Brazil Bound

Week 10 - Post Falls, Idaho

I GOT MY VISA!!!!! I'm flying to Brazil the day after General Conference!!! I am so excited but at the same time I am soooooo sad!!!! I love it here!!! And I was expecting to be here for a couple more transfers so it took me by surprise.  We were teaching Penny (my most favorite lady ever) and I saw that President Mullen was calling me and my heart sank.  I knew he was going to tell me I got my visa.  I couldn't focus the whole lesson because all I was thinking about is how I don't want to leave here! So afterwards we listened to the voicemail and me and Sister Jeffery both about cried! I love her and all the people we are teaching so much!! We figured we would be together again next transfer because we swept into the area.  So I'm just sad!!!! But at the same time I am really excited! The more I think about it the more excited I get. I can't believe it’s actually real now that I'm going to Brazil!!! I can't wait to get tan :) There are people in this mission that have been waiting for their visa for 7 months and some even longer. I can't believe how quickly I got mine!

The reason today is our p-day is because we went to the temple today.  The Spokane temple is tiny! I was kinda surprised because there are a lot of members around here.  It was beautiful though of course!  This Sunday we had 3 investigators at church! It was sorta nerve-wracking!! The whole time we had to make sure they felt welcome and that members were talking to them and praying that people would give good talks! But it went great. They all really liked it.  One of them has been quite a few times but the other two it was their first time.  They both made comments on why the bishop didn't get up and talk.  They really wanted to hear from him! They were like shouldn't the most learned man in the church be talking to us?! We explained how it works in our church and that the bishop isn't necessarily the most well educated but they still thought it was weird haha.  They said they'll come back next week though!

Penny is getting baptized! I love her!!!!!!!!! I think she is the reason why I am so sad to leave Post Falls! She is the best! She says that I'm mischievous which I don't know where she gets that from!! And every time we leave her house she yells “bye baby girls” in her southern accent; it is the cutest!  I just want you guys to come and see her house and the view she has on her back deck. It is beautiful!! I'm so sad I won't get to be here for her baptism. But she has been reading the Book of Mormon and she wants to come watch conference with us, and the women's broadcast on Saturday.  She already has such a strong testimony. I just love her! She's really good at playing the piano and after our last lesson she played some of her church songs and made us sing; it was a lot of fun! She wanted to keep going for forever.  I felt bad that we had to go but we always stay at her house way longer than we are supposed to.

Levi, the guy who was getting baptized on my birthday, moved his baptism back.  I don't really know the whole story.  He has a Godmother I think and she has cancer and is going to die and she doesn't want him to get baptized so he just wants to wait.  Which that is totally fine! We were thinking that he should wait anyways because it seems kinda like he's just doing it because his mom wants him to and not because he has gained his own testimony yet. He is a really nice kid.

Last Friday Elder Golden of the 70 came and talked to us! It was so good!! My favorite thing that he said....he was talking about how we need to teach simply.  He said don't assume people know anything. And then he went to the board and wrote when you assume you make an a** out of u and me. We were all like what the heck and couldn't believe he just said that to a bunch of missionaries. It was so funny! And then I also liked this. Someone asked him how they can have more faith.  And he wrote this equation, personal righteousness=faith.  And he said the more you work on your own personal righteousness the more faith you will have.  I haven't really thought about it like that but I like it!  He said a lot of other really good things too!

I got your box today!!!! I just want to open it right now but I'm going to try to be good and wait till my birthday.  Hopefully I can! Sister Jeffery is the best! She wrote this note and hid it under my pillow and it said happy birthday week with 20 things she loves about me. It made my day! She says that it’s pretty much our birthday week because that's how excited she gets for birthdays haha.

I still can't even believe I'm going to Brazil. I'm freaking out! I don't know Portuguese!!!!!! I don't know if I’ve already told you this but we have language study an hour a day, but I still don't know anything! Ahhhhh! I'm excited though! Anyways thanks for everything!!!! I will talk to you soon! Love and miss you!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Feeding elk.

The elk charged the fence.

Spokane, Washington Temple