November 24, 2014

Hi Dad!

I sure do love you all a lot! :)

I would love to have a late christmas with all of you when I get home. :) It will be a lot of fun!

So our big family home evening this week was a sucess! So many people came, and they even brought less actives! :)

Our lunch yesterday was super yummy. Brazilian style pancakes. Then for dessert we had the best açai ever!!

I am having the time of my life working in this ward. It is so much fun! I am really going to miss it here.

Lots of things happened this week. I started a piano class for two little girls in the ward. I am the pianist for ward choir now. They are going to sing for our ward conferance.

We had interviews, and conference with President Castro this week. Elder Aidukatis of the seventy also came to give a training. It was a lot of fun. Sister Marinho and I called all of the sisters to have them bring or borrow a pair of heels to wear at conference. We wanted to make Sister Castro really happy. She is always talking about how the sisters need to make an effort to be pretty and dress out best for conferance. She was so happy that she made us do a fashion walk and recorded it on her phone. Sister Marinho thinks she might have put it on the mission facebook page.

We learned a lot about planning and about how we need to do a better job.

My companion goes home in two weeks. YAY. It is fun talking about all the things we have forgotten about. Poor thing. She doesnt want to leave. She only spent the last 5 months of her mission in Brasil. Other than that she spent it all in the states waiting for her visa.

Funny story of the week. After lunch we walked out to see that the chickens left poop and pee in her shoes. I sent the pictures to you in another email. I couldnt stop laughing it was sooo funny. She was mad, so I took the advantage to record a video on my camera of her reaction. lol.

I sure do love you all a lot! I am excited to share all of my stories with you soon!

 Sister Chatwin

Pics: Conference with President, Sister Marinho and I planned for every Sister to come wearing heels. It made President´s wife super happy! The other one I think is me showing how I think chickens could be related to dinosaurs.

During lunch the chickens pooped in my companions shoes.

It was super funny. I got a really funny video of her reaction. We were laughing for a long time.  Also , I decided chickens are related to dinosaurs. I was listening to  a rooster crow the other day, and thought it sounded more like a t-rex than a chicken.

A butterfly that has outer space painted on its wings. ZOOM IN!  
My mad butterfly catching skills.

November 17, 2014

Sounds like you all had a blast at Indy. :) I really enjoy seeing all of your pictures! I am super excited to see you all again. 

This week was really good. And it was really hot! First of all we set a goal as a district to find 75 new investigators this week. Sister Escobar and I were able to get 13. That is a record for us. Normally we get 5 or 6 a week without trying. I really enjoyed having this goal and trying to look more earnestly for people to teach. 

One of my favorite investigators right now is Michel. He is one of the young women´s boyfriend. She comes to every lesson with us. They read their scriptures together and she always answers all of his questions before our next lesson. I love that when we teach him he is completely honest if he has doubts or questions. He answers questions when we ask them... and basically he is just perfect! Normally we spend a lot of our time teaching the poorer people, but by far I love teaching the educated people. They aren´t afraid to hide what they think. It is so much nicer. We have some wealthier areas in our area, and I want to start proselyting in those areas. We may not be recieved to well, but we will find someone who is ready. 

Today for p-day we got up early to go walk the trails in the forest at the college. We went with our neighboors less active husband. Unfortunately today is a holiday, so their were armed guards at the entrance that said it would be better to come another week. Lots of people like to do drugs and bad things in the forest. And all of this people were free, because it was a holiday. So instead of walking through the forest we did a 3 hour loop around the forest. 3 HOURS OF WALKING. It was fun, but I sure was tired. I took lots of cool pictures. We found an ants nest in a tree, a cinammon tree, I think I found soapberries. I tripped over a plant with thorns and cut my leg. After that we went to centro and did some shopping. It was a fun p-day, but I would rather walk through the forest next week. I am never going to walk around it again. I did see a lot of houses though, and thought that they have probably never heard the gospel, and also that if they have they probably never went to church because it is so far away. That is the hard thing. You find a lot of good people to teach, but they just dont understand enough to make the sacrifice to come to church. 

We spake in church last sunday. We had like a 20 minute notice, because the other people who were supposed to give talks didnt come. I decided to give a talk I had already given in Manaus. I talked about the tree of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Roots=Christ Trunk=Atonement Branches=Principles of the Gospel Leaves=us. I explained that leave get their nutrients from the branches which get it from the trunk which gets it from the roots. It is a nice way to think about how we really are reliant on the Atonement of Jesus Christ as our support. Without the Atonement out tree is nothing. If it weren´t for the Atonement we would be nothing. Everything is founded upon Jesus Christ, everything that gives us the proper nutrients to grow strong!

I love you all bunches!!!

Beijos, Sister Chatwin

November 10, 2014

BE CAREFUL MOM. 

Your a good strong woman. :) I love you a lot! You always are a good example for others. 

You should tell Ashley that she should come to school with me. I think that she would love it there. 

As for work.. I don´t know what I am going to do. Temping for Halsey again would be nice, but is also quite a drive and a lot of gas money. Start looking for options??? Maybe start having Bruce look for options where he is too. I don´t know what will happen, but I know that I need a job until the end of April. It might be good to spend some time living with your family... I dont know. It would be good for them to have an example around, and maybe I could help Laurel out a little bit. Sei lá. 

Last week we did a big ward family home evening in a members house. Only a few members came, but they loved it! We talked about faith and then did a egg race. (the one where you have to hold the egg in the spoon) Only that the people with the egg didnt know that there were going to be sock balls thrown at them while they were trying to walk. They loved it and were laughing a ton. Adults are just like little kids. Anyways we are wanting to do this everyweek. This week the family that volunteered to host is planning on going to the temple in January. So our message is going to be a few morman messages about temples, and afterwards they are going to split into groups and build temples out of gumdrops and toothpicks. It is going to be great. I hope that more people start coming. Our goal with this is to strengthen the testimonies of the members and less actives of the basic principles of the gospel. IT IS GOING GREAT. Last week we invited an irma to bear her testimony. It was the first time ever, and she loved it! Now our goal with her is to get up next fast sunday and bear our testimonies together.

