Week 24 - Gravata

Hello! Happy birthday mom and dad.  I can’t believe I forgot to say that last week. I had it marked on my calendar and everything. I’m sure you guys had a great time. How could you not in Florida?! Thanks for the pictures too. Always send lots and lots of pictures.  They are my favorite. And also thank you soooooooo much for the box!!! It was perfect!! I don’t know how you knew but every food that I’ve been wanting so bad was in there!!! And I love the shirt too. Thank you thank you thank you!!! Was it expensive to send? Also Sister Fortes LOVES the ring. She said thank you too.

My new companion is Sister Andrade. She is from São Paulo capital. She is gorgeous and has the cutest clothes ever which I’m loving!! She is just a little sweetheart.  I’m so happy I got her as my companion. I’ve been so lucky with my companions so far. I have been learning so much from her already. She likes to be fully prepared before lessons, which is good! We´ve been studying a lot and practicing a lot. We still have a lot to learn though. Training is going good though. I already feel like I’m growing a lot and have more confidence. It’s kinda weird switching companions because I was so used to everything sister fortes did and now everything is different. Sister Fortes in still in the house and I love that!! I seriously LOVE HER!!! We´ll definitely be friends for life. It’s funny, she is still like my mom in the house which just makes me laugh.

This week was great but I’m glad it’s over. Holy stressful!!!!! Everyone in the world was calling me and I had to talk because Sister Andrade doesn’t know the people or the situations or anything. Alana’s baptism was scheduled for Sunday morning before church but the bishop didn’t want that, so we switched it to Saturday but then she had to work, so then finally it was Sunday evening. And every time I had to call everyone and tell them about the changes. it’s so hard to talk when I can’t see their mouths. But everything worked out and the baptism was soooooo special. Ahhh I was so happy!!! Her mom, Maria, bore her testimony and talked about how much her life has changed since she met the missionaries. And then after, Alana--and all week she told us like 3 different times that she did not want to have to talk in front of everyone-- she got up on her own and bore her testimony too. She was crying and said how happy she was!! And then after that the little girl Cassiane, she’s Maria’s daughter, got up and said a prayer without us even telling her too. I love that family so much!! Maria wants to go with us this week to visit her other daughters. Alana has a 12 year old son I want to teach but he is never in the house! He’s always out playing soccer somewhere. He´ll get baptized though, I know it.

We didn’t get to teach much this week so I don’t really have any other stories about the people here. We were in Recife Monday, Tues, Wed, and then Saturday we stayed in the house because of the soccer game. From all the screaming and fireworks I heard it sounded like it was an exciting game. And Brasil won! 

Our new mission president got here on Friday. And we have a meeting tomorrow and get to meet him!!! I’m so excited! And I’ll be able to understand him so well because he’s American. It’s so much easier to understand Americans speaking Portuguese! I took a picture of the comp screen of the picture of his family so I’ll send it to you. They are a really cute family. And they are so young!!!! I kinda feel bad for their kids. I hope they like it here and can learn Portuguese quickly.

I only have a couple pictures this week. I took one of the church in Recife. It is HUGE! Idk why the churches are so big here but they are beautiful. Thank you so much for everything you do for me. Love you guys!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 23 - Recife

Hello :) Thank you for the letters. It sounds like you guys had a good week. Mom I’m so jealous you’re going to Florida!! I want to go swimming! I got your box today and also a letter you sent with other letters in it. I haven’t had time to open it yet but I’m sure I’ll love everything!

I’m in Recife right now for transfers. And I just found out that I’m training a new missionary. What the crap!!! I’m freaking out but it’s gonna be fine. The new missionaries don’t get here till Wednesday, so I’m gonna go on divisions with the sisters here in Recife tomorrow and then I’ll get my new comp on Wednesday and head back to Gravata. I feel like I still need trained!!!! I don’t know very much Portuguese yet and my área is freakin huge and now I have to know where everything is! I just want her to have a good first experience as a missionary and feel like her companion has things under control. We will see about this!! Sister Rodrigues got transfered to a diferente área (this computer is automatically switching some words to Português) and Sister Fortes just got transferred to take Sis Rod´s spot. So we´re still in the same house! The transfer meeting was really fun. It was the last meeting for Presidente and Sister Lanius. They were sad. Our new presidente arrives I think Friday! I think I’ve told you this but he’s American and he still has like 3 kids living with him.

