No water, no worries and a Happy Birthday!

The Adventures continue here in Dom Pedrito. It's really calm but still really exciting. As a missionary it's perfect. I think I would get really bored here if I wanted to do fun things because it's a very low-key, chill life. Very Gaucho! It should start getting cold at the end of the month; March is like our September. I'm in the third week of my third transfer on the mission. Just nine more to go! I'll have been a missionary for 6 months in April! Woohoo!

Answering questions:

We're on the 4th floor of our apartment so we have a fantastic view. I get to see every sunrise and lots of sunsets from here. I take a lot of pictures of the sky- it's always amazing but it doesn't turn out right in pictures. We lost our water here, so no showers. This will be interesting. Our apartment isn't too bad. And we don't have to worry about surprise visits; we're at least seven hours from the mission office and an hour away from any other missionaries! It's funny that you guys washed dishes in the tub. I find the tub / shower is the most useful place ever. I do laundry there!

The church building is pretty small and doesn't have a big ugly wall around it (just a gate) or an alarm system. Just goes to show how much safer it is here. The  baptismal font is Tiny, like hit-your-head-on-the-wall-hazard tiny. At one point there were four sets of missionaries here and two Wards. Now there's just one ward and one set of missionaries (us!) and a whole lot of reactivation. It's pretty funny because almost everyone in the world is related. There's a family with 14 kids, which is TV-show-rare here, and all their families are who we're working with. Some of our current investigators are relatives of them too. Haha.

This town is cleaner, has fewer dogs, same amount of horses or more, plus more trees and flowers.

There are different churches on almost every street corner. There's a supermarket a few blocks away and we will go there to make purchases during Pday, but there's a little corner market in front of her house if we need a *bolacha or something. *Translation: cracker, but really a Brazilian cookie.

My companion has been out for a year and 3 months and is really excited to go home. She's the first companion that wanted to run in the mornings (we ran 1 block because of time), which I'm pretty sure we'll never do again, but hey we tried. The only food she buys is corn kernels and fruit. So dinner is usually popcorn and fruit except we already ate all the fruit so now it's just popcorn. She has a fantastic testimony. She got baptized when she was 10, left the church, and was reactivated by the missionaries three years ago. She is motivated to baptize people but not just because of the number. We teach really well together and we work hard every day.

Sister Johansson, our Sister Training Leader, called. Today we will have a split with them and we're going to Bagé (birthday miracle! President cut our monthly travel budget so we wouldn't be going to Bagé this week without this split.) I'm spending the rest of my birthday with Sister Ampuero (so far the only word I have for her is "fancy".) I like her!

🍰   🍨  My birthday was THE best day of my life! The zone presented me with a cake and the birthday Jong (Portuguese and English). I'm the bus I zoned out thinking about it and sister Bagatoli asked me if Dom Pedrito was making me crazy because I was smiling to myself. I said I was thinking about my blessings and promptly burst into tears. Sister Bagatoli and sister Ampuero got me presents. We just had a fantastic weekend! When we switched back, SA bought me ice cream.

I've been spending a lot of time on my knees and in my scriptures. I am really liking the character of Christ self evaluation thing. I actually did it today. I was surprised to find that *patience is my weakest  also (I was expecting humility). I think it's valuable tool for everyone.
*I told her about my own evaluation. Patience is my Achilles heel apparently.

I firmly believe that missionary work extends beyond the area where a missionary serves. Lots of people let us in simply because they have a friend or met someone once that was Mormon. I think that's way cool! The Lord knows what he's doing, to put it simply- lots of lives change for the better (or worse, if they are deciding to leave the church.)


I am so blessed! There are so many people in my zone that are really helping me out and so many great things happened this week. I listened to elder Holland's talk about missionary work and I'm just moving all the music you sent with me. I'm loving the work and I'm learning A LOT!

Love you guys so much! Thanks for all the support you give. I pray for you every single day.

Até próxima semana!
Beijos!

Happy 2-0 to me!

Com carinho,
 Sister Hartman

(How cool that there's a missionary with your last name, Dad! I won't let you down!)

