No Illegal Drugs Were Involved in the Teaching of these People.

Wow.  There was so much good stuff in that email that I am just sitting here smiling like a dweeb.  Or crying, because Leslie sent me pics of when her parents came to pick her up.  She is not a missionary...wow, things go by quickly!  Ah please give her the biggest hug on Friday!  Please please please!!!!!!!

Thanks a million for the pics of San Diego and Snowflake!  I must say that I have one good-looking family!  Bummer that the mission has definitely taken its toll on me....yikes.  Anyways, speaking of good-looking, please tell Ray to give me his email address because I have found his wife.  I was just walking home from the store the other day and had the revalation that he needs to marry Sister Bedke.  Like, I am not even kidding.  Match of the year.  I started jumping up and down when I thought of that because I was so excited!  Her email is malyssa.bedke@myldsmail.net.  GO.

Ahhh this week was so not as exciting as the last one!  We did another division, this time with Sister Hirz and Sister Peñailillo.  I have a good story from that one!  We asked this lady if we could leave a blessing on her house (how we do contacts these days) and she turned out to be completely crazy!  Like, really.  She asked us if we would curse her son-in-law and break his little heart for wanting more money and then she told us about how she was on heavy meds but knew God sent the angels (us) to help her...I still have a reallyyyyy hard time not cracking up over stuff like this.

I had a lovely surprise too!  One of the kids in the other ward has a violin and he let me take it home!!!  It feels sooo good to play again.  I´m not really good anymore, but it´s a nice stress reliever to be sure.  I think that the Lord has blessed me a lot because now it´s so much easier to sing and play in public.  Probably because everyone loves it even if it´s pretty bad.  But I´m not complaining.  Sister Fortes got really excited with my hidden talent, so she insisted on showing up to Yoná´s house at night and serenading her from the street...so we did!  It was really fun and her kids came out and danced and everything!  

We had a great experience with an investigator this week, Graziela.  I love her!!!! She came to us wanting to learn more about the church, just that she lives in another city (still in our area), so it´s really hard to teach her.  We only could about once a week after church, when she came to Gravatá.  I guess the story is that the Elders were literally expelled from Chã Grande, her city, because the other churches started telling their people that the men in dark pants with nametags were sent by Satan.  This happened a while ago though, but no one has entered since.  Well, Sister Fortes was determined to go back and see what we could do there, so she called Presidente and we got permission to go see how it was.  I was a little bit...cowardly, to be honest.  I was pretty nervous to go because the stories were rough!  But she made me go pray about it for a long time, and when I did, I knew it was the right thing to do.  Sister Fortes had the right idea.  We got to Graziela´s house, and she had 3 other friends there waiting for us to teach.  They LOVED the lesson, said they´d never heard of the church before, and came to church yesterday!  Wow!!!!  They have a lot of people there who would also probably be pretty interested in the gospel, so I´m really excited to see where all of this goes.  We go back on Thursday:)

A few other good stories to finish up.  On Friday, Boa Vista ward had an Integration night because it´s reallyyyyy suffering.  They´re trying to get the members organized to stop it from turning into a branch, but the sisters are really having a rough go of it.  They´re trying though, and we are helping too.  Anyway, that night they decided to play this frog game that Sister Bedke knows after the message.  It was mostly adults there, and they got into it like I have never seen before.  The bishop started fighting with his counselor about who was winning and then they all got mad at each other and ran out of the room and then everyone wouldn´t get in order...all adults.  Sister Bedke, the poor girl, just looks at me and goes, "Sister Dana...this is like herding cats."  I just busted up laughing.  It´s Gravatá!

Last story:  We were teaching Felix, who was confirmed yesterday (!) on Saturday.  As we were doing some follow-up, this was the conversation:

Sister Dana: Felix, how´s it going with the coffee?  Are you still having cravings or what?

Felix:  Ah Sister, it´s great!  I don´t even want it anymore!  Completely off!

