oi minha familia

Ah! how can I possibly put into words this week?!?! Well, I´ll start with the basics:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Learning a new language is the craziest experience! Its ridiculously hard and FUN. I´m catching on- but ONNNNNNNLY when my heart and mind are in the right place, aka, only when I have the spirit with me. But things are going well! I´m learning so much!
Oh! Awesome news:

RAFAELA WAS BAPTIZED!!! And this sunday she´ll be confirmed!!! Oh, Im so happy! It was an incredible day! I wish I knew how to email pictures! Shes such a rad girl! We have some really awesome investigators right now. One family particularly ( I actually dont know their last name, but we just call them Alex´s family, cause we met alex first) are all really interesting people. very loving, excited, intelectual people. They really think about things and internalize- which is fantastic! Alex´s aunt Lucia is a riot, I love her! She came out one night when we were talking to alex and she started telling us we couldnt teach her daughter, and its great we´re teaching about Christ, but they´re CATHOLICS, so we can´t teach her daughter (who was listening in on the first lesson we gave, but her mom wasn´t there at the time)
Well it ended up that we taught her the first lesson, and the next day lended her a BoM, and she is such a loving, animated person. Shes awesome. And her daughter arieli is adorable too.
Anyway, also we´re working with some inactive members. Theyre pretty stubborn, but the spirit is SO strong in the promptings that these people need to come back to church!

This week has been a good one. Ive done a lot of pondering, and have had a lot of awesome experiences. I miss everyone like crazy this week though. Its a good thing its pday, cause I needed some time to focus on everyone I miss so that I can get back to work!

I cant remember if I said this in my last letter, if so- sorry.
if not: here you go:
There was an elder who was explaining to me that on the mission you go through every phase that you go through in life. Right now Im a baby. And its SO true! I am completely dependant on everyone around me, and I have to RELEARN everything I thought I knew! I have to trust others vision because to me- things just arent how they seem. Eating, sleeping, walking, talking, everything is new- and I have to take everything step by step. actually Im pretty sure Im still in the crawling phase. BUT the beauty of it is that recognizing this, I can appreciate this time in the mission. The spirit supports me SSOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. And I have to work SO hard- and it is NEVER enough to get the message across, so thankfully, the Holy Ghost makes up that difference. Its incredible. I´m really starting to understand things these days, but still there are a lot of phrases and words that I JUST don´t understand. So of course I can understand everyone elses conversation, but as soon as someone directs anything to me, I cant understand it at all. Pois é. But Im loving it.
I went bowling today. I was awful. It was so fun. The mall we went to, to go bowling was HUGE. I think possibly the biggest Ive ever seen in my life. Madness. But I am here in the city, so its to be expected I hear.
Hey, you know what would be cool? Simple recipes. I miss pancakes. But yeah, nothing fancy or with a lot of ingredients, just a couple simple simple recipes I could fix up really quick in the mornings. Its really only breakfast that I need, cause we´re either eating with members or out, during the other hours of the day.
Oh my gosh mom, do you remember those blue rings you sent in the package? I think chelsea got those for me. Anyway, everyone here LOVES them- and Im just talking about the missionaries in my zone! I made the mistake (not really mistake, but I didnt really think about it much) of giving one to a sister who was really sad, and then one to an elder who was leaving (both are brasilian)- and then other missionaries came up and started asking for them! One elder asked for like 15 minutes straight- for like 4 days straight! But I really felt that there were investigators that had a greater need- that really NEED the reminder that they are a "child of God" as the ring says. Anyway, so wow. They caused a bit of a riot. Madness. But its all good now.
Oh hey, could you email me the sheet music to "together forever" by michael mclain? A sister in my ward wants it, and doesnt know where to get it. Itd be good to have in anycase.
Oh hey, were you going to send me a sheet of the thumbnails of the pictures I sent you? I cant remember which are on the CD so I dont know which I can delete.

Cool scriptures: D&C 67:10 and mosiah 29:20
I dont remember now why I wanted to send these to you, but I have them written down. So there. Read them. Love them. Live them.

Wow! Full house is right! Sounds awesome! you´ll have to let me know what happens with Jason and the architecture, pay close attention to the advice for me, cause Im hoping to jump right into that when I get back.

My current saudade: wheat bread. Its ridiculously expensive, so I dont buy it, but i miss it. Oh my, but I LOVE pão de quijo. Its my current addiction. Aside from, obviously, sugar. ooooooooooooooooh sugar..
Im hoping to kick that habit soon though. Not kick, just train it.

Thats exciting the house is getting all organized and clean! Have you thrown all my stuff away :s eh, jk, if you have, I dont want to know, if you havent, thank you.
Yeah, so wednesdays are my pday. Its kinda weird, because I just assumed every missionary everywhere had monday as their pday, but apparently not. not even close.

Ok, well I love and miss you all soooooooooo much! Thank you for your amazing love and support!
até mais! Eu amo vocês para sempre!
This weeks thing to appreciate:
Toilet seats. c´mon kids, seriously, take some time and really appreciate them. They´re a thing of beauty if you look at it right.
ALSO: Much more importantly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Footnotes in the scriptures. I didnt know they dont have them in every language, but I know they DONT have the bible footnotes in the portuguese bible. I never realized how amazing they actually are! Love them!! oooooooooooooh love them!
De novo: Happy birthday matthew! I love your guts! Work hard to learn to work hard, and you´ll enjoy your life 3x as much, I promise! I love you tons and tonssssssssss!