Tootsie Pop

(Can I just say how amazing it was to see your wonderful faces?!?!?! I love you soooooo so so so so much!!)

People

I got a request for people so i´ll do that now. I have two favorite investigators. S and D. S is wonderful! We have been teaching her for a while now and she is so open and loves going to church! She is going to be baptized and her two daughters too! I love families! Also D. Oh D. He is the sweetest guy ever.But he is an alcoholic. And we have been working with him so much. We want him to change so bad. And he wants to change so bad too. We buy him halls for every visit we have with him that he doesn´t drink :) We pray for him a lot and I hope he can get through this. Thank goodness for the atonement. It really can show a person how much they are loved, no matter what they do :)

Plan of Salvation

Speaking of that, can I just say how dang wonderful the Plan of salvation is? There´s no way that God could not send us here and not have a plan for us. But because He is so loving, He already made one. And it´s so simple! And so unique and so special! It´s one of my favorite lessons to teach. If you haven´t read Preach My Gospel you should study it, because it is wonderful :)

Christmas

Christmas is wonderful! I love being here talking about the gospel! I had a realization this week of how wonderful it is to be a missionary. Especially during this time. It´s beautiful and marvelous and I wouldn´t ask for anything more. Jesus Christ lives. People should know about that! The day was wonderful overall. We had lunch at a members house, who I absolutely adore, and then dinner at a recent converts house who is the absolute cutest person ever! We sang, ate, talked, laughed and more importantly, I got to see your wonderful faces! People in my life are pretty awesome. Thats all I got to say. I love you all.

Random

We ordered brazilian pizza! I have honestly never tasted anything more better. (lie) But it was awesome! I have pictures but the computer is being weird so i´ll show you next time! Also! Guess who found oreos here? Yup. Who knew?!?!?!? Some stories. Sister Jane used the oven with the glass on top and it exploded. That was fun. ;) I walked in the rain this week. No umbrella. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. And you know what they say. Every time you do that, your husband is more handsome ;) Kaching. We had a Zone party this week! So much fun! We did a gift exchange and everyone brought food and we had a little party :) I love my zone :) SO WONDERFUL!!! This week an investigator asked me and Sister J to sing in english. We sang I Am A Child of God. It was the weirdest thing. Singing in english. I actually teared up a bit because it has been so long :P It was so weird singing in my own language.

I have written here Ecclesiastes 12:7. I don´t know why. I remember it being cool!

Tootsie roll pop. Sorry, this week is going to be lame.....

So it was either tootsie roll pop or chocolate covered liver. I decided to choose tootsie pop. Point is that sometime the outside of things are better than the inside of things. Just like relationships. Every day it´s good to think of yourself and how you can better yourselves, but you have no idea how good it feels to think outside of yourself. There are so many people you can help, so many people you can touch. And once you forget about yourself and look on the outside, you have no idea how much everything changes. You are happier. You realize the true marvelous divinity of everyone.Other things that you worried about before, don´t matter as much. Gosh, being on a mission is amazing. Anyways. That´s my really lame comparison. Just think of others :) Yup.:)

 It´s so wonderful. Love the people around you! Everyone is so amazing!

I love you all! You mean so much to me! Keep being wonderful and keep smiling! We are in life! We should smile!!! :)

Sister Parco!

Legos

Sorry that it will be short, but I sent a lot of photos!

Christmas!!!

We had a Christmas conference! The whole mission came and it was pretty cool! And the food there was stellar too, which of course you know is one of my favorite things in life ;) Also, we had talks from our presidents. It is super crazy how similar they are to President Naatjes. I could see him becoming a president someday. But they are like a Brazilian version of them. So hilarious

Also, we went caroling as a ward to less actives! It was so much fun! And they loved it! One lady teared up as we were singing. It reminded me of home. I hope that you guys did Christmas caroling! Because I love that tradition! And if you didn´t... do it tomorrow, kay?! ;)

Also, fam, how was sacrament meeting? I always loved Christmas sacrament meeting :) Such a wonderufl Joy. This is why I´m here. Not for personal desires, but for Christ. It was nice to be reminded of that during this tough week.

Legos

So. I decided that the gospel is like legos. SO SIMPLE. And like the lego packet, it comes with instructions and how to create these wonderful fantastic lego creations! It´s so amazing. And so simple. And so planned out. If we use our free will and look at the instruction manual, you don´t know the wonderful things we can create! God is so simple but yet so great!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Love your family. There will come a day when you miss them very much. Love Christ. Love what he did for us. Don´t forget the pain he went through. Don´t forget the love he had for us. Expecially during Christmas, know that he lives. Know that he loves you individually. Christmas is truly miraculous. A time where we can pause and think. What is Christ to me? I love my Heavenly Father. I love my older brother Jesus Christ. I know the Gospel is true. I know it. I live it. I love it.

I love you all! Merry Christmas!!!!

