June 2nd, 2014

There is no escaping Snowflake.

Oh goodness, it sounds like you guys just had the best time this week!  Sister Rodrigues keeps asking me what is wrong because I am totally sitting here crying reading about all of the stuff that happened on the trek.  Those are so cool... congratulations for a job well done.  I think that except for my mission, the trek was one of the experiences that changed my life more than anything else.  I love that the Church makes us do hard things to discover better all of the things we are capable of doing.  The Lord gives us trials not to break us, but to make us stronger.  He really does send angels to help us all the time too...I have definitely seen that here.  Awesome job with that theme, I love it!  Oh I am so happy that all of it turned out well!  Mom, you should probably go take a nap now though.  That is quite a lot of effort.

This week was amazing.  So much stuff happened!  We will have to see if I remember it all.

First off, Wilson.  Our volleyball.  Jokes, he is basically the most perfect investigator ever!  He is Ise´s brother and is AMAZING.  Recently left another church because he saw a lot of bad stuff going on there.  Looking for the truth. He understands EVERYTHING that we say and was like, "Oh, Apostasy?  Wow, that totally makes sense!  Hey, can I have a Book of Mormon?  I love that thing so much!"  Basically everything that he does makes my mouth drop open in surprise.  My fave was when he came up to us and goes, "Hello, my blessed sisters.  I have decided to join your ministry."  Yesssss!  He just isn´t baptized yet because he wants to be absolutely sure that it is all true, so...we hope to get that marked for Sunday tonight.  Prayers please!  Oh, and another good story...he was traveling on Friday night and was at some restaurant in another state when two sisters came up to him and started talking to him about the church!  He was like, "Wait, I already have two of you at home!"  So then one of the sisters told him that this was a sign from God telling him that he was on the right path and needed to join up ASAP.  He agreed!  Wow, I really owe that chick.

We also have another person we are hoping and praying to baptize this weekend.   Her name is Nalva, and all 4 of her kids are baptized and 3 are super active in the church.  One is on a mission in Campinas and the other two are preparing to go.  She loves the church so much, defends it, and goes whenever she feels the need.  She has just never been baptized!  I asked her a pretty straight up question in our lesson on Friday:  "Nalva.  If we all died right now, what would it be like for your family?"  She goes, "Well, my kids would all be in the Celestial Kingdom and God knows how I love the church and defend it, so He would let me in too!"  Nope.  We had to clarify that, and she got real quiet.  I was super afraid that I ruined everything at that point when we left.  Basically I am the one who sticks a knife in the excuses of our investigators and then Sister Rodrigues puts some Neosporin and a Bandaid on it to help it heal over.  We are a good team.  But she was at church yesterday, so I don´t think that she got mad. Whew.

Sister Bedke also had a REALLY funny experience this week that I am not allowed to publicate, but if you want to know what it was, shoot me and email and I´ll spill.

We had a lovely surprise this week and got to go to the temple!  Love that place.  Heavenly Father just knows every time that I need to re-charge.  New Rule:  (idk if this is just in Brasil or in the whole church)  Kids can´t just go do baptisms for temple names anymore, it has to be family.  So get on it!  We got to spend the night in...Candeias!  Which is just a hop skip and a jump away from Candelaria!  When we arrived in Jaboatão Litoral that night, we ran over to the church there in Candelaria because I knew they would be having activities there.  And they were!  It was so great!  I got to see all of my old friends and the kids that I loveeee there!  Oh man, I almost cried.  Little blessings.  We ran back to Candeias through some rain that I forgot existed.  Wow.  Don´t miss that part.  Who should be the sisters of Candeias, but Sister McCleve, my MTC pal!  It was so good to see her and catch up!  We talked and talked and talked and she is doing so well.  

Look who is a photographer now....

Our Zone at the temple

Sister Butler!

With the Sisters!

