Hey guys!!‏

Hey family! :)

First of all, happy birthday Katie!! :) Hope you have fun stuff planned for tonight! Eat lots of yummy food for me:) How is everyone?? Didn´t hear much from you, but I´m excited for those letters. It turns out the postmen were on strike until a bit ago, so maybe they were delayed, but zone conference is Wednesday and I´ll probably get them then! So for this week!

I actually made a list of things to remember to tell you about, I´ll try to start doing that every week. But the most important thing is we had two baptisms this week! On Saturday we had a baptismal service for Jair and Jovana. I think I´ve written about them before - Jovana is the mom of the family with two girls. On friday we went down to see her and Marcos get married at the city office, and then she was baptized Saturday! And Jair is that awesome teenager we found in like my second week, he´s the friend of a recent convert, and he was baptized on Saturday too:) He´s amazing, from the first time we met him and talked about baptism and asked if one day he´d like to be baptized, his answer was "Claro!" (Obviously!) and that´s been his answer for everything since. He loves the Book of Mormon and has read way further in it that we asked him too. He shows up early for 9:00 church...what 15 year old does that? He´s amazing! I´m so glad he went through with it, because when we went to talk to his parents it turns out he hadn´t really been filling them in on everything, and they were a little mad. But they came and supported him and were great. We´re going to work with them to get some level of understanding going there. But the baptisms were amazing. Jair´s was special for me because Jovana´s date had been marked long before I got there, but Jair is the first person I´ve found and taught and "baptized"! Obviously I´ll never baptize anyone, but you know. It was amazing, seeing their baptisms gave me this joy I´ve never felt anywhere else. It was incredible:)

Marcos and Jovana´s family is so great, and Jair´s too, I´m so excited for them! I was so glad I brought those pictures of Christ I got at the distribution center, I bought picture frames and gave them to both of them at their baptism. I can´t remember who had that idea, but it was a great tip! But it was great to go to Jovana´s house and see the picture there, and someone else gave them a picture of the temple...I´m so happy for their family, it´s their goal to go to the temple in a year. They´re amazing!

What else is on my list? Oh, Dia do Gaúcho! Gaucho Day was last sunday, but I forgot to write about it. It was hard to get anyone to come to church, it´s a 4th of July-like holiday. Apparently Rio Grande do Sul is like the Texas of Brazil, says my companion. It´s the south, with cowboys, they fought for their independence at one point, they´re insanely proud of their state...it´s really more like the 24th of July because it´s only for this state, but it was big. Everyone dressed really gaucho-like (wide pants tucked into boots, collared shirt, bandana, hat), and the family we ate with made churrasco! It was really good, I don´t know what makes it so great, they just put meat on a huge skewer and cook it over the fire, but it´s amazing!

Also on my list is Erico Veríssimo. Apparently he´s a big Brazilian author, he´s my companion´s favorite author ever, but he´s from here in Cruz Alta and there´s a museum dedicated to him here. I´m really interested in him, if one of you could send me a little tidbit about him I´d really appreciate it! Just who he was and why´s he´s famous, what kind of genre his books are (since I can´t read them for a year and a half), what time period, etc. I want to go to the museum!

Also on my list is "cha de panela", a tradition I thought was interesting: it´s the party they had for Jovana the day she got married. It´s like a wedding shower, but after the wedding, like the day of, at least in this case. People brought gifts and everything, but we got there in the middle of this weird game they were playing, Jovana was blindfolded and trying to guess what gifts were by feeling them, and they were painting her arms and face, like red and blue, real paint, and doing her hair in crazy ways and such. I´m not sure if there´s a reason for the paint, if it was when she got it wrong or something...who knows! We got there almost at the end, just to drop by. But, crazy traditions! And the name of the party is "tea in a pan" (cha de panela), and they served tea afterwards...in a pan...but why call the party that? No idea!

So many things are different here, from the showers to expressions to...just everything! Like people won´t leave the house if they´re the only one there. It makes no sense, but I´ve seen it a bunch. We try to get people to come teach lessons with us, and we´ve gone to a couple young people´s houses and had them say "oh no I can´t go out, sorry, I´m here alone." Like it makes perfect sense. I asked Sister Raphaela about it and she said "I don´t know, it´s kind of a southern thing, like they´re afraid something will happen to the house while they´re gone." Weird! It´s so weird to live in a different culture, I thought I would be prepared from traveling so much, but...it´s definitely different :)

That´s pretty much it for this week, but it´s been great. The baptisms were definitely the highlight, and seriously brought me this amazing happiness I´ve never felt before. I´m so glad I´m here serving the Lord, this is definitely the best thing I could be doing right now. I have the best job in the world!:) I come home exhausted every night, but feeling so good about what gets accomplished. Thank you so much for supporting me! We´re promised that our families will be blessed for our service, so I know you guys will see amazing things happen! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week, I´m excited to hear from you! And send more pictures!:) Oh, and I finally watched that video of Mom´s birthday in Jackson and everyone in the family saying hi! I couldn´t in the MTC but I´m so glad you sent it, it was amazing. Update me on everything, give everyone a hug for me, and a big squeeze for Caroline! Cheer extra loud for the Utes!

Todo meu amor! :)

Heather