This week was WOW.

New Hair

She thinks she looks old aka...like her mother!

So, I really don´t even know how to start with everything that went down this week.  Like really, it has been the most amazing week of my whole entire mission.  I had to write a list of all the stuff to tell you guys so that I could even remember!  Ok, here it goes.

So first off, we started out with a shopping trip last Pday.  I picked up some seriously high fashion clothes to be pimpin´ during Carnaval when we can´t leave our house after 5pm,starting on Friday.  Anyway, pictures shall be included.  Also, we had a family home evening that night with some of the girls in our ward and tried to do this game where you cut this thing made of flour....idk, it was Sister Rodrigues´s idea.  Anyway,the girls took it a little far and we ended up in a flour fight.  Pictures will also be included!

Brazilian clothes...holla

And the fight starts

We be white girls.

So.  Now I have got to tell you about this miracle that happened this week.  Really, it is a miracle and I have a newfound testimony of prayer.  Remember Maria with a son in prison from last week?  So last Sunday, we had a lesson with her that was awesome.  She totally loved the Restoration and the Spirit was super strong.  We came back on Tuesday to teach her again, and found her daughter Natecia at home all alone, very very worried.  Turns out that on Sunday after we left, Maria had a really bad stroke.  She is only like, 55!  But it paralyzed the left side of her body and she couldn´t talk or anything.  She was in the red zone in the hospital, which is where they aren´t sure if you are going to leave alive or dead.  We all couldn´t believe it, so we knelt down in prayer and asked Heavenly Father to bring Maria home safely, that He would comfort the hearts of this family, and that it would happen quickly.  Natecia was really touched, and we marked to come back and teach her again on Thursday.  When we returned, the door was open and a bunch of people were in the house surrounding our dear Maria. She made an incredible recovery and was returning home at that moment!  She was able to walk and even open the door for us! She was speaking too!  Slowly and with a lot of difficulty,but she was completely coherent. And the most amazing part--she had been asking for us ever since she had been able to talk again.  She was soooo happy that the American and Paulista had come back to see her!  She remembered EVERYTHING that we taught and knew that it was all true. We just sat there and cried. She recited the whole Joseph Smith story to us and kept asking when she could visit her church....I was seriously just blown away.  She has to go to Brasilia to undergo some treatment, but she wants the address of the church there so that she can visit and be part of it. Guys....Heavenly Father really listens when we pray.  These prayers, they aren´t just jokes.  He loves His children so much and is just waiting for us to ask for the blessings that He has waiting!!!

In other news, we did a division with Sister Seidmann!!  She has grown a ton on the mission and is really the most spiritual person that I know.  We found a woman with her that has two kids and when we blessed her house and family, she just started crying because she had prayed for Heavenly Father to send her someone last night...and we showed up asking what we could do to help.  She was at church yesterday too with her tiny little baby and 3 year old.  She walked about a mile or two in the hot sun to get there too...I was really surprised, and super grateful.  She loved it, and I can´t wait to go back and teach her tomorrow!

We also had some serious inspiration this week with one of the less-actives we have been working with.  About 2 weeks ago, we just got the feeling to pass by her house.  We did, and out of the blue I felt like we needed to teach the law of chastity.  Awkward, and we didn´t know why, but we just followed it!  So on Saturday, a million of our plans fell through and we passed by her house again and decided to go in.  She was super uncomfortable and wanted to talk to us, but not really...know what I mean?  Anyway, we pried the problem out of her and it turns out that her nasty 35 year old boyfriend (she is 18) has been pressuring her to do some baaaad stuff with him.  And he was going to visit her that night.  She was super scared because she knew that it was wrong and she didn´t want to, but she just felt like she had to.  We talked to her a longggg time about the commandments and consequences of sin and repentance, and left there feeling super nervous.  She still didn´t know what she would do that night;  We spent the whole night worrying and praying, we rushed back over as soon as we could yesterday.  She was strong!  She said no!  But then she told us that she felt like she owed it to this guy, because she said that without him, she probably would be dead.  She feels like she can´t trust anyone anymore and really can´t see the point of living anymore.  My heart broke and we taught her about individual worth and all the potential that she has.  We will continue teaching her, but it was a testimony to me of how important visits from members and friendshipping is.  This is a girl that the ward forgot...and the consequences are so so sad!  But she will be ok, because we are going to help her realize how much Christ loves her and all the potential that she has:)

