Oi Minha Querida Familia!

Oi Minha Querida Família!

Que Saudades de vocês!! Estou muito feliz hoje lendo todos os emails e quero que vocês saibam que eu sou muito grata pelo carinho e apoio de todo mundo. Eu amo vocês!!! 

This week was much better. I slept EVERY SINGLE DAY this week. Yep - your prayers are definitely working, so thank you so so much!! That sleep was much needed and well... at least I´ve learned just how important sleep is. haha I´m so grateful for my sleep.

Sister´s conference! Me and Sister Horn  

Me with my trainer and all the other girls she´s trained

Me with my trainer (mom) and "daughter" haha

This week was good. We had a Sister´s Conference in Porto Alegre and it was soo good to see everyone! We´ve had some new American sisters get here and I finally got to meet Sister Horn (my Anatomy TA´s little sister) who is just SO COOL. We wrote before she left on her mission and I´ve just been so excited to meet her. She´s been visa waiting for 8 months in Missouri. It´s crazy. Anyway, the Sister´s Conference was good. It was good to see everyone and to be back in my home base Porto Alegre for a while. :) I didn´t have to do any practices so I was pretty happy about that too!

Sister´s conference!! :) 

I had an allergic reaction to a bug that bit me and well... this picture happened.
You can only kind of see it on my leg and a bit on my face. haha it was a new brazil adventure!

This week, Amanda was baptized!! Her day was so special and I´m so grateful I got to know her. She's just so cool. She was there for Rodrigo´s baptism and told us that it was that day (her very first time at church) she found out the church was true. She basically asked us if she could be baptized and ... it was such a good day! She is an example of faith and courage. She, like Rodrigo, received an answer and was ready to follow immediately. That is sadly more rare than it should be. Also, Rodrigo received the priesthood this week!! So happy! 

This week we were teaching a family the Plan of Salvation. I have been so excited to teach them and we´ve been waiting for a day that the whole family would be there. Finally that day came, we were both so excited to share with them the wonderful news of the Plan - and ... they completely rejected us. We asked "Do you want to live with your family forever in the presence of God?" And they looked at each other and said "well... forever is a really long time." I almost cried just right there. How couldn´t they see how beautiful this plan is? Why weren´t they just jumping up and down for joy to know they could be together forever? And then I was just overwhelmed with gratitude for my family - for being a part of a family that WILL be together forever and that wouldn´t survive any other way. It made me sad that someone wouldn´t understand how completely wonderful it could be for them as a family. I´m not expressing myself well... but really all I´m trying to say is that I´m so grateful for my family and I´m so grateful for the plan of salvation. I´ve learned a lot more about that plan this week. 

Amanda and her adorable son, Leonardo. I just love those two!!! :D 

On Saturday, during study time, we got a call from our Bishop and his wife, Nice (Nee-cee). They said they wanted to talk to us 4 outside for a few minutes, so we scrambled to put ourselves together, and ran outside. Bishop started saying something like "We´ve been hearing some things from the members in the ward and well..." and at this point all our minds started scrambling like "What did we dooo?!" (that internal conversation is a lot easier when you´re in a wonderful ward that loves you and when your conscience is clean haha but... it still freaked me out for a second) THEN he opened his car door and proceeded to FILL our arms with fooood!! Everything you can imagine. 4 boxes completely full of food. Every missionary´s dream. Except this isn´t a dream. This is Farroupilha. 

All the food the Bishop brought us!!

I love it here. I just seriously love this place. Bishop treats us like his own children and we are so completely spoiled. Next week is transfers and ... if we´re going by the pattern of my mission (two transfers in every area) then it´s my time to go. But oh I sure don´t want to. 

Thank you all for your wonderful emails, for the support and love. I just love you all and I´m so grateful for you! Thank you for being my amazing family!!

Drea

HELLO!!!!!

Hello my wonderful family!

