Hello! Hello!
Sorry I am e-mailing a couple days late again. We had another surprise trip to João Pessoa to renew Sis. Salazar's visa. We left Sunday after church for an 8 hour bus ride, had a sleepover with Sister East and Sister Johnson in Cabadelo (love both of them, it was super super fun) and then renewed her visa bright and early, caught the bus and got back to Pombal about 8:00 Monday night. It was a long, long day. Sort of rough though because we had to sacrifice our P Day to ride on the bus and I was feeling pretty car sick a lot of the time so it was miserable. I didn't actually get sick though. The pay off was that we got letters in João Pessoa! Thanks for not forgetting me here in Brazil, what a relief that I had a solid group waiting. Some that took 2 months to get here and some that took 2 weeks. The mail doesn't really have any consistency. Another pay off about the trip is that I saw the ocean!!! It is so beautiful there in Cabadelo. I want to serve somewhere beautiful someday. For now I am loving the sertão (wilderness) though. We didn't actually go on the beach, but I saw it from the window of the bus. Fun fact about our little sleepover was that all 4 of us have the middle name Ann. Oh and we're all American which was great. I am realizing how cut off I was in Caicó from anything American. I have spoken so much English the past week and it is wonderful. I still love Portuguese though and I am trying to be better about using it all the time again, but it is just such a treat to speak English sometimes.
I pictures are of our little slumber party and the scorpion we found when we were visiting them. Thank goodness I didn't find that little monster in my own house or I would not have been happy.
So let me just tell you about Pombal. My first week was great. It is small here, but I really like it. We only had 34 people in our branch on Sunday, about 20 were adults. I got invited to give a short testimony, what a treat. The missionaries teach Gospel Principles here so my turn is coming up in a couple weeks. I have a lot of hope about this city though because the church has only been here like 2 years so there are a lot of people waiting for us to teach them I am sure of it. We are going to find them way soon and baptize them. Elder Petrie (the senior missionary that is in the district presidency here with his wife) came to our branch and gave a talk that was super inspiring about how when he served in São Paulo 50 years ago there was a little branch that basically only had his companion and him. Now that area has 3 stakes though so I am sure that when I am a senior citizen Pombal will have grown a lot too. It is way cool to be here in an area that the church is super new and has so much potential to grow. We are going to start working in a different neighborhood this week with people who are more rich and educated because they will be the future leaders of this branch here.
So Pombal is pretty ghetto. You don't need to be worried because I am not an idiot and I have extra protection as a missionary, but wow. The other day we arrived at a member's house and they said their dog got murdered in the night, along with 5 others in the neighborhood. And dogs aren't the only things getting murdered in this city... but like I said you don't need to get worried. Just keep praying regular. The food here is good, but I miss Caicó because the food there was GREAT. Today the elders made some lunch for us though and it was soooo good. They made cheeseburgers with homemade BBQ sauce and brownies that Elder James got in a package from his family and chips and passion fruit juice. We ate on the roof of their apartment, it was great. I will send some pictures next week. Our district here in Pombal is a riot. I am loving it so much. It is just us 4 so we're already great friends. I like working in a small group because we make more specific plans and goals to help the branch.
I read Emerson's e-mail and I'm so jealous that he got to go to the temple. Lucky boy. I can't believe his baptism died. Seriously, so crazy. What a weird experience. At least she accepted the gospel just in time though. Now she can be on the other side touching the hearts of the people he teaches though. He is such a good missionary, I love reading his e-mails. Seriously what a blessing to be serving at the same time as him, I'm such a proud big sister.
My time is up! Love you! Bye!
Sister Udy
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