Do You Know I Love Being a Missionary?

I really, really do!  Aw famdamily, it is so good to know that you guys are doing well!  I am sure that your song was awesome, Mom, don´t stress!  Oh and the other day, I heard that "Savior Redeemer of my Soul" song that you and Emily Depaula did for Jona´s farewell, and I remembered playing with you and I just got all trunky!  But not really, don´t worry!  Also, it sounds like Cooper had a great birthday.  I missed him that day, and everyone in my house definitely knew that it was his 15th!  I sang "Happy Birthday"  to him all day, even if he couldn´t hear it.  Maybe the Spirit carried it into his heart or something, who knows?  

I am really sorry to hear about Bro Sezate and Sister Beck.  That is super hard for the ward...they will definitely be missed.  You guys are in my prayers and I know that the Lord will help you out!  It is such a comfort to know about the Plan of Salvation, right?  

Something really interesting....this week, Sister Patino and I decided that we were sick of not teaching very much.  So we started teaching a full lesson to everyone that we meet on the street.  And it is really kind of amazing the things that happen.  We didn´t get a hundred contacts a day, but we got 20 new investigators this week, which puts our teaching pool at about 40 people now.  So we are very, very busy!  But the thing that was the most successful was starting out promising blessings.  The very first thing we started doing when we met someone was ask them what they think will happen after death to their family.  A little shocking...yeah, a lot shocking...and then we explained exactly what will happen because of that perfect plan that Heavenly Father created.  And you know what?  They got all sorts of relieved and wanted to know more !  So we got new investigators!  Hooray!  

I have been so amazed this week as we have taught the Plan of Salvation over and over, just how perfect it really is.  It is all completely logical, completely backed up by the scriptures, and just an amazing thing!  We talk to all of these people who have so many questions that their religions just don´t answer...they just sing and praise and "Gloria Hallelujah"  all the day long.  What a blessing it is to have a plan that is perfect, and a gospel that encourages lifelong learning!  Gah, I just think that is so dang cool.

In other news, Sister Patino and I went exploring in our area a lot this week and found a jungle-y place that is really cool, so we took some legit pictures of that that will be included...other than that I really don´t know if much more has happened!  We are happy and working hard and life is good!

 

Me in our area - Twas an Adventure

Also,  a giant birthday shout-out to my BFF Syster Clouse out there in Sweden!  I hope that the next 20 years are as great as the last!  Because we basically had all the same experiences the last 20 years...but yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LESIL!  I LOVE YOU! 

Well fam, I love ya to pieces.  Sorry if this letter is boring...I will plan some more adventures for the following week to liven things up.  Have a great one!

Love,

Sister Dana

ps

Also in those pictures of Coop he looks like a manboy and this is WEIRD. 

Check out this bad boy that we found in the Road!

I love Brazil...pretty sure I have found his cousin in our lunch before!

T-t-t-tasty tasty

Oh Minha Familia

Como eu amo voces!  Seriously, I really do love you guys.  Thank you so very much for the emails, they make my day!  I just love Mondays!  Also, this week I got a few letters from Mom, Brandon and Jen, and a few other peeps that I will definitely write back to today!  Aw Mom, Cooper is so cute in his uniform!  Awwwww I want to be there and seee himmmm....dadgumit!  Tell him Happy Birthday this week!  I am sending a letter, but it is probably going to take about a million years to get there.  And as soon as I get to an area that has cool stuff, I´ll send good presents!  I promise!    And this week Leslie hits her halfway mark! What.  Wow...missions really fly, don´t they?  But Congratulations to her!!!  I love my best friend.

It is so good to here that you guys are doing well. Congrats on the baptisms in the ward!  Way to be!  I am super proud:) Mom, EVMCO sounds like it is incredible!  I miss playing so badly.  Really, I was surprised at how much I want to.  The other day I was listening to Lamb of God and it smacked me in the face.  But I am glad that you are still keeping up with that and doing well!

Today is transfers!  I am still here in Jaboatao Litoral...more than 4 months now, but that´s ok!  I´ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord!  More like I´ll stay where you want me to stay, actually....but oh well.  I am happy that I get to finish training Sister Ducky!  Can´t believe that she is already halfway done!  Sister Clarke, my American amiga, was transferred, so that was sad, but I like change up in here:)

Our House! Sister Rocha, Gomes, Patino and Dana

This week was pretty boring, but we did have one cool experience that I´ll tell you guys about!  We have an investigator, Alexandra, who I didn´t think would be progressing too much, to be honest.  She has a few things to work out, ya know?  But we challenged her to pray and talk to God about what she should do in her life, and she did.  And he answered!  She told us that she had a dream twice where the Lord told her 3 numbers: 31, 20, and 90.  She woke up and called her daughter, who is a member, and her daughter told her to look in the Livro de Mormon for the answers.  So she opened it, and lo and behold, I had marked 2 Nefi 31 for her to read, and I had written the word "batismo" right next to it! Aha!  She didn´t understand the other numbers, so her daughter told her to wait until we got there for her lesson.