Love

Sister Parco

Escalators

Sorry that it is going to be a bit short, but I wanted to send pictures and respond to people!

Advice:

Read Alma 26 and tell me that Ammon isn´t a boss. Also read 2 Corinthians 4, but pay attention to the CR in it. It´s amazing how all scriptures fit perfectly together!

Stuff:

I sewed my umbrella and purse this week! Who knew that my first use of it wouldn´t be on clothes? ;) It´s not pretty, but it will do ;) The ward had a chuhaska this saturday. FLIPPING GOOD. So much meat and food. I think I ate more then then I ever have at thanksgiving which was good because we didn´t have thanksgiving, right? ;)

Firsts:

First poisonous spider in our apartment. It was huge. Surprisingly i wasn´t scared though ;) First cockroach. That was fun. First talk at church. They say I speak pretty well and have a spanish accent! Crazy huh? First hot shower. Turns out I was turning the spout too much and I always thought that we only had cold showers.. Whoops. ;) First bible basher. AND first fast for a mission which worked out wonderfully! The Lord really blessed us this week which I will talk about next week!

Escalator:

So, this week, I was impatient. Again. ;) So, I decided to compare it to walking down an up escalator. A lot of the times in your life you are thinking you are going the right way. And are angry at the obstacles that stop you, or the people that are going up the escalator. And you get frustrated and wonder why people aren´t going the way that you are going. BUT if you just stop´and wait, you will find yourself going up the escalator instead of trying to go your own way and go no where. crazy huh?

Love you all!

Sister Parco

Slinkies

ADDRESS CHANGE:

 

So turns out I had the wrong address the whole time and just found out today from my brazilian companion that it was wrong so here it is

 

Sister Alyssa Michelle Parco

Brazil Curitiba South Mission

Praca Joseph Smith 15

Portao

80610 210 (THIS IS THE DIFFERENT PART)

Brazil

 

First of all, I´d like to ask for forgiveness. Yup. I forgot my camera cord so no pictures again. Please forgive me. I will repent. I promise! ;)

 

(So, I just want you to know that even if I don´t respond individually, I love you all SO much and want to respond individually. BUT. I read every single one of your letters and think of them very much!)

Answers to questions:
(O my dear loving mother who I love so very much)

 

Where am I? Gralha Azul!   It´s like  a suburb of Curitiba. Just like farmington! What do I live in? A lovely wonderful apartment that we cleaned today! It´s great and is in a gated apartment complex. As far as walking goes, we walk to most of our appointments, but to get to our district meeting, we take the bus!!! :) It´s crazy how similar it is to farmington! Just a bit less advanced, a little more dirty, and way more people. It´s crazy. you think there is only one house when you first go to clap (equivalent to knocking) but then there is about 4 or 5 houses stacked behind it that only have one little room. It really is crazy and humbling. Some people only have the necessicties. Which I really love. Because really, that´s all we need, isn´t it? It´s crazy how normal it is. It´s so normal being here. The houses are pretty much the same, and they have a tv, computer and other electronic stuff. Same stuff we have. It´s not much different. It´s more the house than the things in it that is different. It´s how old they look and worn down. Theres holes in the wall and the doors are off there hinges and stuff like that. But I think that is just the way it is. And we have been in a variety of houses. Rich apartment to humble little homes. It really is wonderful. I think that that is my favorite part. Meeting so many different friendly people and getting to talk to them about something I love is just wonderful! And people are so kind and loving here. They are happy to invite you into their house and listen to you. They are very open. Like Minnesota and the minnesota nice, but I think way more open. I think it´s because everyone lives so close. There is literally so many people in one area that they have to get along. Hardly anyone has a yard that is only theirs. Anyways, that´s a bit of me answering questions!

About Brazil!

 

Dogs. A lot of dogs. Stray dogs, dogs with owners. Everyone has dogs. And everyone walks. There are cars here but a lot of people walk because it is so nearby. Annd cars are super expensive here so I think people would rather not buy them :) That´s about it. Nothing much different than before. You´d be surprised how similar it is to the us here. They have so many products or at least knock off products that are like the U.S.

 

Things I´m grateful for this week:

 

Good shoes. My gosh. Thank goodness for these babies. I am glad I got those things because I don´t know how I would survive without them. I love to show them off. AND they are waterproof. Just like it said which is beautiful! We picked well Mama Bamma! Expressions on people´s faces. I am so grateful for this because even when I don´t understand what they are saying, I can still laugh or do a sad face depending on their reaction. Isn´t it wonderful how we are all alike in this way? Talking to babies. Another thing. Because no matter what language it is, I can still do it :) But the language is going well!

