Friday, May 30, 2014

May 19, 2014

Oi Familia!

The last two days were torturous because I knew that Jacob had already received his mission call but I wouldn't be able to find out till today.  I think I really bugged my new companion, Sister Olla, a bunch because I kept talking about Jakey. She was really patient with me though, which I am really grateful for.  Wow.  My baby brother is going to be Elder Dyer and he is going to be a BATIZADOR in CA Riverside speaking mandarin!!!!!  Parabems meu irmão!!!

I am now officially serving in Urikk Graff II of the Costa Silva Zone in Mossoro (pronounced ooreekee graffee).  Everyone told me that Mossoro is the hottest zone in our mission, but my first two days here were ABSOLUTELY FREEZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We had thunderstorms since the day I arrived. It was raining a bunch. We basically took baths in water.  Our clothes were soaked. The streets were flooded and we had water up past our ankles.  I was smart enough to use my crocs for the first few days.  It was quite an awesome experience. Maybe it was 30 degrees Celsius but it was FREEZING!

I think it's going to be really cold wherever I go when I leave Brazil. (Technically it is officially winter here though) I already get cold whenever I am anywhere that has air conditioning (including the church and buses). As we walked in the rain, Sister Olla started singing the Portuguese version of the primary song "I like to look for rainbows", which starts off with "as aguas do batismo"  ("the waters of baptism")  "I know when I am baptized my sins are washed away, and I can be forgiven and renew myself each day.  I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.  I want to be the best I can to live with God again." 

We actually did see a rainbow the other day.  I think we will see a lot of batismos here!  (I guess I also officially bring rain with me wherever I go.  Sister Acosta said that it never rained in Sousa until I got there.  Well I brought rain with me to Mossoro as well.)

Sister Olla and I have had an awesome week.  Sister Olla was born in El Salvador, but has lived in Texas for most of her life.  Although our four baptisms this week cairam (fell/didn't end up happening), we have a lot of awesome investigators, most of which are men. Sister Olla recently baptized three men who live together in what I would almost call a "fraternity" of men from Siera who all work here in Mossoro. Whenever we go visit them we say we are going to visit "Os homems"  ("The men").  lol.

We have at least one firm baptism for Sunday!!!!  [The investigator] lives in a similar "fraternity" and has family who are members of the Church in Siera.  Sister Olla talked to [his] brother, who is a member, on the phone yesterday and he was so excited to speak with the missionaries who are teaching his brother.  He asked Sister Olla where she was from and asked where I was from and what my name is.  It is so wonderful to see families being baptized.

I have been enjoying the animals here.  Although there are not as many dog packs and farm animals here as there were in Sousa, we were lucky enough to see a family of three soim monkeys in the caju trees in the yard of one of our investigators this week.  They are so cute and fluffy.  I wasn't able to take pictures because I didn't have my cameral.  I think that I won't take as my pictures here in Mossoro seeing that we are more likely to get assaulted here.  No worries though.  "Os homems" also brought out an armadillo they found the other day.  It was really interesting and not exactly what I expected an armadillo to look like.  But it was cool to hold it and study it.

I love y’all a bunch minha familia!

Love,


Sister Dyer

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