I really like it here in Acre. It is super pretty. It can also get stinking hot. Mom, there is a pretty neat college in my area. They have a big lot of rain forest with some trails in it. We are going to try and get some members to take us there for p-day. I saw some people who were studying foresting ( i think) last week. I am really excited to look into this college. 

We went to centro today and there were a lot of cool things. We sat down and chatted with the hippies for awhile, and then we came across an native indian. He was really excited to be talking with americans who knew english. He said that he had never had that experience before. We left a book of mormon with him. 

Life is good. 

LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Chatwin

November 3, 2014

Mom and Dad,  

I definitely prefer coming back during the summer if possible. Especially seeing that I am in a different state right now, it would make things difficult if you were to come pick me up. :)  But then again, I will be back in school and I think I only get 1 week off during the semesters. But then again it is a whole week. 

It´s like you guys moved or something. Funny to think about all of the changes that can happen in a year and a half. New ward, new stake..    I am excited to see what it will be like. So where is our stake center now? Bartelseville??

As for adjusting  to the new area... its going good. This  area is really big  and we travel by onibus a lot. I love it here. It is super pretty and the weather is nice. 

All of the members are really trying to speak english, there is an irmao who served in the states, and one more who learned a little english while on his mission. This last irmao, i love his family. They are so much fun! He loves making american pancakes, and the sister that was here before me gave him some maple extract. I  was helping him make it one night and telling him about how you can put chocolate and fruit in the  pancakes. He got super excited. We are going to mark a night with him just to make breakfast food. My companion Sister Escobar is going to make homade torillas so we can  make breakfast burritos too. It will be a lot of fun!

It is super weird to think that I will be coming home soon. It is just unreal how fast time flies by.

Irmao David is a really fun person! He really likes to go biking. He passed us a reference once, and when I finally found the guy in his house, the first thing out of his mouth was, which one of you bikes? I said that I did a little, we tried to mark an appointment to come back and he tried to get us to biking with him, and just teach him during the bike ride. He was a vetrinarian, so he was hardly at home and that was the first and last time I talked with him. 

Sounds like you all had a blast at halloZOOween! Haha, I wish I could have been there. It would have been so much fun! I am exited to do fun things with you all again.  :) 

You will have to record the band show for me! I am excited to see it!

Tell Sterling to keep practicing a lot!!! He is such a great person. 

Remmi- your a lazy bum for not wanting to go trick or treating, but  you really are better off without all that candy!

Mom´s hat she made  looked really cool. :)

I LOVE WARREN AND IVY TOO! 

Ya´ll are going to love the presents i have picked out for you. 

Beijos e Abraços, 

Sister Chatwin

August 4, 2014

Hi mom and dad! ( and brothers)

I sure do love you guys! :)

I am staying here in Noel Nutells, probably for the next two transfers. My comp Sister Crane was transfered, and I am now with Sister Jensen. This will be her last transfer, so of course I will probably stay next transfer in this area too. It sure is weird staying. I got used to moving around, but it was nice not having to pack. 

I am excited for next sunday. Our ward is going to be having a big devotional about missionary work. My comp and I are going to speak along with the ward mission leaders. I hope that is will be very spiritual and that lots of people will come!

It sounds like you all had a lot of fun on your cruise. You will have so send some pictures. Sounds like life is moving on for all of you.  You guys are such  missionaries. Parabens na sua trabalho.  :)

Okay so we like to Disney music when we get home at night. Some of the girls have music from Frozen. I am going to have to get that CD when I come home. Those songs are just so cute! 

Our ward mission leader is the best. Sunday he took two of the young men out to do visits and they marked two baptism dates with some of our old investigators that their mom didnt sign the baptism form. Hopefully we will baptize them this week. It would be a great animator for the ward before this big devotional!! We have a lot of potential baptisms, just that either the moms arent signing the form or they have to get married. So this transfer we should have a lot of weddings and baptisms. I am super excited. Also this area is really huge. I walked so much last week from one side to the other doing visits, and I still havent seen every part of our area. 

I´ll be a Sister Training Leader again. I hope that I stay one for the rest of my mission. I really like doing splits with the other Sisters. :) It is fun to see their areas, know their problems, give trainings and still have an area of my own to work in.

Okay, well I love you all a lot!

I hope you have a week full of missionary experiences and lots of joy!

 :) :) :) :) :)

Sister Chatwin

July 28, 2014

It sounds like you guys are going to have a lot of fun! Be safe on the boat!

I am excited to have lots of experiences like that with people speaking portuguese. It will be super fun to see their faces. :)

I am glad that warrens prayers were answered. I am not looking forward to taking calculus when i get back, it is going to be a lot of work. I am happy that they are going to be starting ar Notre Dame. Have they already moved?

It is neat to see that so many people are going on missions! It really will be the best decision they will ever do. :) I would trade the experiences I have had for anything. 

I am jealous that you are going on a cruise, but I wouldnt want to go because it should be hott. Spending summer here in Manaus makes you greatful that air conditioning exists. I know that you two will have so much fun! 

My week was good. :) Transfers are next week, so we will see what will happen. I want to stay with my comp because I like her so much, but then it is all up to the Lord. 

ANYWAYS, I love you all and am so glad that you are my parents. 

Sorry I didnt have much to say today, but I have sent some pictures and included the stories behind them. :) Those should be fun for people to read. :)

Sister Chatwin

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