Favorite week!

This week I think has been my most favorite week as a missionary. It was SOOOO good. Funny how it was a total flip after last week! So it started off with the temple on Tuesday. I have such a love for the temple. There is no place like it. As the session started, I felt such an overwhelming feeling of peace. Ah. I just love the temple. I am so grateful for having temples. Whenever I go to the temple I just think, man, this is what it is all about. This is what matters! It was awesome. So on Tuesday night we were walking home and we ran into Sandra, a lady that had walked up to the chapel, asked about church, flaked on our visit at church, and then we never saw her again. She said we could stop by tomorrow so we were way way excited. When we got there on Wednesday, she was kind of like uhm, well today is kind of hard, but as we were talking to her she let us come in, and then eventually let us go upstairs to meet her son. His name is Rafael. He is having a really hard time with depression. He opened up his whole soul to Sister Waite and I, but it almsot seemed like he was just talking to Sister Waite. He is so good. He gets it. As he opened up to us, he said something really interesting, I just want to be normal. But almost everything he felt and views he had on life reflected gospel views. So neat. We haven't been able to find him again though which is a bummer, but we want to! The coolest thing ever though was Nadia. HOLY COW. We taught her throughout the week with Skype because she lives in San Jose Dos Campos during the week and weekends she lives in Lorena.We didn't get to teach her on Friday because she didn't get to Skype on time. As I studied Saturday morning to teach her, I got the impression to just let her be. So did Sister Waite. Sunday rolled around, and everyone in our zone had baptisms after stake conference. Sister Waite and I had already decided a while ago that we didn't care about baptizing with the rest of the zone. We wanted to what was right. Still even at stake conference we felt like it might happen so we came prepared with a towel. It didn't, and ironically after church we had lunch with her family. After we ate, her mom and dad left, and we taught her the ten commandments. We talked about so many gospel principles while teaching, and Sister Waite invited her to be baptized that night. I felt the Spirit so strongly even though I wasn't the one who invited her. There were tears in my eyes the whole time. She said she felt like she should, there was just one little thing she couldn't put her finger on. We called up Elder Pila and him and Elder Barbosa came right away. Elder Pila interviewed her, they resolved it, and she was ready! She wanted to wait until next week though. The elders left, and we were about to leave too, and all of a sudden she said let's do it tonight. WHAT!?! The elders came all the way back from Guara, and the baptism happened. I feel like it was truly a test of our faith. To see if we would do what the Lord wanted us to do, or if we would want to do it our way. The Lord's way is always the way to go! ETERNAL FAMILIES! Yessss! It especially tender because Luzia and Miled just got sealed in July. I love my mission lots. I love this gospel lots. It is constantly be re-affirmed to me that is so true. It brings me so much joy! I am so happy to see the joy it brings unto others. You can see the change in people. It is so rewarding and so gratifying. Tomorrow is tranfers. They have told us that one of us is leaving, and we don't know anything else besides that. It is kind of pointing towards Sister Waite though and I might be a senior. I just finished my training last week though and I still don't know everything that is going on though so yikes! We will see what happens. Have an awesome week!

Two P Days ago we went to this park with our district. It was way fun!

Campinas! 

The girls in my district! Sister Borges, Sister Waite, some weirdo, Sister Melo! I would like to title this: The many looks of Sister Carvalho because they are all wearing my clothes. Hahahah it was fun

Fave zone leaders ever! 

I love love love love my zone. 

I love Sister Mendonça! We share the same birthday!

President and Sister Ferrin! I love them lots.

#matching #wedidn´tevenplanit

Sister Waite took this sweet picture

Claudinei. I love love love love him. 

The closest I will get to Autumn in Brazil.

Nadia!!!!!!

Nadia´s grandma Claudina, Luzia, Miled, Nadia!!!!!!!!!!!

Hard week.

So this week was a little hard. The most common answer we got was no. Also, almost all of our investigators fell. Bruno got in a bad accident and his mom asked us not to come back, Silvana said she got an answer and it was to follow her church. Nooooo! On Wednesday it rained really hard, and then a car splashed me. So I was soaking. And Sister Waite was soaking. In my journal I wrote the following: If I could write my life story, today would say, Things were looking rather bleak for the young sister missionary. It was also really funny though so I laughed about it. Sister Waite and I also sang On My Own in the rain. It was great. Although it was hard, we have tons of potential people to teach which is golden. Bianca let us go to her school and talk to her students because we are real Americans. We got a solid reference, and I am really excited to see how she progresses! The whole week went by kind of ehhh, but then on Sunday the miracles happened. Obviously. They always happen. First, a man we taught two weeks ago showed up at church. He left early during the lesson (he wasn磘 even the person we were visiting, he was just there) and said he would come to church sometime. Everyone always always says that though and they never come. But he came! He is so so so smart. He also seems so prepared. We are WAY WAY excited to get to teach him this week! We had the oppurtunity of teaching Nadia again this week, she is the daughter of the Elder Quorum and Relief Society president. She lives in Sao Jose during the week and Lorena on the weekends. When we taught her yesterday, we felt the Spirit so strongly. She has accepted everything, she just wants until Wednesday to be totally sure. Pray for Nadia! She is a special girl. I am so grateful to be on a misson. I learn so much daily, and I already feel like I have changed for the better. I am short on time, so have a great week you lovelies.

