April 11, 2011

Hey everybody!

Well, me and Sister Bowden got transferred.........PSYCH!!!!! We´re together again! Can you believe it?! We were so excited, we had the phone on speaker phone when the elder was talking to us and when he said we were staying together we freaked out!!! It was probably a little over the top, but we were super excited! So yesterday on the way to church we met up with our recent convert, Sandrinha and our friend Silvinha. We played it up a bit and told them that we were both leaving. It looked like they were going to cry so when we got to the church we told them we were just kidding. Sandrinha was so cute, she said she was about to cry and was thinking that she didn´t pray enough last night and that she needed to have more faith! It blew me awaay. We talked to a lot of the kids at church and I guess there were a lot of prayers said saturday night in our behalf. The members here really love us. And me and Sis. Bowden were talking when we got home sunday night that if it wasn´t for any other reason that we stayed, it was because of the prayers and faith of the kids that prayed for us. I felt really loved after yesterday. It was an amazing day at church too! It was fast and testimony meeting and Sandrinha and our other convert Davi were sitting with us and we were trying to get them to go bare their testimonies. So we decided all of us would go up at once......what a blessing to see the fruits of our labors! It was so neat to hear their testimonies, both of them were just wonderful!!!!!! I can´t even describe the feeling that i had. It was amazing!

Oh so I´ve been meaning to tell you guys for awhile now, but I always forget....me and sis. Bowden argue quite often. We´re getting better though, we´re goign on 3 transfers together now and we´re just barely starting to figure things out. We fight over doing the dishes!!! Haha She always thinks I do them more than she does, but we´ve decided to make a dishes chart to keep track of who´s turn it is. It´s a little out of control, and that´s usually not what comps fight over, but in our case....it´s quite a BIG deal.

Wow so you guys would not believe this!!! We were at the church saturday night to teach piano and english and a lady was throwing a birthday party for her one year old......it was off the top!!!! This is a party I´d never seen before for a 1 yr old. It was "The Little Mermaid" theme because the baby´s name is Arielly and holy cow!!!! I can´t even explain to you what it looked like the entire place was covered with decorations, had a cotton candy machine, food, cake, pop, candy, the works. And Arielly was dressed up as the little mermaid. She was really cute, but wow!!!! I´ll send pics :)

How was Alaska?! I bet it was super fun! But yeah, I think Brett is doing good, I guess he´s really busy working right now, he´s done with school for now and he´ll be going to Utah. I was hoping to be able to talk to him on mother´s day, but it sounds like he´ll be in utah. Maybe he´ll come home that weekend though, not sure, i´ll have to ask him. Is mother´s day may 8th?? And you guys should probably put more minutes on that card that I have. I don´t know how many its got left. Have you guys heard anything else on coming down here, plans, flight tickets, visas and what not??? And does my pres need to talk to the church or somehting about me coming home iin august or have you guys called the church or anything. Maybe you already did, im not sure. And mom can you find out when i need to have papers in to cbc for fall 2011??? I need to make sure i can get signed in for fall.

Well, i gotta go but i hope all goes well this week for everyone!!!!! I love you all and i miss you tons!!!!

Love, Sister Salisbury

April 4, 2011

Hey Everyone!!!

Did you guys LOVE conference?!?!? Well for those who "paid attention" haha i love the pics that chandler took! I absolutely loved conference and I got to watch it in english which was way nice! Last time I had to watch it in portuguese and I feel like you lose some of the stuff and the voices are different....but it was so good. We got to watch all 4 sessions! I don´t know which was my favorite, I liked so many of them. One of them that I really enjoyed was Elder Richard G. Scott, it was so neat!!! Loved it! And mom, those donuts looked so delicious! Sunday we had a baptism in between the sessions, it was so neat! It was a little stressful trying to get everything to go right and what not, but it all worked out good. The girl that was baptized is Alexsandra (Sandrinha), she´s 17 yrs old and she is the sweetest thing! She´s actually thinking about moving to the US with a friend. Oh something else, there´s a member here who is marrying an american in the spokane, wa temple in june i believe. I think the guy is from Coeur d´Alene, Idaho. Crazy huh?!

