Well hello my dear ones! I am writing to you in the year 2015! How
crazy is that? I wanted to tell you guys a little bit about how I spent
Christmas and New Year's here, because it was awesome!
-Christmas-here Christmas isn't really nearly as big of deal especially
25 of December, it's basically just another break from work. Most of the
celebrating happens on 24 of December at night. We went to Irma Teca's house
for Jantar (dinner) and were able to stay out until 11:00 waaaaahoooo! It was
crazy, they had all of thery kids and spouses over and it was just nuts. This
family is like a Brazillian version of the Mackley family. ... hhaha except
that Brazillians are just crazier in general and it was so great! And we just
ate and ate! Here eating is really a huge part of the culture, except not in
the Parisian sense but just in the sense that they love to eat and they eat a
lot ( all of that etiquette stuff? Who needs it?) They also do tons of
fireworks here on Christmas Eve and New Years and we had a grand time of it
trying to sleep that night. . . . New Years we had to be in our house by the
normal time, 9:30,and so we just stayed outside on our doorstep until 10:00
watching the fireworks annnnnd I'm going to be honest it was pretty. .... yes
the word would be unexciting haha. Then we tried to sleep with fireworks
continually going off and I finally managed to at like 11:30 ( sister Dias
never did!) and then at midnight it was like the whole world was celebrating
the beginning of a new year or something and there was no chance of sleeping.
We tried to watch the fireworks out of our bedroom window but there happend to
be a giant wall behind our house. ... bummer sauce! Oh well! And theeeen I went
back to sleep.
But I wanted to talk a little bit more about my Christmas. I don't
remember If I already said this but, spiritually speaking, really remembering
and celebrating the TRUE meaning of Christmas this was my best one. I think
because it was almost without gifts and shopping and decorations but it was
full of Christ's love, shown to me by others and felt by me for others.:) I
think it was Christmas day that Sis. Dias and i were watching a Christmas DVD
that we have and it was showing some scenes from Christ's life and I just felt
such a feeling of grattitude and closeness to my Savior. I realized how much
closer I've grown to Him this last year of my life. I remembered that when I
was still in N.Y there was an Elder that would bear His testimony a lot and
always say at the end, " I KNOW that Christ lives, that He is my
Savior." I remember thinking, "how can he say that, that he KNOWS
something like that??" And I remember that I was a little bit annoyed and
wondered if I would ever be able to say something like that. And then when I
was watching that movie and thinking about my Christmas I realized that now I
can say that, I KNOW that Christ lives! I just know it! I know that He is a
living person, a perfect person that knows us and loves us too! I don't know
when I came to know but I that is something that I've gained from serving a
mission:)
Speaking of serving a mission, when we were realizing how crazy it
is that a whole year has already passed, I was thinking about how nuts it is
that I spent the entire year as a missionary! So surreal! Definitely the year
of my life where I have learned and grown the most in the shortest amount of
time. I don't know if the learning curve will ever be as steep again! Wow!
Something else that I've gained from my mission-a knowledge of the
power of the Book of Mormon. I wanted to talk to you guys about it when we
skyped but forgot, gah! I hope that every single one of you is reading it every
single day indiviudally and as a family. We NEED the peace, protection and
answers that come from that book. There have been so many times when I was
discouraged or confused etc. and I had a thought to just read and I just kept
reading and stuyding until I found answers;because they always come:)
-So it's Summer here right? It's weird, all of they kids are on
Summer break, it's hot and veeery humind and we're just over here eating
peaches, corn, watermelon and srawberries! It's pretty sweet! Something
that's crazy about Summer here is that it rains more than anyother time of the
year! It's so crazy. The day can start out with blue skies and sunshine and
then out of nowhere it will just start POURING, like the crazieset rain ever
that doesn't even exist in Utah and then it just rains so crazy hard for like
15 minutes and they it stops and it's more humid and muggy than before it rains
and you're completely wet because when you left the house the last thing you
thought of grabbing was an umbrella and then the sun comes out and smiles at
you like nothing ever happened. And then if you're lucky it might do the same
thing later in the day:)
Well, that's it for this week folks, I love you! I love you all
dearly andl think that you're the bee's knees!
Love,
Sister Ventura
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