Season 2 Episode 6 - “Conferência Geral” (General Conference) [BEST HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR]

Beautiful Views

September 30, 2019
thru October 6, 2019 

P-day: Since we live in the same house as two other Sisters here in our area, we decided that we should go on a hike to the beach. It was such a fun and pretty hike!! It was awesome because it reminded me of Utah a bunch!! Well it reminded me of Utah the entire time we were walking up until we ended up at the beach. Then we basically spent the whole day on the beach enjoying a fun break to enjoy p-day. When we were finished, we took the bus to the “Lan House” which is where we have access to the computers and can talk to our families!! Once we had finished talking to our families for the week, we went back and were able to talk to the lady that had contacted us about a week earlier. Her name is Jamiley and it turns out that the missionaries had been teaching for about a year, but the other Sisters had not passed her name to us, so we had no idea about her until she stopped and talked to us. We shared a quick message with her, and we set up another meeting with her for next week to teach her and her husband.

Tuesday: One of the highlights of today was that we went and visited who we had only clapped at his door before we went ant taught him. We got to his house and he told us that he was a little busy but that we could talk to him at the door. When we were leaving, after sharing a short message with him, he apologized for not letting us in but next time we will be able to share a message with him! He is cool; his name is Marcelo he was asking us a whole bunch of questions about being a missionary. My companion and I left his house and we were so excited!! We even started talking about how cool it would be to see him go on a mission later!!

Wednesday: Not going to lie today was a pretty rough one, we passed by everyone’s house and no one that we had planned on visiting was home when we stopped by. We then decided to call a bunch of the contacts that were still in our phone from the missionaries before us, nobody we talked to was really interested either. But then we stopped by the American Family’s house and they had just finished making some banana bread!! They shared some of the bread with us and it was definitely the highlight of the day! And left us feeling much better after a rough day with not much going well for us.

Thursday: We visited a family from the ward which was fun, the dad and mom served a mission in Portugal, so she started to show us a bunch of pictures from their mission. Then that night we visited Andiara, who is progressing well in learning more about the gospel and growing her own testimony. My companion noticed that she had put the Restoration pamphlet up on her wall. We decided to teach her a little bit more about Joseph Smith and invited her to come and watch General Conference with us.  We were excited that she told us that she would love to come!!

Friday: We visited a few fewer active members and some recent converts. It was a good day and we were able to invite all the people that we saw and taught to come and watch General Conference on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday: We spent almost the entire day at the church watching General Conference!!! IN ENGLISH!!! It was super exciting to hear the speakers and to see them on screen and know that everything they were teaching us is true!!

Selfie Sunday - Watching Conference

Sunday: We watched the Women’s Conference session this morning with some of our ward members right before lunch, it was all in Português. It was fun to hear all about the new temples that were announced as well as the new Young Women’s Theme they released. Then we went to the church building to watch the next session in English and I just loved every minute of that session. It was almost time to start the last session, so I called Andiara and she said that we did not need to pass by her house to pick her up. Which I thought just meant that she was not going to be coming to conference at all. But she came!! She even brought her baby too!! Her baby was a little energetic, but the evening session was so good and focused a bunch on the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the gospel. They covered these topics enough that she leaned over to me and asked us for a copy of The Book of Mormon. It was so cool!!! I really enjoyed all of general conference!! Everything that the Prophet and the Apostles said was exactly what I needed to hear, and what the world needed to hear in order to prepare the people to come closer to Christ in the last days.

My favorite parts of conference: I really really loved all of the talks. I loved Elder Uchtdorf’s talk, as always, I loved the end when he was saying “please come join with us, you will discover about yourself, God and the gospel!”  His talk was really inspiring to me, I also loved Elder Gong’s talk when he said, “We may lose faith in God, but he never loses faith in us.” There was also a bunch from Radband’s talk that was about honoring and keeping our covenants. Elder Budge was talking about how we need to trust in the lord more. He used a cute example of his grandson, that said “I don’t feel safe, but I am” I loved that because sometimes we feel that same way, we are put into situations that are not going to be easy (like a mission speaking Portuguese) but, we know that Christ is always with us, always. We just have to have our faith and confidence in Him. and to remember what the lord has said (I have prepared a way for you) Gods plans are not always our plans. I loved the talk from Elder Alliaud, I loved his conversion story! Especially that he focused on how The Book of Mormon really is truly powerful!

