I Love the People of Brazil!!!

First off, I can´t tell you guys how darn proud I am of Noelle. Graduating from Seminary and CHS... wow. This week, I couldn´t stop talking about her and how awesome she is and just how happy I am for her. Noelle, I love you so much and am so glad you made it! Now, good luck in the real world. Na verdade, the real world still won´t happen until after college :). Second, is that Weston on her left side in the foto?

And how is David? Is he doing better? I hope it´s nothing too serious. Glad he´s got a sense of humor though... blonde chinese boy haha :)

As for me, I know these past few weeks, my e-mails probably haven´t been super exciting or probably not too uplifting either, but this week was incredible. For a while now, we´ve had some really hard times finding people to teach and getting people to come to church. This past week, we saw the fruits of our labors. We managed to bring almost all our investigators to church, we found good, new people to teach who want to know more and change their lives, and this morning we got a wonderful phone call from one of our investigators that I absolutely love. She´s so interested in the gospel and does everything she needs to before we even tell her what she needs to do. Lately she´s been really upset though because she´s not legally married with her husband and all he does is drink and spend time with friends. We´ve talked with him a few times and he says he has a desire to improve his life but this desire needs to grow a bit. Every time she tries to talk with him about marriage, he just gets quiet and doesn´t give a straight answer. And she wants so badly to get married so they can be baptized and have an eternal family! Last night, we visited her just to see what she thought of church and comfort her a bit. And he was out front with his friends drinking and listening to super loud, obnoxious music. It was so sad to see. But this morning, she called almost as soon as I woke up and said that our visit last night was a miracle and her husband said that he wants to be married and do everything the right way! So today, we´re sacrificing our P-Day and going to the cartório with them to marry them! I´m so excited and happy for them! Even though he has problems with drinking, I can already see this family happy and firm in the gospel, sealed in the temple for eternity.

So that was just one of many miracles this week. We also had splits with our lovely sister leaders and I got to spend the day proselyting and teaching with Sister Rodriguez. It was a great day full of fun and the Spirit. I think it helped recharge my spiritual battery which I´ve been needing. I love this work so much! I´m learning things and having experiences that I wouldn´t trade the world for. I am so grateful for this mission and that I´m here in Brasil with this opportunity to serve and love these people! I love you all and am grateful for the prayers and love you´re sending my way. Oh, and the mail too. I got Kylie´s graduation announcement--thank you! She looks so dang grown up!  And tell Chanelle congrats!  All right, I love you all!  

Com amor,

Sister Ball

3 Weeks

So, I got a bit behind in posting Bri's letters and pics!  This post is three weeks of her letters.  I will include pictures in a separate post!

May 12, 2014

I can´t tell you all how good it was to see each one of your faces! Sure you were all a bit blobby, but I could still tell that everyone is super studly and ridiculously beautiful. And it was great to talk with Uncle Dan too! Bummed that I had just missed Grand Dad, but we´ll make sure to not forget this Christmas. Speaking of family, I got some letters from some awesome people this week--the Gilleys, the Karrens, Grand Dad, the Howards, and a package from the Beehives. Thank you so much!!!

As for this past week, not too much happened. We managed to meet some elects which was great. It´s incredible how the Lord prepares people to receive us. The other day, we were passing a lady sitting outside of her house, gave a 'boa tarde' and she immediately got up and led us into her house. A little bit later, we left with a new investigator and a lady excited to accept baptism! This week, we also took advantage of every minute we had with Sister Vieira and Sister Moraes. They left last night and it was so hard to say goodbye, but we made sure to have some fun before they left for good. That fun included the cinnamon challenge, glowsticks, trifle, pão de queijo, surprise parties and lots of laughs and tears too. I´m so grateful for the people I get to meet here in the mission and for the friendships we make that will hopefully last forever. It´s incredible how the Lord (I seem to like that frase), places people in our lives to help us improve our lives and strengthen our weaknesses.