That´s awesome Kyal is going on a mission! And be sure to tell me when jacob and bryson get their calls!!! And brandon is already coming home?!??! HOly cow! I bet his family is REALLY excited!

THe language is great! And yeah I can pretty much say anything i want. Granted there are those times when I´ll get stuck on word, but for the most part it´s all good :) What a MIRACLE!!!!!! About a year ago I was praying that I would be able to speak the language. It´s amazing to be a part of this work and see so many blessings come from it! I love the church!!!! I was thinking during conference how anyone could just look at this church and not believe it´s the church of Christ. Just the organization of it alone is just INCREDIBLE!!!! All the general authorities, the choir, the members, the Spirit.....EVERYTHING!!!!! What a blessing it is to live in the world at such a time as this. It´s so amazing!

So really quick! I had a crazy dream last night that I want to tell you...

I was at the CTM with my current companion, Sister Bowden. The CTM was the connell high school. We were outside talking and I look out by the road and there was a line of telephone booths. I had just missed mothers day and i hadn´t been able to call home, but i see mom, dad, chandler, garrett and joseph each at a phone. You guys start to leave and i wanted to talk to you so bad but everyone was telling me i couldn´t. I was freaking out and i yell, "JOEY!!!!!!!!!!!" You guys don´t hear me so i yell again and joey turns around and tells that it´s me. He starts runnign at me but then dad grabs him and tells him he can´t see me. Then mom trys to come over to me with blaire wells but mom doesn´t talk to me, she leaves and blaire asks me if i want to get a ride home with her i tell her YES! and then i woke up...

it was really strange, and it just made me want to see you guys that much more, but it´s ok. I just want you all to know how much i love and appreciate every one of you! I have the BEST FAMILY anyone could ever ask for!!! I hope you all have an amazing week!!!! I love you!!!

Love, Sister Salisbury

Ps i wore my white summer dress yesterday to the baptism and it was super cute...i´ll send pics next week!!! :)

oh and transfers are this next week too...not sure what will happen....

March 29, 2011

OH MY HEAVENS!!!!!! KELSEY IS ENGAGED AND SHE`S GETTING MARRIED JUNE 11?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!??!?!??! I can´t believe it! I´m super duper excited for her, but I´m so sad I´m not going to be there for it :( BUt congrats Kelsey!!! I can´t wait to meet your husband when I get home!!!! :)

And Bishop Edmonds is moving to Cali?! Wow, everything will be so different when I get home! And that´s so exciting, Tyler is getting baptized soon!!! Give them all a big hug for me!

But yeah, I´m pretty sure my comp passed out because of the heat. Oh mom!! You would be so proud of me! So the other night for dinner guess what i ate?!?!?! A tomatoe sandwich! It was delicious! THen On sunday our lunch fell through so we made spaghetti and breadsticks, and had a salad. And I cut up cucumbers and put them in vinegar! They were wonderful!!!! Something else, there´s this lady here in the area who sews and we had stopped by to see her and we were looking through some of her magazines and asked us if we would like her to make us something. We said yes and we picked a dress that we liked, got the fabric and she made it! I love mine, it´s simple, but it´s a cute white summer dress! I´m super excited to use it for a baptism :)

HAha something that happened the other night, we were walking down the street and there were these two guys and as we pass them one of them says, "good night" and then i said "boa noite" then the other guy yells at him and says, "é 'good evening´ macho" then the other guy yells back at us..."sorry!" haha it was hilarious, me and sister bowden were busting up!

THat´s awesome to hear that the boys are doing good in baseball! Sounds like they´re tearing it up! ANd joey is running the farm it sounds like! Way to go bud! :)

ANd mom that would be great if you could send some cream of tarter for my branch pres! He would love it!

Wish Grandma Salisbury a Happy Birthday for me! Hope she´s doing good! I hope grandpa starts feeling better. Are they liking the newplace?

Well, general conference is this week!!!! i´m so excited! ANd we´ll be able to watch it in english! I´m so happy! I´d be able to understand it in portuguese, but it makes it easier in english :)

ALright, well not much else has happened. We´re doing good here in Aracati. I have a feeling I´ll be here the rest of my mission, but I wouldn´t mind, I really love it here! HOpe everything is going good at home and i hope you´re doing better dad! I love you all so much! I wouldn´t be the missionary am if it wasn´t for you all! I miss and love you guys!!!

