July 21, 2014

So this week was really great! It didn´t go at all how we planned it, but exactly as the Lord wanted it to go. Somehow in the midst of our travels, we were able to still work a lot in our area. But the members are helping a lot and we have a lot of new ideas to help them understand how they are missionaries and help share the gospel.

YES. The time is flying by so super fast. July 31st is around the corner. 1 year on the mission, the day of transfers. We will see if I stay here again or not. My companion will be going home next transfer, so she´ll probably stay in this area, I could stay with her too. I don´t know what will happen. 

Sunday I had a great suprise!! Halfway through Sacrament meeting a yound women walked in. I about screamed I was so happy! She was a member of our branch in Parintins, she was here in Manaus visiting family and decided to come visit me at church! It was so good to see her again. I really do miss Parintins. I think that has to have been my favorite area by far.

Before it I will be at home in your loving arms again!  I wrote Bruce today. I told him that I would really like to see and spend some time with him and the family after the mission. I also thanked him for helping out with school. I really do love your family mom. I have some of the best childhood memories with them. They have taught me so much! They really are a great example.

As for bringing home parasites, I hope that I don´t bring any. But, who knows? I remember how Remmi loved those shows! Maybe I will be one of those real life examples... :P

Ryan does have a good point to make. We just eat a whole lot more on the mission than we did before. We don´t have a choice to be lazy because mom won´t make us food. Here they make us food when we don´t even want it. lol. 

You guys are growing up so much.. I wont recognize you when I get home. But then again, you wont probably recognize me either I´ll be so tan.

This week, we hope to set a few more baptismal dates. Some of the Elders made a dvd for us with some mormon messages. We sat down and watched them for awhile with an investigator of ours. She is really stubborn, but just watching these movies she felt the spirit so strongly and started asking about baptism. Which was a miracle, because when we try to talk about baptism she just shuts down completely. Then while we were walking home (gosh, just thinking about how much we walk makes me tired) another miracle happened. This car pulled off to the side of the road and rolled down the window. We were fully expecting it to be some weird guy asking us if we wanted a ride again, but this time was different. It was one of my old investigators that I had in Gloria. The week we were transfered was supposed to be his baptism. It never happened. He was a perfect investigator! I asked him if he had been to church, and he said that he went one time, I asked him if he would go sunday. I hope he went. He took down our number. So I am hoping that he calls so that we can teach him and get him baptized. 

Well anyways, I love you guys!!! Before you know it we will be home laughing  and having so much fun. My companion always laughs at how blong I am. I am not that blond when I speak portuguese, but I am still the same dumb old me. lol. It gives us lots of reasons to laugh. :) 

Ciao, 

Sister Chatwin

July 14, 2014

I am so excited that youth conference will be in Nauvoo. We were watching some of the church history movies, and I really just love all of the learning experiences the saints had in Nauvoo. :) It really is a wonderful place!

Sterling driving? I hope he has improved a lot since that time he drove me around the parking lot in the jeep... Maybe he can drive me home from the airport in 6 months. That´s how it was when Warren got home from his mission, I got to drive him somewhere because I hadnt been driving before he left for his mission.

I bet mom and Remmi just had the time of their lives. I always loved my adventures with mom. :) She is a good travel buddy.

Send some rain our way! Once again it is summer time here, and it´s the worst. The sun can be so stinking hot. Like it is super super super hot during the summers here. It really stinks walking outside all day in this heat.

So this week we got to do some divisions. I feel like I spent more time on the bus than I did walking around on my feet. One of the sisters had to go to the hospital to pick up her x-rays and then talk about the results. Her area was so super far from the hospital. When we finally got back, I never wanted to step foot on a bus again. The bus we took was packed full of people, like sardines in a can. Sweaty gross people. Think about crowd surfing, and then doing that in a bus. Trying to get through the center aisle was death. Everytime someone moved I got squished and I only had one hand to try and hold on and not fall on the man that was sitting on the step beside me. I covered my arm in germ-x after we got off because of all the sweaty people that we squished against me. I am so glad that we have cars, and that the mass transportation is not by bus in the states.

