June 28, 2010

28 june 2010

Corianne is getting married?!?!?!?!? What?!?!? I didn´t even know she was dating someone. THat is so awesome!!!! Did you get an announcement? wow, i can´t believe it. And Chet passed away? wow, that must be tough. THat´s neat though that the parade will be dedicated to him. And no worries about the flood, i haven´t heard anything about it so im ok :) And yeah the calendars you sent will be good. Wow sounds like joey is pretty much running the farm these days haha i can´t believe he is baling hay. wow. So guess what?! i don´t remember if i told you about the couple we were working with Ancylia and Branco. THey have 3 little boys and one was already baptized. But they were baptized the 19th of june and they are so awesome. Their testimonies are already so strong and they will help this branch so much. And yesterday Ancylia was called to be Relief Society President!!!!! Me and Sister Gonzaga couldn´t believe it. Oh haha and by the way i didn´t get transferred...kinda forgot that part. Im really happy im staying in baturité. But yeah she was called as president. She´s already getting everything ready for it and planning things. SHe´s gonna do an amazing job! Something else that happened this past week. We were walking down the street and we ran into one of our old investigators(we ended up cutting her cuz she didn´t want to change) but anyways her dad had just died like 30 minutes before. SO we told her we would come and visit her and her mom. I think this will be a good time for them to come into the church and change. We went to their house and talked with them, and went over the plan of salvation with them again. We watched TOgether Forever with them also. THat was really good. THe mother said that Luis(the father) knew the gospel was true and he loved us coming to visit. I´m positive he will accept the gospel. ANd if the mother and daughter join the church they can take his name to the temple. THat would be really neat for them. Well, i need to go my time is just about up. Hope everyone has a fun time at the reunion. Tell everybody hi for me and give Grandpa a big hug and tell him i love him. I´m gonna write him a letter, so tell him he´ll be getting one! I love you guys!

Love, ariana

June 21, 2010

Oi!!!
Sounds like it´s a busy time right now for everybody! I still haven´t gotten the package yet, but we only get mail and packages on wednesday´s when we go to our district meetings. Well, the end of the transfer is coming up can you believe it?! This is my last week, I´m not sure if I´ll be transferred or not. We won´t know until Saturday night. I really want to stay here in Baturité at least one more transfer. I really love the people here. But I´ll go wherever the Lord needs me. The Branch is having a hard time right now. We had a meeting with the Branch President and the adults on sunday. President really needs help, the members are complaining about how things are disorganized, but they´re not willing to step in and help and that´s really frustrating. President França is so amazing though, he does so much for the Branch. He has a wife and two kids, a job, teaches seminary tuesday, wednesday and thursday nights(which he has to turn down some work because he´s having to teach seminary because no one else in the BRanch will), every single sunday he drives all over Baturité to pick everyone up for church. Him and his wife clean the church every saturday(the teenagers come sometime to help) but it´s really frustrating that members won´t help out. We´re going to have another meeting on sunday with the adults and try to figure something out.
Well, the language is coming slowly. This past week when we were teaching some people, they mentioned that my portuguese was getting better, so that´s a good sign :) Oh, guess what i made today?! Shortbread Carmel Cookies!!! They´re in the fridge right now, we´re gonna see how they turned out after this. I´m good on peanut butter right now, I´m saving my second one for my next transfer-trying to space it out haha
I´m glad my letters got there, I wasn´t sure what day Father´s Day was so I decided to send the letters soon. I´m glad Father´s Day was good :) I miss everyone lots!
It feels like I had to ask you something, but I can´t remember...oh well, let´s see I´m trying to think if anything really exciting happened this week. Oh! We baptized this family on saturday and they are so great! They´re already so strong in the gospel. It´s a couple and they have 3 kids. One was already baptized in an earlier transfer, the other two aren´t 8 yrs old yet, but the parents are so great, I love them! And the baptismal meeting was amazing. Me and my comp sang a special number and the wife was crying the whole time. The Spirit was strong. I love the feeling I get as I see the change in the peoples´ lives. Well I better go, I love you and hope all is well. Tell everyone hi for me :)
love,
ariana

p.s. i remember what i was gonna ask you. Can you make copies of that paper you have mom, of the addresses of people in the ward and send that to me. It´s the one on your desk in the kitchen and it´s in a clear protector thing. i think it´s just one with all the women´s names. THat would be really nice to have. Thanks! I love you

