To everyone!

Hi guys! :D How are you??

Everything´s great here. Today we had our transfer meeting, where we all find out who´s going where....and Sister Raphaela´s staying here with me! :D I´m so glad, we thought she might not since she´s already been here 6 months and that´s usually the longest anyone stays anywhere, but she´s staying to finish training me. I hope that doesn´t mean I was difficult to train or something, but oh well, I´m glad! I feel like we still have a lot to do together. But I´ll probably be here for a good bit more, people don´t change areas much here, it´s kind of expected I´ll be here for like 4, 5, even 6 months. But who knows, I could be surprised and leave next transfer! But that´s the excitement of the week.

Oh, that and Malika´s baptism! We had a baptism on Tuesday, I can´t remember if I already told about Malika, but she´s 13, her 16 year old sister was baptized last month. She´s amazing, truly prepared to be a member of the Church, so excited about it. She was glowing after her baptism:) But she´s SO funny, she´s amazed by me and my alien-ness, she´ll sit there asking me questions like

"Oh, you have a sister? Does she speak English too?"

"Umm, yep, yep she does! The whole family."

"Wooooow. But if you said '(something in Portuguese)' to her, would she understand?"

"Nope, she doesn´t speak Portuguese."

"Wooooow."

And she asked if one of the American Elders was my brother... no one here has ever met anyone from another country! Oh well, it´s losing its weirdness:)

But speaking of which, I went through your letters and tried to find all the questions you asked so I could respond to them. So here we go! You asked about health care here, I only know a little bit from what we talk about in health meetings and such (since I haven´t been sick at all here! You also asked about that - I´m taking great care of myself, eating lots of fruit, drinking lots of water, washing my hands. So don´t worry!:D) So health care here is nationalized, free for anyone to walk into, I could walk in right now and they wouldn´t ask me any questions, from what I understand. But not very good:/

It´s so cool you guys went to Vancouver, it sounds amazing!:) I really want to go someday!

My height - I´m much more average here than at home! It´s so weird, everyone who meets me says to Sister Raphaela, "Oh, you got another little short companion like you!" But the women who are saying this are my height. Most women are my height or not much taller.

About what we do every day - we study etc at home until noon, go eat lunch, and then go out and knock on doors, go to marked appointments, try to find as many people as possible to teach. We haven´t done any tracting in public places like the practice at the MTC since this is such a small town and there aren´t really public places in our area! Our area is seriously just residential streets. Training is going well, Sister Raphaela is great.

I´m still feeling a little like an outsider, but only with some people. And I used to think it was a bad thing, but it´s not, Malika obviously likes me a lot, she just....thinks I´m from a different planet:) It´s just strange to be with people who have never left their little town and never met anyone from anywhere else.

I do miss football! How are the Utes doing?? Really the only sport here is soccer. I didn´t even hear that Brazil beat Argentina, that´s how out of the world we are! Wow. But everyone here loves Gremio, the team from Porto Alegre. Are they any good, Dad? Are they even anybody?

The weather is CRAZY. Two Tuesdays ago it was so cold at night that we stopped at home to get more clothes and I broke out my wool winter coat and gloves. Then last Monday, one week ago, it was insanely hot, like New Orleans hot. And today it´s perfect. I don´t understand!

I can´t believe Caroline´s crawling and standing! Please send me videos!! And lots and lots of pictures! I would really really love to see her.

I think that´s about all I gathered from the letters. But I´m doing really well here. It´s a HUGE growing, learning experience. It´s amazing to focus your whole life on the Lord and serving others. It really reveals to you all your faults, but it definitely makes you a better person every day. I´m learning to rely on the Lord instead of myself. I´m learning to really love and serve others, and that when you trust the Lord He´ll lead you to people who are ready for the gospel.

Speaking of which!! We found someone amazing this week, Gilmara. She´s been floating from religion to religion for years, right now she´s frequenting Quadrangular (NO idea what that is) but hasn´t been baptized yet. When we knocked on her door (actually clapped at her gate, it´s the norm here!) and asked if she wanted to hear a message, she didn´t hesitate at all, said "Pode ser!" (sure!) and let us right in. She and her 10 year old daughter listened, and she was wide eyed and super interested the whole time. When we told her what time church was she was sincerely disappointed that she had an appointment, but said she would definitely go next week. Everyone says that, but something about the way she said it you could tell she was serious. So we´re really excited about her!:)

It´s amazing here, learning and growing every day and helping others discover the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everything´s going great! I´m healthy and happy and fine, so definitely don´t worry. I´ll definitely come home a much better person than I left:)

I can´t wait to hear from you guys - you know, you can send emails if you want! I love getting the letters, but they are slow. So it´s up to you. But can´t wait to hear from you guys, and pics of Caroline, pretty please?:)

I love you all so much. Big hugs and kisses for Caroline!! Til next week! :)