Eggs

Randoms

Don´t know why. But I was craving girl scout cookies this week. No idea why. And mom, I thought you would like to know that when I showed one of the sisters a picture of you and dad, they didn't believe me when I told them your age ;) I thought that you would absolutely love that :) OH! You won´t believe me because I didn't believe it when someone told me. BUT. It hails here. Yes. It can be 80 degrees out and then rainy and hailing within the same 20 minutes. Reminds me a bit of Minnesota bipolarity ;) Another thing. I was introducing myself and said I was from minnesota near canada. And the first thing she said was, oh, canada, is it true that it is always cold there? Yup So us as minnesotans have a wonderful reputation of being cold all year round :) (Which is definitely true right now ;) ) I thought it was funny what people think of good old minnesota. :) And by the way, you´re gonna think of me as a wimp, but i bought a coat for the winter here. I am going to be a wimp when I get back. For sure ;) 

Poppers

Every time when we are walking to an appointment, we usually pass by a man that sells caldo de cana (SO GOOD. ITS LIKE PURE SUGAR IN WATER FORM). And every time, we talk to him, talk about our purpose, our plans everything. Well, we've created a relationship with him, and every time we pass by he gives us caldo de cana for free! He is seriously so awesome! We try to pay but he won´t let us. And he always waves us over to come and drink the leftovers. Unfortunately he isn´t in our area so we can´t teach him :( But he is still just as wonderful and awesome! Another thing. One of our investigators named R is the sweetest most kind hearted lady ever; Whenever we go over to teach lessons, she is always ready and committed to keep all the compromises that we give her. She calls me her ´´imported daughter´´ Haha she is hilarious and loves to talk and talk and talk. Also, we had a district activity with water balloons! SO MUCH FUN!

Stuff that happened

I hate to say it, but it´s so hard to remember everything, even when I write things down. The whole week just combined in a blur. BUT We helped clean R´s house this week! I love how brazilians clean floors. It sounds strange but it is a lot simpler. You just take a bucket, pour it on after soaping it a bit and then squeegie it all to the bathroom drain. Was actually kind of fun. And interesting because the dog lived in the parts that we cleaned so there was a lot of hair, but it was still wonderful :) Also, we had stake conference this weekend! So awesome! A member of the 70 came and spoke! He was awesome! A lot of the conference (this is the saturday before stake conference)  was about missionary work, and guess what he did? He called up two pairs of missionaries during the conference, the mission president, the stake president, and 2 bishops and then he said, (this is in the middle of the conference), "Alright, so you guys for the next 20-30 minutes are going to do contacts to invite people to come tomorrow!" What?! Hahaha it was hilarious! So all the bishops, stake president, and others all left. It was so funny! But, it worked!

Eggs

I don´t have much time so i´ll try to make this make sense. Needless to say. An egg uncooked is disgusting. There´s no way you could eat it. But. After cooking it and putting spices in it and adding milk and everything (I´m thinking of your eggs right now Ryan;P) You have a wonderful master piece!  Anyways, when you have your slimy eggs in life, when everything seems wrong and you are frustrated and things are happening. Stop and cook the egg. add spices. add milk, add cheese. Because with the right ingredients, you will realize how wonderful and amazing your life is! You are a daughter or son of God! You have no reason to be sad! You are amazing and life is amazing! Each little detail in life is wonderful! Every experience is amazing! Needless to say. I love life. The life of a missionary is absoulutely wonderful! Working everytday and then sleeping and then working again is THE BEST! Love Life! I love you guys!!!!!! I know this was horrible but it was the best thing i could think of ;)

Love,

Sister Parco

Wooden Sculpters

Things I learned

When you see a fruit on the side of the strreet that looks spikey. Don´t grab it. Because your experience will be similar to that of grabbing a fire hydrant pole

Don´t trust me to guide you on the onibus. I had to guide some sisters somewhere and I thought it was the right onibus but yep. We definitely returned to the same exact station... My thoughts? Awww snap......

Just because it looks like fruit loops doesn't mean it tastes like fruit loops

We cleaned the chapel for a good 1 and a half hours this week! Nothing much there. Just reaffirmed my theory that male bathrooms are always worse to clean, no matter what country ;)

Stories

Cutest thing ever. One of our investigators that is 15 called during the week, (he is an atheist and we are teaching him and inviting him to pray) Anyways, he called and said, you guys said if I needed anything I could call right? Well, turns out the parents of his house had a pretty bad fall out,so we told him to come and bring his book of mormon and we would talk about everyting for a little while. It literally made me so happy :)

So guess who went on splits with a spanish sister that only had 3 weeks on a mission. AND GUESS WHO COULD UNDERSTAND THE PEOPLE AND CONVERSE WITH THEM?!?!? HECK YES. It´s happening people. ;) I could understand and guide the lesson. Yes, there were parts where I nodded and bore my testimony afterwards, but it was awesome! ALREADY. Miracle I tell you. 

HAHAHAH So we were cleaning the chapel and we locked all the doors and guess what we did, we left the fan on. So, instead of being rational and reopening the doors guess what we did. Yup grabbed a pole that was about 7 feet long, stuck it though the window and turned off the fan that way. Seriously the funniest thing ever!!! HAHAHAH Here we are 3 missionaries. Looking like we are vandelizing the church ;)

Poppers

Daniel. He´s so awesome. Theres a popper for that. ALSO. I wrote in my journal in portuguese. Didn´t even realize it! AGAIN. It's happening. Also. I couldn´t remember the word atheist and had to look it up in the dictionary heck yes. Let it begin.

