Pictures from Nice Fogaca

Oi de novo!

Hello sweet family! How good it is to write to you all once more! :) The weeks are sure flying by. We´re already half way thru this transfer. =O Seriously? I don´t believe it either. I feel like Sister Ribeiro JUST got here. haha time sure flies when you´re having fun. And working hard.

Do you remember how I whined last week cuz it was POURING the ENTIRE WEEK? And we spent the week just soaked to the core - with no way to dry anything? Well... everything is moldy now. But anyway... this week it was SO HOT. I was like dying of heat stroke and it brought me back to my Porto Alegre days with Sister Furtado. Seriously, how can one city be so cold, then so hot - so fast? I got my first real sun burn of the season. I didn´t mean to of course, I just wasn´t expecting so much sun! Yeah... it hurt. But don´t worry. I have plenty of sunscreen to last me until the end. That´s a good feeling.

Speaking of Porto Alegre! We got to go to Porto Alegre this week for Zone Conference. There were 3 zones there and we got to hear from President and Sister Wright and a few of the missionaries. I didn´t have to do practices! haha Practices at zone conference are way worse cuz you´re in front of 3 zones, AND President AND the AP´s and EVERYONE is watching. Yeah. I got lucky. But yeah, the conference was good. They told us we need to stop eating so much cuz everyone is getting fat. HAHAH! It´s a problem. Besides that it was pretty normal.

This week I have just absolutely found the joy in companionship study. haha It´s always good, you know, but we have just been diving into the doctrine and Sister Ribeiro just makes me think so hard! She asks these questions that I´ve never even thought about in my life, and then we just can´t stop until we find the answers. Which is a lot harder as a missionary cuz you can´t go to other sources. But seriously, it´s been so fun. And I can´t tell you how many times we´ve found an answer and then had someone ask a question later that day about EXACTLY what we studied! haha it´s just crazy. We still end most days just laughing histerically and... it´s been good. Also, my companion knows EVERYTHING about the plants and trees here. It´s makes me so happy. We´ll be walking and suddenly she´ll be eating and I´m like "Where did you get food?" And she points to a random tree with random fruit and we both rejoice in a mid day snack. It´s so cool. The other day tho, she stopped at a tree and started eating, so I did too. Then she asked me "What kind of fruit is this?" I said I didn´t know, and she was like "Are you sure we can eat it?" Then I totally spit everything out of my mouth and was like "You´re the one that knows about trees!!!" She continued eating and was like "No, I´ve had this before..." Anyway, then I made some joke about "Well, Sister... If we die, we can go to spirit prison together" (We´ve been studying about the spirit world) "Why? Because we killed ourselves eating berries?" "No, Sister!! We´re going there to teach!" And then we nearly died laughing. hahahahaha okay maybe you had to be there. But I still think it´s funny. And man I love those trees.

Anyway, this email is really long. Sorry about that. We had the primary program yesterday!!! So fun! Made me miss my niece and nephews. BUT this is the 4th Primary Program I´ve gotten to watch in my year and a half of mission so - I lucked out! haha

I love you all. I´ll let you go! I´m sorry! haha I miss you all and hope all is well! thank you for your emails!!!

Drea

Week 2

Hello dear family!

This week just flew by! I hardly remember what happened. haha We´ve started working mornings tho and coming home after dark to study. Long story. But OH it has been wonderful! It´s so cool to show up at lunch and already have a few lessons and contacts under our belts. It makes the day pass way faster too and... well, it´s been a good experience. 

Buying ice cream in front of the great apostacy 

This ENTIRE week it has been rainy and nasty and oh so hard to leave the house! haha Seriously, there has been lightening and thunder in the middle of the day! It´s the weirdest thing. And just POURING rain. All day long. How can one city have so much water in the sky? It´s finally sunny so we´re all drying out our shoes, (thank you to my sweet MTC companion who left me her rainboots!) our clothes, and our house after having EVERYING soaked for a week and a half. I haven´t even bothered lifting my matress off the ground because everything was wet. Anyway... it was gross. I´m glad to see the sun. We sang Scatter Sunchine this morning in companionship study. haha 

Another slumber party with the Sister training leaders

Well, Sister Riberio and I are pretty thrilled to hear that Aaron served in Camaçari! SO COoL!!! We've been talking about it for two weeks now like "wouldn´t it be awesome if he served there?" haha it´s good to finally know. 

