July 27 5 Months Out!!!!

And then some, actually. A year from today will be the last day of my mission (due to the transfer schedule--my year and a half falls in the middle of a transfer, so I end 3 weeks earlier). CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! I only have one year left!!!!!!!!!!! Eeeeiiiiita! Preciso trabalhar MUITO.

And Daddy and Linny--I´m excited to see you in one year here in Brasil!!!! Right? Right? Eat some good churrascuria? Getting soaked in the pouring rain while sweating at the same time? It´ll be great =D

Also... Familia... It finally happened.... Someone asked if I was Brasilian! When I replied that no, I´m american, they were surprised and said that I speak "muito muito bem!" (very very well) AHHH!!!!! I was all smiles =D

The work is going good! We had the baptism of EVA!!!!!!!!! this Sunday, right after church, so a ton of people went, including a lot of investigators. They really enjoyed it! So hopefully that will help them in their decision to be baptised =] But Eva is so amazing. When we met her she was sick and lonely and depressed, but now she just has this light that radiates from her. She LOVES the gospel, and is constantly reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible and the little pamphlets we leave with her. She said she feels so happy now, and she has so much strength and faith. Seriously, I could go home happy right now knowing I´ve helped someone like her.

We have a young couple we´re teaching who want to get married and baptised. THEY asked US, hahaha. Joanna and Leandro, and they have a little baby 1 year and some months. I´m excited for them--their baptism is scheduled for August 15!

Funny "Small World" incident this week:

I was looking at some fotos of Elder Stewart, who is one of the Elders working here in our area, and I commented, "Hey, this looks like tahoe!" and he said it was and we started talking and he said goes to Tahoe EVERY summer wth his family. They have a condo near King´s Beach! And we were talking about the movie theatre in Nevada with that really good Mexican place and the golf world and haha, it´s such a small world! He said that his parents and grandparents have been going to Tahoe every summer for years and years. E. Stewart and I agreed we´ll have to hang out next, next summer when we´re there, hahaha. He ends his mission the same time as me, and is going to BYU. I think we´ll be good friends--he and some of the other Elders are soooo hilarious. It´s good they know how to play but work hard too. It´s something I need to learn to be better at, I think =]

It´s fun working with the Elders. We devided our area, but we have lunch together every single day, plus various meetings with people in the branch.

I´m going to be teaching an English class this Saturday!!!!! It´ll be good to get investigastors and also to help the members. People have been asking me for the last two transfers, but Sis Jacobs never really wanted to schedule a time. but now! it´ll be fun =] And now I can actually explain things in Portuguese.

Fotos:

1) Me and Sis Lemos having fun =]

2) At Alto do Moura last week, playing the "flute" with my new friend

3) Eva´s baptism!]

4) Elder Lucas and Elder Stewart with Eva (E Lucas baptised her... 3 times... he messed up the prayer and then her foot went out of the water, hahaha. But third times the charm, right?!)

Well familia, keep reading the scriptures and being the good people I know you are. Put your trust in the Lord and you´ll see miracles! And don´t be afriad to open your mouth and talk about the gospel with people and invite them to meet with the missionaries!!! Oh man, I always thought I was such a good little member, but I never did ANYTHING to help the missionaries! Our work goes sooo much better when we have the help from the members! So do your thing! Help those missionaries!

Até a semana que vem! Eu amo vocês!

~Sis Wilkinson