Um Dia Inesquecivel !!
Yes. Yesterday was an unforgettable day. I have one thing to say- I think I am doomed with bad luck for stake conferences in Brazil. Remember the stake conference that happened in Porto Ferreira about 6 months ago? Or rather, didn’t happen.... let me refresh everyone’s mind. Yes, the branch decided not to wait for Sister R. Silva and I even though we had clearly called them and asked them to wait for 5 minutes- we had 6 pesquisadores and 1 baptism planned for that conference... and they didn’t even wait one minute. And so I didn’t even go to church that day. But yes, I think it is one of the funniest stories of my mission, and luckily for me- it quasi happened yesterday... again!
But I am getting ahead of myself, to really appreciate how horrible/ funny yesterday was, I think we will have to do a play by play. So here we go- here was my morning yesterday.
6:30 wake up, get ready for church
8:00 call a bunch of pesquisadores/ members, wake a bunch of people up and remind them about church. I make sure and leave a few minutes on my calling card thingy (they dont have this in the US) in case of an emergency, and to call the elders that night.
8:20 A member Vera picks us up, we go with her to pick up a pesquisador- Asenciáo, a 78 year old woman that is amazing! She is the funniest person I have ever met, hysterical. She isn’t quite ready, but we arrange for Vera to return in 15 minutes to pick her up.
8:35 We drive by another woman, who could of been baptized, but chose not to even wake up. She didn’t want to go. We feel sad, but pass by Marcia, a recent convert, and Vera takes us to the church in Iraja.
9:00 Marcia, Sister Menezes and I arrive at church, where we will wait to take the Van to Stake Conference, a good 30 minute drive to the other side of Ribeirao Preto. Vera leaves to go pick up Acenciáo and other members, and we plan to meet her there.
9:05 Eva, Junior, Filipe, Marcia, And Gilberto and Sister and I are waiting for the van
9:15 the hour the van is supposed to pass by. We are still waiting
9:25 I am starting to get nervous. We are still waiting
9:30 I start calling everyone that I know that can take us to Conference. But the phone card quickly gets eaten up, and I end up calling corbrar... I don’t know what this is in English, and I talk to a few people and it seems like that I have sent someone back to get us. I try calling a few other people, but no one answers their phones. I think I called a good 12 or so people. I am feeling nervous.
9:45 I cant believe it... still waiting. I want to cry, but can only laugh. Eva asks us if they forgot us.
10:00 Junior and Filipe have had enough, they walk back home. I cant blame them, I would too if I was them. (Did I say that? oops.) Marcia and Eva walk to buy bread, clearly breaking the Sabbath day, but Sister and I are so confused that we just laugh and tell them to come back in a few minutes. Sister Menezes has the idea to call a taxi...
10:10 Eva, Marcia, Gilberto and I cram into a taxi and take off for the other side of town... no one has an address or an idea where it is, but we know generally where it is, so we take off. Oh and I forgot, Sister and I lost our house keys during this time tambem.
10: 45 We are lost in the other side of town. We don’t know where the church is. The taxi driver isn’t very happy. We stop to pull over, and Gilberto, a pesquisador that just showed up out of nowhere (we taught him like 6 weeks ago and he didn’t seem interested at all, and he just randomly showed up) suddenly, and strangely, knows where the church is, and guides us all there.
11:10 we arrive there!! Sister and I have never been so excited to arrive to church.. sure we are an hour late, but we are there!! There are TONS of people... we find a few chairs in the last 2 aisles... unfortunately we are sitting in the "youth" section and no one wants to listen.
11:40 The General Authority, Elder Pisarani, gives an outstanding talk- that made the whole trip and confusion worth it.
12:00 the conference ends, and then we have to figure out how to get everyone home.... I don’t even want to get started.
So there we just have half of the day, a day that was insane, crazy, and I just hope never happens again. I am scared for my next stake conference here in Brazil. I think I will make like 5 backup plans next time. ahh. It was crazy, we laughed and laughed, because I didn’t know what else to do.... But seriously, the last talk was so special. There I was, not able to hear ANTHING, praying that they could say something that we could hear, and that would touch the heart of the pesquisadores that had sacrificed more then 2 hours to get there... and when he spoke- it ended up being what I needed to hear. He read my favorite scripture- Romans 8:38-39... and even though there were hundreds of people there... I felt like this man was just speaking to me. I felt so moved... words really don’t describe.
Really, this last week was an interesting one, a bit crazy and hard. I had a fever at the beggining of the week, actually I had it for like a week and didnt even know it, I am thinking thats the real reason I passed out. But yeah, the fever miracoulously went away, we had zone conference, we had baptisms fall through.. tudo bem, and had surprise pesquisadores that make it all worth it.
I am excited for this upcoming week because we have some incredible people that we are teaching. Ascencion is one of these- she is 78, but said a prayer Saturday night to know if the church was true, and felt the words come to her mind that she needed to follow this church. She is incredible, so hysterical- we have been teaching a few old people, one as old as 98, but Ascencion is different because she is humble and has accepted baptism! wahoo!! We are still working with Eva, Junior, and Filipe, who are incredible and just need to ACT! ahh. We are also teaching another older couple who is great, Valter and Regina, and just have some awesome people.