We were up early the next morning to go to Mission Conference.  This was the last time that we will see Pres. and Sister Lanius!  It was so sad to say goodbye to them!  They have been excellent and I am so grateful for all of the things that I was able to learn from this couple.  I got called up to sing in a quartet when we were there and I sang one of the parts as a solo, which was so scary!  But it turned out ok I guess.  Tchau Tchau Presidente!

Our zone:)

With Presidente and Sister Lanius!

The sisters from Boa Vista that live with us also had a baptism yesterday, which was really fun.  I love that things are going so much better for them.  They work so hard and love the people like crazy!  All of the sisters here are amazing examples to me.

At the Sisters´baptism

Welp, that is about it from this week.  I love you guys and hope that you enjoy your summer!  write me lots...with more time on the mish, the inbox gets pretty sad.  Have a good one!

Love,

Sister Dana

This Baptism was NOT Ise!!!

Oh my goodness.  This week was seriously one of the most difficult of my entire mission.  I have NEVER worked so dang hard for a baptism in my whole life!  

Ok.  Time for the story of Ise.  So we taught her every single day this week to get her ready for baptism on Sunday.  Perfect, she was super prepared and feeling good and happy and everything was going well.  Until Friday, that is.  We go over to talk to her, and she tells us that her mom told her she doesn´t need to be baptized again and that her mom is SUPER against it.  Thus...we should put the baptism off for a little while.  But you know what happens when we re-mark baptisms? NOTHING.  They don´t happen!  Our hearts just kind of stopped when she said this, so we calmly explained to her how she needs to talk to Heavenly Father about this and get His opinion on the whole situation.  She said that she still wanted the elders to come do the baptismal interview though on Saturday, so that was a good sign. 

On Saturday, the Elders came early in the afternoon and we showed them around Gravatá, because they live in Caruarú, which is about an hour away.  We took them on top of this huge mountain where you can see all of the town and it is soooo pretty!  They almost died on the way up, but that´s ok.  Sweat builds character.  Anyway, as we headed over to Marilza´s house for Ise´s interview, we called Marilza, who told us that Ise was no where to be found!  NOOO!!!  False alarm though, she arrived about half an hour after we did.  Hooray!  Andddd she passed the interview!  So everything was all set and ready for the baptism on Sundaynight.  She came to church with her brother, who we are also teaching, and loved every bit of it. The baptism was marked for 6pm, and after choir practice (which was prettyyy painful), at about 5:50, we get a call.  She said that her mom locked her in the house and wouldn´t let her come to the church at all.  I am not even kidding, I almost cried.  The font was full, the cake was made, and everyone in the ward was there. My heart just broke, but then it mended itself again when she told us that she wanted to get baptized in the morning!  This girl has a desire that is SO STRONG!  She knows that the church is true, she feels it, and she is just an amazing example to me.

After the interview with Ise!  Isn´t she so pretty??

So, about 1 hour ago, we put a baptism together and I had my first baptism on a Pday!  It was beautiful.  Tarciso bore his testimony and made me cry.  He talked about how he knows that the church is true and that there is no way he would ever leave it, especially after going to the temple to do baptisms.  Ise came out of the water so happy!  Oh man, that is just the best feeling in the world, you know?  

I never had to work so hard...EVER. For anything!  The prayers, the fasting, the studying....everything is worth it.  Heavenly Father listens to our prayers and is just waiting to help us!  And He will always be there with us, fighting by our side.

Us with Ise!

With Felipe, who baptized her

With Jo, who introduced her to us

Perfect.... <3

Perfect.... <3

Perfect.... <3

Pure and Perfect!

Pure and Perfect!

I am trying to think of other things that happened, but like...nothing even comes to mind!  We were pretty involved in this novella all week, you know?  Sorry.  

Good luck on the trek to you guys!  I know you will have a great time...man, wish I could go!  Please take a lot of pictures to send to me!  Also, I am so sad that Brother Shumway died.  He was such a great home teacher!  Give a hug to their family from me, ok?  Obrigada!

I´ll send pics of the baptism.  Love you guys so much, have an awesome week and stay safe!

