8/28/19 - Lice and More Training

I'll never forget last Wednesday when I was teaching English everyone was practicing with each other and my comp called me to the back of the room. She told me that Amazon was on fire and showed me the pictures. The sky in São Paulo had been darker for the last few days but we thought it was just because of thick rain clouds... but it never rained. One of my areas was right in the middle of a bunch of mata atlântica, similar to the type of jungle found in the Amazon. It was shocking to see the same type of mata atlântica now in flames. We're in the south east of Brazil so it hasn't affected us much, but it's just proof that we are in the last of the last days,(Revelations 8:7). The urgency to gather Israel is stronger than ever. 

I went on splits with Sister Alvarado from Venezuela. She arrived on the mission this transfer and hearing her story as a refugee is inspiring. Count your blessings folks. Sometimes we don't remember how good we really have it. 

Our recent convert Cris took us out for all you can eat sushi. Good food, good conversation.

We've been struggling as the mission's test group for the new area book and planning app. It's taking a long time to get things set up because it's so detailed, but here in a few weeks it will start being incredibly useful!

Remember that activity we did with "Storm Area 51"? We had the closing ceramonies this week and it was amazing to hear about the experiences these youth had sharing the gospel on social media. Many had more success and missionary opportunities than they thought possible. All in all Operation Storm Facebook was a success.

We had a family night with the family of Ana Cláudia. Her mom, stepdad and borther were all very attentive to our message on the restoration. They had great comments too. This was a miracle and testimony builder for Ana Cláudia because when she was baptized her family didn't support her decision. Now they're open to learning more and are accepting the commitments we leave with them. One example speaks louder than we may think.

I got lice. Lice is common here and since the form of greeting someone in Brazil is done with a hug and kiss on the cheek, I probably got it from hugging someone that had it. We were in a lesson with Cris and she saw it and told me after we left this person's house. That night Sister De Barros combed out my hair. I felt like a monkey being de-bugged. She found that lice that Cris saw. Just one thank heavens! I was thinking about how

I've had dengue and a parasite (sarna) so what's a little bit of lice before I go home. Brazil loves me. 

I also had to take a trip to the hospital because of the poor circulation in my legs. We walk so much and my area is pure hills so that's made things interesting but tudo bem. I can survive a few more weeks.

We went to Sorocaba to train the interior of the mission on this new area book app and a few other things. I adore these mini road trips with President and Sister Ribeiro. We always have the best conversations in the car. I was asked to give a training on mission rules for technology and approiate posts on Facebook. I turned it into a game and it was actually really fun. I divided them into teams and put two players sitting back to back. I gave them each a green card and a red card. I read true/false questions about mission rules and they put the green card up if the answer was true and the red card if it was false. It was nice to get everyone on the same page with what is ok and what is not ok. On Friday we'll be doing the same thing with the capital. I honestly love giving trainings!

The worst part of our visit to Sorocaba  was at the end when I had to say goodbye to so many missionaries I have come to love. Goodbyes are the worst, but I know my time is almost up and I'm at peace with that. 

Have a great week you gems. Be happy and share the gospel.

Sister Barbie

1-2) The seminário + chimarrão. Also I'm on the vetren's page... like wuuutttt.

3) Sushi with Cris

4) Lunch with the Elders and this awesome family of returning less actives 

5) I'm really gonna miss the street art here in São Paulo.

6) Divisions with S. Alvarado 

7) Half of the 90 missionaries we trained yesterday. Also, André's pizza for lunch with borda de chocolate. 

8) A screen shot of our area book so far. Each dot is a person. When you click on it their teaching record and profile pop up. When an appointment falls through this is the best tool because we can see who we can visit close by. This is only 1/8 of the people we have in our area book. We're in the proccess of transfering the rest into the system.

10) The mission staff Sister Larsen drew.