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

What a Week...Party in Pombal

 Luanna's baptism

 Nasty Eyed Kittens

Happy Toast!

This week was the birthday of this little town, and that combined with Brazil´s love to party made this little town a huge festival. Everynight for three nights, there was a band that played on top of a HUGE car of speakers, and they only start to play at about midnight. So this basically means that we dont sleep very well! One night I woke up with bad dreams of being rejected by people as we taught, mosquitos, and LOUD music blasting on the street outside. About one minute later my companion woke up too and we just started laughing. OO what a world this is!

This week we visited a lot of members who are not active in the church and invited them to our activity. We prepared everything and had a fun time! Unfortunately, not many people showed up, BUT the few that did made me happy! Some is better than none!

 We are working hard and loving Pombal. Next week is our transfers, and we´ll see what will happen. Ive heard some rumors about some changes, so we´ll see!
 Well thats about it folks. What a boring life- sorry! Love you all!

love,
Sister Gordon



Howdy!

Howdy ya´ll!

 This weekend there was a rodeo here in my little town. The town was full of horses and people! We could hear it all from our house because we live close. It was pretty fun to pass by there!

 I am teaching a piano/music basics class in the church. Last week there were a good number of people there! It was fun to teach people about music and how they can apply the things they learn. They were happy when they understood new things and had fun as we played games with music. I hope that it will continue doing well. I would like to leave with a few people capable of playing a basic hymn to help in the church. 

Festa Juninho

Hey everyone!

  

 This week was pretty cool! We were able to celebrate another traditional holiday here, Festa Juninho  (the Brazilians think of any excuse to have a holiday- even they admit it!) We were arriving home one night to find a huge square dance party on our street. They have traditional clothes and do some pretty sweet dances. The dj knew us and invited us to stand in front of everyone! He talked about the church and we just sat there waving like small town celebrities! It was pretty cool. Then they danced and we took some cool pictures and videos. I really enjoyed it!

Then at the church they had a party to celebrate too! We dressed up, and arrived to find that no one else did! But that´s okay! We had some fun helping with the food and enjoying watching everyone dance. Oh how I wanted to dance right along with them!

Other than that we are working hard. We are teaching a family and they just need to get married. The father is really active, but the mother has never gone to church. We are praying hard that we can help them! We are teaching some great people here, and are always looking for more. I really love this area!

I am so grateful for the gospel in my life. I realize what comfort it brings to me every day. I LOVE studying the scriptures. I have been reading the Old Testament and really enjoying the stories and lessons we learn from these ancient scriptures. It brings comfort to me to know that we have a prophet to guide us today as well, just like the olden times! If you don’t know the Prophet Thomas S. Monson, go and read some recent stuff. It’s wonderful!

 I love you all and have a HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Love, 

 Sister Gordon

Home Means Nevada............

Hello Everyone!

 So many things to say this week! I am LOVING my new area Pombal (po (as in pony) -m-bow (as in take a bow!) Pombow! It’s about 7 hours from João Pessoa and one of the farthest away areas in the mission. It’s really hot because it’s the desert! The landscape reminds me of Nevada- Which is weird to feel a little at home but in another country! The town is clean, has a cute little center with parks and trees, and two Old Catholic churches which are just very neat! The people are loving and a lot more open here. I can walk around with my camera because it isn’t dangerous here. Funny fact- The people here don’t have much to do (they don’t have a mall, or movie theater- nothing!) so they dress up at night just to walk around the city square. It reminds me of the olden times a little bit! But with modern clothes of course...

  The church here is fairly new- it’s only been here one year. Mostly all of the members are new and learning how the church works. The people are loving, and I am really excited to work here. They are really needing a lot of help, and I know that the Lord sent me here to do just that!

   My companion is Sister Arruda. She is from Mato Grosso, and used to live with Indians there for a while! She´s teaching me some of the xavante, or the Indian language.  It’s pretty sweet! I’m happy to serve with her! It was her birthday last Friday, so we ate açai and sang to her. I didn’t have much to do because I’m new here, but I think she enjoyed her day!

   I am being eaten alive by mosquitos these past few months. I think they follow me and stay in my suitcase! Ugh… just pray that they go away!

 Well I am happy and ready to get to work. I love you all! Pray that I won’t die in this heat here!

 Love, Sis. Gordon

 Eating Acai for companion's birthday...new companion on right, former companion on the left back

 Transfers..........all packed ready to go!

 Acai, a yummy treat!

 New Companion

 Countryside in Pombal

 Our new roommate in Pombal...Sister Toad.

 Mode of vehicular transprotacion...

 On the radio...........

 Animals on the tracks at night

 Stop, Look and Listen about the Book of Mormon

 Sunset over Pombal..........

Goodbye Mangabeira, Hello Pombal!

Hello everyone!

 I would love to say that I am the happiest person right now, but I truly am pretty sad. I am being transferred to Pombal, a city in the middle of nowhere tomorrow. I am happy about the new change, but really sad to leave my area. Let me tell you why-

 Last night I went to the church for a meeting. I said goodbye to some people and then when we entered into the meeting `Surpriseeeeeee!!` It wasn’t a meeting at all! So many members were there to say goodbye and thank me for everything, which is silly because I needed to be thanking them. But I felt so loved. I have to admit that I started to cry the moment I walked in. So many people were there, and they have little gifts for me. I felt so special and very loved. I couldn’t believe that they had done this for me. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve these people here.  To know that even though it appeared like I didn’t have much success in Mangabeira, I was able to help the members love one another. I believe this area will change dramatically as they show this love to others. Most of the credit for this actually goes to my companion! But I felt truly loved. I will send pictures next week.

On Monday I will tell you all more and send pictures. 

Love ya´ll!

Sister Gordon

I Can See Africa

Today was a good day. We had a zone prep day and went to a tourist point near the beach. It was pretty fun to go with everyone and take pictures. This point is the furthest point east in South America, which puts us closest to Africa. Cool huh! We have about 10 sisters in my zone and it’s always fun seeing them!
I am not trunky, but I am getting tired. Sometimes its hard to work hard, be exhausted, and talk with everyone but not see too many results. We received new sisters here and for the first time I can focus on one area.

we have been focusing on showing love and bringing a new attitude to the branch. After five months of being here and with the help of Sister DeSouza we are finally seeing some great results!! We planned an activity for this week and invited everyone personally, and reminded everyone until it got annoying, but everyone was really excited about it on Sunday. I’m pretty sure it will be a success. But it’s great to see some results with our challenges in this area, now we just need to start baptizing more! We can make 100 contacts, or knock on 100 doors, and maybe 1 will be baptized. But out of 10 referrals we receive, the odds are that 3 will be baptized. So our goal is to help the members and motivate them to help us.

I am doing really well and am happy. ITs crazy how fast time flies. I will give it my all until the end. I have to admit that I am pretty tired, but we still work a lot!

My companion is pretty funny, and she has been telling me that I am really cheap and frugal! She´s always saying `Lighten up a tiny bit! You can spend 10 cents more on this  every now and then!` They call people like this `Mão de vaca` translated, cow hand, because they are tight with money. I thought it was pretty funny because I didn’t think I was like that, but most of my companions are calling me this! You would be proud of me dad :)

Love and miss you all! Please send letters!

Stephanie