I write to you from a very weather confused little Farroupilha, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil! haha this week´s weather has just been insane. It´s too hot. Then too cold. Then rainy. Then foggy... like so foggy you can´t even see your companion walking next to you or the cars zooming across the road. Today started out really hot, but right now it´s cold and looking like it´s gonna rain. Every day you have to bring rain boots, umbrella, raincoat, etc. and dress in layers cuz you never know what´s gonna happen!!! It´s so weird. I wear socks with my tights just in case I have to take my tights off when it gets too hot - that way I don´t have to wear my shoes without socks. haha Just in case any of you would like to know. Anyway... it´s a lot of stuff to carry every day.

Sipping chimarrão - a cultural thing... tastes like grass tea.
I just did it for the picture. haha

This week was good. Rodrigo was confirmed, and brought a friend to church last week who we have started teaching this week and was at church again on Sunday! She loved Rodrigo's baptism and called us asking when we could come and teach her! haha! Also, another family we´ve been working with for like 4 weeks now FINALLY came to church and I was SOOOO excited! Her name is Pricilla and she has two adorable little kids who basically forced her out of bed and into the church. haha they love church. It´s so cute! It was a pretty happy sunday. 

Sister Lorena´s 1 month on the mission party

ALSO Jen came home from a trip to the states!!! We have missed her a lot. She brought Sister Richardson and I American candy!! She brought me THREE POUNDS of Jolly Ranchers!!!!! haha I was pretty stoked. I can´t stop eating them. :)

Jolly Ranchers and Jen!!

I´ve had a lot more time to study this week (long story) and have so enjoyed rereading the conference talks from this last April. One I read the other day was the one about our 4 minutes to shine. I can´t remember who´s talk it was, and I was gonna bring a quote I liked buuut... I forgot. haha sorry. I just loved the idea that our time here on Earth is the time we have to do our best - perform what we learned before. Our time is short here on Earth and we´ll have eternity to reflect on our time here. He compared it to the Olympics and preparing an entire life just for a 4 minute performance. I compared it to my mission realizing my time is really - really - short here. I hope I can "perform" my best so I can reflect happily for the rest of my life on my time I´ve had here in Brazil. I really do love it here. It´s hard sometimes, but ... the harder we work and the more we overcome... the more we love it. 

Lunch with members

My swollen foot. Something bit me. haha

I love you guys so much. I just miss you all and hope you are all doing so well! You´re always in my thoughts and prayers!

Drea

Sister training, broken beds and baptism

Hi Familyyy!!! :D

Oh how I miss you all! This week has been good. Long, but good. It seems the start of every transfer is just really slow, then the last few weeks fly by. If I could live in week 6 of the transfer... it´d be really cool. I love week 6. Week 2 is always the hardest for me for some reason. Glad that one is over. haha I think it´s just because by the end of the transfer, you get so into a routine with your companion, your investigators, members, etc. and even staying in the same area, there have been a lot of changes since expanding to have 4 sisters. But then the changes become normal just in time to start over all again with a new area, new companion, new members and *sigh* it gets hard sometimes.

Sister training leader visit

BUT as I said, this week was good. haha The sister training leaders came to visit us for a day so we had 6 people in our little apartment! haha It was crazy and I kept just thinking that it was gonna go back down to just Sister Richardson and I, then remembering AGAIN that we´re not companions. haha it´s so weird. Anyway - sister training leader visits were fun and insightful as usual and it was crazy trying to find space on the floor for everyone. My bed broke this week so we already had 3 sisters on the floor and 1 in an actual bed. haha then it was 5 on the floor and one in a bed. Anyway... mission life is always an adventure. They will send us new beds when we get in the new apartment. ha ha

My broken bed. haha! At least I have a mattress.

We also had interviews with President this week! It´s extremely weird thinking it could be my last one. Normally, the next interviews would be right around Christmas time so I don´t know if they´ll push them to be a little before, or a little after buuuut I hope I have one more! It´s always so good to get to set new goals, ask questions and get to sit and talk to Sister Wright for a while too. 

