Greetings all,

Its been another beautiful and hard week here. I loved seeing the pictures of Hannah with Dad on the tractor- so cute! I also noticed the freshly mowed grass in the background! Happy Birthday to Erik, who celebrates his Birthday on the 1st!

Yesterday the other 2 sisters in our ward had 3 baptisms - 2 boys 10 and 11 and a 9 year old girl. It was really neat and Special. But sacrament meeting was something else. Two of the moms were there, but somehow I found myself and my companion sitting with 4 of the boys and the other sisters sitting with kids as well. Anyways the bishop laughed after the meeting, but they were getting up and running to the bathroom and talking, etc.(Luckily we were sitting in the back). Our ward has normally about 100 people each Sunday and the people are great.

I have found myself talking more during lessons and lunches. Lunches are probably the hardest time, because the topics are normally varied and people often talking at the same time, which is normal, but hard to follow. But Im starting to understand more of this, and when i dont understand im starting to at least distinguish and identify this word. Learning with the Brazilian sisters is fun. This week I learned the Brasilian word for eyebrow which I can say, but I don´t remember how to write it. So if you´re really interessted you can google it. One highlight was teaching them the word muscle. The more I learn of Portuguese the more I think some English words sound really strange. I used to think it was so weird when return missionaries would come home and have a hard time readjusting to everything in English, etc. I´m starting to get an itty bitty understanding of that. Every now and then Sister Empey will forget how to say something, etc and we find it rather amusing.

This week we went into Londrina a couple of different times for medical reasons. They got the flu vaccine in, so Sister Tavares had all the new missionaries go in to get the flu shot. In the CTM I found out there had been an outbreak of flu in the area, but I have yet to see signs.

This week has been emotionally challenging as we teach and work with our investigatores. It is hard to see someone accept and acknowledge blessings from the Gospel, but not be willing to live the Gospel. We pray for them and love them and think about them always. So it is tough when you get to the point where you can´t do much more for them. People have to want to live the Gospel and find answers for themselves. My companion said this is one reason sisters serve 18 months, instead of 2 years. Our hearts can´t take more then 18 months. Which Im sure isn´t always true,

Sister Empey received Pop Rocks in her package from her mom to share with the kiddies. It has been so funny to share these with the kids here. Its like watching someone see magic for the first time. Even the sisters in our house, it has been hilarious to watch. And in turn they enjoy watching me experience new things as well. One members house we ate some reallly fun fruit with our lunch. I have no idea what the name is, but it was different, but very good.

One of the most amazing parts this week was a contact we made on the street. We were talking to an older lady and she invited us in to talk more. So we taught her the first lesson on the Restoration. It was so spiritual and I felt so much love and hope for this lady. She´s not in our area, so the other sisters will be teaching her. But it was a very neat experience. She talked about how she could feel and know we were sincere and different and feel the Spirit, etc.

Love you all!