Sister Riberio and I are still laughing our heads off at everything! In church, one of the irmãs was reading from the manual and said "peace can only come through..." Then accidentally said "pecado" (sin) instead of "perdão" (forgiveness) and we had to put our heads in our backpacks to stop from looking at each other and laughing in the middle of Gospel Principles. haha! It was pretty great. Anyway... we just have fun together and I like it. :) 

There were only 24 people in church yesterday (including 4 sisters, 3 investigators, and the Stake President) because the city hasn´t had light, and no one can leave their houses because EVERYONE has electronic gates. And when the power goes out, the cars are trapped in, and everyone forgets how to walk. It was crazy. 

Our church building

Anyway - I don´t have a ton to report. We´ve been praying for people who want to hear because... we have a TON of people to teach. We have enough to fill our schedules every single day, and more. But they´re all filled with the same excuses - no one really wanting to hear. It´s frustrating sometimes, hearing the same excuse 100 times a day. It´s incredible how many people had to go visit their daughters in Caxias yesterday instead of going to church. It´s good to be teaching so much but doesn´t do much when no one is progressing. So... we´re doing a lot of contacts, clapping a lot of doors and trying not to waste time with people who don´t actually care. Rodrigo wants us to start teaching his brother - so that will be cool. AND we just got a new ward mission leader so we´re pretty excited! It will be the first time since being here that we have a correlation meeting with the ward mission leader. haha twill be good. 

Anyway, sorry to ramble your ears off. I hope you are doing well and are happy and healthy! I miss you all like crazy and am so grateful for all your love! Thank you all for everything!!!

Drea

Oi Minha Familia

Hello once again from the beautiful land of Farroupilha, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil! Oh how I'm so grateful I got to stay! I love this city.

Zone picture...almost everyone from our zone...I think 3 missing

This week was quite a good one. My new companion is Sister J. Ribeiro. But I just call her Sister Ribeiro. haha They can´t have missionaries here with the same name... I think it´s strange so they just put an initial in the front to diferentiate. Anyway... It was kind of funny cuz the day of transfers, we called them while they were on the bus to find out who they were. I talked to Sister Ribeiro and she was like "I´m your companion!" And I went to look her up in our missionary... thing... and there were three Sister Riberios. So I still had no idea who she was! haha it was kind of crazy. But Anyway... I don´t know why I said that. She and Sister Jaramillo (Sister Amorim´s new comp) arrived safely and we have had a lot of fun together. Sister Ribeiro is from Bahia!!!! She is from Aaron´s mission and we haven´t stopped talking about it allllll week. haha We´re hoping maybe Aaron passed in her city - Camaçari - but it´s a long shot. haha I also got pretty excited hearing all about Bahia knowing I´ll be there soon. :) 

Sister Ribeiro and I!

Anyway, she´s absolutely wonderful. We´ve hit it off really well and I´m really grateful we get to be companions. She´s in her third transfer on the mission - she´s been here about 3 months now and she is just great. We laugh all the time. On our first night together, we were walking home from Primeiro de Maio and I was telling some story... she pointed out the HUGEST NASTIEST bug I´ve ever seen in my life. Seriously, looked like a turtle but it was a beetle. Like HUGE. I was in the middle of my story and just Fred Randall screamed with my hands flapping and everything and dove into my new companion´s arms. HAHAHAHAHAH Yeah... it was pretty embarrassing. We then proceeded to laugh the entire way home and could hardly tell the story to the others. Man, it´s been a long time since I´ve laughed like that! It felt good. :) 

Crazy fog that happens like every day in this city.
You can´t see ANYTHING.
It´s called Serração here. Crazy stuff.

Sister Jaramillo is from Colorado and has been waiting for a visa for ELEVEN MONTHS. Yeah... That´s a long time. So she´s now a year into her mission and starting everything completely all over. It´s crazy. But she´s great and super fun to have in the house too. I´m just a happy camper. 

I learned to make popcorn on the stove! It´s not hard... just never done it before. haha 

Anyway, there isn´t much to report as far as progressing investigators. The beginning of the transfer is always our time to go thru all our investigators, figure out who we´ll keep visiting and pray about past investigators we want to visit again. So... we´ve been going thru a lot of that this week and it´s been good. :) I´m so blessed to be here in Farroupilha and am so blessed to have Sister Ribeiro! It´s gonna be a good transfer. :) I love you all so much and hope you are all happy and healthy!! I miss you!

Drea

transfers

Well, this LAN house is closing right now for lunch so I don´t actually have much time to write an email yet but I just thought I´d get on really quick to let you in on the news of transfers! We really only came to this LAN house cuz it´s closer to our house but we knew it would close for lunch. Anyway... you ready?

