October 29, 2012

Here the heat is coming. Its already almost scortching at times. Its been threatening to rain here all weekend but as of yet, nothing. Just dismal humidity and clouds. 

 ( I told Carissa about Matthew preparing for a huge report he will be doing. )What type of subjects is he looking at doing?? I´m sure they´re all over the board haha. (anything to do with brasil or rio grande do sul (its basically its own country everyone says haha)

I have been studying parables too!! Presidente Wright wants all of his missionaries to have read the standard works. Since I´ve already read the Book of Mormon He wants me to start with the New Testament and read it cover to cover. Its weird because I´ve hardly ever studied the scriptures cover to cover. Rather by topic but its going to be an interesting and difficult expereience because I have a goal to read the book of Mormon in Portugues. and I have to read about 10 pages a day to finish all the standard works before I go home. (Sister Teixeira and i today created a study plan) Yikes the mission does pass quickly. I´ve almost hit my 6 month mark. I can hardly believe it. 

Oh but the parable you shared i found a poem, `´the echo´´ in a conference talk its about this parable and its really neat. I liked it i think you´ll enjoy it.

Dentist: I bought one ( a Brazilian mouthwash) and have been using it in the morning and ACT at night so that should  lengthen the time i have act. The stuff i bought here in Brasil actually has more of the active ingredient than ACT. I´m just worried  because everyone here drinks soda....coka cola is like water here. But its nice because for me I don~t like telling people no to food, because serisouly people are offended if you don~t eat or drink everything they offer you. I think its easier for Brazilians to say no than for us americans because people will think its a cultural difference and such. So its nice that sister teixeira doesn~t drink soda. I just add on to her no thanks haha. But don´t worry i always carry floss with me and floss all the time haha.

Debit card: I haven´t used it since i was in Caxias that one time to print photos. I have cash that i exchanged at the airport. My only fear with my debit card is that it will be blocked. 

Anyways on to the events of this week. Its been crazy!!! Temple, Conference just for Sisters!!! WHOOHOOO foi chique de mais!!!!! (WAS AWESOME). 

The temple was really special. Difficult because everything was in Portugues but i understood practically everything. But the part that was incredible was i got to see elders from the Mission Porto Alegre Sul!!! (People i knew in the CTM) and then as we were leaving the temple. My instrucutor in the CTM in Sao Paulo followed me out of the temple!!! Irma Korth...What a surprise!!!! She is from rio grande do sul. but it was such a miracle to see her!!! Then the next day we had our district meeting and i received a letter from her!!! (I should have gotten it a few weeks ago but our elders forgot to bring our letters). Speaking of letters i love getting those letters from the Primary! Tell sister Arvenon thank you for me. They are so sweet. 

Then on thursday we had our sisters conference. There are only 20 sisters in our mission but because of the change in age for sisters we are expecting many many more. (about 1/3 of our mission will be sisters in the future) We will have traveling sisters, who can go on splits with us. It was so fun. And I finally got to have my 1st interview with Presidente Wright! (We didn~t have time to interview when i arrived in the field). But i love them they are so sweet and wonderful. Apparently they are very different then the other President (the one we received information about when i got my call) He was very strict, but Presidente Wright just loves you and wants to help you. But he seriously wants us to be the best we can be. its great.

OH but i have a question for dad. How does he work with the missionaries? Who organizes baptisms for investigators in our ward?? The two wards i´ve been in have done it differently. And yikes we have communication problems here...be greatful for unlimited data and calling plans. 

Short hair for the summer!  So cute!

October 23, 2012

Alrighty I have about 20 minutes to write whooohooo. So many things that happened last week I forgot to tell you about, opps sorry. 1st is…. I CUT MY HAIR….SHORT

But I forgot to take a picture so you´ll have to see next week when I e-mail my photos from the temple…which we are going to in about 2 hours whoohooo *(which is why today is p-day for us). I´m kinda nervous but really excited. Other exciting news is Thursday we will be having a sister conference! Just us sisters!!! Because of the new age for sisters we are expecting more sisters in our mission (we have about 20 right now) and we need to be prepared. And talk about clothes and standards of course haha.  