On a higher note, the mission handyman came to our house and fixed everything!!!!!  We got new beds!!!!!!  And also, the washingmachine was fixed!  Annnnddd....the toilet!  Know what this means?!  NO MORE BUCKET!  But the saddest thing was that the toilet wasn´t even broken.  The guy just looked at us like we were the stupidest women in the world, reached down to the side of the toilet, and turned a nozzle.  And it started filling with water like a good little potty.  I died.  The sisters have been using the bucket for years because the others always thought it was broken!  This is what we call "wicked traditions of our fathers."

The useless bucket:)

The other bucket we used to fill up the toilet...it is the gross water from the washing machine....

Finally, today is transfers.  Sister Patino will now be in our zone, companions with Sister Butler!  This means that all of my companions are together!  How cool, right??  Also, I will ask for your prayers, because Sister Rodrigues and I have just been called to be the Sister Training Leaders, and that is a reallyyyyy hefty responsibility.  I´ll explain more when I know exactly what we have to do.

But that is about it for this week!  Love you guys to pieces, have a good one!

Love,

Sister Dana

Brazilians love coke.

He looks about big enough to be baptized...

View from the balcony

Anotha from Your Fave Sista

Hey!  The Gilbert temple is sooooo pretty!  When I come home, we are definitely doing a sesh there, ok?!  Can´t wait!  Those lucky missionaries...imagine getting to take investigators through the temple!  That would be amazing and basically an instant baptism over here.  When we are really lucky and have areas close to the temple, we can get permission to take them to visit and teach them on the grounds, especially families.  But here in Gravatá, we are pretty far away, so that is a little out of the question.  But yeah, cool cool! 

 

Congratulations to Coop for making the volleyball team!  I hope he is happy and excited!  Ahhh I want to be able to watch his games so bad..dang it.

 

So this week was Valentines Day!  My first with an excuse not to have a date...guess it comes in handy to be a sister sometimes!  But this week was a really good one. I have got to tell you a story about Sister Fortes.  So in our zone meeting on Tuesday, she gets up in front of everyone at the end and goes, "Excuse me. I would like to sing a spiritual hymn for you all before we depart.  This comes from the bottom of my heart and it is a song very special to me.  As transfers are coming, I just want you all to know how much I will miss you.  Ahem." Then she belted out in the loudest opera voice that she could, "Annnndddd I  WILL ALWAYS LOVEEE YOUUUUU!!!!!!  WILLLL ALWAYS LOVEEEE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!"  Everyone just kind of sat there in this awkwardly surprised way and then just busted up laughing.  This girl has no fear!!  Elder Woodland, our LZ, just looked at me and goes, "Sister Dana.  What is going on??"  And I just told him that this is life with Sister Fortes.  She kills me!

 

Anyway, this week we worked a lot with the members.  We met this really cool lady, Maria, (no, the other Maria) who is just crazy to go to church!  She believes everything and wants to be baptized!  Every lesson that we have with her is super spiritual.  The only problem is that she can´t go to church because Sunday mornings from 8-12 is when she visits her son in prison.  The exact time when we have church.  How do you ask someone to stop visting their son in prison so they can visit church?!  So we are praying a lot to know what to do in this situation.  We also had a really funny experience.  One of the recent-converts, Marilza, has been helping us a lot lately.  She introduced us to her aunt, Amenaide, who is like 80 years old.  I have a hard time remembering her name, so I just call her Amendoina, which means peanut.  Anyway, she and her friends all live together and love to hear our messages.  They are HILARIOUS.  It is like we are teaching the gospel to the Golden Girls.  One of her friends, Lindalva, freaked out when she found out that I am an American, and asked if I could bring over some of the American elders to teach her because they are tall, blond, and beautiful.  I was dying.  Sorry Lindalva, you´re stuck with sisters.  But the elders from before are one of the main reasons they are interested in the church, so it´s ok!