SD: Ahhh that´s so good to hear!  Congratulations!  Andddd how about those illegal drugs?  Are ya off those too?

Felix´s Mom: WHAAT?!  I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!  FELIX %$#@ #$¨& *¨&$%!!!!!

Sister Dana: Uhh...ha...haha...just kidding Luiza!

Awkwarde.  Funny afterwards though!

Well, that´s all I´ve got for this week.  Have a great one, enjoy summer, and I have no idea about anything as far as college and transcripts are concerned...sorry Mom :/ It can´t wait one more transfer?  I love love love you!!!

Love,

Sister Dana

Everyone Go Welcome Home Syster Clouse!!!! (letter from July 21st 2014)

I LOVE BRAZIL

Ahhhh my bff is coming home! Oh my goodness, this is unreal.  I´m so excited for her and also kinda sad because...that would stink to not be a missionary.  But anyway, everyone go to the airport and bring a cardboard cutout of me there too so that at least it looks like I´m not a brazillian miles away.  CONGRATULATIONS LESLIE!!!!!

And also...Grand Cherokee?  Very nice!  Send me pics, por favor!  I hope to have a million next week, ok?!  Mom, I hope that your birthday was awesome. I really enjoyed it!  Have a great time at the beach and I am only slightly jealous.  

Ok, so this week.  I did a division with Sister dos Santos on Tuesday.  She is a noob and pretty cool!  Reallyyyyy excited about the mission.  Reallyyyyy touchy.  I had to warn her a few times that we are missionaries and in public.  But other than that, she is a great gal!  

Division with dos Santos

We also had....ANOTHER BAPTISM!!!!  This time it was Félix, who is 16 years old.  He is amazing and has the most incredible faith.  The thing that makes me the happiest is that when he believes in something, he sticks to it.  I know that he will be an awesome missionary and help so many people!  I love that missionary work is the gift that keeps giving.  It´s like that Amish friendship bread that everyone always leaves on our doorstep.  It´s delish, and there´s always someone else that could benefit!  But anyway, his mom and sister came and they are adorable.  Def one of my fave families in Gravatá.

Shelby with Felix and his Mom and Sister

Felix's baptism

This week, I have some stories for you!  So we are teaching this one lady named Cris.  She was so cool and had a super strong belief in God and was just a pleasure to be around.  Awesome!  So we marked a visit to her house this week at 7pm.  When we get there, she is all dolled up and ready to go out.  Ohhh no honey, this is the most important thing that you will ever hear.  So we sat her down and told her it would be fast.  She told us she had to go to a family meeting or something...whatever, we´ll be speedy!  So we taught the first lesson and asked if she went to any church.  She said she used to go to one down the road, but never would return because they´re all liars in that church and she hates it.  We finished up the lesson and then headed out.  She flew out the door behind us and said, "I´m late to get my money!!"  People are just kind of strange here, so we didn´t really think anything of it.  As we walked home after the lesson, we passed by the church that she said she would never visit again.  As we passed by, I heard a familiar voice.  We walked back, and there was our investigator, Cris, singing and preaching in the microphone.  We were teaching the pastora.  Welp...at least she didn´t lie about the liars part!

Another good one....we had a contact this week who is a real smartypants. Sister Andrade and I met Jacqueline on the street.  She said that she was super interested and we marked a lesson with her on Friday night.  I was so  excited!  Just that when Friday rolled around, we couldn´t seem to find her house.  We walked and walked and walked, and then I saw it!  Number 20!  And it was....a casa das freiras.  A convent.  Sister Fortes and I just busted up laughing, because that really was one of the best I´ve had on my mission.  Jacqueline, you sly fox you!

We had other stories but...I am too lazy to write them right now!  Don´t worry, it´s all in my journal.  Ask me when I get home.  Have a great week at the beach and I love you all so so much!!!

Love,

Sister Dana

Shelby and Sister Fortes

hAPpY bIRThdAy!!

