transferencia 4 semana 1

Indeed, I will be staying here in Verdão por another transfer with Sister Albuquerque. Sister Frischneckt just ended her last transfer and is flying back home to utah this thursday, and Sister Randall is heading down to Campo Grande, a good 12-13 hr bus ride. Lucky duck! ha!Im excited to start afresh and have a few more bairros added to my area, my comp and I will have two areas to cover until the next transfer when we get 4 more sisters into the mission! wa-hoo! President Oliviera loves sisters, i think part of it has to do with his own conversion experience being sister missionaries who taught him the gospel. Thanks mom for forwarding the email from Sister Manning, Im so happy to hear that things are progressing with Mario, he is definately an elect.This week I am excited to trying to put the shoulder to the wheel and keep up the excitement, i did alot of pondering and praying about what I can do to help keep the work going and the only thing to do is be excited about it! GREAT things are going to happen, Sister A. and I are going to tear it up in Verdão!Dad, I decided that the missing link in the family tree commenced in Brasil. I see all these homens on the rua men on the street, and i think, man he could be dad´s brother, or cousin. When i speak portuguese well enough that people dont have to question what language i am speaking, i am going to say im from the North, rather than estados unidos. Cuz some people just arent very polite after they learn this. Tommrow sister Randall and I willl go with Sister F. and sis. Hatten to have almosço com presidente Oliviera; you get lunch with presidente when you leave and when you arrive, so that will be fun. I look forward to the day when I can understand him. His accent isn´t too heavy like most Cuiabá people (speak very poor portugese and very fast) but he talks really softly.We´ve been trying to work with our less active, not active people here in the ward, whereas we have so many. It is really saddening to find someone, who knows the church is true, but they just have no desire to return because of the actions of the members. We met one woman this past week; so strong in faith, but she said she stayed there for 8 years and she just could not put up with the things that were going on there. Our ward needs to grow; if Verdão grows we´ll get to have a building of our own! ITs crazy, i feel like im still in Oakdale; im facing almost the exact challenges here as there, just with a little more population to work with and in a different language.I keep thinking about how in the last days the wheat will be seperated from the Tares, and even memebers of the church will be sifted; I see it now. There are many people who arent strong enough or willling to do what the Lord asks. It makes me have even more of a desire to stay strong to what I know is true; to gaurd my covenants and endure to the end. Of all the things we have to do in this life to recieve salvation and exaltation, its the enduring the to end that is difficult.Stay strong ya´ll,eu amo vocês!sister smith

transfer 3 week 6

Its been another difficult week here in Area Verdao B. I´ve been reflecting alot on my experiences in my last area in Oakdale, things were very similar to here. I am trying to see what changes I can bring to help improve the area. Its very easy to get discouraged, but I know discouragement comes from Satan; he doesnt want the work to continue. I´ve take the advice of my last trainer, sister Hislop. ``Dont ask why but HOW can I improve the situation´´ Sister Albuquerque and I are praying and fasting for some miracles, and seeing how we can be more diligent and obedient to recieve blessings. I cant believe this transfer is almost over. Im learning so much more about patience and listening to the spirit, and to truly love the people I teach. We had one investigator at church sunday, we taugh him, his mother and brother the first lesson on saturday and Luis wanted to come to church with us. He seemed to really enjoy the classes and sacrament meeting and appears to be excited to meet with us again tonight. I will most likely be staying here in Cuiabá, sister Randall is probably going to be transfered down to Campo Grande. I cant wait for when i go there, Sister Albuquerque tells me I wont be able to hardly stop taking pictures, its very beautiful there, very different from Cuiabá. Haven´t tried anything crazy this week, just enduring the heat and the sweat. Yesterday was so hot, I was thinking, Heavenly Father, are you trying to kill me? Nope, just close to it. Literally the refiners fire, não? I hate to think about when it really gets hot here....staying hydrated.....I already drink 6 bottles of water during the day! I´ve lost 2.5 kilos too...probably all the weight I gained in the MTC and in Louisiana. Sister Alburquerque said I´ll probably loose at least 5 more. With all the walking and the sweating, go figure! haha
Hope everyone is happy and healthy. I read about Morôni this morning, in Alma 48, he´s my role model. Im tired of being discouraged and tired of low numbers and dissapointing my leaders, myself and most importantly God. I´ve felt satan really working on me the last few weeks and its been really hard to stay focused and have the desire to be diligent. But I have the fortune of many people who love me and support me that I´ve been able to relflect on to give me strength. Thank you all for your love and prayers.
This is God´s work; No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Pursecutions may rage, mobs may combine, calamuity may defame. But the works of God will go forth Boldly, Nobly, and Independent, Until it has penitrated every climb, swept every nation, and sounded in every ear...until the Great Jehovah shall say, The Work Is Done! (from the wentworth letters, joseph smith jr...)
Remeber we are all missionaries for the LORD!!
Love
sister smith

