A True Gaucha

BOM DIA! 

This week has been good. I love this new area it is really so pretty. There are so many hills, but it keeps things interesting. This week we have been doing a lot of contacts. The people here are so friendly, and funny thing there are a lot more German people here. I almost feel like I am back in the United States. It is kind of nice that people are not constantly staring at me like I am some crazy-- well I am a crazy, but...

This week I gave a talk in my ward for the first time. I was really nervous because it was my first one in Portuguese, but it actually went really well. On the plus side this branch is really small and only has 15-20 people every week. I spoke about Love, Charity, and Service. 

Also I have finally become a true Gaucha (southern Brazilian) I have learned how to make a cuia of mate (its a drink with hot water and some type of green herb thing, don't worry I will show you all when I return home) and I am starting to really like it too. All the members say that I am the first American here that truly knows how to drink it right. 

Well I hope you are all enjoying beautiful spring weather. One thing I have learned to love from here in Brazil is there is always some type of fruit in season and they plant the trees on the side of the street so there is always good fresh fruit. 

2 messages to leave with you today:

1. Jesus Christ who was perfect in all things also left us the perfect example in how we should treat others. Think about how he treated his fellow men. Think about his example he left upon the cross, as he petitioned the Father to forgive those who had crucified Him. We too need not only show charity to those we love, but to all those we come in contact with, even those who mistreat us. 

2. Our God who loves us and wants to give us all He has even unto salvation also requires much of us. Paraphrasing C.S. Lewis the Lord says to us: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work: I want You. All of you. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man. but to kill it. No half-measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here and another there; rather, I want the whole tree out. Hand it all over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them all over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart."

I know God loves each one of us. I know this church is true. I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you so much and again please MY ADDRESS CHANGED, so if you want to send any mail it would be much appreciated!! NEW ADDRESS: Caixa Postal 1287, Centro, 98280-000, Panambi-Rs, Brazil.

Love you all, 

Sister K. Seal

Diaine and Casiane from São Borja and their cute kids. I miss them.

 Batismo with Gabriel

 The hills here, too bad that the picture doesn't do it any justice, but if anyone remembers Great Grandma Seals Park City house the hills are just like up there. It is so pretty. 

Mate

 

Panambi

Hey,

This week has been amazing! 

So first I was transferred last week, my new area is Panambi. So if anyone feels a severe desire to send me a loved package or letter this is the new address. 

Caixa Postal 1287 Centro

98280-000

Panambi- RS

Well, this area is amazing!! There are so so so many hills and this area is a lot bigger than the others, so I will not fault exercise here. 

Also, guess what. I had my first baptism. His name is G. He is really great and is 16 years old. His mom was baptized last week and he decided that he also wanted to be baptized. He also wants to teach with us when we go teach new investigators. And he brought 3 new investigators for us to teach to church this week. 

I am so excited to be here. 

Easter was also really good. It was beautiful here; I even used a cardigan which shows that I may survive here in Brazil. 

I love you all. 

Thanks for all the letters. I love you all .

Photos:

  

My last week in São Borja we went to the border of Argentina, and entered into Argentina. 

 I also had to say goodbye to everyone from the ward in São Borja so these are some of the fun families form the ward.

So General Conference...AWESOME!!

Maybe it’s the fact that I am a missionary, or maybe that I was just grateful that I got to listen in English, but I thought this General Conference was really great!!

My favorite idea shared was the message from our beloved prophet, Thomas S. Monson about how love is essential to the gospel of Jesus Christ. There were so many good ideas, but unfortunately I forgot my journal at home and the talks are not yet written yet, but if you didn't get a chance to watch. WATCH IT! Seriously was really great!

Yesterday was my companion's birthday and that was fun! I made her a cake, with Texas sheet cake frosting. Everyone loved it, I was just impressed that I remembered the recipe-- I guess after you've made that cake 100+ times it kind of just sticks:) Also we shared the cake with the elders, I have never seen anything disappear so quickly! 