American Brownies are the BEST even in a BUNDT PAN

But if I had more time, I would tell you about every talk that was given and my favorite part from each one of them. Luckily you don’t have to just trust my word for it, you all have access to all the talks that were given in this conference and can have your own favorite parts stand out to you.

XOXO – Sister Sanovich

Season 2 Episode 5 - Celebrating 7 months

One last update then we are ALL caught up. (Well until Monday haha)

Monday September 30, 2019 

They went on a hike and to the beach today so NO time to write a letter says Sister Sanovich (PRIORITIES I GUESS??? lol) but we did get these pictures.  

Looks like Sister Sanovich is enjoying the BEACH LIFE!!!  What do you think???  

  

It's official Carley has been on the MISSION for 7 MONTHS.

Whew....we are ALL caught up!

Carley is definitely enjoying her time in Brazil.  

Her NEW companion is Sister Romero she is from Tooele, UT. 

Season 2 Episode 4 - Tchau Efapi, Oi Rio Tavares. Vamos pra a praia (Goodbye Efapi, Hello Rio Tavares. Let's go to the Beach)

Email sent on September 23, 2019

Okay, so here are a few things that have happened! Let’s see...where do I begin? I’ll just give a few of the highlights from the last couple of weeks.  Sorry it's been awhile.

- The sister training leaders came to Efapi and we did splits with them, it was so much fun! I was with another American this time, Sister Howell for a few hours! It is always so amazing to see and work with other sisters and see how they teach the same lessons in different ways! 

-We had zone conference with President and that’s always the best too, we are able to see and learn the different things he feels are important for us to learn, remember and apply to our teaching! As part of this conference my district sang a song in front of our zone and that was a really fun and new experience! Now it’s even better going to these conferences because, everyone knows that I can actually speak and understand Portuguese now, so they all start talking to and calling on me.... It is so incredible to be able to talk! 

-During one of our walks, I taught the word “Hangry” (hungry and angry) to my Brazilian companion that does not know any other English! She has now started to use it all the time! It is one of the best things and funniest things ever!

- Our mission president called on Saturday saying that I would be leaving Efapi and would be going to finish the training of another American Sister, and white washing, or both missionaries being two new sisters in the city Rio Tavares! Our new area is literally on the island of Floripa and is mainly beach that is so close to the ocean!!

-My first daughter in the mission Sister Anunciaçao, stayed in Efapi and got a new companion, I am very excited that she is staying there and that I will be able to hear what is going on with the people there still.

-Saturday, I went and said goodbye to everyone, it was crazy! The sweetest part was that two of my recent converts gave me the cutest necklaces as goodbye gifts! I already miss them a bunch!

-Sunday after lunch, my companion started to have a really bad allergy attack! So, after we tried a couple of things to see if we could make it any better, we ended up at the hospital for about 4 hours.... Here, they have rules that only the person that is sick can enter so I had to stay outside with our bishop and his family. Luckily the medicine they gave her helped and she is doing much better now!!!

-However, our little hospital adventure was a little interesting because I was not packed when we got back to the apartment around 8:30- 9pm and we had to get to the airport at 1am.... So, I didn’t actually get any sleep that night because I was busy packing my bags while my companion was trying to get some sleep because she was still not doing any better at that point, and the medicine that they gave her....

-My new companion, Sister Romero and I got to the airport at 1am to welcome the new sisters and wait until about 5am to get on the plane headed to Floripa.

-We were just sitting there and there were some people that were sitting across from us and started to say “Joseph Smith” so we started to talk to them... They were asking the craziest questions to us, it’s good that I was able to answer the questions, but it was crazy at 3am having people asking me those kinds of questions, especially because my Portuguese doesn’t function that well that early in the morning. 

