Where in the world did Irma Graf go??

okay... so... this week... man... um... its been good. Okay, really its been the toughest week Ive ever had in my life I think. And no, Im not being dramatic here. We got lost... outside of our zone in the middle of a field... because our map was PRINTED wrong and so our busdriver dropped us off in the middle of nowhere... (dont worry i will photocopy my journal entry about this and send it. its great.) We have had tons of various problems but I am not here to complain about any of them because I learned to keep the faith... to stay strong and to really just turn to the Lord in everything ESPECIALLY when times are difficult... every single thing that went wrong we learned from and I feel that they were blessing in disguise... Heavenly Father is definately using our weaknesses to help us learn and also to encontrar (dad, i cant remember the english word...please change to english for me) other people to teach that need the gospel.

one cool thing this week was that some people from the US came to film recent converts about their stories for the new website... we got to have some of our converts talk... and I GOT TO HELP WITH THE PRODUCTION!!! it was so cooll... and guess what camera they had... oh yeah, thats right, a Canon 5 D, Mark 2... oh man... I was in heaven!!! It was like holding my camera all over again... I really really really miss photography and ahhhh to hold the camera... freak, it was amazing. (yeah, whatever... im strange) ps- how is my camera?

um... also another funny thing about this week... we have an investigator... Edith, and she decided that I look like Barbie (yeah, I donno... dont ask... she said its because of my eyes) and so she calls me irma barbie... its ridiculous. people here think my eyes are so cool... i always thought that my eyes were normal... but supposedly i have "big beautiful eyes... like Barbie"... yeah. shes crazy (love her) but I look gross here... seriously... no make up (just mascara and a little eye liner)... and dont really do my hair... shes crazy. the end... but it was funny... so you all can laugh at her comment because I did.

also, last night we had a lesson w this cool couple from capo verde and come to find out the wife is a member already... (it is so common to have this happen its ridiculous!) any ways, they had a friend w them... he was CRAZY!!! irma speigle asked him to say the first prayer because he liked to talk alot... uh, BAD IDEA... he started praying and seriously it was the strangest thing every!!!!! like baptist, halleiluha (sp) type stuff but scary... it was so hard to not laugh... (we did a little)

well, I am doing great learning a ton and enjoying every second of it!!!! have a great week and thank you for everything!!!!

irma graf

PICTURESSSSS

....for all you missionaries out there....

ASHLEY YOU HAVE YOUR MISSION CALLLLLLLL OMG!!! THAT IS SO AWESOME!!! my family told me where youre going... i cant remember (arkansa or kentucky or something) spanish speaking thats so awesome! i am so happy for you and kaity too!!!! you guys go in the same day and you could be in the same district how awesome and crazy!

okay... so advice i have for you now that you have your call....

first off use the i will not be still song. its amazing! its totally how i feel out here! and i cry and think of you when i hear it.

second... get a pmg in spanish and borrow (dont buy cause you will get them in the mtc) scriptures or just a bom in spanish and start reading and studying them along with the english... side by side... it will be hard and boring and you will not like it at first but it will help. also, start learning the conjugations in spanish!!!!!!! and every day choose a few spanish words to learn. listen to stuff in spanish and try and understand it. just use as much spanish as you can! haha... depending on how much time you have... but most importantly, study the doctrine and the gospel... gain a stronger testimony and learn to recognize the spirit!! the spiritual stuff is so much more important and the spanish will come i promise. dont get frustrated with in in the mtc just breathe and have fun. you can do it!

also, start preparing your ipod now... talks, conference, church music in english and spanish... the works!!! make different play lists haha.

ash i am so proud of you!! you are such an example to everyone! you will be an AMAZING missionary i am so jealous that i wont get to be there to help you prepare and also there to watch you in action out in the field! always remember to trust in the Lord... in EVERYTHING. thats one of the hardest things for me... to have complete trust in him with everything... and the fact that no matter hard i try to do things on my own, i will fall short. all of us will... but thats one reason that the atonement is so incredible! Jesus will make up for where we lack... He will help us up when we cant continue on... already on my mission I have felt Him pick me up and carry me until I have the strength to continue on... The mission is hard... it will be difficult, very difficult but it is SO worth it. when you get to see how the gospel is changing the lives of your investigators and the joy that they are finding through the gospel... it is amazing! all of the problems you had, or all of the worries that you had about things are gone... the feeling that you get when you see how you have been an instrument in the hands of the Lord is something that i dont even know how to explain. its just... AMAZING!

stay close to the Lord in these next few months... they will be hard... mine were... satan will be working on you. but stay strong! and also, go to the temple as much as you can! the temple is.... wow... another thing that I cant describe... its just amazing.

i love you!

com amor (with love)
irmã graf

I'mma baptizing FOOL!

yo fam! it was sooooo great to talk to YOU!!!!!! it was so weird to hear your voices!! and seriously the hour was way too short! anyways....

so we had a baptism this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carlos got baptized! There is so much that I want to say... but it would take a million years to write! we have seriously seen Gods hand and so many miracles with Carlos and his family it is crazy! Every day we see a new thing and we always say, ah! we need to write this in our journals!!! haha. but... the baptism was awesome! he is in a wheel chair so it was interesting baptizing him, but we did it! (well the elders and members w the priesthood did it haha) He was so scared about it all but it ran smooth haha. Carlos is amazing! He wants to serve a mission!!!! (hes 19)

His cousin is getting baptized this weekend and we are so excited for her too! She is 13 and awesome! Seriously they are so prepared for this gospel its crazy!

