ERI - KAKA!

So this week the world cup starts...I´m not exactly sure how this is going to work with tracting. No one is going to let us into their homes to teach a lesson in the middle of the game. Just imagine...Can we turn off the tv to offer a prayer? That´s a death wish! I´ve heard that on Brazil´s game days, it´s a study day for the missionaries. They stay home and get a few extra hours of study time...I hope that´s the case with us! That´s one thing that´s changed on the mission for sure. Before I thought that an hour of scriptures study was sooooooo long, but now I´m realizing that an hour isn´t nearly enough time to study all the things that I want to.

Read this scripture...it´s pretty much amazing: Romans 15:4

But one thing that´s good is my language. It sure has picked up a lot with Sis. Santos as my companion and I´m understanding pretty much everthing that our investigators and street contacts say to me. Maybe because it´s always the same questions/comments, but I like to think that I´m finally getting the hang of Portuguese.

Funny story. We were visiting Celia and Tiago this past week and Tiago was explaining what he does for work. He works in the Perdigão...it´s like a giant farm. Most people here in Rio Verde work in the Perdigão. His job is to sort the chicks as they come through on an assembly line. Because the chickens there are raised with chemicals and other junk, the chickens have wierd deformities. He was explaining some of them, including chicks with 2 heads "duas cabezas." When he said this he stopped, looked at me and repeated super slow using hand gestures..."duas" holding up 2 fingers "cabezas" pointing to his head. He had been talking about equipment in the factory, using words I´ve never even heard, but he felt the need to explain to me something as simple as duas cabezas! We all got a good laugh out of it and now whenever he says something really basic, he repeats it super slow for me! Oh the joys of being American.

1. When I think of Rio Verde, I think of this windmill in the middle of the suburb. OH I LOVE THIS CITY!

2. Because of the blazing sun, we bought these umbrellas. They´re made for hot sunny days, and won´t last very long once the rainy season starts again. My umbrella is smaller than Sis. Santos´...I think it´s a children´s umbrella...it would explain the little girl pattern :)

3. I´m not a impulse spender...but I just had to! It´s my name...KAKA! It´s a brazilian jersey for the world cup and this player is apparently super cute. All the brazilian girls in the ward have a crush on him...

O-V-E-N!!!!!

One of our recent converts has been really sick this past month and a half. She refused to go to the hospital because she´s scared of the I.V.s. Instead, she´s been trying to tough it out, but she has been having really bad stomach pains and random fevers. This past Sunday she started bleeding and rushed to the emergency room where she found out that she was pregnant and just had a miscarriage. When we went to visit her in the hospital, she was very upbeat and said that these things happen sometimes, but that we need to depend on God. Yesterday she was released from the hospital so we visited her at her house. It was a surprise visit and we found her and her husband reading the scriptures together. She´s bed ridden for 5 days and can´t do any work for 2 weeks because of the surgery. She has the most faith I´ve ever seen. She gave the opening prayer before our message and instead of saying "Please bless me that I can have comfort in this trial" she said "We´re thankful for our difficulties that make us stronger." I love her and the example that she is for me! Even when things are rough, she´s quick to count her blessings and find the good in the situation.


As you can tell from the photos, we got an oven! Let´s just say it is FILTHY! We had the elders light it up just to make sure there weren´t any rats or cockroaches living inside it. I don´t want to move any diseases into our house! Today we are going to give it a gooooooood scrubbing so that we can use it this week. Have any suggestions on how to remove months of grease and fat from a stove top? But we´re happy that we don´t have to live on microwavable food anymore (although the eggs and cake turned out real well). (Picture: Elder Musshoph e Elder DeSousa, the elders that helped us move the oven to our house. )

SPECIAL DAY FOR JOSE, SAMUEL, AND SISTER RIGGS

"José was baptized this week! He´s been super easy to teach because he not only accepts our commitments, but he actually keeps them. I haven´t taught him a lesson where he isn´t all smiles. He even called his girlfriend to let us talk to her about the church! The best part about his baptism was that he was baptized by my recent convert! Sis. Judd and I taught Samuel and he was baptized a little over 2 months ago. He´s super strong in the gospel and loves learning more about the church. He was readily accepted our invitation to baptize José and it was a great experience for everyone that attended the baptism." "I´ve officially given up my name. I no longer introduce myself as "Sister Riggs" but I am now "Seester Higgies". I´m just so tired of people forgetting my name because it´s too hard to pronounce. In our lessons with members and less actives it was always "Sis. Judd/Sis. Santos can say the opening prayer and the other one can say the closing prayer." I don´t want to be`"the other one" I want a name! I´ve been fighting the seester higgies for over 3 months and decided that I can´t win....bleh it´s so ugly!"