June 14, 2010

Ok, I don´t have a whole lot of time. But Hi everyone!!!! The weather is always nice here in Baturité :) Um I´m not quite sure how much the contact solution is, but I will check for sure and let you know. I really hope I get the other package, I miss peanut butter! We just finished the first peanut butter last week :( I got some pictures of it, I think you´ll like them. I sent letters to the family last week, so they´re on their way to you. I thought I wrote about my companion already, but I can´t remember. So my companion is Sister Gonzaga and she is Brasilian. She is from Parana. And yes she is hard worker so that´s good. She´s only been out 4 moths and already training me. My comp loved the cookies! She had never had them before and she was telling all the women in the branch about them. So they´re gonna have the recipe for No-Bake Cookies here in Baturité :) And I told President Batt about grandpa in my last letter, so next time i see him i will bring it up again. And yeah I can understand the people for the most part sometimes I look to my companion and ask what they just said, but I can pick things up and figure out what they said. The problem is actually "speaking" with them. I have a hard time just having a conversation with the people. I can teach just fine which is weird I just can´t "talk" with them. But I´m hoping that will come soon cuz i´m going on my 5th week already. And yes it´s winter or going into winter. I don´t know, i barely know what day it is here and i still haven´t figured out which way is north. It´s really hard to tell haha i know that´s really sad. We´re walking so much back and forth and here and there I forget which way the sun had come up that day. Anyways, this week was a little better than last. Last week was awful, we worked really hard and only 1 person showed up to church that we had been working with. So we decided to fast again this weekend and we had more people show up, so that was good. Oh, so I had a dream today when we were taking nap and i was getting transferred but we had to walk to our next area and i stopped at a hotel and i walked past a room and i heard mom´s voice and i go up to the window, and say "mom?" and you open the window and the whole family was here in brasil.It was so weird, but then i go in the room and we were home. Really weird haha well i gotta go, my time is up. I miss you all and love you!!! Sorry i didn´t get everything in your letter mom. But i love you!!! And i´ll write more next week. :)
love,
ariana
p.s. i felt like i had to ask you something but i can´t remember...hmm that´s gonna bug me now. I´ll probably remember once i log off. Oh well...love and miss you!!!!!

**oh and i saw some pics from jande and Rochelle´s site looks beautiful wish i could have been there!

June 7, 2010

Hey everyone!
Well everything is going well here in Baturité! We had our first zone conference this last week. It was really good, I had to share my testimony. All the new missionaries had to share and the ones leaving had to share also. It was really good and President and Sister Batt talked to us. Then afterwards they got us pizza. It was good, but it´s nothing like the states. States is much better. THey have chocolate pizza though and that is really good! :) And I hope Jennifer starts getting better, I fasted for her as well. I hope uncle Brian is doing ok. THat´s scary, he was in surgery...what did they have to put back together? And yes i got the letter from jason. Haha i didn´t know the sausage was made of that, but it´s really good!! And the brigadeiro...mmmm :) OH guess what?! I made no bake cookies today for my companion and they taste just like the ones at home. I was happy they turned out. My comp loves them! Oh and with the pictures can you send the family picture of Todd and Lora´s family and Travis and Meredith´s family, for some reason they are the only two families I don´t have in my photo album. And if you could, send me a calendar, i don´t care what it is. Not something too big, but just something i can see the days of the week and the months. I never know what day it is, it´s sad. haha and if it´s not too much. A list of birthday´s in the family. And speaking of birthday´s we have one this week! CHANDLER HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m not there to throw you a big party, sorry ;) Haha hope you have a good day though! Well, the language is still coming, i jsut wish it would come a little faster. I´m trying not to get frustrated though. Oh, i got your package mom. THe one with contact solution and the CTR rings. THank you so much! Sister Batt was going to check if there was another package cuz she thinks there might be one more. If there is I should get it on wednesday. THanks so much for everything! I love all you lots! Good luck with spring ball boys and have fun! I´m running out of time cuz i had to write to President Batt. I wasn´t getting the emails at first so i just hand wrote the weekly letters to him. So that takes up some of my time now. I love you guys! I´m so grateful for this church and the opportunity I have to serve the Lord at this time. Even though it may be hard at times I think of everything that Joseph Smith went through and all the sacrifices he had to make to bring this gospel to the earth again, for US! And more importantly what the Savior did for us. He suffered for everything and died for us. ´The Lord has asked me to give 18 months to serving Him. Christ gave his LIFE for us, so I should be able to give this little amount of time for Him and his people that are searching for the truth. Stay true to the gospel and stay close to the Lord. I love you!

