Big Plans

Man this was an interesting week. There's a lot to do in this area, but I'm still getting used to the quarantine, so I'll have to figure out how to do it all in a way different than what I expected, haha. For now though let me just review my week real "quick".  

Tuesday 

We didn't end up doing weekly planning for last week so we had a mini session in the morning. This area is really established in Portuguese, and the president has a vision of preparing this area for the establishment of a Portuguese speaking ward. Elder Bodily and I made plans for how to contact all the Brazilian members in this area, reach out to people who may be interested, and bring Brazilians from other areas to our Portuguese Sunday School. There's a lot of unique challenges. I won't get into it, but there's a lot of work. I'm so grateful for that, because I'm not sure I would survive being a missionary with nothing clear cut to do during the quarantine haha. 

After that, we went to a mission wide family home afternoon meeting where people from the mission share lessons and play games to keep spirits up. It was cool and fun, but Elder Bodily and I were talking to each other when through the camera we heard, "from Elder Bassett, then going to sister.... and Elder...." I was like wait, what did she say we are doing? Elder Bodily kinda shrugs and says "I don't know" and before I can say anything else, it unmutes us. I'd like to remind you 200 people are watching this! I sit there like a deer in headlights for at least 30 seconds with my mouth open looking between Elder Bodily and the camera not being able to ask him anything cause he unmuted, haha. Then I kinda just go "What are we supposed to be doing???" They just kinda say moving on and go to the next lesson which was drawing pictures on top of your heads haha. Apparently, they decided I was gonna teach a lesson to the mission, and then forgot to tell me. Whoops. The funniest part was that I was supposed to give the opening prayer the Sunday before with the entire mission on zoom, but I was in a ward Sunday School lesson (which is supposed to be our first priority)  that ran 20 minutes long and showed up late. So they called on me to say the prayer and there was like 5 minutes of silence while they waited for me. Basically, I'd been on the mission for a grand total of 7 days and had already embarrassed myself in front of the entire mission twice. And then of course, an hour later I got a message asking me to say the closing prayer on Sunday. Seriously guys; there's 200 missionaries here, why are you so set on me? 😂  I had my first Interview with President Mavromatis, and he wanted to know why I didn't day the prayer. I kinda didn't know what to say. 

Anyways, after that we taught the message of the restoration to our friend named Deborah. My Portuguese was awful, but luckily she's awesome and engaged so the lesson didn't go badly. Then we taught a lesson about the plan of salvation to Pedro Martin, and it went GREAT. Both of them are so awesome and attentive and into it. 

For the last 7 days I had been saying nearly every prayer asking for very specific things and more importantly using very specific wording that wasn't what I would normally say. Tuesday morning after my personal study, I decided to read my Patriarchal blessing. I was amazed that in the exact same wording I had been using, I found the promised blessings and attributes I had been praying for every day. When I first got my blessing, I was getting ready to move to Brazil. It was a big event for me, and my blessing was a source of comfort and inspiration. But it didn't really say anything about that experience, or let me know what I could to to prepare for it, yet it perfectly told me what I would need to do and become for my mission 4 years later, which would be a more challenging experience by far. This is an example of how God knows what's best for us, and He is willing to help us. But the way we think we need to be helped isn't the way we always need it. He knew I would be able to handle moving fine, but also knew that on my mission I would find myself challenged in ways I had never experienced before, so He spent His time reassuring me for something I hadn't even begun to think about. 

Wednesday 

We started the day with the normal stuff, personal and companion study. We were reading out of the general handbook for adjusting to missionary life and Elder Bodily reads the words "try not to stay for too long in your apartment" haha. Believe me if we didn't have to, we wouldn't! The big thing that happened today was our first companion exchange, which is where you and another companionship switch companions and go on lessons with each other. Because of Corona, it's less of a switch and more of a 3 hour phone call, but I still had a great time with my district leader, Elder Despain. Bonus, I finally got to meet one of the members in the area; she was American, too, so it was refreshing to talk for a bit in English. 

Game Time!

So, first day in the field. I simultaneously have a ton to say and nothing at all. So I guess I'll go over the basics and talk about what each day has looked like so far. 

My mom thinks I can't cook anything except taquitos, but check out this feast!

I left home Tuesday the 14th, I believe, and arrived the same day. I was the only new missionary in my group of 8. I'm not positive, but based off my experience so far, I think I'm the only new missionary in this mission, haha. Probably not really, but everyone seems really amazed to have someone coming in who wasn't already serving somewhere else. My companion is Elder Bodily, and he is awesome. We have a ton of fun together and both share similar priorities and interests while in the field. I'm not quite sure to say about him, other than that he is crazy good at accents and has such a solid understanding of the Bible and Book of Mormon as well as how they support each other. He's the type of companion I can just be like "hey give me some scriptures in the New Testament about God calling prophets," and he just goes for it. I couldn't ask for a better companion to start off. 

My mission home is fantastic. We are actually, I think, the first pair to spend a transfer in it as it was opened just before Corona and immediately closed. Elder Bodily and his old companion had been here for two weeks after they opened it again when I showed up and kicked Elder Neilson out. 

Now as far as what our day looks like. We get up and get ready between 6:30 to 7:00. During this time we shower, eat breakfast etc. Next, we plan out our day and spend the next 3-4 hours doing personal study, companion study, and language study. From there we spend some time finding friends on facebook to talk to about the gospel and see if anyones interested in hearing our message, as well as making phone calls to people who have been referred to us or members in our area. We have lunch and do more of the same; then we have time to eat and exercise. Through out the evening we try to schedule people to talk to. We've started teaching four new people this week. From there, we get ready for bed around 9:30 and are in bed by 10:30.

