Greetings!
Well, I am sad to report that I have been officially TRANSFERRED! What a bummer. I'm getting transferred to the Southern Island of.... DUN DUN DUUUN.. Fogo. Blast it. In all honesty, I've heard Fogo is wonderful, but I'm just being a party pooper because I love Sal and don't want to leave. I catch a plane tonight at like 11ish to go to Praia... but I'm not sure about my travel plans after that. BUT I'll either get to stay with Sister Vanderhorst, or President.. So I either get to see my BEST FRIEND from the MTC! orrr I get a HOT SHOWER!! WITH WATER PRESSURE!!! :D I'm slightly pumped for this experience. I also get to break mission handbook rules.. hahaha. Yes!
Would you like to hear what my mission president wrote in his email to me this week? Hahaha.
Dear Sister,
Your portuguese is getting there, the writing not so much! Hahaha
We love your sweet spirit. Thank you for being obedient and kind. The Lord will use you in many ways in this mission. Many will feel the love of God through you.
Love,
Pres. Oliveira
My mission president laughed at me! hahahah! He's a stinker. Anyways, I'll be serving with Sister Gomes. She's from Portugal! She's dying in a transfer and a half, so I'll be killing her. I'm pretty stoked about getting a fluent companion. I'm also stoked that I get to live in a house with another companionship! Sister Routsen (my friend from the MTC) and Sister Arlete (She was just Sister V's comp)! I'm STOKED to live with them! :)
Vilma and Poéjo were baptized this week! It was awesome! Vilma was super scared.. but she did it! She overcame her fear of water!! :D (Really, she has a fear of large bodies of water) It was awesome! I'd attach pictures but all of the ports on this computer are closed up because APPARENTLY there is a virus going around on the computers in this internet place... Next week maybe.
Anyways, Yes. I'm super sad to leave my home of Sal, but I hope what everyone has been saying about Fogo is true. I'm probably going to be in Fogo for at least two transfers because I'll be killing Sister Gomes off. I've heard that Fogo is SUPER HOT. And that it's super hilly. It's going to be quite the change from the nice ocean breeze and flatness of Sal.
Have I mentioned that the lower islands speak a different creole? Well yes. They do. Basically, creole is a lazy version of portuguese. And apparently there are TONS of ways to be lazy! Bidu is what the lower islands speak so.. Wish me luck with that one!
Sister Holland says that the first week of a transfer with a new change is always the hardest. I've also heard the mission gets easier in your third transfer. That the third transfer is when you are REALLY accustomed to mission life. I'm quite a bit excited about this.
I start my 3rd transfer of a 12 transfer mission today. NUTS huh?! Anyways, that is all the news I have for this week. I hope everything is all dandy in the states!
Love, Sister Buhler
Monday, June 18, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
"...I'm not sure what her problem is." June 11, 2012
Boa Tarde gente!
Well, It's pday again and BOY AM I GRATEFUL! It's been a long week here. There was one day when we literally walked around for 2 hours going from investigator's house to investigator's house and NO ONE was home! It was terrible. Teaching only 3 lessons a day is a smudge depressing when you usually teach 6ish. But things turned up. :)
This past week the Lord has been working miracles in this area in finding PREPARED people to teach. We are teaching two families in particular who I am very excited for! One parent in each family is a less-active member. The two families are Paulo(LA) and Saturnina(I) and Sãozinha(LA) and Neny(I). Paulo's family has two kids under the age of 8 and Sãozinha has 3 kids over the age of 8! :) I love them and they LOVE having the missionaries over to teach! It is truly a blessing being in this area!