When we got there, I immediately had the feeling to go to page 90 of the Livro de Mormon, which talks about all of Israel coming to the mountain of the Lord, which is the temple!  So we explained this to her and she freaked out!  Then on to page 20....which describes the Savior´s example of being baptized!  We marked the baptism that night for November 3rd:)   I was so happy!  She lives with a guy and they aren´t married, but she said "I am going to walk this path.  If he won´t walk with me, I will walk alone.'  What the faith!  That miracle carried me through for a couple of days, that´s for sure!

Other than that...this week really wasn´t super exciting.  Sister Patino and I are knocking a lotttttt of doors.  And it is very, very hot.  Every one in our ward is commenting on how we must be working so hard because I am super brown.  Yeah, they are right!  But we will work harder until we have the miracles that we want! I think I will try Dad´s goal of making 100 contacts every...week...because that is a freaking lot of contacting, Dad.  But we will try!  

I love you all so much!  Thank you thank you thank you for everything!  Have a lovely week!

Love,

Sister Dana

Look! I'm Blonde

To my Darling Family

Hey Mom!  Before I forget, yes I want to be included in the Christmas list stuff!  And I need Celia´s address pronto!  I want to send you guys stuff before it is ridiculously late!  But first I have to go shopping because there is absolutely NOTHING cool here to buy.  Believe me, I have looked.  I will have to go into Recife soon and do a shopping run there on a Pday or something, because I don´t want to send ya´ll crippitycrap, you know?  But what on earth, Cooper´s birthday is coming up!  Aw you know, I really miss him a lot!  I don´t have a cool present yet, but I´ll definitely send the best letter ever!  And on his birthday...is Leslie´s 9 month mark!  She could have a baby by now.  It is her fault that I think in terms of pregnancy, btw.  But I can´t believe that is has been almost 9 months since I have seen that woman...Wow, it goes by super fast.

Um, the Randall story....yeah, I am not even going to comment on that.  Just...oh goodness...he def hasn´t changed at all.

So this week!  Very, very crazy.  But so cool!  I´ll be honest, at the beginning of the week, I was trunky.  To the max. Because it is so dang hot, and we were just knocking doors all day with little or no success. And I don´t like to be trunky, so I was just all peeved all the time and that is so not me!  But then I was reading in Ether this week about how the brother of Jared had enough faith to see the hand of God, and I was thinking about how I need to have enough faith to see the hand of God in my work here.  So I prayed to be able to see it better and then that day we marked 2 baptisms for this weekend.  Hooray!!!!!!  Finally!  But then something even cooler happened.

We needed to get authorization for both of the baptisms, and it would really be a miracle if we could.  I was worrying and worrying about it, because I was so tired of having all of my baptisms fall through!  So then I thought some more about the brother of Jared, and how he had a problem, came up with a solution, and asked the Lord to touch his work and sanctify it.  So I did that too!  Sister Patino and I came up with a plan of how we would like the day to go.  We would go to Ingrid´s house with the elders, do her interview there, and get the authorization of her aunt.  Then we would go to Irlavan´s house (and he is NEVER at home) and by some miracle he would be there.  Then he would take us to his cousin´s house (who can sign for him to be baptized) and his cousin would sign the documents, the elders would do the interview, and we would have 2 baptisms this week. Then we prayed and asked the Lord to touch our work and really help us out.

Well, the elders came with us to Ingrid´s house, and she was at the beach.  But we didn´t know that, so we traipsed around the favelas for about an hour looking for her.  Then her neighbor told us where she was, and I was about to get discouraged, but then I thought, "No!  The Lord is helpíng us!"  So we went to Irlavan´s house, and he was there!  Elder Sá did the interview, and he was perfectly set for batismo!  And better yet, he was on his way to his cousin´s house!  So when he was there....he got the authorization!  Oh the look on his face was pretty much the best thing ever.  He was so ready for baptism...I was so happy!!  So the elder´s left for another appointment, and then we went to teach someone else.  Sister Patino had the feeling that we should go over to Ingrid´s house again...and she was there!  So we called the elders lickety split, and played dressup and makeup with her while we waited.  She is 9, by the way.  Interview and authorization...check yes!  

