Sunday 31 January 2016

January 2016 - "Nevertheless, I went forth…"

5 January 2016

BOM DIA FAMILIA LINDA COMO VAI??

WOW it's 2016! 2015 went way too fast........

NYE here was the best. So, President Broadbent gave us permission to stay up late and to have a Zone sleepover with all the Sisters in our zone right, but my favourite sisters in our Zone weren't going to come because they had been invited to this NYE dinner from one of the Imrãs in their ward. WHAT? lame. Anyways, we wanted to spend the night with them so we crashed the NYE dinner with them and the Elders in their ward and slept at the Sister's house that night. IT WAS SO COOL.


As soon as I walked into this house I realised why they wanted to spend their NYE here and not at our house.. because this house was something out of HOGWARTS, it was HUGE, like the biggest house I've ever seen in my life :O :O and the Irmã and Irmão love missionaries and cooked us the biggest, biggest feast that we ate at 10pm. Then we watched the fireworks from the best view! Ahh I think I shead a tear of happiness at midnight, like so happy and so, so,  SOOOO grateful to be here/for my mission/ my family/ my life. 
I thought I'd get like 2% homesick during New Years that I'm here and not at Convention, but I didn't at all, I couldn't be happier to be here!  



This rest of this week was so CRAZY/good, so many things to write about, but one of the cool things that happened this week is Antônio!  Antônio was a mini miricle of the week.  He works on our street, so we literally see him every day.  He sees us leave in the rain, in the heat, early and coming home late. We always say 'Good Morning' to him and we've had so many chats with him. We have even taught him SO many times in the street over the past few months. But he has always been our backup plan, like when a lesson falls through or we have extra time at night before 9pm, we say "ohhh, lets go see Antônio". We taught him way more than I thought, haha, I think we taught the restoration like 3 times, gave him a The Book of Mormon and ALWAYS invite to church. But honestly (need to repent a little) I always saw him as a number and not a Child of God, he was one more extra contact or one more lesson for the day. 

But this week while leaving our street we did the usual "BOM DIA ANTÔNIO!!" and he come out of his work and asked us if he can talk to us. He then tells us how much he has listened to what we have taught him and always admires our work. He has being praying for an answer, praying for months since we starting teaching him in the street. ANYWAYS, for Christmas he went and visited his daughter in another State close to São Pãulo right, and his daughter then tells him she's been going to a Church frequently and invited him to come with her. He of course did and when he arrived he saw what church she now goes to. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint <3 <3 <3 He was so excited to see that and told her how we live on his street and then during that Sunday in that chapel Antônio had his prayer answered.

Sister Ramos and I nearly fell over when we heard this. We then quickly bore our testimonies and commited him to be baptised (for yesterday's date) he accepted and we all stood there in our street smiling our heads off!! hahaha.
 
Antonio wasn't baptised yesterday sadly, he had his baptism interview on Saturday and passed and believes it all and has stopped drinking coffee, but I think he got a bit nervous and said he knows it's true but doesn't feel ready to be baptised. But we'll help him this week to reconise that he's SO READY. ;) 

I learnt a HUGE lesson this week about how we, and especially me, as a missionay can't judge who's really ready to hear our message. How our 'Plan B' is Gods 'Plan A'. We need to pay more attenion to what his Heavenly Plan is and not ours, after all this is HIS work. We openned our mouth preaching but not with alot of faith and we weren't really confident. But the Spirit took over and taught what we didn't teach. Sister Ramos and I both said, if only we actaully taught Antonio and really followed up he'd already be a member.

HUGE LESSON.

I'm SO, SO grateful for this opportunity I have everyday to learn and grow.  Looking back on 2015  from the start the end, I've grown/changed so much (haha, think you'd all agree) but for the better.  I'm SO excited to see what 2016 has instore for me.











Love Sister Bennallack

PS. Transfers are next week ….eeeeek, feeling nervous about this one, I think there will be a change with Sister Ramos and I, but miricles are real right? haha! Stay turned. 



