10 Weeks! (pics)
Dearest friends and family,
There is no way to sufficiently catch up on the last ten weeks, so we won't even try. But we will share some of the highlights and the reality of mission leadership in Brazil. But may we first say, we are learning to love it here and we are amazed at the miracles that we've already witnessed.
What it feels like coming in as new mission leaders: running on a treadmill that someone has just poured a bottle of cooking oil onto, trying to get out of quicksand, or as a previous mission leader said, "drowning in an ocean with only a straw to breath".
What we do frequently: host mission leadership councils, put together slideshow presentations, prepare mission stats and track progress, do transfers every 6 weeks, speak at multiple stake conferences, host zone conferences every six weeks, track and manage all 85 houses or apartments and get hired help for repair work, field texts from all sick missionaries and local doctors, interviews of all 180 missionaries every six weeks (President Jones), mission-wide training on differing topics via zoom every Wednesday night, take outgoing missionaries to the temple, have outgoing missionaries over for dinner, pick up incoming missionaries at the airport, have all incoming missionaries over for lunch, take incoming missionaries to the temple for pictures, regular meetings with office staff, purchasing furniture and appliances for apartments, and meet frequently with missionaries one-on-one in person or on zoom and council them. Oh yes.....and spend as much time with Cam as possible.
What we do for breaks: site-seeing, trying out new local restaurants, walking to our favorite local gelato place, playing volleyball, taking walks in our beautiful neighborhood, visiting the local mall (Cam and Wendy), visiting the theatre when there's a movie playing in English, mission leaders seminar in nearby Gramado, and talking to our kids on Marco Polo a lot!
What we are struggling with: THE PACE, saying goodbye to missionaries, handling the constant health problems, the need to always seem cheerful even when we ourselves are having hard days, and not being with our family.
What we miss from home: our puppy, traffic laws, tacos, hugs from our family and friends, strong church youth associations.
What we love: welcoming in our new missionaries, any time with missionaries, training and teaching, practicing the language with each other, exploring our city, date nights with each other, working as a team with our incredible office staff and capable AP's, meeting so many amazing people when we visit the stakes, eating Chuhasco (Brazilian BBQ) any chance we get, 25 people flooding the stand on fast Sunday to bear testimony.
What we are witnessing: Obedient and diligent missionaries, many souls accepting baptism and coming unto Christ, miracles when we do member missionary work, the love of the people, miraculous intervention when President Jones does transfers, ideas flowing when we are coming up with solutions to problems, Camryn making friends and starting a new life here, the gift of tongues for our new missionaries and for Sister Jones, and the glorious work of the Lord continuing on after the floods here in Porto Alegre.
What we testify of: this work is glorious, we are led by a living Prophet, the restored church is absolutely true, Jesus Christ leads and guides His church, we are simply His servants, young LDS missionaries are incredible disciples of Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost truly does lead and guide us in what we should do, and the Lord really does sustain and lift those who are on His errand.
What we find really funny: lanes aren't really lanes, motorcyclists go through red lights, they say "I am with hunger" when they're hungry, Brazilians eat a giant lunch and very small dinners, restaurants aren't open for dinner until 7:30, leather pants are very fashionable here.
In the future we will include some stories and share some more detailed miracles. For now, this will have to do. We love you all and CANNOT thank you enough for your many prayers on our behalf. We FEEL them.
To see photos of our mission, you can visit this link to view:
com amor e fe,
Presidente e Sister Jones
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