 

Days:

 

Well. It happened. I had one of those days this week. One day this week, all of our appointments fell through. We only had one appointment that day. It was discouraging and a little frustrating. But I know that it is apart of the work. AND our very last appointment, the person served us pão de quejo, so of course that made the day all better ;)

(SPEAKING OF SISTER F, THE MISSION PRESIDENT´S WIFE SAID SHE´LL TRADE ME A PÃO DE QUEJO RECIEPE FOR OUR LUMPIA RECIPE, SO YOU GUYS SHOULD GET THAT TO ME SO WE CAN TRADE :) I PROMISE YOU WON´t REGRET IT :) COOL HUH?)

 

Experiences:

We had a miracle this week. This week we ran into a girl named G. She had already heard the gospel before and went to church when she was young but never continued or got baptized. Well. We ran into her and gave her the first lesson and she agreed to everything. The spirit was seriously so strong. I love being out here. Also. This week a portuguese family wanted me to say the prayer in english. It was absoulutely hilarious. I was struggling to find words because I´ve been saying my out loud prayers only in Portuguese. It´s starting to happen! ;)

Slinky:

From the bad day I decided to base this thing on patience. I don´t know how I´m going to keep this up because they are getting more and more absurd, but oh well ;) Anyways. Slinkies. When I was a kid, the only thing I wanted to do was make that slinky go all the way down the stairs. And like this week, I wanted some things to work out that didn´t. But one thing I know is that it takes some effort. Maybe you were holding the slinky wrong. Perhaps you had the wrong carpeting. Perhaps you pushed too hard. There are so many things that you can do wrong. But. We forget one thing. Based on the law of gravity, that slinky has to go down one way or another. And because of this law everything will work. You will get that slinky down the stairs because, well, it´s the law of physics. So is our righteous desires. If what we are desiring is right, God will help us get our desires. Perhaps not our way, but it will happen, simply because it is the law of physics.

 

Anyways. That´s It. I´ll repent with the pictures! I love you all so so so much and still think of you every day!

Love,

Sister Parco

Treadmill

Random things of the week:

I ate cows tongue. That was nice. In all truth, it wasn't bad at all! Tasted just like chicken ;) A lot of people think that i´m from argentina. Who would have thought right? ;) I´m hoping that applies to my accent ;) There's this thing called Pão de Quejo. Literally called bread of cheese. Probably the best thing I have ever had in my life. You should Google it. And then drool over it. Other random thing- we were just talking to people on the street and guess who we run into? Yup. I go up in my broken portuguese and he is like ... uhhh.... I don´t speak english.... HALLLELUJIAH. It was funny. We talked to him for a while and he invited us to come into his family´s home a different day. SO FUNNY

 

My companions:

I love my companions! they are wonderful! I have Sis M who is portuguese and Sis J who is from my district! It´s awesome! We all get along and are having a wonderful time out in the field! I will try and send pictures if I have time. But there were so many emails to respond to so I don´t know if I can this week, but next monday for sure!

 

Things of the week:

So guess who our trainer is. Yup. Sister correlation leader. Guess what that means. Yup, she leaves for a whole day. Haha guess what happened this week. Yup. Just this. Here is the punchline. What do you get with 2 americans 2 weeks in and a hispanic 6 weeks in? Surprisingly. MIRACLES. Even though all three of us didn't know the language that well, the day was wonderful and inspiring! It really is wonderful when you can testify of something you know so powerfully. Because any one of any language can feel the feeling of a testimony. Words seem to come off easier from my mouth when I bear my testimony. It truly is wonderful!!

 

Food:

 

THE BOMB. That´s all I have to say. Pretty much we just eat one meal a day. Lunch. We have this huge lunch and pretty much don´t think about the other meals. I hardly ever eat dinner. IT IS SO FLIPPING GOOD. We always have beans and rice like they say everywhere. I get so full from it. And meat. There is always meat. I tried my first portuguese hot dog. They put more stuff than our hot dogs! Ours look so weak! ;) They are so flipping good :)

 

People:

The people here are so patient. They are so kind with us and our language. And so patient. They say we are speaking well! What a relief! They are so loving! Everyone greets everyone and everyone says hi in the streets. It kind of reminds me a little of minnesota. So friendly. It is seriously so warm here. (People and climate haha) strangers we greet with a kiss on the cheek and a hug. Complete strangers. I love it. And they love to talk. They love to talk and laugh. They could talk all day long with us if they wanted :) I can´t wait until i get to that point where I can talk with them too :) I cannot wait.