transferença 3 semana 5

This week, todo mundo were either bebidos* or duidos**.
Im not baptising either of those folks, since they are not in the right mind for anything.
This week has been another interesting week, still dont understand what people say, but im understanding more words. :)
Contacting is really fun, Its all practice for me. haha My trainer has about 3 months left in the field, and we´ll probably be together for the next transfer, we´ve got new training materials! hurrah!

I´ve been pondering alot about the things I learned and experienced in Louisiana in comparasion to here in Brasil.
Being here in brasil, cuiabá is hardest probably the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.
When I wake up, I honestly dread the day. But once I hit the street, the sun blazing down on minha cabeça and minha mochilla, I get pumped. Lets go save some souls! Having the language barrier is really difficult, but I see how this is really helping me rely more on the Lord. I have never felt more alone than I have here. But at the same time, I constantly feel the Love of our Heavenly Father, comforting me and helping me to stay postitive and strive to see the bigger picture, past the sore feet, past the stench, past the thirst and tiredness.
All in all, I can say I definately am being stretched, much more than I imagined. And Im grateful for it.
you cant appreciate the joy in life with out the pains, no?

Thanks for all the pictures of sadie, bethany! SHE IS A DOLL!!! i wish i had more time to email everyone back individually, but the computer im using is slow and it took a while for me to look at the pictures. They were food for my eyes!
Emily looked lovely, it was good to see how things are happening in the family.
Next week hopefully I´ll be able to send some pictures.
I got some sandalas that are more comfortable for my feet hurrah! and sister alburquerque rigged up´a backing for my chacos, using straps from her old bra! haha! oh the life of the missão!

So here´s a little story about hands.
Saturday, there had to be some sort of holiday going on (oh yeah, its the weekend! thats holiday enough!) tudo mundo were drunk, sister Frischneckt and Sister Randall got their hands kissed twice by different drunks in the street, and my comp and i went to visit one of our less actives, Jonas....well he had been drinking. Lets just say i had to dodge to miss a third kissing on myy hand. yes....akward.....
indeed excitment!
love ya,
sister smith
Mosiah 8:18, Eter 12:12

vocab for the week:
*drunkard
**crazy, madman

transfer 3 week 4

sometimes i feel like a rebel. because sometimes i speak ingles in my head.