 

This week, we also had lunch with Irmao Lemos, who is really cool!  He was a translator all his life for the Apostles and prophets, so he knows a ton of stuff.  He has us bring allllll of our questions and then we just have a little Q &A there.  It´s great--I learn a ton!  He also lives in this place called Cha Grande.  Holy cow, talk about beautiful.  I forgot to take pictures, dang it!  But I definitely will the next time we go there for lunch.  It´s another must-see for sure! 

 

In other news, I finally got rid of that awful grown-out bob that was on my head and cut my hair!  Again, I forgot pictures.  So I will send some next week.  Unfortunately, I look like a mom.  Dang it.  Hopefully it will grow out pretty and I will look 20 and not 40 soon.  Good thing I´m in Brazil and no one cares!

 

This week has been super rainy, which means that everything is GREEN and so beautiful!  I am really in love with this town....if only their hearts were a little softer!  Sister Rodrigues and I are doing really well together too now.  We started doing this thing where we say each others´ prayers.  For example, she prays for you guys and all my pals on the mission and the personal stuff I am working for, and I do the same for her.  It is a way of trusting each other with our personal lives.  It has helped a ton as far as patience goes, because we really put ourselves in the other´s shoes and have developed a lot of love.  Love me some revelation during Comp Inventory.

 

Well, that is about it for this week!  Hopefully something awesome happens next week that I can tell ya´ll!  Love you so much!

 

Love,

Sister Dana

We had a Baptism! (letter from February 10th)

Us with Tarcisio!

A prettier one of us with Tarcisio

Finally.  Good grief, it´s been almost a month and nothing!  But, we got to baptize Tarcisio yesterday and it was awesome.  Actually it was a mess, but no baptism is easy.  It was scheduled for 8am....and no one showed.  Tarcisio and Humberto, the guy who baptized him, were all there and ready for the baptism, but Tarcisio´s parents and basically everyone else were still not there.  So, we had to move it until after church.  Luckily, more people showed and everything was ok!  Tarcisio is a pretty big guy though, and Humberto is teeeeeeeny, so it was a good thing that we filled the font way high!  And Tarcisio´s parents showed up, so we are going to try and start working with them.  Hopefully that all works out.

Tarcisio with his dad and cousin, Dayane

Tarcisio with Humberto, who baptized him

I was pretty bummed about the baptism during church though, and the Bishop made the mistake of asking me to give a talk in sacrament meeting right when I was about ready to chew the whole dang ward out....we waited so long for the baptism that we didn´t have time to bring any of our investigators to church!  Oh I was so ticked!  But then right as I got up there, one walked into the room with her little son!  Paula came and I was so happy!  Turns out that she knows a bunch of the members and she even dreamed about the church before, so it was all ok!  I think that this was Heavenly Father telling me to calm down and remember who is really in charge.

We had another really cool exeperience this week with Claudia.  She is a single mom of 3 kids, and the younger two live at home with her.  They are adorable, and she is being really receptive to the gospel!  We had a reallyyyyyy good lesson about the Plan of Salvation, and then at the end we left a blessing on her house.  Now I feel like I know what it is like to have the priesthood, maybe.  As sisters, we can leave blessings on people´s houses because of our calling.  As I was saying a prayer, I could feel how much Heavenly Father loves her and is so proud of her and all the efforts that she has been putting forth.  It was like God was directly telling me what to say and what He wanted her to hear!  We were all crying and it was superrrrr cool, so if ya´ll want to pray for her this week, that would be great!