Haha that’s so awesome. (I was telling her about seminary where we are learning the names of the current twelve apostles and reminding her of her seminary days energetically learning the twelve apostles. ) I was helping Sister Lira learn the apostles too, it was also way calmer than us. Yesterday we had lunch with the 2nd counselor in the bishopric here and he was talking about scripture mastery and super Saturday with scripture chases. Oh good times good times. I remembered all the scripture chases we would have and how intense we were…and doing it at parties and all.

That’s so weird to think about it getting dark earlier because here right now…it gets dark later. Yesterday it was pouring rain and I pulled out my boots but the front lip is separating so they didn~t really help much L but the funniest part was we stopped by again at the 2nd counselors house and we used plastic bags for socks to walk home in so we wouldn~t be as wet. Helped a little but not a ton. Oh the adventures we have.

Oh but I do have a question about the fluoride/ACT I use. They don´t have it here L But they have some with the same active ingredient. It doesn´t taste as strong (but everything dental wise here doesn~t have such a strong taste that i´ve tried yet). But we drink so much soda here. I wanna be cautious. Everyone drinks coke. Sheesh. (still don~t really like it)

Another funny food story. We went to the store and they had cheddar cheese. I was so excited I bought some and apples (since they didn~t have Peanut Butter L) well cheddar here is not cheddar there. Its basically kraft American cheese…not very good. But I ate it with apples

I´m writing a lot about food I know. But like you mom food played a huge role in my week….we ate…we ate…we ate and then we ate some more. Sunday we were practically sick we ate so much. OH but we had the best food. Sonhos (dreams) are like donoughts and basically heaven on earth)

Anyways, this week has been good. I love it here. At times yes I miss being home but this really is a special place. (Oh Sister Wright told me she wrote you a letter how cute, you´d like her a lot)

Anyways love you

Tchao
Carissa Bradley

PICTURES FROM BRAZIL!!!!

Me with chuhasco last dinner with Irmao joao (ward mission leader) and his family

                 THANK YOU!!!!

  Me with a giant chimarrao (famous drink of rio grande do sul)  In gramada for P-day de zona!!!!

 me and four elders in my zone that came with me from the ctm!! P-day de zona at a waterfall in Canela

October 15, 2012

Katie do you know her last name??? cuz if its the Katie i´m thinking of ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hahah. And Janee too??? TO WHO???? (Carissa is reacting to news that two people she grew up with are engaged to different people  :)))


Anyways very fun. Oh my goodness I want to e-mail photos to you but i haven´t been able to yet. and my adaptor never works on the computers here. I´m trying to find a cord for my camera but haven´t been able to yet. 

Not very many new happenings this week. 

Roadshows how fun. And sounds adorable, I love that scene from that movie. (Our ward used Enchanted as a starting point and used a song from that movie,  How Will She Know You love Her?)   And that song too (can you make a cd and send it too me??? pretty pretty please) Oh I almost had an attack yesterday the mp3 and speakers you sent me have been wonderful!!! But then the speakers stopped working. The batteries were still good but the speakers wouldn~t turn on. I tried new batteries today and they worked. 

We talked to a member about the nativity. And when she goes into the more shopping friendly part of Porto Alegre she´ll take pictures of them so i can see them. I don´t know what will be best to do. I´ll just have to see what its like. 

Anyways, this week. Honestly not much happened. We are trying to find new people to teach and really struggling. 

You asked about eating at members houses....EVERYDAY. Come mais sister....eat more eat more eat more. Yikes I really don~t want to come home fat...but its impossible here. We are always eating. (but the food is really really good)

The ward is fairly small not tinnie tiny but decent. 

Sister Teixeira is awesome. 

This week has been hard for me. I left Caxias and we were succeeding. We taught lots of lessons, people, and were successful and usually received well. Here, a completely different story. Its been challenging. Very different area. 

In this area we only take the bus for District meetings once a week. In Caxias we would have to take the bus sometimes for lunch (lunch here is the main meal). I don~t know exactly why they closed our area. There are lots of possible reasons. All that happened was our areas were switched. We lived in centro but worked in bela vista. It was about a 25 min walk to our area. The Elders that worked in Cento live closer to bela vista. And also we had 6? Young recent male converts (RC). Elders could help them better than us. We couldn~t visit RC in their houses. We would have to visit them outside, Elders won~t have this problem. plus bela vista is a huge area. But the cool part is here in Elizabeth its a fairly new area for sisters.