The other area where we did divisions if full of hills. Not tame lame sauce hills,but calf killing hills. My legs were sore the next morning. There is a hill in our area that is huge and we call it death hill, but after visiting santa marta, death hill is tiny. In santa marta there is a hill where they had to cut of the top and re-level it, because the cars couldn't make it to the top. 

Our baptism this week fell through. His mom didn´t let him be baptized. It was really sad and we tried to do everything. This little boy was so excited, the only problem is that the mom is not letting him right now. We even brought our amazing ward mission leader, who still teaches like he is a missionary and we couldnt get the form signed. His mom just didnt want to come out of her room and talk to us.  We are going to be creative in trying to talk to her this week and see if we can´t help her understand a little more about the gospel. 

I am loving my mission and the things that I am learning. I love teaching the gospel, to the members and investigators. I love giving talks in church and sharing my testimony every fast sunday. I love playing the piano, conductiong, helping out in classes and what ever I am asked to do. I love being here in Brasil! 

Love you all! 

Sister Chatwin 

July 7, 2014

First of all, loved all of the pictures that you guys sent! Estou com muito saudades de suas adventuras. Mas tudo bom, sei que vamos ter bastante quando volta.

Looking at the family reunion, I felt like there were people there that I dont even know. It has been such a long time that everyone is growing up and I dont recognize them anymore. Especially my brothers. Eles são gato. :) Cuidado com as meninas gente!

That car [parade Jeep] is amazing. I feel like it could be moms car.

Soo you might have gotten a picture from Manuel again. We saw him at the temple and took a picture together. Out of the blue we decided to dye our hair last p-day. It was meant to only have the tips dyed blonde, but I guess the lady doing my hair changed her mind about that and put a lot more blond in my hair. Dont worry though, it looks good... Just that in the picture youll see from Manuel,, well that was a bad hair day. My hair was super dry and it looked like Hermoines, but I didnt really care because we were just going to the temple. I promise it looks a lot better when I straighten it. I actually have a picture of it, but my camera has a virus so I cant send any pictures until I find someone to take it off. 

So there is this family that I just adore here. Mainly because the two little boys are super rowdy and their mom is always yelling at them to settle home. Saudades, kkk. Anyways I just adore their son Lucas. Everytime we go to there house he yells, OÌ SISTER CHATA! Its so great. This sunday I was conducting again and I saw his dad tell him to go up and bear his testimony. He went up to the front and back to where he was sitting three times before he finally stayed and sat down. When it was his turn he just stood there and breathed into the microphone and started to shrug his shoulders. He mumbled something along the lines of.. I dont even know why I go to church! Then he said something about baptism, and ran back to his seat. No one could hold it in, we were all laughing! I just love little kids. :)

This last week was super busy. We had a bunch of meetings in Alvorada and we also went to the temple. So we hardly stayed in our area. This week and next we are going to doing divisions with the sisters that we take care of, so we will be doing some traveling. Our ward is great and they are going to help take care of our investigators. 

Anyways, things are going great here. I really love serving a mission, and my time here is running out. But 6 months is still a long time. :) I was talking this week with a young woman who was debating serving a mission because she didnt want to be far away from her family. I told her that you have to be far away from your family to serve a mission. Because you find parts of your family in the members and people you teach. That is what makes you love doing missionary work. 

I got a letter from Brother Halsey this week. I always like getting his letters! There is not a post office in my area, so I cant respond to any of them yet. 

I know i´m getting fat, but its not my fault I promise. These members, its like you dont have a choice! At lunches you have to eat until they are content. There are some Irmas, that want you to eat everything they make. They also have desserts at almost every meal. They seem to only drink soda. And there is always someone giving you snacks after lessons or having you come to dinner. They also get sad, de verdade, if you dont eat a lot. Every activity has food. All we do is eat. It´s just part of the culture with the missionaries They always say, COME MAIS SISTER. Its kind of funny actually. We were doing visits with an irmao, and when we were offered food, he just said that he didnt want any and the irma shrugged it off. We were kind of jealous, she even gave us the rest of the cookies walking out the door. I really do love brasil.

Anyways I love you guys a lot! :) :) I hope that you have a great week!

ENJOY THE SUMMER. 

Sister Chatwin