Love, 

Sister Dana

Me and Sister Bedke made couscous masks....this does NOT go on Facebook.

I Hope this Next Baptism Will Be Ise...

Pronounced "Easy".  Get it??  Probably not, because I haven´t told the story yet.  But I will right now!  Ready, go.  So Ise is this girl that is dating one of the less active guys here, Jonas.  Marilza, Jonas´s mom, is a recent convert that I adore.  I have NEVER met anyone with such a desire to share the gospel.  And that includes missionaries.  This lady is the best.  Seriously, you go into her house and you know who Joseph Smith is.  Her daughter, Jo, had a cold the other day and Marilza goes, "Jo!  Have more faith!  If you had more faith, you wouldn´t have a cold!"  Loveee her!  So anyway, she is so sad that her son, Jonas, is less active and wants to do everything that she possibly can to help him come back.  So when he got a girlfriend a few weeks ago, the first thing she did was call us over!  This week, we have been teaching Ise nonstop.  It is wonderful!  She feels the Spirit so strongly and says that she knows that God is listening when she prays.  When we taught her the Restoration with Marilza...oh man, it was so cool.  Marilza just was bawling the whole time and she said, "Every time I hear the story of this vision, I just cry!!"  Ise came to church with Marilza this week and we have her baptism marked for next week. Oh I am praying so hard that it happens!  I can only imagine what the work would be like if all members were like unto Marilza.  (BoM junkies will get that...) She is well known for saying, "These churches...everyone just doesn´t understand!  Why don´t they all just get baptized into the true church of Jesus Christ?!" I want to just carry her around with me in my pocket.  Also she makes WONDERFUL lasagna.

We invited our recent convert, Paula, to come teach a lesson with us this week too.  It was one of my favorite lessons of my mission, I think.  It wasn´t super profound, and the lady we taught doesn´t even want us to come back.  But Paula bore her testimony and I felt the Spirit SO STRONGLY in the room that I almost started to cry right there.  As we left, I just got this feeling of how much Heavenly Father loved Paula and how happy He was that she got baptized and got that much closer to coming home to Him.  She now has two callings and said the prayer in church yesterday:)  I think that we baptized an angel, I really do.

Unfortunately, we are going to have to stop teaching José Luis.  This makes me so so so sad, because he knows everything is true and has a desire to make changes.  The problem is that his natural man is stronger than his desire to change I guess.  He won´t come to church or anything anymore, which broke my heart.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation on Saturday night and I just couldn´t believe all of the deep insight that he had and the way that he understood everything so easily.  At the end of the lesson, he told us that he had a dream about us.  He said that in the dream, he walked into the church and we were there, but the inside of the church was different and everyone was all dressed in white.  He then proceeded to describe the inside of the Recife Temple and said thata guy in a suit came over to him and gave him a hug and said, "You are safe here."  I was pretty blown away by that one.  Another proof that this gospel is soooo true.  It just makes me sad when people are given testimony after testimony and...well, you know, now is just probably not his time.

In happier news, I WENT TO A WEDDING!!!!!  That´s right, first one of my life.  It was so great!  Gosh, I love weddings.  Nandara and Jadson got married!!  Oh goodness, I almost just cried.  They are so dang cute and I took a ton of pictures!  It was really simple, just us and their family in the Bishop´s office, but the Spirit was there and now they are preparing for sealing in a year and all will be dandy!  Have I mentioned how I love weddings?  One of the highlights of the mission, fo sho!

Amanda and Eduardo, the testimonies

Jadson and his mommy:)

Nandara and her mom

We got to walk too!

How precious...ohmygosh I am dying...

I <3 WEDDINGS.

I <3 WEDDINGS.

I <3 WEDDINGS.

Us with the newlyweds!!  Ahhh!!!!

Us with the newlyweds!!  Ahhh!!!!

