The Land of Aguas Claras (beijo para lasley!)

HI FAMILY!

NEW news!

My NEW COMPANION is Sister Lindenlaub, and she's fresh from the CTM.
When the new missionaries arrive in the field they have the group shot
taken, and then one with Pres and Sister Pizzirani, and then one more
with their trainer. These are the pictures from when sister lindenlaub
got here, and so I'm just forwarding them along to you. Sister
Lindenlaub is from Goodyear, Arizona, and she is just a little
sweetheart. Its kinda crazy going from being trained to training, so I'm
trying hard remember all the good things that sister canfield did with
me, and trying to pass them on to her.

Our NEW AREA is called Aguas Claras. Its on the outskirts of Brasilia,
and its divided into two sectors. Theres the huge rich area with super
high apartment buildings where everything is all nice and delux and
polished and you kinda feel like your in a really chic part of new york
city. That's the actual city of Aguas Claras, and its all commuter
people who live here and work in downtown Brasilia. Then the other half
is called Areal, and its the regular Brasil that I'm used to. :) Its
really crazy being double transfered into a new area. I had never been
here before, and obviously Sister Lindenlaub doesnt know whats going on,
so its been interesting trying to get around. We spend a lot of time
walking and trying to find our appointments, and asking directions from
everyone. (Too bad a prominent characteristic of most Brasilians is that
they are lacking that whole sense of direction thing...But they always
act like they have a surety of where they are sending you, and more
often than not, it will turn out to be the exact opposite direction. Ah
welp, sugar.) Anyways we're starting to get a handle of things better.

Also its great to be in a NEW WARD! It was a little branch before, but
in the last year they've become a ward. We dont have a chapel, but we
meet in an apartment building, using a bunch of little connecting rooms.
Its kind of awkward and crowded, but its SO GREAT. and 80% of the ward
speaks English! So its a great first ward for sister lindenlaub. There
are a few returned missionaries who served in the states, and some other
people who teach english classes here, and others who just studied
english for funsies. We even have an American in the ward. His name is
Keith and he gave us ice cream. Thank you Keith.

On Sunday in this ward they had the primary program during sacrament
meeting. They dont have a piano, but they use this funky keyboard organ
thingy. I was playing for the program and it was the most ridiculous
thing ever. baha i dont play the organ! I was messing up all over the
place, and the kids were a little rowdy. There were some technical
difficulties with the microphones, and it was kinda hectic. Not to
mention that the organ has like 1 setting: circus. Picture primary hymns
and sister wardle on the circus organ. GOOD TIMES!

But thats ok, it didnt deter our investigators! We had a guy named
Bright and his mom and a few other people there at church, so it was
still great. Bright was BAPTIZED on Sunday afternoon and it was
faaantastic! Cutest little man ever. His face and his behavior after was
adorable. thank you bright. (sidenote: the other day i was like, bright,
how did you get your name? he's all, oh my parents just found it in an
english dictionary. yayy good name!)

Anyways, I'm almost out of time, but i have to throw down some SERIOUS
thank yous...

MOM - COOKIE MIX. i LOVE you. thank you mom.
Laura - THANK YOU for the pictures! dont worry I spent like 30 minutes
pouring over every single one, making my companion listen to 80 million
stories about curtis, corinne, derek, carlsbad football/cheer, the
works. and THANKS for the Skirt! Its perfecto.
Marsha! - Thank you THANK YOU for the byu football shirt! i feel so
connected to byu :) it is a serious tragedy to miss a cougar football
season, so thanks for sending me the merchandise so i can still rep my
team. And thank you so much to Sister Hunt for the letter and card. I
have the best support ever from family and friends.
Grandma - Love the letters, always uplifting
Sister Auton - love the c-bad updates and newsletters. all news from
home is always good news!
Jake STREETER - welcome home! Thanks for the last letter from the mish.
love you cuz :)
Jacob VOEKEL - Love the inspiration packet - that Elder Holland excerpt
definately kicks you into gear!
Mindy BAATTTT - omg MIA is adorable. congrats on the angel
and ALICIA LASLGKJMEBEKNDIJK - thanks for the card and congrats again on
the baby!
Greg - excellent advice, excellente letter, e excellente photos!

K, bahh, i gotta go. LOVE YOU SO MUCH. THANK YOU for the support. LOVE
YOU

Sister Wardle

GOODBYE GUARA

HI FAMILY!
And hello to a new area!

