Brazil Bound

Week 10 - Post Falls, Idaho

I GOT MY VISA!!!!! I'm flying to Brazil the day after General Conference!!! I am so excited but at the same time I am soooooo sad!!!! I love it here!!! And I was expecting to be here for a couple more transfers so it took me by surprise.  We were teaching Penny (my most favorite lady ever) and I saw that President Mullen was calling me and my heart sank.  I knew he was going to tell me I got my visa.  I couldn't focus the whole lesson because all I was thinking about is how I don't want to leave here! So afterwards we listened to the voicemail and me and Sister Jeffery both about cried! I love her and all the people we are teaching so much!! We figured we would be together again next transfer because we swept into the area.  So I'm just sad!!!! But at the same time I am really excited! The more I think about it the more excited I get. I can't believe it’s actually real now that I'm going to Brazil!!! I can't wait to get tan :) There are people in this mission that have been waiting for their visa for 7 months and some even longer. I can't believe how quickly I got mine!

The reason today is our p-day is because we went to the temple today.  The Spokane temple is tiny! I was kinda surprised because there are a lot of members around here.  It was beautiful though of course!  This Sunday we had 3 investigators at church! It was sorta nerve-wracking!! The whole time we had to make sure they felt welcome and that members were talking to them and praying that people would give good talks! But it went great. They all really liked it.  One of them has been quite a few times but the other two it was their first time.  They both made comments on why the bishop didn't get up and talk.  They really wanted to hear from him! They were like shouldn't the most learned man in the church be talking to us?! We explained how it works in our church and that the bishop isn't necessarily the most well educated but they still thought it was weird haha.  They said they'll come back next week though!

Penny is getting baptized! I love her!!!!!!!!! I think she is the reason why I am so sad to leave Post Falls! She is the best! She says that I'm mischievous which I don't know where she gets that from!! And every time we leave her house she yells “bye baby girls” in her southern accent; it is the cutest!  I just want you guys to come and see her house and the view she has on her back deck. It is beautiful!! I'm so sad I won't get to be here for her baptism. But she has been reading the Book of Mormon and she wants to come watch conference with us, and the women's broadcast on Saturday.  She already has such a strong testimony. I just love her! She's really good at playing the piano and after our last lesson she played some of her church songs and made us sing; it was a lot of fun! She wanted to keep going for forever.  I felt bad that we had to go but we always stay at her house way longer than we are supposed to.

Levi, the guy who was getting baptized on my birthday, moved his baptism back.  I don't really know the whole story.  He has a Godmother I think and she has cancer and is going to die and she doesn't want him to get baptized so he just wants to wait.  Which that is totally fine! We were thinking that he should wait anyways because it seems kinda like he's just doing it because his mom wants him to and not because he has gained his own testimony yet. He is a really nice kid.

Last Friday Elder Golden of the 70 came and talked to us! It was so good!! My favorite thing that he said....he was talking about how we need to teach simply.  He said don't assume people know anything. And then he went to the board and wrote when you assume you make an a** out of u and me. We were all like what the heck and couldn't believe he just said that to a bunch of missionaries. It was so funny! And then I also liked this. Someone asked him how they can have more faith.  And he wrote this equation, personal righteousness=faith.  And he said the more you work on your own personal righteousness the more faith you will have.  I haven't really thought about it like that but I like it!  He said a lot of other really good things too!

I got your box today!!!! I just want to open it right now but I'm going to try to be good and wait till my birthday.  Hopefully I can! Sister Jeffery is the best! She wrote this note and hid it under my pillow and it said happy birthday week with 20 things she loves about me. It made my day! She says that it’s pretty much our birthday week because that's how excited she gets for birthdays haha.

I still can't even believe I'm going to Brazil. I'm freaking out! I don't know Portuguese!!!!!! I don't know if I’ve already told you this but we have language study an hour a day, but I still don't know anything! Ahhhhh! I'm excited though! Anyways thanks for everything!!!! I will talk to you soon! Love and miss you!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Feeding elk.

The elk charged the fence.

Spokane, Washington Temple

Hello!!

