A Week of Excellence

Oi Minha Familia!!

Oh how I miss you all! It´s been a good week. It´s been crazy. We´ve worked sooo hard and everyday I come home exhausted and sore. haha It´s good to feel that again tho. :) 

We had a week of excellence and Tiago, our WML gave us $20 to celebrate! haha he´s SO good to the missionaries and he said it´s been almost a year since any of his missionaries have gotten a week of excellence. So, tomorrow we´re buying Açaí!!! haha Anyway... it´s been good. 

John (the American) baptized her in Portugese :)

Baptism of Norma!

This week we worked with Norma. She´s a referral from a member in our ward (the American and his wife!) She´s 72 and has been smoking for 58 years. She smoked about 40 a day. This week she went from about 20 a day to none! She is incredible. She was baptized yesterday and was so happy. After her interview with the District Leader, he came out and said she was ready to be baptized and she started jumping up and down. She cried and hugged us all as we all cried and jumped up and down too! I´ve never seen someone so excited to be baptized!! She was a blessing in our lives this week. She is an example to us all of true conversion and change. This week also, Alcides received the priestood! It was a happy Sunday. :)

We´ve been working hard to find new people to teach because a lot of our investigators have fallen through. This week, as I said, we worked SO hard and we found 18 news! haha That´s definitely ... well... that´s never happened before. haha 

Things are good. It gets hard sometimes but I´ve had to learn to just push thru and keep working. The harder you work, the faster the days seem to go, and the easier it is to find the joy. It´s weird tho, how that works. Because sometimes you´re sad because you just want to take a break and watch a movie or take a nap. But when you really find yourself working your hiney off - that´s when the joy comes. Though, this morning was the very first time I´ve taken a nap on Pday. haha! I didn´t mean to. This picture about sums it up. haha Thank you Sister Loss. :) 

Here's a cool Lion King sunset for you!!

Anyway. Like I said, it´s been good. The Portuguese is good, the home is good, the comp is good. :) I hope things are all good for you too! Thank you for your emails!!!

Drea

Hello My Beautiful Family

Hello my beautiful family!!!

Awh what a week it has been! First of all ANDREW AND HANNAH CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH I´m so so so excited for you!!! Seriously - I LOVED reading your stories and seeing those pictures. Maybe I cried a little (a lot). I am seriously SO excited for you. I love you two!! Congrats!!! 

And Sister Pasini and I trying to close her enormous suitcase.
Also, look at how tan my feet are!
 I have a serious tan line from my shoes. haha!! 

This week has been good. Transfers are always a little crazy, but it was good. Sister Pasini left at around 2 AM with Sister Richardson (my sister on the mission - She was also trained by Sister Furtado) who was transfered too. Sister Colitti and I went back to sleep for a while and then got to work together the next day. :) So technically, in mission terms, Sister Colitti is my niece. haha I love her. We had fun. But we were kind of freaking out allllll day because we are the very last people to find out who our companions are! Cuz they were on a bus and didn´t arrive until night. And none of the mission phones are working right now. Anyways. We picked up our new companions at the bus station and my companion is Sister Loss!!! haha I couldn´t believe it. Do you remember me talking about her in Porto Alegre? She and I lived together there. She´s great - and it´s been sooo good to not have the week of awkward "get to know your companion and try to figure out how to work together" ness that always accompanies a new transfer. haha we´re gonna have fun together.

Sister Loss and me!

We´ve worked reeeally hard this week. It feels so good!! We´ve found some really cool people. Alcides is on top of the world - it was so good to hear him responding to questions and participating in church yesterday! I´ve been excited realizing how well I know the area. I haven´t gotten lost yet! It´s my first time staying in an area longer than my companion - so that´s been new. Also something exciting is that Sister Colitti´s new companion is Sister Adukaitis - who was in my MTC district! So basically our house is SO MUCH FUN and I love it. :) We´re all good friends and it has just been wonderful.

Me and my VERY broken umbrella

This week, Sonia and Vilson were married and baptized! I am soooo excited for them and their family!! :D

I don´t have a ton to report this week but I hope you know I love you guys! I miss you and I am so grateful for your emails! Andrew and Hannah, CONGRATS again!! I am SO happy for you two!! I love you my dear family! I hope all is well!!

Drea

Transfers and Technology

Hello Family!!

It´s a transfer day so things are crazy as usual! Sister Pasini was transfered so ... that´s about all I know. haha I`ll find out who my new companion is tomorrow and well... yep! Another sister in our house was transfered so I don´t have to buy transport to Porto Alegre and back - which is really nice. So I won´t find out who my companion is until the other sisters arrive in Passo Fundo tomorrow evening. haha crazy world!

This week was rough. We both got sick, but I was at the beginning of the week and she was at the end of the week so ... working was just rough the entire week. haha We´re doing better now, so that´s good. But man... I´m glad that week is over. I´m excited to start a new transfer! 