We´re off to a blooming good start this week! new goals, new people to meet. Sister Alberquerque and I have a lot of work to do try improve from last week, where i was having problems with my feet (the pansies arent used to walking for more or less 9 hrs a day) no bolhas er bb..blisters mais, my feet have not been super proactive for the work. I´ve had some medicine to help, i´m not sure if it actually does so today im not going to use it. it makes me super thirsty. and im already thirsty enough. lol but i hope these feet of mine are ready to work this week cuz i dont want to spend another hour with my toes above my head or doused in ice water. Yeah, im not so sure icebaths are that healthy.....I decided its the perfect form of torture. its like, hey lets walk in the Sahara Desert for 3 days and then go dip them in a bucket of water fetched from the Artic.
yes. torture.
então, I gave my first baptism invitation in portuges this week! We taught this older lady, Ana the restoration. She didnt really understand anything I said, `mais or menos´ Ive got to speak slower too so people understand me. I think in the back of my mind I think, hey if I speak quickly, they wont notice that Im speaking incorrectly! ERRR nope....makes it worse. haha
Im understanding a little more, i think, each day, but some people are very difficult to understand. especally old men with no teeth....yes i was doing a street contact and this old fella went off about something, very animated and enthusastic. He kept saying things and looking at me, and i kept thinking, is he asking me a question? i just hoped I was making the right facial expressions to suit his conversation cuz I understood nada. lol ´tis vida, não?
Oh by ways of business, i dont remember if i asked this in my last email, but mom&Dad, could ya´ll move some money from my checking to my credit because i used my credit card to pay for the box i sent before i left Louisiana. I might have, but better to check than have a huge bill when i get back from my mission.
Now that I´ve come to Brasil, I´ve been thinking alot on the reasons for why I need to go to Louisiana. I had some ideas in my mind, but I´m starting to think there are other reasons, things I can do to help my mission here? I knew things would be different, but i didnt think it would be as different as I am finding. I cant wait until I can understand and speak better, so I can be of better use.
Congrats to Bethany finally giving birth!! yay! Im excited for you and Alex to be parents, and she´ll be in the fun age when I get back!
Now we just need to get Megan and Liesel a husband so they can start popping out kids for me to play with. ;) jk
I cant believe how quickly the time goes by, this transfer is half gone, and at the end I will hit the 6 month mark. crazy. Somedays i really cant wait for this to be all over, probably because im in the greenie stage all over again. its super lame being the greenie! haha
well, mom and dad let me know when you get my letters so i know about how long they take to arrive. i sent them last tuesday. twas a happy birthday dad and happy mothers day mom!
photo 1: view from my window.
photo 2: what happens when we make chocolate frosting....
photo 3: trying the food on the rua...freshly BBQ
photo 4: starting of a weekly journal of the tanlines on my feet here in brasil.

hope ya´ll are happy and healthy! Love much,
kristin

Transferença 3 semana 3 : LOST IN TRANSLATION

yes, when you leave one mission and come to another, you suddenly pop ahead a couple of weeks.okay first things first: OBRIGADA por meu chacos mom and dad! they keep my feet really cool. its pretty darn warm down here, i honstly sweat all day, its great.. but the last two havent been too bad, actually kinda frio. Entao, quando when I walk i was thinking about things to say, but then I get here and dont know. So, need to get this off my chest: I LOVE Brasil. The people here are great, the food is delicious. I am very much lost in translation I mostly understand that I dont understand much that is gonig on around me. last night we were tracting and my trainher was trying to teach me how to pronounce this word (i dont even know how to spell it..) I feel like a child! lol its great though, I actually dont mind too much not knowing because I kow it will come pouco um pouco, little by little. My trainer said i~´ll understand in a month or so. Im finding im not even afraid to talk to to people, its only the fear of not knowing how to respond to a person cuz you dont understand. I see all these people, and im like o o o fala com eles!!! so many people here! rioght Im in Verdao, its part of the city Cuiabá. Sisters only serve in Cuiabá and Campo Grande.Other way awesome thing....Sister Randall.....my darling MTC companion, I found her! we were both waiting for our final flight to Cuiaba. our flights coming to brazil were different, she was pretty much alone. i got to meet up with a whole bunch of elders from our zone in the MTC and district. so that was really neat. Presidente Oliveira is muito legal. We calll our mission, CuiaBAtizar (batizar means baptize) we baptize weekly, and I hope our retention rate is good. I learned a lot of good things in my previous mission I hope that I can bring to the table. I love my trainer here, she is very hardworking and timely. I like that. She´s a brazileria, from the south and doesnt speakin english. I know she knows some but shes helping me learn by not speaking any ingles. Sister randall and I are in neighboring areas, and live together. Holy cow was my set up in Louisiana nice! We had so much space and air conditioning. ha. not here, I thought I had very few things in comparasion to my past comps, but here i feel like a little princess in comparasion! we dont have room for lots of stuff. i hate stuff...things are so expensive too! like sunblock, 35 - 75 $ gross... we get reimbersed though.this coming suday yall get to call me for mothers day so buy an international phone card. i have 40 mins to talk, i beleive. if i understand portuges correcttly. the number is 55 65 9989 9018 call me at one clock.