A lot of the missionaries here have little albums of photos of family friends and such. I have a little album can you send me pictures? from our vacation, my trip to europe i don~t need a ton but i do miss photos. 

I can~t believe all the changes that are happening at home. It scrazy. well i miss you tons and tons and tons (honestly you have no idea how much i miss you all) 

love 
carissa

(Life in Durham has been really busy and Carissa wrote only a few lines one week.  I am trying to catch up!  This letter was from  October 8, 2012)

Alright, I have lots to catch the world up on. Sorry about last week but literally I was online for 5 min. We had P-Day as a zone because we accomplished our goal of 20 baptisms (actually we had 21!!!!) But for S. Lira and I it was difficult because we had 2 people decide not to. One of them...in the minute of her baptism. It was a very emotional week for us, she was going home, our area was closed for Sisters, I was being transferred, Baptisms, baptisms falling through. it was just a crazy week! 

Anyways, our investigators-- our 3 young men were baptized. two Haitianos and one other brazilian. His mom was already to be baptized but she has a fear of water. She was all dressed, interviewed and ready to be baptized but when she saw E---- baptized she began to panic and decided to wait .The other L---, i don´t know what happened because we didn~t get to see her again. She called us the night before her baptism and told us she wasn´t ready. (this is the 2nd time) we went to her house the next day with the elders that were being transferred to our area but we only got to talk to her husband. and she didn~t come to church on sunday. It was really sad and difficult for us. But we did our part, we did all we could....and people have their agency...and at times thats very difficult for us missionaries. 

Anyways, transfers.....dum dum dum...... were AWESOME!!!! hahaha everyone thought I would be going to Canoas. But the night before i was thinking and started thinking about Porto Alegre. I got my paper for transfers.....and yep Porto Alegre! I get to go to the temple haha My new companions Sister Teixeira has 7 months in the mission so we´re both fairly newbies and she was the companion of Sister Lira before me in Caxias!! Small world. Its fun because everyone in Caxias loves her and I always heard about S. Teixeira and now she´s my companion. She is helping me a lot with Portugues which is awesome. She doesn't know a lot in English but more than S. Lira and can help explain and correct the things I say. ....also I´m the only american in my district! and the other district in our zone are the assistants and secretaries who are basically fluent in portugues...so i´m the only one whose learning portugues its very different but will be a good learnin experience. 

the ward here...idk yet ive just met members we´ve visited and tons at the stake center for conference

General Conference....please send me one in english!!!!!!! haha our dupla will get one in Portugues but i really want one in english....because i still understand english better than portugues. it was a really neat experience thought to listen to conference in portgues. I really had to rely on the spirit and it was easier to receive personal revelation. Usually when i listen i hear things that really touch me but then the speaker moves on and i continue listening. In another language its easier to tune it out and listen to what the spirit had to teach me. It was an incredible experience. Also fun because all the missionaries of our zone were at the stake center. and the power went out the last half hr of the saturday session! (and we were late for the 1st session so we missed the announcement about the change in missionary ages.) but its awesome!!!! 

Porto Alegre is more humid than Caxias. So it feels a lot hotter and as been raining quite a bit this week. My clarks (shoes) are wonderful. A sister that went home last week had the exact same pair and they lasted her the entire mission (i think) Mine are a little worn but i think they´ll last and be fine. my boots are a little worse for wear i need to glue the front of the soles and then they´ll be fine. 

I will start looking for nativites. I don´t live in the center of town anymore so idk if i´ll be able to find any right now. But i will keep my eyes open.

Did i tell you about my birthday yet??? So I was with S. J. Fernandes and we had p-day and basically slept the whole time. But we did make a cake. After we had made the batter we realized we didnt have any gas for the oven....opps. So we made it in the mircrowave!!!! .... it turned into a rock haha a great chocolage rock :P 

Well i love you!!! And think of you all often 

Love Sister Bradley