Other than that, the work is going well. Our biggest problem here is marriage. Almost no one is married but everyone lives together. That complicates baptism just a bit. But miracles happen and the Lord is on our side. I love you all and again and so grateful we got to talk yesterday. I remember ending our call on Christmas and thinking that Mother´s Day would never arrive, but my oh my how time flies! And it will only fly again until Natal! Christmas! :) I loooove you!!! Hurrah for Israel!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

May 19, 2014

Noelle, CONGRATS on State! You. are. such. a. beast. Cam, sounds like you performed so well! It also sounds like you´re growing up wayyy too fast :). And Steven, as always, sounds like you´re whoopin´ booty on the field. Way to go! Also glad Mom got to see some good friends and David is being so good... and Dad is becoming even more genius... is that possible? I love my family! I was going to ask about the missionaries in our ward so I´m glad you mentioned something! That´s great that they´re trying to involve the youth more in missionary work. It sounds like what they´re doing isn´t super normal there but honestly, it´s completely normal here. I think the wards here are a lot more involved in the work which is super nice. That´s actually how it should be! I know now more than ever the importance of helping the missionaries. This work really is impossible without the members! The ward that I´m in now is great! The members are constantly passing referrals and offering to help. The only problem is the area in which I serve with Sister Costa, we only have three families that are members. The rest are people waiting to here the gospel. And our area is HUGE. To walk from the farthest point to our chapel should take almost two hours or so. Yeah, we walk a lot. The area of the other sisters is saturated with members so we have to steal them sometimes, but we´re working on figuring something out.

The weather here is interesting. When it rains, it gets a little chilly but before and after, the sun is super strong. And as for this week, it wasn´t a fantastic week but it wasn´t completely horrible. No one came to church, all our baptism dates fell through and no one wanted to hear from us, but it was also full of tender little mercies from the Lord. We´ve been working with an unmarried couple for some time now and we finally got them to really converse about marriage and pray about being married and baptized next month. That was a miracle in itself!

Sister Rodriguez´ new companion is one of my CTM friends´ sisters, so that´s cool. Sister Rodriguez and I ate chocolate and cried ourselves to sleep every night because we miss the others so much but that´s okay (brinks... we just ate lots of chocolate). But really, I do love this work and I learn new things every day. I want to improve every day so that when I finish this mission, I can be satisfied with my work here. I love the people here and I love being a servant of the Lord. And I love you! Have a great week and hurrah for Israel!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

May 26

As for this week, it was pretty tough. We´re trying so hard to find good, teachable people but no one wants to here from us or is super mole... and the people who do accept us and are super elect aren´t married but also aren´t willing to separate from their 'spouse.' And no one comes to church despite all the effort we put into making it possible for them to come. It´s been a bit tough. But we´re continuing in faith, with hope that the Lord´s elects exist. There´s a comparison that I love--we´re searching for pearls. We have a bucket full of 100 clams and among these clams there are 4 pearls that we´re trying to find. We´re obviously not going to give up until we find these pearls but it´s also not going to be easy and we´re probably going to have to open a lot of clams without pearls before finding the ones with pearls. So right now where in the process of finding all the empty clams ;). But I have faith that the Lord has prepared people to receive us and be baptized so that they can take that first step onto the path that leads back to His presence. I´m so grateful for all your support and love. I don´t like to ask a ton for favors, and I know you´re already praying for me, but please just keep praying. Not just for me, but for all missionaries. We need them more than people realize :). I love you all and hope you have a great week! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Pops and Tina! Pops, I love you and hope you had a great day and hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow, Tina! Hurrah for Israel!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

Rain!

Glad you´re all well! I so wish I had time to respond to every little detail, but know that reading about your lives and hearing from each one of you makes me so happy every week and gives me the strength I need to continue for the next 7 days. Thank you for all the support and love!

This week was a little slow and we had some disappointing experiences, but as always, the Lord blessed us with miracles as well. First, the weather has completely changed! This past week was rain, rain, rain. And it was super cold! I don´t know if I´ve just adapted to the heat now or what, but I was with chills and had to use a sweater for a couple days. Yeah, it´s that cold. I loved it though! I don´t know exactly why, but rain on the mission makes me happy. It´s a nice change every once in a while :).

