Transfers!!

Oi Minha Familia!!!

So, it´s that dreaded time again - transfers!! And I have been transfered. :( I´m a little sad, but I kind knew it was coming so I got to say goodbye to everyone. :) I´m almost already packed and well... just not really looking forward to the 2 AM bus ride back to Porto Alegre. But I´ll get to see Sister Cleveland again so that will be good! I´m not sure yet if I´ll see Sister Furtado, but I hope so! haha I don´t know where I´m going or who I´ll be with - I won't find out till I´m at the train station tomorrow around noon. Soooo that´s a little crazy. haha but I´m realizing this is my first time being transfered on my mission with a NORMAL transfer. haha the first was from NYC to Brazil, the second was an emergency transfer and well - I´m over 9 months in and finally have a normal transfer! haha it´s great. I´ll get to my new area and the second full day will be my birthday! haha WEIRD.

This is a family we´ve been teaching for a while
and I just love them

This week was good. We spent about 36 hours in the hospital with Sister Loss and finally discovered the source of her pain - the gallbladder. But she´s able to take some meds right now and doesn´t have to do surgery so she´s feeling much better! I´m so glad. It was pretty distressing because they wouldn´t let me be with her in the hospital so I just chilled in the waiting room - both of us alone. A member came around 11 at night and took me home because I was no longer allowed to wait in the waiting room because the person I was waiting for was over 18. haha I went back to say goodbye to her and we both were freaking out almost crying cuz... we´re not supposed to be separated! haha I didn´t sleep at all cuz I was freaking out being alone (well... I wasn´t alone. There are 4 sisters in the house... but still.) and well. I´m just glad it´s over and she´s feeling good. I´m realizing I´m such a missionary when I can´t even handle sitting in a room by myself. haha! I was able to do a split with a member the next day while we waited some more for the tests to be run and... all ended up well. :)

Mustache rings jen gave me! haha

This week Stefane was baptized. We´ve been working with her for a while and I was SO SO happy! She is 13 and had to quit smoking (she´s been smoking for 4 years already). Her life has been filled with pain and things that members of the church really don´t have to worry about. She had such a desire to change her life and after working with her most of the transfer she has made SO many changes and is SO happy. I am so so so happy for her! I just love that girl.

Stefane´s baptism!

Well, as I leave Passo Fundo I´ve been given the chance to reflect on my time here. I´ve spent more time in this area than any other area on my mission and truth be told, I really don´t want to leave. The members are SO helpful. They take care of us like nothing I´ve ever seen. We got more chocolate and easter candy than I´ll be able to eat in a lifetime! haha They offer referrals and call just to make sure we´re eating right. haha! I love the members. The people are so open and I´ve really come to love it here. When I first got here, I spoke almost no Portuguese. I had only been in Brazil 10 weeks and still felt completely lost. Here, I became comfortable with Portuguese. I made friendships and felt at home in this country. I´ll always be grateful for the wonderful city of Passo Fundo. I sure will miss it. But, I´m excited for the adventures that lay ahead and I´m excited to meet and love even more new people. 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! Happy happy happy birthday to my sweet twin! It´ll be strange to have a birthday without family, but we´ll be together next year! (also, I´m pretty sure I´ll turn 23 first this year. mwahaha!!) I love you all so much and I hope you are all happy and healthy!!

Drea

Happy Easter!!!

My dear family!!

Sorry this email is so late in the day. It's been an interesting week. haha more on that later...

AAAAAND the coooooolest picture EVER!!!!
The train tracks of Victor Issler. Just walkin.    hehe I love it!!!

Happy Easter!!! Oh how I missed you all on this Easter Sunday. I loved hearing about how you all spent your Easters- and thank you so much for sending me your talks, Mom and Dad!! I loved them. I was so uplifted and rejuvenated reading about our Savior and His love for us. It's incredible learning more about the atonement and what it can do for us. There is truly nothing we can't do when we are applying the atonement in our lives. That is something I've come to learn as a missionary time and time again. And I'm so grateful. Cuz there are so many things I'd never be able to do without Him. A mission would be so much scarier. haha

Cool wall in our area with murals all over it! I love it. 

Well, first I have a good Easter story for you that actually happened the night before Easter. So, Sister Loss has been trying to convince me that she has super powers. So we were laying in bed Saturday night and I said "Sister Loss, can you turn off the light with your super powers?" (knowing that if I asked her to use her super powers she couldn't say no - cuz she's been trying so hard to convince me.) She raised her hand up to the light and started kindly asking the light to turn off. She said she needed my help so I joined her - with my hand up to the light. But it was too bright so I closed my eyes. And like 4 seconds later the light started flickering and turned off. I screamed SO loud, almost peed the bed and sat straight up - almost knocking myself out as I nailed the top bunk with my head (I sleep on bottom). Next I saw Sister Colitti standing by the light switch in total shock - having come to turn the light off for Sister Loss. I started laughing so hard I cried, and then we all laughed. Sister Loss said "You never believed in my powers." "Sister Loss. The light didn't go off because of your powers." "...you have no faith." hahaha!! I laughed so hard. Maybe you had to be there. But why is this an Easter story you ask? Because I woke up Easter morning with a goose egg on my head! hahahaha oooooh the irony.

