Tudo bem com vocês?

OÍ Família! Tudo bem com vocês? Tudo é ótimo aqui, em São Bernardo. I am glad to hear that you got my package, finally! Did you like all the the Brazilian candy? And the letters? I haven't gotten the other package yet. I won't have the opportunity to pick up my mail until the end of September anyways, so it already be in the office right now, I don't know! The post offices here are on strike right now, so I can't mail anything right now either. :/ But all is well! One day I'll get my granola bars!

This week was good, pretty uneventful again, but good. Last p-day we went and hung out with the other dupla of sisters in our zone. We made guacamole and juice AND Sister Schwitters shared some of her Peanut Butter (a VERY precious, rare, expensive item in Brazil) with us and I got half a PB&J. It was HEAVENLY. Seriously.

After that we got home and went to go contact a referral that we had recieved from mormon.org (also a very rare thing in Brasil) The Elder in the office wrote his name down wrong so we were surprised when he answered and was a boy haha. Elder Consiglieri wrote down Gabriella, but his name is G... oops. Anyways, he has a really cool story. He's 21 and recieved a Book of Mormon from his non-member friend who said he was going through a hard time and that book really helped him. So G went online to find out more and order a Book of Mormon of his own. Cool, right? When we came back, he told us that he had already started reading the book of mormon! When we asked him if he wanted to be baptized, he said yes! AND THEN we tried to return twice and he cancelled on us and never came to church... dang. But we are going to go back and try and visit with him this week!

Other than that we don't really have anyone else that is progressing, but we are doing a lot of work with the less-actives in the ward and also with the members. We have the best members here!

ALSO, we are going on our 4th day with out any running water in our house... #lifeofamissionary. our water box broke and leaked into all the walls in our house so they are trying to fix it today. We've been having to take showers at member homes and go to the bathroom in the chapel!! haha but tudo bem

Just so you know, tomorrow starts the 100 day count down until christmas! 100 DAYS UNTIL I GET TO SKYPE YOU GUYS!!!!!!! :D Woohoo! I can't wait! And the 24th is my 5 month mark. can you believe it! ahh!!! I get to go to the temple in sao paulo next week, so my p-day will be on tuesday, btw. and then general conferance is the week after. WOOHOO!! I am so excited! Sister Marino and I think that they will announce that sisters can serve two year missions. ;)

Anyways, I love you all and hope you are doing well and reading your scriptures every single day! Deus nos ama!

Com Amor,
Sister Hargrove

P-day at WALMART

I feel like I don't have any exciting things to report on this week... oh well. Last P-day, we went to WALMART. It was so great. Obvi, it was way different than any wallyworld I've ever been to in the states, but still good. It made me really trunky though. I bought a bunch of overly priced Reese's. My week was pretty uneventful this week because I got food poisoning. :/ Sister Marino and I ate lunch at this members house, an average meal of chicken, salad, beans, rice, and orange juice. After that we went to this less-active members house and when we were going to leave I stood up and just got so dizzy and felt so sick. After that we went to two other houses to have Family Home Evenings with them and I felt more and more sick. We ended up going home at like 830h, I ran through the door, up the stairs, and puked all the rice and beans I've ever eaten up. It was disgusting. I slept through the next two days and all is well now! I still don't have an appetite for rice and beans, but I'm going to have to get over that real quick...

We had a man stop us in the street this week and ask us to come to his house, so we did and we taught him all about the basic beliefs of our church and it went really well! After we left he texted us and told us that his wife didn't want us in the house any more, but that he would still come to church. Surprise, surprise, he never came and is ignoring us now. We've had a lot of that lately. People just drop off the face of the earth. Weird.

Every Sunday we have Family Home Evening with the members that own the house that we live in in English. Its so weird. Last Sunday they made us pancakes, this Sunday, we brought them Reese's and they made us chocolate cake... such a good way to spend our "p-night."

A son of one of our recent converts in the ward reminds me a lot of nate. He's 12, just got the priesthood, plays video games and thinks he's the coolest kid around. I just love him so much. I asked him if he wanted to serve a mission and and said "YES!!! in the united states!!" He wants to learn english so bad. SIster Marino and I teach him slang words every once and a while, like"cool".

so good.

I love my mission.

And YOU guys.

Love
Sister Hargrove

TRANSFERENCIAS! HURRAH!

Nova Companiera: My new companion is Sister Marino. Another American! Can you believe it?! She's 22, from New York (30 minutes away from the Sacred Grove!) and gos to BYU-Idaho as well. She is GREAT and we get along really well. She spent her first two transfers in the Salt Lake City Central Mission and this is her third transfer is Brazil. Her Portuguese is really good and she teaches me a LOT every day. Que Bençao!

