Summer begins!‏

Hey guys!

How are you all doing? I loved the videos of Carrie - it seems like she´s already changed in just a few weeks! Talking a ton more, and so clearly....it was great to see her. Thanks for sending updates and everything!

As for here, it was a crazy week. One of those times where it seems like not much else could go wrong! We started out strangely by spending two days with the sisters in Camobi - Sister Draut is STILL there! It´s only about six months - three with me and three the second time, but it seems like she´s spent her whole mission there. But it was really strange to go back. We got to visit the family of Gilmar and Vanusa, though, which was great! They´re all still doing well, but aren´t going to church as of right now because the chapel is still under construction and they´re having meetings downtown, a half hour away by bus:( There are......9 people in their family, and they just don´t have conditions to pay 18 bus fares every sunday. So that stinks, but they say they´re super excited for the chapel to be done. It was great to see them again!

But after that strange rewind to Camobi, we went to FINALLY get the visa done once and for all on Wednesday. We walked in the door....and the man at the desk looked up and said, "Oh, no. Not today. There´s no way. How many are there? Three? Nuh uh, no way, at least not until afternoon." We all looked at each other - it was either laugh or cry, because we had all been planning on getting it done in the morning and getting on the 12:30 bus, because there are only two buses from Santa Maria to Uruguaiana - noon and midnight. So we stuck around, he finished all his work by 10:30, but refused to do our visas because "he had already told us there was no way". So basically, he just doesn´t like the poor Secretary. Poor guy.

So we went back in the afternoon, he finished all three of our visas in 15 minutes, and then we had until midnight with nothing to do. Sister da Silva and I wandered aimlessly around the city, ate at Subway, and sat waiting in the bus station for about 5 hours. About 11:00, I realized something so awful we had to laugh - I had left the keys to our apartment in the mission president´s wife´s purse. I was carrying them around and she offered to put them in her bag, and I never asked for them back. So, we realized we´d be awake all night on the bus from midnight to 7, and then get home to an apartment with no way to get in. So...that was exactly what happened! We got home, asked for the number of a key maker in the bus station, and called one. He was very awesome and efficient, got us in in just a few minutes and then took our lock to make another key. It was pretty awesome, I didn´t know it was so easy, and he didn´t charge much at all. So that was good!

Then we tried to start working, but were so dead from staying awake all night that we didn´t get much done. Then Friday, I woke up sick with a cold! So, it was one of those weeks, where it seemed like everything combined against us. But we didn´t let it get us down! I couldn´t have gone through it with a better person - Sister da Silva just laughs at everything and never gets annoyed, even when I lost our keys:P So it´s great to work with her! I`m really excited to have her in the area - she´s so excited, I know she´ll do amazing work here. I´m starting to feel so weird knowing that it´s almost over - it doesn´t seem real yet. I´m working my hardest to not have any regrets when it does end. I´m so grateful for all the time I´ve spent here, every challenge and obstacle, and all I´ve learned. My future will be so different due to the fact that I came out here, all for the better. I´ve developed a love for the scriptures that I never had before - I felt like they were the lifeboat I was clinging to in the middle of a busy bus station at midnight. I´m so grateful for every way my testimony has grown and changed. Thank you all so much for supporting me in this decision! I love you all!

Until next week!
Sister Madsen :D