Baptism, Referals, Cookies, and Mission Council

(From June 13, '16)

Transfers are today... But my comp and i stayed together:):) Im super excited because we have a lot of families to teach.. we get a lot of member referalls which is the best thing ever!!

AND .... BATISMO:) Carlos Eduardo is the newest member of the Ala Trindade. I love his family to death:)

Also we are teaching a family where the mom lost a baby two weeks ago. Its almost the same exact story as Austin. Im so grateful for the Plan of Salvation. Last night we were explaining how families can be sealed together forever, and the mom Cris just looked down and started crying. She said she always thought that we forget the people we love. She is so happy to know that her baby will love her still.:):) I love the Gospel!!

Sister ALmeida´s birfday... I made cookies!!

Mission coucil was wednesday... I love it!!!!! Its so cool to be in the middle of those meetings and receive tons of revelation.... WHOAH

this is the gorgeous chapel in arsenal.... we have district meetings here... its almost "winter" so its actually cold here... woah. and by cold i mean it hit 13 degrees C... but im freez\ing!!

18 Days 'til Winter in Brazil

(From June 6, '16)

Division in Apolo... 

Its so gorgeous! And ya the sun-hair-fire is cool

more division. apolo is farm country and I LOVE IT. 

Yes theres a horse... This is at the house of the recent convert Marlene. She found 3 books of mormon before she met the missionaries. When the sisters knocked on her door she had just gotten home from a meeting with the doctor where they discovered that she had cancer. So the sisters showed up and started teaching the plan of salvation and read a scripture in the book of mormon. She looked at them and says Hey i have that book... What????? So she pulled it out and its marked on Alma 7. The sisters promised her that if she reads and prays everyday and gets baptized she will be cured from the cancer.... 

So the baptism was 2 weeks ago and wednesday she went to the doctor. The tumor disappeared and the doctor doesnt know what to do about it.

I know the church is true. Christ lives and loves us.

i Cut my hair

Learning to make Tapioca.. I LOVE IT YUMMMM

My district...:)

its purdy:) Autumn time in brazil... 18 day s until winter!

also, this skirt was 10 reais, which is like 3 dollars.... yeah man!!

Pancakes. 

And the im so tired-after pday-hairstyle

Made a Grown Man Cry

Dadddy. I just wanted to say that this week i bore my testimony about 13 times on how important its been for me to have a dad who is worthy of the priesthood. I made a grown man cry talking about how I have always known that I can trust my Dad because I know you are a man of God. He cried because he has 9 kids and has only spoken to 3 of them. And the youngest will be baptized this saturday. He said he wishes his kids could say the same about him. Here comes the repentance process.... :)

Some Thugs Kidnapped the Sisters

(From May 23, '16)

ok story time

This is the gate to our vila. In our vila exists our house. On the gate exists a lock. Except we didnt know that.

One morning when it was still night we had to go to Rio. We live in Trindade. That means we have to cross the ocean. So we woke up at 3:30 in the night;morning. And the gate was locked. So we were not about to wake up the rest of the poor sleeping people. so we jumped the gate :) and i ripped my dress.

But we successfully arrived in Rio for our conference at 8:00 

The Ends

Part 2.

We came home at 9:30 the next morning. When we got home we found out that we forgot the ladder that we used to scale the gate on the inside of the gate. So everybody in the vila woke up thinking some thugs climbed into our house and kidnapped the Sisters.

Whoops.

Also., mac n cheese. that was a good night

Q and A

From May 9, '16

It was awesome to talk to everyone!! (Note - we got to Skype with her on Mothers' Day) Sorry about the portuglish.... Its funny I couldnt talk to you in English but the rest of the day i struggled with portugues...

More Q and A

Q - So you mentioned that you don't teach men in the favela because they cant safely leave that life of crime behind. What if they want to be taught and want to change? What if you are teaching a spouse or sibling?

Malorie - We dont teach them because 1. i dont want to risk my life. and 2 because they could possible get in trouble with the boss guys and if they know too much info the boss guys might try to kill them so thats a bit of a problem.... we just avoid talking to men in the favella. But they like salute us. Which is funny sometimes:)

Q - (Okay, not really a question, more of a plea - from Heidi) Please listen to the spirit and don't think that you are invincible. There are human traffickers too. Be safe and don;t take chances, even though you have great drug lord body guards. Especially because of your body guards. Again, I just have to trust in the Lord. He has blessed you and I am comforted by Him. But BE SMART and LISTEN! 

Malorie - I am being smart! We always leave the favella before its dark and our goal is to have member lessons everyday so we always have somebody with us who lives there. Its a different kind of life. But we are being safe.

Q - So are there plazas or parks where people sit and visit with each other? We used to street contact people in the plazas in Switzerland. Wondered if that was a good place to talk to people in your mission.

