Amazing Week!!!

Hello my dear family!!!

Man, I don´t even know where to start! I think someone up above must have gotten sick of reading my impossibly boring emails and decided to send me an awesome week this week! hahah Seriously, this week was full of good things. We´ll start at the very beginning. haha

First of all, ever since we got here, a lot of the members/our investigators have been encouraging us to find a new place to live. That sounds weird, but lets just say we don´t live in the best part of town. And no one really worried when it was Elders... haha poor Elders. Anyway, we also live like a 35 minute walk away from EVERYTHING and it just wastes a lot of time. So the first counselor in the Bishopric decided to go house searching for us and found 4 places for us to look at. So, this last week, I walked into a realistate place and - all in Portuguese - got us keys to four houses in the center of the city. I felt so legit house hunting in Portuguese! haha anyway, it was SO much fun and we have found the perfect apartment right in the center of everything and we´re hoping to move this next week. Actually, we have no idea how long it will take/ what our contract is with our current apartment, but we´ve been pretty excited nonetheless. And everytime we walk past the new apartment we sigh and say "if only we lived here!" haha anyway, it was just a fun new adventure.

Off the balcony of our possible future house!

We also had Mission Tour this week! I don´t really know why it´s called Mission Tour, they don´t even say it in Portuguese, but it´s not a tour at all. It´s just when someone comes to our mission to talk to us who isn´t President or Sister Wright. haha Anyway, it was pretty fun. Our Zone hired a bus so we didn´t even have to pay to get to Porto Alegre! It was sweet. Half the mission was there, and I was reunited with Sister Furtado in Lindóia! It was fun to be back 'home.' haha I really enjoyed hearing Elder and Sister Leal talk to us. Sister Leal is SO funny and basically called us all out for being boring robots. She was like "I wouldn´t want to listen to you either!!" hahaha ehem. It was funny. She encouraged us to be more excited about our message and to be ourselves as we teach - not robots. I was happy.

                                                         Friends at the mission tour! 

Sister Loss goes home next week!! CRAZY!

We´ve been working this past week a lot with the less active members. We found a family who hasn´t been to church in like 13 years. The Dad is working now to quit smoking, the Mom to stop drinking coffee, and two of their kids are preparing for baptism! :) They were all in church yesterday. So cool. We´re hoping for another set of sisters next transfer, so we can both stay and because this city could really use more sisters!

I think some of my favorite work as a missionary is seeing people come back to the church. It breaks my heart meeting so many families who just don´t go because they´re lazy or because they were offended 10 years ago. I love to see the light that comes back into their eyes as they remember why they joined the church in the first place.

The beautiful green chapel - my home chapel in Porto Alegre!

We taught someone this week named Andrea and her son took a bite out of my umbrella.... I have really bad luck with umbrellas.

And, one of the coolest parts about my week was Saturday afternoon. We had just passed by the church to shed a few layers (Farroupilha randomly decided to get suuuuper hot) and were about to head to a far away bairro to knock some doors when I saw some people in a car waving furiously, honking their horn and pointing at us. I thought it must be some members, but when I looked closer, it was a family I taught in São Luiz!!! Remember how we taught English class every week? These were my only students - they came every single week (they´re not even members!). And about half way thru my second transfer the daughter, Bianca, went to England to study English and got back just 2 days after transfers. I was super sad saying goodbye to the family because I didn´t get to say goodbye to Bianca but they told me they´d find me in my new area. I totally didn´t think they were serious. haha! Especially after I went so far away. I bawled my eyes out. I still can´t really believe they found us. It was such a miracle to be passing in front of the church at that moment - we could have been anywhere! Anyway... I was pretty stoked out of my mind. My companion didn´t really know what was happening - I was just freaking out! haha it was definitely so happy. They drove 2.5 hours JUST in hopes of finding me in Farroupilha for Bianca to show me her pictures and say goodbye.  brought us treats and hugs and happiness. :) The Lord has sure been good to me. I´ve been a spoiled little missionary. I was so touched. I still cry just thinking about it. haha I love them. 

Jen made us cheesecake!!!!!!!!

Anyway, this week has been so happy. We´ve found some AWESOME people to teach and had 5 people at church yesterday! hehe the work is picking up and we´re pretty excited. The weather this week was insane. Yesterday, it wasn´t hot or cold. Just normal. But WET. We didn´t even have to be doing anything, just sitting at church and we were sweating. We weren´t hot... just sweating. So weird. So gross. Sorry for that TMI. haha

I love this area. I hope to stay! I feel like I´ve already changed a lot here and ... it´s been exactly what I needed. I´m so happy. :)

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you! I hope you have had wonderful weeks as well! I miss you like crazy! 

