Sister McEldowney in Santos: From New England to Brazil; it's actually happening!

Alright everyone, this is really real right now! In less than 24 hours I will be on a plane heading down to Brazil! Ahh!

My last update from the United States for awhile!

Here goes nothing!

Monday:

Busiest P-Day ever! Trying to get things done was insane. We shopped at a new store. Change obviously doesn't go well for Sister McEldowney and Sister Craig because shopping took us 2 times as long as it should have! Slightly embarassing, but amusing nonetheless.

We also got to have a baking day with Sister Kinney! I love her so stinking much! We made these super good banana chocolate chip cookies! I love baking and I love her and I just loved that afternoon! Yay!

We also started our exchange with the Sister Training Leaders on Monday night, so we had to drive all the way to Bangor. It was a fun car ride though! Sister Craig and I are the same kind of crazy, so it makes long trips in a confined space interesting. Entertaining interesting though.

Exchange with Sister Frame is always interesting too. I love her!

We went to get gas and we have a gas card. Well, she went to go check the oil and accidentally dropped the gas card into the engine. Well, we tried to use the dipstick to get it out. We understand how stupid that is, but we were desperate! Don't judge us too much. Anyway, we couldn't find it and we really needed to go home, so we drove home and I had to stick my head out the window like a dog to listen for it if it fell because using the dipstick obviously didn't work.

We got home and checked for it, but couldn't see it, so we decided to look for it in the morning when the car had cooled off and there was light.

That was how our night went and it was just such a lovely time telling the story to the district leader.

Helpful hint: don't drop things into the engine area of a car and don't use the dipstick to try to get things out from there if you don't listen to the first part of the hint.

Tuesday:

We found the gas card! On the sidewalk while we were on our run. Sister Frame was relieved and I was cracking up! Glad we found it though!

We talked to a ton of people while I was in Bangor that day and it was great! I loved street contacting with Sister Frame! I love street contacting in general, but with Sister Frame it's extra fun!

I made it through the entire day, but not a ton happened now that I'm writing about it. Cool.

Wednesday:

I got my companion back! I loved Sister Frame, but it was nice to have Sister Craig back.

We had a really fun FHE lesson with Nancy and her family. It was short, but good. It even included the kids!

Overall, being back in Skowhegan that day was just such a great thing. I love it here and am so grateful for the opportunity to have served here for the last 11 weeks.

Thursday:

I went strawberry picking for the first time! It was so fun! We went with Sister Nixon and she is just the cutest and we loved being able to help her!

Patrick, our investigator, taught me the Plan of Salvation! It was so cute! I loved it! Playing the investigator role and asking him questions was so fun and it helped him to learn it better. I love it!

We did so much service on Thursday! We had my last day at the Soup Kitchen, which was sad. I love them! Serving at the Soup Kitchen was always something I looked forward to. It'll be weird not to go anymore.

We also did service for the Tweedies and they made us dinner. I love them! They're so cute and funny!

Friday:

So, we do service at the animal shelter and the past few weeks they've been having us sort through the donations they get, which is all bedding basically. Well, the sheets are super questionable sometimes and this week most of them were actually washed and not questionable! It was such a nice treat!

We also did service for this older woman we met tracting, who reluctantly let us help her weed her garden. It was fun! Side note: I'm a pro-weeder now, so I'm up for grabs when I get home from my mission!

We got to see Ryann right after service and I just love her so much! She's so cute and I'm going to miss her so much! I love that family!

Families, service, and German Pancakes at the end of the day made for a very happy Sister McEldowney.

Saturday:

Happy Independence Day!

We had a surprise visit with Patrick and Sister Paradis! I love them so much! I didn't know it was possible to have this much love for people, especially this many people!

The Tweedies invited us over for a holiday cook-out with them and the Kinneys so we enjoyed that a ton! Two families I absolutely adore at once? Yes please!

Other than that, the day wasn't too eventful. I don't know where New Englanders go, but it's definitely not home!

Sunday:

We had three investigators at church!

We had lunch at the Blooms right after church, as usual, and we had breakfast for lunch, because breakfast food is my favorite! I was in heaven!

We also saw Aaron and had a pretty good gratitude lesson. That man always throws curve-balls during lessons, so I've had to learn to adapt the lesson. Good practice I suppose.

We had dinner with the Cooks and that made me so happy! I love them! They're so sweet!

Sunday was crazy! It was sad, but good. Also, I was just really glad when it was bedtime.

Well, that's it for my week, but before I forget, I was thinking about something a lot this week

I never understood when people talked about the importance of service. I mean, it made sense that it was important to help people, but even the smallest acts of service mean so much! We do a lot of service as missionaries, planned and unplanned. We did a lot of service this week, but it was probably the best thing for me. Getting to help others and see how much they appreciated it was rewarding in itself. The best part was knowing that by serving them, I was serving God (Mosiah 2:17). Service shows love and I've gained such a strong testimony of that since being out. It doesn't take a lot. Just a little bit of time and a little bit of love can make someone's day.

I love being a missionary! I love being able to serve people. Being away from family and friends is hard, don't get me wrong, but I love this work. I love the people and I love that my entire life for 18 months is dedicated to helping myself come closer to Christ and helping others come unto Christ. That's truly my purpose while I'm out. What more could I ask for?!

I love you all and can't wait to tell you about the amazing experiences I have in Brazil!

Have a wonderful week! Fica bem!

Amo Sempre,

Sister McEldowney

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From the keeper of this blog -

RE: Sunday

"The best part was knowing that by serving them, I was serving God (Mosiah 2:17)."

Mosiah 2:17 refers to a chapter in The Book of Mormon where King Benjamin, in his last days of life, has his people called together and speaks to them. It is a remarkable discourse. If you'd like to read it I've included the hyperlink to Chapter 2 below. The entire discourse goes through Chapter 5.

The Book of Mormon: Mosiah 2

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