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!!!!

May 30, 2011

WOW! What a week!

It went really good this week, lots of work, but I enjoyed it. I went out a couple days with a member. Her name is Lais and she´s 19 years old. She wants to serve a mission really bad, so she´s been helping me. So what usually happens is this, I stay with S. Gonzaga and S. Black until after lunch, then at about 1:30-2:00 I meet up with Lais and I go to work with her until about 6:00pm. Then I meet up with Gonzaga and Black again and we work the rest of the night. It´s really good so far and Im enjoying it. I really miss Sister Bowden, but we´re having zone conference this week, so I´ll be seeing her then :)

So we´re working with so many good people right now. THere´s this family that we´re working with that are great! The wife smokes and drinks coffee, but she´s stopping and yesterday we went over there to make Cevada(barley) with her. It´s a substitute for coffee, it´s really good! And she loved it. She said she´s done with coffee and the cevada doesn´t give her the desire to smoke. She said when she drinks coffee, it´s makes her want to smoke. We were all so happy. We were actually working with another family this past week, but we had to cut them. We had gone into fortaleza to get them married, we were planning their baptism for this past saturday, but we went there on friday and the wife had smoked again and the husband had drank. We were so distraught!!! But we´re working with lots of other good people. There´s this man, Bernardo, he´s going to be baptized in june. We just have to get him and his wife married first, we´re doing that this week. We´ll start the process and in a few weeks they´ll be married and he´ll be baptized! Im really liking the area so far and the sisters that im working with. Hopefully we have another good week.

Alright and now for the crazy experience we had this week. Friday morning, I woke up put my clothes in the washer and started a load. Then me and S. Black started working out (me and S. Bowden started working out in aracati and now s black is doing it with me). One of the sisters went to take a shower and about 1 minute later she comes out and says we have NO WATER. I go to the washer and it had stopped filling up. SO picture this, all my whites in the washer, me and s black sweating like you wouldn´t believe and 3 other sisters that are needing to shower....and we have NO WATER. Our neighbors didn´t even have water, we couldn´t even use the bathroom and 2 sisters were sick, with the flu. Perfect scene, huh? And we were without water for 2 STRAIGHT DAYS! We have a grocery store right down the road and we were having to use the bathroom there. And the deal about showers.....well, we had mineral drinking water. Each of us filled up a 1 1/2 liter waterbottle and used that to take a shower. But that´s all we had so we had to use it wisely. We used it to wash our dishes, drinking....and my clothes sat in the washer for 2 days. Luckily they didn´t have a bad smell by the time the water came back, but oh my heavens, it was a crazy 2 days. Haha we just laugh about it now. :)

Oh! Other crazy thing......guess who was in Sister Black´s room at the MTC, in Provo????? SISTER KATHERINE TAYLOR. Small world huh?! S Black said she absolutely loved her, they became really good friends.

Well, I have to say sorry mom, because I didn´t even wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY last week......HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) we were crossing the road last week and it hit me that i hadn´t said anything in my email last monday. Sorry :( But hope you had a good day! And Happy Birthday to Marissa and Whitney too!!!!

Hope you all have a good week and good luck joey at the talent show! Love you guys!!!

Love, Sister Ariana Salisbury

May 23, 2011

WOW WHAT A WEEK!!!!!!!!!

This week was probably one of the best and saddest weeks of the mission. I´m not sure if you all can understand the love these people have for us. So, like you know, we teach piano and english twice a week. Well, they knew transfers were coming up and they didn´t want me or Sister Bowden to leave. So we´re at the church saturday night at class teaching. One of the girls, Silvinha, who is the most amazing person ever, wasn´t there, which was really strange. Anyways, we´re getting things packed up and ready to leave and she shows up, but we were all leaving. We come out of the room and they tell us to come into another room. We walk in and we see a tv hooked up with a table of food and dessert. We couldn´t believe it. They did this all for us and this isn´t even the best part. They made a DVD of all the pictures of us at class and what not and Silvinha had recorded everyone saying something about us. It was the most amazing thing that anyone has ever done. These people in Aracati are so incredible and have so much love for us. Everyone was bawling....and I have to tell you, these aren´t like married adults or anything, these are kids from ages 6-19...well and silvinha is 27, but still. They did all of this for us!!!!! Then me and Sister Bowden got up after the slide show was over and said a little something. It was a really neat farewell party. Although, as of that moment, we still didn´t know who was getting transferred. But after the phone call from the elders later that night, I wouldn´t have asked for anything better than to end my time in Aracati with that farewell party.

I am now in José Walter with......4 COMPANIONS!!!! I will be working with two companionships. Sister Gonzaga(3rd time with her) and Sister Black (related to the blacks in Pasco) and Sister Corrêa (2nd time with her) and Sister Souza. I had interviews with President Batt today and he said the reason he´s doing it this way is because we can have divisions and he wants the newer sisters to get to know the area. So I´m not with just one companionship, we´ll be mixing it up a lot I think. It was cool though, in the interview President Batt told me something that made me feel good. He said that Sister Gonzaga, Me, and Sister Corrêa are three of the best sisters he´s ever had here on the mission. So that was neat. It was really, really, really, REALLY hard to say goodbye to Sister Bowden and to Aracati. I had to give a talk yesterday in church, it went well i think, but it was really hard to focus and to not think about having to say goodbye to all these people. Daniel, a really good member friend that comes to our classes, called me up during the break of the two wards that meet at the church building (his ward meets at a school a ways a away) and said that he already misses me and that he´s learned a lot from me and Sister Bowden. He was crying, I was crying.....everyone was crying!!!! But you know, change is always good. We don´t always know why things have to change, but I guess it will be good. And I´m excited to work with these sisters now :)

Oh and this past week we went to a museum in Aracati. Aracati is a really old city and it has a lot of historical stuff (you would like it dad) :) I got some great pictures, I can´t wait to show them all to you!!!

