P O R T U G U E S E

aAAAAAAh Minha familia!! Wow, so much to say, so much that I've been experiencing!

Hmmm let's (attn. family, I just found the apostrophe button, you're welcome!) start with the frustrating stuff to get it out of the way... . (see above) Gah. It is absolutely the most frustrating thing in the world to not be able to commonicate what I want to say 99% of the time. SO frustrating! Especially because I already (seriously since day 1!) have this intense love for the people here, I want to help them so badly, especially because I know I have the answers they need! BUT, when I can't understand what they're saying and vice versa.... gah! But it's ok because I have the drive to learn the language for the people:) I don't know why, I haven't cried yet but I've felt likeit many times:) Sister B, I keep thinking about something you said when your first arrived, I'm used to being funny.... ummm, the only reason people laugh at me here is because I can't say anything! hahaha, definitely different than what I'm used to, and humbling! Dad, like you always say, I'm trying to just laugh at myself too and I keep trying to open my mouth over and over again. Seriously, I've never been so out of my comfort zone! Not only am i trying to tell people how to live their lives differently but now I don't know the words to say it! Out of my comfor zone 24-7 = always growing I guess:)

Aaand the peeps here- soooo cool. Like,everyone says, they are VERY open, the hard this here is not to get into a home to teach but to get the people to keep their commitments, they just say yes to everything! Family- I come across and teach so many kids and teenagers here, I love it! They're so cool and make fun of me a lot ahahah:) Seriously whenever I meet someone with the same age as one of you guys I get so excited and tell them (try;) that i have a sibling the same age! It's groovy sauce. Coltran, my second day, we were at a member's house for lunch ( we have lunche EVERY day here, the members love missionaries. Sister C, you would die if you saw our food calendar!) and they had a son that was 11 too! I was trying to tell him about you and ended up sayint that I have a son with 11 years. ... word.

My area- I'm in one of the poorest areas in my mission (Piraquara) and it's the best. It's mostly dirt roads and the people live in shacks (many of them) but they are happy and treat us like royalty. They always let us in, sit us down, talk with us,offer us food or drinks, anything we need really, they're wonderful!

My comp- I'll try to send pics next week! Her name is Sister Dias, she's 22 and from Sao Paulo and a convert of only 3 years! She is a really hard worker and really good with the people. She knows how to get them to do whatever... anyone, seriously. She's very fiesty, and take chargy and not very flexible thus far... :) But, she's very patient with me and is helping me with my language tons:)

Another difficult thing- besides the doctrine, basically everything here is different than N.Y. EVERYTHING. Sister C, we don't even have an area book because people usually get baptized so fast, gah, I'm dying. We use the Bible so much, we drop poeple really easily, we baptize really easily and it feels like the missionaries here are a little to focused on numbers. .. " I had ... baptisms this month. How many baptisms did so and so have this month?" etc. Not a fan at all.

But, overall I am VERY happy, and trying and trying and loving and loving and missing you guys a lot:) I wish you all could experience this awesomeness with me! Looks like you're able to have a a little Brazillian joy there too though:) I had my first legit brazillian bbq yesterday... Tayler yes, they really do eat that much meat and more, ay carumba!

I LOVE  you guys! Alma 48 (I think, it's the chapter about Amalikiah)

 -my take away- Don't ever come down, not even a little!

Loooove,

Sister Ventura :)