Mom! Happy happy happy happy birthday!! I told
all of my sisters that it was your birthday on Saturday and we celebrated
together. I hope that your package made it to Celia! Also, please
don´t buy Crocs. I may be a missionary, but I still have principles. If
you could make the shoes black, I´d appreciate it:) But the stuff that
works best is just rubber things....oh I don´t know, I will be happy with
anything. Use the Spirit!
I got a couple letters from Mima and Jacque´s kids this
week, and I spent the morning writing them letters back, so expect those soon!
I don´t know the address of our apartment...but I am in the Candelaria
area, right next to the beach. The area that we do the most work in is
called Sovaco da Cobra. Ask Sister DePaula what that means. It´s
the place that I sent pictures of. I wish that you could see it. In
fact, I´m already planning all the places that I will take you when ya´ll come
down here at the end of my mission because it´s unreal! Also, I want to
meet this Tiago kid! We can stop by Fortaleza, right?
It sounds like Coop had a blast at football camp.
That´s a lie, football camp sounds horrible. He´s just going to be
all big and beastly when I get home, isn´t he? Well crap. Tell him
that he´d better be the best of the best because that is basically what is
expected in our family;) Oh how humble I have become! bahahah.
This week was really, really rough. We barely taught
at all...only 18 lessons the whole week. But for good reason.
Sister Seidmann was sick on Tuesday and we had to stay in all day.
Then I got sick the rest of the week, but it was just a cold and wasn´t
too bad so we went out and worked anyway. But on Saturday....oh man.
We called up Cinthia, a young woman in our ward to come team
up with us that morning and she answered the phone just bawling. She told
us that her younger brother, Isaac, who is 15, was at an activity for the young
men and there was an accident. We headed over to her house and met them
on the way over to another member´s house. Cinthia and her two little
sisters were crying and when we got to the house, the member came out and told
Cinthia that Isaac had been under the water for 40 minutes and was gone.
She dropped to her knees and started screaming and crying and oh my
goodness...I will never, ever forget that image.
I guess here is what happened. The young men were out
on an island and Isaac went to go swimming and got caught in a whirlpool.
The bishop went in after him and got sucked in too, but was able to raise
Isaac to the surface 3 times. The last time he held Isaac up, the
lifeguards grabbed the bishop and pulled him out and he lost his grip on Isaac.
The water was so dirty that they couldn´t find him...and it´s been three
days.
Church yesterday was really, really hard. The look on
the bishop´s face...it was like he had died inside. He got up and asked
forgiveness from the family and apologized that he wasn´t stronger. My
heart just broke...our youth are all super tight and they were devastated.
Sister Seidmann and I have spent the last few days visiting families in
the ward and trying to comfort them.
I´ve been thinking a lot about you guys lately because of
this, and especially about how Dad would feel if it was in our ward...oh geez.
And Isaac was about the same age as Cooper...I just want to give my
family a hug so bad! Please be careful and know that I love you SO MUCH.
Families are eternal...I know this for a fact. I pray for you guys every
single night and I plead with Heavenly Father to keep you safe for me.
Sorry this letter is rough...it was a pretty difficult week.
I love you all:)
Love,
Sister Dana