Week 9 - Post Falls, Idaho

This has been such a great and busy week!! We have a few new investigators!! They are all so great, but one of them we especially love. She has the coolest story!  Her name is Penny, she's in her 60s, and she is from New Orleans.  She lives up in the mountain in the most beautiful house ever and the view is amazing!!! I love going to her house! And she always gives us snacks too! Her neighbors are members and they referred us to her.  So we go and knock on her door and she was telling us how embarrassed she was because she hadn't fixed her hair yet and she thought she looked bad but really she looked fine! Anyways she let us in and told us her whole life story. She told us about how one day she was praying in church and she really felt like God was telling her that she needed to move somewhere else and build a refuge. And she didn't listen for the longest time because she was scared but she said she had never felt a stronger feeling before! So she talked to her pastor about it and some of the members of her church and they all told her she was crazy because she is a widow and had a beautiful house there and God wouldn't tell her to do something like that.  And she was kinda offended that none of her friends would support her when she knew that it was what she was supposed to be doing.  So after a few years of searching and praying of where she needed to move she finally felt right about Post Falls. She bought a huge piece of land up in the mountains and built a huge home! And she said she prayed about how she was supposed to build it and did exactly what God wanted her to do.  So now her house has a whole bunch of bedrooms and food storage!!! And she told her neighbors and us that she would love to have the missionaries come live with her! And then when we were teaching her she told us that she feels like God has been preparing her for us to come knock on her door because first she moves out here and her neighbors are members and they have helped her out so much. And then her granddaughter started dating a boy who is on a mission now.  And then the missionaries before us knocked on her door and she said she wasn't prepared then but now she is and she wanted to meet with us.  So her and her granddaughter want to learn more about the church together!  And then another thing she said when we were teaching her about the Book of Mormon was that she always wondered why God would just keep his word in one little part of the world.  She was like if He loves all his children wouldn't he speak to them in all parts of the world? Everything she said lined up exactly with what we taught her. After we left her house we we were like what the heck!  She is so prepared to have the gospel! We are teaching her again on Wednesday and I am so sad because we are doing exchanges that day and I'm going to Coeur D'Alene :(:( We are so excited for her though! Oh and also another cool thing is that we were promised that if between us and the elders (we share a ward) we can teach 70 lessons a week then we will get another set of missionaries and they will cover the other side of the river. And then she could have missionaries with her.  I'm not sure how much the elders teach but me and Sister Jeffery taught 34 lessons last week so we could easily do that!

We went and saw Mickey a couple more times this week.  But last time we saw her she was going through her stuff and getting rid of things and she gave me the cutest purse ever!!!! I love it!! And it’s like a really nice brand! I can't remember what kind it is but she told me that if I held on to it it will be worth lots of money down the road. I don't think I will ever get rid of it though because it is so cute!!! I put all my stuff into it and was using it for a couple days but I'm paranoid that someone's dog is going to ruin it because they always are all over me! And I definitely don't want to take it to Brazil, so I'm gonna send it home when I get a chance.  She also gave us a whole bunch of turtle necks and we have no idea what to do with them (haha) and she gave me these sketcher shape ups and promised me that they would make my legs so good. I was like I can't wear these with my skirts but she made me take them anyways! So we have a whole bunch of her stuff in a huge pile in our car and we don't know what to do with it!

To answer some of your questions... we eat pretty well.  I've only ate at a members house twice so far, but they passed around a schedule to feed us in church yesterday and so now almost every night for the rest of the month we're going to be in someone's home! We’re excited because we feel like there are so many people in our ward that we don't know and then when we want someone to come teach with us or if we need a ride we never know who to ask! The members are all sooooo nice though! I love this ward and I don't ever want to get transferred until I go to Brazil.  I can't even believe how many awesome families one ward can have! Anyways when we do have to make our own food we actually make pretty good food most of the time.  I always eat oatmeal for breakfast. I don't know where it came from but I'm in love with oatmeal now! We exercise pretty much every morning for like 25 minutes.  We try to take it serious but we're always so tired! Most mornings we do good though.

