So its all good in the hood. Anyways I was “passando mal” (I dont know what it is in english) for one week straight. The first doctor we went to wasnt very good. He barely looked at me and just said “i dont know whats wrong” and sent us away. It was frustraighting to say the least. Anyways that very same day almost all of our investigators asked us to stop teaching them. Like investigators that we had been teaching for weeks and weeks.

Anyways I went to the “hospital” again this week after continuing to be sick (a different hospital). And it was SO MUCH better. The doctor explained everything to me, tried to speak a little english and offered more help if what he gave me didnt work. Turns out I had an infection in my intestines? (I think thats what it translates to in english).

 Anyways they hooked be up to an IV and drugged me up! I ABSOLUTELY HATE needles. And so I had to hold onto Sister Pivari’s hand and she tried to tell me jokes. It was…well it was great. AND AFTER THE DRUGS I was completely fine and I am completely fine now. So YAY!

2.) This past Sunday we had our first baptism! Woot! His name is Joao Paulo and he has been an investigator for over a year SO this was a big deal.

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3.) Sister Povari and I found a new part of our area that we never knew existed. Its in the hill side and the view is SUPER pretty. There are tons of really humble souls there. People who have like nothing and their really receptive to the gospel. This past Sunday we had 4 investigators from that new part come to church!

I really dont have anything else to say (which is a first). Im starting to forget english and Im pretty sure I now sound like a child in english and portuguese. So thats great. Not really sure whats different in cultural things because Im starting to get accustomed to it. If any of yall have questions, feel free to ask me!

THANK YALL for all your love and support. Email, letters, pictures 🙂

-Sister Adelman

Splits and Stuff!

Oi todo mundo!

Este semana foi otimo!

Funny Happenings:

1.) So we went to visit this menos activo membro who was just recently activated again by us. We stopped by her house to see how she was doing and share a message with her. Her house is literally at the end of the world, we have to walk about 50ish minutes from our apartment to her house and its nothing but dirt roads, LOTS of trees and little shacks of houses on one side and stores and stuff. Anyways we went to her house and everything from inside her house was outside and she was cleaning the floors. Her house is just a square. Anyways I asked her if we could help and we ended up staying there and finishing the job for her. Literally you just poor soap and water all over the house and sweep it out the door. Foi muito divertido! Anyways so she had this clothing holder (I forget the name of it in english) and she needed to move it. So her husband and I move it…and when we move it away from the wall I see nothing but GIANT COCKROACHES! Like yall I live in Texas and these cockroaches put our “Everythings bigger in texas” sized cockroaches to shame! There were about 12 of them and they were all alive. Her husband began to smack them with a flip flop BUT THEY WOULDNT DIE. It was like a whole army of….idk something gross.

2.) This week Sister Pivari because she is the sister training leader had a lot of divisions to go on (Splits?). Anyways each day basically I had a different companion. So Friday Sister Tota and I (my apartment mate) were walking out in Cidade Verde where there is nothing but dirt roads and rows of houses. Anyways we were looking for a specific house but only had the quadra number and lt. number but not the house number. (How the number system works here…to be honest I dont even know BUT all the houses have a house number written outside their house…but not all have a qd. number and lt. number). Anyways so we were walking down this street and I stopped to look at my planner to see where we needed to go. All the sudden I hear

“ADELLLLMMMAAANNNNN….MEEE SALLLLVOOOOOO”

And I look up to see two dogs barking at Sister Tota and backing her into another street. Her face was bright pink and a look of horror was on her face. (She HATES dogs). Anyways so I take off my purse from my shoulder and wrap the strap around my wrist a couple times and start chasing the dogs and swinging at them with my bag. They would run and stop and look back at me and then Id swing my bag at them and yell and then they ran off.

We continue to look for this darn house and arent having any luck because none of the houses have a lt. number. We finally find a house that says Lt. 03 and we were looking for Lt. 05. Sister Tota looks at the house and looks two houses down and all I hear is “Ohhh…noo…” AND THE HOUSE WE WERE LOOKING FOR WAS THE HOUSE THAT HAD THE TWO DOGS THAT ATTACKED HER. I began laughing so hard I almost peed my pants at the irony.

3.) Later that night with Sister Tota we were talking to people on the street and this one guy (super drunk) kept talking about his cat and then out of no where said “Ohh I have a dog..” .then looks dead straight at Sister Tota and askes “Do you like dogs??” and her response “OH I LOVE DOGS”. It wasnt even that funny but I began laughing so hard I couldnt talk. And it was awful because he started talking to me but I couldnt answer.

