Hi friends and family!

Just in case anyone was worried, I'm still alive here in Brazil and things are going great!

My companion, Sister Lopes is a hoot and a half and she makes me laugh every day. She hit a year this week and I hit 4 months (woo hoo!!) Her tempo na missão (time on the mission) makes mine seem a little less impressive, but the time really does fly by.

 We're doing what we can to find the eleitos (elect) here in our area. It's a little hard, but we definitely see miracles. This week, for example, we went almost the whole week without finding anyone new to teach UNTIL Sunday morning as we were walking to church, we ran into this rapaz (boy) and invited him to come to church with us and HE SAID YES. He's 18 and was walking to his own church so we invited him to ours. He really liked it and accepted our help to prepare for baptism! It just shows that miracles come sometimes at the very last moment, but they come.

Whenever I tell people I'm from California, 9 times out of 10 they start singing this song that says "vou pra California" and ask if I know it. They think it's super cool and it makes me feel kind of like a celebrity.

This weekend was a feriado (holiday), Dia do Gaucho (Day of the Cowboy), and 1) everything shut down for the feriado and 2) tons of people were walking around in traditional clothing which was super cool. I unfortunately didn't take any pics, but it was way cool. Friday night there was a stake dance and we dropped our investigator off there with her cousin. It was super cool to watch everyone dance in their floor-length skirts and dresses and the men in these fun puffy pants and vests. The dances are all coordinated, couple dances. People asked me what we dance in the US and I had to say, rather disappointingly, that I don't know how to dance and that we don't have a traditional dance for our region, like Brazil and most of South America has. Everyone told me I need to learn, so looks like I'll be getting dance lessons pretty soon.

Here's a bunch of pictures. I´m having a blast and working hard and learning lots. Til next week!

Sister Dobbs

We made a cake and it was actually really good! We shared about half with the elders but embarrassingly ate the whole other half ourselves and it didn't even last 24 hours.

Acai

We switched dresses for zone conference and honestly that's the best part about having companions

Zone Conference

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore

Hey everybody!

So, I was gonna title my email last week Country Roads, Take Me Home because truly it was a week full of walking on dirt roads to visit and teach people who live in the middle of nowhere, way far away from the main neighborhoods. Picture evidence:

Also, I love this pic of Sister Santiago. This is what we did all day every day: walk alongside this facha/highway to different paradas/bus stops to bring the gospel to todo mundo. Good times

me and the sisters I live with- at zone conference

Two weeks ago we had the coolest opportunity to watch the live broadcast of the Prophet visiting Brazil! On that Friday, we watched a special conference for full-time missionaries that happened in Brasilia. On Sunday (Sept. 1), we watched the main broadcast that happened in São Paolo AND we brought Tibiriça and Leiliane to watch it. Tens of thousands of people were there in person and we watched it from the stake center here. They loved it! They felt the spirit and Tibiriça even cried. I did too. He said he felt a really powerful "energy" that he cried. Leiliane commented on how charismatic the prophet is. He joked around and he asked the children to sing for him. At the end, he spoke in Portuguese which was super cool. It was a powerful experience and I loved it so much.

So I was living my best life in Itacolumí and then on that Sunday, we got a call at 7:30 at night that I was being transferred to Passo Fundo! We were shocked. It was in the middle of a transfer so we truly weren't expecting it. We were able to visit Tibiriça and Leiliane to say bye. I was really sad because I love them so much and wanted to be there for their baptism, but I know that they are in good hands.

When I got home that night, I packed my bags in an hour and a half, and the next morning I was off. We took a bus from Itacolumí to the train station in Porto Alegre, then I took another bus to Passo Fundo. I left at 10am and got to Passo Fundo at 6pm. We got a ride from the train station there to my area. Yes, it was a total of 7 hours on a bus for me. But, I slept for a bit and it wasn't bad. The bus de viagem to Passo Fundo was way comfy, with reclining seats and everything.

My new area is right in the middle of the city. It's got tons of prédios (skyscrapers) and it's literally the opposite of Itacolumí (hence the title of this email). It's way fun and there's always something new to see. My companion is telling me about all these fun things I need to try here so we have a bucket list of food places that we're gonna try to cram into the last 3 weeks of this transfer.

My new area:

me and Sister Lopes, from the Bahia (in the Northeast of Brazil)

We ordered takeout sushi one night. It was cheap and delicious

I'm doing well and living my best life! Til next week!

Sister Dobbs