hello família!

well hello there you little lazy badgers! how the heck are you! on the way to email today i saw two dead fat rats on the road. i took it as a sign of good luck. so we´ll see what this week brings!

i think i forgot to tell you...but for my birthday last week the ward threw me a surprise birthday party!!! seriously! i had only been here for 2 weeks. but nonetheless, when there is a need for a birthday party...brasilians take it VERY seriously. i always wanted a brasilian birthday party! they really go all out! and yay! wish granted!! party received! i´ll try to send pictures. 

randi told me that lorin is home from the mish for surgery?! does anyone have info? if you see her tell her i love her and will remember her in my prayers. i can´t imagine leaving the mission early. it would really take a toll on anyone. 

sooooo pumped for general conference this weekend! i´m super excited because last conference i hardly understood anything...so i know this one will be the cats pijamas!! oh p.s. we have a brother in our ward that lived in the US for 4 years. now he teaches english here in Tubarão. he has a student that speaks really well...so sister marlette and i went there to teach her in english...have you ever had an embarassing experience?!! take it and times it by a million. it was awful. i have forgotten english people. i couldn´t even form a sentence. it was like an internal battle. but even with my lack of english skills, i felt the spirit so strong hearing me bear my testimony in english. it´s been a while ya know? and it´s changed so much over the last 10 months. it´s awesome to talk about and learn about the gospel in your own language. i´m glad i can help the people of brasil understand God´s love for them in português.

so we had a good week this past week but we have a TON of goals to improve our work for this week. this ward is awesome. they are really trusting us with references! so it makes the work exciting to teach people that already know a little bit about the church! oh funny story...our bishop´s wife just had a baby and is having some problems so they hired a cleaning lady to help her out a few times per week. we were there one day while she was working and we talked to her about the church and everything. i was like have you heard abything about the church we represent? she was like...ugh yeah a few things...i heard that you guys sacrifice children and eat them on sundays...................hmm ya learn something new everyday né? so i gladly provided her with the truth of what we do on sundays. but it was so funny cuz she wasn´t even phased, just like oh yeah you guys are the church that eats children right? like...what?!! but now we are teaching her! she got super emotional during the 1st lesson and opened up to us a lot! she is reading in Nephi!! wahoo. missionary work is the best!!

so this week i was studying a talk from last year by the prophet! he gave a little list of the ABC´s of a successful life. Attitude, Believe in yourself, Courage. simple right? how simple is it to have a successful life? he had a few super rad quotes! for Attitude he said, "you can´t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails." about believeing in ourselves..."he does not believe that does not live according to his belief" and my favorite about courage, "courage becomes a worthwhile and meaningful virtue when it is regarded not so much as a willingness to die manfully, but as a determination to live decently" ...top right? I think our prophet knows what he is talking about. i like that guy. 

well i hope you guys had a great week! love you all! and here in a little bit we´ll get to skype again!! yay!!

:) carly