Happy birthday to my darling mother this Sunday!!!  I hope that it goes super well and you kick it at the beach.  Do you guys know how jealous I am that ya´ll are heading over there this week!  SO SO JEALOUS!  Ah well....all have a good time and go eat Sara´s for me!

This week was awesome.  We started out with a trip to Recife.  This is a bus ride that I HATE.  It´s soooo long and we have to take the metro...but oh well, it´s worth it.  This is why we have cars.  Speaking of, send me a pic of the car you bought!  I wanna see!  Anyways, we got there and all was well.  We got to spend the night with Sister Hicken too!  It was really good to see her again and see how she has progressed over the last few months.  It´s funny, because on missions, no one stays the same very long.  They just get cooler and cooler. 

On Tuesday morning, we had a mission council meeting.  It was really great!  Pres Bigelow gave a great training on how councils are supposed to be, based on D&C 102.  I learned a ton and we came to a lot of decisions that will help our mission progress. It was also so fun to see all of my friends again.  A bunch of my elders from the MTC were there and I love catching up!  Probably the hardest part though was saying goodbye to my friend Sister Seidmann. She is going home this transfer and I just almost started crying! She has been a huge example to me my whole mission and I know that we will be friends for eternity!

Our old house

With Elder Fleming and Elder Gustavo, the Assistants

With the men from my district!

And on Tuesday night....THE END.  We had to stay in Recife because of the game, and, though we did not watch, it was evident by our neighbor´s screaming swearwords that Brazil did not play their best. 7-1...yikes.  I think it´s so funny that everyone´s patriotism here is based on how the soccer team does.  But that´s Latin America.  For example, our Argentine District Leader called us on Wednesday night CRYING TEARS OF JOY because Argentina passed to the finals.  Then he called us last night with tears for another reason.  Literally crying.  Poor guy.  But go Germany, that´s where everyone thinks I´m from anyway!

So on Wednesday night, we had a cool experience.  Sister Fortes and I were invited to go to Dalyne´s house, an 18 year old girl in our ward who is trying to go on her mission.  Her parents are NOT fans of this idea.  Bispo asked us to talk about our missions.  Sister Fortes told her story of all of the challenges she had coming out and I talked about what a great experience my mission has been in my life.  I am so proud of Sister Fortes. She has gone through a ton of stuff to be here and she is able to put it out of her mind and focus on serving the Lord and the people here. The Spirit was really strong and Dalyne´s parents were able to see more clearly the "porque"   behind everything we do.  I hope that they let her go!

This week I also got to do a division with Sister Andrade.  She is one of my favorite people in the world!  You guys have no idea how badly I want Cooper to marry her.  Literally.  I know she is 21 and he´s 15, but we could totally make it work because I can´t even imagine a better sister-in-law.  Seriously, Coop.  She´s really pretty!  Think about it.  

As far as lessons go, it was hard to work this week because of all the games.  But!  We were able to teach Felix and he is doing so well!  He decided to wait a little while longer for baptism because he wants to be absolutely sure that it´s the right thing, and that is ok with us.  We don´t want him to get baptized and bail...we want him to STAY and be a missionary too! And he will. I just know it.  Heavenly Father also sent us another gift named Graziela.  She is from a neighboring city in our area and came to church this week with her mom, who was re-activated yesterday.  We taught her after sacrament meeting and she told us that she wants to learn more about the church and get baptized here because she feels so good!  Wow!  That NEVER happens, fyi.  She´s so intelligent and we have another lesson with her on Thursday that I am super excited about.

Yesterday also marked 6 months for me here in Gravatá!  Yeah, I know.  Ridiculous, but I never want to leave!  Really, I hope with all my heart that I finish up here.  It´s a great place to work and I honestly couldn´t imagine a better ward.  Love love loveee...

To finish, here is a shout out to my bestie of all best friends Syster Leslie Clouse!!  This week is her last full week on her mission....holy cow, that passed so fast!  I am so grateful for the example that she has given me!  It´s helped a lot on the days that are so hard to think that she is doing the exact same thing as I am.  Tell Keith and Margo to give a HUGE hug to her from me!!!