So things are great! Like Michael said a few weeks ago, sometimes you just have to laugh. Ha-ha. And hope that the next stake conference will be in a church building close so I can walk there! Ha-ha!
Ok I love you all!! Beijos!
Sister Felony Melanie Monroe
But I am getting ahead of myself, to really appreciate how horrible/ funny yesterday was, I think we will have to do a play by play. So here we go- here was my morning yesterday.
6:30 wake up, get ready for church
8:00 call a bunch of pesquisadores/ members, wake a bunch of people up and remind them about church. I make sure and leave a few minutes on my calling card thingy (they dont have this in the US) in case of an emergency, and to call the elders that night.
8:20 A member Vera picks us up, we go with her to pick up a pesquisador- Asenciáo, a 78 year old woman that is amazing! She is the funniest person I have ever met, hysterical. She isn’t quite ready, but we arrange for Vera to return in 15 minutes to pick her up.
8:35 We drive by another woman, who could of been baptized, but chose not to even wake up. She didn’t want to go. We feel sad, but pass by Marcia, a recent convert, and Vera takes us to the church in Iraja.
9:00 Marcia, Sister Menezes and I arrive at church, where we will wait to take the Van to Stake Conference, a good 30 minute drive to the other side of Ribeirao Preto. Vera leaves to go pick up Acenciáo and other members, and we plan to meet her there.
9:05 Eva, Junior, Filipe, Marcia, And Gilberto and Sister and I are waiting for the van
9:15 the hour the van is supposed to pass by. We are still waiting
9:25 I am starting to get nervous. We are still waiting
9:30 I start calling everyone that I know that can take us to Conference. But the phone card quickly gets eaten up, and I end up calling corbrar... I don’t know what this is in English, and I talk to a few people and it seems like that I have sent someone back to get us. I try calling a few other people, but no one answers their phones. I think I called a good 12 or so people. I am feeling nervous.
9:45 I cant believe it... still waiting. I want to cry, but can only laugh. Eva asks us if they forgot us.
10:00 Junior and Filipe have had enough, they walk back home. I cant blame them, I would too if I was them. (Did I say that? oops.) Marcia and Eva walk to buy bread, clearly breaking the Sabbath day, but Sister and I are so confused that we just laugh and tell them to come back in a few minutes. Sister Menezes has the idea to call a taxi...
10:10 Eva, Marcia, Gilberto and I cram into a taxi and take off for the other side of town... no one has an address or an idea where it is, but we know generally where it is, so we take off. Oh and I forgot, Sister and I lost our house keys during this time tambem.
10: 45 We are lost in the other side of town. We don’t know where the church is. The taxi driver isn’t very happy. We stop to pull over, and Gilberto, a pesquisador that just showed up out of nowhere (we taught him like 6 weeks ago and he didn’t seem interested at all, and he just randomly showed up) suddenly, and strangely, knows where the church is, and guides us all there.
11:10 we arrive there!! Sister and I have never been so excited to arrive to church.. sure we are an hour late, but we are there!! There are TONS of people... we find a few chairs in the last 2 aisles... unfortunately we are sitting in the "youth" section and no one wants to listen.
11:40 The General Authority, Elder Pisarani, gives an outstanding talk- that made the whole trip and confusion worth it.
12:00 the conference ends, and then we have to figure out how to get everyone home.... I don’t even want to get started.
So there we just have half of the day, a day that was insane, crazy, and I just hope never happens again. I am scared for my next stake conference here in Brazil. I think I will make like 5 backup plans next time. ahh. It was crazy, we laughed and laughed, because I didn’t know what else to do.... But seriously, the last talk was so special. There I was, not able to hear ANTHING, praying that they could say something that we could hear, and that would touch the heart of the pesquisadores that had sacrificed more then 2 hours to get there... and when he spoke- it ended up being what I needed to hear. He read my favorite scripture- Romans 8:38-39... and even though there were hundreds of people there... I felt like this man was just speaking to me. I felt so moved... words really don’t describe.
Really, this last week was an interesting one, a bit crazy and hard. I had a fever at the beggining of the week, actually I had it for like a week and didnt even know it, I am thinking thats the real reason I passed out. But yeah, the fever miracoulously went away, we had zone conference, we had baptisms fall through.. tudo bem, and had surprise pesquisadores that make it all worth it.
I am excited for this upcoming week because we have some incredible people that we are teaching. Ascencion is one of these- she is 78, but said a prayer Saturday night to know if the church was true, and felt the words come to her mind that she needed to follow this church. She is incredible, so hysterical- we have been teaching a few old people, one as old as 98, but Ascencion is different because she is humble and has accepted baptism! wahoo!! We are still working with Eva, Junior, and Filipe, who are incredible and just need to ACT! ahh. We are also teaching another older couple who is great, Valter and Regina, and just have some awesome people.
So things are great! Like Michael said a few weeks ago, sometimes you just have to laugh. Ha-ha. And hope that the next stake conference will be in a church building close so I can walk there! Ha-ha!
Ok I love you all!! Beijos!
Sister Felony Melanie Monroe
posted by Bev at 1:20 PM
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