Week 35: Q&A
So I thought it would be cool to do a Q&A today... (mostly because nothing too interesting happened this week). Thanks everyone for sending in your questions. Hope y'all enjoy.
So, what is it that you do all day exactly?
Good question. In the morning we study the scriptures and practice teaching, and then we go out and help people build their faith in Christ, repent of their sins, and prepare to be baptized. We talk with people on the streets and offer to visit them, and then we go to their houses and teach. We teach about the restauration of the gospel of Christ and how it is central to the plan of God.
What advice would you give to someone preparing for a mission?
Yo, missions are hard. Seriously. It's a challenge physically, emotionally and especially spiritually. You have to talk with strangers, walk all day long, deal with rejection, and learn how to rely on the Lord for everything. But it's so good. You learn to see people the way that God sees them and love them the way He does. You get stronger, smarter, and better able to face challenges. You learn so much. But you have to prepare and be patient.
Get a job before the mission and work hard at it. Obey the rules even when no one is looking. Talk with people about the church and bear your testimony (it doesn't have to be at the pulpit; it can be for a friend or family member). Memorize a collection of scriptures (including the references) and practice explaining the context and significance of them). Also maybe exercise a little (because seriously, we walk miles each day).
What's your favorite thing to teach about?
This depends a ton on the person. For some people, it's really powerful to testify about repentance. For others I really enjoy speculating about how each Kingdom of Glory will be. And of course, the Spirit gets super strong when we recant the First Vision.
Was it hard to learn Portuguese?
So looking back, I'm reasonably sure that the best way to learn a language is go to the country and wait. Studying and practicing is important but honestly I'm convinced the biggest factor is just time. Work hard, use what you know, but don't stress out if it takes a while. I'm sure it would have been a lot less difficult if I had been patient, but yeah. Turns out we're given challenges to help us learn new skills and qualities and also to help us to be humble. Right now though we're fluent so all's well that ends well.
What's the food like there?
Oh my goodness, it's so good. First of all, we have rice and beans pretty much every day, but always with something else so it doesn't get old. Some days it's frango parmesão (chicken with parmesan), and others it's bife com batatas fritas (steak with french fries). The lasanha is a little different here (they put in slices of ham (like, sandwich meat) and sometimes corn and stuff, and I don't know why but it's so much better), and my personal favorite is the stroganoff (which I have discovered is basically just chicken with a sauce made from ketchup and milk mixed together).
You know those little Perler Bead things that you iron together to make a picture? Here we have tapioca, which is this powder stuff that you cook and it melts together to make a tortilla-ish thing. It's pretty cool. And there's a ton of different kinds of fruits, too. We have maracujá, mangos, other fruits I don't yet know the name of. My favorite, which I have become slightly obsessed with, is goiaba.
Have you met anyone really weird?
We met a lady who is in the Guiness Book of Records for being an old lady with the most tattoos. She was wearing an oversized red evening gown and a Mary Poppins hat and was very animated.
We met a guy on the street, spoke really quickly, and invited him to church. We invite a ton of people to church and usually they forget (or just don't care) so I wasn't expecting anything to happen, but he went the next Sunday. I was like, woah, this guy is awesome, but then when we talked with him afterwards he told us that he had been robbed and needed money. When we told him we couldn't give him anything (aside from, like, eternal salvation) he got mad and left.
There are some interesting religions here and this week we found a lady who told us all about how she bathes with different plants and herbs, and how the herbs give her an aura that protects her against the demons.
Things they have in Brasil that they don't have in the States:
Fruit! (see above)
Monkeys (I've only seen one, but that's one more than I've seen in the streets of Colorado)
Favelas (here is where we find 90% of our investigators)
Things they have in the States that they don't have in Brasil:
Peanut butter (though due to the awesomeness of my family and of a random teenage American visiting her dad's mission, I've got a good supply)
Atheists
Mops (we wrap a rag around a big ol' squeegie thingy with a broom handle. Very fancy, I know)
And that's all the questions I could think up. I hope y'all enjoyed this week's adventure. Tune in next week for even more awesomeness. God loves you and the church is true.
Love,
Sister Hannah Hiatt
P.S. Send me a fan because winter is a lie
Sister Hannah Hiatt
Av Dr. Luís Rocha Miranda, 159
8º Andar
Jabaquara
04344-010 São Paulo - SP
Brazil
So, what is it that you do all day exactly?