This week, Rodrigo was baptized! We´ve been working with him for about 4 or 5 weeks now? I´m not sure. But he´s definitely been prepared for much longer than we´ve been working with him. He brought a friend to church yesterday to watch his baptism and everything. haha! It was a pretty exciting day. We´ve been finding a lot of new people every week... the work keeps moving forward and ... it´s definitely a privelage to be a part of it.

Rodrigo´s baptism

This week rained almost the entire week, and it´s supposed to rain all this week too. Working in the rain is hard. But at least I have cool rain shoes now. Anyway... that´s your weather update for the week. It´s been cold and rainy - but today is deathly hot. So, I´m just confused. 

I don´t have a lot more to say, but I want you all to know that I love you all so much. I miss you like crazy and I hope all is going well and happy for you all. I have the best family EVER!

Drea

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

Sister King in front of the 7th of September
Street for her Dad's birthday!

Farroupilha!!!

Hello my dear family!!

Well, transfer news first. YES I got to stay in Farroupilha!! I am SO SO SO happy!!!! I was calling the Elders begging for an answer and no one seemed to know but I finally (in my last 30 seconds of email time) got a call from one of the Elders telling me that Farroupilha (Fah - hoo- peel- ia) is opening for four sisters, both of us are staying and getting new companions. I was pretty stoked. We actually jumped up and down for joy in the lan house. And then I wrote you guys. haha Anyway - I am LOVING having more time in Farroupilha! I just hadn´t had enough time with the wonderful people and ward of this beautiful city. I´m so grateful for more time!

Me and my new missionary in the trainstataion of Porto Alegre

So, the second news is that my new companion is Sister Lorena. She´s from... some state I´ve never heard of in Brazil and I still can´t pronounce it or spell it. But I think it´s close to Recife? It´s in the Northeast and she has a wonderful Nordeste accent. hehe I will have to learn so I can fit in in Salvador! She´s 20 and fresh out of the MTC. :) It´s been a fun week. It´s suuuuper weird still living with Sister Richardson but not being companions. We keep sitting together - about to start companion study and then realizing we´re not companions anymore. haha!! OOps. My poor companion. She´s cool tho. (Sister Lorena I mean) She´s pretty quiet so I´m still getting to know her and it´s definitely been a weird adjustment being a trainer. haha It´s a good experience tho. Just a lot more work. 

I opened a new area so I got a new super chique phone! 

Anyway, this week we have really enjoyed living in four again. There´s always someone to talk to, so that´s fun! haha We´ve been trying to figure out how to divide our area and have tried a few different things and keep switching investigators which has just been horribly confusing. haha We need to stop. It´s just so hard to know what to do when we don´t know if we´ll be moving soon! Also, Sister Richardson and her new companion, Sister Amorim (Also from the Northeast of Brazil) are sleeping on the floor because the mission wont send a new bed or closet until we move. *sigh* it´s been a confusing week. haha I´m exhausted. But we´re getting there. 

Us four on Sister Amorim´s birthday party

We´ve been really exploring the area called Primeiro de Maio (May 1st). It´s the one with all the hills. haha but I LOVE that area. There are so many people everywhere and it´s just been exciting to find new people this week. We are working with a family right now who has just moved into the city. The dad travels a lot (45 days at a time) so the mom is home with the two kids. She was excited to have visitors and received us well. She was also very excited to come to church yesterday but... didn´t end up being able to... this week. haha It´s an awesome family tho and we´re excited. :)

Cleaning the house, putting on all the old clothes we found cuz we were cold. 

The ward continues to love us. They´re a little overwhelmed with 4 sisters tho I think. There aren´t enough members to go around (our mission goals require 12 lessons with members each week, each companionship) but they´re all excited to step up to the task. haha It will be good. 

Today we´ve been just getting settled in a little better and trying to figure out the best arrangement for four in the house. haha so many new things for just staying in the same area! haha but it´s so good. I´m a happy camper. Seriously, I feel like I´m camping sometimes cuz this entire city smells like campfire and my clothes ALWAYS smell like campfire. And my hair. It´s weird. haha 

Friday we have interviews with President again. It´s amazing how fast the time is flying!

I love you all so much and miss you like crazy! I hope all is well!!

Drea