- We get to Floripa and the Elders were at the airport to meet us, give us our phone and tell us where we were supposed to go since neither of us had ever been there before, However, the phone that they gave us wasn’t charged so they handed that to us and basically just said “good luck the other set of sisters that you guys are going to be living with aren’t answering their phone right now... So, when you get there just clap out front and then knock on the door.”

-We got to the house and the sisters were definitely still inside sleeping!!! So, the two of us just were sitting there, clapping and yelling trying everything we could think of and then luckily, they finally answered!! The other sisters are so awesome and helped us out so much figuring out all of the details that we need to know about our new area and ward.

-We started to work on Tuesday, and it was crazy, we went the whole day without teaching a single lesson, people are so different here on the island than the people that I got to know in Chapeco, but they are still awesome! The whole time we were using a map to look for a street and WE FOUND THE BEACH!!!!! Since we ended up there, we decided to take a minute and just stare at it for a couple of minutes that’s for sure! That was definitely a really awesome part of this week!!!!

- Wednesday it was raining SOOO hard! We were trying to talk to people but everyone we met were busy even in the pouring rain.

- Thursday... RAIN AGAIN!!! We were in the street at about 8pm and the power went out, luckily Sister Romero had a flashlight with her, and we were close enough to our house that walking home was not too bad in the dark... Such a crazy couple of minutes outside in the dark in the rain!

Friday- we met a recent convert and she is awesome!! She started playing music for us in English and made some popcorn! Her parents will be getting married soon, and that means that they are working on being able to be baptized soon too!!

Saturday- We were contacting people and we saw some WALMART bags so we were like lets’ talk to them for a little bit, so we asked them where the WALMART was and there reply was basically “I DONT SPEAK PORTUGUSE”  and then I told them that was okay because we were both Americans and we speak English. So, we start talking to them, they didn’t want anything to do with the church but that was fun!!

- We then found the beach to plan out some other activities for a little bit, and one of our investigators came and talked to us for about an hour and then we went to his house and taught a lesson!!! After this we went to meet a family on our ward from the states!!! they are so cool!!!! 

That’s a pretty quick summary of the weeks!!! 

But I love You all and miss you all bunches!!

Remember that God Loves each and every single one of us!!! 

I love y’all too!!! 

Love, Sister Sanovich

Goodbye Efapi

On Saturday - September 14, 2019 I received this Direct Message from Jessica a sweet sister from Carley's area...Hi Mama Nic!!! Sister Sanovich is here with me and told me that today she received a call saying that she will be transferred and leave Efapi.  She will leave here Monday morning, for Rio Tavares!!! The island is really close to Florianopolis.  She will finish the training of another American Sister.  She doesn't know when she will be able to email you on Monday.  We will miss her sooooo much and I cant believe that she will leave. Love Jessica 

Jessica gave this sweet necklace to Carley
It says this "You and I will always be together with LOVE"

Then on Sunday September 15, 2019 another sweet direct message came through from Jessica...

Hi Mama Nic Sister Sanovich just left here, I had to say goodbye! I cried a lot, actually I still am! I didn't want that, but I know she needs to know new places and learn more. I really support it.  I already miss you.  I am grateful for all that she helped me and taught me. We will always be in touch Mama Nic!  I am so grateful to know the Gospel for such a sweet and kind girl as Sanovich!  She deserves all the love in the world. I pray in my prayers she finds a mate as good as she is!

Another sweet message & a gift given to Sister Sanovich from Janaina Ximenis another member from the area.

Janiana & Sister Sanovich

Sweet letter from Janiana

Some last pictures from Efapi...

Season 2 Episode 3 - It's Zone Conference TIME!

Note from Mama Nic:  It is true I am behind a few weeks I apologize for getting these updates out so late. Its a busy world we live in.  Please be patient with me and know that "No news is most of the time Good news."  Right?!  So lets get started... We didn't get an actual email from Sister Sanovich this week but we did get some pics.

Finally, her package from home was delivered!!!