Oi

Oi, from Baturité!!!!!And before i forget. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you had a great day! :) Holy cow is it hot here!!! It was 102 the other day and its really humid, but.....im loving the COLD showers!!! And im not being sarcastic, i really do love them haha i don´t even get to look cute here, it´s too hot to wear make-up and i just pull my hair back cuz its so HOT! Lol its ok though im not here to impress anyone haha me and my comp were actually talking the other day about how when we get home we´ll get to look like girls. I love my area. Im about 2 hours from Fortaleza in a little town...in the mountains. I´m loving it here, although it´s a lot of walking and there´s LOTS of hills. I love my companion. Her name is Sister Gonzaga and she´s from Parana, Brasil. She speaks english, so i was really happy about that. Otherwise i think it would be a lot harder for me on my first transfer. I would go crazy not being able to speak english to anyone. Oh I wish you could all experience this! The people don´t have much here and it makes me so grateful for all that we have. The people are so nice and welcoming. They´re all nervous to talk to me though. My comp has to tell them to ask me questions and talk to me haha. I had my first baptism yesterday, it was so neat and I had to give a talk on baptism in portuguese...but yeah we had been teaching this boy, Wesley, he´s 14 and such a nice kid and he was so excited to get baptized. His older sister is already baptized and we´re working on their mom. She came to church yesterday though, so we were pretty excited about that! So the church here is just a little building and it´s actually a branch out here not a ward. There´s about 50 members and the branch president is so amazing! Haha sunday morning he picks everybody up for church. He has this white, hippy looking van, they call it a combi. Haha its awesome!! He makes about 4-5 trips around the town to get everyone. The church has a font though, so that´s good. It´s just like a massive water trough. But it looks really nice. There´s 4 classrooms and we have a podium for sacrament meeting. I´ll have to take pictures of it so you can see. We are also teaching this couple and they are so sweet. They will be baptized the last sunday of my transfer cuz they have to get married first, but we have that already scheduled for tomorrow! :) We´re working with quite a few people right now and this week we´re going to be really busy with investigators! So i was a little sore from walking, about the second day i was here, but im doing good now. The only thing that gets me are my feet. They are so swollen, just from being so hot! They don´t hurt, just at the end of the day im ready to just lay down. Haha i took pictures of my feet last night, it looks like i dont have ankles. They look like clubs lol not really, but they look chubby. I´ll send pictures next week. The clothes i have are fine and the sandals are working great. The meals here are good...cuz we cook. And since i´ve been here i´ve only had beans and rice once! And that´s cuz we ate at a restuarant with two elders(they had to come out and interview wesley for the baptism). But yeah, for breakfast we have toast with juice or milk. Lunch is our bigger meal, we cook chicken and rice, pasta or something like that. And for dinner we have a sandwich or something. Oh and for dessert...we have these crackers and we put Dolce de leite(with goiaba) it is the most amazing creation on the earth. It is delicious!!! Oh and last night we watched the restoration with a mother and her son. And her son had made this one stuff, i can´t remember what it´s called but it tasted like funnel cakes, but better. Oh my heavens they were good. I think im losing weight though, so don´t worry haha :) Hmm lets see what else...oh our house. We live above a store. So you walk up the stairs and there´s a big room with two tables in the center. THat´s where we study. THen you walk down the hall and to the right is our bedroom, a bathroom, and another room where we keep our suitcases and a rack for our clothes. Then you go to the end of the hall and there´s our kitchen. We have a fridge, a gas stove, a sink and a little cupboard to keep things in. All our food stays in the fridge. We´ve only had one cockroach that was in our room. My comp had to kill it haha There´s no spiders though...yet. There´s ants but it´s not too bad. Umm, oh we don´t have a washing machine so we do everything by hand. There´s a door outside the kitchen and there´s a big patio are with a a big sink and that´s where we do our laundry adn there´s a clothesline out there too. THat´s pretty much it. Oh get this, the taxi´s here are motorcyles. I thought that was a little strange. THere´s a lot of motorcylces here though. And they have cars too. The language is coming, slowly. I can teach lessons, but the frustrating part is not being able to completly understand the people and not carry on a normal conversation. This week me and my companion made a goal to speak more portuguese with each other, and even that is frustrating. She helps me though adn thats good, i just need to have patience with the language and that´s the hardest part. A lot of the missionaries that i´ve talked to have said that the language didn´t come til they´d been out about 6-8 months so that was a little comforting. Alright, well i better get going. Sounds like things are goign good with you guys. I heard about Brian, is he doing ok now? Is jen improving at all? And yes, i´ll ask pres Batt about grandpa. We go to fortaleza this week for a district meeting, i don´t know if he´ll be there for sure. But i´ll ask him next time i see him. Tell Tom and Glenda hi for me. And i´ll be sending them a letter soon. I think i have their address, but just in case can you get it for me please. Good with everything everyone...school is almost out adn that means Working Time!!!! ALthough you guys have already done a ton! I gotta go, love and miss you guys!love ariana

ps. everyone here loves the family pictures!