Ólaaaa:)

Hey there famdamily, what´s crackin??  Sounds like things are going super well there...and I fully expect a tablet when I get home if all the girls in the office got one!  Ha, jokes, but really, that is super cool!  Maybe I will not go to college and just work for my parents forever...lies, I am totally going back to USU.  Have I told you guys that my Zone Leader, Elder Baldwin, was there the same time as me and lived right next to me?  We didn´t know each other or anything there, but it´s super fun to talk about it now!  He´s pretty legit, hopefully we´ll be friends!  

So glad that you guys are doing great.  I am getting a LOT of letters and I promise promise that I will respond, I just haven´t had time!  This week was crazy.  We had Mission Conference on Tuesday and it was super good!  Elder and Sister Granja, an Area Seventy and his wife, spoke to us about being happy and remembering how short our time here on the mission is...and how short our whole lives are!  And you know, that is defintely true.  I got to thinking about how on September 15th, 9 months from yesterday, I´ll be done.  WHAAATTT????  And so now I am trying to just live it up every day here!  They were super inspiring though, so it was a really good conference.  Also I got to see Sister Butler and Sister McCleve again, who I haven´t seen in a million years!  That was a fantastic reunion, to be sure!  They are doing super well and loving the mission.  I knew they would:)

The Sisters at Christmas Conference!

That night, guess who came to stay at my house!?  SISTER SEIDMANN!!! My darling treinadora returned and it was soooo good to talk to her again!  I really have missed her and it was awesome to remember everything that happened when she was here with me.  We sat up late talking and I just know that she will be one of my best friends forever.  Hope so anyway.  Don´t worry Les, your place is still safe.

So Reginaldo, the guy who manages our houses, told Sister Gomes and Sister Martins that they are going to move out because he has another house for them on Thursday.  SAD DAY!  I love those girls!  They were stoked though, because the house is way nice.  Well, Thursday rolled around...and he never showed.  Then Friday...still nothing.  So Friday afternoon, me and Pat get a call that they are going to pack up and walk all their stuff over to the new apartment and wanted some help.  Well, being the good Samaritans that we are, of course we went to help our sisters in need! STUPID IDEA.  Why they could not wait one more day, I have no idea, but it was hot and long and horrible!  I am sure that we looked ridiculous, all of us sisters carrying the worldly goods of Martins and Gomes a million miles to a new house!  It was so dumb.  The best was probably Pat and Sister Gomes, who had the 2 mattresses on their heads.  It was super windy too, and every time the wind blew they almost tipped over:)  Anyway, they are now living far away, and Pat and I are alone!  But it is super fun, because now we just mess around all the time and do whatever we want!  I kind of love it...don´t tell the others.

On Saturday we had another lesson with Messias´s kids, and Hillary said another gut-buster.  Here is the conversation:

Hillary(H): Sister Dana, how do you say my name in English?

Sister Dana (SD): Uh...Hillary...

H:  Oh, I thought it would be different.  Like, Hillary Cleenton.  How do you say Hillary Cleenton?

SD:  Hillary Clinton?

H:  Oh, right.  She has blonde hair...you have blonde hair.  Hey, is Hillary Clinton your mom?!

And this is where Sister Dana busts up laughing imagining the reaction of her grandparents if they heard this statement.  Sooooo funny!!  I love those girls!

We had a super experience yesterday that I will tell ya´ll just to finish up.  So we invited Olanda to Stake Conference yesterday, and she came and it was great!  A lady spoke, can´t remember who, who told the story of her conversion that was soooo similar to Olanda´s.  After the conference, we showed her the chapel and ended at the baptismal font.  We started talking about baptism and the answers that she has had and what she needs to do now, and she was still pretty hestitant about committing to anything.  So I had her read Alma 7:14-15, which is PERFECT for this situation, and then we said a prayer right then and there to know if she needed to get baptized.  We knelt down, and she said the coolest prayer!  It was super sincere and made me so happy!  Then she just stayed there for a while, got up and told us that she needed to be baptized, just didn´t know when yet because she wanted more time.  I knew exactly when she would be baptized right then and there, but I pulled out the calendar on the phone for her to pick a day.  She chose the date I was thinking: January 1st, 2014.  What a way to start the year, right??  I was so happy!  It was awesome and I am super proud of her!

