for the blog!!!!!!!!!!

OOOOOOOOOOH my gosh!! I forgot to wish happy birthday to those who have had their birthdays over the past couple weeks! Ive been so bad at that, I´m sorry!But yes:
Jenn!!! I love you! Happy birthday! I´m so glad you´re in my eternal family! You´re amazing, and every time I see bob marly stuff I remember you and smile.
Lucas!!!Holy crap!! You are OLD!!! my mind breaks a little at the thought! I love love love you. You had BETTER be in the country when I get back- cause we have good times ahead of us! I have to catch up on your photography and amazing philosophies on life! Not to mention, I need to be re-introduced to the media, and who better than yourself to show me the movie-musicy-goodness that I have been missing out on?? Se Prepare.Ethan! How tall are you? I miss you so much! Listen, SOMEONE needs to teach me to cook, ok? Prepare yourself my little friend. my future familys meals are in your hands.. hahaBut seriously, I love you! Happy birthday!Eli:How are you!! Eli I miss you so much!!! I dont even KNOW what you are up to these days! but I love and miss you so much! Dont forget you love me k? Hey, are you still a vegitarian? Are you still playing tennis? or piano? luv youuuu..
And my deepest apologies if I didnt give a shout out to anyone who had a birthday these days..love love

liberdade e felicidade

oi!Well this week was awesome! The members of divinopolis II are FANTASTIC! They gave us a reference, and she is incredible! The two main people that we are teaching are:Luciene. She´s a single mom who lives SOOO far away. But she´s rad. There is a member here who taught her the first lesson while they were on a break (I love members who think theyre missionaries, they are the best.) and then invited her to go to church! she´s REALLY smart, and has a hellian of a child. But she´s been struggling a little this week, and we´re working hard to help her stay strong. We were teaching her and we asked her if she would get baptized, and she was like " I know I should, but I just worry that I won´t follow through with every thing." and then after a few more things explained she said "I know I can make it. I will. I´ll get baptized." It was so rad! She has been trying to quit smoking, and that same day she told us she had broken all of her smokes because she is done smoking! it was lovely.The other isFlaviaFlavia has a heart of GOLD. She just LOVES helping people. She says she will go anywhere to help someone in need. When she prays she prays for all of the people in the hospitals and people in need. Every prayer.She always says "if someone is hurting, I take that pain!!" She´s so sweet. And she has been accepting the gospel SO well. She is seriously a GEM to teach. She´s having her baptismal interview tonight. I´m so stoked.This week has been rad. I´m still enjoing thuroughly, living with the amazing sisters smith and morias, not to mention my amazing comp- REIS! love love love.Anyway, we went bowling last week. Yup, I still suck.alrighty then, até mais!love and miss you all. sb

Bloggy goodness

Hey, so I decided that I need to involve people more in the whole mission experience, so this week, I´m going to give an overview of the week. Fun? Maybe. ... but only maybe. Don´t judge me if its boring..
Since I write every wednesday, I´ll start from thursday:
Quinta:Was a relatively normal day. We got up, studied, and then ate lunch... at a restaurant (the members here live sooooooooo far away that usually they just give us money to eat at a local restaurant. Its fun. Less fun than at members, but there is usually more salad at the restaurant.. ??)We taught: Erica, some drunks in the street (??) and FABRICIA, who is one of my favorites, and Evandro. And a bunch of others just in the street. Fabricia is a cool story, she used to a CRAZY drug addict, and then lost EVERYTHING she owned, and realized that her kids lives were going to hell.. so she quit. Now she´s clean, but still is in the process of rebuilding her life. Its a sloooooooooow process but she´s receiving the gospel well. I´m pleased.SExtA:We taught wilson, rosalha (who really doesnt want anything..) and fernanda (who also, really isnt interested) Cristiane (she´s awesome) alex, and drunks in the street (faz parte)We´re teaching a cool girl named Luciene (SHE IS AMAZING!) who lives forever away, so we have to call her to accompany her. thats nice.SabaDo:Moniessssss for lunch again. We live in a good sized city though, so the restaurants are pretty good. $2,50, none the less..We taught EVERYONE about keeping the sabbath day holy (in other words GO TO CHURCH TOMORROW!!!) it turned out well.DOMingO:We have church at 3pm and so we have to eat lunch and then go to church . its weird. I like it, but this WHOLE time I´ve had this mindset of wake up at the crack of dawn to go get our investigators. I´m personally a fan of the current situation..It was good though, Luciene came, and I love her. Her son, however, is somewhat of a hellian, but I love him too. he is 4.SeguNdA:We had our weekly planning (which I love) and then all four of us went to the the bakery under our house to buy garbage, and then the whole way back up to our house we all said (while eating cake and other goodness) "I´m on a diet.. can you tell?" hahaAnyway, I´m noticing this actually isnt fun. SO I´m going to say, my week was great. I just now remembered that I had to do divisions with the other sisters THREE times, because FIRST sister Smith fell out of a mango tree and sprained her ankle, so I went with her comp to accompany their investigators, then she got better and HER comp fell in the street, twisting her ankle, so I had to go with smith 2 times. It was really fun actually. I love them both!It is sad, but pretty funny that the TWO of them sprained their ankles in the same week... hahaAnyway things are goo, I heard a cool phrase: Don´t keep the faith- SPREAD IT! haha and it has apicture of butter being spread on bread.. muahaha.Anyway, I´m in love with this area. I´m happy as can be! I love love love you all- sb

