primero baptismo

From an email dated September 08, 2009

HI FAMILY

so, good news, the church is true, and miracles happen. There is this
girl that a bunch of missionaries in this area have been working with,
and she loves the church, has a testimony, goes to seminary every night,
but the only problem is that her parents wouldnt let her get baptized.
oh... sike... miracle: she got baptized this sunday. can i get a woot
holler? it was awesome! And its the coolest thing, because all the youth
in the ward are super tight, and they gave the talks, and everyone was
there to support her, and she is all set.

k, a couple of quick things:
every time we eat lunch with the families in a ward, we share a little
spiritual message. i got nervous with the portuguese, and i didnt want
to give it one day, so we did the cop-out and sang a hymn. it was
t.e.r.r.i.b.l.e. bahahah it made me think of the "if you could hie to
kolob" elders that one time. so we left laughing and vowed never again
to do the duet thing.

last sunday i set a world record on consumption of rice in one sitting.
parabens para mim. my 2 favorite sentences in portuguese are:
1. "Eu quero me batizar" = I want to be baptized.
2. "Come mais, sister!" = "Eat more, fatty!"
and i do :) the members LOVE when you eat a lot, and they go all out
and expect you to be ravished with hunger, and they want you to just eat
and eat. i swear its like the easiest way to make friends ever! Love
it... especially when its hard to hold conversation at lunch. i can talk
about the gospel ok, but other conversation is a little harder. so when
i cant think of stuff to say, i just eat. welp good thing my skirts have
elastic waistbands.

OH YA, and its been raining like NO OTHER. just about every day or every
other day, there will be a huge downpour of rain. the other day, the
streets were literally flooding and it was like rivers instead of
streets. And it was so cool because our area is one big hill, so the
water was flowing down from the upper area, and it was coming back up
and out of the drains because they were so full, so there were these
huge gushing fountains with the water coming up like 2 feet. i gots some
good pictures. Lucky for us, it always seems to come when we're inside a
house or inside the church, and we havent gotten caught in the rain yet,
but its only a matter of time.

another thing - today was my first time on a true brasilian bus. the
experience was akin to that of the Knight Bus, only without stan
shunpike. We were zigging and zagging, and stopping and starting so
fast. and the buses seem to have this game where they like to cut off
the cars. its like a roller coaster ride for $1 everytime. yeep yeep!

oh and i bought these sandals here that are like moon shoes. baha
they're so ugly, but pretty comfy and good for walking. but seriously
they are hideous. and does anyone remember those moon bouncy shoes from
childhood? They're great. so now whenever i wear them my nickname is
sister lua.

And thats really crazy about the shark attack in Carlsbad!! Crazyness.
how funny that the lifeguards swam out afterwards and "went looking for
the shark." What were they going to do if they found it? Smile, wave at
it, turn around swim back and say, "yep its a shark alright." dont you
just love the state guards.

anyways, i hope all is well at home. How was labor day? I sent home some
pictures from the CTM. Sorry its like 6 weeks late, but i never figured
out how to attach them to the computer and just email them. hope you
enjoy.

sidenote - I wrote a fatty long email last week and then when i tried to
send it, the email logged out and it got deleted. sorry bout that.

LOVE YOU
LOVE YOU
LOVE YOU!
sister kat wardle