12 January 2016


Firslty: I'M LEAVING SÂO BERNARDO 
Secondly: I’M TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
AND, not only am I training….I'm training an American Sister….Oh, my goodness!! 911! My Portuguese is still so interesting and now I have to be the strong one in Portuguese and actually understand everthing that people are saying and what's going on!
Maybe I cried in the shower last night......... I so don't want to leave and leave sister Ramos as well.
But now I’ve got it together and “I’ll go where you want me to go” you know ;)
But still sad about it, AHH, STILL FREAKING OUT!
ZONE/DISTRICT SÂO BERNARDO <3 <3 
missing it already, haha! lol, so dramatic!

So in our mission now, well actually all the missions in the world, there will no longer be transfer meetings with the whole mission, now on Sunday night our District Leader calls us and tells us not only if we are staying or leaving but where and with what companion.
And we leaving our area on Monday at 3pm and go to a new area and BOOM! 
So a bit different and so weird, agh, I still can’t imagine my mission not being in São Bernardo and without Sister Ramos.
Yesterday at church I told everyone I was staying, haha, and that my mission isn't really Sao Paulo South, it's Sao Bernardo 5! hehe
Sister Ramos is Training as well.. we both freaked out last night, but she’ll be the PERFECT trainer, she practically trained me. 
MINHA ZONA <3 <3 <3
I am going to Ribeirão Pires…I have no idea what that area is like, so I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned ;)
Still in 100% shock.
It was so hard packing, I had stuff EVERYWHERE after 8 months here, and Sister Ramos thought she was leaving so she was all ready packed to go since Friday! hahaha but still so sad.
Anyway, this week was such a soild week, we have a baptism next week (well....sister Ramos and her new companion). Two ladies, Maria and Jussara, their story is soooo cool and but I have no time to even write about this right now... ^.^
Christmas time, heheh,
new things and my family rocks xxx


OHHHHHHH, and Christmas came this week, heheheh like literally! I received my package you all put together!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!! Ahh I cried and laughed at the same time while stuffing my face with aussie chocolate reading all of your letters!






Thank, thank, thank you X a million!!
Sister B out. 



19 January 2016


Driving to transfers with ward members, Andrea & William.
 They have been so good to me!


















ÓLA FROM RIBERAO PIRES!!!!!!!!!!


Okay, so My companion is Sister Curtis from TENNESSEE,USA.  Awww, she’s great, obviously I  miss my 'sister from another mister' Sister Ramos HEAPS, but I’m so happy to be here with Sister Curtis we are already the best of friends. We speak Portuguese but at times we throw in a few English words here and there, haha, it’s the best.
AND she knows so much about Australia!!!!! Like Aussie words, because her “Amigo” is serving in Sydney.  So cool, I converted her to Aussie chocolate as well.
This week has been so interesting,  oh my goodness,  like  I think every night when I went to bed and just thought about my day, I just burst out laughing …what is even my life?
Riberao Pires
I need to write in dot points, there is just so much to write…
-we “Opened” this area… just to add to the changes right? But this was the Elders area. Anyways, when we got here, we looked through the area book.. NOTHING hahhah,  the last entry we found was from September. Cool mate.
-Our ward mission leader is on Holidays
-Our ward doesn’t even have a Bishop at present (he's away in USA trying to move there).
-Our house didn’t have a fridge or microwave for most of this week and was hella dirty when we got here… smelly Elders haha ^.^
-I got asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday….20 mins. Oh My Goodness!  I’ve never spoken for that long in English! So I was the final speaker on my first Sunday. 
(I spoke about missionary work obviously, but…how what a blessing it is that we have had the Gospel shared with us and how we are SO thankful to whoever shared the gospel to us (our parents, a friend, the missionaries) and how when we share the gospel we are giving the best gift we can give. Then I gave a million examples of missionaries in the scriptures and the different ways they shared the gospel, through love, service, obedience, ect ect. We are all different, just the like the prophets of old, so we will all have a unique special way to share the gospel. 
It went well I think… except when I couldn’t pronounce Portuguese words in the scriptures….awkss)
How great is my week, and not even in a negative way, just straight up funny and good!
My new companion: Sister Curtis from Tennesse, USA
We didn’t have any investigators, so we literally spent our days knocking doors for like 10 hours each day, but by Saturday we spent the WHOLE day teaching <3 <3 <3 We have started our teaching pool and found some really cool new investigators that we WILL baptise in three weeks. #goals
BUT honestly, I had the BEST WEEK!!! Even though finding and knocking doors for the whole day/night isn’t always my favourite thing to do and how training and not having investigators is a little overwhelming, but not one moment did I think I couldn’t do it… and I just want to be the best trainer  for Sister Curtis and I want her just to love being a missionary.   I know what it’s like at the start and what it’s like to have a trainer who's negative, so I never said anything negative  this week, only positivity and SMILES, haha, aww I love Sister Curtis. She’s a great missionary and she’s going to smash it here in São Pãulo sul!!!!
We had so many 'LOL' moments this week, with getting mad lost in our area, oh by the way, MY AREA IS HUGE, but it’s so, so, stunning  here, so GREEN and Brazilian and  I'm just in love with how pretty it is here. 
We also had 'lol' moments with our Portuguese, nahh, we’ll manage!  Sister Curtis speaks really good already, like really good! She also speaks Spanish fluently, so I think that helped heaps. YAYAYYAYAYA but we’ll help each other, but I didn’t think I spoke Portuguese until this week, so weird haha!
We live with two other Sisters who are in the other ward here, the same chapel though. Two Brazilians, one of them, Sister Das Graças was in my district for 4 transfers in Sao Bernardo 5, so I already love her HEAPS. It’s so fun living with other sisters, but nosssa, someone is always making food, I ate way to much this week! 
ALSO, it's weird that in our house, I have been in the mission field the longest!! Whaaaaat..?
I’m so happy!  It's still so weird that I’m here and not in Sao Bernardo, but I love it here, and I love Sister Curtis.  It will be a solid challenge  but we are up for it. #GringastakeRiberao haha! okay I need to stop with these hashtags!
AMO VOCÊS MUITO!
 Sister Bennallack 