Good question. In the morning we study the scriptures and practice teaching, and then we go out and help people build their faith in Christ, repent of their sins, and prepare to be baptized. We talk with people on the streets and offer to visit them, and then we go to their houses and teach. We teach about the restauration of the gospel of Christ and how it is central to the plan of God.
What advice would you give to someone preparing for a mission?
Yo, missions are hard. Seriously. It's a challenge physically, emotionally and especially spiritually. You have to talk with strangers, walk all day long, deal with rejection, and learn how to rely on the Lord for everything. But it's so good. You learn to see people the way that God sees them and love them the way He does. You get stronger, smarter, and better able to face challenges. You learn so much. But you have to prepare and be patient.
Get a job before the mission and work hard at it. Obey the rules even when no one is looking. Talk with people about the church and bear your testimony (it doesn't have to be at the pulpit; it can be for a friend or family member). Memorize a collection of scriptures (including the references) and practice explaining the context and significance of them). Also maybe exercise a little (because seriously, we walk miles each day).
What's your favorite thing to teach about?
This depends a ton on the person. For some people, it's really powerful to testify about repentance. For others I really enjoy speculating about how each Kingdom of Glory will be. And of course, the Spirit gets super strong when we recant the First Vision.
Was it hard to learn Portuguese?
So looking back, I'm reasonably sure that the best way to learn a language is go to the country and wait. Studying and practicing is important but honestly I'm convinced the biggest factor is just time. Work hard, use what you know, but don't stress out if it takes a while. I'm sure it would have been a lot less difficult if I had been patient, but yeah. Turns out we're given challenges to help us learn new skills and qualities and also to help us to be humble. Right now though we're fluent so all's well that ends well.
What's the food like there?
Oh my goodness, it's so good. First of all, we have rice and beans pretty much every day, but always with something else so it doesn't get old. Some days it's frango parmesão (chicken with parmesan), and others it's bife com batatas fritas (steak with french fries). The lasanha is a little different here (they put in slices of ham (like, sandwich meat) and sometimes corn and stuff, and I don't know why but it's so much better), and my personal favorite is the stroganoff (which I have discovered is basically just chicken with a sauce made from ketchup and milk mixed together).
You know those little Perler Bead things that you iron together to make a picture? Here we have tapioca, which is this powder stuff that you cook and it melts together to make a tortilla-ish thing. It's pretty cool. And there's a ton of different kinds of fruits, too. We have maracujá, mangos, other fruits I don't yet know the name of. My favorite, which I have become slightly obsessed with, is goiaba.
Have you met anyone really weird?
We met a lady who is in the Guiness Book of Records for being an old lady with the most tattoos. She was wearing an oversized red evening gown and a Mary Poppins hat and was very animated.
We met a guy on the street, spoke really quickly, and invited him to church. We invite a ton of people to church and usually they forget (or just don't care) so I wasn't expecting anything to happen, but he went the next Sunday. I was like, woah, this guy is awesome, but then when we talked with him afterwards he told us that he had been robbed and needed money. When we told him we couldn't give him anything (aside from, like, eternal salvation) he got mad and left.
There are some interesting religions here and this week we found a lady who told us all about how she bathes with different plants and herbs, and how the herbs give her an aura that protects her against the demons.
Things they have in Brasil that they don't have in the States:
Fruit! (see above)
Monkeys (I've only seen one, but that's one more than I've seen in the streets of Colorado)
Favelas (here is where we find 90% of our investigators)
Things they have in the States that they don't have in Brasil:
Peanut butter (though due to the awesomeness of my family and of a random teenage American visiting her dad's mission, I've got a good supply)
Atheists
Mops (we wrap a rag around a big ol' squeegie thingy with a broom handle. Very fancy, I know)
And that's all the questions I could think up. I hope y'all enjoyed this week's adventure. Tune in next week for even more awesomeness. God loves you and the church is true.
Love,
Sister Hannah Hiatt
P.S. Send me a fan because winter is a lie
Sister Hannah Hiatt
Av Dr. Luís Rocha Miranda, 159
8º Andar
Jabaquara
04344-010 São Paulo - SP
Brazil
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