Well, that is about it for this week!  I will send our Christmas Photo to you guys...hope ya like it:)  Have a lovely week!  Oh, I almost forgot.  We have a family that will let us use their computers on Christmas, I just don´t know what time it will be yet so I will talk with them this week.  Love you all to bits, have  a good one!

Feliz Natal e Ano Novo!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, 

Sisteres de Candelária

Sister Dana and Sister Patino

(from Mom - I know this is a bit irreverant, but it's also really funny!)

Love,

Sister Dana

The Hottest December of my Life

Not even joking, that is what it is.  We are sweaty and nasty women preaching the word up in here...it is great.  Good to know that you guys are doing well though!   Haha I do miss the Christmas decorations a lot....it was always like, the best thing ever to put all of them up!  Here, it´s cute.  They try, but the people down here really just don´t do Christmas like we do in the States.  Some people have a few strands of lights and almost everyone has a little bitty tree, but it is so weird to see a Christmas tree while I am roasting in the house!  Ah well, it is all good.  I hope that Cooper´s basketball games are going well and that he is playing like a champ!  I know he is...because he is awesome.  Also, I miss the dunes.  Bet you never thought you would hear me say that, eh?  But really, it is true.  So have fun down there!  I am so happy that the ward Christmas party was a success!  Probably all thanks to my toca picture.  But whatevs, I´m over being embarrassed.  Gotta just embrace the culture, right?

Welp, this week was awesome.  We went to the temple on Wednesday, yay!!  Ohmygoodness, it was perfect and exactly what I needed.  It was so cool to just sit in the Celestial Room and know that everything would be ok and I didn´t need to stress anymore and my Heavenly Father was happy with my work...yeah that was definitely great.  The temple here in Recife is incredible.  It is sooooo pretty!  We only get to go every three months, so it really is a treat to head into the city.  I know that a lot of missionaries never get to go to the temple during their missions, so we are extra blessed too!

The Nativity in  front of the Recife Temple

Good news...the Lord answers prayers!  Would you believe that Alexandra stopped smoking, and the day she quit, she found a new job that pays really well!?  So well, in fact, that she might be able to move out and get baptized sooner?!  AND Messias found another job that pays like, double the pay he was getting at the other one where he had to work on Sundays.  He is SO COOL.  We had a lesson with him this week where he basically gave an Institute-worthy lesson on the end of 2 Nephi.  I love love love it when our investigators progress enough that they just teach us and we all learn together...super fun!  Oh, AND Georges is having business out the wazoo now too.  All sorts of people are buying from his shop and he is so happy!  I love that the blessings of obedience are real!  Holy smokes, this is way cool.

Sooo now our mission (well, the Church in general) is doing a program called "Resgate"  or, "Rescue".  This is when the members and missionaries start working with less-actives.  This is soooo important, becauswe we have seriously a million members in our ward, but only about a hundred that come to church every week.   So Sister Patino and I have been praying to find more less-actives, and they have just started introducing themselves on the street and telling us that they want help coming to church again!  Ok!  We can definitely do that:)  It is really cool, and ever since Pittsburgh, I have learned to LOVE rescue work.  It is so good to help these people remember what they once knew and come back to the church.

Oh, also we are teaching Messias´s little daughters and they are ADORABLE!  Sara, Yasmin, and Hilary are 12, 8, and 6.  We had the cutest lesson with them  yesterday!  Hilary is a crack up.  I was teaching about how God loves his children, and she was staring at me all weird.  So I was like, "Hilary...are you ok?"  And she goes, "Wait...you´re speaking Portuguese!  Whoa!"  She was super surprised that I wasn´t speaking English with her, it was so funny!  And then we were teaching them how to pray, and Yasmin goes, "Why do you fold your arms like this?"  And Hilary says, "Yasmin.  It´s because they are holding baby Jesus by their hearts!"  Yes, yes it is, you precious little thing!  I can´t wait til Messias can baptize them!

I will find out about Skyping you guys this week and let you know what time to be ready...ah, can´t wait!  Also, my address is ... (I'll add that back in when she gets home).  Hope that helps you googlemap it!

Have a great week, love you all to bits, and I´ll send a letter soon!

Love,

Sister Dana

Me and Ducky (Sister Patino) in front of the temple

Our Zone in front of the temple

Sister Dana and Elder Hanna! MTC, bonded for life :)

Sister Marques, Sister Patino, Sister Dana and Sister White

We went to Burger King!  And it really wasn´t that good.  Guess some things are the same in all parts of the world.
Me and Sister Patino

Sister Dana, Sister Martins, Sister Marques, Sister Gomes, Sister Patino and Sister White

Sister Gomes tried to rescue a baby bird.  It was gross, but touching at the same time...

