Another week in Camobi‏

Hey guys!

How is everyone? I loved the video of Caroline and her nonsense words! I can´t believe she´s already "talking" so much. And she has a little mohawk!:) She´s getting cuter and cuter every day. Thanks so much for sending pictures and video. How is everyone doing? Grandma and Grandpa? How are the cats? Is it getting to be spring there?

As for here, fall really got started this week! The temperature dropped way down after a crazy storm, one of the kind we just don´t have in Utah. It started last Monday night after we had gotten home for the night, thank goodness. We watched the lightnight light up the sky all green and the wind blowing the trees over horizontally. Storms here are a lot....stormier. So the next morning, we got up for Zone Conference! ....Still in the rain. We got there totally soaked, but it was a great day. I always love Zone Conference. Have I described it before? If not, it´s where the whole zone of about 20 missionaries gets together (or in Santa Maria, the two zones in the city) to have a conference with the president, his wife and the assistants. We get together in the chapel all day and have a bunch of different trainings, listen to talks, practice lessons (I was one of the lucky ones this time :/ ), etc. It was really awesome this time. We had an amazing training on the Atonement, and I had a good interview with Presidente Myrrha (probably our second to last! We get a new president July 1!) So it was great.

Unfortunately, with the rain and cold and everything, Sister Lopes got sick. She´s from Piaui, way up by the equator, and has never experienced anything colder than 60 degrees. So crazy to imagine. But she´s freaking out about the cold, and caught a cold this week, which is dangerous with her asthma. So we had to be really careful this week, and had to stay in a few days:( But while she was resting I made an awesome visual aid for teaching the Plan of Salvation.

The funniest thing happened on Thursday. I don´t know if I´ll be able to describe it to you, but...I got knocked down by a dog in the street! ....Just what it sounds like. It had been raining all week, and we were walking on this slick dirt road. So as we were turning a corner, S. Lopes started to slip, but caught herself with her hand. So as I was turning around to see if she was ok, this dog that had been walking behind us got scared by her fall, and started to run straight at me. He was really big, and ran straight into my legs....and knocked them right out from under me! Splat, I hit the ground in all the mud (wearing a white sweater, of course). I actually fell really hard on my arm and it kind of hurt, but after a two second pause S. Lopes and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. We couldn´t stop for a good half hour. "You got knocked over by a dog!!" she kept saying, and told everyone whose house we went to that day:) It was really, really funny, you should have seen it.

The work went well this week in the few days we were able to go out. Camila was able to come to church this week!:) So she´s all set for her baptism on May 1:D Have I talked about her? She´s 21, and has a daughter who´s almost 2. We´ve been teaching her for a few months now, so it´s exciting to see her finally get ready for her baptism. We found an amazing woman this week, Ana, who is married (legally - a big deal here) with 8 kids! Way more than normal here. But she said that she´s never felt satisfied with her religion - she was always Catholic but has been going to Baptist church for 2-3 months now, trying to find what she´s missing. She said she had a dream about being dressed in white and being baptised, but just hasn´t felt right about being baptised in the church she´s going to now. So she´s really been prepared by the Lord to receive the truth!

This week I´ve been focusing all my energy on being led by the Spirit. It´s really been amazing, and I´ve been seeing an amazing difference in the work! It´s so good to know that the Lord qualifies the people who he calls, and that by the weak things of the world amazing things can be brought to pass. I´m so grateful to be here! I´m learning so many amazing things that I would never have been able to learn otherwise. It´s truly shaping the rest of my life. Thank you all so much for supporting me on my mission. I know it´s exactly where I need to be.

I hope you all have an amazing week! When I know more details about when i can call you, I´ll let you know. As of right now, I don´t even know if I´ll be here on Mother´s Day! Presidente said it´s likely, but not for sure, that he´ll take me out of Camobi this transfer, only a week away! So we´ll have to see what happens. I love you all so much and can´t wait to talk to you! Have an amazing week, and I´ll be praying for you always! :D

Love from your daughter,
Heather

P.S. CONGRATULATIONS, LOLA!!! I got your letter today!!! I can´t believe it!! Take care of yourself, ok?