We met an elect this week. Her name is Dálida. One night Sister Costa and I were walking along in the dark and the rain and passed a woman sitting on her front step. I had a strangely strong impression to say hello to here so I said "boa noite" and was a bit shocked when she replied "boa noite sisteres!" We were in a hurry to another appointment but immediately afterwards, we returned to her house and she let us in like we were old friends. It turns out she´s been going to church with her boyfriend in another area and really likes it. She hasn´t talked to missionaries though but has tons of contact with members. So we started teaching her this week. Every time we talk with her, her eyes light up and she glows with curiosity, soaking in everything we share. It´s so neat!

We also had interviews with Presidente this week which went really well. He shared a story with me about a woman who listened to him and his companion teach from the kitchen and was later baptized because of that. He had no idea she had been listening at the time, but now she´s baptized, temple worthy, married and with four children all preparing for missions, one married.

And on Sunday, it was testimony meeting. V and his sister and brother all bore their testimonies which moved me to tears. V only has 8 years but he has such a sweet and pure testimony. He truly understands the importance of staying strong in the gospel and is an example for his family, friends and everyone around him including me. I love that kid!

Anyways, that was my week mais ou menos. I hope you´re all well and love you all! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRUNA!!! And see you all later on Mother´s Day! Hurrah for Israel!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

With our new sister, Sister Rodriguez! She came from the Roseville California mission where she was waiting for her visa... for a year. And even better, she knows Elder Tomblin and Elder Griffitts! Well, that´s perty neat

Just

 Downtown with SIster Costa

chilling outside an irmã´s house while waiting for lunch.

Enjoying the feast we had during our district meeting... I´m holding a dish called cuzcuz paulista e Sister Moraes with no bakes. Mmmmm

Our District

I finally had to use my rain jacket. I never thought that´d happen here!

Our sisterly band. Oh yes.

Zoo, Reunions, and Fun Pics!

The zoo was awesome. I was looking at my pictures and realized that I didn´t take so many of animals, but the best part was just getting to see so many great people. I got to see lots of awesoms sisters and the Limas! It was so so good! I love being back here in Sergipe. And things are great with my companion. We´re working hard and seeing results. This weekend, we had a baptism! It wasn´t just any baptism though... it was V´s baptism :). V is an 8-year-old boy who´s sister and brother are members, but his mom is hesitant and it took her a good couple of years to approve V´s brother´s baptism. Ever since we arrived in the area, we´ve been visiting her and V, trying to help her see the importance of baptism in V´s life. He turned 8 the weekend we arrived here and she wasn´t going to let him get baptized, but we kept visiting and helping him prepare for baptism. And this last week, she miraculously signed the papers and V was baptized and confirmed as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a blessing! He was so stinkin´ happy to be entering those waters of baptism and the spirit there was so sweet. I can only hope that his mom felt the spirit there and that one day, her heart can be softened even more. Yesterday, we also had a great lesson. I felt that we needed to visit this girl who had sat in on a lesson with another investigator. We had kind of forgotten about her, but yesterday, we stopped by her house to see how she was doing and if she had prayed sobre our message. And she had! She told us about the experience she had--how she had felt the spirit so strongly and felt that what we had shared was true. She accepted baptism and I´m so excited for her!

As for this area, it´s more like the neighborhood parts of Gragerú. It´s not so rural, but not super urban. It still has lots of people riding horses and all that good stuff which is fun. And as for the weather, well, we´re in Sergipe. The sun is always shining. And it´s always hot. But I love it here :). Apparently autumn is arriving, but we´ll have to see! I love this work! So much! I love all of you! I hope you´re all well! Hurrah for Israel!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAM!!! And Sister Barker! And Mom, this coming month is super special... happy 5 years cancer-free!!!! I love you guys!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

with my own missionary family :)--Sister Nunes (my grandma), Sister Custódio (my mother dearest) and Sister Costa (my daughter)

Reunited with Sister Barratt... awhaaaaa?