26 January 2016
I am emailing late as, because today I went on a fancy, STUNNING hike with most of my Zone.  Sister Curtis didn't come because she hurt her foot this week, but I went with SIster Das Graças since her companion didnt want to go....
When in Brazil I can't say no to waterfall hikes right?

But first, this is first: 
I'M FAMOUS! not really but...
"hey mum, remember that time I was in the newspaper...IN BRASIL"   lololol - Sarah 2017


janeiro 19th, 2016

Missionárias dão aulas gratuitas de inglês a partir de sábado em Ribeirão Pires.

Sister Moura, Sister Curtis, Sister das Graças e Sister Bennallack
Missionárias de A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias (também conhecido como Mórmons) ensinam inglês gratuitamente em Ribeirão Pires. As matrículas já estão abertas com formação de novas turmas. De acordo com a missionária norte americana, Sarah Bennallack, a pronuncia correta é o objetivo das aulas. “O foco do ensino é a pronuncia correta, pois temos missionárias que falam a língua nativa desse idioma”. Os interessados devem se dirigir a Avenida Francisco Monteiro, 331. As aulas têm início no próximo sábado (23), às 10 horas, na Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias. O curso será ministrado pela australiana “Sister Curtis” e a norte americana “Sister Bennallack”.
Interessados em obter a sua árvore genealógica poderão no mesmo endereço realizar a pesquisa gratuitamente.

So us Sisters here in Riberião have been taking preaching the gospel to a whole new level, thinking of all the things we can advertise to find new investigators, since we all opened our area. And so we went to the local news papers and "told our story" how we have come to this community to help people and listed all the programs the church ofters including Family History, Zumba and ENGLISH classes.  Obviously free English classes got the most attention, and the first interview went so well that we found another local newspaper that we also made!!!
SO COOL! I have a huge quote of what I said!!! ahhhhh, so cool.

SO, I taught English on Saturday, oh my goodness, I can't speak English anymore, it's so sad, but I had an Elder from utah helping since he taught English in his old area and Sister Curtis taught the basic class.  It was so good!   We had 25 people come and hopefully will have more next week. 
Because of time, more stories next week, but here are some photos from our amazing hike today, beautiful Brasil!






Sister Bennallack