I have got to tell you guys about Sister Fortes.  She is HILARIOUS.  This is her first transfer, right?  So we all make good use of that and let her cook to her heart´s content every Pday!  She is soooo funny and just bursts into our room all the time singing opera or just doing somthing....strange.,  But she is super excited about everything, which is great!  I really do adore her!  Sister Rodrigues is doing well.  We butted heads a bit this week about some teaching things, but everything is working out ok.

Thanks for the pics of Mountain View!  Tell Cooper that I am sorry his school is not as good as mine.  I still love him though.  Also, don´t put this in the letter.  I replied to Jona last week because he had a baptism and it was cool!  And also because they are moving and I am sad!  Sorry if it got you some Brazilian wrath.  I know how that goes.  Isn´t it funny how i can still tick Norma off long distance?

Love you guys so much!  I was praying for Cooper all week this week.  Good to know it went well!   Have a good one!

Love,

Sister Dana

I drank a coconut!

Us two....how loverly:)

Week...who knows at this point?

Hey famdamily!  Sounds like you guys are all doing so well!  First things first, noooooooo!!!!  The DePaulas are moving?!  No!  Who will I speak Portuguese with?!  Dadgumit, I was so excited! Tell Norma: Por favor, esperar até pelo menos setembro??  Quero muito falar contigo!  Vou sentir tanta falta de voces!

 

Ok, other than that, good luck to Cooper on his talk and volleyball tryouts!  I had no idea that he even liked volleyball...oh well, learn something new every day!  Also I am sending out a mandate to everyone that reads this email to go look at Leslie´s pictures with dark hair because my best friend is pretty much the most beautiful missionary in the world.  Without a doubt.

 

Ok, so here!  Nothing really cool happened... welll, some cool stuff I guess.  First, sadness.  Maria and Luis dropped us because they really just don´t want to get married.  I think deep down in their hearts, they know that it is super weird to marry your cousins.  But that was really hard because they are such a beautiful family!  It is rough here sometimes because NOBODY keeps commitments very well.  They are always super welcoming and willing to listen when you knock on the door, but when it comes time to get their buns to church on the Sabbath...that is where we begin to have problems.  It is super frustrating as a missionary because you have to realize that they have agency.  Dang it.  But really, we can see all the potential that they have and then when they don´t want to make a few small changes, they give up everything.  It is really heartbreaking, to be honest!  But imagine how Heavenly Father must feel....probably a million times worse.  That is when I remember that we are really not alone in this work.

 

Good news!  Tarcisio will be baptized this week!  Yay yay yay!  Whew, that one almost didn´t happen.  We had a lesson with him last week and he goes, "Maybe I don´t want to be baptized yet. "  Ummm.  Why.  "I have a few things I want to do first...."  Yikes.  Sorry buddy, that one doesn´t fly.  So we fasted and prayed with him and talked a lot about true repentance, and then he decided that the time was now and he needed to just do it!  So he gave up all the garbage and will be baptized this weekend.  Please pray that the Lord will protect him!

 

Other than that, we had an awesome zone meeting this week with President and the Assistents.  I had about 45 minutes of an interview with President Lanius because I had tons of questions!  This is what happens when you study the New Testament.  But he cleared them all up, so it was really good!  Also, the Assistents gave a great training about using the authority and power of our calling and leaving blessings on peoples´ houses.  So now what we are doing are telling them immediately that we are representatives of Christ and saying a kneeling prayer with the whole family right of the bat.  We write down the stuff that they want to ask from the Savior.  It is really, really cool.  Hopefully we start having some success with this new technique!

 

Have a wonderful week, remember that I love you!  Also, I got letters this week!  Mom, the Christmas card....next year, you should not take pictures like that.  But it was a cool idea! 

 

Love love love you!

 

Love,

Sister Dana

Carta Semanal!

