Family!!

Hello dear family!!

This week has been a good one. We started the week with a huge service project for a family that the missionaries have been teaching for a while. It was insane. We cleaned the yard, and the inside of the house too - we had about 10 of us from the ward there and it took about 3 hours, but oh the place looked like new! haha I wish I had my camera that day to take before and after pictures... but maybe that wouldn´t have been the most tactful thing to do anyway. haha All I´m gonna say is that I swept the floor with a shovel to get the years and years worth of dog poop, old rice and beans, and an insane amount of mysterious black goop up off the floor, and out of the house forever. Just when I had finished - one of their many cats came and peed right on the cleanest spot of the floor that I had just spent hours cleaning. haha Oh - to be a cat! 

Our neighborhood dog friend

Later in the week, a member took us to a SUPER chique (do we have this word in English?) restaurant here in Canoas and OH it brought back memories of Tucanos! haha I was delighted. I don´t really know why I´m writing about it in my email home - just that it was a really exciting day because I ate SO MUCH FOOOD!!!! hahah 

A day in the coooold!!

This week for English class, I taught words like sweater, coat, boots, scarf, gloves, fever, flu, cough, sneeze and sick. Because they´re gonna need to know those words pretty soon here! I was in my tights all week with a scarf, 3 coats, and gloves because OH it has been cold! haha It´s soooo much harder to get out of bed in the morning when you can see your breath in the air! haha It´s definitely a different Brazil than I imagined when I got my call! haha 

A typical day of missionary life in Brazil -
chimarrão and ramen. With Ranch. Cuz I am loved and I have Ranch!

This weekend, we saw miracles. Like I said, the missionaries have been teaching this family for about 4 months now. Little Bruna (9 years old) has been going to church all by herself nearly every week for these 4 months and has been begging her parents to let her be baptized. After the service project, we thought maybe we´d brush on the subject again and see what her parents are feeling as far as baptism goes. But let´s be honest. Missionaries never "brush" on the subject of anything... so we flat out asked. haha They said the answer was still no. The Elders were with us to do a baptismal interview and after they told her parents that Bruna was ready to be baptized if they would allow, Bruna´s mom got a phone call from her godmother saying "let Bruna be baptized!" and finally, after 4 months of begging, Bruna finally got to be baptized! We have no idea where that phone call came from... but oh, the smile on Bruna´s face was priceless. She is incredible. She prayed and told Heavenly Father that she wants to be a Sister someday and help others find the gospel too. We all cried. haha It was definitely a day to be remembered.

Anyway, this week was definitely a cool week. We worked hard and have come a long way. I´m grateful the Lord is patient with me in my efforts to be a better missionary. Thank you all for your sweet emails and for being so supportive and uplifting. I just love you all so much!!!

Drea