We had a really good week again. Alana´s baptism is this Sunday! She is so prepared. I’m so excited for her! She has so much Faith and desire to Always do what’s right. (Idk what is wrong with this computer.) Also we went to Clivia´s house I think 3 times this week. Her parents were always at work, but we taught her and her sisters. They are the best!!!! Her older sisters said that they want to serve missions someday too. They were asking us all these questions about what they need to do to go on a mission. It was adorable! The only thing is they aren’t 15 yet so the only way they can be baptized is if their mom gets baptized but she’s living with a guy not married and they don’t have any desire to get married so I don’t think that will happen any time soon. But if they go to church regularly for 3 months they can. Remember these rules cause I don’t want to explain it every time por favor :) Also about Jô! Idk if I’ve talked about her before. We’ve been teaching her for probably 1 1/2 months now but we thought she just liked visiting with us and wouldn’t really progress because she would never come to church. But this week I don’t even know what happened! We watched the movie legacy with her and she really liked it and said that Joseph Smith really was a prophet. So we invited her to be baptized again and she’s on date for 3 weeks from yesterday. I have a picture with her I’ll send.

Everyone is still crazy on the days Brazil plays! It’s so exciting when they play but also so boring because we can only sit in our houses. Idk what else to say about this week. I feel like I’m missing something big, but I don’t have as much time to write today as I normally do so I have to go. Pray for me to be able to train a new missionary. I still don’t even know what the heck?!!!! But it’s gonna be fun. Love and miss you guys. Thank you for everything!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 22 - Gravata

Such a good week!! :) Sorry I didn’t email yesterday.  They switched our p-day because today is a game of Brazil and we can’t work past 2 so we have p-day today. Carter is so cute!!!!!! Did you guys have a good day? All his "dudes" are cute too! Jessica sent me pictures of facetiming with him and he’s just so stinkin’ cute!!! And also happy father’s day dad!! You are the BEST dad in the world. I always tell everyone here how awesome you all are!

Ok I’m going to try to answer your questions first because I always forget about them. Hopefully I answer all of them. I haven’t gotten your package yet but it might be in the office in Recife. I hope! I’ll find out next Monday or Tuesday because Sister Fortes most likely will be transferred and we will go to Recife. And if she isn’t, Sister Rodrigues definitely will be and Sister Dana will get it for me. I’m sad Sis Rodrigues will be transferred. She is my favorite!!!!! But she has been in this area since October!!! What the crap! I think she is ready for a change. Also, about the mosquitoes, they are kinda bad but not horrible. I only have like 5 right now. I had more at the beginning! Poor Sister Fortes....the mosquitoes love her and she has an allergy to them. Her legs are all scarred up now. I hope the card gets here soon. There is this awesome shirt I want to buy before someone else does! It’s so cute and it’s only 17 in dollars!

About the world cup....it is crazy here!!!! Only on the days that Brasil plays. EVERYONE is wearing their jersey, every car has a flag on it, and the whole city, all the stores and everything shut down. And oh my gosh during the game it was like a nonstop fireworks show. We knew exactly when Brasil scored because it just went crazy with fireworks and screaming. And then we knew when the other team scored because it went crazy with everyone being mad haha. I have videos I’ll show you some day. It was awesome though! I want to watch so bad it just seems so fun! I never thought I would say that I want to watch soccer haha. I’m excited for tonight to watch the fireworks again! Oh and Brasil won if you didn’t know 3-1. And also everyone has been informing that USA won yesterday too 2-1. Have you guys been watching any?

Ok so about my week. Ill cut to the chase...Clivia’s whole family came to church on Sunday and loved it. Her sisters looooooove the church! They are awesome. Our young women’s president is great. She is a missionary at heart. She gathered them up, took them on a tour, told them all about mutual. It was awesome. Members make all the difference. Also Alana came to church too! I love her!!! She is so prepared for the gospel. Every time I glanced over at her in church she was listening so intently to every word, nodding her head, saying oh this makes so much sense! I was so happy!! We expected Alana to come but I’ll be honest I wasn’t really expecting Clivia’s family to come especially because it was the mom’s birthday. I was playing the piano for the opening song and out of the corner of my eye I see a group of people walking in. I kept taking quick glances and then I realized it was them. Ahhh I was so happy!!! Also remember the lady I told you guys about that works at the pastel restaurant?  We have had 3 lessons with her just this week! And then also she invited us to her son’s birthday party. Yesterday morning we helped her make the treats for the party and then last night was the party. It was so much fun. I felt sick afterwards because I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much junk food in such a short time. Holy crap there was so much food!!!!!!!! And Ana Karla-that’s the ladies name- dished my plate for me and it was piled freaking high! It was all fried food and chocolate. I could feel my pooch expanding with every bite!! But whatever! She loves learning and loves having us at her house. She is soooo nice. Every time we are there she makes her son run to the grocery store and buy us some kind of treat. No matter how much we say no we don’t need that she still does it! I’m gonna be 200 pounds by the time she gets baptized. She’s lived with a guy for 8 years now and they aren’t married, but he is awesome and super friendly. And she told us she wants to get married and they’ve been thinking about it. I’m really excited about her family. They are awesome. She has the cutest kids in the world too. She has 6!! The littlest one has the biggest eyes I have ever seen in my life. I have a picture with him I’ll send.