That means weekly letter.  I am running out of creative titles for these things.  Welp, it is super good to hear that all of you guys are still alive and kicking!  I am too...barely.  This week was killer!  Started out with a pday from...heck.  Seriously, last week after we sent out the emails, we attacked the house of Gravatá.  Holy cow. It looked like Elders were living there.  I spent a solid 3 hours in the shower with steel wool and straight bleach.  Nasty nast!  Also there is a fun little attribute of our house where you have to use a bucket to use the bathroom and the washing machine.  That´s been pretty great.  Lies, it is disgusting.  Anyway...

We had a good week, as far as teaching goes.  Tarcisio is progressing well, and a recent convert´s brother came to church with them and wants to be baptized!  Happy to help you there, sir!  Unfortunately, we got some sad news about Luis and Maria, our lovely family.  They are not married, and have little or no desire to change that facebook status.  BUT I have faith.  And the way we found out is kind of hilarious, so I will tell that story.

We get to their house, and I am super sly about finding out if people are married or not.  So we started talking about all the stuff that you can do in the church, like dances and soccer and...marriages....And this is how it went down.

Sister Dana (S): Maria!  How was your wedding?!?  What was it like!?  I looooveee weddings....

Maria(M):  Oh, we never got married.  

(S): Ah.  Well, how did you meet Luis??

(M): We are cousins!

(S): ........Really!  Wow!

(M):  Yep, our dads are brothers!

(S): ....Oh my! Cute!

(M): Yes, we´re very lucky!  None of the kids have any defects, so that is a blessing.  Oh, just this.  Tiago, Tatie, show the sisters your feet!

 *Tiago and Tatie stick their feet on the table*

(S):Wow!  Six toes!  How fun!

(M): Yeah!  It´s so cute, right?!

(S): .....uh-huh!

And this is where we had to change the subject real fast or I would lose it.  So the moral of the story is....Uncle Tyler was wrong.  You can never ever kiss your cousins.  Because there is a reason these things are illegal.  But the best part was Elder Woodland, my ZL´s reaction when I called him to ask if we could marry them and told him the story.  He said no way, then asked his Brazilian companion, and found out that we can! So...if you ever want to marry your cousin, you can come here!

This week, Sister Rodrigues passed the 9 month mark!  We had a party and she did the whole belly thing and it was reals cute!  Then I woke up this morning and saw that they decorated the house for my 10 month mark too!  How adorable!  I really do love the girls in here.  We have a blast!

10 Months!

Oh, another story.  I was asked to play the violin this week for a Primary presentation, so I did and it was fun!  But before that, I had to do some serious work on the violin because it was in bad shape.  Then we got to the program, and they turned the A/C up so high!  It was sososo cold!  So of course I had to run out of the room every 10 minutes to keep tuning the darn thing!  But it was really good, so that is all that matters!

Today we climbed a giant mountain in our dresses and took some cool pictures, so I´ll send some of those.  Oh, I also got to go on a division with Sister Seidmann on Tuesday and be her companion for the day!  It was so great to be back with her!  That girl inspires me and is an incredible missionary.  It was even better than before because the language barrier is non-existent.  She is really one of my best friends and I want to be like her!  So glad that I got to meet her and be her companion!

Today at the top of the cruzeiro

Found Jesus!

Division with Seidmann

One last story.  So this week I was reading about charity in 1 Corinthians 13, and decided that I needed to be more charitable.  So I prayed and asked the Lord to help me out with that and give me opportunities to be charitable.  Ohhhh how He did!  That day was literally the hardest of my mission, physically speaking.  Every single muscle in my body was crying, I was hurting so bad!  And no one wanted to talk to us...it was just a rough day.  Then I got home and looked at the scripture...."Charity suffereth long...." Good grief.  Ask and ye shall receive.

Oh, one more thing.  Here, I only get letters about once a month.  Or every six weeks.  So...it stinks. But send them anyway!