I don't know what I did, but there's a cat on my lap...and it really loves me

Ice cream even in the countryside

So I'm in Don Pedrito now and I love my area. The 'city' is Tiny, super safe, super clean, super pretty, and super *Gaucho. Uruguay is 30 minutes away. We're far away from everything. On the map, our ward boundaries are larger than my whole other Zone at Rio Grande. I'm giving my shoes another week. The ground is rocky and I'll be showing holes by the end of the transfer. Maybe by next p-day! But, the weather isn't too terrible. *Cowboy

We've got a fantastic ward. It's pretty strong - about 60 people every week. And people actually show up on time! What a blessing. There's such a good feeling in this ward. Sacrament meeting is a spiritual experience. I play the piano. The Lord is really blessing this ward because he sent to piano players here back-to-back. Also, I've never played better in sacrament meeting and I know it's the Lord.

The people are more humble here. Everyone works on the farms. Cars are horrible here. (Think *Jetta in age and functionality.) I'm always afraid that the cars will explode. The people are great. I'm loving the work here and I'm so happy. Our apartment has a few issues- no washing machine, the toilet has issues, sometimes we don't have water, we have roaches, etcetera- but it has the best view ever! I love it so much. Sunrises and sunsets are so awesome here. *Her car that cost $5, Thanks, Emily! It wasn't a looker and it had some issues, but it got her everywhere she needed to go. Until one day when it blew up. Clearly, no need to fear since she's alive and well, but exciting nonetheless.

My companion is Sister Yesenia Agurto from Santiago, Chile. She was reactivated three years ago and has a fantastic testimony and lots of experiences that connect with investigators. She's super beautiful and really cares about people. We have some differences but we still find and teach people well.

Feeling the love for this cat!

The language is going super well. The food... we got nothing at home and no money til Wednesday so we'll see. What's going on up there in Utah. (This computer doesn't have a *question mark.)  I don't know what I did, but there's a cat on my lap right now. In the lan house. And it really loves me. LOL #TenderMercies *There are a lot of keys either missing or that don't work properly and there isn't a key, period, for the question mark, LOL. This is pretty normal for Brazil.

Lots of great experiences this week: Lots of new investigators, 14, in fact. Which is super bomb. The power of *Jejum!!!!! We fasted Saturday so that we can have a lot of people at sacrament meeting: we had 4 people come! (I've never had 4 in 1 meeting before so that's super exciting.) Our pesquisador, Alice, is super great. She brought her sister and a friend and we're going to visit them on Wednesday. Fabio could be baptized today if he wanted, he's super ready. Just waiting on a little thing called 'an answer to prayer' about the Book of Mormon. *Fasting

I read Alma 34 and that has helped me. I'm doing really well.  The thing that makes me happy is the work, so I've been working very diligently and we're seeing some great fruits. Maybe some converts coming soon!  Also, I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and it went 1000% better this time.  I still cry when I  bear my testimony. Haha.  ( I think the tears alarmed Alice, our pesquisador, because usually I'm super happy when we teach her. LOL)

I know that we're being seriously guided by the Holy Ghost and marking a lot of baptisms. And walking a ton. The work is really progressing and I'm super excited about all the *changes to our schedule and stuff. The church is true and God is good! Keep up the prayers! Miss you guys and love you guys like crazy. *The church made some changes to the missionaries daily schedules, allowing more flexibility. You can read about it here:  http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865671866/Changes-in-LDS-missionaries-daily-schedules-preparation-day.html

Miss and love you guys. hope you all have a great week!

- sister Hartman

It's country!

Searching for golden contacts

I think I found some

Brazilian fashion suits me, don't ya think?

Excuse me, we're having a moment here

3/3/2017
Heavenly Father has really been helping me out. Even though we're supposed to only have 3 trips to Bage this transfer, it's looking like we're going to have all 6. It's crazy awesome. They're feeding us pretty well in our area.
The grossest thing I've eaten... I don't know. Probably the xis coracao (it's xis with chicken hearts) . I don't super love the flavor of chicken hearts, but I'm trying so hard to! Best thing I've eaten was hands down my birthday cake. It was bomb. I also ate a gourmet churro - the dough was pressed and fried in front of me and it was filled with dulce de leche and chocolate and was covered with other chocolatey things. Also we are a pretty dang good lasagna recently.

My piano playing is getting much better, especially my sight reading. I learned a new hymn the other week. I usually practice during the week when we have nothing planned. Choir practice is getting better. Honestly, it's generally a fiasco because I have no idea what I'm doing, but I take a lot of joy out of it.