I have a lot of pictures this week. The first ones are from lunch with Irmão Lemos. He’s like a millionaire literally and is in Sister Dana and Rodrigues ward. He loves missionaries though and likes having us come to lunch with them too. I have a picture of his living room and the view out his window. Also a picture of all of us with him in the car haha. Also he speaks fluent English. No accent or anything! He was a translator for Gordon B. Hinckley and a lot of other apostles. Like they know him by name! isn’t that cool?! He has a picture with President Hinckley. Also I have some from last Wednesday when Brasil played and we were stuck in the house. Sis Rodrigues gave me the jersey that I’m wearing. She’s so nice!! And then also from the party last night!

Thank you for that quote mom--I loved it! And thank you dad for always writing me. I could almost understand everything :) I’m gonna miss the so detailed descriptions of Rae’s track meet hahaha. You guys are the best! I hope you all have a great week. Love you guys!

Love,

Sister Bedke

PS. Sister Jeffery’s email this week talked about Penny. She went to the temple with her granddaughter and baptized a lot of her family members. And her husband was baptized too. Sister Jeffery said the spirit was so strong and you could feel without a doubt that they have all already accepted the work. She said that Penny was crying she was so happy and wants to be sealed to him right now and can’t wait a year haha. But isn’t that just awesome? I am sooooooo grateful I got the opportunity to meet her.

Week 21 - Gravata

Oh my gosh Rae is so awesome!!!!! I’m so excited for her! I wish I could’ve watched!! When she gets first I’ll be there :) She has awesome friends too, so many people were there! I liked everyone’s shirts.  Those are cute!! What happened to Ainsley’s arm? And does she have college coaches talking to her or is she still too young? Were there a lot of recruiters there? Was she so happy? Ahhhhh that’s so awesome!!! And her legs are freakin ripped. I showed everyone the pictures and we are all jealous. 

We had another really good week! I love the people we're teaching! Alana is going to be baptized on June 29!!! Dad’s birthday :) She is awesome. This week she told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is true! Maria was there for the lesson and she shared her testimony and it was perfect for Alana. Having members at the lessons helps sooooo much. Especially when it’s your mom too! But she agreed to be baptized at the end of this month and we're so excited! She has an 11 year son that we've taught a couple times, but he's usually somewhere playing with friends when we're there! But Maria-his grandma- said that she’ll make sure that he is in the house next time because everyone needs to hear our message. She is the best! Also we taught Clivia’s mom and sister this week and we are having FHE with them tonight. It was such a good lesson! We asked Crislayne, the sister, she is 14 years old, to say the closing prayer. At first she wouldn’t. She was so nervous because she had never prayed out loud before. But we told how and with a lot of encouragement she agreed. And she said the sweetest prayer ever!!!! And by the end both her and her mom were crying. It was so special. I’m so excited for tonight! It should be great. 

Ok sorry! I’ve been talking to Rae and now I don’t have that much time to finish this! I have to tell you guys a funny story. So you know in that movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, the part where they are playing the card game BS. Well Sister Fortes would watch movies in English with Portuguese subtitles so she could learn English. And at the part where they say bulls*** a million times the Portuguese subtitle is mentira which just means liar, it’s not a cuss word. So she didn’t think bulls*** was a cuss word either. hahahahaha So I was using this oil stuff of Sister Dana’s on my face at night because I think it feels so good! It like tingles your face kinda like carmex, but anyways Sister Fortes thinks it burns and doesn’t like it. But I was trying to get her to use it. I was like "just try it, it feels so good!!" Sister Fortes- "bulls***!" hahahahaha Oh my gosh, it was so freakin funny! I could not stop laughing! She was like what, what?! What did I say?! And then I explained it to her and she felt so bad! So funny!!