Missionaries in our ward and the Bishop

Also as of this week - the Brasil Porto Alegre North Mission is officially authorized to use... *drumroll please* ... are you ready for this? ... Pass Along Cards!!!! hahah yeah... not what I was hoping for either. To be honest I didn´t even know we weren´t allowed to use pass along cards. oops. But everyone is really excited that we´ll be getting them soon so... we´ll see. It kind of makes me laugh. Technology advancement in missionary work, I tell you what! :P

This is my district

This week we found a really cool family. We knocked their door and I thought she only let me in because I looked like, and sounded like I was gonna die. But when we walked in their house we saw pictures of the temple on the wall! haha turns out they´re members and so incredibly wonderful. They have a 9 year old daughter, Mayra that they´ve asked us to prepare for baptism, so that´s exciting. :) I hope we can work with them and help them come back. They know it´s true. They just need a little push. haha 

Cool sky before the storm here! Seriously, it´s so weird.
The sky turns PITCH black. It´s crazy

We also had lunch this week with the American who moved into our ward and his wife! He made omlettes and hashbrowns!! I was in heaven. The Elders and Sister Pasini all tried to speak English thru lunch and it was so happy! I haven´t heard any of them speak English. haha not gonna lie - it felt good to be the one who could communicate. haha 

Anyway... that´s my week. It´s been good. I´m anxious to know who my next comp will be... I´m sorry you guys have to wait an entire week to know! haha BUT... things are good. I love you all so much and I miss you like crazy! I hope all is well for you guys. :)

Drea

PS.  We think one of our neighbors apartments caught fire this week because our house was FILLED with smoke and still smells awful. That or their churrasco went entirely wrong. It´s gross. All my clothes smell bad. UGH.

Happy Birthday Shar Bear!!

Oi Família!!

Today is a cool day. One, because it´s Shar´s birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAR BEAR!!! :D Two, because it´s 9 months for Mom and Dad, and 8 months for me!! Crazy!! And three, because three days ago marks 1 year since I received my mission call! Can you believe it? Doesn´t feel like it´s been a year. haha 

This week was good. It´s been craaazy. But good. We had zone conference this week! Which usually means a few zones together - but the Passo Fundo zone is so far away from everything else that it was just us. But President and Sister Wright came to see us and it was so happy! It also meant that we got letters!! :D YAYY! I got a sweet little Valentine´s day package from the empty nester´s in the Sequim Bay ward and it made me sooo happy. :) I also got some other wonderful letters which I will discuss later. hahahah President talked a lot about how, if the word "gospel" means "good news" (Is that right? I can´t remember in English...) then how is it possible to preach the gospel as missionaries if we´re not happy? We responded that it´s not possible and he said "Then why are you doing it?!?!" haha It was cool. I even did a practice in front of everyone in Portuguese and I didn´t totally freak out! haha Yeah. It was good.

This week Alcides and Henrique were baptized and confirmed!! They were a little nervous, but very excited and it just made me so happy. We were told that Alcides speaks up a lot in classes and is already "helping to teach the class" haha it made me happy.

We also had the Gincana again this week. Apparently Gincana means some sort of on going event. So we´ll have the Gincana every other saturday for the next month or so... It´s been good. The ward is really stoked about it and everyone seems to have a lot of fun. It´s a good activity for us to bring our investigators to and... yeah. It´s good. We had to leave early this week because the activity started just a half hour before we were supposed to be home. haha So, I heard that this week went really well. :) I also did over SEVENTY street contacts that day. So crazy! I was exhausted.

Anyway - it´s been a good week. Next week is transfers so I´ll let you know how it goes! I hope you´re all healthy and happy and enjoying your warmer weather! I LOVE YOU!!!

Drea

PS - this week I got word that Vilson and Sonia (from my last area) will be married on March 21st and baptized on March 23rd!! I´m not gonna lie - I totally cried. I´m SO HAPPY for them!!! I wish so desperately I could be there. But I will hopefully steal someone´s pictures. So exciting!!

A Funny Week :)

Oi Família!!

Welcome to the week of Carnaval! haha It started... Saturday I think? And goes until... Tuesday? I´m not quite sure cuz it´s not a big deal here and everything is the same except for EVERYTHING is closed. I´m grateful we found a LAN house still open! haha I think everyone goes to Rio or Bahia for Carnaval cuz this place is seriously empty. I´ve never seen a city so deserted. haha 

I FOUND STARFRUIT!!!!!! 

This week has been funny. I think I must have been extra tired because I almost collapsed of laugher a few times. My favorite time really wasn´t that funny, and I want to tell you about it but I think it was a "ya had to be there" type of thing. Ya know? But I´m telling you anyway. We were walking down a road one day, when we heard someone start to play their drumset. It was REEALLY loud and we just kind of looked at each other like "oh boy... here´s a good street to teach some lessons on... nice uplifting background music..." And I looked over at the house and I saw a chicken. You know how chickens walk? With their head jerking forward? Well... he was walking (and head jerking) EXACTLY on beat with the drums and I almost died laughing. Seriously, my comp was worried. hahaha It´s still so funny to me! I wish I had my camera I would have recorded it and you would have seen! haha anyway... ehem... Also... that same day, I tripped over .... the road... and fell right in front of the shopping center in the middle of the street with a million people watching. haha yeah. That´s always fun in a skirt. ;)

My owie from falling in the street. 

I broke my third umbrella this week in Passo fundo!

I think winter must be coming cuz this week has been COLD! We had a few days of just straight downpour where I wore my wonderful blue raincoat proudly. Today is back in the 30´s tho so... You never know here. The nights are cold again which is really nice because it´s nearly impossible to sleep when it´s so hot! 

Alcides and Henrique came to church again this week! We were excited. They have really loved their last few sundays at church but seem to have trouble remembering anything we teach... haha so this is an interesting dilemma. We´ll see what happens. We haven´t been able to find Geyciara at home again so... that´s kinda sad. But - as Dad´s email said - we keep moving forward. :) 

Bishop brought us foooood!!! He´s the greatest.

I´ve been really making a harder effort to be comfortable with Portuguese. I find I can always say what I need to - and lessons are becoming less and less of what I memorized, and more what I feel. So that´s really happy for me. My biggest problem is just being scared and shy to make mistakes. But... I´m getting over it. :) haha

It´s been a good week. I´m so grateful for all your letters! I just love you all so much! I hope all is well for you, that you are happy and healthy!!

Amo Vocês!!

Drea