April 28, 2014

Hellooooo:)  So glad to hear that things are going well at home!  This week was awesome.  Super, super fun.  On Tuesday, I got to do my last division with Sister Seidmann, since she will probably be transferred soon.  This makes me sad, but we had a great time together.  I love teaching with that woman.  She really has become one of my best friends and I just can´t help but be happy whenever I am around her!  I am pretty worried though, because she has been getting super sick and such...for like, a month solid.  So if you guys could pray for her, that would be cool.  But anyway, we just taught a ton and stayed up talking and it was a really great day:)

We have a few investigators that I am super excited about!  One is José Luis, who I told you about a few weeks ago, I think?  He went to church this week and is wayyy excited about baptism on Sunday!  I am praying praying praying that everything goes well with him and he will be  all ready.  I know that something will happen, because NO BAPTISM IS EASY.  But we will do everything possible to make sure he is ok!  He just looks like a missionary, dadgumit.  Also, we are teaching Josilene, who is a mom that we found the other day.  She is married, and pregnant, which means no Word of Wisdom problems...thank heavens!  She LOVES the gospel, and gets so excited every time that we come over!  The only trick is getting her to church.  Something always seems to come up...but we will work that out with the members.

Speaking of members, we are doing some awesome activities up in here.  The traditional ways of getting investigators are just not working anymore.  So, we are having Integration Night every Friday, and it is turning out really well!  This week, we taught about the Book of Mormon.  When the activity was supposed to start, we only had a few people.  So Sister Fortes and I ran outside and found a huge group of guys who were all playing soccer and told them to come.  And they did!  We had like, 60 people there!  Sister Fortes and Sister Rodrigues dressed up as Moses and Mormon and explained all about the Book of Mormon and the Bible and how the work together, then we played BoM Jeopardy.  It got really competitive...a bit more than I thought, actually.  But we had a ton of people who had never even held a Bible studying the scriptures and figuring out how to apply them to different situations, so it was pretty effective!

Sister Rodrigues as Mormon

Sister Fortes as Moses

Sister Rodrigues and I are also starting a ward choir.  This is an adventure.  We are trying basically anything to get more referrals, and Brazilians love to sing, so like...why not?  We had our first practice yesterday.  We will need many, many more practices.  But they have the desire, and we have faith, so things will work out!  Mom...please pray for angels to sing with our choir too.  Please pray that they will sing louder than the members.

Oh, last adventure for the week.  Sister Fortes got sick, so I had to take Sister Bedke to Recife on Thursday to get some stuff cleared up with her visa.  We got there and everything fine, stayed the night with Sister Kron and Sister Loureiro, which was way fun, and then went to the Aeroporto in the morning.  Welp, coming home from the airport, I got us lost on the metro.  3 times.  Embarrassing, especially since I told Sister Bedke to pay close attention so that she could get there and back too alone.  But you know, I think she can just learn from my mistakes.

Ok I lied, one more story.  Sister Bedke and I were out looking for an address the other day, right?  I had no idea where it was, but we were close to our buddy Tarcisio´s house, so we decided to stop by and ask him for directions.  I knocked on the door...no answer.  So I called him, and he said that he wasn´t at home, he was at school.  This made me super happy, because Tarcisio does not make his education a very big priority.  So as I was talking to him and congratulating him for going and everything, I start to hear his voice coming from somewhere other than the phone...inside the house actually.  So I hung up and yelled, "Tarcisio!  You are LYING to me!!!" Then I hear his little voice go, "AAAHHH!"  and he opens the door and goes, "Heyyyy Dana....what are you doing here?  Looks like you caught me..."  Awkward.  But the poor kid was bright red and so embarrassed, and it was so funny that I just had to laugh and couldn´t even be mad!

So.  I would love it if you could call up USU and get everything straightened out with my scholarship and stuff so that I will know just what I have to do when I go back.  I am still fully planning on going back...and dragging Leslie with me:)  And as far as Skype goes, are you guys good for about 2 in the afternoon?  What is your skype address again?  

CONGRATULATIONS TO MISS SADIE CAMPBELL!!!! I am so happy for you!  You will love Chamber, and tell Dr. Temme that I say hello!  Oh you will love it.  Have a great time and enjoy it...I really miss orchestra.

