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