Fourth Week!!‏

Hey everyone! :D How are you guys??

First of all, guess what? I finally got the package Mom sent in the middle of December! With month and a half old cookies!;) I am so excited to eat them - even if they´re crumbs, we will find a way:) Thank you sooo much, guys! I haven´t opened it yet, but thank you already.

So how is everyone?? I saw the adorable picture of Carrie and Finn. He must be the worlds sweetest cat!! That´s awesome. I hope she´s feeling better by now! How are you all? How´s school, Katie and Mom? What classes are you guys taking this semester? Speaking of classes, did you ever get on my school account just to see if everything´s ok? Let me know how it goes. How´s work, Dad and Alex? How are U sports, Mom and Dad? What have you guys done for fun lately? I need to hear everything!:) I´m looking forward to Mom´s letters that tell a little about every day - I love all that stuff you guys think is boring.

As for things here, this week was great! A little different: lots of activities with the ward, Sister Raphaela arrived, and most exciting, Aldrey´s baptism!! All in all a great week. So let´s see. The week started out fairly normal - we were kind of getting ready for S. Raphaela´s arrival, cleaning the house and everything. I was cleaning the sink one day and realized I felt exactly like a mom must feel when her mom comes to visit!! So Sister Draut and I joked about it all week - "Remember, Grandma´s coming, we have to be on our best behavior". So we just worked like normal, but with a fun Family Home Evening on Thursday night that was so big we had it at the "chapel house", the house next to the chapel that the church bought to have activities and everything. It was great, and some of our investigators came and had a lot of fun. Elder Reis, one of the zone leaders, was on division in our area. He´s from Ceará, and made this cearense food, Tapioca! Which is not how we think of it - it´s like sweet crepes made from mandioc flour. Really interesting. Soooo that was thursday....and then Friday morning Sister Raphaela arrived! The President dropped her by our house early in the morning. At first I was like "ohhhhhh man, this is going to be sooo hard..." because right when she arrived she started to plan with us. But everything we had planned she had something to say about - we´re not supposed to do service projects like that, wouldn´t it be better this way, etc. She has an authoritarian side, and she was very much in that mode in that moment. So for a minute I was imagining 10 days of that. But later in the day, she relaxed and went back to her normal self, and it´s been great since then! So friday we worked like normal, and Aldrey had his baptismal interview, passed, and was super excited for Saturday.

Then on Saturday....in the morning we did a service project at a member´s house. I had thought we were going to help with something that had exploded in their backyard (I never really got it - sometimes I still miss things in portuguese). But when we got there, the irmã just had us clean their bedroom. It was pretty crazy, I´m pretty sure they hadn´t cleaned in years and years. So....that was interesting :P Then, we got ready for Aldrey´s baptism!! It was him and another person, Marcos, being baptized. So he got there early with Daniel, his brother who I already told you about, who was going to baptize him. Aldrey was (is!) SO cute - I can´t even describe him to you. Elder Brooksby came in after he left the room and was like, "Wow, he is SO excited!" And he was. So we got everything ready, took pictures...and then he was baptized! It was so great to see his whole family there (even the dad came) and see Daniel baptize his brother. Afterwards, we sang "When I Am Baptized" for a special hymn, and I looked at him the whole time. I´m so happy he decided to follow this path in life. He´s about the same age I was when i was baptized, and I thought so much of how it´s changed my life. I´ve told him a lot about that in the lessons we´ve had and everything - how it´s going to be for him, what will be hard, but how worth it it will be. So...that was an amazing baptism:) Then Sunday was a pretty normal day. Aldrey´s confirmation was the highlight! He came with his hair parted all neat and everything - adorable.

So to sum up the week......let´s see. It has been really, really hot. Really really REALLY hot. Hot, like, we have to be really careful not to get sick from the insane heat. But don´t worry, I´m not:) And...it´s been great to have Sister Raphaela back!! After she got out of that authoritarian mode she was in for the one morning, she´s been the amazing companion I missed so much. It´s been really interesting to hear from her all the inside stories from the president. She´s practically like a Sister AP! But it´s so good to have her help, and just to have her around. But she´ll only be here til next Sunday, so it will fly by.

So for now I have to run!! But hopefully that gave you guys an idea of this week. It was a good one, and I think next week will be even better! I can´t believe i´ve already been with S. Draut 4 weeks and we´re starting the fifth. It´s flying!!! But thank you guys so much for everything. I love you all and can´t wait to hear from you soon. You all have many prayers coming your way all the time. I love you!!!

Til next week,

Heather