When we first taught Sãozinha's family this week, we left a book of mormon for her husband to read. When we came back later on in the week for our next appointment he said in Creole "I don't understand Portuguese too well.. do you have one in.. (We thought FOR SURE he was going to say Creole..) English?" .....I'm sorry. What did you say? ENGLISH!? You want a Book of Mormon in ENGLISH!? Turns out he spent 25year in the states and went to middle school and high school there! I'm telling you. This man Neny is incredible. He's got such a good head on his shoulders and he is such a great dad to his children. I love their family. We're going to have family night with them tonight and what he doesn't know is that we're making brownies for them.. :)
My companion and I also had an interesting experience with a man this week. So our Branch Mission Leader gives us the contact information of a man that we need to visit. Ok. We think its a reference. Is it? No. It's a man who owns a building that he wanted us to talk to about moving the location of our branch. Anyways, point is: we're in this man's house and he ends up showing us ALOT of pictures of his family. (We were going to turn this into a teaching opportunity anyways.) We come across a picture of a man who MAY OR MAY NOT have been dancing and drinking. I hadn't been looking too hard at the pictures because he was showing us ALOT of them. Then Sister Holland, all nonchalant-like, points to the man in the picture while she is still talking to the man in front of us. PURPOSEFULLY pointing out that the man in the picture looks like he is recieving the Heimlich Manuever from an invisible person. .....Well what did I do? I laughed. REALLY LOUD and uncontrollably. I ended up offending the man so I tried to hit myself in the chest and cough to make it look like an allergy, but I'm not so sure if that worked... Then Sister Holland turns to the man and says, "Eu não sei o que ela tem."
Translation: "...I'm not sure what her problem is."
We're going to São Vincente again this week and transfers are this weekend. I'M NERVOUS. We got a mass text today say that Presidente is going to quiz us on our Standard of Excellence for our mission. Oh boy.. AND I'm pretty sure I'm getting transfered this week.... Sister Holland and Elder Barker both have a transfer left. I'm sure that they are both just going to stay for one more transfer and die here. Elder Gunnarson was told he was going to be here for a long time to teach people piano... So that leaves me. I'm sure that I'm leaving. :( We'll see though.
Other than that. I love it here, per usual. It's definitely alot of work here in Sal, but work for people you love never feels like work.
Anyways, tchau tchau for now!
Sister Buhler
Well, It's pday again and BOY AM I GRATEFUL! It's been a long week here. There was one day when we literally walked around for 2 hours going from investigator's house to investigator's house and NO ONE was home! It was terrible. Teaching only 3 lessons a day is a smudge depressing when you usually teach 6ish. But things turned up. :)
This past week the Lord has been working miracles in this area in finding PREPARED people to teach. We are teaching two families in particular who I am very excited for! One parent in each family is a less-active member. The two families are Paulo(LA) and Saturnina(I) and Sãozinha(LA) and Neny(I). Paulo's family has two kids under the age of 8 and Sãozinha has 3 kids over the age of 8! :) I love them and they LOVE having the missionaries over to teach! It is truly a blessing being in this area!
When we first taught Sãozinha's family this week, we left a book of mormon for her husband to read. When we came back later on in the week for our next appointment he said in Creole "I don't understand Portuguese too well.. do you have one in.. (We thought FOR SURE he was going to say Creole..) English?" .....I'm sorry. What did you say? ENGLISH!? You want a Book of Mormon in ENGLISH!? Turns out he spent 25year in the states and went to middle school and high school there! I'm telling you. This man Neny is incredible. He's got such a good head on his shoulders and he is such a great dad to his children. I love their family. We're going to have family night with them tonight and what he doesn't know is that we're making brownies for them.. :)
My companion and I also had an interesting experience with a man this week. So our Branch Mission Leader gives us the contact information of a man that we need to visit. Ok. We think its a reference. Is it? No. It's a man who owns a building that he wanted us to talk to about moving the location of our branch. Anyways, point is: we're in this man's house and he ends up showing us ALOT of pictures of his family. (We were going to turn this into a teaching opportunity anyways.) We come across a picture of a man who MAY OR MAY NOT have been dancing and drinking. I hadn't been looking too hard at the pictures because he was showing us ALOT of them. Then Sister Holland, all nonchalant-like, points to the man in the picture while she is still talking to the man in front of us. PURPOSEFULLY pointing out that the man in the picture looks like he is recieving the Heimlich Manuever from an invisible person. .....Well what did I do? I laughed. REALLY LOUD and uncontrollably. I ended up offending the man so I tried to hit myself in the chest and cough to make it look like an allergy, but I'm not so sure if that worked... Then Sister Holland turns to the man and says, "Eu não sei o que ela tem."