Life After Transfers goes on

Hello!well so much has happened, I dont know where to begin!! Transfers were last week, and those are always fun. I was transfered from Nova Cidade, Sete lagoas to Divinopolis, Divinopolis!Its funny, Nova cidade was like a forth of the size of salem- and Divinopolis is probably about the size of 2 or 3 salem´s put together.. its HUGE.I love it though! Its a city! Like, a real city!! (*have I been city deprived for the past year? I think so..) Its so fun! The contacts are harder because people are always in a hurry in big cities, but still. Fun. A new dynamic.ALSO! We have a new Mission President, so with him, a whole bunch of new rules. So far I´m not a huge FAN of the new rules, but I completely trust the Lord,and I trust that he was called of God. So, I accept these new rules. Again, change is part of the journey!Just before I left Nova Cidade, we had a miracle happen! I was getting sad because we were having a lot of trouble getting people to PROGRESS. And I started to feel like there wasnt ANY one in that area who wanted to hear the gospel! So I prayed fervently and fasted. I remember that one day in one of my prayers I said "Lord, where aRE Thy children who are READY to hear the gospel? Where??" and the next day at church, a kid showed up and said "I like how I feel here, and this is the only church for me. I know its true. I want to get baptized."Wow! So, we taught him (and had a few problems with authorizing him to baptize because of a crazy aunt of his, who actually didnt have anything to do with signing the baptismal form, but somehow managed to mess everything up.. just a little though.) and then *after all that with his aunt* he was baptized!!! It was so rad! And then he bore his testimony in sacrament meeting the next day! It was so simple and beautiful. I´m grateful for the opportunity to see God´s answers to our prayers.
Right now I live in an apartment with another pair of sisters!!! My companion, sis. Reis and I have the lower half of the city, and Sis. Smith (my former companion, whom I adore!) and her comp (and DAUGHTER, cause she´s training her!) Sis. Morais have the upper half- but we all live together. It is AWESOME. I love it. Sis. Smith is still insane, and it is lovely. She´s so much fun. We all sing all morning long!
I was reading an article this morning in the ensign that my amazingly awesome mother sent me (thaaaaaaaaaaaank you, it was the envy of every american, I´ll have you know) this morning and found this part particularly interesting:
"Our challanges, including those we create by our own decisions, ar part of our test in mortality. Let me assure youthat your situation is NOT beyond the reach of our Savior. Through Him, every struggle can be for our experience and our good. Each temptation we overcome is to strengthen us, NOT to destroy us. The Lord will never allow us to sufferbeyond what we can endure." -Rober D. Hales ("becoming provident providers temporally and spiritually")
I loved that part "each temptation we overcome is to STRENGTHEN us, not to destroy us!" our experiences can be what creates us, if we let it! IF we trust in the Lord. He knows how to use our experiences for our good! He knows how to illuminate our minds to make trials and challenges appear as the character-building opportunities that they are (or potentially could be.)I´m trying to put this all into practice in my life. Easier said than done, eh?But yeah, life is good right now. I´m loving every minute! Soaking in the present is how life is meant to be lived. The good and the bad have something of worth to offer. If only the exhilerating experience of feeling alive. I´m still, and continually impressed by the scripture in 2 nephi 2:26 that explains to us clearly that WE are free to choose. Our lives are ours to live- but the consiquences are what we need to be careful of! understanding the CONSIQUENCES of our actions is true freedom. God´s commandments are for exactly that. To teach us how to have the CONSIQUENCES that we want. Peace, security, wisdom, health, love- everything that we are all searching for in one way or another.Anyway, thats all for now, I love and miss you all tons.Até mais- com amor- sb

