What is Optional and What is Not

I'm going to apologize right up front for this email and all that will come from now on. I'm kind of in Brazil and the key boards are very different. So spelling is going to be rough I think. And that`s just your heads up. Plus it`ll only be getting worse as I use Portuguese more. Ha... Portuguese.

Portuguese is way hard. Ha. It`s so pathetic how much I don`t know about this languauage. I have the ability to communicate semi well, but that means absolutely nothing when you don`t know what anyone is saying and so you can`t respond because you don`t know what the conversation is about. It`s so pathetic, it`s funny. But I am learning. I`ve almost been here a week and already I can tell I`m understanding more and more. I can tell words apart form the others I just have a very limited vocabulary so I can`t understand them. Which is fine. I`m pretty used to it. It`s weird how not being able to communicate or understand because so normal so quickly. I`m very used to it... I just try to pick up what I can and go from there.

Let`s talk for a second how different it is here than in New York. We can literally go up to people, tell them flat out that we are missionaries, tell them we want to go talk to them about Jesus at their house another day, ask for the address, AND they give it to us. The first day was the WEIRDEST thing ever. I am used to up front flat out rejection and now nearly every person we talk to tells us we can come to their house and talk to them about God. We have yet to find anyone at home (we have only tried 3 or 4 people) but the fact that they say we could come back and they don`t say ``don`t come back`` is a miracle to me. I`ve talked to a single person that flat out told us their religion and that she wasn`t interested and wouldn`t let us talk at all to her. My companion was like ``what the`` and I was like ``ok whatever. that`s normal``. It was funny be cause she was ALL caught up on this. But that was my life the previous six weeks.

Here is very different. Here is a small list of them: stop signs are optional. Cross walks are optional -I'm pretty sure I could die every time I cross the road- Lanes are optional. Ends of redlughts are very optional. If you are a motorcycle, everything is VERY optional. |Showering is NOT optional -it is so hot and we walk around a lot so we get gross- Everything here is great in a very different kind of way. Like the juice. I will never be able to drink the juice in the US again. Oh my goodness. It is heavenly here.

I love my mission presedent and his wife. THey are very sweet. In the car ride from the airport to the mission office, they gave me a phone that had a picture and they were like "do you know him?" And I was like no. I don''t. But apparently I will never get away from being in an area where I am related to people. Because their daughter married someone in my family. I don"t even know how we are related, But even in Brazil I"m finding family.

Well. Last week I was is New York... and now I'm in Brazil. I don't really know what happened there. But here I am and here I go, learning Portuguese and talking to more strangers than I ever have in my whole life. I hope all is well with you all there in the States. All is well in Brasil! HOpe all have a great day! 

For my poictures- One is of my district. We have 6 sisters and 2 elders. Which I find to be a bit weird but Tudo Bem. And the other is of the veiw from my bedroom. It`s wonderfully beautiful here. But it is HOT. And we walk A LOT. Which is fine. I know both would be coming with being in Brazil. 

She Made It

Last New York Email

Well the next email I send will be from Brazil! Isn't that superb?  (BY THE WAY, WE DID HEAR FROM CARRIE AND SHE GOT TO BRAZIL SAFELY). 

I really don't have much to talk about though. The other sisters that we live with had a baptism this weekend. And that was INCREDIBLE. I love that. This man was so in love with the church. He was a miracle that they found. 

It's sad saying goodbye to New York. This really was part of my mission and I met so many people and learned so many things here that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to experience had I gone to Brazil right away. I'm surprised that I'm leaving this soon but it's slowly sunk in that it's time. Even if it doesn't feel like I'm really leaving the continent today. It's a new and exciting time in my life to be going to Brazil. I don't even know Portuguese. Ha! It's great. I'm so excited for that experience. Well... the fun of it will probably wear of real quick, but it's one thing I'm looking forward to as of right now. 

This is a leaf the size of my face. Literally. We found it in the Sacred Grove when we were at the Temple last week. 

This is the guy who was baptized yesterday. He is a hoot. and we all had a jolly grand time eating at his house all the time. He is the gourmet chef. He is great! 

Well I hope all is well where you are. It's all well in NY and I'm sure it will be in Brazil too! 

Have a magnificent day! 

-Sister Damstedt

VISA: Here I come Brazil!

Well this is the email that I'm sure everyone was thinking would never come, because I sure didn't think I'd ever be sending it. But I'm pleased to announce that my visa has come and I will be going to Brazil next Monday! Yay! I will finally be able to use all that Portuguese! It's going to be a fun and exciting new part of my mission and I'm overjoyed that I will be going. But man-oh-man does it feel crumby to know I have to say goodbye to EVERYONE. I don't like that part. But so it goes... 

Anyway... This week was grand. Lots of fun things happened. I went on exchanges and had ice cream and went to Niagra Falls and ate pizza and taught the gospel. I can't really ask for a better week. I'm excited for this week as well because I finally feel like we have a full busy week! And that makes me happy. I hate having time that I don't know what to do with. AND on Wednesday I get to go to the temple! Oh I'm overjoyed. The Palmyra temple looks really similar to the one we have in the Tri-cities. And man are we so blessed to have one so close. Go as often as you can because we are SO BLESSED. It's a beautiful place to be and I'm super excited to go this week. 

I don't really have much to say about the week other than that my visa came. I can't decide if I believe them yet or not.. but apparently it actually did come. After basically 10 months, IT CAME! (: The Falls! I would sure say this is a cool place to go. If you ever have the chance, I recommend it. But go to the Canada side, everyone says it's much better over there. I wouldn't know... but rumor has it. Either way it's pretty much the coolest.   So I got myself a sweater... just in time to leave ha, naturally. But I also influenced my companion for the better and got her in on the ways that sweaters make life better. And of course nothing is better than cookies in a sweater. That was a great day! 

