Christmas!! :D‏

Hey everyone!

How are you guys?? Sorry I didn´t get to write yesterday - I hope you didn´t worry about me. But yesterday we were gone all day for our mission Christmas activity! I´ll explain more about it.

But let´s see, the week of Christmas! The highlight was definitely talking to you guys!! :D It was so good to hear your voices again. Honestly, I had been a little worried beforehand that afterwards I would be sad and miss you in a bad way, but it wasn´t like that at all! It was so normal, like I hadn´t even left, and afterwards I felt good, so it was great. Thank you so much for calling and even risking a speeding ticket to talk to me! :D

So I talked to you on Christmas Eve...so let me update you on the rest! After I talked to you, we went to Irmão Saulo´s house, the Ward Mission Leader I told you about who kind of seems like he would be part of Dad´s family, only Brazilian. So we spent Christmas Eve with their family, it was fun! They had a short family-home-evening-type message, and then we just ate and watched Xuxa´s Christmas program. Have you guys heard of Xuxa? ("Shusha", btw:D) She´s a Brazilian legend, but I had never heard of her. She sings children´s music, like a female Raffi I guess, but way way more famous. She´s a little bit scary, she looks kind of plastic like an old actress, but it was funny. So we had to be home before midnight, which is the big time for them - here Christmas is like a strange mix of New Year´s Eve and the 4th of July. Super, super hot, everyone sitting out in lawn chairs and dying of heat, and then fireworks and celebration at midnight.

So then the next day we went to a bunch of people´s houses, ate even more churrasco (I´ve had to like stop eating it! They eat so much meat here, I´m worried I´ll die of a heart attack or something.) We went to the president´s house with all the missionaries in the area, which was great. However, that night was not so much fun. My companion had surgery a while back to have her gall bladder removed - at least that´s what I think it is, I haven´t been able to find a translation so I´m just assuming. But she has to be really careful with what she eats...but gaucho Christmas is like, heart-attack inducing, like I said. So she started to get really sick. So Elder Arruda called the President to see if she could go to the doctor...and he got kind of miffed because apparently he´s been telling her for months and months to be careful, and she doesn´t really listen. So I ended up with a sick companion and a president annoyed at us both, me for not reminding/helping her.

So that was our slight Christmas mishap, but it´s all passed now. Overall, we spent Christmas sweating and dying of heat, eating a lot, and visiting lots of people! It was crazy and definitely didn´t feel like Christmas. But then yesterday, we had that mission Christmas activity, where we went to this camp-type place with cabins and a lake and such, and played soccer and capture the flag all day! We had a huge waterfight and ate watermellon and ice cream and even more churrasco. Crazy Christmas activity, right?? Like I said, definitely didn´t feel like Christmas, but it was great.

So, the bad part about all of this was that we didn´t have a good week as far as work goes, again. Honestly, Sister Velasquez´s depression flared up again pretty bad, and we had a hard time getting out to do anything. I think it was because of Christmas, talking to family, plus that thing with the President, but for a few days she was really struggling. I felt really bad, and did my best to help her. Thankfully yesterday we forgot all our troubles and I think she´s good as new again.

So this coming week will be the LAST of the transfer! I can´t believe it. It´s FLOWN. I told you guys what I think might be happening next transfer, but I won´t know until next Monday! But next letter you get from me, I´ll get to tell you! I can´t believe it´s already 2010. The time is flying, faster than I can keep up. On the 1st I´ll make 6 months in the mission! I really want to make the most of my time here, because I´m realizing that I don´t have forever, and I have to make it count today. I have SO much to do and so far to go to be the missionary I want to be, but I have to get there a little at a time. There are so many people here who need to hear the gospel, and so many people who need our help. So, strange as it is to spend Christmas (almost) alone in a foreign country, it´s so good to be here. I´m so glad I did this - it´s seriously the best place I could be right now. Not only am I helping people, but I´m learning things that will help myself for the rest of my life. Thank you all so much for supporting me in this choice!

I want to encourage everyone who reads this to say a prayer. A real, on your knees prayer, to talk to Heavenly Father. If you think you don´t have anything to talk to Him about, ask Him to help me on my mission:) That´s a good way to start, and then just talk. I know He´s our Father in Heaven, I know He loves us, and I know He answers prayers, because He answers mine:) So I promise He´ll answer yours as well. I love you all SO much, and always pray that you´ll feel His influence more in your daily lives and be blessed for my missionary service. Thank you so much for supporting me!!

Til next week,

Heather :D

P.S. One more week to wait for that package...those cookies are getting older and older. But you can be absolutely certain we´ll eat them, whatever state they´re in! We´re missionaries!;) I´m looking forward to getting it and extending Christmas one more week :)