It's been a GREAT week! We went to São Vincente for training and BOY WAS IT AMAZING!
Before the mission, I felt like it was so easy to hear what the spirit had to say to me. I get here and I'm struggling. I felt like my companion and I were listening to two different radio stations... Terrible. Anyways, So we go to São Vincente and what is the training on?... TEACHING BY THE SPIRIT!!! (Among other things the President wants us to incorporate into our teaching) Am I a lucky girl or what? The very thing that I was praying for help in! I'm telling you... Heavenly Father is AWESOME! Anyways, it helped alot. After our first lesson the day we came back to Sal to teach, I wanted to scream from the rooftops or facebook it or just tell SOMEBODY besides my companion, just how awesome that lesson was. (I called our Elders) But Seriously! We applied EVERYTHING from our training!! We taught by the spirit and it opened up ways for us to use ALL of the tools that our Mission President talked about!! It was honestly amazing. The whole rest of the day I was able to feel where the spirit wanted us to work. There was a completely different feeling to the work. I REALLY felt like we were where the Lord wanted us to be. ...My companion and I were still on different radio stations, but I know that the people we met and the things we did were blessings of the spirit. The work felt different and at the end of the day my companion admitted we hadn't had a day of such successful work in a while. I thought we were doing good work before but BOY ARE WE NOW! Good gravy!
When I was at the training, I asked our Mission President how we need to go about doing splits with ward members because we have more work than we do time... At the end of having a whole converstion with my mission president in Portuguese, he High-5ed and fist bumped me, then turned to my companion and shook her hand.... YES! I GOT FIST BUMPED BY MY MISSION PRESIDENT! :) :)
At the end of this week's email he told me:
I am very hapy for having you in our mission and your portuguese is really good.
Love,
Pres. Oliveira
YEAHHHHHH!!! :) :)
In other news, Lenin is supposed to get baptized this week! We'll see though. Still have to get his ficha signed by his dad. This 14yr old has been SO PREPARED by the Lord. He really has such a pure heart. When were talking to him about starting to teach his dad, he said, "Yeah, So he can have this happiness too." :)
One of the things I loved most about our Training this week is about how the focus of our mission is going to be on families. It really just makes so much sense. Would you want to go to the place where you can have everlasting happiness for eternity WITHOUT your family? NO! It's awesome to be teaching these people about the gospel and how they can find eternal true happiness through Christ's teachings, but if they don't have their families, WHAT A RIP-OFF! I'm super stoked to be teaching families. We have 3 that we are currently teaching and we have 2 more in mind that we want to teach. :)
As for other things.. My companion and I went to Santa Maria today. I've never hated be white so much in my life! If you are white, they think you are a tourist. DUMB. I hate tourists.
Also, Yesterday we had a branchish activity at a member's house. It was super fun. We missionaries were playing the celebrity name game among mingling with the members. On the way home we ended up talking about Richard Simmons because of it. It may or may not have been so funny that we had trouble walking on the way home... and we may or may not have peed our skirts... Basically, I have a lot of good times with Sister Holland.
For those of you who wrote me Dear Elders and wanted to know if I got them,... I received them! I'm not sure if I've gotten ALL the letter-letters sent to me but I got one that was sent at the end of April! :)
Anyways, I hope you all have a great week!
Sister Buhler
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
"Quick, Let's leave before he tries to feed us." -Sister Holland May 21, 2012
HEY EVERYONE!
Well, this past Saturday we had the baptism of Patrick and Emerson! I'm not so sure I've told you too much about them because well, they were pretty much the easiest investigators we´ve had! They show up for appointments, they keep commandments, they come to church.. I'm telling you, they were just WAITING for the gospel. Patrick and Emerson are next door neighbors and they are both 17. Patrick had been hanging around our Branch Mission Leader and his car alot and one thing led to another and he's now baptized! And so is his friend! We are now teaching 3 of their friends about the gospel too. Agh. They're really great. :) Last Monday, the Family Night we ran had 14 nonmembers and 4 members! :D 13 of those 14 were just boys from the neighborhood! Think of all the potential priesthood holders! Its AMAZING!
One of the greatest things you get to hear as a missionary are the sincere prayers your investigators give at the end of a lesson! Kevin this week gave a SUPER sweet prayer. Kevin is one of the main leaders of the gang on the corner. He has a problem with one of his shoulders and is trying to stop smoking, drinking,
:):):) Doesn't that just melt your heart?!
Aderson this week gave a prayer that went like this, "Heavenly Father, Thank you for this day. I thank you for my friend Eddy being here too even though he was kindof distracting, but no big deal. Help him to have more sense in the head. And me too. In Jesus' name, Amen."
HAHAHAHA.