Malorie - There are lots of praças but its a little bit harder to do street contacting there because 1. Theyre drunk or 2. They dont live in our area

Q - Are there farmer's markets to get your fruit?

Malorie - Yes I love the farmers markets:)

Q - How strong is the new ward?

Malorie - The ward is awesome but (based on this man problem) the ward is 60% women, 30% kids and 10% men/priesthood. So we are gonna baptize/reactivate a bunch of young men. ccuz thats safer:)

Q - Do you like getting the greenies and do they send you all the new sisters on purpose?

Malorie -  I love it!! I hope i train the rest of my life!

Not sure why Malorie took a selfie in the bathroom? Maybe cuz it's actually clean?

Q - What do you like the very best about your new area?

Malorie - ITS BIG!!!!!!

Q - Rate your Portuguese on a 1-10 for how much people understand you, and you them.

Malorie -  My portugues is like 8.2 Im working on losing the sotaque (accent)

Transfered

From May 2, '16

I was transfered #aleluia! to Trindade with my new comp Sister Almeida. She is also a greenie:) Im super pumped becaue im in the middle of nowhere! you can look on the map i'm on the other side of the pont, near São Gonçalo and Niteroi.

(Editor's Note: Trindade is the name of her neighborhood northeast of Rio in the city of São Gonçalo. Not to be confused with a small coastal town named Trindade 30 km south of Paraty)

The Reason She Stayed

(From April 25, 2016)

I have quite the story to tell you guys. Its this thing called Late Nights. Early mornings.

So to start of. Yes mom I am still a Sister Training Leader. And I live in Sulacap. My comp is Sister Bonfim (the newbie from São Paulo that Im training). and we live juntos com a Sister Veiga (corto prazo de Araruama- Cabo Frio) e a Sister Barrientos (from Chile. She is one of my best friends in the mission. She arrived in Engenho de Dentro when I was with Sister Mamani-Argentina. and we became super great friends. I think I was called as STL mostly just to love her.)

So what happened is this. In december when we lived in Engenho, Sister Barrientos told me about a dream she had where her mom/grandma died. And last sunday Presidente Cabral called me and explained that Sister Barrientos´ mom/grandma is super sick and would have surgery. Then asked me to pass the phone to her. 

Pday they went to the office and talked about a Sister going home for 2 or 3 days and then coming back on the mission. 

Tuesday we had our District meeting and in the middle of it Sister B. started feeling super sick and sad. Then out of nothing the assistentes do Presidente showed up. they did a mini training. afterwards everybody was leaving and i talked to Sister B. she told me she wanted to go home for good.. She felt too broken to stay. We said a prayer together and then talked to the Assistents. They called president but he was on the phone with Salt Lake. They told us to go on exchanges and so I stuck with Sister B. all day. we talked a lot and just worked our butts off. 

Then at 9:30 at night Pres called. he told us to come to the office RIGHT NOW!! which is 1 1/2 hours away. So I called bishop and we found somebody with a car to drive us there. we got there 11:30 at night. We had an interview. Turns out when Sister B started feeling awful was the exact hour that her mom/grandma died. The Lord was definately comforting us in that moment. 

So we talked and cried and Sister B decided to go home just for the funeral (nobody else in the family is members of the church, so she dressed her mom/grandma in the temple clothes) and come back. 

So we called Elder Costa and then the Quorum of the 12 to get permission for her to go home and at 1:00 am we went to sleep in the sisters house next to the office. The next day we got up at 5 am and she went to Chile. 

I stayed in trio with my twins... Sister Bonfim and Sister Veiga. Two greenies at the same time and two areas!! It was fun and awful and ive never been so tired in my life. 

Then saturday morning we picked up Sister Barrientos de novo. She is doing well and we talk a lot about the temple blessings and the plan of Salvation. Ive never felt so close to the Savior as I did that night. I know He lives.

I love being a missionary.

(Editor's Note: Malorie later told us that she believes that this is the reason she stayed in that area one extra transfer after her Mission President previously told her she was being transferred). 

A Couple Pics

(From April 18)

We have 3 investigators that participated in new begginings of the yw. 

Me and my comp lá. and us with their friends Guilherme and Fabricio

Happy Birthday!

Its an awesome birthday!!! We are having a party with hotdogs cookies and mango juice in the church while we write email with the other sisters in the district. :) And they learned how to sing Happy Birthday in English for me. But their accents are awful! And... tomorrow we will have a mission council... So that will be a long day! Also my novinha (greenie) is Sister Bonfim and she is the cutest person in the world.