Sister King

August!!

Hello my dear family!!

It´s hard to believe another week has come and passed! This week has gone by so fast, I hardly know what to say! haha

Me with a sign for a mercado with my name! haha I love it.

We´ve found some cool people this week that I´m excited to be teaching. One is a part member family with some absolutely adorable children! We´ve only been twice but they just instantly helped us feel at home. I love it when that happens. :) Julius Cesar came to church yesterday, so that was pretty legit! :P

I have really quickly come to love this city. I think the Lord is helping me with my directional challenges because in my last few areas, I´ve ALWAYS been able to find my way home! haha Actually I´ve only had one area that I couldn´t find the way home. But I also didn´t speak Portuguese then. Anyway... what I meant to say is that I´ve come to know this city so much faster than any other area and it makes me happy! It really is a gorgeous city and the ward here is SO amazing. It´s the tiniest ward ever, but every single member wants to help and every single member really makes an effort to reach out to us and make sure we´re at least taken care of. I`m so grateful for this ward. I love it! It´s well run, it´s well lead, and I never have to worry what people will say to our investigators. It just makes me happy. :)

Entrance to 1st of May bairro - the CRAZY hill we have to climb.

Something funny about this area is that it has like all the same road names and bairro names as all my other areas combined! It´s crazy. In my last area, we lived in bairro São Jose (we lived on Av. Farroupilha! haha ironic.), but worked mostly in bairro São Luiz. Here, once again we live in bairro São Jose and work a lot in bairro São Luiz. There is a street called Rua Porto Alegre (my first area) and various other streets from my last areas too. I get confused a lot telling people the church is on the wrong street cuz I´m so used to my last area, and they´re all the same road names! haha oops. That´s probably not a good thing. BUT - I always correct myself. Anyway, I just thought it was funny.

   

This zone is another zone that´s pretty far away from Porto Alegre. It´s not as far as Passo Fundo but the zone is a lot bigger. We have to ride a bus for an hour and a half every week to go to district meeting, and an hour and a half back. It´s a treck. haha But it´s fun cuz we get to see other cool cities along the way. haha anyway...

This week has been HOOOT. It blows my mind. I think the weather is crazier than Utah weather and I just didn´t know that was possible. It´s supposed to get up to 30 degrees Celsius this wednesday! We´re like hitting summer weather again. So weird. But, it´s nice. Being cold is hard. haha

Yesterday we ate lunch with a family who has 10 cats, 7 dogs, 25 chickens, and 15 sheep!!! hahaha It was kind of a millenial feel. Also because they have BYU TV and I watched Music and the Spoken word and totally bawled my eyes out. haha But anyway, I loved all the animals!

Anyway, that´s about it for me. I´m sure loving this city and this ward and working here is wonderful. It can still be hard, but it´s always worth it. The Lord is so good to His missionaries. I love you all so much and I´m so happy to hear from you! I hope you all have wonderful weeks!

drea

Farroupilha News

Hello my dear family!!!

This week was interesting. haha I can´t really figure out how to start this email so we´ll just go with it. I´ve been having some ear trouble lately - not a big deal but it got a little worse so I decided to go get it checked out... cuz I don´t like messing with my ears. I was greatly blessed and someone in our ward found us an ear specialist who is actually completely certified from the States. He doesn´t take our mission insurance, but agreed to see me anyway which was also a huge blessing! I walked in and long story short - I´m all better now. BUT, the exciting part was getting to tell him exactly what was going on, and being able to do it all in Portuguese! The words are very similar and I´ve pretty much figured out how to make them Portuguese so I had a lot of fun nerding out, remembering all my cool ear lingo from college and wishing he had a camera so I could see my ear too! I hadn´t remembered what a nerd I was until I was back at the ENT. haha! It kind of made me excited to be a nerd again someday. I don´t think I know anyone else who could get trunky from going to the ENT.

