Conference in Joao Pessoa, Brasil

Mission President and his wife, Gordon Hall from Phoenix, AZ



I guess he's grown a foot or two...........



Boom It Hit Me!

Helllloo!

   What a week! It all started out great- we were working well and trudging along. Then BOOM- it hit me. What hit me I still don’t know until now, but I started to get really sick. Tuesday afternoon I started to feel really hot with a fever (which is horrible while walking around in 90+ degree weather). So we bought ice cream and ate it in the bank, or in other words, the only place with air conditioning. By that night i was feeling aches and pains all over. The next day I woke up feeling beaten up and laid in bed all day. How fun it is being sick as a missionary. You can watch all the movies you want, listen to cool music, and eat whatever- YA RIGHT! Ha ha. It’s horrible! You stay at home all day with nothing much to do, listening to the tabernacle choir and reading whatever just to distract you from the pain. And the whole time you´re thinking about all the people you need to visit, and those you´ll let down. It’s not that great. But, everything has a purpose. So I stayed in our oven of a house for 2 days lying down while my companion took great care of me. We had to fight a few times as she forced me to take medicine, (ha ha those who know me understand). But i really love my companion, she is absolutely wonderful!

  So until now that’s the scoop. I’m about 80% better, and trying to figure out what I had. Some sort of virus or mellow dengue fever. Who knows?  But we witnessed a little miracle this weekend. We had written little encouraging notes to the less active sisters in the branch, and gave them to be delivered. At the activity Saturday night, many of them came and felt really loved. They also came Sunday! We were so happy to see that maybe we made a small difference. 

 That’s about it for this week! Late tonight we travel to João Pessoa (8 hours) for our conference tomorrow. 

I love you all and have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Gordon

 Members where she is serving

 Frogs in the streets

  Relief Society Activity

It's Getting Hot In Pombal

Well this was a short week. It’s been getting hotter and HOTTER here in Pombal. And they say that it’s just starting up! It’s pretty funny, because during the day its so hot that when night comes we feel really cold. I really would like to know what the actual night temperature is here because I’m sure it’s not actually `cold`. I wonder what I´ll do when I get home!

  My new companion is really cool. She is from Natal, and lives in João Pessoa. She wants to serve a mission and is working on her papers right now. We get along really well! She cooks well, which makes me happy, and we have a lot of fun laughing and working together. I hope that by the end of these 6 weeks she will still want to serve a mission! (If we don’t die from the heat here ha-ha)

  We have just been helping people a lot this week. It’s been interesting how the Lord guides us to people who always need help in that moment. Even if we didn’t plan on visiting someone, the Lord helps lead me to them. This week we had a chance to help people with little things, like listening, or helping them when stressed, or even sweeping. I came on a mission to love people, and I love that I am here to do just that. Sometimes we need to slow down and really pay attention to people and what they may need. Most of the time people won’t say that they are in dire need of help or need to vent to someone. We need to know them, show love, give our time and then opportunities to serve will come. I challenge all of you to pay more attention this week. Think a little less about yourself, open your eyes and find at least one way to serve someone. You will feel such happiness that you´ll have a desire to serve more and more! Isn’t that wonderful? 

 I love you all!

-Sister Gordon

Cockroaches, Armadillos, Oh My!

 Never have to make our beds!

The City of  Pombal

No  more walking, we have a car....funny thing, we just go in circles, uhmmmm

Well transfers happened again! I am staying her in Pombal with a `Curto Praza` or I´ve heard that Americans call them `Mini Missionaries`. This type of missionary is like a stand in for 6 weeks when we are lacking another sister missionary. So they don’t have a nametag, they don’t know anything and just follow you around for 6 weeks! Ha ha!  It will be pretty interesting! I am excited for this experience.

This past week we had a few funny moments.  We visited a less active family who has a pretty funny pet. I picked it up and took a picture! But the first time I saw this animal it was dark, and they weren’t explaining very clearly what it was. So when they brought it out, I thought it was stuffed. But then it started moving and scared me! I realized that it was an armadillo- pretty cool!

Last night I had another funny experience. I was talking with people in their house and I suddenly felt something on my leg. I looked down to find a huge cockroach there and i kicked it off. My heart took a little while to calm down after that. Ugh, gross!

Sorry so short…keeping busy!

Love you all!

Sister Gordon