Yesterday we had two beautiful baptisms:)  It was so so good and really lifted my spirits!  I have such a testimony of the way that the Lord touches our lives here if we come up with solutions on our own and ask him to help us out.  He will!  Isn´t that dang cool?  Um. Yes.  

Ingrid

Sister Dana Ingrid and Sister Patino

Also, a few extra things:

Saturday was Dia das Crianças.  Basically it is like another Christmas.  Everyone parties aned they have all this musica and games in the streets for all the little kids, and I really liked it!  Dad.  You served in Brasil.  You knew that this holiday exists!  Why did we never have Dia das Crianças?!

Also, our buddy Filipe baptized Irlavan too.  Only problem is that Filipe is EXTREMELY huge, and the only jumpsuit that fit him had a broken zipper.  So I gave him some safety pins to use to fix it, thinking that he would be smart about it...yeah, a picture will be included.  

Filipe and Irlavan

Sisters with Filipe and Irlavan

Safety Pin job

I will definitely be praying for him, Mom, don´t worry.  I have actually been thinking about him a lot this week...weird.

I love love love you family!  And just fyi...it has almost been a full transfer since I got a letter from ya´ll.  Ouch...that was the sound of my heart breaking.... ;)  Have a great week and do good things!  Help the Elders!  

Love,

Sister Dana

Oh, PS.

My bispo wants to talk to dad about opening up a thing like Prolean here.  What the weird...so be looking for that friend request or something on my FB.

We may have accidentally broken the window

Hooray for Conference!

Ok, can I just say that I absolutely adore General Conference now?!  It was soooooo great this week!  Gah...definitely needed that.  I got super trunky thinking about last year at this time.  I definitely remember being with Leslie and my pal Heidi in the car on the way to the Conference Center when we heard the announcement about the age change on the radio.  We cried and cried and Les and I both knew that it was time to go and now... here we are!  One year later, I was watching Conference in a stake center in Brazil!  That is so dang cool.

So family!  Are ya´ll ready to help the missionaries??  Pretty sure that was definitely a focus this time!  Especially Elder Ballard´s talk... That was the best, and exactly right!  Please please please help the missionaries!  We need it!

This week was kind of rough. It is hot as Hades here, seriously.  Like, all the water that was in the streets is drying, and the fishies and froggies that were living in the water are dying, so that smells real nice!  I don´t really know what has happened lately, but we are having a pretty hard time getting lessons, and an even harder time getting baptisms.  Guess we had a time of feast, and now is the time of famine!  So we are knocking a lot of doors and walking a LOT.  But it is character-building stuff:)  Sister Patino is such a champ.  She never complains, ever!  And she just loves the mission and is always happy and ready to do whatever we need to....I love her!!  She was really made to be a missionary and she is learning super fast.  I reallly like to do training, because we both learn a  lot and improve our teaching and everything!

So we have this investigator, Messias.  Dad, I really think that this one is my Julieta!  He is incredible.  He loves everything about the gospel and always talks about how it will be after he is baptized and all of the stuff that he wants to do! But his only problem is that he works a ton, and still has not been able to make it to church.  We are praying really hard about that one and I know that the Lord will prepare a way for him to get there. He is so ready...after every lesson I just want to say a prayer of gratitude!

Oh, funny story.  So in between the sessions of conference, our zone had 4 baptisms!  And that was really cool!  None of them were ours, but that´s ok.  Our building is the stake center, so it was Candelária´s (us) to fill the font and get everything ready.  Welp, I did!  But then one of the bonehead elders decided that the font wasn´t full enough, so he turned the water on again...and forgot.  So during the baptism, another elder calls me over and when we get to the girl´s bathroom, which is connected to the font, it is completely full of water!  Sisters to the rescue!  All of us started cleaning up like mad and the rest of the baptism went on like normal.  We got most of it cleaned up before the actual ordinance, but then every time someone got the dop, a huge wave of water rushed in under the door and we had to clean it up all over again! Ah well, no baptism is perfect.

Baptisms from this week

Also, this week I decided that I wanted to be a true Brazilian woman and use a toca when I sleep.  It is this hideous thing that you put on your head at night and it keeps your hair straight for the next day.  Pretty sure I don´t need it, but you only get to be Brazilian once, right?  I am embracing this culture.  It´s really ugly.  Oh well.

