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

I have a little sister!!!

Awhhh how wonderful it was to hear all the wedding stories, see the wedding pictures and get to feel some of the happiness and joy that I´m sure was there this weekend. I`m soooooo so so happy you all got to be there and that all went well. Congrats to Andrew and Hannah and WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!!!!! How exciting!! :D hehe

All the daughters of Sister Furtado (She trains a lot)

This week was a good one. We had the Sister´s Conference in Porto Alegre on Wednesday and it was so good to see friends and past companions. I bawled my eyes out with Sister Cleveland and Sister Furtado - it was a much needed reunion! In the conference we did a MILLION practices. I don´t like practices. Buuuut I was blessed and didn´t have to get up and do one in front of everyone - so I was pretty happy about that! haha Afterward, everyone had lunch together and then joined again to hear President and Sister Wright speak. It really was uplifting and a much needed break from the regular pace of each and every day.

The day after the conference, someone cut my hair with sisscores (wow. How in the world do you spell that?) while it was in a braid. I almost cried, but luckily my companion is gonna be a hair dresser when she grows up so she totally fixed everything. I was much happier after and it isn´t even as short and awful as I was imagining. haha oooooooh mission stories.

My sweet companions!

I also got asked to give my very first talk in Sacrament meeting since coming to Brazil! I knew it was coming because they didn´t ask me to get up and bear my testimony when I arrived. haha It actually went well - all things considered. I got asked to give it just a few hours before Sunday came. We have a bed time, ya know? So I didn´t get much time at all to work on my talk. But even so, I wasn´t very nervous. I talked about the importance of members in missionary work and tried to motivate the members a little more. I felt pretty accomplished. :) If I can get up and speak in Portuguese in sacrament meeting and not get nervous - either something is wrong with me or I can do anything! haha ehem...

My companion got a little hairy.
hahaha! I love this picture

Anyway, it was a good week. I´m feeling more comfortable in São Luiz. It´s still hard, but I like it. I love you guys so much! Thank you for the sweet emails, for keeping me posted and for everything! I hope all is well!!!

Drea

Waaaaa!!!

Bahhh I´m so sorry to be writing so late!! My goodness, this has never happened before. haha we had a wonderful day today at the temple and meant to write before the temple, but got completely lost and took a beautiful scenic detour all through Porto Alegre! haha I was back in my sweet city and felt right at home. :) Anyway, long story short, we arrived JUST on time to the temple and JUST got back now to send some emails! haha I love the temple. And I was super excited to get to go in the same week as all of you!! I am just a few days off, but we will all have been in the temple this week. So, I´m a happy camper.

It was SOOOOOO good to talk to all of you!! It was definitely the highlight of my week. Honestly, it´s the most refreshing thing in all the world. I´ve been giddy ever since and the work has been so much happier. Oh how I have missed you all! The time flew by too quickly but I´m so grateful for what time we did have together. :) 

This week was kind of cool. I get to teach English class here! It´s actually a little terrifying. Cuz I have no idea what the missionaries before already taught and... I´m already out of ideas. So if anyone has any fun/easy English class ideas I´d sure appreciate them! haha it´s super chill... I just don´t like standing up and being like `what do you guys want to learn?´ haha anyway, it´s pretty cool tho. 

Also, I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese this week!! Eyyyy I´m pretty proud of myself. Reading the Book of Mormon in another language is an AWESOME experience. I recommend it.

Tomorrow we have a big Sister´s meeting where all the sisters in the mission get together and ... well I´m not sure what we´ll do. But I´m excited to see Sister Cleveland and Sister Furtado again!! Twill be lovely. :)

Just in case you were wondering
what my new crocs look like -
they´re actually kind of pretty! haha

Anyway, that´s it for my week. I´m sorry emails will be shorter this week as I am pretty sure this LAN House closes soon. But, I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOO MUCH and know that I am with you in spirit. I am SO happy for you Andrew, and am excited to get a new sister this week. I can´t wait to hear alllll about the wedding and adventures and I´m so glad you all get to be there. I will be thinking of and praying for you all to go in safety!! Congratulations to my sweet twin!!  

I LOVE YOU my dear family!!!

Drea

New Places

Hello my dear family!!!

This week feels like it has been the longest week ever!! haha transfers are so stressful. But I got to see Sister Cleveland at the train station - so that was soooo happy!! 

It´s been a good week. I´m not in the city anymore and I´m kind of going through withdrawls! haha I don´t know how to work in a small town - I´ve spent 9 months of my mission in the heart of the city! But I´m learning. I was transfered to the Canoas Norte Zone - in a tiny little part of Canoas called São Luiz. It´s super chill and... kind of a culture shock from the last places I´ve been. haha there is never anyone on the street to talk to and after long days of clapping doors, only two people let us in this week. Everyone knows exactly who we are and most people say they´ve already had the missionaries in their homes and aren´t interested. haha Buuut. It´s good. It was kind of a rough week, but I´ll get used to it.

My companion is Sister M. Silva (there are a million sister silva´s in the mission so they all have a letter in front to tell them apart. haha) and she´s adorable. She doesn´t speak much English so I´ve had fun teaching her random phrases in English and making her say them to the wardies. haha One of the only words she says often is `Nobody!` which she says for everything and I think it´s so funny! haha We´ve had fun. She´s from São Paulo and has been on the mission about 3 months now. We´re still learning how to work together and getting used to living with just 2 people in the house (which is kind of sad) but I´m enjoying it. 

Me and sister M. Silva. She´s cool. :)

This town has no places to shop, no post office... not really much of anything so - it´s an adjustment! BUT I can still understand the Portuguese here (and it is more of a normal accent than Passo Fundo was) and have had fun getting to know the members and the kind people of this little town.

THANK YOU FOR THE BIRTHDAY PACKAGES!!!!!!!!!
:D I love youuuu!!!!!!!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes!! You are so sweet!! It was a good day. It was strange to be in a new place with everything unfamiliar - new companion who I hardly knew, new members, new investigators... so I didn´t really tell anyone until later in the day when Sister M. Silva magically brought up birthdays. haha She freaked out when I told her and some sweet members who live next door to us bought cupcakes for me to blow out when we went to see them later. :) I felt very loved and I was grateful to have all of you sending me your birthday love from so far away! It was weird to be away, but it was a good day. hehe  

My little birthday party! haha it was fun.

Well, I don´t have a ton to say because really not has much happened in the new area yet. But, I know I`m gonna like it here so I´m just excited to start feeling more familiar and comfortable. haha The ward is teeny tiny and they love their missionaries. My district has just 6 of us (we´re the only sisters) and well... it´s all so strange! haha but it´s good. 

I can NOT wait to talk to all of you this weekend!!!! I can´t believe it´s already time to call home again and I am so so so excited!! I haven´t found a place to go yet... but I´ll keep you posted and will probably call on Friday to finalize a time. :) It´s gonna be gooooooood!!! hehe Also before I forget - I get to go to the temple next week!! So my pday will be on tuesday instead of Monday. But, I`ll talk to you before then. haha 

I love you all so much and I am so excited to see your faces and talk to you this week!! I love you soooo much!!! 

Drea

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