my address for the mission office, that is,

Av. Hist. Rubens de Mendonça 1731,
Sala 10consil78050-975 Cuiabá-MTBrasil okay.

thank ya´ll.love sister smith

semana 6 transfer 2

After the trial comes the blessings, nao? This past sunday was a little beyond dissapointing. Once again, we had no investigators at church. We had done everything we could, to have the members involved and arrange rides. Come ten o'clock, no investigators. We couldnt leave and try to round people up because we have to take care of the music and other things in sacrament meeting, sometimes I wonder how this branch would go if we missionaries werent there. The work has been really slow and we've been struggling to find people who are ready for this message. We had one woman who was so rude to us last week, we knocked on her door to ask her about her neighbor, to make sure we'd came to the right place for our lesson (they werent home yet) and she opened the door and said Good Night and when my companion said, we just have a question for you, she opened the door again and yelled, get off my property now! We've had some other experiences with people cussing at us and stuff, but hey, we didnt provoke anyone, so its not our fault they are so foul tempered. We have been praying to know what we are doing wrong that we've been having no sucess and we had a fast this weekend for Chasity and Roland and for finding those who are prepared. Today, we had a miracle. Yep, Sister Smith is coining the term Miracle, because its true! God blessed us this morning. We had met this man 2 weeks ago on preparation day when we went to the car wash/laundry mat. We gave him our card and told him a little about the plan of salvation. he had a family member recently die, so sad. He called us around ten fifteen and said he was at the laundry mat if we wanted to come over and talk with him. (Like I would pass up an opportunity to teach) dropped my language study and we were over there in minutes. We taught him outside the mat, and even with the noise of the highway and other laundry washers, we were able to teach him the restoration and some of the plan of salvation. He did speak alot, but he was listening intently. before we even commited him for baptism he was asking when our church meets for worship. He is tenatively getting bapized May 28. he is a really kind man, and very humble. When we told him how Joseph Smith had little education, he smiled and said, like me too. Its just so great to see how people recognize that they can all relate to Joseph in some way. The spirit was there and we were all filled with joy, I think one of the greatest fruits of the spirit. I am just so grateful that the Lord saw our faith and blessed us today. We've really needed it, as we've been facing a lot of opposition and lack of people who are interested in doing the work required to gain their own testimony. I pray we can conitnue to have success and bring souls to The Church of Christ, to partake of those eternal blessings that come through the covenants we make under the proper authority. The Priesthood Power is AWESOME. I wanted to share a quote from Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk in Priesthood session of this april conference. "Don't let a day go by without doing something to act on the promptings of the Spirit." We are all entitled to have the direction of the spirit, and we can pray for this guidance. I was reading this morning in Alma 31, about the Zoramites who built their rameumptum prayer tower in their synagoges. as I as reading I was pondering on, how a people, can get themselves off the path of correct doctrine. something that stood out to me was in verse 11--that they didnt observe the performances of the church, and did not pray daily to avoid temptation. To me, that shows how important daily sincere prayer is, your time to converse with the Lord, and then to have sabbath day oberservance, a day set apart to focus on the Lord, to renew our baptismal covenants. There are a lot of people who dont understand what church is really about, they get hung up what other people are doing, "so-and-so is hypocritical, therefore I will not go to church". do we go to church for man, or for God? Keep praying ya'll so satan cant weasel his way into your daily lives! Heavenly Father hears us and wants to bless us, if we just ask! We've had some real fun tracting experiences this past week. por exemplo: we went to a apartment complex, and it seemed like almost every door we knocked on was a lonely old lady who just wanted someone to tell their life story too, not to hear abou the gospel. The last of the set of lone grandmas, was this little black woman, wrinklely beyond all reason. She had no teeth too. Anywho she had us come in and sat down. She had a TV on so loud, we couldnt hear a word that she was saying, ( we already struggled to understand between her aged voice, accent, and lack of teeth to help for words) excpet for NO when sister Aka tried to turn off the TV. We sang her a hymn and hit the road. We met some really crazy weird people too over there. Are we sure that sign said Applewood apartments, or Applewood Asylum? haha they were some sweet old ladies, but they had no intention of hearing the gospel, sadly. the picture I attached is a drawing I did of another tracting experinence where sister aka got a little excited to get in the door.... the other picture is a sign our recent convert, Gwen Alsburry has in her workout room. Actually, its her husband Willy's work out room. he is pretty obsessed with working out. he looks pretty good for a middle aged man, i guess hes middle aged, he is like 54....100 is dead, 1 is new, so 50's is middle? yah anywho thats about all folks, love sister smeech