SISTER KINGEY VAI FICAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D Somebody up above must love me a lot because I get a third transfer in Farroupilha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D I can´t even hardly believe it. I´ve NEVER stayed a third transfer and I am SO STOKED!!!!! I may possibly get to stay in Farroupilha until the end of my mission. I am so so blessed! I was so completely stressed out, I wanted to stay SO BAD! And now I just .... AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! hahah Okay. I have some good stories for you but we´re switching LAN houses and then I´ll write the rest of them.

Farroupilha chapter continues!!!!!!! :D :D :D AAAEEYEYYYY!!!

Our district last transfer.
Sister Richardson & I were here without our companions.
Both of them were at home sick.

Sleeping on the bus to district meeting... er ... not sleeping.

Hello again my dear family!!

Well, we´ve found another LAN house :) I´m just pretty happy. I think Farroupilha might be closing again - going back to just two sisters which would make me sad. I really hope not. Farroupilha is too big for just two. I would also already know my companion which would just be weird. *sigh* I don´t know why they´d close it after everyone finally got used to 4. But whatevs.

This week was a good one. I´m so glad it´s over tho. haha I just realized I only have to stress out about transfer news one more time in my entire life!!! I don´t like stressing about transfer news. It´s just ... too stressful. haha 

Watching Conference

Wasn´t conference wonderful tho? We missed most of the first session waiting for the bus/trying to find the church building. haha! We had to go to Caxias which is where our stake center is. It was cool to be in a real church building again tho! The other sessions were just great tho - we got to watch them all live which was just what I needed. :) I loved how people spoke in their native tongues! So cool! It was funny cuz Sister Richardson and I decided to watch the last session in English cuz we missed hearing their voices. Then they had the Portuguese speaker and we had to switch the computer back to Portuguese cuz we didn´t want to hear it dubbed over! hahah It was good tho - to hear their voices again. I loved the talk about the currents of life, and I LOVED Elder Bednar´s story! :) So good.

Me in front of an actual Andreazza! 

This week we were teaching a woman we had taught just once before. We went back to see if she had prayed to know if our message was true and, upon finding out that she had not prayed, we asked if she had a desire to know the truth. She said "... nah... I´ve been a part of my church since I was born, all my family is of this church and I will die a member of this church" We explained that we should always pray to know the Lord´s will for us because it doesn´t always match with ours. We asked her "If God himself told you to follow a different church, would you?" And do you know what she said? "No. I´m happy in my church. If God wants something different from me, then Jesus will tell me when he comes." She then proceeded to apologize for rejecting us. And then, it kind of hit me. I´ve always understood this, but in this moment it just became even more real. "I am a representative of Jesus Christ. He sent me here to show you the path He would have you take. You aren´t rejecting me. You´re rejecting Him." He TRIES and TRIES with these people. He gives them so many chances. What makes them think they´d react any differently the next time he gives them a chance? I don´t know... it just blows my mind a little when people wont even pray to know if it´s true. 

Me in front of an actual Andreazza! 

Wonderful Bishop & wonderful Nice!

Bishop and Nice showed up at our door again with another mountain of food!! haha they love us. :) And we just love them. Yesterday, they drove us to Caxias so we wouldn´t have to deal with the busses for conference - they fed us lunch, then drove us back home and fed us dinner!! haha Nice made Xis which is like a Brazillian burger. SO good. She makes incredible desserts and *sigh* it was soo good. So, Saturday they filled our cupboards again, Sunday they fed us lunch and dinner and gave us rides, and besides all that, we showed up at their house and there were 4 presents sitting at the table. They gave each one of us a bracelet with our names engraved on it. :D So pretty! They also gave me an elephant ring. haha I totally burst into tears saying goodbye cuz I thought I would leave. I'm so glad I don´t have to! They just treat us like family and ... they´re so so great.

Presents from bishop & Nice

Also this week Indianara was baptized! She is Karolaine´s sister who was baptized when Sister Richardson and I were together. Indianara has always been more shy and basically asked for no one to be at her baptism and she was finally baptized. :) It was a happy day for that wonderful family. And for us. haha 

Indianara's baptism

I love you all so much! thank you for your emails and for your support! I hope all goes well for you and that you are all happy and healthy! :D I LOVE YOU!!!

Drea

PS.  Whoooooo! Farroupilha is still gonna have 4 sisters!!!!!!! Okay. I can breathe again. Life is so perfect. :) I LOVE FARROUPILHA!

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