Love ya´ll.

Sister Dana

Sister Dana Morphed with Sister Rodrigues

Sister Rodrigues morphed with Sister Dana
"Sister Rodrigues and I are basically the same person."

Feliz Pascoa!

Happy Easter!

Holy smokes, thank you so much for the pics and videos!  They are adorable and seriously just made my day!!  And it is reallyyyyy weird to see Cooper as like...a man... But anyway, thank you thank you thank you so much!!  

This week was really hectic, but really good.  We had a mission council on Tuesday, which means that all of the STL´s and ZL´s go over to Recife.  This means that we woke up at 4:30 to catch a bus over there to arrive by 9.  Then the bus got stuck in traffic for 2 hours. I was freaking out.  If you know me, you know how I get stressed about stuff like that!  But then we said a prayer and magically arrived at 9:05.  Look how I need to learn to trust Heavenly Father!  That guy knows what he is doing;  Anyway, the meeting was really good and we learned a lot about how to help out our areas more because our mission has been passing through a pretty "dry" season.  The assistents talked a lot about relating every single topic of the lesson to baptism so that people will know our purpose here.  Sister Rodrigues and I put it into practice this week and invited 19 people to be baptized!  Quite a few accepted...now we just have to get them married and away from the alcohol, which is the real trick.  But I know that the Lord will be helping us out soon.  We need it.

This week, we had a pretty funny story.  So Sister Rodrigues and I went over to a sister´s house to pick something up in the morning.  She lives pretty close by, so we didn´t take the phone or keys or anything because we thought it would be fast.  HA,  She decided to chat it up this time, which was fine because I love her and it was great!  Unfortunately, the other sisters went to lunch...and had locked the house by the time we got back.  So there we were.  Phoneless.  Keyless.  Sister Rodrigues literally freaked out.  She started laughing all high-pitched and was like, "Whatarewegoingtodo....ohmygoshwearenevergettinginside....howwillweeathhowwillweteach...WE ARE GOING TO DIE!"  Except it was all in Portuguese, so imagine that a million times faster.  Then I remembered that we can get in through the back, so we knocked on the neighbor´s door and went through their house to our back gate.  The back door was locked, but Sister Rodrigues was a woman with determination and didn´t think twice.  She busted open the shutters and literally launched herself into our kitchen.  Oh my goodness.  I couldn´t stop laughing!  I love my companion.  

Twas a rough night!

We had a really good night with Yoná too!  She made dinner for us this week, and she has the cutest kids in the world.  When we got there, her little son Felipe saw us all sitting down at the table, climbed on up in his chair, folded his arms and goes, "Pai Celestial..." and started saying a blessing!  Yoná started crying.  He is 2, and she had been so worried that he was growing up without God or knowing anything about the Gospel, and this was a direct answer to her prayers.  She called us again last night to tell us that he was asking when he could go to church and asking his dad to come to church with him too.  This is just so cool.  I love how the gospel effects everyone in the family, and that Yoná is receiving the blessings of her obedience.  Loveeee this family!

We planned our first Integration Night this week!  This does not mean that the Americans all hang out with the Brazilians, like I first thought.  That would be Integration Life.  Integration Night is when we put on an activity for all of our investigators to come meet the members and they all hang out together.  We had a great one!  Unfortunately...none of our investigators came.  BUT our recent converts did, so it wasn´t a total fail.  The members gave a really great message about baptism and related it to Easter, and then we played water balloon volleyball out on the basketball court outside.  So much fun!  We are trying to start up these things for every week to get the members more involved and excited.  Hopefully they´ll keep going!

This Easter weekend has been crazyyyy.  I have never eaten so much chocolate in my whole entire life.  And alllllll of Recife comes up to Gravatá for the weekend.  Don´t ask me why.  As far as I can see, there is literally nothing to do here, but the members tell me that everyone just comes to sleep.  Whatever floats your boat, Brazil.  So the city was full as heck!  But we had a great weekend too:)  Sister Fortes and Sister Bedke had their first baptism!  It was so sweet, and Sister Fortes was soooo happy.  She really deserves this, and I know that this will get her pumped to work even harder.

Maria's baptism!