 

Treadmill:

I couldn't think of any other word besides treadmill to describe this week. (Shout out to people who like running) This was quite a treadmill seeing as the thing was already on when I stepped on it and was already on 10 miles per hour. That´s what this week was like at first. But I´m very excited that I´m building my muscles. Even though it hurts. BUT What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And I know that my trainer knows what he´s doing. A lot was learned this week. I think a big thing that I learned was faith. There are so many times when you have that chance to doubt something. The ability of yourself. The decision that you have made. The diligence you are putting out. But the thing is why worry. Where doubt is, fear is not. Where Faith in Christ is, miracles are. SO, why don´t we trust in Christ more! It´s absolutely wonderful all of the things he´s provided for us. It took God to create the earth in 6 days. If you think about the earth. Half of the stuff we don´t need. But why is it there? Because he put it there so that we could have joy. He put it there so we could smile a little as we saw an amazing flower or some sort of amazing creature or creation we probably wouldn't have noticed. The other thing I really realized this week was the power of Christ´s atonement, which is also for us. I was reading in Matthew when Christ was washing the apostles feet. And Peter said. Oh you don´-t have to Christ. But then Christ responds something along the lines of if you don´t let me wash your feet, you don´t know me or something like that. So it is with the atonement. If we don't take advantage of the atonement and how Christ payed for our sins and sincerely repent of our sins, we won´t know Jesus Christ. It really is beautiful. And I love talking about it. The gospel is wonderful! BE GOOD.

I love you all and can´t wait to email you again on monday! Please take care! You are in my prayers!

Love,
Sister Parco

 

The Mailman

Here:

Okay. If we counted how excited a person was to go to curitiba by the number of limbs they had in the air, I'd be on my back with all my appendedges and my head upward in the air. Painful. But sooo worth it. I AM SO FLIPPING EXCITED. But the next time you here from me I will probably be freaking out ;) Yup I spelled here wrong. Oh well. Anyways. Be either prepared for a super high experience. Or me freaking out that I can't understand anyone ;) But I literally love here so much. We are sooooo close with the hispanicas. We always talk and its wonderful. A thing they do here when they greet each other is hug then kiss in the air while cheek is against cheek. Everyone is so warm and kind and loving and just wants to give you a hug. I don't know if i explained that well enough but oh well.. ;) One thing. Brazil has a lot of holidays. they just had one last weeka nd they just had one this week. I swear. Party central down here ;) Also. Something I learned. Coconut and poop are practically the same word here. So that should be interesting.

Scriptures:

Can I just tell you that it is the coolest thing reading the scriptures in a different language?!?!? You have to read it so dreadfully slow that you have to look at each word with real intent. AND they have different words than in english. It truly is fascinating. And I learn more in one chapter than I might have in 3 chapters of english. It seriously is marvelous. Unless it was chinese.. That would be hard ;)

Things I will miss from here:

Pizza. They have good pizza. People. I have met the most wonderful people here! Companions. I have grown to absolutely love my companions :) They are both so strong and my wonderful pals :) We call ourselves the three nephites ;) Instructors. I will miss them so much.. Today we are going out and buying them presents before we go :( It makes me sad. But I am ready to move on :)

Tender mercies:

I heard a devotional this week that really made me think. If you took just 5 minutes at the end of the day to see how much your life has been blessed, you would realize that the Lord put tender mercies in your life today. As he does with every day. It really is fascinating and is something that I've learned from writing in my journal. Yeah. Who would of thought. Me writing in a journal ;) Oh well ;) But pay attention. Because He is merciful and He does care :)

Mail man:

So, going off of that comes my analogy of my week. So often we take mail for granted. Real life communication delivered to us from the outside world right to our doorsteps. We never sit inside waiting to see if the mail will come or see when the truck exactly pulls up. But we go aimlessly day by day just getting the mail, bringing it inside, and throwing in on the stairs (at least that's what I do.. sorry mom) I think sometimes we forget where it comes from. We know that there is a mailman. We know we get mail. But we don't acknowledge it. So, comparing it to my last paragraph. Blessings. Which has been a common theme this week. So often we don't really take into account the blessings we receive each day. And we don't sit there trying to notice the the mailman actually physically came to our mailbox and hand delivered these messages. We know he's there. But we don't dilligently look for him and realize that He's doing that for us. BUT how lucky are we that our figurative mail man still works holidays and weekends. Pretty lucky right? :) Anyways. Count your blessings. For there are a lot of them! :) Well. That's it. At first I wanted to compare this to an ice cream truck. I'm glad that I compared this week to a mailman.

Phillipines:

I know this is probably old news, because i just heard of this from this week. But make sure that you keep the Philippines in your prayers!

I love you all so so so much! And it means the world to me to read your letters every week! You all are wonderful examples to me and I just love hearing from you guys all the time! You are amazing and I love you and you are amazing! Keep that in mind :)

Love,

Sister Parco :) <3

You're going to be really disappointed with my analogy today ;)

YELLOW! Hope you are all wonderful!!! Here e go!

People:

I flipping love people. I hope you guys know that. The people are amazing here. Our companionship has gotten really close to a hispanic district and it is SO much fun! They always gather right in front of our door and we talk and sit and laugh and make jokes! It's amazing that even though we can hardly understand each other, we can still communicate. IT'S AWESOME! And boy do they know how to have fun! We sit, talk, laugh and take pictures. It's wonderful. I've also gotten really close to one of my roommates. She's hispanic but we get into these deep conversations. She's had a rough past which makes me feel so ungrateful. She is very special and I love to just sit and talk and try to use all the portuguese vocab I have to talk with her :) I love talking with her so much!