I got your box!!!! Oh my gosh, thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! That was the best day ever!!! I got your box and also I got a birthday letter from grandma and grandpa!!!! I LOVE MAIL!!! :) And we all love the ipod! Everyone was so excited to have good music playing in the mornings! I'm wearing the green necklace today.  And I'm so excited to have more stamps too!!! Thank you!  You are the best!!!!

I'm glad to hear Livee is doing good! Rae keep running her and make her skinny by the time I get home! I miss her!! She is so cute!!

Ok but I think that is about it for this week! I might write a letter if I think of more that I forgot. Thank you so much for everything! Love and miss you all!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Hello!

Week 8 - Post Falls, Idaho

This week has been great! I feel like I'm adjusting a lot better and getting used to the schedule.  I have had so much fun with my companion and the two other missionaries we live with. 

The most exciting thing that happened this week is...one of our investigators is getting baptized!!! And it’s on March 29!!! First baptism on my birthday, I'm so excited!! His name is Levi and he's 14 years old.  He is the nicest boy ever!  He just moved here to live with his mom who is a member of the church and so he wanted to start meeting with the missionaries.  He has two older brothers who were baptized last year I think.  He said he wants his oldest brother to baptize him, so that will be really special for their family.  Their mom was so excited she started to cry. They are all awesome!

We went to this cute little old ladies apartment to meet her the other day, and on the way out we stopped and talked to another lady who was sitting on her porch alone.  When we told her we were missionaries, at first she acted like she didn't want to talk to us but we just kept talking to her. And then she talked our ears off!! We stood there for over an hour and she told us EVERYTHING about her and I don't think we got more than 20 words in in that whole hour and 1/2. But then at the end she told us that she was so impressed with us and our listening skills and that she wanted us to come back and learn more about our church.  And she said she wanted tell our bishop how impressed she was with his missionaries so that turned out really good.  We’re going back to meet with her on Wednesday. And she's a dog trainer!!!

Speaking of dogs, my love for dogs is slowly diminishing.  I'm not even kidding! Everyone has like 4 dogs here and I've hardly seen any cute ones! One family has a black lab puppy that I am in love with! He’s not as cute as Livee though. But there is one lady who has the most annoying dog I have ever met in my life.  Before I go in her house me and Sister Jeffery will literally pray that we can have patience with that dog.  It’s a tiny little thing and it is so needy! If we don't pet it 24/7 it will bark, growl, lick and scratch at us until we pet it! And then it makes it hard to concentrate on the lady we're supposed to be teaching because I just want to punch that dog! But she really loves him so much and she told us what a great friend he is to her, so then I feel bad for not liking it. I feel bad for this lady though.  Her name is Lilian and she has some health problems.  She is trying to stop smoking, which has been hard for her.  We visit her a lot and read scriptures with her that hopefully encourage her.

That’s all that really happened that's exciting this week! Sorry! I always feel bad when my letters are horrible, but I never have enough time to write everyone back.  I LOVE getting letters :)  I love and miss you guys! 

Love,

Sister Bedke

First Real Week!

Week 7 - Post Falls, Idaho

First of all, I am in Post Falls, Idaho!!! It’s like 30 minutes outside of Spokane.  IT IS FREEZING!!!!  Actually today isn't so bad compared to the last two days, but holy crap it was miserable! I've never seen snow fall so fast, and I've never felt wind so cold!  We have a car though thank goodness! There are three sets of missionaries in our area and me and my companion are the only ones with the car...we are so lucky! But we live not in our area, so it is necessary!  We have the nicest ward ever.  They all keep offering to get me warmer clothes since they know that I'm a visa waiter and not prepared for the cold.  I got boots and a hat.  I think my coat is good enough, and I don't have to have to worry about finding someone to take it when I do make it to Brazil.  But anyways this is such a great ward!! Everyone is very missionary minded, and our ward mission leader is awesome.  He has the coolest house ever too with an amazing view of the mountain.  He lives like in a mountain with a whole bunch of tall ever green trees all over.  At church yesterday, everyone was so excited to meet the new missionaries.  They kept coming up to us and introducing themselves and offering to come out with us if we ever needed someone.  They have a really good missionary program!  They have 18 ward missionaries and some of them are the 12-18 year olds too.  Every Tuesday night the missionaries go out with the auxiliary leaders, and then every Thursday night we go out with the ward missionaries to less active and members as well.  And then the families in the ward are supposed to be having the missionaries over once a week and we go through all the lessons with them.  They keep our schedules full! And the point of all this is for us to get referrals.