Did I tell you there´s an American in our ward? Well, we got to have lunch at her house this week and we ate CINNAMON ROLLS!!!! I almost died of sheer joy. I forgot those existed. Also, crazy small world, turns out her brother was in my ward when I lived at Enclave! haha craaazy! Anyway, it was a good lunch and we spoke just in English and it was so weird! Trying to bless the food in English was surprisingly hard. But I loved it. It felt like home and made me happy. :)

I also gave my second talk in Portuguese this week! I think this one went better than the last one. I´m not really sure, but I liked it better anyway. haha Sometimes the hardest thing is looking out and wondering if they´re not paying attention cuz ... people don´t pay attention, or not paying attention cuz they don´t understand what I`m saying. haha BUT it was a good experience. It gets easier every time. :)

Not a lot happened this week, sadly. We didn´t get to work as much due to my ears. It´s gotten REEEALLY cold a few days so that´s been weird to adjust to. I´m really loving this city tho. We´ve learned that there are some really pretty waterfalls around so we´re hoping to maybe go see one this week or next on Pday. Some people think they might be frozen right now - but it´s not cold enough for that. haha I guess we'll see.

Anyway - thank you all for your continued support and love. I love reading your emails each week and, you just make me so happy!!!

EU AMO VOCÉS!!!

Drea

New Adventures!

Oi Minha Familia!

I write to you from the beautiful city of Farroupilha, RS, Brasil!! Yes - I am in the city again and it is soooo good!! :D haha It´s been pretty crazy. I can hardly believe the first week of the transfer is already over. But at the same time this week passed by soooo slowly! haha My companion is Sister Richardson. She´s from Arizona and I´ve already lived with her on the mission too. haha my mission life is full of weird coinsidences. I can´t spell that word. But really... it´s been weird. haha We´re opening the area so it´s just been crazy. There haven´t been sisters here in about 4 years it sounds like, and we´re finding out why. haha This city is in the Serra - which I´m finding out means up in the mountains. So it´s SUPER cold and there are HUGE HILLS. Like... mountains we have to hike just to get from one part of our area to another. haha They tend to keep sisters out of the hilly areas because there are a ton of sisters who go home with knee trouble. But my knees are good.

Anyway, we got a very warm welcome here in Farroupilha - the members are pretty excited to have Sisters. :) São Luiz now has Elders, so that explains why we closed the area there. But anyway. We have the entire city as our area to work, so we´re still trying to figure out which areas to focus on... cuz there´s no way we can cover the entire city. haha The ward here has only been a ward for a year. Actually, exactly a year today! So it´s pretty tiny, and they don´t have a building yet so we meet in a rented apartment building. haha It´s definitely a new adventure. But I already really like the ward and the area so.. it´s been good. One of the areas we´ve been working the most since coming here is called Bairro Primeiro de Maio! Which means basically the 1st of May neighborhood. haha I´ve been enjoying my time there. :) The city is like the Kiwi capital of Brazil or something so there´s a huge festival going on right now and kiwi is suuuuper cheap!! Like... 6 kiwis for 75 cents. In Reals, so like 6 kiwis for 30 cents or something. It´s ridiculous and I love it. I´m in kiwi heaven.

Also, there´s an American in our ward! She´s lived here now with her family for about 3 years I think. She really loves having someone to talk English to and we´ve had fun making fast friends with her. It´s actually really weird having an American companion. We talk less in English than I ever have with any of my Brazillian companions. haha but anyway... 

I am suffering a little in the freezing weather! haha I have good coats and stuff and I`m totally fine, but man it´s weird feeling cold! It´s been a long time. I have spent this first week of the transfer coughing and sneezing and feeling sore allll over. But I`ll survive. haha I just need to remember what being cold is like and then I´ll be fine. haha Anyway - so that´s a bit about me and Farroupilha. The work is going well and we found 18 new investigators this week! I hope something good comes of it! haha I love you all so much and I hope all is well!!

Drea

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Here are some fun pics from my last days in Sao Luiz and from transfers. I don´t really have any pictures of Farroupilha yet - but I´ll be sure to take some this week! haha

Transfer Day

Hello everyone!!

Well, it´s transfer Pday which is always a stressful time, and it´s never a normal transfer for this little missionary so once again I am brought to surprise. Sister Colitti and I are closing the area - which means we're both leaving. :( bahhhh... I´m not gonna lie... closing an area is kind of depressing. We don´t know if more missionaries are coming - if they´re changing the area to an Elder´s area or what. But either way, we´re a lot more worried about all the people we´re teaching- who are progressing and SO CLOSE and then... we leave. I don´t really understand it, but I guess it´s not my job to understand these things. 

My District! :)

So, once again we´re wondering about where we could possibly end up, who our companions are gonna be, etc. and how we´re gonna get to go say goodbye to everyone before the day is over. Thankfully, they called and told us last night so we´re pretty much packed. But it would have been nice to know before church. haha anyway... it´s been a crazy day. But a good week.

For Sister Colitti´s birthday, all of our plans fell thru so we ended up just going and getting some delicious ice cream and then making brownies and relaxing at home. It was a fun day. :)

Birthday ice-cream

Birthday brownies with the coolest candle ever!

