Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Update Week of 1/27/14

Hi Lovely Family, 

OH BOY. That kid never gives up does he. (Sterling tried to sell his sister to a Return Missionary she grew up with) At least that is a good quality for him to have, never giving up. Gotta love my brothers!
I bet Ryan is having a blast in the CTM! We have a boy in our ward who will be reporting to the CTM in 9 days. He was asking me all kinds of questions today. P-day was fun. Our district had a group p-day and we met in the Elders chapel and played that game Warren and Ivy have where you have to buy your bricks and wood to make a settlement, bridges etc.. It was fun. Then we played the game with the UNO cards where each color is a different action. Sister Larson and I started a game night at the chapel every tuesday, we invite the youth in our ward and this week they should be inviting some of their non member friends to come and play with us. It is a fun way to get them to church and meet the missonaries. We will hopefully find new people to teach this way. 

I got to eat at a yummy cool restaurant saturday. It was like a farm. They had turkeys running around the lawn and also guinea pigs, and some cows that you could pet. Anyways we ate on a deck on a lake. The fish were all swimming near the surface and it was fun to see them jump and fight as we threw in the fish food. Yup. I will try and send pictures someday. I filled up my first sd card, and am using the second one now. 

Creepers... You reminded me of one last week. It was another old man who stopped to talk to us. My companion is allergic to mosquitoes and everone asks her about all the awful bites she has. When he found out that she was allergic he kissed her hand to make it all better.. I think he might of been a little drunk... anyways he kept telling us how pretty we were. After he kissed her hand he looked at me and then was trying to go in for a kiss.. Sister Larson threw her hand in front of his face and I put my hand on his chest to keep him from coming any closer. Then I proudly told him that I was not allergic to mosquitoes. When we were walking away it was all we could do but laugh. We have the greatest luck when it comes to drunks here. They make some really funny stories.

Sounds like your teen training was a lot of fun. A LOT OF FUN. I am glad that everything went well and that Remmi is your little buddy. But you better watch out, because when he gets bored he can get annoying! :) :) 

I am glad that all is well with you, and most of all that all of the Primary kids love daddy! He is perfect for the job. 

Good luck to Sterling at his tryouts, and trying to sell me to boys while I am far away here in Brazil. I will think of a good way to pay him back when I come home. Just know that we are going to have some fun times... but that will of course come after I remember how to talk in English until then.

I hope Ryans studies are going well! His p-day in the CTM is probably later in the week, wednesday or Friday. 

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! :) :D :)
-Sister Chatwin

Monday, January 20, 2014

A New Adventure Begins!

NOOO! Those pictures were heart touching! :) 

I am so glad that Ryan is going out! It will be fun to hear from him :) 

My new companion is good. She has only been in Brazil for 1 month, so she really doesnt understand a whole lot of portuguese, but she trys crazy hard to talk to people. We stay busy all day every day here. She is a little stressed out, because she doesnt understand a lot and so that is having an effect on her, but she is great and we have a lot of fun together. Church was stressful, being as I didnt know anyone or where the classes were and my companion doesnt really know anyone either. We had an investigator show up to church, but he left because we were just standing outside the chapel with a member when the meetings had actually started, but I just didnt know who or where to take him to. He came back though for Sacrament meeting (our last meeting), but left halfway through... He is a journalist and might just be interested in making another story, but he said that we could come to his house and teach him the lessons. So we will see. We met him while we were talking to some other investigators. He took our picture and said he would put it on his website.  www.informerevista.com

Sterling looks good, and I am sure he sounded good too.

Sad that moms jeep is not the same, but I am glad that it is working better.

Honestly I dont know who my district is, last Tuesday Sister Larson was trying to open the chapel and she broke the key inside of the door. So all the districts that meet at our chapel all just had one big meeting outside in the back of the chapel. That was probably my funniest experience. My old district leader is in the same zone as I am, so that is something I am looking forward too. We both got here at the same time.  My friend Sister Morales is also in our zone, so I am super excited for zone conference when I will finally get to see her and talk to her.

Tell Tereza I say HI!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome home Super Stratty!!! Tell him hi for me when you see him! I bet Sister Alhborn is so super excited!

Well, mom that is Ryan for you! :) I am sure he will change a lot on his mission and not want half the stuff he has. You just have good luck with your kids and messy rooms. and packing on the last day. Sorry for the stress we put you through!

THAT IS GREAT NEWS ABOUT WARREN! 

I will have to write him a letter snail mail! I need to write Jerry and Rae-Ann too... I am going to make time this week to write letters. Sister Larson keeps us so busy that we dont have time for those things, which is good, but I miss writing letters!  

MY BROTHERS ARE THE SMARTEST! :) I REALLY DO LOVE THEM.

Well that is all I have time for, we might get on a little later today, if we do I will email and tell you more about my week! 