 I have to tell you about my first day! Mom, I think the email you got with pictures was from a member that I stayed with...if it’s the one with the green smoothies and green muffins.  They were so good! But anyways our mission president and his wife picked us up at the airport.  They are so nice! Sister Mullin is the cutest lady ever! She looks like she is 30 and has the best clothes! But they took us back to the stake center and we had to do this thing called fear-busting where we went out and knocked on people doors to talk about the gospel.  I was terrified!!!!!! I was with two other girls and they have already been here for like 7 months so they knew what they were doing.  They were so nice! But we knocked on this one guy’s door and he was so mad.  He was saying how all religion is man-made and there's no such thing as God. They like knew everything what to say and I was just sitting there frozen with fear. After he closes the door I just start crying!!! Hahaha  It’s so funny now looking back at it!  And even after only a week I feel like if that same thing happened to me again I wouldn't even care I would just move on! That just wasn't what I was expecting I guess!  There was another time when I had no idea what to say too! So we went to this younger couple's house and the husband all he wants to do is convert us and prove the Book of Mormon wrong.  I don't even know why we were there, or why the heck we are going back tomorrow!! He told us that over the next few months he is going to take us on a journey and help us find the truth.  I'm just sitting there like what the heck! My companion has the strongest testimony ever and she always knows exactly what to say so she handled everything really well.  I hate how scared I get! I have gotten sooooo much better from just a week, but still it annoys me when I get scared, but it still happens! I read this verse in the Bible I don't remember where but it’s really good! And I don't really remember what it says but it talks about don't fear man, fear God. Something like that I can’t remember! And then my companion told me this that her old bishop used to always say, "Faith is not fearful.  If you are having fear, you aren't exercising your faith efficiently." I love that!! I try to remember that every time I get scared.

 My companions name is Sister Jeffery.  She is awesome!!! She has been out for 8 months. She is new to the area too, so the first few days we were like ummm who do we need to talk to?! Because we knew no one!  She is a great missionary though.  She talks to everyone and invites everyone to learn more about our church.  She is a great example.  And she has really good advice for me when I get scared.  Sometimes she makes me do things that I don't want to do like invite a random person to church.  I'm like I can’t!! And she makes me and then I'm actually really glad that she did because I realize it’s not even bad! She always reminds me that there is nothing that anyone can prove wrong, so there is nothing to be scared about.  She keeps things fun too! We’ve become good friends!  She goes through a pack of gum in half an hour, that's not even an exaggeration! She has a real addiction to gum and mints!

 We are teaching some awesome people.  We have a lot of less active people that we visit too.  They love the missionaries so much! The older ones say that we are like their daughters.  And they open up so much and tell us their life stories! Some of them have had really hard lives, it’s sad. We are teaching this part-member family whose dad served a mission here in Spokane! He doesn’t' come to church anymore, but the whole time we were there he told us all about his mission and how he learned more in those two years then the rest of his life combined! But he told us that there is a reason he doesn't go to church anymore.  He didn't tell us why though.  We were kinda confused. The wife is wonderful! She told us that we better come back and that if we ever need dinner to stop at their house. I wish I could tell you about everyone but I don't have enough time!

 I love and miss you guys!!

 Love,

Sister Bedke

[ Since Malyssa has been reassigned to the Spokane, Washington mission for the time being, her mailing address has changed. Check out the "Contact" tab for the updated information. Thanks for all of the continued love and support! ]

Malyssa with her mission president and his wife and other missionaries that arrived in Spokane the same day, at the Spokane, Washington Temple.

With the mission president and his wife.