Yesterday we also had a couple of baptisms. João Vitor and Carlos. It was so neat and they were both so HAPPY!!!! Carlos had started coming to our classes awhile back and we had come to find out that he had been baptized, but never confirmed! We talked to hime and he had become inactive so we taught him and prepared him for baptism and this sunday he´ll finally be confrmed o membro da igreja. João Vitor too, was so happy to finally be baptized! He´s been going to seminary every night and he´s actually the one who had gotten up in sacrament meeting last fast and testimony meeting and bore his testimony. So cool!!!

Well, I hope everything is going good and you all have a good week. Oh and this transfer is actually going to be 7 weeks and my last one will be 5 weeks!!!! Crazy huh?! It´s coming up FAST!!!!! Have a good day and I love you all!!!!

Love, Sister Salisbury

P.S. I just fell asleep at the computer haha. I am exhausted!!! I didn´t sleep at all last night :( and now im going to take a little nap!!!

April 18, 2011

Hey Family how´s it going?!

Well, everything is going good here in Aracati still. I feel like i´ve been here forever, but I really do love it! Oh! ok so I think i told you about the girl we baptized, Sandrinha. Well, she has a friend that she introduced us to and we´ve started teaching her. We gave her the BOok of Mormon to read and she LOVES it!!!! She loves it so much she started sharing it with another friend. She said when she reads it, she feels light, like a weight had been lifted from her (not sure if that really makes sense in english, it does in portuguese) she just felt really good though and can´t stop reading it! We were so excited to hear that!

I´m not sure about mother´s day yet. We have to find two cell phones that we can use and then I´ll let you know the times I´ll be calling. It will be in the afternoon for sure though. DON´T forget to put minutes on the calling card if there isn´t any left!!!! And no I haven´t got the easter package yet, if you sent it the 4th, it will probably be here in a couple weeks. GOod to hear the wedding went well! I got their announcement! I don´t even think I knew he was dating anyone, but that´s awesome!!!!!

Oh and Im not sure that I told you, but remember the branch president from Baturité?? Pres. França?? Well, I guess he got a job in São Paulo and is living there now with his family. So it will be sad, I won´t be able to see him when we visit baturité.

Sad to hear that the surgery isn´t the greatest in the mouth, Im probably gooing to have to get that done sometime in my lifetime as well. The dentist said mine are receeding a little as well. Guess its another genetic thing that i was gratefully blessed with haha :) just kidding.....

alright, well not much else to say, we did have quite an interesting talk with the relief society presidency yesterday at lunch. Not the most appropriate thing for ALL ears, but me and sister bowden were trying so hard not to crack up. THey reminded me though of the "cackling sisters" ;) I´ll have to tell you about it later :)

Ok, well I hope you all have a great week and that everybody is doing good! I love you all so much and are always in my prayers! I Love you guys!!

Love, Sister Salisbury

May 16, 2011

Hey how is everyone?!?!

Well this week was great! I forgot to tell you about an activity we did at the church 2 saturdays ago. It was so much fun! Me and Sister Bowden filled up 150 water balloons and made snickerdoodles and played water games at the church. I also gave a short message at the beginning on mothers, since it was mothers day the next day. It was mostly youth that came, but we all had a blast!!! We also had a baptism yesterday. We´ve been teaching this family, but only one of the kids was ready to be baptized. He´s 10 years old and his name is Marcelo. He is so cute! He calls us "Tia" which means aunt, but many kids use it as a sign of respect here. It´s better than being called "Senhora" which means ma'am, ms, etc....but he is so cute! And when he came up out of the water he had the BIGGEST smile on his face. He was so happy! I wish i had a picture of it, but i will always remember that look he had when he came up out of the water. So neat!!!

This is our last week of this transfer can you believe it?!?!? Me and B have been together for 3 transfers already! It goes by so fast. We would like one more together, but I called President Batt to talk to him and he said that we´re starting to get more sisters and he may have to split us up. I have a feeling that I may be leaving and B will stay here and become a senior. I´m not sure where i would be going, but we´re losing 2 sisters and they´re both in Baturité. I think President might send me back out there, but Im not completely sure, its just what im kind of feeling. And then yesterday after the baptism, the branch president came up and asked if i would give a talk this next sunday. And as soon as he said that i felt that im going to be leaving and this will kind of be my farewell talk from this area :( if i do leave im going to be really sad. I have made so many good friends here, the people are so loving and caring and do so much for us! I will truly miss them!

That´s too bad about baseball. Hopefully everything goes good for them next year with the coaches and all. Good luck today Joey in your game!!!! Hope you win and eat some sunflower seeds for me!! :) And that´s awesome about TD, everyone is getting called to Brazil! Crazy! As far as the release date, I talked to president and he said i would be able to go home the week of august 17th. There is a transfer august 15th or 16th so i think i would be going home then. We´re going to talk more in interviews which will be in a couple weeks and he said that i will need to talk with the new president too, but he said it will be fine. They will work everything out. If for any reason i need to be home a little sooner they can work it out.

I got the easter package and the pictures and whatnot!!!! I absolutely loved it!!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!! I was a little sad about the cadbury egg, it got destroyed, but everything else was great!!!!!

Well i hope you guys have a good week!!!! Love you!

Love, Sister salisbury

ps. can you send me shirt sizes of everyone??? I need to start buying stuff and we found a really COOL store!!!!