Today is transfer day, so there is basically no time to speak of. We are ALL being transfered out of this area. We had 4 Sisters here, Christensen and MJ, and Sister Hill and I, and we're all getting transfered away. We still dont know where we're going but we'll find out pretty soon here. And we think that this ward/this area is getting changed to Elders. Welp, see ya later, Guara!

I'm going to miss Sister Hill like crazy. She was the gem of this transfer. She made the hard days so much better, and every other companion has really huge shoes to fill.

As far as new companions go - I'm going to be getting a new American sister fresh from the CTM tomorrow. I dont know anything else about anything, but I'll find out this afternoon or tomorrow or something.

And this past week was a little bit hard, and a little bit silly (sih-we), but thats ok. The best part about this week was the primary presentation for sacrament. The pianists for both wards that meet in our chapel were no-shows, so I had the pleasure of filling in. It was seriously the best 2 hours of the week, just playing the primary hymns and watching all the kids sing. LOVED it.

Tomorrow starts a new day, new week, new area, new companion!
orações, sorte, e sorvete, and I should be just fine.

Love Love Love love lvoe love love love love you!
Sister Wardle

And DISH - CONGRATS ON BABY EVAN. I'm so excited to blow bubbles with him in 13 months!

(DISH is Kat's friend Alicia who had a baby boy. Congrats to the Lagenkijk family.)

Elder Richard G. Scott

Hi fam fam,

Elder Scott came to town and it was wonderful. He gave great training on how to present the Book of Mormon as evidence which proves the truth of the message of the restored gospel, and proof that the church is true. He even had a few of the missionaries come up and do practices and then gave personal feedback on how it went. it was sweet. He also taught great doctrine on how to receive and follow guidance from the Holy Ghost. And then the last part was about how our character and our faith are so closely related, and how God uses our faith to test and improve our character. And he gave the whole thing in pretty darn good Portuguese. and his accent was really cute.

Plus President Pizzirani spoke and it was a killer talk about what sets our church apart from other religions, and other churches. i LOVED it. Also, this Sunday in church President and Sister Pizzirani came to our ward it was hands down the greatest Sunday church meeting we've had in the field. AND they brought with them a member of the Area 70 and it was all around a very good day.

In other news, we were eating lunch at a members house the other day, and the food made me think of the Siaosi boys. in one letter they asked me what the weirdest food I have eaten has been. You have to understand how the brasilians really just love to mix all the food in the house together and call it a meal. for example: rice, beans, pasta, chopped up hot dog, corn, hard boiled eggs, bananas, chicke, and steak. it is so weird but strangely so good. And for desert - popsicles and banana bread. love this country.

I was thinking the other day how the funniest things that i want to tell you are all action-type stories. the kind where you have to act them out and actually see what the person is doing to think its funny. this being impossible to do right now, i have a little listy that i'm making to re-enact next christmas for you. one of them is a woman that would've fit in well in Paul's mission in Belem. (Paul - lembra por quê estava tão difícil quando você chegou no campo? por causa da higenica dos dentes... ou seja, falta dos dentes... estas histórias são em relato assim. muito engraçado)

Aaanyways, next week we have transfers, and I'm almost sure I'll be stickin around here in Guará I, but I'll find out for sure next monday morning. I hope that nothing changes, I love being with sister hill, and I dont want to loose sister hill as a companion again. Saying goodbye to her is such a drag. so, we'll see what next week has in store.

oh, and if anyone has news on alicia's baby por favor send that along. and her address too please. ooooobrigada.

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH
DONT FORGET ABOUT ME
I MISS YOU PEOPLE

Sister Wardle

We're getting a special visitor

hi fam!

This week we're having a Conference with our whole mission, and Elder Richard G. Scott is coming to speak! oh joy. Everyone is just all a tither about it. (Mom phrase). I'm stoked too. We're having the conference this Thursday, and Sister Pizzirani (the mission president's wife) asked us to do a special musical number. bahaha. I dont think i ever told you about the last 'special musical number' i participated in, because i was way to ashamed.

so like 4 weeks ago we had transfers, and we had a Family Home Evening with everyone who was being transfered or going home. (aka almost the whole mission). and in the middle of the meeting, Sister Pizzirani asked Sister canfield, and me, and sister kevern to do a musical number. so we had 10 minutes to "prepare" but it was in the middle of someone speaking, so we couldnt talk. we were passing notes to choose which hymn, which verses, who would sing what parts, etc. and we had to do it a capella, and never practiced it. it was RIDICULOUS. SO BAD. we were singing along, and when we divided into parts it just started to suck, because we were way off, and i thought it wsa funny, so i started laughing in the middle of the song, and i couldnt recover or get it back together to finish the song. and then sister canfield started laughing, so by the end of the 3rd verse it was just a sister kevern solo because i was on the side in silent laughter. pretty freakin embarrassing. and it was in front of presidente and sister pizzirani, and allllll these missionaries.

