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

YAY! Happy 1 Month in Brazil! Only 14 more to go... ;)

Let's talk about the fun and exciting stuff first and then I'll get a little serious with you.

Birthday Dress: For my birthday present to myself, Sister D. and I decided to go shopping in Sao Paulo. Oh man, it was so cool. Shopping in Brazil is divine. They have miles and miles of clothing shops. It's Heaven to say the least. Anyways, I ended up finding a flowy blue dress for R$60. I have to get it hemmed today, but I'll send you a pic next week. Also  we went to the train station to get there and I'm pretty sure I found platform 9 3/4...

The Youth! On Wednesday, we had a meeting at the Chapel and all of the youth were there. And, oh my heck, they are so awesome. They were all playing soccer in the back with a flat basketball (lol) and then they came and started trying to talk to me and telling me their names and what not. Talking with the Youth is WAY easier than talking with adults because when you ask them to speak slower, they actually speak slower instead of just talking louder at the same speed and giving you a wierd look. Also, there's a youth that is an olympic gymnast in our ward... it's fine. no big deal. and he wants us to teach his friends. shawn johnson maybe? 

English Class: Can I just tell you how much I love teaching English Class? I LOVE it. Not just because I get to forget all of my Portuguese for an hour and a half each week, but because they are just so funny! They love to ask me about my family back home and my love life and they always bring quotes from English movies to ask me about. This week they asked me about the term 'teenage kicks' and about how you leave the house when you are 18 in the US. 

M.: This week there is something very special attatched to my email... A picture of one of my investigators and me! Meet M.. M. is in his 60's and LOVES me. Seriously. He just loves me. Probably because the first time I met him, I told him I have an accent because I am from Recife... now every time he sees me he says OPA! The girl from recife is here! Haha he thinks I am hilarious. He has taken all of the discussions, but has a problem with being baptized again. thats the only thing holding him back... big surprise haha But anyways, this week he made us a HUGE cake, it was so good. Favorite thing about Brazil... Chocolate is its own food group.

A familia de S: Let me tell you about my favorite family in Brazil. Meet S. S is in her 40's. Her husband passed away about a month ago from Cardiac Arrest leaving three young children behind, C, P, and L. She works from the early morning to late at night everyday. They live in very humble circumstances. S has been learning with the missionaries for over a year and wanted to be baptized, but did not have enough money to get married to her husband. This week we brought cookies and taught S and her children about turning to Christ through your trials. P, who is five, drew pictures of missionaries and the Book of Mormon in my planner as we taught. :) S told us about all the hardships that she has been having since losing her husband. Afterwards, she made us salad and her kids taught me all about how to talk about Spider Man in Portuguese while Sister D talked with S.I now have a secret handshake with each of the cute kids. :D

Policei de Federal: It's official! I officially have my Brazilian ID card! On Monday night, all of the new missionaries and their companions rode the bus/train to Sao Paulo and spent the night with the senior missionaries. In the morning, Sister S (the next gen primary president, I swear!) made us french toast and bacon. Oh my heck, after 3 weeks of bread and maracuja for breakfast, it was so good. Then we all made the treck down to the police station. They took our pictures and fingerprints and gave us our OFFICIAL VISAS! WOOHOO. #imabrazilian

C. e Acai:

We had a lesson with a less active member this week. He runs a froyo/acai/sorvete shop. I swear to you, he is the fastest talking man I have ever met in my life. I didnt understand a word he said. My companion had trouble too. They would just talk back and forth and then all the sudden he was giving us keesh. It was soooo good.

4 horas com M....: M. is an investigator that we teach who is about 50ish years old. And let me tell you, he thinks I am hilarious because I speak with such an American accent... probably because the first time I met him, I told him I was from Manaus... oops.

Sisters' Training: This week we also had Sisters Training! Woo! President and Sister T. had all of the Sisters in the mission, about 25, at their house to eat and converse. So FUN! I also got to spend the whole day with Sister C.... so that was a plus. 

As Problemas da OniBus: On the way to Sisters Training we had a little... problem. Sao Paulo is a BUSY city and so the trains in the morning are always packed. Like people shoved up against each other, pressed up against the windows packed. its absolutely insane. anyways, we were getting on the train and everyone was pushing and shoving and definitely invading my sister missionary bubble. Before I knew it Sister D. was on the bus and the doors were closing and people were shoving me off and then I was watching the train drive away... ALONE. hahaaha yes. I got left behind at the train station. Thankfully I had already expressed my fear of this event happening to Sister D. before and we had made a plan of what to do in the event that this happened... so I just rode the next train and got off at the next station and had a great reunion with my mission mom haha... it was still scary though.

Pasar Mal: When you have a cold, In Portuguese you say that you are passing evil/bad. really wierd, I know. But anyways, I have my first Brazilian sickness. Some nasty cold. Enough to make me feel terrible, but not enough to stay in bed all day. woof. makes the work miserable.