Love you lots!
Sister Chatwin

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

New Beginnings!

Hi guys! 

Love you so much! So let me tell you about my week.


So saturday the ward secretary called us and asked to speak to me.  He asked is the Bishop had told me that I would be speaking tomorrow in church. I said no, and he told me that I would be the second speaker and that I would have ten minutes to speak. After that we went home so I could prepare and study for my talk. We had two more sisters living with us at the time, because their house got robbed. So later that night we walked to their chapel so we could pick them us and show them the way home so they would know how to walk to their chapel in the morning. As we were leaving that night we had a drunk guy start following us and talking to the four of us. Usually after awhile they stop and leave you alone, but we just couldnt shake this one off. We gave him about every excuse we could think of to try and get him to leave us, but he was just really determined because he wanted to see where we lived. So when we got back into our part of town, we luckily crossed the street before he could and then started to walk really fast to get some distance in between us. He was still following us, but we were able to lose him and get into our house before he found us. It was funny because at church yesterday a member said that she saw us and that he just wasnt going to stop following us. She thought is was funny because we were practically running. We werent to worried about it, but one of the sisters whose house was just robbed was a little more strung up than usual. If we werent able to have lost him we would have gone to another members house.  But the Lord is always watching out for us. 

Sunday morning the Elders called right before church and told me that I was being transfered to Porto Velho and that I would be leaving that night. That was the most stressful part. So we went to church and then our lunch for that day quickly drove us to their house to eat and then drove us back to the church. I had about three hours to pack, then we went to the office, picked up my passport and then waited for our district leader to get to the office. He got transfered to Porto Velho too (we are in the same zone) so the couple that drove him and his companion gave me a ride to the airport. It was a regular plane ride,a  small plane, but none the less it was a regular plane that you find in the airport. I was the only sister from Manaus that was being transfered, so it was just me and a whole bunch of elders. It was a lot of fun! The plane ride was about two hours long. The elder I sat by was afraid of flying. So I talked to him the whole time, and he practiced using his English. The elder that sat behind me let me see his pokemon cards and told me about the pokemon game he was designing. When we got to Porto Velho is was fun because Presidente Klein was there and he waved to us all as we walked by the glass doors outside. I dont know what he was doing there, but he was. So we got home, slept for a few hours and then got up at four to take Sister Larsons old companion to the airport. :) My body is sore from carrying my bags, and the stress travel brings, and from sleeping on the floor, but let the good times roll. 

So my new companion is Sister Larson. She has eight months on her mission already, but last transfer was her first in Brazil. Her last companion knew English and so she didnt get to speak portuguese as much as she wanted. I remember what she feels like, so I will be helping her learn portuguese. I guess it is a blessing in disguise that my last companion Sister Rocha really only spoke English with me. If she hadnt I wouldnt be able to explain these things in english to Sister Larson to help her learn portuguese. I am excited to be here, it is really pretty. It is deffinietly not as hot as it is in Manaus, but the sun is a lot stronger and there are a ton of mosquitoes.   

Speaking of the sun, This last tuesday another blue nevus showed up on my left leg. Remember that blue freckle that I have on my arm, well I know have one on my leg too. I dont know if I need to do anything about is, but I know that I will be better about wearing sunscreen here. The sun is closer here, so it is a lot stronger. 

Anyways that was my week so I will be working to learn a new area and loving more people!! I am super excited for the adventures ahead, sepecially because my comp has only been here one transfer and doesnt remember exactly how to get everywhere.  

It is such a crazy thought that Ryan is going to be leaving so soon! I am super excited for him! I am glad that you guys had fun learning from reading everyones patriarchal blessings. It sounds like things are going well for you guys and that you and mom get to teach primary together. It sounds like it is a blast!

Teasing Sterling as usual, keep it up. :) LOL Good luck with all of your competitions!

As for that man who died, the name doesnt ring a bell, but I will definitely pray for his family.

So at that family home evening we had last week our member invited a really cool person that I think Sterling and Remmington would have loved to meet. So these members are really nerdy and the guy they invited is in charge of translating all of the pokemon cards for Brazil or maybe just Manaus, but he was showing me all of his pictures of all of the replicas of the pokemon badges that he has and he told us that he also has one of the rarest cards. He will be going to washington in a little bit to be a judge in the mundial pokemon championship. He showed me the pictures of his special jude clothes too. He was really neat and said that he would give me and my companion a deck, but I got transfered...When my comp gets them she will leave one at the office for me. To thank him we had a member print out a coloring page of pokemon and colored it for him.

Yup, that is my week. I love you all! Thank you for all of the service that you do!!

Ciao, Sister Chatwin 

*I would still like to hear from Paul Davis, and you should also tell Sarah Hatch to email me too! 
I got Bryce Burks letter, you should tell him thank you for it on Facebook. 