With my favorite family ever here in Brasil! The Limas! 

With Sister Castro and Bruna, uhu!! 

A view of Aracajú... love that place 

Just being weird... ya know. 

Sporting my super awesome missionary bag from my favorite primary class 

V´s baptism!!

It's a Girl!!!

(This is Heather, before you read her letter, I just wanted to ask if any of you would like to write a few lines to Brianna and maybe include a picture of you or you and her and send it to me as soon as possible to be included in a book I'm making her for her birthday.  It's not until July, but I'm giving myself plenty of time to make it and post it in advance so she has it to open on her actual birthday!  Thanks so much for showing her so much love and support.  You all know that family and friends are the world to Bri and I think this would be the best gift to send her!  Thank you!)

​
So the big news for this week: transfers! Tuesday, we had our transfers meeting in Maceió and I found out that I´d be returning to Sergipe!!! Not only that, but I´m training... and opening a new area! I´m with a wonderful Sister Costa who´s from São Paulo (Presidente likes to put me with Paulistas kk) and we´re opening an area for Sisters in Socorro 1 (it´s Aracajú´s neighbor). It´s been quite the adventure! The elders before us were super super good but didn´t keep up too well on the area book so finding these people that were being taught is a little difficult. But miracles happen and so far, we´ve had success in finding who we´ve searched. And between all that, there are lots of people to talk to in the streets and new people to teach. As for Sister Costa, she´s amazing. She´s 21 and came with what seems like years of experience. She´s practically training me! I sure do love my daughter :).

So that we transfers. We got here in Sergipe on Thursday and have basically just been meeting members, reteaching some investigators, finding new people to teach and preparing some people for their baptisms--the life of a missionary!

As for Easter here, it´s pretty normal. Unfortunately, they don´t do Easter egg hunts, but they do give giant chocolate eggs to each other with presents inside the chocolate. Our new bishop gave us each an ovo de Páscoa :). Oh, speaking of the bishop, this ward is amazing. They give us referrals before we even ask! In every lunch and at church yesterday, it was a referral here, a referral there, a referral everywhere! So cool.

Mom, they do have most of the church movies in Portuguese. If it´s not in Portuguese, it has subtitles.

And that was my week. Just through our work this week, I´ve been reminded of how mindful the Lord is of us. And He´s shown me that He truly qualifies those He calls. I´m a gringa with seven months in the mission and He trusts me to train one of His servants all while opening this new area. I know, without a doubt, that without Him, all of this would be beyond impossible. But every day I feel more and more strengthened through His Spirit and His love. This work is incredible! I love you all and pray for you daily! And when I´m not on my knees, there´s a prayer for you all in my heart. Now, we´re headed off to a play date at the zoo with some other sisters and some of my favorite people in the world from Gragerú!!!! Tchau and hurrah for Israel!

Com amor,

Sister Ball-

Our last day in Cidade Universitario

o

 SISTER BARKER!!!

 With Sisters Taylane, Araújo e Silva showing our friendship rings

 Meeting Sister Costa

With Sister Costa, minha filha

 The new sister trainers and their daughters!  I think my blinding vampire skin is throwing off the white balance in this photo!

 This ugly insect was found crawling across Sister Vieira's feet ... apparently it's related to the scorpion and has venom!  Eeewwww! :)

Sisters Vieira, Moraes, Costa e eu with our Easter eggs from Bishop!

Playing catch up!

Since I, Heather, was a bum and didn't post two weeks of letters from Bri, here they are!  It's so funny to see her English suffering the longer she is speaking Portuguese!  I know she'd hate it if I said anything, so I don't dare, but it just shows me that she's doing really well with her Portuguese!

