Final week!!!‏

Hey Everyone!!

I can´t believe we´re starting our LAST week here in the MTC! It´s gone by so fast. Next Tuesday I head down to Santa Maria!!! I´m so excited. I got a letter from the Assistants to the President there, who didn´t say much, just to remember my travel documents and to take overnight stuff in a carry-on bag. I was hoping for more exciting information about the mission, but I´ll find out next week anyway!! :)

I didn´t get a letter from you guys this week, but maybe fate will have its way and i´ll get it tonight. I´m excited to hear about Jackson, I hope that´s the stuff coming up!

WOW, I can´t believe Heidi´s engaged!!! Tell her congratulations for me, and that´s a beautiful ring!

So, the most exciting thing that happened to me this week was we were able to go proselyting again!! This time we didn´t stay in our MTC boundaries, but went out into the city, to the old part of downtown! It made the city make much more sense to me - it was a fairly normal downtown. I thought it was such a strange city because we´re been out here in the sprawling residential parts. But even the old downtown part was kind of unusual! A very interesting mix of European type architechture and New York-ish feel.

But the proselyting was AMAZING! Even better than last time. We got two Book of Mormons each again, and went out into this square, attached to this huge pedestrian bridge that went over some roads underneath. That was our little area, and we were just set free to go talk to as many people as possible! There were crowds and crowds of people rushing by, a lot of students on their way to college, people on their way to work, etc. There were some homeless people in the square, which were probably the saddest homeless people I´ve seen in our travels:( There were also like a little gypsy camp on the grassy island in the middle of the roads underneath the pedestrian bridge. So that was sad, but normal for a big city I think.

So we just went out talking to people! It was amazing, I wasn´t scared at all. Usually if I have to speak in front of people or am in a situation like that I just feel this kind of dread, but no such feeling, just excitement! I had already pretty much gone proselyting alone, because the time before Sister Johnson was so sick she was just kind of in a stupor. So I figured it would just get better from there! She was all better this time and just as excited as me, so it helped to have someone else´s excitement too. So we just started talking to anyone and everyone! The very first people we walked up to were a brother and sister, the sister maybe my age and the brother mid-teens-ish. (I didn´t ask their names because it was the first one and I was so flustered! I keep kicking myself over that!) But we explained we were missionaries and about our church in broken (but animated) portuguese, told them about the Book of Mormon, marked them a passage and gave it to them! They were interested, the sister said she would take it and put it in her car or something? I´m never quite sure what people say back, but then I tell them we´ve been here 7 weeks, and they laugh and it breaks the ice! So that was an amazing first contact of the day!

The greatest one, though, was the next one (or at least the next acceptance rather than rejection:D) We were having trouble deciding who to pick out of the huge crowd, but I just turned around there was a woman walking a little slower than most straight toward me, looking at her phone. I didn´t even ask Sister Johnson, just went straight up to her and introduced myself. She followed and we started talking, telling her about the Church and about how Christ had restored his church in the latter days. She had the most skeptical look in her eyes (it´s really interesting to watch people´s eyes while you talk to them) and said, "So Christ is on the earth again?" in a kind of "get-away-from-me-crazy-person" voice. But we explained no no, he´s not on the earth again, just reestablished his gospel. We explained the Book of Mormon and how it testifies of Christ and how we love it so much we want to be missionaries to share it with everyone, and how we´d love to share it with her. Her attitude totally changed, her eyes got wide, and she said, (something like) "If you give me this book I promise I´ll read it and pray about it. I´ve been needing this very much." And some other things in portuguese that were hard to understand, but she walked away kind of wiping her eye a little bit. It was incredible!! Just thinking that she had been needing it and that she jsut happened to be walking toward me in that moment...so I´ve definitely been praying for Luciana and that she´ll call the number of the real missionaries in the front of the book.

We gave the other two to a guy about our age named Elton, who had kind of a similar reaction, skeptical at first but then accepting. When we walked by later he was showing something in the book to a friend, so that was cool! And to a girl a little older than us named Paula, who was kind of a funny contact, we just walked right up to her as she sped past us and started speed walking next to her! We explained everything, then she stopped, we gave her the book...she wasn´t nearly as excited as Luciana, but we hope it turns out well. It was so interesting - I feel like people stopped for us and were a lot kinder than they would have been in that big of a city in the states. I´m not sure because I´ve never done anything like that in New York or anything, but I feel like people were really nice. Only one person just tapped at their watch and walked away, the rest actually at least stopped and kindly rejected us. And those four actually listened:) So it was incredible, probably one of the best feelings I´ve ever had, knowing that we had helped Luciana when she had been needing it! It was amazing, and it made me SO excited for the field next week!!

We finished really quickly and the bus wouldn´t be back to get us til 4, so we walked to our teacher´s other job at the City Hall type office place! In the middle of the skyscrapers in downtown, it was awesome, we met his coworkers and then went up on the roof where we could see ALL of downtown, which believe me is incredible!!! It went on for miles and miles. Sao Paulo is definitely huge, and very beautiful!

So my time is running short, but everything here is great! Next tuesday I fly down to Porto Alegre (about an hour) and then take a bus to Santa Maria (probably like 5 hours). I stay the night in the mission home there, and then go to my first area, which I´ll find out when I get there! So I don´t know if I´ll be able to contact you next week. If I don´t, it´s because I´m on a plane or a bus on the way to the field!

I love you all SO much. Thank you so much for supporting me on my mission, I know this is exactly where I´m supposed to be. Such an incredible experience and I´ve already changed so much for the better just in 8 weeks in the MTC. How is everyone?? I´m hoping you´ve written me and I´ll get it soon. I pray every night for all of you! How´s work going for everyone? How is sweet Caroline? I need pictures!! Is she saying any more nonsense words? I love you all and miss you a ton, hope to hear from you soon, and the next time you hear from me I´ll be a "legit" missionary in Santa Maria!! :)

Big hugs from me to all of you!! Muito muito amor,

Heather