First week in Camobi!!‏

Hey guys!!!

Oh my goodness, I already wrote you, but accidentally erased it :( So I´ll try to write everything again!!

So let´s see, I´ve just finished my first week in my new area, Camobi! (area of Santa Maria). It´s been amazing! But let me try to update you on everything so far! So let´s see, after I last wrote you last Monday, that night we had a Family Home Evening at Marcos and Jovana´s house. Jovana just got called to be a Young Women´s counselor, and it turned out she had some of the young women come over and decorate the house, and they made it a little goodbye party for us! So they put like posters and letters on the wall, we took tons of pictures, etc. (Oh, speaking of which, I updated the photobucket a little bit last week! See if it worked.) So it was really hard to say goodbye to them!! Marcos and Jovana were the family we were closest to, and the young women who came were also really close to us (you know how teenage girls are). So it was really hard to say goodbye at the end of the night!! It´s so crazy about the mission, it´s hard to leave home and you think you´ll never adjust, but then it´s hard to leave your first area, and I´m sure every area after that! Crazy.

But we eventually said goodbye, and went home to pack for the next morning. We stayed up really late doing that, but eventually got it done. So the next morning we went to the bus station, and another family was there to see us off, Rosane and her daughters Claudia and Malika. It was kind of crazy - Rosane, the whole time we were there, had said that she had been baptized when she was young but wasn´t interested anymore, etc. But she admitted that she actually had never been baptized! She had said it so we wouldn´t pressure her to be baptized, or whatever she thought we would do, I´m not sure. But she said that after seeing Claudia´s and Malika´s conversions, she saw how wonderful the church was and what it does for people´s lives. And she said she had been to the cartorio (city hall? I´m not sure - where you go to get married) to ask for her birth certificate, to get started on her marriage papers so she could get baptized as soon as possible!! So that was crazy to find out, but amazing to know we had made a difference in her life!

So that was a good way to leave, but then we got on the bus and drove away. When we got here to Santa Maria, we met up with all the other missionaries who were being transfered in the bus station. It was fun to see everyone, we all had a little reunion and ate there in the bus station, but then it was time for Sister Raphaela´s bus to leave for Livramento (border of Uruguay, one of the "cool areas" of the mission). But then I realized that we had to say goodbye! It was really hard - we´ve gotten so close. It´s crazy the relationship you have with a companion - probably the only time you´ll be with someone 24/7 for 12 weeks! And the relationship you develop is super close. So it was really hard to say goodbye to her.

But she got on her bus, and I went off with my new companion, Sister Velasquez! So, all about her! She´s great. She´s 24, and is from Bolivia but lived in São Paulo for 3 years before the mission. She was S. Raphaela´s companion in the MTC, so they have the exact same amount of time, they´ll both make 1 year on Dec. 11. She´s awesome, we get along well, and she has a good desire to work. So it´s been great here!

Now about our area. It´s huge!! It covers 20 km! But it´s great. There´s a University here, and it´s much more of a "city" than the "town" area I was in in Cruz Alta. Lots more urban, so that´s kind of cool. But still a small town, comparatively in the world. So the ward is really good! The companionship I´m replacing had 3 baptisms last week, and the people are AMAZING. Really, truly converted. Rosana, who was just baptized, had cleaned out her closet the last time we went there and had huge bags of clothes that didn´t fit the standards. She´s seriously amazing. So I´m really looking forward to working here!! The ward is good, the leadership is good, everything seems to work really smoothly. And we´re sharing a ward with a set of elders again, who I love! Elder Arruda and Elder Kamiya. They´re both great, and we see them a lot. Theý like to work with us, so we´ll be doing a lot of work as a foursome. So everything is amazing so far!! I´m really excited to work here.

My time is almost up, so I have to hurry, but know that I´m doing fabulous and everything´s great! I´m happy and healthy, and our house here in Camobi is awesome:) So don´t worry about me, for sure! I´m loving the mission, and I´m so glad I decided to come. I´m learning priceless things here. This next transfer will be great! (oh yeah, and I can get your mail every week now that I´m close to the mission office!:D)

So thank you guys for all your love and support. I love you so much!! I´m always praying for you - please pray for me too. Hope to hear from you soon!! :D Big hugs and kisses for Caroline!!

Love,

Heather