March 24, 2014

Hey Mãe! Sister Silva is wonderful. She reminds me a lot of Janet Shirts, to tell you the truth. And being with her is one of the biggest blessings yet here in the mission. Being her companion and in the same house as Sister Araújo and Sister Taylane is what´s helping me be myself more. I was enjoying the mission before and the people, but I wasn´t exactly myself during these past few months in the field. Sister Silva has a way of helping me stay relaxed and not worry about nothing though. And at the same time, we work hard. I´m learning to work hard and enjoy doing it even more! The ward here is nothing like Gragerú. The members are kind, but I don´t think anything will ever be like Gragerú 1. They were so incredible and familiar! The youth are cool though. They´re a wee bit on the rebellious side but talk with everyone about the church which is neat and gets us quality references. We´re about 40 minutes from the coast and I don´t think we´ll be visiting it any time soon. The bus ride is pretty crazy. But I think next week we´ll be visiting downtown Maceió... stay tuned ;).

Cam too said that Noelle gave an incredible talk. Wish I could have been there to be proud with you guys! Glad to hear that Steven´s still the stud he was when I left... maybe even a bit more than before. And David--gotta love him :). And I´m so proud of Cambrie. Through her e-mails and yours, she sounds like she´s growing up so fast but in such a good way. Her spirituality and maturity amaze me. I hope Dad feels better! I´m with a little cold too. Don´t know if it´s allergies or what but it´s nothing too big. And I´ve already written Grand Dad and will write Uncle Dan. I´m still trying to catch up on letters from January haha. What makes it a bit more tough too is that we don´t have a post office in our area and the post offices here in Brasil are on strike. But we´ll see what happens. Happy Birthday to Bradley and Britt!!! Hope they enjoyed their special days and are livin´ the good life.

As for me and this week, it was good! I´ve kind of come to a blank on experiences we had this week... one day, we found a strange fruit growing on a tree that is like an oval, dark brown coconut. So we carried this fruit around and used it as a conversation starter to make contacts and meet knew people to teach. It worked pretty well! This week we also met up with all the missionaries in our zone in one area and proselyted there. It was so neat to see missionaries leading strangers on tours inside the church and talking with everyone in the streets, inviting them to visit the open house we were having. On Wednesday, we also went on splits with our sister trainers. I stayed in the area, partially-lost, with Sister Smith who reminds me so much of TeAnn... how´s TeAnn by the way? Been thinking of her! We taught a great lesson to our recent convert and dear friend, Aparecida. She has such a sweet spirit and inspires me with her desire to learn as much possible about the gospel. We´re also teaching a theologist who is luckily open to what we have to say. We just need to get him to pray about the gospel and the church and make a visit! And that´s about all I have for this week. I´m so grateful for this gospel and this work! I know that this is a work of God! I love you and hope you have a beautiful week!

 

Com amor,

Sister Ball

March 31, 2014

April Fools!

That title has nothing to do with this e-mail. I just decided that I needed to acknowledge the fact that April Fool´s is tomorrow, yet I still have nothing in mind. At least I have 24 hours :). This week was very productive. Dad, I completely agree with what you said and what you said about faith and miracles happening every day has been my motto for the past few weeks... just in Sister Ball´s words. Miracles really are happening all around us. We just need to open our eyes, exercise our faith and look. And that´s exactly what we did this week. We decided that with every single person we talked to, we wouldn´t leave their presence until we successfully shared a gospel principle and felt the Spirit. From this, the results were great. We gained the beginning of a new teaching pool and met some incredible people. This week I also was reminded that when an appointment falls through, the Lord always places someone in our path. When we tried to visit a woman who´s never home, we ran into her neighbor across the pathway who was sincerely interested in what we had to share. She recognized the Spirit that was present as we shared a message of the restauration. When we were visiting an investigator who ended up not progressing, her daughter just ended up being there. We later visited the daughter in her own home where she was there along with her sister. And they accepted to hear a message and were at church this last Sunday! And when we were visiting another investigator who we ended up having to abandon (she wasn´t progressing at all), her sister-in-law walked in and accepted our visit for another day. We went there a few days later and she and her children accepted to pray to know the truthfulness of the restoration and baptism! The Lord is always placing miracles in our path. Some other neat things from this week: our recem-converso, Aparecida, is such a faithful woman. She soaks up everything and reads everything we give her. She´s a living example of what the gospel can do for a person--the blessings and joy that it brings. Yesterday, we had a lesson with some Lamanites. We visited two natives who´s family still lives in their tribe. They are some really neat people! The other night, we also got to come across a procession of Catholics who were lighting candles and worshipping in the streets in honor of Easter, I´m assuming. And this week, Sister Silva and I decided to start working out with all those wonderful exercises from cross country. It feels great! So this week was wonderful. I hope all is well back home. I love you and pray for you always! Hurrah for Israel!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

