February 7, 2012 Yep, I'm pretty much a pro

Okay. I lied. I'm definitely not a pro at this missionary thing yet
but I sure am trying my hardest. I have been in Racine, Wisconsin for
a little over a week now! So weird. Time went by very slowly this week
but so did my first week in the MTC. I think time is about to speed
up. That is good... and bad. 

 

So last Monday after I emailed we went to Wall-Mart. On our way back

to the car we passed this old man. I smiled and said Hello. And then he 

said, "Well, hello gorgeous." The funny part is that when he smiled bac

k at me I saw that he only had ONE TOOTH. It definitely took me by 

surprise.  My companion told me that was totally normal for Wisconsin.

haha this should be fun here. 

 

Shout out to Rachael: Happy Birthday! I hope you
are enjoying being 20! I love you! All day on Friday I kept on saying,
"It's Rachaels birthday! Yay!" I think my companion might have been a
little sick of that by the end of the day. But Happy Birthday. I love
you so much. I hope you got the letter I sent you! 

 

So this last week was pretty great. Just gettin used to the real missionary life. It's
funny because I know when I get to Brazil I will have to do the
transition all the way over again because it will be a completely
different experience. culture shock here I come. 

 

So on tuesday we went and read the BOM with a less-active woman who has 

been coming back to church. At the end of reading she was gonna say the closing prayer and
she was like "I can't say it, I'm too scared." But my companion was
just like, sorry, it's your turn. And then we both closed our eyes and
bowed our heads real quick so that she had to say it. She let out a
big sigh and then said the prayer. IT WAS THE BEST PRAYER EVER! Wow, I
almost started crying. I could just tell it was truly straight from
her heart and she just expressed her sincere gratitude for the Gospel
and Christ and the scriptures. It was amazing. My companion said that
was the first time she had prayed with her so I was glad I got to be
there and experience that. Prayer truly is an amazing gift that
sometimes we take for granted. 

 

So on Tuesday also we had our district
meeting and I got to meet all the Elders in the district. They are
pretty cool. We have Spanish elders in the district and so we
starting comparing Spanish and Portuguese. Wow, Portuguese is WAY
cooler. Sorry if you speak Spanish. haha 

 

Oh yeah, so this week I had my first tracting experience! I don't know 

why but I was SO excited to go tracting. I was really nervous at the same time 

and I knew I would mumble and mess up but I was so excited to try. My comp. 

thought I was weird. haha So we went and it was definitely a cool experience. My
comp. kept telling me that tracting is pretty much useless in
Wisconsin but I wanted to try anyways. So we did. We went to this
little neighborhood that I called "mini-utah" because all of the
houses were brown and Utah looking.  I told my comp. not to worry
because I knew we were going to get into at least one door. and we
did...... because they were already members. haha but it still
counts!!! We knocked on a bunch of doors but no one seemed too
interested so we handed out a bunch of mormon.org cards. ya never
know! One door we knocked on the guy answered and then got this grin
and said, "I'm actually a Lutheran Pastor." I was like... cool. haha
then he said he had to finish his taxes so he didn't have time to
talk. That was a fun experience. It will be interesting to
compare to Brazil. 

 

So later in the week our GPS stopped working. We
had no idea why and it said to go into a field to get service so we
went to this empty field and were holding the GPS up and walking
around. I'm sure we looked pretty funny. But we finally got it working.

You have to have GPS here or you won't get anywhere.
 

 

So we saw a lot of people this week. We work mostly with less active
people so mostly we read scriptures with them and help them get the
ball rolling and get back to church. We did have one pretty
interesting lesson though. The lady was deaf. And we don't know sign
language. So we had a mini lesson on a piece of paper. haha we wrote
"so can you make it to church this sunday?" Lots of times people
change the subject when you say that but we figured that since it was
written on paper she couldn't get around it. Well, we were wrong. She
wrote, "you aren't allergic to my cats are you? I hope not. I don't
want you to get sick." We were like... uhhh. you totally changed the
subject!!! hahaha 

 

Being here has made me so grateful for family. Mom
and Dad thank you so much for raising all of us in the Gospel. And for
making going to church on Sunday not even a question. It really is sad
to see so many people struggling to get to church and only half of
families coming to church on Sunday.

Random thing: Did anyone else see Bryce J in the Ensign for February?
I did! So funny!

So Sunday we went to the Spanish Branch before we went to our ward
because they thought it might help with my Portuguese. Anywhoo, it was
pretty cool because I could understand about half of what was being
said. But I think in the end it might confuse me more so we probably
won't be going again. But after the Spanish Branch I talked to this
Brazilian lady in the branch. I told her I was headed to Vitoria and
she was SO excited for me. She kept telling me how beautiful and
amazing it is and how wonderful the people are and the food. Yeah, so
I'm pretty excited. 

 

So our ward on Sunday was really great. One less
active that we have been reading the BOM with sat by us in church.
Sister Jones was nudging her to go bear her testimony but I could tell
she was really really scared. But Sister Jones said she would go with
her so she grabbed her hand and walked with her up to the stand. The
lady bore her testimony and it was so amazing. She said how grateful
she was to be back in church and to the missionaries for reminding her
how great it is. She said she loves the Sisters because she knows if
she falls we will be here to help her. It was really cool and I could
see how much love she had for Sister Jones for helping get her life
back in order. It is just awesome seeing someone make good decisions
and then feel the happiness that comes from that. I've got a great 16
months ahead of me.  

 

Also, yesterday was the superbowl and I guess
everyone here is obsessed with football and there are tons of drunk
drivers and what not so we weren't allowed to go out after church. But
it was okay because we had some good companion bonding time. One thing
I learned is that I am really bad at headstands.

I am so grateful for this Gospel and for the experiences I am having.
I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I want everyone else to know about
Him. There is so much pain and suffering and loneliness in this world
and if we can share the light that we have then there will be a little
more peace and happiness. The Gospel is everything. Well, until next
week.

Love,
Sister Zeller