Well we have a new investigator, her name is Christina. She is really great and wants to be baptized. She has to get married first, but when there is a will there is a way. And luckily for her the will is not only her will, but God's will too! So there is definitely a way. 

Well I love you all. Transfers are next week. So I will find out Friday what is going to happen, and will let you all know next week:) Thanks for all the love and support. I honestly have the best friends and family I could ever ask for.

Love you all.
Sister K. Seal

 Photo: From birthday lunch with Sister Claret. Yes I know I look like a poodle, there is no helping it with all the humidity here in Brazil. I told the members that I looked like a poodle and they laughed and laughed. I think I just got a new nickname. :)

Sister K. Seal's Day

Well this week flew by like crazy! Hope Holly and Michael both had an amazing birthday! And happy 1 year birthday to my amazing Best Friend, McKenna. 

Well, we have been working a lot with the members- well,seeing as how we stopped teaching all our previous investigators that is about our only option. This week, we had an activity to get as many people as we could to come to the women´s session of General Conference. We had a spa day, and as missionaries we were able to serve the sisters of our ward. I really enjoyed getting to talk to them and get to hear stories from them as we served them by painting nails, fixing hair, and make-up. McKenna would be proud to know that I taught everyone how to do the messy bun that she always does on her hair. Funny story, 4 of the girls did that with their hair the following day for church. Yes, it’s very funny. Well, sad part of the story, none of our new investigators went, and only 6 sisters including the 4 young women came. It was a little sad. But conference was good. How was it going for the first time Skylar?? Wow can't believe you’re old enough to go to these kinds of things now!! 

Also everyone keeps asking for what a day in the life of Sister K. Seal is like so here goes:)

6:30 Wake up, throw on workout clothes and start working out. It usually is only running in the back basketball court we have-- We have a basketball court because our house used to be the old church building. 

8:00 Personal study

9:00 Companionship study

10:00 Language study-- it gets harder to learn new material the longer I am here which makes me feel like I actually am learning some things

11:00 We do street contacting during this hour now because we don't have very many investigators. Ya, that is rough.  We just stand in the center and just talk to everyone we talk to.

12:00 Lunch

1-9:00 We go to all the appointments we made the previous day.  Our area is pretty big and we end up walking a lot because a lot of the appointments we have are from street contacts and it doesn't always work out that they are close by. But it’s the best part, getting to know the people.

Well, I love you all. I got lots of letters this week. My zone leader doesn't understand, but I do. I have amazing family and friends!! Thanks for all the love and support! 

I hope you are all as excited as I am for General Conference! Also, I hope you all have an amazing week. To answer dad's question I get to watch in English-- what a blessing!! 

Well, Much Love,

Sister K. Seal

Photo 1: Old photo, but I thought it was ironic. No I am not going crazy I use an umbrella so I don't get cancer. Very cautios!!

How Old Am I?

There are a lot of ways to see how long a missionary has been out. 

1. Months-traditional way

2. Transfers-when a missionary is in the dumps and 18 months just seems impossible.

3. Language-you can see how much English a missionary has forgotten. 

4. Companions-this one is a little harder because there is not a set number of companions that a missionary will have. 

5. Umbrellas-That's right I heard this way to measure this week and laughed pretty good. 

So this week I am:

5 months, 3 1/2 transfers, well hopefully mom is editing out all the grammer mistakes so you don't notice, 2 companions, or 2 umbrellas old. 

So you can probably tell from the last comment that we've gotten some rain this week. It was beautiful and rained for like 3 days straight. Definitely, a blessing. But with that good news I also have some bad news. We had a district meeting this week where we were asked to cut all our investigators that are not progressing. So that means all of them. Literally, we are having to start over. Our District Leader told us that our job here is find the people that God has already prepared for us, and that one day these people will be ready too for other missionaries. It was sad, though. 

Well, the rabbit food is gone with. I am feeling much better. Don't worry, Mom!! 