April Fool's, Animals, and Conference

 Goats! 

 

 Enjoying our personal jars of doce de leite from an investigator

 No centro with some others sisters we found while there--Sister Araújo, Sister Taylane, me, Sister Barra, Sister Morais, Sister Martin, Sister Cadillo and Sister Silva

 Spending some quality time with my turtle friend

 Even cats are taking a liking to me... it´s definitely a one-sided relationship

 Mouri was one kool kat at conference yesterday

 Lunch appointment fell through so we resorted to roadkill....

 At a ward activity we organized

200 days in the mission with Elder Basden and Elder Draper!

With a donkey ... uhu!

 

First day of conference, playing in the grass

All right, I don´t have much time to respond to everything you wrote, but I was able to read it all and just know that I laughed and am super happy for lots of people. Congrats to Anna! When does Katie Sullivan leave again? And has Megan Dibble mentioned anything else about a mission? Hope all three lovely ladies are doing well. Loved the April Fools pranks. Here, they celebrate too, but it´s more about telling lies. So Sister Taylane and Sister Araújo successfully convinced Sister Silva that Sister Taylane was being transferred the next day due to an emergency transfer in an other area. It was pretty funny :). I didn´t end up doing anything though... sad, I know.  We did get to watch conference--every single session in Português! It was absolutely wonderful! I soaked up every minute and, just like six months ago in the CTM, I found myself dreading Presidente Monson´s final "amen" because I didn´t want it to end! There were some great talks, a few of my favorites being President Eyring´s, President Uchtdorf´s, Elder Ballard´s (please please please take his advice!), Gary E. Stevenson´s, Elder Bednar´s and President Monson´s. I loved how Elder Bednar spoke of burdens and happiness. He said how sometimes we think that happiness is the complete absence of burdens, but the reality is that the strength we develop to endure our burdens is what brings happiness and a necessary trust in the Savior. The 4 minutes was great too. We´re going to have eternity to dwell on what we did in this life, so we need to make it good! Along with incredible talks, some shocking news was announced and I don´t know if any of you in the U.S. caught it. My dear mission president, Presidente Gonzaga, was called as an Area 70. AHHHH!!! All of us missionaries were just freaking out a little bit.

As for this week, we taught a lot. One lesson we taught started out a little awkward because the young man was a bit closed off and not very open to our presence. But once we started teaching the gospel, he began to warm up. And by the end of the lesson, he was with a burning desire to make a change in his life and give church a chance. It was neat to see the sudden change that the gospel can make in the lives of people. We also attended an English class at the federal university.  Part of the pathway there is among fields of wild grass. And part of this wild grass was on fire. At points we were surrounded by wild fire on both sides in a very safe way :). It was pretty neat! And we also organized a great ward mission activity. It was a relay race, mais ou menos, based on Lehi´s journey to the Promised Land. The members got super involved and excited. It was so great to see them so happy about what we had done and we´re hoping to see good results.

And that was my week! I loved conference and hope you guys had the chance to watch it all. Every session was so good. Definitely take the time to study and ponder the words of our dear prophet and apostles. I know that they´re called of God and their words are inspired. They aren´t words we should take lightly but words we should live and apply to ourselves. I love you all!! Hurrah for Israel and boa semana!

Com amor,

Sister Ball