Love love love you all!  Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Dana

This is what happens when I try to hammer in a nail with...a straightener.  Mission houses have no tools.

My companions!  Sister Rodrigues, Butler, and Seidmann!  Same zone!

We are Pretty:)

With Sister Butler (MTC companion)

With Sister Perez

Dearest Darlingest Momsie and Popsicle...

That is from Wicked.  I am rejoicing because I am finally living with an American who understands me up in here!  Sister Hicken is darling and from Michigan.  She likes to sing, and so do I!  And we sound pretty good together, if I do say so myself.  So we talk about stuff that is American too, which I love. And we teach English class together on Wednesdays!  So that´s fun.

I love Gravatá!  I love it a lot!  The people here are so cute...literally, this place is the Brazil version of Snowflake.  It is super clean and it´s really touristy, so all the houses are painted beautifully.  That was definitely a change from Jaboatao!  But everyone knows everyone and really...I just keep expecting to see Steve Reel popping up around a corner or something.  It is THAT similar!  So I do feel right at home!

Sister Rodrigues is wonderful!  She takes care of me well, like she does my nails and my eyebrows and we share clothes, and she is super funny.  She tries to say random things in English that make me laugh.  We are pretty much ridiculous together and it is a daily miracle that we get any work done!  But we do!

I like her!

Oh we are pretty...

Sister Rodrigues on our way to district meeting

Matching shoes and feet, gross!

Sister Hicken is training Sister Fortes, who is fresh from the MTC in Sao Paulo.  She is a crack up, because she is so smart and really witty!  But she is super stoked to be here, and she just turned 19 in October.  She´s darling from her hipster glasses to her socks with her name stitched in them.  Oh it is going to be a good transfer!  It is really weird to be the person with the most time on the mission here though!  Sister Rodrigues will hit the halfway mark this week, and I´m almost at 10...so I am finally starting to feel old!

Sister Fortes, Hicken and Rodrigues

The sisters of our house

Oh we are pretty

This week was great.  We are basically starting from the ground up with our teaching pool, so we got 21 new investigators this week.  One of them is a beautiful family with 3 kids (19, 17, 11).  They are perfect!  Their daughters both had a lesson with us before we met their parents, and the two of them said that they receive an answer that the message is true!  The family came to church with us yesterday and loved it.  They will come again, and I can´t wait to teach them the Plan of Salvation this week.  Hopefully we´ll mark them for baptism this week too!  

We also had  great lesson with Tarcisio;  He has 2 brothers that both served missions and has received the missionaries many times, but never was super interested.  As soon as we walked in his house on Saturday, I got the feeling to just ask him when he wants to be baptized and to the interview questions;  He goes, "Yeah, I´ve been wanting this for a while;  I´m going to Sao Paulo next week to watch my brother get sealed in the temple...can I get baptized when I come back?"  Yes.  Yes you can.  He was at church too and is such a cool guy!

We went over to visit a family that Sister Rodrigues and Sister Remy were starting to teach too.  Holy cow, this lesson was the bomb.  We started off thinking we would teach the Book of Mormon, but ended up teaching temples and forever families.  I told them about when my family was sealed and how I can remember it, and Sister Rodrigues told about her family being sealed too.  Everyone was crying, and it was really, really cool!  Hopefully we can help them get to church so that they can be baptized too!

I love our zone here.  Why? Because I am with Sister Seidmann!  AND Sister Butler!  It is really awesome to get to see and hang out with them every week for district meeting!  They are doing well and are beautiful as always. :)  

Welp it is super good to here from you guys!  Mom...those pictures.  I died.  Not because they are so funny, but because I have about 50 of the exact same faces on my camera and the other sisters´ cameras.  Sister Rodrigues couldn´t believe it..I think we might be related.

Good to know that everything is going well there.  Tell Cooper that I say hi and a few of my investigators want to add him on facebook after I showed them his picture.  No way José, at least not til you´re baptized, sweetheart.  And HAPPY ONE YEAR ON THE MISSION TO MY BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD SYSTER CLOUSE!!!!!!!!