Well I hope everyone is doing alright. Things are great up here in New York, but not for long! Hope everyone has a marvelous week! 

Hard Things and Delicious Food

 Well another week has gone by. I can't really understand how time actually goes by because ever day seems to never end and then suddenly I'm back to another Monday sending emails. It doesn't make any sense to me, but hey I'm okay with that. 

This week was actually really great. Sister Astorga and I made some wonderful progress in finding people who were interested and with one of the current people we are teaching. He doesn't have any religious background and doesn't believe in God... but wants to learn about why people read the Bible and why religion is so precious to so many people. And this week we had the best lesson with him of all time. He still doesn't believe in God but he is open to the possibility that maybe there is. He sees holes in the things he grew up learning and told us that we motivated him to want to pray and find out if there is a God. Can I just say there is nothing more rewarding than seeing someone that you really don't actually know that well, but love with more of your heart than you can explain says something like that?!? When they tell you they appreciate the effort that we are making to teach him and help him. There is nothing better. It's fulfilling, rewarding, and is the reason why I'm on my mission. It's amazing the way everyone just grows into your heart and you love them so much.

At the same time, this was the worst week of my mission. When Sister Astorga and I were sent to our area, the mission president told us that we would be opening a new area and that we should do that however we felt would be best. And since we live with another set of sisters and have to share a car and the current area was SO big, we decided to be an area by people. Well, this week, the President decided that he wanted a geographical boundary for our area... which meant that no matter how we split the area, we would have to pass our people to the other sisters. There is nothing worse than the feeling of leaving them. We found, taught and connected with them and loved them so much... and now with our boundaries being different, we have to pass them on to the other sisters. It is the hardest thing. And it breaks my heart. And now I know exactly how each time I'm transferred is going to feel. Except that it'll be worse because I won't be in the same ward as them if they join the church. Oh being a missionary is hard. But God is in it. I don't know why, but there are reasons for what is happening. Things that we don't know or understand are always in  the details for why things happen. And as hard as it is, all you can do is trust that God knows what he is doing and it'll work out.

There is one investigator that the other sisters found that is amazing and is a gourmet cook. So we get DELICIOUS food from him all the time. Probably 2-3 a week. It's incredible what he feeds us. He actually is getting baptized this month and we are more than excited for him. This is a picture of one of the meals that he fed us. It was so good as always. In our ward there are 4 sets of missionaries and so the ward members like to have all or some of us over at the same time.... so we get fed a lot. It's really great to see the members so excited to have us here(:  

Also, at our last district meeting, we had a contest and our district leaders had a bunch of old trophies from a ward member who was getting rid of them.... We won.... 3rd. But should have gotten 4th... because we cheated a little.... hehehe.... We repented. But it's a really cool trophy. It says "BEST IN BREED" across the front. It's really nice and is a fun memory(: 

Finally Getting Warm

Hello! 

This week has been pretty great! We are super blessed up here in New York. We've been very sloooowly finding people who either want us to teach them or like us enough that they'll allow us to come over a second time. It's a challenge, but I've found that if they talk to us once and are friendly in that encounter, they normally will talk to us again. Up here where we are, the church isn't known much (or at all) and so no one realizes that we are pretty much normal people. This is so sad to me because this is the place it all started! WHY don't people even know about us. That's why we are here I guess. 

In the last little bit, we found this perfect little lady and her husband while walking and I adore them. I can't get over them. She is especially precious... they both went to the Sacred Grove 10 or so years ago and both felt the Spirit so strongly and she told us that she knows it's true. Ah, I can't handle it. But alas, they currently are very involved in a biker church and by very involved I mean that her husband is an ordained preacher. So we really don't know where this is going to go. But they want us to come over and eat salads and baked goods with them and talk about God and since we love them and have very few people to teach we are all for it. I'm actually really excited to see what happens. I love them so much. 

I actually love everyone here so much. Especially the people we are teaching/contacting as friends right now. We are super blessed and I just can't handle it! This is why I'm here... for them and it's happening and I am so happy.

So these pictures... One of them is me on my bed as it was for the last three weeks. As a visa waiter to a hot place like Brazil, I have literally nothing to keep warm. No coats or blankets or sweaters or tights. Nothing. BUT when I go to the mission home, one of the Older couple missionaries gave me that wonderful coat up cuddled up under on my bed in the picture. And since It is as cold as Alaska in our house even when it's warm outside, I really had that and two small blankets to sleep with. So that was a fun adventure... curling up under that all the time. But then the mission sent us more blankets and every night is oh-so-cozy now. And slowly, I'm accumulating warmer clothes from Walmart every P-day. 

Also that is a picture of the biggest cupcakes in the world. We ate them at a Family Home Evening that the ward holds in a member's home for any one and they love it when the missionaries come. So we went that night and it was delightful. Those are all the four lovely sisters who live together.  This week certainly has been a food week. We have been given pies and cup cakes and the members always shove dessert into us after making us eat everything in their house beforehand. It's a pretty great life to lead. I love being a missionary.

Moroni 7:33 "If ye have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." Remember that! Whatsoever thing! What a promise is that. If we simply have faith we can do what God requires. And as a missionary, you realize just how much help you really do need to do what God requires, because talking to strangers isn't anything easy!

Love you and have a great week!

-Sister Damstedt