The people in this area are great; I'd love to get to know them, haha. But unfortunately, because of Corona, Elder Bodily and I are confined to our apartment most of the day. But the limited interaction we've had has been amazing. There are so many Brazilians living here in Boston as well as other people from all over South America. Of the people we've started teaching, one of them is Pedro. He was preparing for baptism when Corona hit, so now we are just helping him to review and prepare etc. When we called him, it was awesome because when he saw it was the missionaries his face lit up, and he got so excited. He truly is an awesome guy and has such a strong testimony that the feelings he has received have come from God. The other person who had already received some lessons was a woman named Deborah. She had lessons with the missionaries a year ago, and she remembers how kind they were. We are so eager to teach her family. Her family is so tender, and it's going to be a pleasure getting to know them better. The other two people we've started teaching are Wagner and Adeir. Elder Bodily and I came into contact with them over Facebook; we are excited to get to know them as well and share with them our message. 

I have seen so many blessing and miracles already, and I've only been here a week. One specific instance stands out. As you can imagine, we come into contact with a lot of people over facebook, and we want to give everyone the opportunity to hear. But a lot of the times you are having a great conversation and someone says they want to hear more, then the second you ask if you can call them sometime they start ignoring you. This is extremely frustrating and disheartening, especially because it can make you feel like you are doing something wrong. So, when one guy responded to my message, I said a prayer, "Help me know what to say so that I can communicate with this person. Help me to know if he's ready for this message, and if he is let me know what I should do to help him receive it." And after that I responded and had a super meaningful conversation, and had probably the most success I've had so far in terms of talking. He said he wanted to know more, and we set a date for a lesson. Seconds after I finished sending that message, we had our first lesson with Wagner planned. Elder Bodily and I both hadn't been sure he would answer. But we called, and he did while I was hyped up on the Spirit. We had a lesson about the restoration, and he was active and attentive. That experience taught me the lesson that if we rely on the Lord, He will help us to find the success we need in our lives. If I can learn to rely on the Lord, then maybe one day every hour of every day of my mission can look like that. 

He made it!

Social Distancing!

 Dear Bassett Family,

We are blessed to have Elder Bassett in the Massachusetts Boston Mission. He came safely and we met him at the airport. Normally we would bring all new missionaries to the mission home for dinner and orientation in the next morning but due to the need of social distance we are doing things differently. For this reason, he met his companion and left to their apartment. He will have orientation and training during the week.

We love to share the pictures from activities in the mission. We post them in the Facebook group called Boston Mission. 

Please, reach us out at any time and we will be glad to help and answer your questions.

Warm regards,

           Sister Virginia Mavromatis

Massachusetts Boston Mission

Saying our goodbyes!

Heading Out!

Ok wow! So busy week, haha. The main take away is that I’m finally done with the MTC. Which means as of Tuesday the 14th, I’m going out to Boston. I'll be sad to leave my district, but at the same time, I’m so excited to go out and officially get started, even if my experience in the field is going to start off behind a screen. My district is so great, and I love all of my fellow missionaries. We have had a lot of fun learning together, and all of their unique testimonies have helped to strengthen mine and allowed me to feel the Spirit more than I ever have before! My teachers are so full of love, and I feel how much they care about us and our experiences. Some tears were shed when everyone made their goodbyes on Friday.
On Friday after our first class, Elder Bailey came over, and we did Irmão Santos’ class together. It was a blast having him over; companion study was great now that we were finally in person, haha. We had a standard day after classes; the next morning I went for my final Bench Press pr and then we played racketball with Taylor. Elder Bailey was a natural. I’m happy we got to finally get a good day to get to know each other as well as do do personal and companion study. I’m really excited to have a companion with me full time that I can get to know and study the scriptures with. 
I have a testimony that having people to rely on in your life and to keep you accountable will not only help you keep up with your goals, it will help you to feel like you are pushing forward and progressing. God blesses us for our efforts and loves each and every one of us despite our many flaws. Just the same we must learn to love each other. I’m reminded of a General Conference Talk that asks the question of what comes first, action or love? If you're having a hard time loving people, sometimes you have to try and serve them. As you make an effort to look for ways to help those around you, you’ll find yourself loving them more and more. I’m not too nervous about how my companions and I will get along, because I know that if I focus on loving them unconditionally, I’ll have a good experience.

Saying goodbye to my boys! I'm sure going to miss them.

Only a week and half left!

My sleeping arrangements at my sister's

This week has been pretty crazy haha. My parents have been traveling so I decided to stay with Jessica and Tyson. So, Monday was in Bountiful; Tuesday was in Farmington; Wednesday I realized I left my contacts in Bountiful and went back up and spent the day then came back; Thursday I left early in the morning to wait in Bountiful to sign for a package that ended up just getting dropped off; Friday back in Farmington; and Saturday loading a trailer up and going back to Bountiful. Kind of Crazy, haha. 

That’s not the only thing though haha.  Elder Bailey and I were planning on hanging out on Wednesday I believe, and then he sent me a text the night before saying he had stomach pain and went to the urgent care and his appendix was twice its normal size. He ended up getting it removed that night; he’s fine now but that’s also pretty exciting haha. 

Classes have been going really great, and Elder Bailey and I had our last TRC with Nathan. It was a lot of fun, and he agreed to  "be baptized". I really enjoyed talking to him, and I’m gonna miss it. Now we switched to a different TRC system where instead of scheduling meetings with people, Mondays and Fridays before class everyone goes to a Zoom room, and we each have 15-20 minutes to teach a lesson. 

This is gonna be a shorter email this week, mainly just because so much has happened that it all blends itself out. One thing I have been grateful this week is the opportunity to end each day with the Book of Mormon. It truly is the best way to refocus and prepare for bed, and it's truly night and day between how I feel about my day with and without scripture study. The scriptures are here to bless our lives, but we have to be willing to use them.