Send me lots of pics from the beach, ok??  Have fun in the waves!!  AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! I LOVE YOU!!

Love,

Sister Dana

7/7/14....7+7=14

Hellooo Hellooo Hellooooo...If you have seen the movie "A Series of Unfortunate Events," you will know how that was meant to sound.  So!  You guys went to the mountains!  How fun!! Those pictures freak me out every time you send them just because I can´t even believe how huge and cute Cooper is.  Maybe you should just stop sending them and let me have a real freakout when I get back instead of a mini one every Monday.  Jk, I love them.  Anyway, congratulations to Megan for the hawt boy toy.  If he has a brother...hehe....jokes, don´t worry, I´m still a missionary.

This week was super fun!  We went to an FHE with the ward at the bishop´s house.  I love that...they do FHE together here because no one does it at home and it´s like a party every week!  That we get to go to!  And we have referrals!  So that is a great idea in my opinion.  On Tuesday, we had a great shindig over in Caruarú where we met....Presidente Bigelow!!!!  I love him.  His whole family came and it was so cool!  Prez and Sister Bigelow speak reallyyyyy good Portuguese, even though they had only been here for like, 3 days.  They have three kids, ages 19, 15, and 11.  I love them too!  It´s going to be so much fun for all of the missionaries to serve with the kids growing up too.  I think that this mission is going to get really cool.  Bummer that I´m only going to catch the beginning!  Something that I loved was that Presidente told us that our focus was going to change.  He said that it was no longer going to be baptism.  WHAAAAT???  That just turns my world upside down!  He told us that now we are not going to have empty baptisms, we are going to have conversion.  People that will get re-activated and go to the temple.  This...this is a new idea for me!  Not because I don´t agree, I completely do!  Just that for the last 15 months I heard that baptism is our purpose and we need to focus completely on getting people there.  I am really excited for this new change though.  I think the wards and stakes will be strengthened a lot.

Soooo we had a lot of time in the house over the last few weeks, right?  Well, our Zone Leaders, 2 of my MTC buddies Elder Woodland and Elder Hanna, wrote this really cool arrangement of "Come Thou Fount"...island-style, in their words.  Elder Woodland and I sang it in the meeting on Tuesday and Elder Hanna played the ukelele.  It actually turned out really well!  I was pleased!  So now I send them requests at the beginning of the games, when we have to stay home, and they write up cool stuff with all that spare time.  Not so bad!

Speaking of, Happy Fourth of July!  Sister Bedke and I sang patriotic songs all day and I wore a red skirt from the US, since the majority of my clothes are from Brasil now.  Sister Andrade made us hot dogs, and we definitely had fireworks.  The wholeeee night long.  Hooray for the Cup!  Speaking of Sister Andrade, I adore her.  She gives massages.  She does my nails.  She cooks sooo well and puts together outfits for us.  I have no idea why this girl isn´t married.  Probably because she loves the Lord.  But I am so happy that she is in our house!

Crowning moment of the week...we had a baptism last night!  Jeimes, our funny little friend, was baptized.  The ward really turns out for these baptisms and it makes me so happy!  He has a lot of new friends here:)  Poor kid had to get dunked  3 times and the water was freezing.  He was so nervous that he was super stiff and his feet went right up every time he went down...but the deed was done, and that is what´s important.  Our choir sang at the baptism and they did a really good job!  They are improving...bit by bit, but improving:)

Jeimes

Pics of Jeimes

Today until Wednesday, we are going to Recife for some meetings about all of the rules that we have in this mission.  I love President.  He says he wants to get all of the opinions and work together a lot more.  This a change!  But I like it!  AND I get to see Sister Rodrigues and Sister Seidmann again!

Have a great week, and I love you guys to death.  Brasil plays tomorrow and Neymar is out, so say extra prayers for us down here, ok? Finals on Sundayyyy!

Love,

Sister Dana