Nova Casa: Our house is SO NICE. Except for the fact that there have been elders in it for the past couple years. And the elders that were here before us were a little disobedient. It's actually really disgusting. I don't know if they swept at all. We got to the house and there were pizza boxes and soda cans and hey swept all the dirt into a pile and left it there. BUT, all is well, the house just needs some Sister Love.

Nova Area: Our area is GREAT. I am serving in Sao Bernardo 4 now. I actually think that it might be the best area in the mission. The members here LOVE us and they are so helpful. When we first go o our house people brought us cake and mango juice and called to see if we needed anything.

Livro de Area, Ajuda dos Elderes, e Nosso Bispo: Since the elders before us were foibeika, our Area Book was empty. It hadn't been updated in months so we had no addresses and no one to go visit... so we went to meet with our Bishop. He is awesome. His name is Bishop Rogers and he is only like 29. He brought us both a big box of chocolate on our first meeting so I can tell he's great haha he gave us a list of members to call to go on splits with us because he elders didn't leave us a map so we didn't know how to get anyways. 

Coversa: Yesterday, I talked to someone on the bus for 5 minutes ALL. IN. PORTUGUESE. What the heck?! It was so great. And then I got his address and told him that missionaries would come by next week. WOOHOO. I'm a real missionary.

Igreja no Domingo: Sister Marino I bore our testimonies during fast and testimony meeting this Sunday. It was great. All of the members that we had gone on splits with got up and bore there testimony about missionary work and how great spltis were. So cool. :)

That's all for this week! Love all of you. Heavenly Father's on our side. :)

Com amor,

Sister Hargrove

First Transfer in Brasil? FIM.

Transferencias: It's official! I found out this morning that I am being transferred away from Sao Caetano. I don't know where and I don't know who will be my new companion, but I will find out tomorrow. We have to go to a transfer meeting in Sao Judas... which means I have to pack up everything and then haul all my things onto 3 trains and a bus... yay. :/

My District

Testemunho de Jehova: Sister Davis and I had a very interesting experience this week. We taught some Jehovah's Witnesses. Let's start from the beginning... We talked to this woman at the bus station. She was so nice to us! She explained that she was already a Jehovah's Witness, but that she wanted to know more about our beliefs in comparison to hers. Perfect! So we set up a time and day to go visit her at her house and that was that. Anyways, we go to her house and start talking with her and she pulls out all of this anti-lds stuff she printed off the internet, full of ridiculous lies about the LDS church, so we're trying to explain to her that the things in these articles are false when we hear some people outside her gate clapping (people in brazil clap, not knock). So she goes out  and comes back with two JW missionaries and immediately they just start arguing with us. They raised there voice and started shoving their Bible in our faces saying 'read this!, read that!' and telling us that we were living a lie. And on top of that, they refused to let us talk. We would start to explain what we really believed and they would cut us off every time. Finally Sister Davis stood up and told them that we had to go. We tried to give them a Book of Mormon, but obviously they wouldn't take it and they left. I am all for comparing our beliefs, but attacking someones beliefs is never ok. The Spirit cannot dwell in such an environment. We gave the woman our phone number and a Book of Mormon as well and left. It was a rough experience.

Comida: Oh man. We had a good food week. If I come back from Brazil the same size that I am now, it will be a miracle. Members give us money all the time for food, and EVERYONE wants to feed us. Yesterday we had lunch with my favorite member. She is the Southern Belle of Sao Paulo. She's a convert as well and makes the best food I've ever had. And whenever we come over she pulls out all the stops and makes SO much and always tells us that she'll be offended if we dont eat it all. And Sister Davis and I are always like "...Well if you insist!!" And then we eat all the beans and rice and watermelon juice and chocolate mouse and a thousand other things until we feel like we might get sick.

Our lunch money haha were rivh in reais

Doms dos Membros: Something weird about this area... I don't know if the members are trying to send Sister D and I a message but everyone wants to give us soap. All of the Sisters in the ward always tell us that they have a present for us and it is always soap... Ive gotten 3 soaps this week! What are they trying to say... ? 

Poo river... smells like the goat barn, blehhh

Batismo: This week we had a Baptism! My first Baptism! His name is J. V. and he knows the Church is true. He will be the first in his family to be LDS. He was a member referral from a sweet brother in Santo Andre. His baptism was AWESOME. We took pictures and he tried to hug us like 100 times. Sister Davis gave a great talk about the covenant of baptism and about the example of Jesus Christ. A few members bore their testimony to him and the Elders Q Pres said a few words and presented him with his very own manual. :) It was touching. Afterwards the whole ward went up to him and talked to him and welcomed him. They were all so nice. One brother gave him a tie and there were hugs all around. It was a very special day. And on top of that, he brought his whole family with him to church. #blessings

J and his family

Anyways, that's all the exciting stuff that has happened this week, until next time... Remember who you are.

Beleza,

Com Amor,

Sister Hargrove

One of the elders that is going home ("dying" lol get it?)

4 month pic

Ward talent show

The baptism

The baptism