Ok the Adventure of my week:

It is Friday. We finished weekly planning and were headed for our first lesson, when all of the sudden BAM. The Spirit said "Stop." So. We stopped. And the Spirit said "Go visit Jorge." So we went. (And no they didnt get married). We arrived in his vila and a woman stopped us from entering. "Do you girls do prayers for people?" "Yes! We are representatives of Jesus Christ!" So this woman starts listing people who want us to visit them. Then another woman walks up and asks if we can help her find Christ because she is a macumba (pagan) and she broke her foot during a ritual and so she knows that God doesnt want her there anymore. So we are in the middle of praying for her and setting up a return appointment and another woman runs up to us, desperated. She invites us into her house because her sister is almost in a coma and needs help. So we enter the house and try to talk to Celia and she doesnt respond. So we kneeled in prayer. And the floor was a little wet so i pulled my skirt up a tad. When the prayer ended I glanced over and saw a huge open cut on Celia's leg with flies all over it. And her foot and leg up to the knee was black. So we tried to give her a little water mixed with salt and sugar to drink but she wouldnt take it. So we tried to help her move to the sofa and not the chair to wait for the ambulance. But she didnt have the strength alone. So Sister Bonfim secured her under the arms and I secured the leg. Which was wet. When we moved her, Sister Bonfim commented that there was a lot of pus leaving the wound.... Thats when it hit me.... The floor, the leg, the cut.... Celia peed herself.... And its all over my legs and hands and I dont want to know where else....


So I rinsed of the best I could in her kitchen sink *sorry*, and then just prayed that I wont get any diseases. When we got home that night i showered better than any other day of my life..

This is the pee pee lady. We went back and she is wayyyy better so now the whole neighborhood knows that our prayer healed her :)

Some More Catch Up...

(From March 21):

More Q and A:

Q - What is your favorite thing about the Brazilian culture?

Malorie - Brazilian culture is wonderful and annoying at the same time:) I love how families are all close together. You have a street with just cousins aunts uncles and everybody is friendly enemies.

Q - Funniest moment this week?

Malorie - ummm. I dont know we laugh a lot but i dont really know how to explain it.... For example. In our house somos eu Sister Bond, Sister Nascimento, Sister Cruz and Sister Jesus. So at lunch the other day the Brother looks at us and says all seriously... "Did you know that between His Nascimento (birth) and the Cruz (cross) Jesus rode the Bond (a type of bus) ....? badum tst.

Q - Happiest moment this week?

Malorie - Raina got baptized!!!!!!!!!! YEAHHHHH!!!! :)::):):) The pattern of excellence each week is to mark 20 baptismal dates, have 20 invest. in the church, and 60 new invest..... its a real struggle. This week we(FINALLY) got 20 dates! 7 in the church and 63 new invest!!!! So we are super happy!!!

Q - Struggles?

Malorie - Patience. Im not patient. at all. Also I cant handle it when i see people suffering. especially when parents start hitting their kids. I get pretty close to giving it to the parents....

Love you all!!
___________________________________

(Excerpt from Mar 28, '16)

Service Projects are highly encouraged. The problem is that the rich dont need them, the poor dont want them, and the really poor are out of my capacity to help.... So em fim I love service projects but we dont get a lot of doable things.

Playing a Little Catch Up....

Editors Note: [Okay, this is Malorie's dad writing for a moment. As you probably know, Malorie sends us emails and I put excerpts from them onto this blog. Well, I've shirked my duties for several months now. Shame on me.

So, I'm playing catch up, selecting a few things from emails over the past several months. It wont be everything. I'll just pick enough to give you a snapshot of her life as a missionary. I'll probably play catch up over several posts instead of one long post.]

(From Feb 29, '16):

Ill try to write more but seriously Im trying to do my best.. I have stories but its awkward because:

1.  I dont want to complain
2.  I dont want to brag
3.  I dont want to scare mom 
4.  I just dont know what to say

It was a good week and im happy and healthy!

Love you
Mal

_______________________________________

(From Mar 7, '16 - responses to my questions in a previous email):

So you got the memo that numbered questions are better too eh?

haha

Q -  Who is your companion right now? Do you like her? Where is she from?

Malorie -  Sister Cruz- see moms email

Q -  As a sister training leader or whatever the real title is, do you go on exchanges with all sisters in the mission or only in your zone? or district?

Malorie: Im responsible for 5 duplas in 3 zones

Q - How is the member missionary work there?

Malorie: depends on the week.... but what i need hepl with more than anything is somebody to help us bring investi to church. Sacrament starts at 8 am so we are getting up at 5:30 and this week was the first week of success!!! HALELUJIAH. So ya the next step is somebody with a car to agree to help us out

Q -  Are the congregations large enough to be wards or are they branches or does it depend upon the area?

Malorie: The focus right now is to fortify wards. So its all wards and stakes but the attendance yesterday was 92 if that gives you an idea

_____________________________________

(A few excerpts from March 14, '16):

Im starting to see how the Lord calls people to the places where they will grow the most. But also where the talents and attributes that He gives us can be used.

I received a LOT of personal revelation on the things that I need to be better at. And it was super cool to see how the Lord helped me fix them just a littrle at a time. So tender mercies:)