Love,

ariana

May 31, 2010

Oi!!how´s everyone doing? And mom not to get you worried, i´m way ahead of you. Haha my ankles are fine now, Last week i elevated them for a little bit one night and after that they´ve been fine. And yeah, the make-up all i wear is mascara and eyeliner. THe other stuff is sitting in my suitcase, but i´ll pull it out for zone conference haha That´s so exciting that whitney and marissa were baptized! Sounds like there was a huge turnout, that´s good. Oh and the pictures that you´re sending in the photo album, can you send a few of rochelle. I´ve shared her story many times when we teach about the plan of salvation and how families can be together for eternity. I can feel the spirit work through me so much whenever i share that experience. We were teaching this father and her daughter the other day adn we were teaching that lesson. I shared the story about rochelle and showed them our family picture. I started crying and testified that i know we can be a forever family. Adn afterwards the father said he felt something when i was telling my story adn knows that it´s true. So i thought that was really neat.Thanks for sending me brett´s email :) That´s interesting what the president said about the priesthood, maybe i´ll ask brett in my next letter ;) THat´s too bad about jennifer, i really hope she starts to get better. I´ll be fasting for her though!As for the computer, we come to a little internet place and we have to pay. It´s not much, and we use it for one hour. but during that hour we have to email our mission president about our week adn everything. So that takes some time. And guess what?! We got a washing machine!!!!!! We installed it today adn we got to use it. We were so excited cuz washing all our clothes by hand takes quite awhile. And we got new mattresses too. Our others were so worn out. You lay down and it´s like a trampoline. You sink in the middle haha but our others our nice, not too soft, but i can´t complain, we have things pretty good considering our area. Oh and i told you i was going to send pictures but my comp was doing that last week and she sat there for 13 minutes waiting for only one picture to load. So i think i´ll just put a ton on a disc and send it to you.K i have story for you, you all are gonna laugh. So the other night i was getting in the shower and i turn around and there´s a massive cockroach behind the door. How i didn´t see when i first came in the bathroom, i don´t know cuz it was huge. I ran out and told my companion to kill it, but she didn´t want to kill it either haha neither of us had the courage to do it. Haha and we wouldn´t go to sleep until this thing was dead. By the way, these things are so stinkin fast! So after deciding neither of us were going to kill it, we call our branch president to see if he´s busy. Lol he was at the church adn was just about to leave so he stopped by really quick adn killed it for us. Haha i might be a farm girl but i hate bugs, especially ones that are larger than my fingers. Wow, i took a picture of it, but it doesn´t do it justice.The beans and rice are so good! We ate at our branch pres. house yesterday after church and it was sooo good. It was rice, beans, this pork sausage stuff adn this crumb looking stuff. It almost looks liek corn meal, ahh i can´t remember the name of it, it starts with an F though Farinha or somethign like that. Oh and my comp made this amazing dessert the otehr night, oh my heavens. you haven´t lived until you try this, it´s a brasilian thing, it´s called bricadeira. Not sure if i spelled it right, but holy cow is it amazing. It´s this chocolate stuff and then she mixed it with cookies. Mmm im making myself hungry now haha. I´ll get the recipe from her and send it to you next week. I know it has sweet and condensed milk, sugar, butter, cocoa and im not sure what else. But it´s amazing trust me!Oh before i forget, karl and kathi eppich sent me cookies back when i was in the mtc in provo. And everytime i forget to ask you for their address, can i get that please so i can send them a thank you card. Wow, time goes by so fast adn i feel like i can´t get everything done.Well i gotta wrap this up. I hope everyone else is doing well adn school is goign good for the boys. Good luck with spring ball adn keep working hard! The hard work will pay off when you boys come out on your mission. I was just thinking that if i wasn´t used to doing a lot of work on the farm and staying busy, a mission would be a lot harder. So be grateful you boys that you know how to work. I am so grateful for this gospel and all the blessings we receive from it. I have seen the help ffrom the lord so many times already and am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost. We always need to be receptive and listening for the spirit. Otherwise we´re goign to miss opportunities to share the gospel with otehrs or even a simple testimony. Always be worthy of the spirit and you will be blessed throughout your life. The church is true and i love it! I miss and love ALL of you so much!!!!! love,arianaps. can you maybe take some pictures of the farm and send them in that album also, thanks!!

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!

I'm HERE!

Hey everyone I´m finally in Fortaleza!!!!! It is absolutely beautiful here. And I love my mission president and his wife, they are great. Just letting you know i arrived here safe and all is well. It´s very hot. When i got here this afternoon it was 85 degrees with the sun shining!!! I love it. Well i gotta go, i´ll email you again as soon as i can. Love you!

love, sister salisbury