Did Ryans friend from work come to church to hear him speak(question mark) 

Monday, January 6, 2014

My Daughter

Yay! I love you all so much! You can have Remmi read it. :) That sounds like a fun activity, you'll have to share some of the comments with me! :) Sorry about emailing late today!!!!!!!!! We got up this morning and then internet place was closed, then we went to centro again. I bought you a cool necklace and earrings from a hippie. I also bought a shirt and a nightgown. Thank Heather again for the money. :)

I love that you are all reading your scriptures, it is not something easy to do until it is a habit. Transfers are next week on the 12th, we will see what will happen. As always everyone is excited and curious because presidente has already decided what will happen. We just have to be paitent and wait. 

So quick recap, Creole is actually pretty easy, it is just remembering how to pronounce the words. So our Haitians didnt come to church this sunday, and our baptism that we had set fell through. But all is good, we hope to have a family home evening tonight with them at a members house.... its going to start soon so I will continue to write quickly.

I JUST LOVE YOU ALL! I dont have enough words to day how greatful I am for you!

-One thing you can share tonight is that I love the fact that every mission seems to be specific to life lessons that each missionary will need to learn. I was reading my patriarchal blessing the other night and it seems that my kids will be stinkers. People in this mission dont really keep rules, so it is a lesson that I am learning well now. I do love my mission and I am always learning and having fun. Dont get me wrong, it can be really tough sometimes, but it is just a time for you to grow. I was listening to a talk the other night and I really liked what this person said, Sometimes God takes you places where only He can help. 

I am glad that Ryans friend is going to be at church on sunday. The members friendship makes all the difference in finding investigators!! 

I am glad that your gas bill will be lower soon, and I'm also glad that you got the van fixing again. Could you send a picture of it to me, and also a picture of that fish hook in your hand? I got a daily agenda from a secret santa, and I have decided to turn it into a daily scrapbook where I glue or write something that happend that day. It is going well so far, so if you have any fun pictures send them and I will print them off. By the end of the year it will almost be time for me to come home! I really hope you all can come visit here, we would have so many fun things to do.  

New Years we spent with the Haitians and at midnight we went to the church parking lot with Tereza and watched all of the fireworks. It was fun.
Well I better look at my other e-mails. 

LOVE YOU LOTS AND STAY WARM!

Ciao, 
Sister Chatwin

Thursday, January 2, 2014

So Fun To See You!!!



It was so fun talking to you all! I really loved it so much. :) My mission is good and I wouldnt have it any other way! 

I think that it is crazy that Ryan is leaving so soon! I keep seeing David, that other Elder that is going to the same mission. He is so excited and I think that it is so neat that someone Ryan only knows as a picture on Facebook is someone that I shake hands with. Its crazy. Did he like the temple? I am so proud of that kid!!

Thanks for the coloring book! It is such a great present. :) :) Actually the skirt doesnt fit, it  thought it would, but it doesnt. I think it is because the members make us eat so much. Just like at home they always say, come mais sister.. It happens in every house. Part of it is the Elders fault. They eat a ton. 

Our zone made t shirts. They are really cool. Those pictures you got of the 20 year anniversary were ones irmao manuel took on his phone. As we were leaving that activity we had an interesting experience. I was carrying this huge piece of cake in my hand that Irma Tareza gave us to take home, we were just walking out the front gate when a women passed by and said the following, Hi friends! Is that cake good? It looks good; I'll try it. So she grabbed the fork in the middle of the cake and then took a bite and put the fork back. She then proceeded to walk away and then asked what time church started and said that she would come. We told her that we would wait for her, but she didnt end up coming. 

I got to hold a really big praying mantis at lunch yesterday. I didnt have my camera though, so we are going to go back later and take a picture. 

So sunday was really neat! Sister Rocha and I arrived at church about 20 minutes early and three men from Haiti showed up in the chapel. They only spook french though. They have only been in Manaus for about a week. So Sister Rocha and I had two Book of Mormons in french so we had them sit down in the chapel and then literaly ran to our house to get them! We got back right when sacrament meeting was starting and gave them to them. We then called our recent convert Anderson, he is from Haiti also, so he speaks french. We knew that he was working, but the sister and I were so excited to have three haitianos in our ward that we didnt care. :) He talked to them and set up a time for us to teach them while he translates later today.  We really are super excited and SIster Rocha and I have decided that we want to learn a little bit of Creole so we can teach all of the Haitianos in our area. 

I'll have to start trying the smile notes. We will see how it works. 

Love you all so much! Y'all are growing up so fast (the boys anyways).  

Happy New Year!!! 

I LOVE YOU! :)

Sister Chatwin
p.s. I'm still waiting for Heather's box to arrive. :) Oh and I am going to by more hippie earrings when I can for you!