Having fun after the baptism :)

I really thought a lot about the real meaning of Easter this week---about the Resurrection and what that all means to us.  We taught a family that lost their 5 year old son 5 months ago.  It is still very, very fresh.  We got to the house and the poor mom just broke down and had to leave the room.  As we taught the Plan of Salvation, I just felt the tears coming and it was a real testimony to me of the reality of our  message.  It isn´t just a pamphlet, or something that we memorize.  It is hope for this family that lost their child.  As I talked about Jesus Christ and the way he overcame death and sin, everyone in the room was just crying and this was the first time that it felt real.  I don´t quite know how to explain it, because this email isn´t doing it justice, but this week was one of my favorites of my mission.  It was so hard, but everything that is worth something takes work.

I love you guys so much, and I hope that you are still studying PMG!  Have a good week...Cooper...I really don´t have words still after watching that video, you beast of a child.  

Love,

Sister Dana

Sister CamaChave Has Arrived!

Ok, really her name is Sister Bedke, but that translates into CamaChave in portuguese and is more fun to say.  But Sister Fortes will be training the last American sister to arrive in our mission!  She is so much fun...I love her!  It is funny because she is in the same situation that I was and it has totally thrown me into retrograde to help her learn Portuguese and how we don´t put toiletpaper down the toilet and fun little things like that.  She is from Indiana and we get along really well, so it should be a great time in our house!

This week was a little difficult.  Sister Rodrigues and I are having a really hard time finding people to teach.  It used to be so easy, but now it is a whole lot of rejection every day.  I still love it, of course.  There are a few golden lessons that make everything else worth it.  Like, we had a family home evening this week with this one family that I LOVE and some members in our ward.  Jaci, our investigator, wants to get baptized soooo bad!  But she doesn´t want to without her husband, Gilmario.  Now, Gilmario is a solid 7 feet tall AT LEAST. He is enormous!  Therefore, it was really cool when we did that activity where you have to write down 3 things that you love about your family and why you want them to be with you for eternity, and he just broke down and started bawling.  I was kind of in shock.  But it was really great-- the Spirit was amazing.  I love this activity so much because it kind of puts eternity in perspective.  Everyone always says they want a forever family, but why exactly?  I will definitely do this with my fam in the future!

We also had a really cool thing happen yesterday in Sacrament meeting.  Tarcisio bore his testimony!!!  He was soooo nervous, but he just made me cry!  He talked about how he wants to serve a mission now because of the difference that the gospel made in his life--how he is so much happier being the new Tarcisio and how he loves the Book of Mormon and is trying to read it.  How do you not cry when your recent convert says that?  And Yoná told us how she loves the church and feels right at home here and Paula has a calling now...it just makes all of the hard days worth it to remember them.

We went to a missionary party for some of the guys in our ward that will be heading out on their missions this week, and were asked to bear our testimonies on our experiences here.  It was the first time that I thought long and hard about what I love and what I have learned in a while, and I now have a stronger testimony than I even thought.  It is sometimes hard to see the miracles when you get a door slammed in your face, but I can´t even remember the hard days anymore.  They just magically get erased by all the good things that happen.  I know that God loves His children so much...ALL of them.  And everyone needs to know that...that they can be forgiven, that they can make it through hard things, that their families really need to be the most important part of their lives.  I love being able to help people know that.

Anyway, sounds like you guys had a great concert, Mom!  I would love to have watched it, and please stay in EVMCO so that I can go watch you when I come home like you always watched my concerts!  And really, I have never appreciated good music like I do now...

Congratulations to Kaden!  And good luck to Kylie!!  She will do so well out there, and I wish i could have heard her talk!  Also, that is so cool for Jayze and Sarah!  I can´t wait to see the baby:)  Mom, please stop trying to set me up.  Wait like...another year.  I am a missionary for Pete´s sake.

I love you guys!  Give Dad a hug--I missed him extra this week.  Have a good one and tell everyone to go read Preach My Gospel!  How are your studies?? ;)

Love,

Sister Dana

At the Bishop's birthday party!

The 4 sisters of Gravatá!

We love couscous...

It is a Good Thing My Companion is a Champ.