Something that I've really come to realize this week is HOW HARD Satan really is trying to stop this work. By little and big things. Every time you don't open up your scriptures when you should, Satan is winning. Everytime you don't follow a prompting, or pray, or go to church, or do what you need to do, Satan is winning. I know that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. If we do everything we can, I know the Lord will bless us for it. I know that small things here in the Lord's work are TREMENDOUS. Satan is working hard here and I know he's working hard in the states. And he knows that when little commandments are broken, he is gaining more and more success. Sometimes it is just so easy to forget that he's there and really working for our destruction. I've really been able to see how he's been influencing people here on this half of the world.
For all you people on that half of the world, don't you forget it either!
As for everything else it's dandy! I'm headed to São VIncente this week for a training again! WOO HOO!
I really hop next transfer President sends more missionaries to Sal. We need 'em! I'm going nuts! We don't have time enough to teach all the people that are prepared for the gospel!!
Until Next Week!
Sister Buhler :)
Well, this past Saturday we had the baptism of Patrick and Emerson! I'm not so sure I've told you too much about them because well, they were pretty much the easiest investigators we´ve had! They show up for appointments, they keep commandments, they come to church.. I'm telling you, they were just WAITING for the gospel. Patrick and Emerson are next door neighbors and they are both 17. Patrick had been hanging around our Branch Mission Leader and his car alot and one thing led to another and he's now baptized! And so is his friend! We are now teaching 3 of their friends about the gospel too. Agh. They're really great. :) Last Monday, the Family Night we ran had 14 nonmembers and 4 members! :D 13 of those 14 were just boys from the neighborhood! Think of all the potential priesthood holders! Its AMAZING!
One of the greatest things you get to hear as a missionary are the sincere prayers your investigators give at the end of a lesson! Kevin this week gave a SUPER sweet prayer. Kevin is one of the main leaders of the gang on the corner. He has a problem with one of his shoulders and is trying to stop smoking, drinking,
drugs and coffee. We had just taught him about the law of chastity. When he prayed he said ".. and thank you for sending the Sisters to me and for them teaching me about the right path.. It seems good. In Jesus' name, Amen."
:):):) Doesn't that just melt your heart?!
Aderson this week gave a prayer that went like this, "Heavenly Father, Thank you for this day. I thank you for my friend Eddy being here too even though he was kindof distracting, but no big deal. Help him to have more sense in the head. And me too. In Jesus' name, Amen."
HAHAHAHA.
Something that I've really come to realize this week is HOW HARD Satan really is trying to stop this work. By little and big things. Every time you don't open up your scriptures when you should, Satan is winning. Everytime you don't follow a prompting, or pray, or go to church, or do what you need to do, Satan is winning. I know that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. If we do everything we can, I know the Lord will bless us for it. I know that small things here in the Lord's work are TREMENDOUS. Satan is working hard here and I know he's working hard in the states. And he knows that when little commandments are broken, he is gaining more and more success. Sometimes it is just so easy to forget that he's there and really working for our destruction. I've really been able to see how he's been influencing people here on this half of the world.
For all you people on that half of the world, don't you forget it either!
As for everything else it's dandy! I'm headed to São VIncente this week for a training again! WOO HOO!
I really hop next transfer President sends more missionaries to Sal. We need 'em! I'm going nuts! We don't have time enough to teach all the people that are prepared for the gospel!!
Until Next Week!
Sister Buhler :)
Monday, May 14, 2012
"Way to liken the scriptures unto ourselves" May 14, 2012
What a week. I'm sincerely pooped.
Well no interesting escapades this week to any place fancy BUT the Elders did have a wedding Friday and our branch had 4 baptisms Saturday! One of which was... ELDER!!!!! :D I'm very happy for him.
President wants for us to report on how many families we are teaching. We found a family to teach the next day and taught them yesterday. Today, I found out why. President says that we can't split the branch until we have 6 strong families. I hope I don't get pulled out of Sal until it's split. I'm a one determined missionary. Let me just tell you!
We have plans to focus on an inactive family we found a while back. Today on the way to buy groceries we found another member of their family that we hadn't met! Turns out there is alot of this family on the church records! The mom has a daughter that was never baptized that we have been teaching too. She came to church with her inactive brother yesterday. :) I really like them alot. :)
We're just trying to do our best with what resources we have and what time we have. I'm so grateful that the Lord is helping us out. This would be impossible without him. The members sometimes teach a little bad during our lessons and we have to clarify what they say. And we don't have time to stop by all 17 of our investigators' houses to wake them up for church. And sometimes on Sunday a lesson lasts 2 hours and We have to skip lunch to make our next appointment.
Listen up kiddos, missions are hard. And they're stressful. And sometimes you eat a whole pan of cookies because you are just so stressed out...... But when you can see what a difference it makes in someone's life that you sacrificed something for one day so they could learn how to be closer to our Heavenly Father, it's worth everything. Everything and more.