As I´m sure you´ve heard, Brazil took some pretty hard hits in the world cup this week and man... I´ve never seen people freak out so bad over a game. haha It was actually funny cuz during the game against Germany - there were an equal amount of cheers and groans all over the town so we had NO idea what was happening. haha then we realized the south is FULL of Germans and we really wouldn´t know until someone told us. haha The Brazillians, though, went on to call that game a tragety - "The worst tragety Brazil has seen in 70 years" which... I just think is taking it a bit far. haha BUT it´s over and I´m secretly glad because working during the world cup was TOUGH! But exciting.

Our picolé picture! haha I love that stuff. 

This week, on my one year mark, I was asked to give a training in District Meeting. At first, I was totally terrified. 25 minutes to teach the district something. BUT - in planning I realized that by giving the training, it means I get to pick who does the practices!!!! MWAHAHAHA!!! I felt so powerful that day. haha!! It was a wonderful 1 year gift to get to be on the other side of the practices!! hehehehe the training went really well tho. Sister Colitti and I taught about speaking without fear. Saying what we need to say - knowing we are speaking the truth and that the Lord is on our side. We can´t have fear because we know what we´re saying is true, and because we have covenanted to speak the truth. And watching the other people do practices just made me so happy. hahahah That´s all. 

My companion decorated the wall
for my one year mission anniversary!! hehe so cute!

Also this week... are you ready? I took my companion to the hospital. AGAIN. haha I´m pretty sure I need to go into nursing when I get home because now I know all the medical terms in English AND Portuguese. hhh... I think I´m bad luck. haha BUT - my companion is okay. She´s just been having some really really bad back trouble and we did an exam to see what´s going on. We, of course, wont know anything for a few weeks. And because we don´t get to stay together, I wont know anything for a looooong time. haha But, we´ll be praying.

I thought someone sent these to my companion
and I freaked out. But it was just the box.

Well, that´s about it for this week. Things are good. I´m excited for a new adventure. I´m sad to say goodbye to Sister Colitti but, her fiance lives in Utah so... we´re good. haha I just hope someone will come to take care of São Luiz for us. I love you all. I hope you are all happy and healthy and that you own adventures are being good to you!! :) 

Eu te amo!

Drea 

AND... words just can´t explain this picture

Pra Todas as sisteres que estiveram aqui para assistir a conferência das sisteres, desculpa pela demora.

OI!!!

Oi minha family!!! <---haha Portugish

It´s been a good week. We worked hard and it has certainly flew by!! This coming week is the last of the transfer and I can hardly believe it! It blows my mind how fast this transfer has gone. There´s not a ton of news this week either but, today is Sister Colitti´s birthday so we´re gonna play and it will be wonderful. :) haha all my lucky companions have birthdays on Pday!! haha

Sister Colitti's birthday!!

 Tuesday was Bruna´s birthday so the ward had a little party for her! It was super fun and she was pretty excited to get a birthday party with lots of people and decorations. We liked it too cuz there was cake. haha

Bruna´s birthday party

Looks just like Nimbus doesn´t he? 

Pictures of our kitty that loves us!

An awesome cloudy day. er... night.

This week we got a new blender!!! I was so stoked and I`ve been making avocado drink and banana vitamina like... every single day. It was a pretty thrilling day. We stayed home again Thursday for the world cup and man, the excitement is getting more and more crazy every single game! Tomorrow we´ll be home again and we´re playing Germany so... I´ll be happy either way. haha but shhhhh don´t tell my companion or anyone else here! I´ll get shot! haha 

MY BLENDER!!!!!!

Besides that, the ward had their annual Festa Junina this week (which was actually "Julina" because it was in July instead of June) it was pretty fun. We got to come help serve food cuz no one wanted to serve food. They all wanted to dance, and we´re not allowed to dance sooo... that was stressful. haha I can´t tell you how many times I heard "SISTER QUERO BOLO!!!!" that night (Sister - I want cake!!!) But don´t worry. I pigged out too. I ate SO MUCH FOOD and wanted to just curl up in a ball and sleep at the church that night. haha we had fun tho. Brazillian ward parties are crazy. haha

Festa Julina

Let´s see. Besides that it has just been a lot of working and routine! haha It´s been good tho. Sister Colitti and I just have one week left together - we´re sure we wont get to stay together cuz ... no one ever gets to stay together. But we have NO idea who will go. It could go either way. I know what I´m hoping for tho! haha 

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

Drea