A Sala de Ingles: In our english class this week we talked all about English expressions and vocabulary words that go along with being sick. :) Then I opened the class up to any questions. They asked me about the wierdest things! For example... one asked me about laser hair removal... what? another asked me about some swear words. haha

Anyways, this week was good. Still don't speak Portuguese, but eventually... haven't gotten any mail yet, but anxiously awaiting ;)

Love,

Sister Hargrove

Awkward, almost kiss... again. SO, in Brazil, you greet people with a hug and a kiss on the cheek... I feel like I kiss more people in a day than most people do in their whole life haha anyways, as  sister missionaries, we are not allowed to greet those of the opposite gender like that so we usually just stick with a handshake. The other day we were teaching this man, L and at the end he grabs my hand and tries to pull me up off the couch and kiss me! When I realized what he was doing I was like "nao nao! somos missionarias!" and we had to explain things to him and he was really embarrassed, it was so awk... but sister D said that happens all the time.

21st Birthday! As some of you might know... I celebrated my 21 run in Brazil this week. We had a district/zone meeting in the morning and after that was done, Elder I (ZL) was like everyone go to the kitchen for a birthday surpise! Turns out my whole zone had brought some sort of sweet with them and they all sang me happy birthday in portuguese first and then english. it was so sweet! THEN, to top it all off, the ZLs presented me with "a taste of america for your bday" A HERSHEYS CANDY BAR. Oh man they're the best. And then I had my first Brazilian Pizza for dinner with my comp... IT WAS SO GOOD. Thankfully there is a pizzaria right across the street from our house. :) Other than that it was a pretty miserable day haha it poured rain all day and was COLD, we visited a lot of people too, so I felt like a real missionary all soaking wet in the cold. haha

3 Month Anniversary! This week I also celebrated my 3 month anniversary on the mission WOOHOO. On the 24th  our phone stopped working and President A called us 15 times and the ZL/DL couldn't get ahold of us as we
ll so they were all really worried. We were practically rogue missionaries haha anyways, they ended up calling our members home and we had to go all the way to San Bernardo to get a new phone from the office elders, which costs about R$20 to get there on the train. laammeee

Winter. Woof. Turns out, Sao Paulo has a winter time. And let me tell you, it stinks. Why did no one tell me this? It has been 7 degC and raining and windy all week!

Teaching. we are teaching a lot of people. J V is one of our new investigators and he is great. He knows the church is true and comes to church every Sunday. He is definitely elect, we just have to get over some law of chastity and word of wisdom issues first. We are teaching a lot of other people as well, but no one that is progressing immensely :( But all in good time. We are working with a recent convert less active T who is so great. She is married to a cocaine addict with a daughter so she is going through some really hard times, but we visit her a lot and I can see her faith in Christ growing everyday.

The Lingua: Portuguese is still really hard, but I know a lot more than I did last week... I just have to get rid of my American accent haha and maybe people will understand me.

Well I hope you all have a great week!

Jacob 4:1-3, Don't forget to read your sciptures every day... they were written for YOU.

Love,

Sister Hargrove

OLA! I am in BRAZIL right now. WHATTTT?! Brazil is great. I really like the people here and the culture is awesome. I really miss the CoCoSprings though... My first night here was really hard. I realized that I definitely do not know Portuguese and even if I did, I would not be able to understand what the Brazilians are saying because they talk so fast!

Tuesday: 

On the plane, I met two Brazilians, N and M (she was at LEAST 140 years old, I swear). They were both really nice and asked me questions about the church and I responded the best way that I could, but the language barrier is rough. Another rough thing? spending 11 hours on a plane... woof. Not my preferred location for sleeping, but I made the best of it. When I got off the plane, I got into the foreigners line and waited for like two hours for them to check my passport, visa and whatnot. Then I met the rep from the mission office and waited for the other missionaries to arrive. (PS, I ended up flying by myself, I was the only one who flew into Dallas, so I was without a companion for a whole day!!) Anyways, SISTER C CAME! And we had a great little reunion in the airport with a few others that I knew from the MTC, but Sister C and I were the only Sisters. 

We all hopped in a big van outside the airport and began the trek to the mission home to meet Pres/Sis T. LET ME TELL YOU, it is a wonder I didn't die. Brazilians are insane drivers. They don't follow speed limits and weave in and out of the lane, and on top of that, there are people on motorcycles honking and weaving in and out of the cars. It was crazy. 

We got to the mission office about an hour later and all (about 8 visa waiters) filed into the living room with about 6 Brazilian missionaries. Then we met President and his wife, who is AWESOME. We had our transfer meeting and I got my trainer. She is an American from California who has been out for 7 months, 4 in Brazil. Her name is Sister D. She is nice...