My Easter was... definitely different than any other Easter in my life. Sister Loss has been hurting with stomach pains for a few weeks now. We stayed home all day Saturday because she was in so much pain and Sunday we went to church where - 10 minutes after we got there the pain started again. Luckily the members here are amazing everyone was offering her pain meds but we finally just went to the hospital. So, we spent about 6 hours there Easter Sunday. They had a little 5 minute chat with her and sent her home with some pain meds. grrr. We're still not sure what's happening but, she's in really good hands here. The members are SO helpful and everyone has been bringing Easter goodies and lunch to the house! haha we're getting the royal treatment. We may end up taking her back to the hospital today - I'm not sure. But the poor thing is sleeping now. So that's good. But yeah. I'm not really sure what Easter in Brazil is like. haha So, that's my Easter story.

In other news, I learned the word paralelepipedo this week! It means cobblestone and I think it's my new favorite word. :) Things are good here. It's been a good week - all things considered. I'm happy and healthy and trying to take good care of my companion. I love you all so much and hope all is well for you!! Thank you for your emails and for being the best family ever!

Drea

Gincanas

Hello my wonderful family!!!! Oh how good it is to be reading all of your amazing emails today. :) Thank you so much for all the uplifting and happy emails. I sure needed those. I want to print all of them and read them again and again! haha seriously tho - thank you all so much.

This week the ward had our second to last of the Gincanas. We did one activity that just kind of blew my mind! Okay, so there are like 100 people or more at these gincanas, right? Well, this last time we had everyone leave and they had 10 minutes to find someone on the street to come join our Gincana. I didn´t think people would actually participate... cuz that´s terrifying! haha I still get scared talking to people on the street and I do it all day every day! haha But SO many people left! If the people they brought in accepted missionary visits, the points doubled. We had 17 people come in from off the street and accept missionary visits. haha!!! 17 referrals in one day! WHAT?! My mind is still blown. haha It was cool cuz our ward mission leader got up and pointed out how easy it was to just invite someone to come inside. (: It was cool. I don´t think it would work quite the same way in the states... but still.

10th of April on 10th of April Street
(My hump day!)

These are hump day pictures! haha cuz my hump day was April 10 and this street is April 10th street. haha I thought it was cool.

AND I MADE AVOCADO JUICEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Greatest invention of my life. Which I didn´t invent. I just learned how to make it. I am so happyyyy!!! Because avocadoes here are HUGE and each one makes three glasses! haha! so happy. 

This week hasn't been so traumatic. haha traumatic isn´t the right word. But my mind is having a bit of trouble with English right now. haha anyway... I met some dogs this week - they belong to one of our members. They are HUGE rotweilers and they think they´re lap dogs!!! It was SO funny. And, with one of them, if you say "com licença" She´ll leave the room! hahah I laughed so hard. "com licença" is kind of a go-to phrase here. It´s like "excuse me" but it means "with licence." and I don´t know how to spell that in english. Anyway... I don´t know why I just wrote that except for that it made me laugh this week. haha 

This week at lunch, someone associated my name with Burger King and my new nickname is Sister Booger King. haha!! They can´t say "burger" here so it comes out "booger". haha I´m immature and thought it was pretty funny. No one quite understood why I was laughing so hard. haha!

Well, my dear family!!! I hope you are all having a wonderful week and that you have a very happy Easter!!!!!! I´ll be thinking of you all! And happy birthday to our dear sweet little Payson!! :D thank you for all your emails and for the happiness. I LOVE YOU!!

drea

So Grateful for General Conference

Hello my dearest family!

Oh what sweet relief it is to finally be reading sweet family emails and getting to write you all today. :) It has been a hard hard week. I´m so grateful for General Conference this week - I don´t know how I would have survived without it. The first session I watched in Portuguese and was struggling so a member brought me her computer and I watched the rest of the sessions with Sister Aidukaitis in English! (yes, her great uncle spoke Sunday Afternoon and the ENTIRE room turned to look at her when they announced it. haha!)  So I was grateful to get to listen in English. I´ll have to print off Elder Holland´s talk cuz I heard from you that it was so good! I didn´t catch a word of it. But - I did listen intently to the audit report for probably the first time in my life! haha I cheered for you, Mom and Dad! 

The avocados! They´re HUGE HERE!!!!!!!
I was so stoked when I found them! haha

Well... this week I almost got bit by a dog. He had his teeth on me and my first instinct was to growl at him. So I growled really loud and he ran away! haha I don´t know why I chose to growl... that seems strange. Buuuut oh well. it worked. I also got pooped on twice by two different birds. At least I think they were different. So... that just about sums up my week. 

This is a Kinder Egg!!!

I don´t know really what to say this week. It´s just been so hard. I´m trying to be a good missionary but sometimes it feels that despite my best efforts ...that after 9 months of trying (wooo! 9 months this week!) - I sometimes feel I've been running up a down escalator.  So... I could use some extra prayers this week. Cuz it has sure been rough.

I love you all so so much. I would not be able to survive anything at all without my dear family. I have the greatest family ever and life wouldn´t be worth it if I didn´t know I could live with you forever!!! That is the greatest joy. :) Happy Birthday to Mom and Em tomorrow!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Drea