June 27, 2011

Hey!!!!
So this week is the family reunion huh?! Hope you guys have fun!!!!
Well, yesterday I had the opportunity to visit one my areas, Metrópole. I went to both the wards there and sat in on both of their sacrament meetings. It was so good to see everyone and the people I had taught. Haha and just like old times, I played the piano for them in the meeting. Towards the end of the meeting bishop sent me a note and asking me if I would share my testimony. So after the speakers he invited me up to bare my testimony. It was so hard, I really felt that I´m coming to the end of my mission and this is it. I won´t see any of them for awhile. I hope I´ll be able to visit my other areas. I´m pretty sure I´ll visit Baturité , but Monte Castelo, I don´t know. It was so neat though to see the members in Metrópole. It´s changed though, thats what´s hard, you leave and the people keep living their lives. On the way back I was talking to Sister Gonzaga and I said, "It´s going to be the same thing when we go back home, we left and things kept going on, people kept living their lives and everything will be different." That´s going to be the shock for me....but that´s life i guess.
Yesterday we also had a baptism for Francinildo. He´s an investigator we´ve been teaching for awhile now. We´re teaching his family, his wife is going to be baptized but she has to stop smoking first. They have 4 kids and they are the neatest family. I love them so much!!! President Batt came out once more the other day, it was the last time we saw him. He leaves tomorrow!!! He also gave me a blessing. It was so neat and it was just what I needed. Lots of things have been going on and dad I know you were inspired by the Spirit to ask President Batt to give me a blessing. Even though we´re miles away,in two different countries,you are still inspired by the spirit to know exactly what your daughter is needing. THank you so much!!! I love you!

Sister Gonzaga´s parents were in at the MTC this past week in Provo. They´re heading to their mission in Maceió (Brazil) tomorrow i think. And Sister Souza sends hugs and kisses for you guys! She is so sweet!!!! I love her so much! I´m going to miss these girls so much, they have made such an impact on my life! And Sister Souza is teaching me ballet :)
Alright, well not much else has happened this past week. I´m making my way through the Book of Mormon again and I´m loving every minute of it! I love it so much, because everytime you read it you find something that you didn´t catch before or you understand something a different way, ah I wish I had been more passionate about reading it growing up. I guess it kind of comes with your mind set though. Chandler, Garrett and Joseph.....READ THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!!!!!! Mark the things that interest you, that catch your attention and as you read it, think of it as a story book, it´s so interesting. It has so much information and different "characters"....it´s just AMAZING!!!!! And the thing is, ALL of it is TRUE!!! I can´t wait to come home and read it with the family!!!! :)
Well, I hope all is well and you guys have a fun week!!!! I love you all!!!
Love, Sister Salisbury

June 20, 2011

Hey Everyone!!!

Happy Father´s Day to Dad, and all my brothers, chad, brian, uncles, grandpa cook and grandpa salisbury!!!!! Hope it was a good one! :) Dad you got my father´s day letter right?! I think you or mom may have mentioned it. Well, this is President Batt´s last week. He´ll leave next tuesday. I can´t believe. He´s made a couple visits to us this past week. We went out to pizza with him and sister batt and one of the families here that was recently baptized. And then last night President came out to our area again. He gave us a ride home from the church. We stayed outside talking with him forever. None of us wanted to go inside. It might have been the last time we see him, but we´re begging him to come out once more. While we were waiting for him to come outside out at the church we were just crying because we figured that would be the last time. He has been such a great president. All us missionaries wrote our last letter to president batt today. He´ll be going home and then before I know it that´ll be me! As soon as the new president gets here I´ll ask him about my release date and let you know as soon as possible. And I will talk to the secretary and tell him to fl me into Pasco

Oh and mom, can you start scheduling my doctor appointments. I thought I´d never ever say this in my entire life, but I WANT to go to the dentist. Be sure to get me scheduled :) Trying to think if anything else happened this week....we all went shopping today and I think im done buying gifts!!! Thank goodness!!!! Oh and you know the boy i told you we baptized last week, Diogo, his brother Victor I believe was taught and Baptized by elder mcgary and his companion. I don´t really know him, but he had glasses and reddish hair in the picture that I saw. Is that the same mcgary?? not sure.

Um...OH! We had Festa Junina this past week. It´s a traditional northeast festa that they celebrate. Our ward put it on and it was so much fun. All the kids have been practicing for weeks. They do square dancing and they all get dressed up in these festive dresses and outfits. It was so neat!

And I have to tell you about some the neatest members ever!!!! I feel like I never left home. Irmã Fatima and her husband Ronaldo are our neighbors. They have two girls that are so much fun, Nitchelly and Natasha. They´re like sisters to us. Nitchelly is married to Paulino and they have two little girls, Aisly and Aisha. Natasha is married to Lorival and they have 3 girls, Jade, Julie and Jude. Each one of these little girls loves us just as much as we love them. Every morning and night they stop by our house for us to give them hugs and kisses. They are adorable!!! And they know that they can´t come in our house so they wait by the door until we all come out. I want to bring them all home with me. THey´re like my nieces away from home. I will miss them all so so much!!!! And nitchelly and natasha are like my sisters. I have a feeling it´s going to be a lot harder to leave here than I thought it was going to be.

Well, I hope all goes well at the family reunion this next week. Say hi to everyone and give them all hugs for me! I love and miss you all!!!! Tchau!!

Love, Sister Ariana Salisbury

June 13, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHANDLER!!!!!!!!!!