So, as we don't have any good investigator stories this week I thought I would share a funny joke that I heard:

A missionary gets called to Brazil-he is super excited. 

1 month in goes to a members house and finds a piece of hair in the food pulls it out, and barely manages to fork down the rest of the plate.

4 months in goes to another members house finds a hair in the food pulls the hair out eats the rest of the food. 

9 months in goes to another members home yet again finds a hair pulls it out, but goes back optimistically for seconds. 

14 months finds the hair in the food and doesn't even bother removing it. 

20 months goes to the members house looks on the plate and can't find the hair looks to the member and says, "Sister Smith, something is missing..." Pulls out a hair from his head and puts in the food. 

Haha:)

Well, I love you all. My camera is fixed, but I forgot to charge the battery and the computer I am using is not star quality for charging. So next week I promise to upload photos. Promise!! 

The church is true. I love being a missionary. Have a great week! 

Sister K. Seal

Week Full of Stuff to Do

WARNING: This letter is not going to be very long. 

This week was full of stuff to do, unfortunately, I don't have any good stories to accompany all the work I did. Maybe that is a good sign? I don't quite know. 

Well, baptismwise--Okay, so we talked with Êmily.  She is still wanting more time to decide, and that is hard as a missionary, because honestly you can only do so much. Ultimately we all have this thing called agency. 

Also, this week, I consulted with my mission president's wife, I haven't been feeling really well for about a month now. So to help me she recommended I cut out certain foods. So here is my diet plan: I can eat carrots, kove(sorry this is portuguese and I don't know the english word), beets, cucumbers, corn, rice, salad--without anything on it, tea, and water. Yup that is it I am living like a rabbit for the next week. Haha, it’s kind of funny. Here’s hoping that this is going to help!

Also, last week my camera downloaded a virus and wouldn't open the photos. I went to a photography place and luckily they were able to recover the photos, but I don't have the memory card yet, so that means no photos this week. 

I love you all so much. Thanks for the love and support! Special shoutout to all those that are continuing to write me! Love the letters. 

Well, if I can I would just like to leave you with a thought I found this week:

“Sadly, much of modern Christianity does not acknowledge that God makes any real demands on those who believe in Him, seeing Him rather as a butler ‘who meets their needs when summoned’ or a therapist whose role is to help people ‘feel good about themselves’.  It is a religious outlook that ‘makes no pretense at changing lives’. ‘By contrast,’ as one author declares, ‘the God portrayed in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures asks, not just for commitment, but for our very lives.  The God of the Bible traffics in life and death, not niceness, and calls for sacrificial love, not benign whatever-ism.”—D. Todd Christofferson.

I love this, often we just want the “nice God” the one that is going to console us.  The problem is, He is one and the same.  The God who loves us chooses to give us trials to make us better.  We should honestly take His willingness to criticize and build us up as a compliment that he finds us worth the time to perfect.

Love you all,

Have a great week,

Sister K. Seal

Long, Crazy Week

Hi everyone!

How has everyone been? I wanted to start off by thanking everyone for the great letters I got this week. Mckenna, Grandma, Papa, Oma, Mom, Conner, Skylar, and my lovely amigas Sasha and Katelin! And of course you can't forget McKenna. You could say it was a good week for letters! Thanks for the support and love this week--Much needed!! 

Well, Emily came back from EFY, and the baptism didn't happen, but it’s okay because we are going to have a double baptism in 2-3 weeks!! She loved EFY and wants to be baptized and that is what is important. 

Well, Carnival is officially over, and good news, yup no water was thrown at Sister Seal. Que Benção!

Sorry this letter is really short there is just not much to tell, it was a long week, in fact one day this week we left the house at 11am and didn't even teach our first lesson until 5pm. Crazy, right? Well, I guess that is the explanation behind the lack of fun details. 

Also the virus on my camera well took away all my photos, so I don't know how long its going to be until I can send some. Sorry I had some really exciting photos, but Já era! 

Love everyone and wishing everyone a happy week!!

Sister K. Seal