Have a good week!

Love, sister salisbury

March 21, 2011

Hey!!

So you won´t believe it! I got sunburned today!!! I didn´t even think that was possible now, but apparently it is...I´m on FIRE!!!! We went to Canao Quebrada today, it´s a beach, just to take some pictures and walk around the little shops they have there and holy cow! Me and my comp both are fried. And while we were there we had a little scare. We were walking up some stairs and it was after we had walked awhile and taken pictures and all...it was super duper hot too. We stop for a second to take another picture and my comp tells me and the member that was with us, Silvinha, that she was going to pass out. Me and Silvinha thought that she was just messin around and then she said, "no im serious" and i turn around and she´s swaying back and forth and looked completely out of it. So i run over to her as she´s going down and i catch her and lay her on the ground, trying to talk to her and then she comes out of it and starts saying, that was so weird! that was so weird! That´s the first time ive ever passed out! It was like i was dreaming." I was freaking scared, she stayed sitting down while silvinha ran to buy us some water. Whew! She was fine after that, but that really scared me!

Well, yesterday guess who was finally baptized?! Davi!!! He was so excited and it went so well. The young women sang a musical numer, his young mens leader gave a talk and it was so good! I am so happy for him. And we talked with his parents yesterday too and for awhile the dad was giving us a hard time about him and his wife getting married, but we´re going tomorrow to take all their documents and what not in to city hall! :)
That´s so cool about garrett! Im so excited for him! I can´t wait to see them play when i get home. I bet that makes garrett feel pretty good too with the coaches talking about him and all :) Way to go bro!!!

Haha alright so kind of funny experience. We were at our investigators house for the first time, we walk in and she wants to introduce us to her mom. We walk through the front room and guess who was there giving a lesson as well?? Jeovah Witnesses....yeah we taught them about the restoration......actually not really, but we should´ve. It was just sort of funny because we were in one room teaching a lesson, while the JW´s were in the room next to us teaching her dad. :)

Yes, I have heard about the earthquake and tsunami that happened in japan. Everyone has been talking about it here. That is so sad about everything that has happened.

I´m trying to think if anything else happened this week, I felt like there was something else. It´s not coming to me though. Oh YEAH!!!! I hit a YEAR this week on St. Patty´s Day!!!!! It was so cool. We made GREEN eggs, GREEN pancakes, and drank GREEN milk for breakfast. THen that night for dinner we made GREEN-crust pizza and drank GREEN juice!!!! It was so tight! We took lots of pics so I´ll be showing some to you :) And we of course wore GREEN that day! By the way mom, sister bowden has an AMAZING recipe for pizza crust!!!! Oh and we also made some snickerdoodles for the branch president and his family and they LOVED them!!!! They want the recipe so bad, the only thing is they don´t have cream of tarter here. I could give him some of mine, cuz i only use it for that recipe. Is there a substitute for it though??
Well, i better get going. I hope you all have a good week! And good to hear that everything is going well. How did mom´s appointment go by the way? Alright, good luck with everything! Love you all!

Love, Sister Salisbury

Ps Happy Birthday to Lindsay and Lauren this past week! ANd chad this week!!! :)

March 14, 2011

E aí Beleza?!
I´m so super excited for this week! Can you believe I hit a year?! I can´t, but we are working with some great people and I can´t wait to get teaching them again! We went back to see Davi and his family yesterday. It seemed like it had been forever because of Carnival and all. They are still amazing as ever! I don´t remember if I had told you or not that they´ve started from the beginning of the book of mormon and they´re still going. We told them they can mark the verses that they like and when we asked them if they´d marked anything so far Davi said that he had and he showed us the one that was his favorite...1 Nephi 3:7!!!! I thought that was so cool how its a scripture mastery and that he chose it. So cool! We´re still trying to get the parents married. Sonya for sure wants to get baptized, her husband is still a little disanimated though. WE´re also working with another mom and her two teenage kids. They are so cool! We just found them this past week and they seem way excited about the church.

