So, this week! New Years´ was pretty funny. EVERYONE goes to the beach on New Year´s Eve, and the beach happens to be right in front of our house. So we taught all day on New Year´s Eve, then had to be home by 6 because that is when the partying begins. Holy smokes. Brazil knows how to party. ALL NIGHT LONG. They had a singer, Claudia Leite, come and do a performance there, and basically 3 cities worth of people were there to watch that and the fireworks. Sister Patty and I, on the other hand, had a rollicking good time watching the fireworks from our balcony at midnight and doing our nails and catching up on all the million letters that I had to write. Also, we did this one Colombian tradition where you have to eat 12 grapes in the first minute of the year, and every grape is a wish, and if you do, it will come true! I did it! So let´s just say that this year, we will be having many baptisms, and when I come home, I will lose all my mission weight and get a new car. All because of some grapes! Good grief, I should have done this sooner! :)
Well, like Sister Patino said, I discovered that January 1st only exists in South America because they have to stick it in there or the calendar would be off. Forget New Year´s resolutions...everyone is basically passed out the whole entire day. Really, it is the day that no one plans on doing ANYTHING because they partied so hard the night before. It was pretty rough trying to teach, that is for sure! But we managed to get a few lessons in there!
This week, we also had an AWESOME surprise! President called, and told us to head over to the office on Friday, where we picked up Sister Souza, and now we are in trio! Sister Souza is learning the area for after transfers next week, when she and Sister Patino will receive new companions and open up Candelaria 2!!! Oh you have no idea how excited I am! This was definitely one of my goals from the beginning, to get enough investigators and baptisms in here that President agrees we can send in 2 companionships in this area! And here it is! The ward is super happy too. I just know that this will help them divide the ward and be really great for all the reactivations we are trying to do. The only sad thing...this means that I will be bailing hard out of my first area in Brazil next Monday! That is SUPER sad for me, because I love love love this ward so much! The people here are my family and they have taken care of me so well...good grief, it´ll be so weird to be teaching somewhere else! But I am excited too, because maybe I will get to know more of Brazil for the next 9 months of my mission!
We are praying hardcore for Olanda this week. Sister Souza is SO perfect for her. She was exactly what we were missing, and I know that she was sent here to help the work. She will do really amazing things here with my people, and it´s a good thing I trust her to work hard! Anyway, OIanda is having a lot of doubts about baptism still, and we have her marked for Saturday, so we are going to be praying hardcore and visiting her like, every day to help her feel the spirit better and recognize the answers when they come. She is SO special and really smart, and I know that she would be an incredible missionary one day too! We just have to help her recognize it!
Well, we will be working super hard this week because I am determined to go out of Jab. Litoral in style! We´re gonna get a huge teaching pool too, to help the other sisters start off well, and it will be super great! Have a great week, and I love you guys a ton! Shout out to Leslie b/c she reads my letters and likes seeing her name in them. Love that girl!
Loveeee,
Sister Dana
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