Just Filled with Happy!

Oh my goodness! I am just filled with happy right now! This week has been phenomonal (don´t judge my spelling, I don´t speak this language..)! We are teaching some AWESOME families!!!
*Ana e Henrique; and their kids: Paulo Henrique, Marcos Venicious, Elias e Ana. They are SOOOOO awesome! Henrique is a returned missionary who hasn´t been to church in 10 YEARS, but now he´s trying to find a new job (that doesn´t have him working on sunday) and we are teaching his wife and kids (WHOM I LOVE!) They are such a rad family!! Things are going really well with them. Today we´re going to go fly kites with them:)
* Nilson e Solonge; e filhos deles: Douglas, Victor, Jeferson e Fabio. They are SO cool! Douglas and Victor came to church with us last sunday and oh my goodness. They are just awesome. Solonge told us yesterday "that first day you came and taught us, the whole house just felt different afterwards! Just better!" We explained that it was the Holy Ghost, and they were all smiley! The first day we met them we taught the lesson of the restauração, and at the end they said "we´ve been wondering which church is the true church of Christ for a lot of years now." They didn´t SAY they knew our church was true,but they are at least opening their hearts- its WONDERFUL!! But the parents aren´t married (but want to be! Its hard here in brasil) so we´re going to have to work hard with them, but Im so grateful to be a part of this work! Their family reminds me of my boys!! So Ive been having Dutcher withdrawels all week.
*Nixon e Lucimar; filhos deles: Alessandra e Andre. Theyre a timid bunch, but seem to really be soaking in the message! Alessandra is
cute, she´s 15. She came to church with us last sunday too.

Its such a cool experience to be teaching FAMILIES. I love it!
And Sis. Shepherd is such a rad companion. She´s taught me so much already! and we have a system down that makes it possible for me to contribute as much as I can in the lessons, but the investigators still understand the message! She´s so funny to, we are having a blast being companions. She is going home pretty soon here though, so she´s thinking alot about what she´s going to do when she gets back and all that jazz, and thats hard for me, because I have that tendancy anyway (Im a daydreamer.. trying to kill the habit. or make it more productive) so that´s been a little hard. But its good too, because I see how much I WANTto focus on the work. And she still works WAY hard- I don´t want you to think she´s just trunky-business all day long,she´s not, she´s just in a different place than I am. But yeah, so far Ive been VERY blessed as far as companions go. Ive really enjoyed each one.

So one thing Ive discoverd this week is: I love seeking out beauty.
Not like beautiful PEOPLE or worldly things, more like the combinations of colors in one flower, the graffiti (the ART ones) and just all that artsy goodness. I love art. I love DRAWING. We make reading calanders and reminders and things for investigators, and I LOVE drawing! I never realized it because I was always comparing myself to everyone else, but Im getting tired of that, so Ive been working hard to appreciate evey moment of every day, and liking me for me, and you for you.

I love animals. But oh my goodness, the other day I saw the ugliest dog that has ever existed- I only wish I had my camera! It looked like a large rat mated with stray dog and the result was catostrophic..

Anyway, So we made pancakes for FHE and talked about how the "recipe" for life is in the scriptures, and the prophet is our "cooking teacher" It went well. But one of the s there ally burned our chocolate sauce that we made, and then half the people there didn´t even like the páncakes.. haha, oh well more for me. oooooooooh I ate so many brigadeiros.. it was amazing. (brigadeiros are a chocolate dessert here. so good. Im addicted. I had one for breakfast this morning..)
Michael-my bishop and his little family remind me of yours. How is your family doing by the way? How is summer treating you? How is the colony? Did a lot of people leave? Did a lot of new people come? Is marin having babies yet? I miss you.

Hey mom, have you been getting any of my letters? sometimes I send some snailmail and Im always paranoid that they aren´t making it there, so just let me know if youve gotten any. I send one for alex the other day and I want to make sure he got it. Just in general.
And by the way, you´re still awesome. I miss your pancakes. I miss you MORE, but I DO miss your breakfasts.