Happy Presidents Day! Dinner at Tucanos! Man. True Brazilian food. The chicken hearts are authentic. And pao de qeijo. Everything else is better here. (Here the only seasoning that's used for churrasco is a butt load of salt.)

You asked about approaches. A typical approach is "hi! Good afternoon. How are you? Pleased to meet you. Just to introduce ourselves, we're representatives of Jesus Christ and we have a message centralized on him. Could we share this message with you and your family today?"  (Wow, it's weird to write that in English.)  All of our approaches are more or less that.

What are our hurdles? Everyone is an Evangelist. Their pastors have more power on them then they do over themselves. People don't like change. People don't like to go to church Sunday mornings, etcetera, etcetera. When we have no one to visit, we stop by houses of the people we know or door knock. We have lunch every day with members and my comp likes the members a lot so we spend a good amount of time with them. The rest of our time is more focused on finding and teaching then less actives, but it's relatively balanced. There are a ton of less actives here. There used to be two wards here but now there's just one.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I actually ate a lot of Cake. The Zone sang to me and got me a cake and I bought a cake to eat at fhe with some members and a couple of other missionaries got me gifts! Seriously, I'm so blessed. I'm so glad I was born in our family. Sorry I wasn't there to celebrate my birthday with you guys. My celebration was just the cakes, but President and Sister Cruz called and sang to me during the day so that was great.

I saw that you sent this email at 2 a.m. ish. I was probably waking up that day around that time. Haha. If I'm learning anything, it's the importance of sleep. You've got to sleep before 2 a.m., mom! Sure miss you. You know I love you right? Because I super do. Thanks for the support. All those prayers are paying off! Having lots of good times. The church is true!

Until next week,

Sister Hartman

We got the power, literally

This week, we had lunch in Cassino and the member was telling us all about Cassino and how one time Adolf Hitler came here to watch the Russian Ballet. So there.

Yes, we got our power back. We only had a week of no power. It was actually kinda fun. Bucket showers and candle lit nights. Glad it was only a week though. We haven't had many other issues. It would be nice to have air conditioning I think, but that's more of an American problem. 

Funny that you're being asked to pay more fast offerings. We're trying to get people to pay tithing! I'm recognizing the power of sacred funds. Not only do they help me out, they also make possible more chapels and church activities, which are essential for the growth of the church. 

So, lots has happened. I was transferred! I've heard a lot about this place, mixed things- I am now in *Dom Pedrito, which, among the sisters, is the END OF THE WORLD. We are the furthest area from the mission office in Porto Alegre and we took two buses to get here. One was 4 hours and the other was another hour. We receive an extra 100 reais per two weeks now because the expenses for our travel to our district conferences is so much. Our zone is Bagé and is known for being The Hole of the mission and that there is no water. It's a lot hotter and dryer and there's less wind.  I'm super pumped for this transfer. My companion is Sister Agurto, from Chile! (Please pray for me, I do not understand her portuguese. Yikes!) Our apartment is on the fourth floor but we have the best view ever. Woooo! *It is located in the area of Bage.

(Written on the day of transfer)

I'm gonna miss SG a lot. She's going to die in Porto Alegre (this has two meanings: 1. there's a lot of hills and it's crazy hot there 2. she's ending her mission there) so  I won't see her again for at least a year and 2 months. I'll try to send her your way. She wants to meet y'all when she starts school again at BYU. She's a lot like you, Mom. Maybe that's why I like her so much, haha!

Looking out the window on the bus, I get a very The-hills-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-music vibe. Maybe if I have time with my new comp we can run on the hills. Also it feels very like girls camp. Could be the bus. It's definitely not the random dude sitting next to me. Oh, I just saw a couple palm trees. Vibe lost. Last night we tried to make a cake as our last thing together. But we only had one egg instead of 3 and a little less milk than needed. And only a tiny bit of leite condensado to put on top. It was horribly dry, so we ate the top and left the rest in the fridge for the next sisters!

