5/22/19 - A NEW CALLING: vida é loca, mas eu amo a loucura

Ok I have so many things I need to tell you all! 

I had my interview last Tuesday with President Ribeiro and woah that was wonderful. He asked me if I knew where I would be transfered. I told him I did, but not because anyone told me. For the last 3ish weeks I've had dreams that I was transfered to Tucuruvi with Sister Almedia. President then told me that sometimes  the Lord confirms the truth through dreams and that I was being transfered to Tucuruvi and was called as the new TLT. Not many people know what a TLT is because not every mission has it. We have SLTs, or Sister Training Leaders, but TLTs are the Training Leaders of the Sister Training Leaders. We take care of a group of 10 sisters like normal SLTs. In addition, we take care of all the SLTs and subsequently we're responsible for all the sisters here in the Brasil São Paulo North Mission. We have 182 missionaries currently in our mission and 1/3 of them are sisters. So you can imagine when President extended the call to take care of 60 sisters that I was a little overwhelmed. The responsibility that comes with this is huge. Us TLTs give trainings to all the mission leaders, we're almost like the sister version of assistants to the president. Some of the secretaries joke that we're not TLTs but TSTLSMSAP or trainers of the sister training leaders super macho sister assistants to the president. Haha! Every meeting the assistants attend we attend and we give trainings right along with them. We also are a apart of the mission staff which consists of the 6 Elders that work in the mission office as secretaries, the assistants and us. Super crazy. What helped calm my nerves was when president told me that I've been observed all my mission and when he prayed about who should serve as the next TLT that is was very clear that the Lord had called me. So even being overwhelmed that gave me the confidence to dive in head first. (Side note: I packed my bags and then unpacked them again because I'll be living in the same house just switching bed rooms and study desks! I love all the sisters we live with and I'm so happy I'll get to stay here with them!)

We had meetings almost everyday this week!

Tuesday - I had my interview with president. I've always liked all the sisters in the mission, but when president handed me the mission map of all the sisters and I lookes at each one of their pictures, I felt an overwhelming amount of love for each one of them. It was a special experience for me to feel a little bit of the love Father in Heaven has for all of them. We spent the day helping with the transfer, welcoming the greenies, organizing lots of people and suitcases. We then had a meeting with the staff and president to plan for the mission leadership counsel the next day. It was amazing to see how the ideas I had to contribute actually made a difference. I love working with the staff. I was told that I needed to give a training at this conference for all the Zone Leaders and SLTs in the mission. I was crazy nervous. I've never been in a leadership position on the mission before and then suddenly I'm expected to train all my leaders, all these powerful missionaries I've grown to love and respect. As I was praying that night for lots of help, one phrase came to mind. "The Lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called." In that moment I knew it would all be ok. 

Wednesday - I'll admit I was nervous as to how all these leaders would react to someone who they've been training for along time now training them instead. But it went super well. I felt so supported with everyone's words of encouragment. I realized that all of my good friends are these leaders! We've grown and learned together for a long time now (and we've still got a long way to go), but now we have the chance to also help other missionaries through that same proccess. At the leadership counsel Almedia and I were seated right by President and Sister Ribeiro and that was a dejavu moment for me. So cool! As I gave this training to all these LZs and SLTs the spirit was so strong. It was amazing for me to see that some of the experiences I've had during my mission I was now able to share to help other missionaries with the same problems. In addition, each difficulty the companionships presented was in relation to something the staff had been inspired to discuss the day earlier in the planning meeting. It was awesome as we put all of our ideas together and were guided by the spirit to discover how we could best help the mission improve. We all had lunch at this super chique churrascaria and it was over all just a great and uplifting day. I was reminded of something that was said in my setting apart blessing as I was coming on the mission. I was told that "Not only is much expected, but required in the work of the Lord." I think I'm finally starting to understand what was meant by that.

Thursday - We spent all day in a skype meeting with Salt Lake recieving new instructions on the use of smartphones. We have 4 americans on the staff so we split up the translating and good grief! I don't think I've ever taken more ibeuprofen for headaches than I have this week. Translating on the spot is hard, but kinda fun. For a few months now MSPN has been apart of a pioneer project to intergrate technology into the work here in Brazil and we've had a lot of success with it. Our use was limited but now we're going to be using Facebook, Whatsapp and a few other things. It's going to help us so much! I had almost forgotten what it was like to be that mentally exausted. We've got a lot of work ahead of us as we work to create a culture of obedience with these new tools.

Friday - We stayed up late putting together another training for our zone counsel. I've learned that TLTs basically don't sleep. The zone counsel went well and we had time to make a few quick visits. I entered into my Facebook for the first time in a year and a half and I'm not sure I want to use Facebook for procelyting. I like living in my sheltered, spiritual missionary world. Haha! I'm trying to warm up to the idea. I know it will help us in the work if we use it in the right way!

Saturday - We finally had a day to work in our area! What's amazing is that even though we didn't have a lot of time to work this week we still encountered a lot of miracles. We found lots of great new people to teach and marked lots of baptismal dates. Its proof when you give your max the Lord takes care of the rest. 

Sunday - Because I've been in and out of Tucuruvi for the last 3 weeks in trio with Almedia, almost all the members already knew me when we arrived at church. One more day filled with more miracles, more new people and more baptismal dates. It was a huge miracle for me to see that even though we had pretty much no time working in our area, we did our part and because of that the Lord blessed us and our numbers weren't affected. Again we got to bed late because we had to call everyone and their dog to get every companionship's key indicators for the week. 

Monday - Monday is no longer pday. My pday is now inconsitant and will fall on whatever day of the week we don't have meetings. I spent the whole day in the  mission office again with the staff and president getting all the things ready for the multi-zone training the next day. With all these specific changes we needed to be thorough

to make sure we create a culture of obedience with technology and get everyone is on the same page. It was a long proccess but I just love all these staff members and we had so much fun in the proccess. It's been a little while since I've laughed as hard as I laugh with them.

Tuesday - Like I said, we pretty much don't sleep. We woke up super early to get everything set up for the emergency mission leadership counsel we called. That went smoothly and then we gave our training in the multizona and now everyone in the capital is armed and ready to accellerate the Lord's work using technology to the fullest extent. Now we just have to do the same thing in the interior this coming week. At the end of the day I went up to Sister Ribeiro and told her I needed a mom hug. I might've cried a little bit. I'm so happy! Seriously!... but I'm also SO tired. 

Today we were supposed to have splits with some of the sisters but Almedia and I chose to reschedule because we both were strugging to stay awake walking down the street on our way home last night. Pday does miracles and after a few extra hours of sleep we're pumped and ready to baptize the whole world this week! 

All in all I'm so thankful for my Savior's grace making up for everything I lack. I love Him and I love this work!

1) I love Sister Almedia so much!

2) All the SLTs we take care of

3) All of us armed with the spirit and flu shots to fight against Satan and gripe!

4) Tucuruvi!

5) Every week the staff puts together a news letter sent to send to the missionaries. This is the page they put in this week to welcom me to the staff. Notice the hashtags. Almedia and I always mix up saying bom dia, boa tarde etc. I say good morning when its late afternoon and good afternoon when its 9:00 am. We joke that it's better to just say bom momento, (good moment), or boa vida, (good life). ALSO, ALMEDIA AND I ARE SISTERS! We were both trained by Sister A. Ribeiro. This is rare to be companions with your mission sister, but #AsIrmãsReinam kkkkk