The Toca

Welp, famdamily, it sounds like you are doing well.  My prayers are with Sue and Mundy.  That is some really hard stuff, guys!  But I know that everything will be exactly ok, because Heavenly Father knows his children!  Send me lots of pictures of Maddie´s reception...what the heck, that is so weird that she´s gonna be hitched.  But it´s cool!  I love you guys so much and I am so happy that everyone was safe from the car accident!  Have a good week and remember that you have a responsibility to share this gospel!

Love,

Sister Dana

Oi Gente!

Hey famdamily!  Good to hear that you all are doing fabulously!  I was super happy to hear that Mima is better, and I´ll be sending her a letter this week!  I can´t believe that you guys are already planning the trip to Brazil...but I guess that it is time because I only have a year left!  What the weird?!  Umm I want to go to Fortaleza and Dad´s mission and show you around here...and ya´ll can surprise me with the rest, ok??

Also all of my MTC district is here except Sister McCleve and Elder Ryan, so that is sad  But they should be coming soon I think!

This week was great!  We worked a ton....and we finally had a baptism!  It was Sister Patino´s first, and it was so dang adorable.  Thaina is 8 years old and her fam wanted us to baptize her, so we did and it was awesome!  Baptisms are not as stressful for me as they once were, which is def a good thing.  I think that Sis Patino has caught the baptism bug and is hungry for more...Hooray!

Baptism of Thaina

 We had a division on Thursday this week too, and that was super fun!  I was with Sister Menezes, a tiny little thing who is our Sister Training Leader, and she is so adorable.  She is a feisty one though, and I learned a ton! 

Sister Menezes and Sister Dana

Sister Patino is doing so well...I love her!  We love to laugh and mess around together during the day, and that makes it easier to walk around in the sun for hours and hours.  Seriously, it is so freaking hot here....but I am not complaining!  So there!

Our house is pretty silent these days.  Sometimes everyone gets super focused and serious...and to be honest, I don´t like that.  I mean, I know that we need to have our minds on the work, but I really like to mess around and laugh sometimes.  This is why I love when Leslie sends me letters, because I remember that I used to be funny!  Ha, jokes.  So this week Sister Gomes and I had a wrestling match in the living room.  And America dominated...God bless the USA.

Oh, we had another cool thing happen!  So we only had like, one investigator in church this week, which was super sad, and I was running through all the things I need to do to repent and merit people in the chapel, when this new fellow came and sat down right next to me!  I started to talk to him, and he said that he was sorry, he didn´t speak Portuguese very well, but he knows English and Spanish!  Well that is just fine in my book!  He is stoked for us to start teaching him and I am too!  I love in when Heavenly Father throws us a slow pitch sometimes...it is very nice:)

Aw family, I just love ya.  I miss ya too, but I will be home in less than a year!  What the weird.  Also, can you send me Celia´s address?  I need to mail presents home!  Ha, Merry Christmas...if it gets to ya!  I hope that you guys have a good week and that Coop and Tiago do well in football and that Dad is a good bishop and that mom enjoys all of my Pintrest.  I love youuuuu!

6 month Anniversary

This is Shelby's face when the e-mail is slow

 

Love,

Sister Dana

Heyyyy Fam!

Hey guys!  What is crackin up north?  It sounds like only football...so that´s cool.  And congrats to Ashley!  I am so very excited for her!  I sent her a letter about a month or so ago, and I hope that she got it!  I am glad that you got my letters too!  Aren´t they like Christmas??  I love letters!!!!  Also, mom, can you forward my letter to christopher.cluff@myldsmail.net too?  I always forget and the poor fellow is just dying because he misses me so much.  Jokes, but thanks!

This was my first full week of training and I am proud to say that it was absolutely crazy.  We have been trying really hard lately to get in contact with a lot of referrals that we´ve had for a while, and it is ROUGH STUFF.  Brazil does not give much importance to street names, you know.  Or at least not in this area.  So it is a finding adventure every day!  But Sister Patino is a champ!  She is so patient with me.  I love her!  

She was a little bit down this week, just because it is the second week, and that one always sucks.  So we had a really cool training about the Atonement and missionary work and watched that video again!  Ah...gets me every time.  Long story short, all of us were crying and just pumped as heck to get out there and save some souls after.  It was really cool!  

This week was our Mission Conference, and it was so good!  The Temple President and his wife came and talked to us, and they had a lot of ideas that I haven´t thought of.  Of course, by the end of the training I was feeling like a worthless piece of junk, but with a resolve to be a shining star!  Isn´t that cute?  Yeah, I think that is how leaders in Brazil roll down here...oh well, it is effective!  

