Its a White Christmas in Brazil

Puxa vida (= wow, or Oh my goodness), Kat has been out 6 months. One
year to go.

Hi Family!!!!

Merry Christmas! Here on the mission we're not exactly having the white
christmas that we all know and love from skiing in utah and eating fudge
at grandmas house, but its still a white christmas. White with baptisms
= way better.

I dont know if my email from last week worked out to be sent last week,
but we had a nice little baptism of a lady named Vanderlanda. She is
about 150 years old and very nice. She makes us food (aka she fries up
whatevers in the fridge). But her baptism was last week, and then this
week her son, Eduardo got baptized. He is a great guy, and a great dad.
He and his wife are separated, and he's been through a lot of rough
times in his life, but now he is doing really well. He is definitely one
of those "right time right place" kind of baptisms. In his own words, he
was saying one night how if he had been introduced to the gospel a few
years back, he probably wouldnt have accepted it, because he like to go
out, drink, and do his own thing with his life. But now with a little
more maturity, he says that he knows that this is the right direction he
needs to be heading in his life and that this is the right time for him
to accept the gospel. And he loves learning it. He has a lot of earnest
questions and he is really smart, so its great teaching him. (Except for
my limited portugues, and sometimes i dont know what he's saying because
his vocab is way higher than most people we talk to, so thank heaven for
the members who are helping us teach because... well you know, they know
portuguese and the gospel and stuff...)

Anyways, we also have a baptism lined up for this Sunday, of this guy
named Neto. baha his name means grandson in english. Anyways, he's a
good guy and I love when people will actually open up and let the spirit
touch their hearts and be changed. Christmas is SUCH a great time of
year!

Sister Lindenlaub and I have been working the Christmas card for all its
worth, and things have been turning out well the past week. We just go
from house to house and sing christmas songs for EVERYONE. Then we share
a really short christmas message, say a prayer, and ask who else would
like to hear a christmas song sung by americans with funny accents.
(haha sometimes after we sing people are like, "oh sorry i didnt
understand anything because you were singing in english." and we're
like, "oh no, actually we were singing in portuguese the whole time."
then i laugh.) And it is the strangest thing because people honestly
dont know the christmas songs here! we'll sing Joy to the World, and
they're like, "hm that was pretty, i've never heard that before" Or any
other christmas song in the hymnbook, and they dont know it. the only
one they ever recognize is Silent Night. crazy. Jette, these people need
you to come and sing for them. puxa vida, you would blow. them. away.

Anyways, love you a whole bunch.
This is the last week in the transfer and i hope SO MUCH that i stay
here in this area. next week if I get transfered, i dont know if there
will be time on p-day to write an email, so if thats the case, I LOVE
YOU SO MUCH AND MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS. I know that Christ lives, that He
is our Savior, and that He loves us. He is the way to be happy during
the WHOLE YEAR. The church is SO true. if you have questions, ask the
missionaries, or juliette :)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAND i'm stoked to talk to you guys on the phone. december
25, hurry! and i have no clue about when/where/how any details
whatsoever. Whats the time difference? like 4-5 hours? mmm dont know.
but i think our mission is pretty strict on the rules so i think we only
get to talk for 45-ish minutes. ah welp. bummer. there's always
christmas 2010 when i'll be at home.

LOVE YOU!
Sister Wardle