Better Late than Never (letter from December 4th)

Hello!  So I am really sorry that I didn´t write on Monday, but this week we are going to the temple!  Like, in a few hours, actually.  Therefore, we don´t get Pday here. So that bites, but oh well.  Holy smokes, it sounded like you guys had an incredible week!  Sad day that I missed out, but it sounds like it was super fun!  I love the picture and I can´t wait to get more!  Thanks for all the details, Mom:)  

This week was really good for us. If ya´ll could say a prayer for our investigator, Alexandra, that would be really cool.  She is making a LOT of changes right now to get baptized.  I am amazed at this woman and the faith that she has.  She is giving up smoking, which is SUPER hard for her because she has smoked for thirty years.  We decided that this would be the week that she gave it all up, so last week Sister Patino and I went over there and talked to her a lot about faith.  I guess it was a really good lesson, because we were getting into it and at the end, I was like, "Alexandra, do you have faith?"  And she goes, "Yeah...I think so."  And I said, "No, Alexandra, DO YOU HAVE FAITH?!"  and I think I got way to excited because she yells to her boyfriend, "Bertinho!  Dana is getting nervous!"  But yeah, she did have faith!  It was super funny, and we all started laughing after and apparently I am now the Baptist Sister.  Oh gloria!

I was super relieved that I will stay here for this next transfer!  I was ready to head out at first, but then I realized how much it would stink to go to a new area with completely new people just in time for Christmas. I love the people here in Candelária...seriously, they are like my family.  But I guess after 6 months in one area, that is bound to happen, eh?  Seriously though, the members are amazing and help us out so much and I just love them to death.  Also, I reallyyyyyy hate having to pack up and leave, so that was a blessed relief.

In other news, we had a wonderful surprise on Sunday!  After he was confirmed, both Georges and Messias received the priesthood!  It was so so cool!  And then Messias was called to be the Young Men´s secretary and he was pretty much giddy with excitement.  YAY!!!  And he brought his three daughters to church with him.  They loved it, and they will start taking lessons from us this next week I think. When we told him that he can baptize them now, he almost started crying.  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

We did an FHE on Monday with some of the families in the ward, and the sisters are always in charge of the games.  So this week, I taught them all how to play sister missionary tag, and that was great.  I love how ALL they youth get into it and are not afraid to mess around and be silly!  And I´m pretty sure they got a kick out of seeing the sisters running around with their dresses flying everywhere, so that was real cute.

Well, have a great week guys, and I hope that ya´ll are absolutely intoxicated with the Christmas spirit!  It doesn´t feel like Christmas a bit down here, but that is ok, I have a pine tree candle:)  I love you all so much!!!

Love,

Sister Dana

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)

The Week of Birthday is Arriving...

 Hooray hooray hooray!  Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes guys!  I am so dang lucky to have family and friends that make me feel super special!  Mom, I cannot believe that Celia´s husband did that with my package...holy cow!  I think I need to bake them a cake or something.  That is so nice and I owe them big time!  My Zone Leaders told me that I have a package waiting that I will receive on Tuesday, so I am super stoked for tomorrow!  Yay!!!  Also, we will see if the Christmas stuff lasts until Christmas, ok?

Is it Thanksgiving this week?  What the heck, time is a flyin´.  I miss Thanksgiving a lot right now!  It is pretty weird here, because everything is exactly the same as it was in June when I arrived.  But that is ok:)  Just have a really good Thanksgiving this year, ok?  And give a hug to all of the famdamily:)  Is it the Flake year?  If so, please take some pictures of the stick horse rodeo!

So you wanted to know how things are down here.  We are super isolated, to be honest.  Our mission has some pretty tight restrictions because of some reallyyyyy bad stuff that happened in the past, so we only see the other missionaries once a week at district meeting.  I have not seen Sister Butler since I left the US, but I know that she has been here for a while.  Presidente came to our zone meeting this week, but that is pretty rare.  He cares for the Sisters really well though, so don´t worry.  Mom, fear not, I clean like a boss now and our apartment is beautiful.  We have mission conferences about every 2 or 3 months, but they are super fast and we don´t really get much time to socialize, you know?  President is super careful about making sure that NOTHING goes on between the elders and sisters, so...yeah.