After the meeting and hostage pics and everything, we all carried our luggage to the train stations to travel to our areas. We got to our house at about 7ish. We live on the bottom level of the Stake Presidents house with  his family. I'll attach pics of our living quarters to this as well... The picture that I sent of the plyboards is what I look up at every night. Many generations of elders have lived in our house before us so the bed is covered in peoples names and what not... but it says ´´shut up and work.´´ in Portuguese haha

I had my first Brazilian meal of rice and beans and salad and chicken... the first of MANY, but it was so good. I looooove Brazilian food... a LOT. It´s hard not understanding anyone though.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday, we had a zone meeting (in Portuguese) and just unpacked a lot... nothing too exciting, but we did walk up to the capella to meet with the bishop.

Thursday:

We went grocery shopping and to a farmers market, which was so cool! They had every cool fruit you could think of and every part of an animal anyone could every want haha so good. We walk a LOT. To anyone that had a car for their mission... you are so lucky. Sao Caetano is all sorts of hills everywhere. You'll be able to crack an egg on my calves when I get back. We heard some crazy explosions on Thursday... turns out there was a soccer game going on so they were lighting fireworks every time a goal was made.

Friday:

More hills today... so sore. We taught our neighbor, A... who is CRAY. While we were there she got a phone call and then asked us to go to the store with her, so we walked to the street corner store in the pouring down rain to meet this man who owed her some money and gave her like R$850... sketch.

Weekend:

Drank some heaven (Brigadeiro milkshakes) YUM... did a lot of visits, saw a Brazilian marching band. its hard to get ahold of people because not a lot of people have cell phones so we just have to stop by. and even when we make an appointment, sometimes, they're not there! I had my first Church day in Brazil, which was so good. and we also found R$55 on the ground, such luck!

The language is coming along, but it is really hard because people just see me as the American who doesn't speak Portuguese, so they don't really talk to me after they figure that out but I am trying really hard!

The first two weeks of the transfer are generally hard and the first three months of being in a foreign mission are also really hard, so I've got a long 11 weeks ahead of me. But I am finding a lot of comfort in reading my English scriptures every night. 

My mailing address is:

Sister Hargrove

Sao Paulo South Mission

Rua Dr. Luis da Rocha Miranda, 159 - 8a ander

Pq. Japaquara - Sao Paulo SP

CEP 04344-010

 

WOULD LOVE SOME LETTERS!!!!!

Love you all,

Sister Hargrove

V I S A !

V I S A: I GOT MY VISA! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! SISTER HARGROVE IS GOING TO BRAZIL ON MONDAY. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Good people of my family, last Friday, Mom's Brithday, I got THE PHONE CALL. Let me tell you the story. We had a lesson at the Church with a Returning Less-Active / Disfellowshipped member. Who is awesome, by the way. Anyways, We get this phone call in the middle of our lesson and Sister S says, "It's President Anderson!" But we didn't answer it. For the rest of our lesson, I was SO nervous. I just got this feeling that something crazy was about to happen because President Anderson doesn't ever just call to say hi haha Well we finish this lesson and immediately call President back. The whole time my heart is just pounding and then he says, "I just wanted to let you all know that we have received Sister Hargrove's Visa and she will be leaving on Monday, the 15th." And this is how I respond, cue the ugly tears... "OHMYGAWSH! AHHHH!!!!! I'M GOING TO BRAZIL!!! AHHH!!!!!!!!!!" repeat about 5 times while President is on the line talking to Sister H about my flight plan and other important stuff that I should have been listening to, but I was too busy freaking out. Craziest moment of my LIFE. So much changed in the five minute phone call. And now all I can think of is that fact that I need to eat as much American food as I can in the next 7 days because it's going to be rice and beans from here on out. SERIO.

4th of July: I had an AWESOME fourth this year. About a hundred missionaries walked in this huge parade in Monument, CO. It was soooo cool. we all dressed up in patriotic colors, held flags and sang hyms. We also threw a TON of candy. Our members, the Ss,  gave us $100 dollars to buy candy with. SO. MUCH. After the Parade we had dinner at the M's home. They are the sweetest couple I know. Brother M had a stroke a couple years ago has the sweetest testimony. They had my whole district over plus a member and fed us all a delicious barbeque. So good! 

Soup Kitchen Miracles: We went to the soup kitchen again last wednesday. As always, it was great. I was in charge of serving pasta. I stinking love those people!

