December 16, 2013

Hello hello.

So the pictures I'm sending this week are lame, but that's what happens when I don't have a camera and have to depend on others to document my life. I'm planning on investing in a super fancy iPhone 5 when I get home that will be a phone and camera all in one. It started as a joke because the iPhone 5 is all the rage here and compared to Brazil it's super cheap in the US, but now we've joked about it enough that I really want one. Anyways, the pictures are of P Day and another day when we were letting our food digest after lunch and another of me with 2 of my favorite young men in the ward (Guilherme and Alison). 

As for the recovery of my stolen goods. I got my hymnal and bag and other papers and things back. Oh and the keys to the church and our apartment, thank goodness. My camera is lost and gone forever as well as my pendrive with all the photos I've taken here in Natal. With the exception of the ones I sent home to you. Thank goodness I've sent all the best ones. I was real sad about it, but I decided to move on. I've been coping by using an eternal perspective of "when I die I won't have these things anyways so obviously they aren't that important now either." It is still sad though. I can't believe Chad's mission is going to get iPad's and iPhones. Unreal. I don't think that will happen in Brazil for a long time. Just imagine how much more the missionaries would get robbed carrying an iPad around. 

I'm enjoying my last months here. Less than a month left as of yesterday. I'm not counting down the days though. Unfortunately I won't go to the temple before I come home. I'm really sad about it. In João Pessoa they go to the temple because it's easier to get flights from Recife, but the airport in Natal is bigger and better so we just go straight from here. Oh well, just one more reason to come back to Brazil and visit the temples here. Fortaleza will have one soon too. 

Christmas here is pretty big I guess. The city has a lot of lights and things. I think there will be fireworks, at least I hope there will be. From our house we probably can't see them though, but I think we're going to the bishop's house on Christmas Eve and he's going to call the mission president to get permission for us to stay out later. 

 

We have our ward Christmas party this week and also a ward activity to go Christmas caroling and do contacts with the members to get more people to teach. Our teaching group is pretty small right now. We had a man, Paulo, at church yesterday. He's from Fortaleza here working on building the stadium for the world cup. He's a really good guy, always visiting churches and he liked ours a lot yesterday. It was a regional conference broadcast from Salt Lake. Really good stuff. We got there when it was half over because the buses were slow, but what I heard was all about member missionary work. Hopefully more members will start to get the idea since every conference is talking about it for over a year. 

Things are good here though. I'm trying to make the most of everyday I have here. 

Love you tons!

Until next week!

Sister Udy