District lesson:

Every week we have someone who gives a lesson from our district. This turn was Sis F. It was amazing :) So you guys are going to do it to. Alright. picture in your heads someone that you do not get along with at all. The people that annoy you like crazy. Got it? Alright. Now we're going to draw a picture of that and put it on a target. After we do that we're gonna pull out some darts. You can throw as many as you want at the picture. Until you're satisfied. Okay. Done? Alright. Well. Turns out that under that target was a picture of Christ. The picture is torn, the pieces are ripped. He has holes in several places on the picture. Think about it. "If ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me" Totes deep, huh? I love it. I guess it reminds us that we all need to have christlike love for each other all the time :) I just thought it was a good lesson and I wanted to share it with you wonderful people :)

Random occurrences:

The electricity went out this week! It was fun!!! All the lights were off, and the air con wasn't working at all. AND it was in the night. Pretty scary. Turns out a huge part of the city lost power! So when you looked outside, it was completely black. It was actually pretty cool. And fun :) Other random occurrences. We met an Instructor this week. She spoke very good english! You're not gonna believe where she learned it. Yup. watching all 10 seasons of friends. Flipping hilarious :) And now she is going to Canada to study english to get a job here. Isn't that cool?!?!?! I thought it was awesome!!!! Another one. So. we had a sub that subbed our class. It's amazing the slangs the americans tell the brazilians. He was trying to be all ghetto in his brazilian accent saying things like the bomb diggidy and homie and it was so hilarious! I don't know why americans tell them of this. Probably the most unused slangs ever ;)

I'm gonna write in Portuguese just cause:
Analogy time: (Sorry that my letter is so short...)

This is what you are going to be disappointed with. You ready? Life is like a rollar coaster. Cliche, ne? I was just thinking how we don't really control our lives. God does. Just like being in a rollar coaster. Sure. You can decide what faces you're going to make when the camera goes off. Or stuff like that. But once you're strapped in. You're strapped in. You don't have the capacity to choose which way the rollar coaster goes. You have no choice at all. So you go through the rollar coaster. All the loops, ups, downs, and side things that are scary, and you wait. You can either put your hands up or sit there and scowl. You can complain how the bar is too tight on your legs or you can be grateful for the security it gives you. Either way. The roller coaster is going to go on whether you have a say in it or not. Don't worry, I wasn't on the wild thing this week, and at the current moment, I am broken down on the hill as it is escalating :) Anyways, my realization this week is that God is in control. He knows what you're going to do and the things that will help you. I'm not saying the free will is taken away by any means, but God truly does know the ways we will be taking. It's kind of comforting to know that though, isn't it? We got the roller coaster manufacturer on our side. Pretty sweet, eh?

Anyways. That was my very cliche and very unput together analogy. Hope it made sense ;)

I LOVE YOU ALL! 12 MORE DAYS UNTIL I AM IN CURITIBA!!! :) <3

Love always,

Sister Alyssa Parco

Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: Last week's analogy probably sounded like I was in depression. But no. I am not in depression. ;) Just had too much time to think ;) Got down and deep ;) Anyways. Here goes my week!

(Hey mom, I was wondering, for Christmas could you also send me the book Jesus the Christ? I thought they would give it to us in english here but they don't :/ Oh well. )

Random things:

Still eating beans and rice. Don't you worry. Still there. And I've made this little invention where you get a piece of roll, press down the insides, and put all the beans and rice into the roll. I recommend you try it. It's heaven. I'm wearing my retainers? Proud? Me too. I got this absolutely insanely sick looking scripture case. There is a man who hand crafts them and made them out of real letter and he writes your name, your mission, and a scripture on the back. I will take a picture of it and show you guys. Literally the coolest scripture case I've ever seen. Your jaws will all drop. Needless to say. I splurged and spent about 40 bucks american money on it. I had to. Forgive me. Next random thing. Hearing our portuguese teachers speak english is probably the funniest most amazing thing ever. When they say in their broken portuguese accent "oh crap" or other stuff it is absolutely hilarious and gets the whole class laughing. Irmao R told us some prime ones he learned while he was on his mission in japan.. ready? He was like "Why you all up in my koolaid, you don't even know the flavor" In his japanese/portuguese accent. I LITERALLY DIED. Our whole class was busting out laughing. I don't know how he learned these things. But they are wonderful. Threading. You ever tried it? My Samoan companion Sis F does it. It's where you take a thread, and then twist it and then put it against your face where it pulls all your hairs out. It's basically like plucking. But it seriously hurt. I think I'm going to try that for my mission. Maybe youtube it or something? ;) I have a picture so I'll show you later! Went to the police this week. Officially have a visa here for a year and a half! YAY!