HOpe you had a good birthday!!! :)

Well, this week was quite interesting. Actually the past two weeks have been crazy, lots of things have been going on. 20 prisoners escaped!!! There were police officers and helicopters going all over the place....but no worries, we´re all good now. A few other things have happened, but I´ll wait to tell you the stories in person :)

So we got some really sad news saturday night. We got home and we had over 10 missed calls, from a number in São Paulo. We called president batt to see if he new something about it and come to find out it was Sister Souza´s Bishop trying to get a hold of her. Her dad passed away friday night. It was really hard for her. She´s still trying to get by. The hardest part for her I think is because she hasn´t had contact with him for about 3 years. Her parents are separated and she lives with her mom. Sister Souza is the only member from her family. She joined the church when she 9 years old!!! Her dad had problems with drinking, but apparently he died in his sleep. She´s going to stay here, she got permission from president to call her mom and talk to her. She´s getting by though, she´s got 4 other sisters here with her :)

So Jande is pregnant too!!!! I knew it! I even said somethign to her on mothers day about it, but she didn´t say anything haha but that´s way exciting, congrats!!!! So that will make number 32, right?? IT´s funny when I tell people that I have 30 nieces and nephews. THeir jaws drop to the ground.

For the release date, that´s all i know as of now. Once the new president gets here I can talk to him and get the time and all that worked out.

Brett wrote me, he´s actaully in utah right now helping his grandpa out with some things. He´s thinking about going to cbc as well. I can´t wait to see him, haha i hope im not weird....

Alright so yesterday we went to visit a family we had been teaching. They´ve been difficult. FIrst off, we got them married and got everythign ready for their baptism but then the mom went and smoked and the dad drank so that put their baptism out the window. We cut them and gave them some time. Then last week we went back just to see how things were going and they come out and say we´re coming to church on sunday and we want to be baptized last week. We tried not to get our hopes up because of what had happened in the past. Saturday we stopped by to remind them about church. Gleciane, the mom, said she would go but Gean, the dad, had to work because they had to pay some late bills. Long story short, no one came to church, we stopped by yesterday to see what happened and come to find out they took the whole family to the beach. That was our last visit to their house. It´s so frustrating, they were such a good family at the beginning, but the enemy works so hard and they just gave in. The enemy is working really hard with the families that we´re working with. It seems like he´s working the hardest now than he ever has with any of the investigators I´ve had. It´s hard, but we just have to work harder to overcome him.

We did have other investigators come to church though. We´re working with another family, Bernardo and Silvana. Silvana is actually a member already, but her husband isn´t. We are in the process of getting them married. We´ll be heading to the cartório (the place you marry people, i forgot the word in english) this week for the second step. After that just one more and then he can be ´baptized! We also had a baptism yesterday for Diogo. He is such a cutie! He´s ten years old and he always comes to church with his grandpa.

Well, that´s all I can think of right now. HOpe you all have a good week and i love you all!!!!

Love, sister salisbury

June 6, 2011

Hey everyone!

Well, this week we had zone conference. It was really emotional because it was our last one with President and Sister Batt. It was also my last one. I had to bare my testimony since I´ll be leaving in August. Everyone that will be going up until the transfer in august had to bare their testimony. I told my self I wasn´t going to cry, I got teary-eyed but i held it in! I can´t believe that it´s coming to an end. I try not to think about it too much, but now me, sister Gonzaga and sister corrêa are trying to plan to go buy things and what we´re going to get and it´s hard not to think that i´ll be home soon. It seriously passes by so fast! It feels like yesterday that Aunt Launa was dropping me off at the MTC. I am so grateful for all the companions that I´ve had though and all that I´ve learned from them, my leaders, President and Sister Batt...they are the most amazing people ever! I will truly miss them.

This past week I also went to the policia federal to renew my visa. I was the 1st estrangeiro!!!!! haha The first foreigner to go through for the day :) We saw lots of people from south africa, it was way cool. They were speaking english but they have a crazy accent.

Ok, so zone conference was really neat. All of the missionaries got to the chapel early and we were all up on the stand so when president and sister batt came into the chapel we started singing the cong, "Each life that touches ours for good" It was so neat. They just sat at the back on the bench and they were so touched, and president even cried!!! Then for a speical musical number, the four sisters that i live with sang and i played for them. Sister Gonzaga sang a solo, "Together Forever" and then at the end the other sisters came in and sang with her, "I know that my Redeemer lives" It was so amazing!!!! This conference was so special and you could feel the spirit so much! (Dad you would absolutely love Sister Gonazaga!!!) I want you guys to meet her so much!!!! But she´s thinking about going to BYU. When she goes home her parents won´t be there, they´re just about to leave to go to the MTC in PRovo, Her dad is going to be a mission president here in Brazil. But im almost positive that sister gonzaga will make her way to the states. She´s absolutely amazing and i have so much love and respect for her. She is an amazing woman!!!!

we had a baptism on saturday. It wasn´t really mine though. THe other two sisters from the other ward, finished teaching this man that sister gonzaga had started to teach but then she got transferred. Its a miracle though that he was baptized. He´s married to a member and he never believed in God or Christ. The change that happened in that man´s life was an absolute miracle! You can really see the light in his eyes. The baptism was so great and i was so happy to see his family all together!

Um, well not much else has happened. We started up an english class, we´re going to have an activity this friday that the members are planning and one of the members asked if i would teach a cheer dance or some type of dance for them, so that will be fun :)

Well, hope all is well with you guys and have a great summer!!!! I love you alll!!!!!

love, sister salisbury

Oh and i almost forgot! Yesterday we had lunch at the second counselor´s(of the bishopric) house here in José Walter and guess who baptized him!!!!! Sevryn Bergeson!!!! Let Sevryn know that Chiko Antonio and his family sends him hugs, love and all the best!!!!