So this time around they actually decided to tell us in advance, so hopefully it will go a little better since it will be for an apostle. Me and Sister Canfield, and then two other elders are singing 'A Poor wayfaring man of grief." and the other elders were like, "seriously sister wardle, try not to laugh this time." but thankfully i'm just singing alto, and there are literally only like 2 notes in the alto line of that song, so all i have to do is hold that E flat for 3 verses, and sister canfield and the elders will do the rest. yay.

Sister Hill and I have new games like every other day. I love being companions with this girl. she is just two hoots and a holler. We were thinking how we could get creative with our language study and improve our street contacts one day. so the new game is to choose 10 new random words every morning, and then we have to use one random word in a street contact that day. and therefore make 10 new contacts. should be interesting.

Sister Hill also introduced me to one of her interests. Ant Hill Demolition. The ants are HUGE. and very strong here. we have some places we walk by every day, and the ants are busy as ever. sometimes we like to watch them marching with huge loads, and make contests out of which ants we think will win the race. Anyways sister hill takes the long umbrella, and crushes the hill, or puts fallen fruit in the way, or some other obstacles to frustrate their work. the next day, we walk by, and see how the clever little ants have solved the problem. i think they would be really good missionaries because they never give up!

In other news, Guara is a good place to be. its an area with some interesting challenges, but a lot of great things to learn. Its also an area with scrum-diddly-umptious food. They have these fast food stands here where they sell "Bombas." A bomba is a glorified burger with Hamburger, hotdog, ham, cheese, egg, mayo, lettuce, and tomato. its the funniest thing to me. and you can get a bomba and a coke for the equivalent of $1.25 US dollars. bahaha but i prefer my little $.50 chocolate ice cream cones. have i mentioned that i love brazil?

Dont worry, we still squeeze in a little bit of time to work between eating sessions. we have a really great family we're teaching right now named Renato and Vanessa, and their two little boys Gabriel and Raphael. He used to play proffessional soccer, and he has a ton of really interesting questions. and Vanessa is the cutest little thing. They are progressing, and we set a date and have the goal of baptizing them november 7. We taught them the book of mormon, and the next time we went back to teach, we asked follow up questions to see if he prayed to know that it was true. Renato said, "i have no doubt that the book is true. you can just read the words, and you know that a man could not have written them. they are the words of God." Then just picture me sitting there like inside my head and my heart jumping up and down loving that he was saying these words that we never put into his head, but that he knows the message is true for himself. it was so great.

The first time we taught Renato and Vanessa we also invited the neighbor to join. So we also marked baptizmal dates with the neighbor! One morning we were teaching her about the doctrine of christ, and how with these 5 simple steps we can return to live with God and our families for eternity. and she said, "Yes, i know this is true. And I want you two to teach this same thing to my family. I think my brother really needs to hear this message and he would get baptized." So then she gave us all of her families names and contact info, and she told us that she would drive us there next week to talk to her family, but they are not in our area, so i told her I think we'll have to pass them off to some other elders. she was like, "no I want you two to teach them, and i want to be there when you do." it was pretty sweeeet. It just shows how true the gospel is, and when you really get the joy inside of you, you want to share it with your family and everyone else. (Thank you Lehi and the tree of life)

Bottom line, the church is true. I love the gospel. I love the Book of Mormon. Guess whaaaat! I'm finishing it tomorrow. Pres Pizzirani gives every missionary the challenge to read the Book of Mormon in portuguese in the first 2 transfers in the field. Its a little more of a challenge for the americans, but its great, and it certainly helps with the language so much! So I will finish it tomorrow in portuguese, and then I'm starting over on thursday in english. I'm so excited to read it in englishhhhhh. my favorite language... yayyy.

I LOVE YOU!
Until next weeeeeek.
Sister Wardle