The Family we taught yesterday, the mom said, "Well that makes sense!" Inside, I just wanted to scream with joy, "YES! YES! That's because it's true! It's all true! All of it!!!" :) I'm excited for our next visit with them. :)
In other news, my camera was stolen on Friday. Elder Barker so kindly took pictures of our baptism Saturday, but I'm afraid no more fun pictures for a while. But Since we are teach a gang, one of them has a friend, that has a friend that might know where to find/buy stolen cameras. So we'll see if anything turns up. Someone during the wedding climbed up the stairs to the relief society room and stole them out of our backpacks, The keys to our house were inside my camera case.... SOOO we've been sleeping with our kitchen knives next to our bed until we get the locks changed today. For any of you Book of Mormon saavy folks read Ether 5:12. ahahahah.
The last thing I'd like to share is just how much I LOVE my family. I got to talk to them yesterday. :) I want them to know I love them more than the WORLD! :)
Com Amor,
Sister Buhler
.JPG)
Well no interesting escapades this week to any place fancy BUT the Elders did have a wedding Friday and our branch had 4 baptisms Saturday! One of which was... ELDER!!!!! :D I'm very happy for him.
President wants for us to report on how many families we are teaching. We found a family to teach the next day and taught them yesterday. Today, I found out why. President says that we can't split the branch until we have 6 strong families. I hope I don't get pulled out of Sal until it's split. I'm a one determined missionary. Let me just tell you!
We have plans to focus on an inactive family we found a while back. Today on the way to buy groceries we found another member of their family that we hadn't met! Turns out there is alot of this family on the church records! The mom has a daughter that was never baptized that we have been teaching too. She came to church with her inactive brother yesterday. :) I really like them alot. :)
We're just trying to do our best with what resources we have and what time we have. I'm so grateful that the Lord is helping us out. This would be impossible without him. The members sometimes teach a little bad during our lessons and we have to clarify what they say. And we don't have time to stop by all 17 of our investigators' houses to wake them up for church. And sometimes on Sunday a lesson lasts 2 hours and We have to skip lunch to make our next appointment.
Listen up kiddos, missions are hard. And they're stressful. And sometimes you eat a whole pan of cookies because you are just so stressed out...... But when you can see what a difference it makes in someone's life that you sacrificed something for one day so they could learn how to be closer to our Heavenly Father, it's worth everything. Everything and more.
The Family we taught yesterday, the mom said, "Well that makes sense!" Inside, I just wanted to scream with joy, "YES! YES! That's because it's true! It's all true! All of it!!!" :) I'm excited for our next visit with them. :)
In other news, my camera was stolen on Friday. Elder Barker so kindly took pictures of our baptism Saturday, but I'm afraid no more fun pictures for a while. But Since we are teach a gang, one of them has a friend, that has a friend that might know where to find/buy stolen cameras. So we'll see if anything turns up. Someone during the wedding climbed up the stairs to the relief society room and stole them out of our backpacks, The keys to our house were inside my camera case.... SOOO we've been sleeping with our kitchen knives next to our bed until we get the locks changed today. For any of you Book of Mormon saavy folks read Ether 5:12. ahahahah.
The last thing I'd like to share is just how much I LOVE my family. I got to talk to them yesterday. :) I want them to know I love them more than the WORLD! :)
Com Amor,
Sister Buhler
.JPG)
Monday, May 7, 2012
"Dois pumbas com uma pedra... POMBAS NOT PUMBAS! ..Pumba is a warthog" May 7, 2012
So the verdict of transfers is.... SISTER HOLLAND IS STAYING WITH ME IN SAL!!!!!!! We're the only sisters in the WHOLE mission who didn't get a companion or island change! What a relief! We love Sal!:)
Vânia was baptized this past week!! She's doing awesome! I love that girl. It's cool to be able to remember the first time you talked to someone and watch them get baptized a few weeks later. I'm so happy for the positive influence this is going to be in her life! She is truly on of Heavenly Father's special spirits. :)
Our investigators are doing well. Helder will be baptized this next weekend. Eddy, the day of his interview found out that his girlfriend is 4 months pregnant. Satan is working hard to try and not get him baptized, but he came to church Sunday and told us after that it was an especially good day of church. :) He's in our prayers alot and we know that with prayer and Heavenly Father's help, he will make the right decision about his girlfriend.
As for our other investigators, we have been trying to find inactives to bring back to the church. In the process, we've found a wonderful woman named Maria and we've started visiting her and her daughter Rosilyn(who was never baptized). They asked us if we knew their Elders. We replied "No, how long ago did they serve here?"
"18 years ago."