Transfer 2 week 5

Yesterday, I wrote a note to satan. This is how it read: dear satan, I loathe you. I distain your desires to make my life and the lives of my companions depressing. Also, you think you are pretty clever, and you may be cunning, but I know Who has greater power. So satan, eat dirt! with righteous indignation, Sister Smith So the story behind the need to hate on the devil was due to a series of uneventful, reject-filled and depressing days, possibly adding up to a week or two of being off the game. Unfortunately it took us until this sunday to admit to each other that we felt like complete failures and even had thoughts of, what am I doing here, I should go home, I wasting the lord's time. So after some reflection during lunch break after church, I was looking for something to give me hope. (admittedly, I was feeling pretty low) I pulled out my mission binder and opened to the monthly newsletter for February. The Assistants had written something that turned my light switch on. Went to the jist of "dont get discouraged at the sad attempts satan makes to slow this work" HA! there wasnt anyting wrong with us, it was satan pulling us down and we didnt even realize it. That made me feel relieved and angry at the same time. Relieved to know the cause of this distress, and irritated that I let satan work at me for so long! So I presented this amazing information to my companions and we sang hymns to bring some life back into us. boy was I ready to kick some opposition's butt! SUCKER PUNCH TO THE FACE, SATAN! Also, I got my first sunburn of the year. I meant to email a picture but I forgot my camera. Heres an image for your own imagination. Okay, so I was wearing a button up shirt, sort sleeved. Outside in the Hot Louisiana sun in front of walmart from 10am-2pm. my tan line on my arm is mid bicept, and I have about a 1.5 inch stripe on my neck/chest. Pretty much ridiculous. It sure is a conversation starter when we go tracting now. Sister Hislop said it was my pre-tan for brazil. Skin cancer is what I call it. but yeah, it was worth it. We went to De Ridder to help with a finding opportunity our district leader was doing. And it was rather fruitful, dont have to waste precious time with people who dont care to hear. We are going to do this in oakdale, and hope to find some simliar results. I hate hearing people say, Im baptist, Im catholic. thats nice, but what does that really mean? Guess what? Im a follower of Christ!! Ha, my companions were teasing me this week about "all the mail" I get. Actually, this week was prettty rocking. Thanks everyone who sent me some love. I had a letter everday for 5 days. alas, my companions had 0. (What can I say, Im just that loveable?) just kidding. I am really greatful for the abundance of love and support I have had from so many people. And Im finally buyin stamps this week so I can actually write people back! Hope ya'll have a swell week! ps. if you have missionaries ask you to do missionary work, please do it! just say'n cuz thats something we really have a problem with. and besides the fact that the branch is so small, but we have a lot of troubles getting people to come with us to lessons. dont be afraid to share the truth. this is an urgent message! Its our salvation at stake! :) Eu amo voces! sister smeech