 

The people:

 

I love the people here. They are so nice and so welcoming. We have made friends with some portuguese sisters and they always come in our room before we go to bed and we try to talk back and forth. We laugh so much even though we hardly know each other's language :) Also. I love the spanish sisters in our room. We always tease each other and play little jokes on each other and try to scare each other. They call me loca moccaco. (crazy monkey) Which. Get this. Turns out moccaco is a bad word in brazil. A derogatory word. Yup. So. That ended... ;) Of course, right? ;) I love just making faces with them and sitting and laughing :) Everyone here is so diverse it's wonderful! You meet people all over the world from south america. And we are all trying to speak the same language. It's wonderful.

 

Proselyting:

You are not going to believe what we had to do. This wednesday. Yup. We got on a bus, drove in the middle of the city and started proselyting. (Talking to random people in the street about the Book of Mormon and about Christ and gave them the book if they wanted it :) ) We had 4 books of mormon we had to give away. TALK ABOUT SCARY. I have been here for three weeks. And they expect me to go out there and talk about what I believe in and what I know. Scariest thing ever. But for some reason (Hand of the Lord) I didn't do bad at all! We gave all 4 books of mormon away to people that wanted them! It was crazy! It helps me know that I could do it even though I only knew the language for 3 weeks. Miracles happen, eh?

 

Miracle:

Anyways. After proselyting which was really fun and exciting, we went back on the bus and the people around us were curious to what we taught, and the craziest thing happened. Some guy walked up to us and started asking us about the church. THEN he followed us off the bus wanting to learn more. He followed us all the way up to the MTC while we talked about the gospel. BUT we couldn't teach him anymore because we had to go inside to the MTC. BUT GET THIS. Just before we got to the MTC, we met real missionaries who I had never seen in the MTC area before. So right when we had to leave that guy because we had to go to the MTC, the missionaries walked up and we handed him off to the missionaries. It truly was a miracle. Who knew. That exact time. He really cares about us up there. The big guy.

I hope that made sense. But it was wonderful.

My analogy:

This week was like being in a cab where the cab driver doesn't speak your language. And the whole time you're trying to make the cab driver go a certain way because you are positive that that is the fastest way. But turns out that the cab driver was actually taking you a shortcut the whole time. Needless to say. Sometimes we gotta let the Lord lead!

Anyways, I'm over time. I hope that analogy made sense... Not like they ever do. Oh well ;)

I love you all so much and think about you a lot! Take care. Be good! You all are wonderful!

Sister Parco

Life is like a police interrogation room

Hello All! I hope you are doing wonderful!!!!

My week:

I don't know why, but this week was harder than most. There were a lot of discouraging moments of language barriers and a lot of time was spent on my knees. But oh how blessed I feel. I'm here. I'm learning everyday. I'm meeting all these wonderful people. I'm growing. It really is a great thing. Sorry that I don't have more about my week, I will write down what happens this week so I can be more descriptive :)

So I've had a request at what I do all day. And I want you guys to know that I'm not goofing off ;)

Schedule:

I wake up at 6:30 and get ready until 7. Then I study scriptures for about an hour, then go to breakfast, then we go to this thing called tall. You basically put those airplane earphone things with the microphone thing and then you talk and practice. Muito legal :) Then Actividade Fisica! Believe it or not. You will see me hardcore working out during this hour. You ever been on pinterest to see the workouts? You should. Because they are painful. I have sweat pit marks to prove it. But I'm doing as much as I can, especially since they feed us like crazy here ;) Then I go to about 3 hours of class, have a break, then go to another 3 hours of class. Practice a lesson, and then plan for the next day. Then I get back at 9:45 and get ready for bed and wake up and start again! :) That's it :)

Teachers:

The teachers here are probably the coolest people ever. Brazilians are probably some of the most friendly people I have met. All the teachers teach us slang in there language and we know all the words that mean "awesome, cool, rad" They are so flipping hilarious :) I love them. Seriously. Irmao V is the nicest guy ever and he's just a plain goof. We always buy candy for them and throw it to them during class. Then Irmao R is really chill and can speak 4 languages! Crazy huh? They teach us a lot and their testimonies are amazing! They are literally my favorite. So 6 hours of class is still bearable ;)

Food:

Basic meal. Meat. A lot of meat. What I like to do is get lettuce, cut up the meat and then put rice and beans on top. Every meal. So gooooood :) They have wonderful meat here :) It's the desserts you ave to worry about ;) The first one i liked was yesterday. ICE CREAM. I don't think I could have gotten more excited. It was the most wonderful ice cream I've ever tasted. And I love churros. We get them at a stand and it's hallow on the inside so they fill it with fudge or dulce de leche. SO GOOD. I seem to talk about food a lot. So I'll Stop there ;)

Language:

Miracles do happen. For some reason. I can understand what the instructor is saying even though it is all in portuguese. It's the speaking back that is the hard part ;) But it's good. Thank heavens I don't have to roll my R's. RR's are h's. Man am I blessed. Thank goodness Heavenly Father knows I can't roll my RR's :)

Funny Moments:

I wish I just had a bunch of funny moments to tell you but there are so many. We all just hang out and laugh and talk. We just make jokes. I guess I could tell you about my nickname! The girls in my district call me pequina macacco. It means small monkey. I love it. Some of the Spanish Sisters here call me macacco too ;) So fun :) Let's talk about everyone here. They are wonderful! They are smiling and cracking jokes and just having a grand old time :) They are from all over South America. It's crazy how many different people you can meet! But that's about it for that :)

My district:

I love my district. We have 6 girls and 6 guys. We're all pretty tight. We talk all the time and hang out together everywhere! You might think going on a mission will take the humor out of you but it doesn't :) They are all hilarious and have wonderful senses (?) of humor :) OH! Our district leader, Elder L, well he is from Rochester, and guess what?!?!?!?! He was at the same party that I was at when I went to the Frei's! So I was probably introduced to him at Josh's Party. CRAZY HUH?!?!?!? Small world. And now we're in the same district :) Couldn't be more awesome!

Brazil:

It is seriously so beautiful here. The trees and flowers are so green and lively and beautiful! They can really make you smile

Devotional:

This week's devotional was on "The character of Christ by Elder Bednar" It is seriously so wonderful and really pushes you to be a better person. You guys should all look up the talk because it was great! And Holland. Just look up any talk by Holland and you'll love it. He is seriously a beast.

Analogy:

You should hold me to this. I think I will make an analogy of a random object every letter. Don't know how long it will last. But we shall see. Police interrogation room. Go easy. Still on little sleep. Life is like a police interrogation room. You're stuck in this room where you know of all the things you've done bad. You feel so guilty for anything you've done in your past or even how you're acting now. And then there's the mirror. Everyone knows there is someone behind it. But we never see them. All we see is our reflection. And all our flaws when we look into the mirror. BUT when you turn the lights off, like when you cup your hands around those kind of windows at grocery stores that are like this, you can see inside. Main point is. There is someone in the police interrogation room watching all your actions and fully knowing all the mistakes you have made. He makes note of it and takes careful notes of what he thinks you need. It's just like God. Sometimes we gotta be in the dark to actually see him there. Instead of looking at our faults and weaknesses, we can look at him. That's how it felt this week. Some times you have to get low to get the high. Sometimes you gotta let the police interrogation room get dark and lonely and scary before you can see the person attentively watching you inside. But you shouldn't doubt He's there. He's there. You just have to get past your own faults to see Him.

Gotta go. Love you all!!!


Sister Parco :) <3

*Checks pulse* Yup! Still alive!

Oi!

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH IT MEANT TO EMAIL YOU GUYS! I seriously miss this so much! I was looking forward to this the most! I can't send pictures, so I'll send all the old ones to you out in the field :) I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU VERY MUCH! I only have 20 minutes so sorry for any mistakes or errors in the message ;)

First things first

About Brazil:

Brazil is awesome! You fly in under the clouds and you see all these tiny little red roofs! It's a much different atmosphere. People here drive so crazy. I'm so glad we made it here alive and that i don't have a car! I just had my first experience buying stuff in the "real world" ;) It was crazy! It's a bunch of cobblestone streets and the stores don't look as glamorous as the ones we have at home. Walmart would seem like a mansion! ;) Hahaha we really are blessed in the states! A lot of people are very friendly and some of the vendors wave to us on the streets. I feel like having this tag on makes it so I don't get mugged ;) Nah. I probably don't There are cobblestone streets and the atmosphere is just way different! Did you know that Sao Paulo is bigger than New York? Crazy huh? It's huge here! But soooo beautiful and so green! The food! Brazilian pizza is awesome! They put amazing stuff on it and we have it every wednesday for dinner :) It's been good and I've had rice and beans everyday! I actually really like them!

The language:

Not gonna lie, the first 3 days was tough. The instructors only spoke portuguese so it was kinda hard but I can now usually understand what they are teaching! todo bem. It's all good :) It really is a beautiful language! I probably have learned more here in a week and a half than i did in three years of high school ;) but legitely. We try to speak portuguese and are practically in the class all day! We like to call it "Spiritual Prison" ;) It's great but it is a lot of work :) All worth it though ;) On the second day, we had to teach a fake investigator. Our second day here! It was hard. It was really hard to hear what he was saying but somehow we managed to make it through! It's all good though!I'm learning a lot of new words and it's going pretty good! And it's only the first week! We'll have to see where it goes!