This is a group photo of the missionries with Elder Russell M. Nelson, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Sister Riggs is standing right behind Elder Nelson. (NOTE FROM ERIKA'S MOM: I used to work as a nurse on the thoracic unit at LDS Hospital in Utah [before I was married]. Elder Nelson was at that time working as a open heart surgeon and I took care of a lot of his patients. I was even present in the operating room when he was performing one of his operations. I would never had thought that my daughter would one day meet him and be in a photo standing right behind him.!)

Sister Judd. . . . . . .Sister Santos

This week has been full of adjustments. I have a new companion! Sis. Judd finished her mission and is back in St. George and my new companion, Sis. Santos is from São Paulo. She´s a recent convert who will celebrate her 3rd year as a member while on the mission. Sis. Judd pushed me a lot and now I have to regroup and learn to push myself. I was the soft one in the companionship with Sis. Judd. If an investigator wanted sympathy for their excuses as to why they didn´t read or go to church, they directed their questions to me but now I´ve become the brass knuckles.



Me with Presidente and Sister Tobias after our 3 hour car ride together to take Sis. Judd to Goiânia.






Beautiful Brazil...picture from our 4 1/2 hour bus ride from Goiânia to Rio Verde. This past week was FREEZING! One member said it was 5 degraus. I have no idea what the conversion rate is for a degrau, but it sounds cold! I went to sleep with my crazy pants, knee length sweats, and basketball shorts, 2 t-shirts, my windbreaker, blazer jacket, 3 pairs of socks on my feet and 1 pair on my hands...my comfortor and 2 towels. Luckily the cold front here in Brazil lasts less than a week, and now it´s back to blazing.

Last night we got to take one of our recent converts, Samuel, on some visits with us. He got to help with the lessons and is fellowshipping a man named José who we are preparing to baptize this Sunday. After our lesson with José he quickly said, "Essa mensagem nos deixamos com você em nome de Jesus Cristo, amém. Sempre quería dizer isso!" (translation: This message we leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. I´ve always wanted to say this!) He was super excited to help us and we are working on sending him on a mission of his own. He´s 19 years old and would be the best missionary! He answers all the questions in Gospel Principles and asks really good questions, too. I feel like a mom. I´m so proud of him!

New Companion

"I am back here in Rio Verde after 2 days in Goiânia. My companion Sis. Judd finished her mission and is headed home to St. George. I picked up my new companion at the bus terminal...Sis. Santos...Brazilian! The best part of the trip to Goiânia was the fact that we traveled with Presidente and Sister Tobias in their car. Of course I let Sis. Judd ask all the questions she wanted, but I was there scribbling down notes as fast as my hand could write. We have an amazing mission president and I´ll be sad when he is released at the end of June. It really is true that you grow to love those you pray for. I don´t know Presidente Tobias super well...that´s what happens when he has over 140 missionaries to take care of, not a whole lot of one-on-one time. But I pray for him and his wife almost every day and I LOVE THEM!"



"This past Saturday we had a wedding in the church! Celia and Tiago, our miracle couple that were baptized 1 month ago, got married in the church. They were already legally married, but Celia wanted a white dress and altar ceremony. It was super fun to be a part of this special moment in their lives."

Baptism Miracle

". . . this Saturday we got to be part of a miracle baptism. We´ve been teaching a man named Vaterlan... Presidente Tobias aksed every companionship to find a baptism for Saturday. . . (we) extended the baptismal invitation (to Vaterlan) this past Wednesday. He said he would pray to have an answer and would let us know when he was ready. Well the days went by and every day when we visited him he said he still wasn´t sure. But then...on Friday, he said that he was ready to be baptized the next day! The miracle part of this is that he works every Saturday, even holidays. This past Saturday was a holiday...The Day of the Workers, which means that he got the day off! He was baptized Saturday, confirmed on Sunday and it felt so good to be able to meet the request of my mission president."

-Ya, I let Sister Judd kill this one...I was too busy screaming from the top of my chair. And yes, it was the size of my big toe BLEH!

In the Presence of An Apostle

"The reason I didn´t email last week was because we got a surprise phone call Sunday night...

So this phone call was basically the best news ever! Our zone was invited to travel to the city of Goiania to hear an apostle (Elder Russell M Nelson) speak! Words can´t describe the spirit that was there in the meeting (that´s not the word I want to use, but I can´t think of the English translation for reunião). We took a mission photo with them and got to shake their hands. I can honestly say that there is NOTHING better than being in a room full of missionaries listening to an apostle speak."

"Last week we had 3 baptisms: Maria da Conceição, Carlos, and Samuel. We are preparing Samuel to be a future missionary. He´s so excited about the gospel and just a hoot. Last week after we finished a lesson, he asked Sister Judd if she worked out because her arms are super muscular. I asked “What about me?” And he responded that I was “sedimentary” and that I only got points in gym for attendance. Hey!"