Also, the nice man at the internet shop here fixed my SD card.  Hooray!

This week was super super good!  Sister Patino and I BOTH have birthdays coming up, because hers is the 21st!  So we  were way happy to start it off on a good note with the baptism of MESSIAS yesterday!!!!  YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!  Oh my goodness I was so so happy!  He showed up to church yesterday again, which was a blessing in and of itself, and he goes, "Hey, is anyone else getting baptized today?  No?  Ok, I´ll get baptized tonight then!"  And he did!  And it was so so so great!  A ton of the members of the ward showed up because we really made sure to involve everyone in teaching him.  That is the very best way to make sure he stays active, you know?  So they all bore really great testimonies and then his buddy in our ward, Ricardo, baptized him!  After that, Sister Patino and I sang "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.  Look who is tri-lingual now....whaaaat!  Haha jk, but it was really cool!  After the baptism, he came up to us and thanked us for helping him find this gospel and changing his life.  Best birthday present ever, right there.

Sister Dana, Messias, Sister Patino

Our investigators are progressing super well right now.  It seems like we are finally finding the elect, the people that are really prepared to hear and accept the gospel.  I think that in the next few weeks, we will be having things move forward a lot faster!  Hooray!  That is way good because it is so dang hot right now, and people are seeming to be drinking more, so conditions have been getting a bit difficult.  The Lord always compensates for these things though!

I´m glad that things are going so well at home.  Thank you so much for all of the letters and birthday wishes!  All I really want is just a baptism.  That´s like, the best thing in the whole world.  Have a great week and I love you all so very much!

Yasmin Baptism

Sister Gomes, Sister Dana and Sister Patino

Happy Birthday Sister Rocha

My Package

Sister Lisa Tanner took some stuff with her when she went to Brazil to pick up her son from his mission.  She was kind enough to mail the package from inside the country so it had a better chance of reaching her.

Yay! Swedish Fish and Skittles!

Another Week In Recife!

Ok not really, I´m in Jaboatao.  But that is ok.  It´s like, the same thing.  Hey, Congratulations to Cooper for being such a baller and making the basketball team!  Oh I´m so proud....because you know, I totally played basketball too in highschool....nope, but that´s ok.  But hooray!  Sounds like things are just peachy there, and they are here too!

Oh family...it is so very very hot.  Like, extremely.  But you know, that is ok because this is the Lord´s work and so sometimes we just have to make sacrifices!  So now I am Sister Sempre Suada.  Yeah, ask Dad and Norma what that means.  It´s really true.  But yeah, we are in that in-between stage right now where we have a lot of people super close to baptism!  Like, Alexandra.  All we have to do is convince her bf that marriage is the way to go and that alcohol really isn´t all there is to life.  Maybe we have our work cut out for us....but I am so happy for her because she told us that no matter what, one day she will be baptized.  She quit partying, drinking, smoking(!) and all of this stuff, and she said that there is no way that she is going back to this life.  She has made some serious sacrifices and will be receiving some major blessings, I just know it!  Also, Messias came to church this week!  For the very very first time ever, and he loved it!  It was a huge sacrifice for him too though, so I was way impressed.  He ditched work yesterday in the morning to come, and he didn´t know if he would have a job to come back to.  Whoa...talk about faithfulness.

I am amazed every single week by these people here.  They are willing to give so much for the Lord, for this faith that they have only known for a teensyyyy weensy time....and yet they change everything about their lives for it.  It´s the best job in the world to be a missionary, that is for sure.

Hmm, let´s see if we have any good stories from this week...well, we were at lunch at a member´s house this week that has a little dog that drives me crazy.  She is INSANE, but Sister Patino loves her.  She loves all dogs, poor thing.  Anyway, we were waiting for lunch, and I was giving that pooch a pretty wide berth because she smelled like death, and Sister Patino was just happily playing with the little beasty.  I knew it was a bad idea...and it really was.  Lo and behold, when lunch was ready,  Sister Patino had a nice round yellow spot chillin on her dress.  And we had an appointment right after, so guess who and cachorro chichi on her person the whole day?  Ducky, that´s who.  Gross.  

Also, the gift of tongues is SUPER real.  Sister Patino decided that she wanted to make the most of our time here together and try speaking English, and so we have been doing that a lot more often now.  Um, all of a sudden, she is speaking perfectly.  On Thursday, she went the whole day speaking English to me, something that she has NEVER done before.  In our prayers together at night, she speaks English now and she started crying when she was thanking Heavenly Father for the gift of tongues.  I have no idea how this stuff happens, but it is crazy and the Church is true!