Companions:

I love my companions! One is from australia and is Samoan, while another one is from Canada and is originally from venezuela! It's crazy how diverse it can get here! It was so sweet! we had a devotional and one of the sisters sang a hymn. One was in spanish, then english, then portuguese. It was so endearing to hear the brazilians try to speak in their broken english. Probably one of the sweetest things I've heard. It reminds me how a like we all are, even from different countries :) It's seriously great :) My companions names are Sister R and Sister F. Sister F's name is hilarious because in the brazilian culture fuifui is like a wolf whistle :) So whenever we call her we say Sister *wolf whistle* Probably the most funniest thing ever ;) They are both great and help push me to learn the language and study the gospel. They are great! And as far as the elders and sisters here, they are all great :) We are all still a bit goofy and laugh together, but we are dedicated and trying out best :) It really is wonderful here! My district is amazing. We just got elders this week and it's been great! We had an all girl district for a week which was nice, but it is nice to have elders :)

My week:

It has not been perfect, but it has been worth it. I don't know why but i think this experience here is kinda like getting some sort of skin infection. The Lord rubs you completely raw so all of your emotions show and your true testimony shows  until he gets to that skin that doesn't have an infection anymore. Then, we build up each little layer of skin back up until we have a completely healed leg or something. A perfectly fine and healthy leg. I don't know why I thought about that, but I thought of how you really discover yourself when you are alone and how your emotions are raw. Then I thought of skin. And i'm on little sleep ;) But basically. You really figure out who you are. You figure what you want to be and what God wants you to be. You see what gifts he has given you and what more he can give. He knows he can push you to your limits because that is what helps you grow. He's trying to heal that infected leg of yours. Make it whole. I know that this experience is great and wonderful and I'm glad I can be here to experience that growth. I love you all so much and Loved hearing from you! I will try to write letters this week! I miss you guys and am hoping you are all doing wonderful! Be good ;) Till next week :) <3 You all are amazing!

Love,

Sister Parco

What I'll be doing :)

While getting ready to leave I have gotten a few questions about what I'll be doing while I'm in Brazil. So, while I'm bored and have plenty of time to do this, I thought I would give a quick description of my daily activities in Brazil!

Ultimately, my purpose is to serve the people I am around and invite them to come to Christ. As I'm in Brazil, I will go from area to area every six weeks staying in either apartments or living with a host family. In every city, I will be paired up from a random girl from anywhere around the world (Most-likely the United States, Brazil, Portugal, or anywhere where the main language in their country is Portuguese). While I'm with them, we will live, work, and yes, attempt to cook to feed ourselves together. (Thank goodness I at least know how to make rice! ;) ) While I'm out there, I do not get to choose the cities that I go to but am called to where I am needed.

While I'm out there my routine will consist of me waking up at 6:30 am to exercise/shower/get ready, eat breakfast by 8, study the scriptures by myself for one hour, study scriptures with my companion for an hour, study Portuguese for an hour, and then come back at 9:00. While I'm out, I will meet new people, teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and do service projects. After coming back at 9, I will head to bed at 10:30.

That's it!

Mormon Lingo!
District: Group of about 5 other missionaries that I meet with every week
Zone: Group of many districts
Mission President: A president accompanied with his wife that is in charge of the youth serving in our area. They watch over us and help us throughout our mission.
CTM: Where I'll be receiving instruction on the language, how to become immersed in the culture and how to teach the gospel effectively
Companion: The girl I'm paired up with! :)
Trainer: The more experienced missionary that helps the newer missionary when they are out of the CTM and in the place they're serving (In my case, Curitiba Brazil! :) )
P-day: This is one day of the week where we can write home, do our laundry, and shop for the week!
Sacrament meeting: This is the equivalent of church meetings. The sunday service begins with the blessing and passing of the sacrament. Sacrament is equivalent to the communion in other churches. In these meetings, we hear three speakers which are assigned from the congregation. The three speakers are different every week.
Ward: Our church geographically organizes the different wards. This is so that the members of the church can go to a church which is most convenient to them. In most cases we call each ward by the name of the city that most of the people live in.
Stake: A group of 7-8 wards
Testimony meeting: This happens once a month in our church. It is usually on the first Sunday of the Month. In testimony meetings, members of the congregation can come up and share their thoughts and feelings about the gospel. Unlike other weeks, the speakers are not assigned, but come up if they feel inclined.
Bishop: The Bishop is the unpaid leader of the ward. He has the same role as a pastor in other churches.

I hope that clears things up! :) I'm very excited to served and can't wait to have this amazing experience serving the people of Curitiba Brazil!

Sister Parco, you have been hereby called to serve in the Brazil Curitiba South Mission!

And so begins the journey to a year and a half endeavor to serve the Lord and preach the gospel and teach of Christ for the next chapter of my life! As a missionary, I will help those in need to come to understand the importance of Jesus Christ and the love that our Father in heaven has for us. As the title says, I have been called to Brazil Curitiba South Mission! I'm excited to start and can't wait for this privilege to serve!