Randoms

GUESS WHO FOUND PEANUT BUTTER. AND GUESS WHO SPENT 30 bucks on a small case of chunky and a small case of creamy. Yup. Me. Sorry, that should end in a question mark, but I can´t find it for some reason.... Also. Heard "Just Give Me a Reason" but in portuguese here. It was the weirdest thing!

(Also, pops, when we were painting A's house, there was some jazz playing and it made me think of you! It´s funny because I actually miss listening to jazz. So we´ll have to do that when we get back. Funny how that works huh?)

Also, my companion had a dream that we brought Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to church. Missionary probs.... 

We had a water balloon fight for our pday as a district! AND i have photos, but I forgot to bring my cord. I will repent again. I promise. ;)

SO, in the middle of this letter we had a huge storm and all the lights went out. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. The rain was super crazy. But, We found another computer place, so that is lovely! And here we are now. but guess what we as irresponsible missionaries did? Yup. We left the windows open. All of them. And our floor is sopping wet, and all our stuff is drying from the fan. Talk about an adventure ;) Did I talk about the weather here? It is crazy.

Wooden sculptures

So. Read Ephesians 2:19-22. And then try to tell me that you aren´t specifically made. Just as the church of Jesus Christ during his time, we are fitly put together to form an amazing sculpture. A master piece. A master piece that was created by a loving wooden crafter. That etched and scraped at every single groove of each of his creation. Making the nose a little different on one, and a hand completely different on the other. Every single small divine detail was made. It was made delicately and with a purpose. And our woodcrafter knows every single detail that he made, every single groove on this marvelous sculpture.So think of that and tell me that you are not important. Tell me that you´re just a normal person. Tell me that you don´t matter. And then I´ll tell you you´re something special. Something specifically made. Everything has a purpose. Everything is simple. Everything is planned. Everything is made for our hapiness. Cool huh?

As always. I love you all soooo much! More than you know! Be good. Remember who you are. Because you´re awesome! And the best! And wonderful! And I love you and miss you guys. Just so you know ;) Anyways, i´ll send photos next week!

Sister Parco

Licoln Logs

Poppers

I met this absolutely wonderful lady named C. She is awesome and is one of our investigators. She is the sweetest thing :) And I don´t know why but when we are sitting at church, she sits there and talks and talks and talks and I absolutely love it :) A lot of people don´t talk because they think I can´t understand (which is true in groups of like 7 people but not one on one ;) ), but she just told me everything and asked questions and we sat there having a grand old time. But that wasn´t even the popper. While we were talking, she just casually leaned over and said,´I prayed last night, and I cried when I was talking to my Heavenly Father´´ I don´t know why, but that made me smile so wide. You have no idea. A first prayer is so amazing and so stinking powerful. I just love it. It makes me smile. Big.

So. Apparrently ´´Minha voz a calma pessoas´´. Two people this week in the middle of teaching stopped and said. ´´Wow. Your voice is so soothing and calming. This is exactly what I wanted to feel´´ So. Apparently I have a really calming and soothing voice. Who would have thought, huh? ;) I´m hoping i´ll have the same affect when I return..... ;)

Guess who read a whole chapter of the Book of Mormon out loud with her companions and only mispronounced 5 words? This girl! ;) Heck yes. Almost there peeps.

Guess whats:

Guess who gets to grow another 3 inches. Yes. Sister M. Who is already like 6 feet. The world is unjust. ;) But I'm not jealous because she has a problem with her back and is in pain. I give a lot of props to her ;) But growing. Who knows. It might happen.

Activities of the week.

NOITE FAMILIARS. FHE! We had a ton this week with non members and with our investigators and it is wonderful! If you´re not having FHE (For those of you who don´t know, a time where you set a time with you and your family, have a lesson relating to the gospel, and then eat and play games) , have it. Because it´s tons of fun and wonderful. Goodness. We had the best time with G and P, C, and R. Everyone is so kind and sweet here :) And family time is so needed because let´s be real here. Talking about the gospel is probably the funnest thing ever ;)

Lincoln logs

So. Aparently I´m stuck in this childhood phase where I can only think of slinkies, water balloons and lincoln logs, but here we go... So. Remember those gorgeous things that we all used to play with as a child? The oneswhere you´d carefuly place a log down with a good structure, then those littleones, then a window or a door here or there? Well pretend that the lincoln log set that we´re playing with is endless and that you lost the little plastic roof things that went with it. Andthen pretend that that lincoln log structure is us. Because if you think about it, we are built little by little each day and have the ability to improve everyday. Could be a small little wood block, could be one of those huge ones with 4 spaces. Either way, all of the little pieces have to conect in order for the next piece to fit. It´s kind of like building ourselves. Everything counts. The little pieces. The big pieces. I´ve been thinking how much we need to do.All of us are imperfect. We have so much we can work on. I have been studying christlike attributesthis week and it made me realize that there is no end. We (I) canalways be more humble . We (I) can always be more patient We(I) can always have more faith. But we can´t stop building. doesn´t matter whether I used a little block ora huge 4 piecer. We just need to build. Our Savior Jesus Christ was perfect. And his Lincoln Log house is the bomb diggidy. Endless. Perfect in every single aspect. I never really realized the humbleness and amazingness of Jesus Christ. When we think we are humble, we don´t even compare to him. It´s amazing if you think of it.Knowing all that he suffered and all the shame andheartache he went through. It makes me want to try harder.How wonderful it is to have a wonderful example like our dear Savior Jesus Christ!

Sorry if that was a little wobbly (haha get it?) and a bit scattered.. but hey, I thought of it yesterday...

Sorry I didn´t write much, I sent a lot of pictures though!! I love you all soooo much and think of you all always!! :)

Love

Sister Parco