December 31, 2012

Hello! Hello!!

Happy New Year!! Do you believe that it is already the end of 2012 and I have been a missionary more than 5 months already? In 2013 I will be a missionary the entire year! So crazy!!! The Following pictures are me with Sis. Matos at a cool landmark here that is basically just a giant statue of rocks.  

Following is Sis. Matos and Samara and I on Christmas, Samara is a girl in the ward that is super super super great. Seriously I want to be best friends with her forever.

Really I love everyone in this ward, they're so great. Now that my Portuguese is improving I actually am getting to know them and it is wonderful. The following picture is at a baby shower the ward threw for Fabiana. She is going to have her baby any day now and his name will be Thomas. So exciting! 

Seriously so funny when José Carlos called you right back after I ran out of time skyping with you on Christmas. He is always teasing me. He said mom's Portuguese is better than mine and that she doesn't have an accent. Congrats mom! He is so great though, always giving us food and joking around with us. Christmas Eve we had dinner with his family and yesterday too. Also, I didn't tell you about what we did on Christmas. Lilia, the wife of the bishop, had a big get together at her house with all the missionaries in Caicó and a bunch of members in the ward and we drew names to exchange gifts. It was SUPER fun. And we had a turkey dinner which was delicious because I haven't had turkey for months. Seriously, I knew I didn't hate all meat before I came to Brazil, but I couldn't remember what meat I liked because here they basically just have red meat and fried chicken. BUT now I remember, turkey meat is the best. Oh and chicken is good when it isn't on the bone still. Or when you don't go to the person's house the day before and see the chicken alive in the backyard and then show up the next day knowing you are eating the chicken that is no longer there in the yard. I am also learning to like linguiça. I think maybe it is called sausage in English, but it isn't like sausage that we have at home. It's much more delicious. I really like when people make stroganoff (don't know how to spell that) or pasta dishes though. I tried cervada yesterday for the first time. It's fake coffee, postum I think it's called. I remember mom said grandma liked it, did she pick up the liking in Brazil? Almost all the members drink it here. I didn't like it that much, but it wasn't awful. 

Oh yeah another reason José Carlos is super great, the ward designed a shirt and had it made and almost all the members have it and they had an extra that they gave to Sis. Ferreira, but I never got one and I always told him how much I wanted one, but they didn't have any left. Then on Christmas he gave me one!! I don't know where he got it from, but I am pretty sure he convinced someone else to give it up to me. What a kind man. So now I have a super cool shirt to remind me always of this ward that I love with all my heart. 

This week we have been working way hard. Seriously, everyday I just pass out on my bed from exhaustion. We started doing "contatos de fogo" where we invite people to be baptized on the first contact. It isn't very effective, but our district leader promised that it would show the Lord we are really giving all our effort to fulfill our purpose here. It's good because when we started doing this our lessons didn't fall through as much and we even had an investigator at church yesterday after a 2 week drought. We're going to keep working real hard and I am sure we'll see the blessings soon. Both of our recent converts (Raimundo and Clariza) were at church yesterday too and they are super firm and continuing to progress in the gospel. I am super happy about that. 

Sister Matos is an angel. Seriously, I am so blessed to serve with her and learn from her. We work really well together and can talk about anything together. It is good, I trust her completely and we both have the same desires and goals here so we're really united. Unlike another companionship of elders in our district who are having mega problems. I am super grateful for a good companion. We have a bunch of new sisters arriving the next few transfers though so I don't know how long I will stay with Sis. Matos. I am excited to see what happens because changes are usually really exciting, but also don't want to change because things are going really really well right now. Transfers are the 3rd week in January I think.

 José Carlos bought pizza for the 1 year anniversary of Sis. Matos in the mission.

This picture of me with Ester isn't the best, but she is adorable, my favorite baby by far.

Happy to hear everything is going well at home! Thanks for being so supportive! I love you all! Happy New Years!! I think I will be like dad and sleep through the new year... unless there are fireworks or something cool that happens in Caicó to wake me up! Talk to you in 2013!!!

Love, Sister Laurel Udy