Hey guys! :D‏

Hey everyone!! Oh my goodness, I got a huge stack of your envelopes on Wednesday, Mom! It was great! I loved reading about everything you guys have been up to since Katie´s birthday.

And now I have a whole list of questions to respond to, which makes it a lot easier for me to think of things to write about! I have to hurry, so I´ll just jump in: I am getting used to being a weird alien American, even though people here are so funny about it! No one´s ever left their little city, so it´s like I´m from another planet to them.

In Church I talked about the principles of the gospel (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, enduring to the end). It was terrible portuguese, I don´t know if I mentioned they let me know the night before, and I had like 10 minutes to prepare that morning. But it turned out fine! :)

Andréia is the member (recent convert, only 3 months ago!) who comes to teach with us a lot. She´s 16, doesn´t have a job, just school.

My shoes are holding up pretty well! The Danskos better than the other ones. But the mission sells shoes that are really ugly but really sturdy and comfortable and I think I´m going to buy some. I got the package you sent!:) Already answered about that. I don´t need any money! We all get credit cards that get money deposited on them twice a month. So I´m good!:)

We do cook for ourselves sometimes, if our lunch falls through or something. S. Raphaela is a good cook and likes to treat me like I really am her daughter (I told you about mission-lingo, how she´s my "mom", right?) so she usually is like "no no, don´t help me!" and makes pasta or something. I´ve already written a little about what we eat with the members. Meat, rice and beans, french fries...pretty normal stuff!

We´re not the only missionaries in the area, 14 in Cruz Alta total, in our ward it´s us and a pair of elders, then 10 more, 5 other pairs, in the other 3 wards. Hmmmmm, no one´s really said they had weird beliefs about Mormons or Americans, they just all are dumbfounded when they hear where I´m from and say "No way. Say something in English!" :P

As far as what´s so compelling about the gospel here...I´m not sure exactly what it is, but Brazil has become known as the "second home of the church" outside the US. It has the greatest number of members and such. The people are like you thought, generally non-practicing Catholic, but a lot of evangelicals, like Assembly of God and stuff. But the message is perfect for them, they already believe in Jesus Christ and everything, and it makes sense when we explain how the Church was the Jesus organized and how no other churches look like that today except ours. But the south, where I am, doesn´t have nearly as much success with the gospel as the northeast...no one knows why! Something´s different about the culture.

I´m not driving at all. People kind of do believe in ghosts! Or black magic, definitely. There´s a religion called Umbanda which is like voodoo. They kind of have Day of the Dead, Nov. 2, but it´s just like our Memorial Day, go to the cemetary type thing, not like in Mexico.

There is a ton of fruit here! Tons of different kinds! Ameixa, amora, things I´ve never heard of, it´s all delicious. I am getting enough rest, we´re required to!:) It´s great.

Speaking of volleyball, did I tell you that Laurie Baird entered the MTC while I was there?? S. Raphaela´s favorite Erico Verissimo books are Clarissa and Musica Ao Longe. She´s making a list for me of Brazilian literature.

People DEFINITELY have pets here, all kinds of animals, horses, cows, sheep, one house has this TINY little baby lamb that´s always tethered on their front porch, cutest thing ever, tons of cats and dogs. My allergies are fine, not bothering me at all. My coats held up great for the little time I used them!

As for "everything about Sister Raphaela". She´s not really "from" anywhere, she lived in 20 different cities in the 21 years before the mission! But she was living just outside of São Paulo (city) before she came. She´s the oldest of 4, her brother just entered the mission field as well. Her hair is naturally curly! She didn´t do college before the mission, but like one semester before she came she got accepted to a dance program! She was studying "dança de salão", which to us is like "Latin Ballroom" with other stuff thrown in that we don´t have in the US. It´s really hard for her to be away from it. She´s super confident, everyone´s best friend, a great teacher, we get along great. She´s amazing! And I told her Katie said she could come stay with us and she´s totally serious about doing that after the mission!:)

As for this week, it was great! We found some interested people, Josi and Luciano, and Cirlei and Elenice, two women we´ve been teaching, decided they want to get married and be baptized! Ok, get married to their husbands, in case you read that wrong :) So that´s great, we´re working on getting their weddings all arranged. And on Saturday was the baptism of Vinicius! He´s 14 and way awesome, his family has some crazy stuff going on, like brothers involved in drugs, but it´s just made him even more determined to be a good person and never get involved in that stuff. He´s great!!

Everything´s wonderful here! It´s starting to turn into summer already. I´m great, healthy and happy, everything´s wonderful. Just working as hard as I can! I miss all you guys, and I LOVED The video of Caroline almost walking!! I can´t believe it. Send HUGE hugs and kisses to everyone! I looked at your pics and video so used a little more of my time than usual, so I have to end here. But I love all you guys to death. Thank you so much for supporting me on my mission. If you could all continue to pray for me, that would be great. Send huge hugs and kisses to Caroline for me! And cheer extra loud for the Utes.

Love you all! Til next week!

Heather