Oi

Hello my dear family!!!

Oh how I miss you all!! It has been a good week. I think the Lord must have a sense of humor because I have once again been given a companion that I already know! haha My new companion is Sister Colitti - who I lived with in Passo Fundo! It was a pretty great surprise. :) I had to stay here in Sao Luiz with the other sisters who had companions leaving and we all anxiously waited for our companions to come back on the trains. It was so weird. But anyway, I saw Sister Colitti walk off the train and I totally freaked out. haha I was talking on the phone to someone in the ward and couldn´t even talk I was so in shock! haha we´ve had a lot of fun this week - it´s so nice to not have to start completely over! We were already friends and well... it´s pretty great. :) We´re working to find new areas in our area that haven´t been overrun by the missionaries and we´re traveling to the outskirts of our area every day. It´s a lot of walking, but I hope it will start paying off. :) 

We have to get creative on the mission.
Can openers don´t really exist here. At least not for missionaries. haha

Sister Colitti is from Sao Paulo and has been on the mission about 4 months. She is actually from the same stake as Sister M. Silva and they were companions in the MTC! haha small world. She will turn 21 this transfer so - we´re excited to party. haha speaking of party - the world cup starts this week! Sadly, the missionaries have been forbidden to watch or listen to any of it. My companion is dying. We´ll be going home early most days of the world cup because there are a lot of games here in Porto Alegre and well... it´s gonna be crazy. haha I´ll keep you posted.

This week was fun - The sister from our ward took us to that amazing restaurant again and OOOH it was wonderful!!! I was in heaven, and so was my new companion. haha I don´t know if I`ll ever stop talking about that restaurant. Anyway - it was so so good. :) Also, that same day, all of southern Brazil had a helping hands activity! All the stakes did something different, but everyone did it at the same time. haha it was cool. And our shirts were in Portuguese and I was stoked! haha anyways... Our stake had pretty extravagant plans, but unfortunately no one really showed up. *ehem* except the missionaries. haha soooo we passed out trees to people on the street. I`m still not really sure why. But it was fun! haha

This was our helping hands activity! Twas a fun day indeed. :)

Another fun thing this week is that Sister Colitti speaks REALLY good English. So we´ve been going half and half with our conversations in both English and Portuguese and we´re always switching back and forth. haha I am constantly laughing because we can´t stay in one language! At one point, we were in the middle of a lesson and Sister Colitti was teaching and she leaned over to me and was like "Sister, how do you say Against in Portuguese?" I said "contra" and everyone burst out laughing cuz she couldn´t remember the word in Portuguese! Later, we were telling the story and I got to the word she couldn´t remember and could only remember it in Portuguese and she had to help me find the English word again! hahah it has been pretty fun. :) Also, it´s nice having someone to help me with English class. haha

Anyway, it was a fun week. I´m excited for the start of a new transfer, for a new companion who isn´t completely new, and for being in Brazil! haha I love you all so much and hope you have wonderful weeks!!!!

Drea