Splits: At the beginning of this week I went on splits with a less-active member in one of the family wards. Her name is M and she is 18 years old. She is so nice. Anyways, so Sisters H and S went together in the car to a different area and M and I hit the streets. We visited about 8 less-active homes. half weren't there, but we found a new investigator while we were walking! His name is F, he is YSA aged and SO nice. We also visited a man named T who agreed to meet with us again. Turns out he works everyday except Sunday. How great is that?! ;)

Z: I can't remember if I have told you about Z already, but we had a lesson with him this week and I basically layed down the law. I have never been so bold in my life. I pretty much told him that he needed to get his life together and start taking action instead of smoking pot all day long. It was AWESOME. He told me that I blew his mind. Such a good feeling. Then later that week he had the audacity to try and drop us! He said he was only going to come to Church because he thought we were pretty. But fortunately for him, I stood my ground and told him we would be back next week to see how his Book of Mormon reading was going. :)

That's all I have time to write right now... I have to send home a few things... turns out I brought too much stuff... Who knew?! Anyways, I'll be sending that home soon.

LOVE YOU ALL!

I will talk to you in seven days! AHH! IN BRAZIL!

Love,

Sister Hargrove

Holy. Moly. Where do I even start. This week has been NUTS. But, overall, I LOVE COLORADO. Serio.

Dad, you would love Colorado. It is a combination of the Washington Forests and the Utah Mountains. I looove it. Also, we are surrounded by a bunch of 14,000 ft. mountains that people come from all over to hike and rock climb on. Unfortunately, missionaries are not allowed to do anything too risky, so I won't be climbing any of those anytime soon...

Well, here's my life for the past week...

I got in to CO on Monday. When we got off the plane, our mission president, President Anderson, was waiting to greet us along with five other elders to carry our stuff. Since the group of four that I was in arrived earlier than the rest of the group, President Anderson took us all out to Breakfast at Dennys. SO good. For the first two days, we were in a group of 28 new people (5 were visa waiters, 2 brazil, 3 peru) and we were just in training the whole time. Not going to lie, I hated it. The majority of the people there were going to Colorado and knew the people there from their districts at the MTC, so I felt kind of like an outcast. Then, we were basically in a church gym doing training the entire time. Lame.

The other girl going to Brazil with me, Sister S. is my companion and I love her! I am in a trio, so it is me, Sister S.  and our trainer Sister H. Sister H is great! We love her! On Wednesday we had our big companion/area reveal. All of the new missionaries sat in the front and all of the old missionaries sat looking at us. Then, President Anderson called us up, one by one, to read what I would call a THIRD mission call for me. haha. It just said what area we were going to be in and who our companions were. Sooo, I am in the Colorado Springs Area. AND I am opening a new area called the YSA Rescue Team. Cool title, huh? We are over FOUR stakes of YSA members. But, we only focus on the less-active members. There are about 1800 YSA's total in the area and only about 300 go to church. So we have our work cut out for us. We won't be doing any tracting, or teaching any new investigators, we're just bounty hunters for the astray YSA's. I love it!

We do a lot of drop-bys trying to see if the members still live at the house we have listed. We must have stopped by at LEAST 20 houses so far before someone answered the door. His name is J. , he is 28 and hasnt been to church since he was baptized at age 8. When we opened the door, he was wearing baggy jeans and a wife beater, His zipper was undone and I could see his nipple. lol. I am pretty sure he does some sort of drugs as well because his teeth are literally black and orange. ugh. But, anyways, he answered the door and we talked to him about his life and his religious beliefs. He told us that He believes in a God, but doesn't see the need for an atonement or Jesus Christ. He said that he doesn't take the Bible literally, but as a book of good stories and morals.Very interesting. We talked to him for about 15 minutes on his door step and then asked him if he would be willing to meet with us again. HE SAID YES! So we are meeting with him this Wednesday at 2 o'clock. It was way cool. His heart was definitely softening while we were talking to him and I am so excited to finally teach someone.

We haven't really been teaching because, since we are opening a new area assignment, we have been having to plan a lot of things out and get a lot of information from all 30 wards.So many phone calls! We are also trying to set up a bunch of dinner appointments as well because we have to live on $28/week for everything.

Also, we live in a mansion - seriously google earth it if you get the chance.

Sister Nicole Michelle Hargrove

c/o The Sherwoods

1975 Alamosa Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80920

You can send letters there until I am transferred or get my visa. Speaking of Visas, I have not heard any official news on my Visa status, but I am very happy to be reassigned in CoSprings until I get it. In fact, I wouldn't mind staying in CoSprings, I love it that much!

On a more spiritual note, for the entire week, I have had a feeling that I need to get a blessing... but I had no idea why and I felt weird asking for one when I didn't know the reason. I finally gave in yesterday and asked one of the elders, Elder C, in my district to give me a comfort blessing. It was GREAT. Turns out, God just needed to talk to me. I needed to hear every single thing he said too and I didn't even know it. In the blessing he told me a bunch of stuff, but what stuck out to me was that I would go to Brazil soon (he said SOON! ahh) and that there are people waiting to meet me here and that I would recognize them when I saw them. Crazy.

The church is SO true and I love it. Have a great week everyone. Read your scriptures. Eu amo voces.

Love,

Sister Hargrove