Carnaval e Conferência de Zona

Soooo this past weekend was Carnaval in Brasil! It's a national holiday, but I have no idea what it's celebrating. The celebrations include parades (desfiles), crazy costumes, lots of glitter, loud music, lots of alcohol, and it's basically a big party. Here in Venâncio, Saturday night (the 22nd) and Monday (the 24th) had parades. It's pretty wild, so, as missionaries, we stay pretty far away. Even in a tiny city like Venâncio, it can get dangerous. So I'm just imagining what São Paulo or Rio must be like. As we were going home on Saturday, we accidentally got stuck and couldn't get around the parade path, but thankfully, a security guard let us pass. As a missionary, I felt very out of place amidst a lot of craziness. But, it was fine. It all worked out in the end.

The following day we had Zone Conference which was AMAZING! It was of course very spiritual and very uplifting, and it was super fun to see everyone.
We spent the night in Santa Cruz before the conference and had a slumber party with 8 missionaries. In this zone, everyone is really spread out, so we take buses to the city the night before to not be traveling super early the morning of conference. You all can imagine us 8 girls spread between only 3 mattresses. Also, imagine 8 girls getting ready in the morning with only 1 bathroom. It was a blast. We ate lunch in Santa Cruz (it was hard to find a restaurant because everything was closed because everyone had been out partying the night before), and we took pictures at some fun spots, including a mini Statue of Liberty. We had interviews with president which were awesome, too. Please enjoy all the pics!

Here is Yerlin, Carlitos and Saraí, a family of Venezuelans who I love a lot plus a Bathroom Sunday Selfie

Us on the bus ride home after conference at night plus all the things we had to carry with us because of conference: a box of book of mormons, a new water filter and a package

Zona Santa Cruz

Sister Maxwell!!

We hit 9 months on the mission so we took fotos de gravidez ("pregnancy" pics), lol!

All in all, a great week. I know that our Savior lives and He wants us to be saved. He's rooting for us. He will never turn us away. He's here for us. So, turn to Him.
Beijos!!
Sister Dobbs