We had 3 baptisms fall through this week...so that was hard.  That was really rough for Sister Patino, the poor thing!  I am kind of used to it by now, because we will just baptize them later, you know?  But it was really hard for her, so we prayed and fasted a lot about that one.  

 

I love Sister Gomes and Sister Rocha, who live with us!  They are the best and so very funny!  Sister Gomes...I call her Sister Gosma sometimes.  That means snot.  She loves to sing and learn English, so we have a lovely time singing English hymns together! It is strange to live in a house where we ONLY speak Portuguese, but my language has been improving wayyyy faster now!  Hmmm....maybe I should have tried this long ago...

 

Other than that, not much else has happened this week!  Sister Rocha and I have a resolve to be the fittest sisters in the mish, and so we will def be working on that this week!  But everything is really good, and I am so happy:) I love to hear about all of Leslie´s adventures in Sweden!  They are freakin Swede!  Ok, I had to say that one because NO ONE understands my puns here and they need to be said!  

 

I love you all so very much!  Have a lovely week and I am excited for the letters :)  Tell Cooper to get motivated...bahaha no, don´t do that.  But mom, please don´t be one of the moms that yells at the coaches.  Coop will be rejected for all of his highschool career.  Jokes, I love you!

 

Loveeee,

Sister Dana

First Week Training

Aw Mom!  That was like, the sweetest email of my life!  Thank you so much!  I love love love you too!!! Pretty much I have the BEST family in the world.  Don´t worry, everyone here fully knows how great you guys are too, because I keep pictures in my scriptures to show off.  Thanks to Aunt Amy, we all look freakin gorgeous too.  So that´s a plus.  But everyone says that I have Barbie parents. And they are right.

Well, this week!  On Monday, I got to hang out with Sister Orr and be her companion in Boa Vista!  It was so cool!  I was really happy to be with her again and we both freaked out about being trainers together and it was just as sweet as can be.  And on Tuesday, we were comps too until about 4´pm when I picked up my little baby!!  I am now the proud trainer of Sister Patino, from Columbia!  She is 22 and almost finished up with her degree in civil engineering, so I was a little bit intimidated at first!  But she really is legit and I can tell that we are going to have some lovely times together!  Also, she is from Columbia...like Shakira.  So I introduced her to all the members as Sister Shakira.  Also, in Portuguese, "patinho" means "little duck".  So I am Mama Duck and she is Little Duck and it´s fun stuff.  She is so cute--fresh out of the MTC and ready to baptize everyone!  Also, she speaks Spanish.  So we are English and Spanish speakers trying to teach each other Portuguese.  Yeah.

Mama Duck and Little Duck

But some really cool stuff has happened this week!  Ok, to be honest, our numbers sucked because the Lord saw fit to try my abilities as a trainer the first day out.  We had to go to Recife for a meeting with all of the missionaries anddddd....we got lost.  On the bus system.  Yeah we ended up wayyy far away from where we were supposed to be.  But by the guidance of the Holy Ghost, (no, really, it was all him, because I am totally lost with this thing) we got to the meeting, only an hour late!  Yeah, that was a fabulous first impression.  Ah well.  

The rest of the week was rough too, because all of our appointments fell through!  So Sister Patino got to experience the joys of knocking doors for 7 hours in the heat.  Poor thing, I´m gonna kill her before she´s out for two weeks at this rate.  BUT  the coolest thing has happened!  The gift of tongues has pretty much slapped me in the face!  Now teaching is wayyy easier than I thought it would be.  I think when the Lord needs you to say something, you just will find them hidden in your brain somewhere!  So that´s been a beautiful miracle.  

Ummm other than that....not much else has happened!  Our baptism this week fell through, but we will just baptize her this week.  And we have had some really promising people show up too, so hooray!  

OH!  I got a package from Kayla this week!  I think she sent some cookies...they must have been delicious, because the mailman ate every one of them!  So about the package, yeah, it will be much better if you send stuff with Sis Tanner or someone...please...I will send your Christmas and birthday presents to Celia´s house and maybe you can get them before next year!  Maybe!  

Ok I love love love you!  Pray for miracles, ok?  Also I love Cooper.  I hope that he does well in football this week!  And Tiago também!  And tell Dad to keep bishoping like a boss. 

Have a lovely week!

Loveee,

Sister Dana

Beautiful Beach

Too bad you can't swim there