This week. Oh man.

So this week so many funny things happened. Where to start! So on Tuesday morning I got back to Lorena after we had our zone meeting. I LOVE LORENA SO MUCH AND I LOVE SISTER WAITE! I missed it in just those four days. Next transfer is on the 17th and I am nervous, because I just love it here! So on Wednesday we almost had a bible bash situation. Que chato meu. We visited this contact named Priscilla and we met the rest of her family, and if we talked for 10 minutes it would be a miracle. We would start to say something and boom they would interrupt and go on a rant of what they believed in. They told us they felt bad for us because we were confused and tricked, and they could tell we were good girls who loved God. Uhm, no actually I am not confused or tricked because I know for a fact the church is true. Yeeeeeeeea! What a blessing. We didn磘 argue of course, so we felt it was best to just go. Right before we were leaving they asked if we could go to other churches. We said yes of course, and they invited us to go their磗 so we told them we would go to theirs if they went to our磗. We went to their磗 on Friday and we heard lots of glorias and halleujahs. I also think the pastor took a picture of the congregation to put on facebook so look up Igreja quadangular with Pastor Andre. It was a good expereience, I like experiencing new things. Unfortunately, they didn磘 hold up their end of the deal and go to church with us yesterday, mas tudo bem!! On Wednesday we got new mattresses! YES BEDS THAT DON碩 SMELL LIKE B.O.! The simple joys in life make you so happy on the mission. I was freaking out. On Thursday we had lunch at a member磗 mom磗 house and I had my first experience with exotic food. They made a dish called mocoto and it is cartilage of cow磗 feet. It looked like clear pieces of rubbery bone. I graciously declined. I knew it wouldn磘 end well if I ate it. I also had my first experience with a bug in our house yesterday. Sister Waite was showering and I went to grab my brush in the other room and there was a big big roach. I started screaming and Sister Waite probably thought I was being kidnapped or murdered. She asked what was wrong and I said a roach. I stood on the couch and just stared at it for a little but then it started to move so I mustered up all my courage and killed it with a piece of cardboard. I really missed Will in that moment. I am learning to overcome fears here people. Now for the spiritual highs of the weeek! Tereza! She is the mother-in-law of a member in the ward.She got baptized this week. Everytime we teach her she is always so prepared. She pulls out her notebook and has notes written of what she has studied in the Book of Mormon and pamphlets. She was truly so so ready to be baptized. I love her. Every time we taught her she would give us the biggest and tightest hug. I love baptisms, there is always the sweetest spirit that is felt there. Even more tender was when her extended family got up and sang Families Can Be Together Forever. It was so good. I just love the mission!! Yesterday was fast sunday and guess who was back after a month of being bed-ridden. CLAUDINEI!!!!! Wow, that man honestly just floors me. Normally it take 3-4 months of someone who had his surgery to recover and he took 26 days. He is walking miracle. He bore his testimony and as soon as I heard his crutches moving I started to get teary. He has such a strong testimony. I felt the Spirit so so strong and I had one of those this-is-why-I-am-here moments. I know there are more people to teach like Claudinei and I am so excited to find them. The church is true! Yesss! This week I truly felt the Savior's love for each one of us. The more I study the scriptures, the more and more my surety of that is impressed upon me. We never have a reason to be sad, because we are all children of God. He blesses us so much, just reflect on all the blessings. Having a good attitude is the best thing ever. I hope you all can feel that so much too. That is pretty much it for this week, I hope all of you are doing so great!

Sister TiffCarv

PS Congratulations to all you engaged people! Wowie wow wow, I am so happy for you guys! SIster Waite laughs each Monday because I think there has only been 1 week that we have been together and someone hasn't gotten engaged. CONGRATS!

Tereza's baptism!!!!!! 

A sister told us that if you drink water soaked in eggplant for 24 hours with lemon you would lose weight so I tried it. It is literally brown

Ta da this is where I live! The yellow house. The church is next door pretty much. I live a charmed life