Well, I gave another talk in church yesterday. We speak every second sunday of the month in one of the wards and i think it was friday that we had actually remembered about it. But it went good, I spoke on the atonement and told a story about an elder in the houston, texas mission. Its a way cool story. One of my district leaders from one of my earlier areas gave me a copy.

As far as Virgel. the american at the hospital, he got transfered to a diferent one. But I think he´s going to head to fortaleza though. We went yesterday to check up on him, but we caught the doctor in the way in and he told us that he´s in Beberibe. It´s actually where Virgel is from. the doctor thinks that they´ll be moving him to fortaleza, I asked if he had made any progress, but he said he wasn´t and it didn´t look too promising. I hope everything happens for the best though.

Dad is the new stake assistant clerk?! THat is so cool!!! THat´ll be fun. So does he have to be at teh stake center all the time now??

Luke got baptized! THat is so cool!!! Wow I can´t believe he´s already 8. I remember going down to california for kennedy´s baptism! That´s awesome to hear that Travis is doing well. It´s pretty hard not like him. He really is an amazing example to me. It´s good to have so many older siblings that I can look up to. And talking about older siblings I was actually talking to my comp, sister bowden, last night about something that I´ll always remember doing growing up. So this is back when dad only worked on the farm so we were all at the house in the mornings and i remember I would come into yours and dads room and climb up on teh bed and either you or dad would have your legs up (so it looked like a little mountain)and i would climb up over them. And then lots of times all of us kids would come and lay on the bed with you guys and we´d just talk for a little bit. :) Fun times!
Well, I hope you all have a good week and that baseball is going good! I love and miss you all! And you´re all in my prayers!
Love, Sister Salisbury

March 8, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!


Sorry I wasn´t able to email yesterday. I was in Monte Castelo during carnaval and all the places were closed so none of us were able to email home. I hope you had a good birthday! Sounds like you guys had a pretty good time. THat´s fun that aunt Jane is coming up. That will be fun to be able to celebrate your birthday with her there.

That´s crazy about Bevin getting called to Fortaleza! I´m so excited for him! He´s going to love it!!! I´ll have to fill him in on the new Mission President we´re getting in july. I haven´t heard anything yet about him, but I´ll have one transfer with him. It´s too bad that he won´t get here before I go home, but it´s still way cool!

Heard that the girls got 6th again this year. Isn ´t that what they got last year too? And how is baseball going? When do the boys start having games? Do you think the high school will have a good team this year? You´ll have to keep me updated.

Hey I have a question, did Lavon McGary pass away along with Don? I heard she passed away too, but I´m not sure if I understood it correctly. I got a letter from a member and by the way she said it, it sounded like they both passed away. Just wondering.

Well, this past weekend was carnaval. I guess it gets pretty crazy here in our area so we got a call on saturday saying that we had to pack up and head to monte castelo with the sisters there. We ended up staying at the apartment the whole time with one of the sisters (they´re in a trio) because she can´t walk, she had fallen and hurt her knee pretty bad. And she´s brand new on the mission, i felt really bad for her. So not much really happened this week, and we´ll see how this week goes :)

I´ve been thinkin a lot about grandma cook. I can´t believe it´s been a year already. I wish I could be there to share the time with you all, but I know that Grandma is watching over me and I definitely feel of my family´s love. You all are so so special to me. Thank you so much for all that you´ve done.
I love you!!! And hope you all have a good week!

Love,
Sister Salisbury

March 3, 2011 with Pictures

day we got caught in the rain (sunday)...had to give a talk in sacrament meeting as well :)

On our way to district meeting...raining again...and in the background is a massive mermaid

Me and my comp sister bowden!

Me and a member in monte castelo(the night we stayed the night with the sisters in monte castelo) had zone conference. And that little girl is wearing the same sandals that i was wearing :)

All the sisters at one conf. with president batt. 

Flipping tortillas! we made them from scratch and they were amazing...we had tacos :)

In front of a Macavi truck(name of a store) and it has quite a few of the mission areas on there :) if you zoom in on it it has Baturité(first area), Caucaia(close to metrópole where i served) and Aracatí, where Im at now :)