 I can´t believe that Hayden is going to be a missionary this week!  Oh that is so dang exciting.  I´m pretty sad that it will be a long time before I see that kid again...we are kind of pretty good pals now, you know?  Even though he never wrote me or anything, but whatever.  And Reggie too, and soon Jake and Hunter...aw, all my little cousins are going to be gone for a long time, dadgumit!  But this is the best thing that we can all be doing, so we will just have to wait about 4 years to all party together in Snowflake again.

I will definitely pray for my pals there in the Philippines, that is super scary!  Also way scary that I had no idea any of this was even happning!  But I KNOW that the Lord takes care of his missionaries, and they will have angels around them for sure, if that helps at all.

Life is good here!  I have a feeling that I´ll be transferred soon, but I don´t know...it´s not like I´ve got 5 months in this area or anything;)  Have a great week and remember that I love you!  And also please help the missionaries.  They need it.

Love,

Sister Dana

Oi Gente:)

Hey Famdamily, guess what! I got a package in the mail and there was a great rejoicing heard over all of Brazil when the missionaries in our house had their first tastes of Swedish Fish and Skittles!  Thank you thank you thank you!  I have eaten a ton of them...but I don´t even care. Honestly, I think about how healthy I ate at home and all the junk that I don´t really have a choice to eat now...because missionaries are poor, you know?  And junkfood is cheap:)  So really, I am just saving the Lord´s money.  Anyway, thank you so much for the shoes!  They are giving some blisters right now because the crocs (which are surprisingly chic) are too big, but I´ll figure out some way to deal with those.  Thank you!  And also, I need more of the cleanser, argan oil, and moisturizer, por favor. But yeah, that was basically the most exciting thing that happened that week.

Lies, this week was awesome.  We had a baptism!  Yay!  Yasmin was baptized last night, and she is 13 and beautiful.  When we got to her house half an hour before the baptism, she goes "Sisters, do you think we can move the baptism to next week?  I feel really sick!"  Um.  No.  So we said, "Yasmin.  Right now we are going to have a miracle, ok? You are going to say a prayer that this sickness can be taken away, and then we are going to get on the bus and you are going to get baptized tonight!  Do you have faith that this can happen?"  "...sim."  "Ok!  Pray"  So she did!  And then she got up and goes, "It´s gone, let´s go!"  And we did!  Of course, right when we got to the bus stop, a motorcycle sped by ridiculously fast through a puddle of disgusting water on the street and drenched the three of us.  I really hope that wasn´t some perverse baptism joke.  But oh well, it was a great night!

We also had a super funny story happen this Saturday.  So the weekends in our area are hilarious, because everyone gets wayyyyy drunk.  We don´t teach a ton on Saturday and Sunday, but we always have the best stories!  So anyways, we knocked on this lady´s door and she let us share a message with her on her front porch.  So I am saying the opening prayer, when this guy comes up to us and starts asking for water.  He and his buddy were PLASTERED.  So the lady goes to get them water, and they plop down in front of us and start to eat lunch.  I have to give it to the Brazilians, they are the most charitable people that I know.  These guys had bread from the bakery, spaghetti from the diner, and vegetables from the fruit stand that people just give out of the goodness of their hearts.  But anyway, they started eating, and it was DISGUSTING.  Imagine two humans eating lettuce like horses.  Nasty business.  And then the spaghetti....oh dear.  But all the while, they were talking and saying literally the funniest stuff I have ever heard, all the while smearing the food all over their faces.  One of them tried to show off for us, and acted out a fight that he had had the night before...oh my gosh.  And so this went on for about 45 minutes.  Finally, they finished up and cleaned up this poor lady´s porch by using a plastic bag and smearing the food all over the place.  Then, they did a ballet-samba dance for us to say thank you, and danced down the road back to the bar.  Needless to say, this lesson never really happened, because all of us just sat there crying because it was so funny!  I love Brasil...

But yeah, other than that, everything is normal here!  It was weird to have Halloween pass by without doing anything, and Leslie´s bday, and today is Kristen´s, so birthday shout out to Belgium!  I hope that you guys had a great week, and I love you all lots.  Thank you for your prayers, and I seriously can feel them all the time!  Have a good week!  

Love,

Sister Dana