Translation: "...I'm not sure what her problem is."
We're going to São Vincente again this week and transfers are this weekend. I'M NERVOUS. We got a mass text today say that Presidente is going to quiz us on our Standard of Excellence for our mission. Oh boy.. AND I'm pretty sure I'm getting transfered this week.... Sister Holland and Elder Barker both have a transfer left. I'm sure that they are both just going to stay for one more transfer and die here. Elder Gunnarson was told he was going to be here for a long time to teach people piano... So that leaves me. I'm sure that I'm leaving. :( We'll see though.
Other than that. I love it here, per usual. It's definitely alot of work here in Sal, but work for people you love never feels like work.
Anyways, tchau tchau for now!
Sister Buhler
Monday, June 4, 2012
"That's yours" June 4, 2012
Update on my favorites of who we are teaching:
Poéjo. He's the grandson of Senhor Toi. He's super smart and I love him. He's honestly been so prepared by the Lord! His baptism with be on the 16th.
Vilma. She's the best friend of Rony (Toi's step-son). She is also SO PREPARED. She completely understands the plan and is so willing to put in practice the Lord's commandments instead of sit on her tush. She's a feiry go-getter. Seriously. I love her. :) We hung out with her this morning. She's one of the happiest people I've ever met. We're going to be friends for a long time. :) Her baptism date is also set for the 16th... But she's scared of water.... Yeah. I'll let you know how that plays out. Hahahaha.
We've also been visiting alot of random inactives and families lately so I'm not sure what is going to turn into anything, but it's been alot of fun! We've been using "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" alot in our teaching. Did you know that THE most important truth about the Restoration is that our families can be together forever? You would think so right? But some people just don't realize it!! It's terribly sad that they don't know. We were teaching Perla and Autolindo and their two kids earlier this week and Perla was like, "I know I can't have my children forever, but I just hope they live happy lives." I wanted to scream, "BUT YOU CAN HAVE THEM FOREVER!!" Hahaha. It's such a joy telling these people the truth about what happens after this life. Families CAN be together forever!
Other than that, today is Pday. This morning, Sister Holland & I learned how to make bread at Toi and Bella's house. Their bread is SO DELICIOUS!! and then while we were waiting for it to rise and bake, their daughter Gilda braided our hair! Well, rolled it..? Hahaha. It's interesting having the air on my scalp... I'm not so sure I'm a fan. Hahaha. Then they fed us and sent us on our merry way with tons of bread. I love their family. :)
Also.. Our washing machine is stupid. We FINALLY had water this week. The washing maching has been leavign some marks on our clothes when we wash anything but what else are we going to do? It takes too long to handwash & our butts are sore for like 3 days bc of all the kneeling. ANYWAYS, We finally had water. We REALLY needed clean clothes. What does our devil machine do? It stays on the first cycle alll night, USES ALL THE WATER WE HAVE AND STAINS OUR WHITES ORANGE. (%minutes after we realized we were out of water, our power went out) We've been showering and flushing our toilet with the emergency water barrel that is sitting in our apartment. It's really hard to shower when you are rationing your bathing water to half a bucketful. But I guess I shouldn't complain too much, its what these people do everyday. I just hope the water comes back on so we down have to haul water up to our apartment on the 2nd story.
Well, That's it for this week!
Sister Buhler
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
I GOT FIST-BUMPED BY MY MISSION PRESIDENT!!! :) May 28, 2012
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
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
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
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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
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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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