This week... I cant even remember what happened because its been a long week... but basically we are just working super hard to find new people to work with and to weed out our investigators and stick with those that really want to follow the example of Christ and be baptized.

The mission is great!! Im loving it and the loving the people! Im ready for it to get warm though! its been cold this week... with rain... and humidity... ew. but its all good!

Well, have a great week! I love you all and thank you so much for your support!

com amor
irmã graf


pictures- all from the baptism!

the elders in our ward (we share a ward w the zone leaders) had a baptism too... the girl (shayla). and then to baptize Carlos we needed two people.
carlos in his chair...
carlos, andré and adonis... with bishop in the background (he is freaking awesome!)
and then me (yeah i look gross whatever... the humidity and rain was really bad and we had been running around like crazy all day long...) irmã west, carlos, his aunt and Nayama (she will be baptized next week)

"LOOK! I have garments too!"

this week has been crazy! i have an awesome funny story and a spiritual story....

funny story...
yesterday we visited an inactive family. there is an old grandma and her son who is like 50 and has mental problems. we were just there to read a scripture and invite them to church... so we did that and we were getting ready to close the visit with a song and prayer... so as i was pulling out my hymn book the man, carlos, comes and sits by me and says, in english (he likes to speak english... it never makes sense though haha) anyways, he says, "look, I have garments!" i couldnt understand what he said so i turned to him and asked "o que?" as i turned he pulls down his pants to show me!!! oh man... i turned to irma west on the other side of me and gave her a oh man help me look! so she chooses a hymn and we start to sing... well... start to try and sing! every time we would open our mouths we couldnt sing we could only laugh!! i started crying cause we were laughing so hard haha. it was horrible. we decided after trying to sing 5 times that it wasnt gonna happen and so we carlos volunteered to offer the closing prayer. oh man.... the prayer was a story in and of itself... but it was an interesting experience haha...

spiritual story...
remember the family that i talked about last week? with the kid carlos in a wheel chair? well, he is amazing! we marked him for baptism for this mothers day!!! (happy mothers day mom) but i dont even know what to say... i have seen him change over night! its awesome! he is eating the scriptures up and always has tons of questions! the other people in the family are the same so we are going to try and mark them this week. it is so awesome! i dont even know how to explain how i feel!! this work is AMAZING!! and a few scriptures come to mind when i think about how they are being converted not because of anything that we are doing but because of the spirit... look these up... they are awesome! 1 cor. 1:27, Jacob 4:6-7, Alma 26:12.

well, i love you all! thanks for everything! and talk to you next sunday!! have a great week!

com amor
irmã graf

YAYYY PICTURES!

Oi Familia!

so... not a long one this week.... sorry. love you.

my first transfer is OVER ALREADY!!! and i am staying with irma west here in miratejo for another transfer! woo hoo!!! we are so excited because we opened this area and the pace is starting to pick up and we have a few people that we are close to baptizing so we are super excited to be able to see that!! woo hoo!

this week has been super hard, but we have just kept going and we have seen the Lord blessing us for our dilligence. It is so crazy how much more aware of the Lord you become on a mission! This week we taught the second lesson, about the plan of salvation and it just hit me for some odd reason how special that plan really is!

also, there is this lady, ana, a reference from a member and we taught her once at the beginning of the transfer and then she dropped off the face of the earth but this past week she called us and said that she needs God in her life and she needs help so we went to her house and it was CRAZY how prepared she was by the Lord!!! we taught her basically the first lesson about the restoration and then also the second lesson about the plan of salvation. she was EATING IT UP no joke! she kept asking questions and how she could know and how she could learn more... it was crazy! then we taught her about prayer and invited her to pray and ask. the next morning she called and said she recieved an answer. CRAZY!! we had another lesson with her and invited her to baptism this past sunday... she said she needed some time to think and pray some more... we pushed a little but then decided against it. but we are going to teach her this week. shes awesome!

well, anyways, i love you all and thanks so much for your support and prayers... btw... instead of praying for me could you pray for my investigators? not by name or anything... just that they will have comfort and the strength to continue to pray and read and aprender sobre este evangelho? thanks.

com amor

irma graf


ps- the pics... i cant remember what i sent last week... easter package, thanks so much! the one of us at the kitchen table- after conference sunday night we didnt get home until almost 12 because the last session was live and didnt start until like 9pm... and then we were wide awake and hungry so we made pancakes!!! haha. the one with the 2 black girls... i love these two!!! they are two yw in our ward and they are so awesome!!! the one next to me is pretty much my bff in the ward! haha. shes awesome!

pss- mom, with the baptism stuff... i couldnt open it so i just translated the one you copied and pasted... here it is... and w it i was thinking maybe make a bookmark out of it? cute border with colored ribbon at the top and laminated? and a boy version and a girl version... 15 of each? sorry for all this work... they just dont really do anything special for when they get baptized and i thought this would be cool... also, if you have another cute poem that you like just have dad translate it (brazilian is fine... half the people i teach are brazilian or cape verdian or angolian anyways)