....(I was 3 years old when they served here) HAHAHA. We kindly replied that we didn't know them. lol. We taught them the 1st lesson last night and they should be coming to FHE at a member's house tonight. :) I'm excited for them. They are going to be great assets to our branch. :)
We are so happy that the frequency is so high in our branch on Sundays! But something that really puts stress on my mind is that we don't have enough space for everyone! I hope that either the branch will split or that we can find a bigger building or both! The Investigator class is SO PACKED as well as Sacrament Meeting!
Yesterday at church we had 4 random guys show up to church and turns out they live in our area! And no one even invited them! They came on their own! They're really cool! A few of them really scare me... One is a really large Robert Downey Jr. and another (named João) just looks like he's killed people. But they're really nice. João said my portuguese wasn't very good. Blast it all. hahaha. But João is really a nice guy. :) We're going to be teaching them later this week.
When I counted up how many investigators we had at church on Sunday, it was 11! Then I realized our goal we set was 12.... BUT then I walked out of the chapel and saw another investigator of ours! So we met our goal!! Heavenly Father is just so kind to us. Sometimes I just wonder, "Why are you so nice?" Then I remember.. oh yeah.. You love us. DUH! :)
Sal has been awesome and full of alot of work! And we already have most of the days filled up with appointments for next week! Weekly planning tomorrow is going to be a BREEZE!
Honestly,... we just don't have enough time to teach everyone! I know the world REALLY needs more missionaries, but C'MON. CAPE VERDE needs more missionaries!
In other news,.. I fell while running in the morning really scratched up the palms of my hands. They are kindof like open wounds right now... but they aren't bleeding anymore and they've scabbed up quite nicely. :)
AND in case any of you were wondering about the gecko that we chased out of our apartment... Either he made it back in... or he had a spouse still living in our apartment. Either way. The gecko eats bugs and not our food so I'm fine with him living with us. Even if the white handbook says no pets. hahahah. We only have the occasional fly that enters our apartment. But good gracious, I hate flies.
But yeah that's about it for this week. Até próxima semana!
-Sister Buhler
.JPG)
Vânia was baptized this past week!! She's doing awesome! I love that girl. It's cool to be able to remember the first time you talked to someone and watch them get baptized a few weeks later. I'm so happy for the positive influence this is going to be in her life! She is truly on of Heavenly Father's special spirits. :)
Our investigators are doing well. Helder will be baptized this next weekend. Eddy, the day of his interview found out that his girlfriend is 4 months pregnant. Satan is working hard to try and not get him baptized, but he came to church Sunday and told us after that it was an especially good day of church. :) He's in our prayers alot and we know that with prayer and Heavenly Father's help, he will make the right decision about his girlfriend.
As for our other investigators, we have been trying to find inactives to bring back to the church. In the process, we've found a wonderful woman named Maria and we've started visiting her and her daughter Rosilyn(who was never baptized). They asked us if we knew their Elders. We replied "No, how long ago did they serve here?"
"18 years ago."
....(I was 3 years old when they served here) HAHAHA. We kindly replied that we didn't know them. lol. We taught them the 1st lesson last night and they should be coming to FHE at a member's house tonight. :) I'm excited for them. They are going to be great assets to our branch. :)
We are so happy that the frequency is so high in our branch on Sundays! But something that really puts stress on my mind is that we don't have enough space for everyone! I hope that either the branch will split or that we can find a bigger building or both! The Investigator class is SO PACKED as well as Sacrament Meeting!
Yesterday at church we had 4 random guys show up to church and turns out they live in our area! And no one even invited them! They came on their own! They're really cool! A few of them really scare me... One is a really large Robert Downey Jr. and another (named João) just looks like he's killed people. But they're really nice. João said my portuguese wasn't very good. Blast it all. hahaha. But João is really a nice guy. :) We're going to be teaching them later this week.
When I counted up how many investigators we had at church on Sunday, it was 11! Then I realized our goal we set was 12.... BUT then I walked out of the chapel and saw another investigator of ours! So we met our goal!! Heavenly Father is just so kind to us. Sometimes I just wonder, "Why are you so nice?" Then I remember.. oh yeah.. You love us. DUH! :)
Sal has been awesome and full of alot of work! And we already have most of the days filled up with appointments for next week! Weekly planning tomorrow is going to be a BREEZE!
Honestly,... we just don't have enough time to teach everyone! I know the world REALLY needs more missionaries, but C'MON. CAPE VERDE needs more missionaries!
In other news,.. I fell while running in the morning really scratched up the palms of my hands. They are kindof like open wounds right now... but they aren't bleeding anymore and they've scabbed up quite nicely. :)
AND in case any of you were wondering about the gecko that we chased out of our apartment... Either he made it back in... or he had a spouse still living in our apartment. Either way. The gecko eats bugs and not our food so I'm fine with him living with us. Even if the white handbook says no pets. hahahah. We only have the occasional fly that enters our apartment. But good gracious, I hate flies.
But yeah that's about it for this week. Até próxima semana!
-Sister Buhler
.JPG)
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