Cooper, about the patriarchal blessing.  I have gained the biggest testimony of those things out here.  It isn´t some voodoo fortune teller garbage.  That stuff is not real.  Patriarchal blessings are given to help remind us of the potential that we have, not just in this life, but in eternity.  Our Heavenly Father knew us from the very beginning and knows our personalities and weaknesses.  He knows exactly how to help us and these blessings are a proof of that.  Many, many times, I have found so much comfort in knowing that when everything seems to be going wrong, I have a guide to keep me centered and focused on the real goal: the Celestial Kingdom.  Knowing my divine nature has given me a huge desire to help other people learn theirs.  Imagine how the world would be different if all of God´s children knew where they come from and what He has planned for them?  They wouldn´t make nearly as many mistakes, that´s for sure.  Also, Show Choir?  Oh man.  Well, we have to try out all sorts of stuff, don´t we?

Anyway, that´s my bit.  I hope that everything goes well with the trek and I can´t wait to hear about it!  I love you guys so much and hope you have a wonderful week.  Also. sooo glad that Cooper and Winn are better!

Love,

Sister Dana

At the Artesanatos Place!

Skyping on Mother's Day

So happy to stay with Sister Rodrigues!
(They found out neither of them would be transferred during our Skype visit on Mother's Day)

Promised Blessings :)

Hello hello!  Long time no see?  Not really!  Oh it was so great to talk to you guys last night!  I was way happy and it was good to see that everyone is doing relatively well.  Be sure to let me know how Winn is doing, ok?  And Cooper too!  I was worried about him!  Oh and those pictures of Reggie with Wynn and his family?  Love love love.  When is someone coming to Brazil to take cute pictures like that with me?  Jokes...kind of....

Anyway, I know that I told you guys this story last night, but I am going to tell it again just to get it out there in the world because it is so cool.  So this transfer was superrrr hard.  Like, definitely the hardest of my mission.  We have not been having ANYONE progress and it is just really rough stuff!  So I was getting pretty down on myself and wondering what I was doing wrong.  Was I sinning?  Did we not deserve having people come to church?  Did we need to work harder or fast more or what?  Sister Rodrigues is so much better about staying realistic in situations like this.  We decided to ask our District Leader, Elder Marlow, for a blessing to help us figure out what to do with our area.  He told Sister Rodrigues in her blessing that the Lord knew how hard we were working and this week, we would have people in the church with their hearts prepared to accept baptism.  I was beyond happy to hear that.  We went to work immediately, and tried to get in touch with all of our investigators and just teach as much as possible this week to help out with this blessing.  The whole week...nothing.  We found new people...that were not interested.  Taught old investigators...still not interested.  On Saturday night, we were pretty faithless, I hate to admit.  We were heading back home and decided to contact a referral on our street really fast with the little time that we had left.  As we searched for the house, we talked to a woman who was sitting out on her front steps.  Her name is Maria de Lourdes, and she had received the missionaries manyyyy times before, but never went to church.  My first thought was, "Oh great, an eternal investigator."  I am horrible.  We invited her to church, and she said that maybe, if she had time, she would pass by.  We told her that we would stop by her house on our way, and if she was ready, she could come with us.  Sunday morning, I was still pretty bummed.  I called all of our people....nothing.  Before we left the house, we said a prayer that the Lord would give us a miracle and Maria would come to church.  When we got to her house...she was waiting outside the door for us!  I almost cried right there.  I was basically skipping to church with her and Sister Rodrigues, and she adored the whole thing.  I caught her talking to Yoná after class, and she said that she had always passed by this church and loved it, but never had the desire to enter until we came to her house on Saturday.  She can´t wait to come back.  

Isn´t that so cool!  Ah, gives me the chills.  Anyway, other stuff that happened this week!  We had an FHE with a bunch of the members on Monday and I taught everyone how to do that one thing where you put a cookie on your forehead and try to use just your face to get it into your mouth.  I am basically a professional at this sport now.  It was so funny, and they loved it!  On Tuesday, I did a division with Sister Patiño! (look, I learned how to do that little squiggle thing over the n!  A million years later...) We had a great time.  She is an example of a missionary who really understands why she is here.  She has no reason to be out serving a mission, just because she loves the Lord.  She teaches so well, and I learned a ton from being with her.  My little duckling has turned into a swan!  

