March 11, 2013

Alrighty! One more week here in dear Pombal. It's good to be here, but mostly just because I am loving serving with Sister Alves and our district leader Elder Leite is super awesome too. It's nice to at least have the other missionaries to be friends with.

The pictures I sent this week are from last P Day. We went to the river with those two girls, they are recent converts in the branch here, Ana Beatriz and Stephanie. Do you believe that the smaller one is the aunt of the one with braids in her hair? Families here are super screwy like that. The next picture is us getting a ride on a horse drawn wagon on the way back from the river. We were walking and the guy started talking with us and Sister Alves asked which way he was going and if we could hop in. The people are super loving here so of course he gave us a ride without even thinking twice. It was probably one of the highlights of my mission so far. I don't know if the picture really does the experience justice, it was a bumpy ride so I did the best I could. In the background of the picture there is another horse-wagon that is the same as the one we were in for you to get a better understanding. We passed the man's house the other day without knowing and he ran outside to get our attention and say hi. We are going to go by another day and try to teach him. He's a super humble guy and has a super cute little boy.

The last picture is Sister Alves and I at the zone conference in Sousa. Yeah, I did my hair for the first time in a while. And that is the new dress I found for 20 reais, so like $10. Super great. I got one for 10 reais too that is less pretty, but equally as comfortable and breathes really well. The conference was super great as usual. They talked a little bit about the new Natal mission. The division is kind of confusing. The João Pessoa mission will be all the stakes in João Pessoa and Campina Grande and the District that is in Mamanguape on the outskirts of João Pessoa. The Natal mission will be all of Rio Grande do Norte and District Sousa which includes the branch here in Pombal where I am serving now. Also there will be one more District that is now part of the Fortaleza mission called Joazeira do Norte. So far I have only served in the Natal mission so I am hoping I will stay in this mission, but whatever works will be fine. President Hall said to start praying for the new mission presidents, and yes they are both Brazilian. Good thing my Portuguese is better these days so I will be able to communicate with the new pres. Also, President Hall thinks that where we go the last transfer before he leaves July 1 will determine which mission we serve in. Our mission is going to have 250 missionaries before the divide, HUGE.

The elder that was sick is doing better now, at least he says he is. Who really knows. Lots of missionaries pretend they are fine just because they want to keep serving.

 

Our zone meeting last week was the last that the senior couple will be here. They are so sweet. I already love them in just the few times we have been with them. It was our last lunch at their house after the meeting and we had lasagna-- American style. It was so good. And brownies and ice cream for dessert. Seriously, such a wonderful experience. Good food is hard to come by here in Pombal. The Subway we ate at was in Campina Grande, Sousa doesn't have such things and Pombal for sure hasn't even ever heard the name Subway. There aren't going to be any more senior couples in the mission for now though. So sad. Elder Petrie came and fixed some things in our house and we inherited some of their pots and pans. Hopefully the district still functions without Elder Petrie as the counselor. He gave a lot of trainings to try to help the leadership here because everyone basically is a recent convert and super young. 

I liked Emerson's e-mail this week, that he has a vision of one of his investigators as a future bishop. One of the trainings in our conference was about that, seeing people how they are able to become. Pres. Hall used the talk from Pres. Monson in the Priesthood Session last October. I am super excited conference is coming up again. I think I will understand a lot more this time and it will be a better experience than the last one!

We have a baptism this Saturday of a man named Francisco who is SUPER great. God totally put him in our path one day and it is such a blessing to teach someone so prepared and willing. Pray that everything goes well this week for him to be baptized!!

Love you all!

Sister Udy