Weekly Things:

-This week we had a taste testing/cook off for our relief society activity. Man I love food. And I love BRAZILIAN FOOD.

-I had two days this week where I came home absolutely exhausted and drenched in sweat where I just remember sitting at my desk thinking “Man I love serving a mission”. I also had two days that I remember thinking “Today was absolutely HORRIBLE”. But you know what. This is life, and it just makes me appreciate more the good days when we have the bad. Kinda like the fall of Adam and Eve, trials are a part of life…this is how we learn, its how we grow. With each trial that comes my way I try to think.. “what can I learn from this…what is God trying to teach me with this?” and it really works. Im not gonna sit here and say it works right away, but then again enduring to the end is part of the reason we’re here!

Favorite Quotes:

“You can’t be good and bad. You can only be good or bad. You can’t serve two masters”

“God Enlarges us, makes us grow, makes us stretch, requires more of us than we are wanting (or sometimes willing) to require of ourselve” Aka. Trust in God, trials happen for a reason. He sees us in a greater light than even we do.

Other:

-There was a talk in the CTM that I was recently looking at my notes about this talk. In this talk he said that…one day in Heaven we are going to have the chance to talk to Joseph Smith. He is going to ask us “What did you think of The Book of Mormon? How did it change your life? I was chastized, tarr’d and feather’d, physically and mentally beaten for this book.” and in that day are we going to know enough about the Book of Mormon, another testemento of jesus christ, are we going to have a big enough testimony on this book to thank him for his work?

Love you guys and love this work! Each day has its challenges but youve just gotta see the good in life!

-Sister Adelman

Week for the History Books

Oi there todo mundo!

This week was one for the history books!

annnndddd…please enjoy the following bullet points 🙂

1.) The language is getting SO much better, and LAST NIGHT I dreamt in Portuguese it was the weirdest things. The gifts of tongues is real and this gospel is true.

2.) TAPIOCA! What a marvelous food this is. So we have a family in the ward that invites us over for Jantar (Aka Dinner) muitas veses durante cada semana! Its this white looking bread tortilla thing and Im pretty sure we have them in the States but Im just not culutred and apparently had to come to Brazil to try these heavenly creations. Anyways as far as food goes, not much has changed….I still eat like a man and put all the other sisters to shame.

3.) Tried chicken heart andddd cow liver this week! The chicken heart was way good…the liver…was well liver.

4.) Tuesday was my “anniversario” de mission! Its a big deal within the group of sisters here in Joao Pessoa anys I have officially been out in the field for 2 months and it feels like its been only 2 weeks! My companion Sister Pivari made a sign for me and hung it up in the bathroom and she put a bunch of sticky notes around our apartment as well. Then that night the other sisters in our apartment sang “Feliz anniversario” for me and had a cute little cupcake with a “2” candle! They also bought BBQ and waffers (because I eat like 10 packs of waffers every day) any ways over all it was a good day! That same day as far as proslyting went, we talked to 42 people, taught 14 other lessons and got 5 new investigators. Which is a record for Pivari and I. This area is SUPER hard to get people to commit to anything.

Sister Bunch!

5.) CRISTIAN!!! So Cristian was baptized about 5 months or so ago. After being baptized he recieved the Holy Ghost but never went to church. He was inactive for about 4 months. Sister Pivari went to his house at the beginning of our time here in Mangabeira and invited him to come to church. He did that week and ever since he has been reading the scriptures AND this past Sunday…as in yesterday he recieved the priesthood!!! He is incredible, seriously a blessing for Pivari and I. Each week he’ll go out with us 3 or 4 days. Por exemplo ele foi helping us on Saturday for 6 hours! He bore his testimony for a menos activio we were teaching and it was beautiful. He talked about how he had been inactivo and the very day that we showed up to his house he was thinking he needed to return to the church, that he wasnt doing something right in his life, like something was missing. AND then we showed up. Miracle. God loves everyone and he knows each and every one of his children. I testify this as a representative of Christ. He loves you.