Otherwise, she would probably kill me.  This week, we decided to go hard on the diet and exercise stuff!  It is super hard over here, but Sister Rodrigues was having a few knee problems and decided that losing some weight is the best way to get rid of them.  So, this week and for always we are waking up at 6 to go run and basically eating the exact opposite of the Brazilian diet...vegetables...fruits...things completely foreign.  But she is such a good sport!  Mom, remember when we used to go running and you would be like, "Come on, you can do it!!"  and I would want to bop you in the nose?  Now I am doing the same thing to Sister Rodrigues, but she is a real champ and a Christlike person and so much better than me...she just glares.  But it has been a good week!

We are healthyyyyy (I don't know why I have half a picture - it shows up full in some places and half in another - She's holding the vegetables in the half you can't see.)

We are healthyyyyy

We had a few cool lessons this week.  One was with Cristiano, who is a friend of a member that we taught at the church on Tuesday.  We gave him a tour of the chapel before the lesson and he goes, "Yeah, I would like to get baptized here..."  Ok.  That is definitely ok with us.  The hard thing is that he works allll day on Sunday, so if ya´ll could pray that he gets a shift change or something, we would appreciate it!  We also met  a really cool guy named José Luis!!  He is 21 and the son of one of our investigators, but we had never met him before. We went over to have a lesson with Lindalva, his mom, but she wasn´t home.  He goes, "Oh!  My mom told me about you guys! Come in, teach me!"  Wow.  How often does that happen??  Like never.  Unfortunately his mom wasn´t there so we couldn´t come in, but we taught him in the doorway and he said that he felt a peace he had been looking for for a long time.  Oh I am super happy to hear that!  He accepted baptism too, so we will be working hard for that the next few weeks.

I also did a division with my pal Sister Fortes!  It does NOT seem like she has only been out for 2 transfers.  She is an incredible missionary and literally, I didn´t have ANYTHING to correct.  Her area is super hard...so hard, in fact, that she and Sister Hicken have to make Plans A, B, and C for every hour of the day.  Well, all three of the plans fell through around 4pm, and I could tell that she was getting nervous not knowing what to do.  So we  sat down and decided to say a prayer and asked that someone would let us in the door. When we finished up, this lady opens her door and goes, "What are you guys doing?  Do you want to come in?"  I love how Heavenly Father listens to prayers.

We had a scary experience this week too.  We were walking down the street in one of the poorer parts of our area and this lady just fell on the ground and started screaming.  She had an epileptic attack and hit her head on a rock, and no one even stopped to help her!  Sister Rodrigues and I ran over to help, and we called over a few of the other people that were just standing around watching, not doing anything!  I got so ticked off!  No one called anyone, they just sat there and let her go!  Finally she calmed down and got back to normal, but we were pretty shaken up.  This made me really sad, not just because she got hurt and it was scary, but because no one even did a thing.  Ridiculous.

In better news, Conference is basically the best thing ever.  Right up there with Christmas these days in my book!  I love love loved Elder Ballard´s talk!  How´s the Preach My Gospel study coming, my friends??  We will definitely be using that one a lot!  Another that I loved was President Uchtdorf.  I will try a lot harder to be grateful for the things that I have in my life and I have a new goal not to complain or whine about ANYTHING for the rest of my mission.  It seemed to me that this Conference was full of warnings, telling us to be ready because things are going to be getting a lot harder.  We are ready though.  And obedience--exact obedience-- is the only thing that will save our families.

Last bit of info...today is transfer day!  Sister Rodrigues and I are staying together again, but Sister Hicken was transferred.  I am so sad!  She has been a wonderful pal with me for the last 3 months and I know that we will keep being friends after the mish too!  But....Sister Fortes is going to train!  So we will be having a greenie in our house!  It´s gonna be great:)

Shoutout to my cuzzy Kyle who is heading out to Japan!  That is super cool and he will LOVE being a missionary.  It is the best job in the whole wide world!  Good to know that Cooper is doing well...mom.  Please stop embarrassing him.  It is not funny, nor will it be.  You are not the one who will have to suffer the shame of a crazy mom.  Highschool is hard enough already...the poor kid.  I appreciate the efforts though;)  Just be a tad more discreet.  

Love you guys all so much, have a great week!

Love,

Sister Dana

Sisters in our zone!

With Elder Benitez and Elder Marlow

With Elder Pereira and Elder Woodland

Zone meeting with Elder Benitez!