blogger stuff

Oh my! Time is such a crazy thing! We, as a district always set goals and things, and this week we were able to reach a bunch of our goals! Which sounds like such a little thing, but it was so rad! The most exciting was reaching our goal in baptisms! Its been so cool to see people so excited to receive the gospel.Things are changing quick around here. Next week our new mission president arrives, and our mission combines with a neighboring mission. Change is such a trip. There is always that internal battle- leave what you love to gain more? Or keep what you love and never see what else there is to offer?The mission really shows the importance of progression. Everyone loves the newly born phase of babies- but imagine if they REALLY did stay there forever! Someone was saying the other day that they saw on the news a girl whose body didnt progress at all. She was 28 years old and still had the body of a baby- but also only had the mentality of about a 4 year old. But yeah, i dont know if I believe it- it was a good source, but still, thats madness...Anyway, the point is, more often than not we have to leave our comfort zone to progress. Emotionally, Physically or Spiritually.Spiritually especially, because for instance:Someone who has never heard of the church and never had a habit of reading and praying and going to church is going to have to stretch themselves to do their best to .. cumprir.. these things! But as time goes by that person will have to work HARDER to still STRETCH themselves to reach a higher point of spirituality. Its a continuing progression.I lost my voice this week. The thought never crossed my mind that leaving something like my VOICE behind could help me PROGRESS! But in actuality, it has! Because its forced me to shut my mouth more, and forced my comp to open her´s more- so Ive learned a lot, and I think she has too! Its funny how we learn new things from the adventures of life. Anyway things are good. I miss you all!Happy Fathers day last sunday! I didnt realize it was until I got Christina´s blog.. so sorry I didnt send out those good wishes sooner! But I´m going to bite christina´s style and o shout out to: MY dad! Whom I love and adore! Thanks for being so wonderful Papi, you´ve really been such a big support to me. You´ve shown your love for me in a million ways, and it means so much to me! I miss you like mad!!!Also, to Russ! An amazingly patient and good man! thanks for being someone I can trust and confide in. I appreciate your sincerity and genuine concern for everyone around you. Your example has taught me so much!And MICHAEL! I´m so proud to have you as my brother- and when I see you playing with blake and taking care of your family, it inspires me to be a better person. Keep up the good work!Not to mention the upcoming dad IVAN! You´re going to be an awesome dad, I´m excited to see it all unfold!
As well as amazing father´s Ive had the opportunity to see in my lifeRick Rush!! I love your guts!!! You know you mean the world to me! Thanks for always being there when I needed you!As well as Ed liebing! Thanks for always making me feel like part of the family! You´ve been a great example to me as well.And Richard Dutcher! I miss seeing you be the amazing dad that you are to your kids! Watching the impact you had on your kids was such a rad and priceless experience, and I never will forget it!
I appreciate each and every single one of you!!!! Thanks for making the world a better place! Keep up the good work!!!
ok, until next week- though next week is the zone pday, so I dont know how much time i´ll have to write..
KLOVEYOUBYE

Hi!

Yeah, sorry about last week. We had some miscommunication with the girls (aka the other sisters in the zone) and somehow ended up not having enough time to email. I was really sad, but here I am still alive, so I guess it wasnt such a big deal.
So things are going as they go! My new comp is from Forteleza, and apparently they have pretty beaches there. That has nothing to do with anything, but i thought Id mention it. Tomorrow is zone conference and i´m stoked about that, theyre always good. and it´ll be the last with pres. frie, so that should be interesting.
I was studying about faith the other day and found a really cool phrase:
"True faith cannot exist without obedience. In the same way, true obedience doesnt exist without faith."
So, upon pondering this, I realized that striving to be more and more obedient is how one develops faith.
Sometimes we do the right thing for the wrong motive- but like it says in Alma 32, sometimes it starts out with just the DESIRE to know. Just the desire to do right. The desire to have the motive.
But the Lord is merciful and gives us everything we need. He gives us the very best. But it is VERY dependent on us doing our part. He is JUST. Perfectly just. something Ive learned here on the mission is that the Lord´s mercy ISNT Him MAGICALLY giving us what we don´t deserve- it´s Him giving us the tools and opportunities TO deserve that which we want and need. His perfection is incredible.
Anyway, things are going well here. The weather has been perfect. Slightly cold. Its fantastic. Everyone laughs at me when I´m wrapped up in my sweater and shivering because they all know that where I come from COLD is an entirely different story. But I´ve already adapted, so what can y´do?
oh, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Matthew this week!! And it looks like Chloe Dutcher had a birthday too! Oh my goodness she must be so big! Gwen! I miss your family, send me some pictures!!! xoxoxo
(lucas, i swear if i dont get a letter from you soon...)
Anyway, so yeah, life is good. I miss you all.
Até mais! -sb

aaaaaaaaaaaah transfers!

SO I have like 10 seconds to write this email, but yeah, so TRANSFERS were today! I´m still here in Sete Lagoas, Nova Cidade, but my amazing, incredible, lovable daughter was transferred. :( I miss her so bad already! But she´s like a 10 minute jog away, so im going to see her as much as possible.. muahahaThis transfer is going to be nuts though, because my current president is leaving at the end of this one, and the new one is going to come and visit and get to know everyone DURING this transfer. So we have a bunch of meetings and stuff. Its going to be crazy. Im excited though. Sad to see my mission president go though. He´s been such a help to me in my personal progression here on the mission.But yeah, so now everything is different because all my leaders in my zone changed. So that will be interesting to see. Not to mention my new companion, Sis. Alves! I´m stoked about that though, she seems like a really rad girl (from the 3 hours we´ve had together thus far..)So yeah. I have to run, but know that I love you all!! I´m really happy. REALLY really happy to be here. And SO grateful for the gospel in my life. Christ lives.-sb