6.) WE FINALLY HAVE A BISHOP! …nuff said

7.) Soooo I love to talk, and this isnt necessarily a good thing when you dont understand ALL of the language. SOOO funny story of the week…actually kind of sad. So we were talking with a man about the gospel and he started talking about his mom (I found this out later) and how she isnt with us anymore but that shes in the sky…right after he said these words I said “Ahhh isso e bom” which is “Ohhh this is good…” and then I started talking about the gospel of Christ. He gave me a weird look but I just thought it was because he hadnt known about baptism. Oooopppsss…

Also…we have a brother in our ward who is named Brother Santana…but names are hard for me because the pronunciation is nothing like what it looks like. Anyways I always call him brother Satana which in english is “Brother Satan”. Score one for Sister Adelman…

Annnddd I believe this is all I have for this week. Each week gets better and better. THANK YALL for your prayers and thoughts. THANK YALL for the emails each week, sorry that I have no time to respond. Ill try to get letters out soon!

-Sister Adelman

Random sleeping man….

Mangabeira II

Oi tudo mundo!

Bullet points yet again….

Cultural things:

-I saw two roosters fighting on the street…yes it was worth putting in this email 🙂

-JACA oh goodness me, jaca.

So jaca is a fruit here they have hard and soft jaca. Anyways we were at almoço on Wednesday I believe and we had just had this wonderful meal oh lasanga and it was great. Then the senhora brings out jaca and asks if any of us wanted to try it. The two american sisters (me and sister bunch) said yes because I mean Im on a mission right? Might as well try everything right? NO. Lol SO I tried this fruit…its about the size of a….idk baby lemon? Anyways it has a giant pit in the middle of it so you have to just pop the whole thing in your mouth. The outer layer of the fruit is like this mushy gross i dont even know. So I popped the whole thing in my mouth and began to chew. It was disgusting and I could taste it coming back up. Like my eyes started watering and I was about to throw up. In a desperate attempt to keep my dignity I spit out the pit and tried to continue eating it. Literal tears began to roll down my cheeks. Finally the woman sad I could spit it out. As she was handing me a napkin I just spit it out on the plate like the lady I am.

Other…things?:

1.) This past week has been a lot better than the others, each week gets better and better. The language is coming along SO well. I understand most of what is said to me and I can finally talk back! I talk a lot actually, Im pretty sure my companion liked it better when I couldnt talk lol. (But really we love each other she is incredible)

2.) This past Tuesday was a BUSY day. We began proslyting at 9 am and didnt return for our apartment until 9pm. This was because we had investigators that could only meet in the mornings. It was a really good day though, lots of people were receptive and we taught a REALLY good lesson for this couple Rosa e Edclim. Anyways sooo we get home and I didnt even realize this while I was walking because my feet are always numb by the end of the day. BUT I had four really bad blisters on my feet, some of which were blood blisters. When I got home and took off my shoes I couldnt even walk around the house. (Which was a blessing that I was able to work allday with these!!) Soooooo Sister Pivari had to call our mission presidents wife and ask her if she had any trick for this. Anyways the next morning we took a needle and thread and I had to make a stitch in all of my blisters and put this miracle cream on them. I wasnt allowed to work Thursday so I just stayed in our house and studied the scriptures, language while sister Pivari worked with a member. I also prayed ALOT. The next morning my blisters were SOOOO much better, still hurt but they were better. The day at home was BORING. So the next day, I taped up my feet, thanked dance for giving me a high pain tolerence (All those years of pointe :)) and worked.

3.) Sister Pivari is the sister training leader and so she has to go on splits. Anyways this past week was our first split and it was great. Like the great as in “Im so nervous I have no idea where anything is in our area” great! By some miracle I found my way through our town and we were able to meet all out compromissos.

4.) On the day of splits (so our area is split into two part, part of our area is city and the other is more dirt road country farm) we went out to cidade verde which is more of a country area. Because we had a member who was going to introduce us to an investigator. So we go to her house and get her then we begin walking. The friend lives farther into the country and so it was about another 20 minute walk from her house. The member has a wheelbarrow that was full of stuff to give to other people because she works for a charity. Anyways so we had to take this stuff into the town area where her friend lives. I helped her push this wheelbarrow full of stuff and just this little act of service made her cry. She was so grateful to me, she couldnt believe that I would do this for her. She just conintuously thanked me. It was something so small but meant SO much to her because she has to push this wheelbarrow everyday. Things that may not seem like a big deal to us, or small acts of service really do go a long way! (Also this walk was through the forest and it was THE most beautiful walk every! EU AMO BRASIL!!

Dont have much more time, this whole 30 minute rule is really annoying BUT exact obedience will bring blessings!

Love you all and each week I print out the emails you send to me. I have been writting letters in response and will hopefully get those out to yall soon. Seriously I LOVE getting emails and I LOVE yall!!!

Alegria na jornada 🙂

-Sister Adelman