Second week in Camobi!‏

Hey guys!! How is everyone??

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Caroline!!! :D Thank you so much for the pictures and video!! The videos didn´t work so well, the sound was playing but the picture wasn´t working, I think this is just a slow computer, so I´ll try to watch better next week. But oh my goodness, I can´t believe how big she´s getting! She´s starting to look like a little girl, not like a baby anymore! I was thinking of her all day Saturday and hoping she had a great birthday. I can´t believe it´s been a year since I held her the day she was born...

Time is passing super quickly here!! I can´t believe it´s December there, Thanksgiving is already past and Christmas is coming up...it feels like a time warp here, where they say Christmas is coming soon but it really isn´t, because it´s the middle of summer. It feels like life´s going on normally back home but I´m in a Brazilian alternate universe! But life continues normal here.

Things are going great in the new area! We had a baptism Saturday! :D Reges, 19, the boyfriend of one of the ward members. He had only been taught once when I got here, but had already been to church a bunch and was so excited that I invited him to be baptised and...he was! :D On Saturday, Carrie´s birthday. It was great, he´s amazing, and super excited about being a member of the church.

Things are going great with Sister Velasquez! She´s very different than S. Raphaela. As my trainer, she was super in charge, super confident, always knew what to say in any situation. S. Velasquez is very different, shy, quiet, at times doubts her ability to know the right thing to say. So I´m trying to help her gain confidence, and as a result I´m gaining a lot more confidence too! Because of having to take the lead sometimes, I´m learning a lot. It´s really good, we´re really good friends. She´s super sweet, and a little bit crazy like me! We´re going to have an awesome transfer here. I´m trying to think of anything out of the ordinary this week. The baptism was the best part!

But what else? Hmm, on Tuesday we had our zone meeting, all of us together downtown, and then we went with the elders in our ward (Arruda and Kamiya) to our lunch at a member´s house. But we got off at the wrong bus stop, and had to walk for like half an hour in the pouring rain! The elders had no umbrellas, and ours didn´t do much to keep us dry. Elder Arruda jumped in a puddle and covered us in mud! But then he promised to make us a cake to make up for it. So it has been super rainy like Mom said you´ve been hearing about, but don´t worry!! We´re fine, no flooding, nothing serious, just a lot more rain than Utah! See, these are the only "out of the ordinary" things I have to tell about, as a missionary I really do the same thing every day! :D

Oh, also, I spent the night in a Brazilian hospital! Don´t worry, I´m fine. I went to trade places with Sister da Silva´s companion, because she was in there after having her appendix out:( So her companion had already slept a night there, and the pres wanted to give her a rest, so I went there to sleep. It was obnoxious, like sleeping in a hospital is, but I was glad to help out S. da Silva. But as far as I can tell, Brasilian hospitals are like American ones! I don´t know enough about medicine to tell any differences, but it seemed pretty much the same, maybe not super-hospital-ish-ly-clean like ours are, with hand sanitizer all over, but pretty much the same.

Other than that, life continues as normal here. S. Velasquez and I are both kind of trying to figure out how to be better missionaries, we feel like we don´t exactly know how to be as efficient as possible and...just how it all works exactly. But we´re both working together, and I know we´ll figure it out! I´m really glad it´s going well, I had heard from S. Raphaela that when they were companions in the MTC, S. Velasquez was very depressed, super shy, etc. and that it would be really hard for us both, but it´s not at all. She´s grown HUGELY since then, and she´s becoming an amazing missionary. I have a lot to learn from her! I´ll have to tell you her story sometime, about her family in Bolivia, how she converted to the church, etc. But she´s amazing!!

Ok, I have to be quick this time, our time is almost out. But thank you so much for writing! I love you all so much and pray for you all the time. I´m so glad I get to see pictures and videos of you. You´re the best family anyone could ask for! I don´t know any more details about calling on Christmas, but I´ll let you know as soon as I do. I hear from other missionaries that you call to set up an appointment of when you´re going to call, and then call again and get to talk for like 45 min - 1 hr. So I´ll let you know when I figure it out! I love you all and hope you´re having an amazing holiday season. Know that I´m always praying for each one of you individually! Can´t wait to hear more from you! :D Have a great week!!

Love forever,

Heather