Love love love you all!

Sister Dana

Just doing some laundry

Óla de Gravatá!

So! I am currently serving in Gravatá!  This is the interior of Pernambuco, and we just got here about 2 hours ago.   My new companion is Sister Rodrigues and she is adorable.  I can tell we are going to be bff´s real quick!  It was super hard to leave Sister Patino, but guess what!  She is going to train!  AND Sister Souza is going to open up Candelária 2! All of my dreams for that area are coming true...it is a good day!

Basically this was one of the best weeks ever.  We went to Olinda last Pday, and it is beautiful there!  Olinda is one of the cultural cities of Pernambuco, and it is right on the beach.  They have this super cool elevator that takes you really high and you can see out forever!  I´ll send some pictures...it was so much fun!

Sisters in Olinda

Sister Souza, Sister Dana, Sister Patino

Olinda

Olinda

Olinda

Olinda

Olinda

Shelby in Olinda

"sweet church" in Olinda

Olinda

So anyway, basically everyone knew that I was going to bail hard this week.  Brazilians...they like to go out in style.  It was party and cake and crying allllll week! Whyyyy  do they do this...but I am lying, I loved it.  This ward really is my family and I love them!  It is incredible how things are different now.  They are working a ton with us and people are just appearing that want to be baptized and it is super fun!  I know that the sisters there are going to be way busy and that is a good thing, because you know...everyone needs to be baptized!

Familia Bonfin

Last day at the Candelaria ward

I have GOT to tell you guys what happened with Mariangela this week.  She is amazing.  Mariangela is a psychologist that Georges introduced to us and she has a daughter with Down´s Syndrome who is basically the sweetest little thing in the world!  Anyway, Mariangela is incredibly intelligent.  We met her about 3 weeks ago, and she was baptized this week.  Why?  Because the gospel is logical. It makes sense!  And she just knew that it was true!  Oh she is so cool though.  She knows how to analyze handwriting, right??  So of course we all brought stuff for her to analyze.  It was sweet!  She said that I am a leader but impatient, that I don´t like to change my mind, but that my spirituality is really well developed and I was nervous about something that would happen soon (transfers....) Cool, right??!  It is like having a psychic that we are allowed to believe in.  anyway, we baptized her yesterday and it was soooo special.  The WHOLE ENTIRE WARD was there!  Really, when I think of how different things were for my first baptism here...this place has changed a lot.  They had a cake and I played Sister Souza´s violin (haven´t lost anything yet! Miracle..) and it was so so perfect!  Then at the end, Cinthia and Felipe and all the other youth brought out this cake that said my name on it and everything....good grief, I have never felt so much love in my whole life!  I know that this church is true, if only by the love that people have for each other in that ward!  Oh it was so hard to say goodbye!  Transfers are terrible....seriously.

Shelby with Mariangela

Mariangele and Sofia

Shelby with Mariangelina

Mariangela's Baptism

It was way rough to say goodbye to Messias and Fatima and her family, all the people that I love so much and had the privilege to help find the gospel.  Oh how I hope that they will stay strong!  I know that sister  Patino will be incredible there though.  she is a wonderful example to me and I was able to learn so much from her.  She is patient and humble and really dedicated to the work.  That is exactly what the ward needs!

Saying Goodbye

Saying Goodbye

Sad Sisters

Thank you so much for the letters!  It is great to know that everyone is doing so well!  Also, guess what I got this week!  A Christmas package from Leslie from Sweden!!!!!  Do I have the best bestest friend in the world or what?!  Seriously....

Anyways, have a great week and HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA FLAKE!  Say your prayers and read your scriptures!

Love,

Sister Dana

Candelaria ZL's Elder Baldwin and Elder Maia

Sister Dana and Sister Martins

Zone Conference

I love Brazil!