On Friday, we helped out with a presentation by the Primary for Mother´s day.  We sang for all the mommies in the ward, and holy cow, these guys go all out.  They had dances by the kids, ballet, poems, picture slideshows...it was a real tearjerker!  So cute!  Gosh, I love little Brazilian kids. They are so dang cute!

I am trying to think of other stuff that happened....and that is basically it.  We are happy, and Sister Rodrigues and I will be staying together another transfer!  4 transfers with this girl...the most I have ever had with someone!  Good thing that I love her!  

I love you guys too, and it is so good to know that Heavenly Father is taking care of all of you for me!

Love,

Sister Dana

Vai Para Igreja? Eh...Se Não Estiver Chovendo...

Estava chovendo.  MUITO.  I totally forgot what it is like to work in the rain, but this week brought that memory home real quick!  I am just glad that I am not working around in Sovaco da Cobra anymore where we had to swim to every lesson!  But I loveeee that place.  Anyway.  This week it raiiinnneeeddd.  And that only was a bummer because our house is not waterproof!  So we may not be swimming to our lessons, but we are swimming to our beds!  This week we will find a way to waterproof the windows, fo sho.

Even when it's been a cloudy week...God can still send a rainbow.

Ummm this week was kind of a bummer, and I´m sorry that I don´t have many cool things to relate!  Our baptism, José Luis, fell through, which made me super sad.  He should get baptized soon, because he is allllmost ready.  We just have a few little commandment issues to work out, and then we should be good to go.  

I also did a division with Sister Bedke this week!  I love her...she reminds me of myself;)  Jokes, just that it is so cool to watch someone learning a language. I had no idea how great it is when I was learning Portuguese, but just watching her trusting in the Lord, opening her mouth, and being surprised when the right words come out is a daily reminder of how involved Heavenly Father is in this work, and how He helps us so much!  Anyway, we had a great  day together and I love living with her!

Basically...that is all that happened this week.  I am sorry.  We are trying super hard, but the main problem is that no one wants to go to church.  We are planning activities and Family Home Evenings and doing all sorts of stuff, but the main problem really is getting them to make the commitmentes.  I got kind of down about the whole situation, but then I read about Alma and Amulek in the Book of Mormon this week.  I LOVE THEM. The way they work together and teach is so powerful and really helped me out.  And I was thinking about them a lot, and like....no one is coming to church, but at least they aren´t burning all of our recent-converts.  And think about this.  When Amulek was watching this, it was probably a lot of his friends, and the people he loved.  Can you even imagine?  But Alma had so much faith that he knew that all those people were pure in the eyes of God and they would receive glory when they returned home.  Then the chapter goes on to say how Alma comforted Amulek, and they went to another city.  There they found all of the people who had accepted their message and wanted to be baptized.  They were able to organize the church and help a ton of people repent and take that first step in returning home to Heavenly Father.  So, even though they were so sad, that sadness was replaced by joy knowing that all of their efforts were not in vain.  I also never picked up on the fact that Ammonihah, the city that didn´t accept them and burned the believers, was completely destroyed like, a week after they left.  God is a just fellow.

Anyway, that is my little scripture study of the week.  Love you guys so much, and I am so excited to talk on Sunday!  Also, that is some weird ward gossip.  But I knew that one was coming.  Tell Beau I say hi tomorrow!  And tell Cooper to step it up, because he will def regret those bad grades in about 2 years when he has to start prepping for college.  SERIOUSLY.

AND.  Mother.  Just because I send you a picture does NOT mean that it goes on Facebook!  Amanda, a member here, showed me my page this week!  What the....don´t do that anymore! Thank you:)

Us and Tarcisio :)

Love you lots!  Can´t wait til Sunday!

Love,

Sister Dana

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