The Week of Birthday was AWESOME

Seriously, this week was INCREDIBLE! It was probably the best week of my whole time here in Brazil!  Holy cow!  I am so happy!  And thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes!  It was super fun:)  

To start off, we had a party at our zone meeting for me, Sister Patino, and Elder Moura, who all had birthdays this week!  It was super cute, they had cake and ice cream and coke and sang Happy Birthday and everything! Then I got THE PACKAGE TO END ALL PACKAGES.  THANK YOU SO SO MUCH CELIA AND FAMILY!  Oh my goodness, I have the best family in the world!  That thing was a monster!  I´m serious, the elders had to lend us a little cart thing to get it back to our house, and it broke the cart.  Pictures will be included.  Unfortunately, that sucker had to sit at home tempting me all day because we had a ton of lessons, but when we opened it there was a party for sure!  Pictures of this shall be included also.  Thank you thank you thank you thank you!  Don´t worry Mom, the Christmas stuff is still wrapped all nicely:)

Our Birthday Celebration with the Zone

Elder Moura, Sister Patino and Sister Dana

And the package broke the cart

The Package

Don't worry, I didn't open the stocking yet!

Well guess what, Thursday was also Sister Patino´s birthday!  We gave her prezzys and I made a cake!  Now, everyone is in love with American cakes, because they really are better than the Brazilian ones here.  And also this cake gave Georges, our investigator, his first taste of frosting, and now he is crazy for the stuff!  But seriously, it was a great day!  The night of Sis Patino´s birthday, we had a lesson with Georges with the Zone Leaders and we marked him for baptism on that Sunday.  It was super special...he had been receiving answers all day that he needed to be baptized this week after we challenged him to it on Tuesday, and so he had an interview and was all ready set go!  Seriously, superrrrr spiritual.  He was crying and everything...oh I love baptisms!

Happy Birthday Sister Patino!

The night of the awesome interview with Gorges:)

On Saturday was my birfday!  Sister Patino is an ANGEL.  She made me eggs in the morning and then set out all the prezzys from my package on the table and made this adorable ducky card...it was so cute!  We had an awesome lesson early in the morning, then went to lunch at the house of some of my favorite members, Leleu, Alana, and Lucas.  They made me a birthday cake and sang and it was so cute!  I was really feelin the love all day:)  We made a special visit to some of my old investigators and families that I love, and then we topped off the night with a lesson with Olanda.  She is 17 and amazing.  She has had all the lessons and has a testimony of everything, she just hasn´t been to church yet because she has had a bunch of tests.  But she will this week!  I love her and she is super cool to talk to!  We had a really special lesson about temples with her that night, and it was just perfect.  When we got home, Sis Patino and I put up the Christmas lights that Mom sent, put on MoTab "Noel", and lit the pine tree candle that she sent too!  It was all sorts of festive!  Awesome, awesome birthday!

My Birthday setup - Courtesy of Sister Patino

Embarrassing - Opening presents in the morning :)

Leleu, Lucas, Alana with my bolo!

Minha Companheira!

With Alana

Cuttin' the Cake!

The candle that almost brought me to tears (pine scented)

Our festive house

Awesome Prezzys!

Yesterday was Georges´ baptism, and it was so cool.  Our whole dang ward showed up!  I love how they are super supportive of us...it makes it really fun:)  But yeah, it was great and everyone was super pumped to get another priesthood holder in the ward!  And Messias!  He bore the coolest testimony and I almost started crying....guys.  The Church is so true.  It just is.

Sister Patino, Irmao Ricardo, Gorges and me!

Anyway, YOU WENT TO THE BEACH?!  How fun!  I think it is kind of weird that you trust Cooper and Tiago at home now, but I guess he is 15 so it isn´t THAT weird.  But it sounds like you guys had a blast!

Also, I am living on the other side of the world, and that is my excuse for not knowing that Thanksgiving is this week and not next...awkward.  Just pretend that I was right, ok?

Have a great week this week, and thanks for the birthday shoutouts!  I love ya´ll!

Love,

Sister Dana...who is no longer a 19yearold sister. Dangit.

Olanda with the painting by her 9 year old brother

With Deise and her family

Narnia - Brazil Style!

With Alana!

My sisters loving their stuff
(these were actually meant to be Christmas presents for her companions, but they got unwrapped at customs and she didn't know they were for Christmas, so she gave them out early.  Now what are they going to open for Christmas? -mom)