Dom Pedrito aka the End of the World

(Back to present day)

This past week, we met a young couple. They are having problems in their relationship but they want to stay together because they have a kid together now (who is actually the cutest child in the world). They fight a lot and they wanted to know how they could get over each other's weaknesses and have a good relationship with each other. So. I don't exactly have much experience with overcoming marital-esque problems but I know the Spirit guided that lesson. We read Moroni 7:44-48. We talked about how charity is the pure love of Christ and, if they wanted to find things like love, kindness, patience, all of the good stuff in verses 44-48 that everyone wants in a marriage, they would find it by coming unto Christ. They agreed to read every day together and to pray when they needed help. It was super awesome. 

Makeovers

The scriptures are really cool. One of my favorite things to do to help people read the Book of Mormon is to offer a list of questions. I have a chapter marked for each one of the questions and I mark them for people and they have to find their own answers. The other day, we left a Book of Mormon and one of these questions (Why does God let there be so much evil and suffering in the world? 2 Nephi 2) with a new investigator. AND It's not every day that you find your new investigators in the street a few days later that say that they read that chapter, marked the answers in the book, and invited her friend to read it and join her for our return appointment the next day. Oh, and prayed about it. Whattttttt!!!!! It was super awesome. We taught her again on my last day of the transfer. All I gotta say is that people that put in the effort find the answers they're looking for.

Well, I can't wait to tell y'all about all of my wonderful adventures here in Dom Pedrito. Miss you all muito. Tchau for now. BOA SEMANA!!!! Beijinhos!

-Sister Hartman

I love the sunsets here!

Shout out to SG- I'm gonna miss her!

That moment when someone eats your Xis during church out of the church refrigerator..

I have 8 minutes.

So this week, we were studying as normal and we heard a knock on the door. Surprise, it was Presidente Cruz, who lives a mere 5 hours away from us. So we were trying to clean the other rooms really fast and discreetly as he was entering with his wife. They did cleaning checks. We failed, but not too badly!!!! We got a new oven/stove out of it, so that was nice. 

 We have been working really hard here but people still have their free agency so not many came to church. This next week is the last week of the transfer! Woah! And I will spend it with Sister de Souza, my first trainer, in Sao Jose do Norte. 

  

An old picture with Sister de Souza and Xis!

So we haven't had power this week, ya know? So we received *xis, the best **lanche que existe, from Wilson this week because he has the kindest soul ever but we couldn't eat it all of it and we didn't have a fridge. I ate mine the morning after because só vai but SG didn't want to so she took it with her to church to eat after the meetings. After church, we went to snag it before going to our next appointment, and ONLY THE BAG WAS LEFT. Sister Grubbs was HORRIFIED and it was so funny. Like, someone literally ate her xis and left the bag, the evidence, during church. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA man. So funny. *Pronounced like "Cheese", but somewhat cut off. It's basically the brazilian version of a cheeseburger!  **Best lunch that exists!

From another email:

In other news, we had a miracle! 

A family way way inactive, like 20 years inactive, came to church! It was just like a movie. We were walking to pick them up and walk with them and we turned the corner and they were were walking together, smiling. All that was lacking was tear-jerking music and it could've been the end of a movie about reactivating members. Haha it was super awesome.

Not much else to report. Still no baptisms coming up but we're working hard. The members are awesome. 

Maybe some advice? I think it's super easy for people to forget why we have church but when we remember how special it is that we have a day per week to rest from our labors and dedicate it to the Lord, we treat our meetings differently. And, in the States, no one has an excuse to not go. Some of our members travelled from other cities by foot, bike, or bus, just to take the sacrament weekly. And now they have a chapel closer to home. What a blessing that we don't have to make such a sacrifice to receive the same blessings. And there are a LOT of blessings that come from going to church every week! 

This gospel is so true and I love this work (usually, haha ;) ). Hope y'all have a fantastic week. That's about all I have time for, haha. Love you all, thanks for all of the support. Means a lot! Still seeing milagres every day! Muitos beijos!!!! xoxo, boa semana!

-Sister Hartman

Mosias 2:41

E ainda mais, quisera que considerásseis o estado abençoado e feliz daqueles que guardam os mandamentos de Deus. Pois eis que são abençoados em todas as coisas, tanto materiais como espirituais; e se eles se conservarem fiéis até o fim, serão recebidos no céu, para que assim possam habitar com Deus em um estado de felicidade sem fim. Oh! Lembrai-vos, lembrai-vos de que estas coisas são verdadeiras, porque o Senhor Deus as disse.

Making friends

District meetings, all work, no play

Loving new friends everywhere