Happy birthday to Carter this week! What the crap you are 12?!!!!!! You’re still a baby I feel like!! And you get to pass the sacrament.  It’s gonna be so cute :) I wish I was there to embarrass you or something. I can just see his cute nervous but so serious little face.  Awwww. I hope you have a great day bub!! I will be thinking about you! That day we have to stay inside all day. It’s the first day of the world cup! We have to stay inside every day that Brazil plays. It’s gonna be boring. Gravatá is so decorated, it’s awesome! Yellow and green banners with soccer balls are all over the place!!! And the walls of buildings are painted and a lot of roads too. It makes me want to actually watch soccer! I got a cute picture by one painting that I’ll send. USA plays in Recife!!! But we have strict rules of no watching any games. It’s not really a sacrifice for me but I know it’s killing all of the Brazilian Elders, haha poor things.

Also mom, have you sent my debit card? If not send it asap! I feel scared not having a backup if I run out of money from the mission. But they give us plenty don’t worry.  I will be fine. I just get stressed. Speaking of money thank you so much Louis and Ginger!!!!!!!!! Make sure to tell them thanks for me. That was so nice!!!

I think that is it for this week. I feel like this letter is brief.  Sorry. But I got to message with Rae. That was so much fun! I love you and miss you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Week 20 - Gravata

I think this has been the best week of my mission so far! First of all we went had a two day trip to Recife. It was so much fun!! The temple is beautiful. They have palm trees and colorful flowers all over and the grass is so green. I have lots of pictures. And there were a lot of older American missionaries working inside that spoke English so that was fun! I just love the temple! Also we had a zone conference with President Lanius and his wife. It was really good. It was more laid back since it was his last one. He saved time at the end for us to ask him any question we wanted about being a mission president, his life, anything! He is actually really funny! Everyone is kinda intimidated by him because he is so strict (which is good) so it was fun seeing a different side of him.

And also......we had a baptism yesterday!!!!!! Surprise! Clívia, the 10 year old girl was baptized :) We met with her mom on Friday and she was totally supportive and then Sister Fortes ran outside and called President and he said it was fine! I explained the rules in a different letter I think, but kids under 15 whose family isn’t baptized have to come to church for 3 months before they can be baptized and she only has 7 weeks. But she is awesome and wanted to be baptized so bad! She has such a strong testimony. Her family is awesome too! She has two older sisters and they both were like I want to be baptized! They’re both under 15 too and have never been to church so they’ll have to wait a little bit. But Clívias mom came to the baptism and loved it and we are going to her house again tomorrow. They are so awesome.  It was a great baptism. So many people from the ward came and supported.

Another good thing about this week, idk what happened but my Portuguese improved so much I feel like! Actually I do know what happened.  I’ve been forcing myself to always speak it even when I know Sister Fortes would understand it in English. Wow!  I wonder how good I would be now if I always did that hehe. I had our cell phone this week for the first time. Holy crap it was scary. It is so hard to understand people when you can’t see their mouths. But anyways one day I called one of our investigators to set up a time to go see him and I could not understand him at all!!! So I was freaking out and was like Sister Fortes take the phone and she wouldn’t! She was like you need to do this. She ran away from me!! I was literally chasing her down the street with the phone yelling take it! I was so mad but now it’s so funny. We probably looked so stupid. And then poor Natan was like Sister hellloooo nao entendi. It worked out though. I always freak out and I need to stop that!

It has been a lot of fun working with Sister Fortes this week. The days are just a lot funner when you can communicate while we´re walking and we understand each other. She and I have gotten a lot closer I feel like. And seriously she is such a good teacher!!! She is just a natural at being a missionary.

Oh my gosh Rae!!!!!!!! You are freaking awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats, congrats, congrats!!!!!!!! Thank you for the pictures! You look so good! I’m so excited to hear how you do at state!!! Ahhhhh you are just amazing!  I’m jealous!!!!! I tell everyone here how awesome you are at running :)

Ok well I don’t have much time left and I have a lot of pictures to send this week!!  Love and miss you guys! Good luck Rae!!! And Carter keep being awesome!! He looks so cute with his new haircut!!! Love you guys!

Love,

Sister Bedke

The sisters Malyssa lives with.

Clivia.

Malyssa with the mission President and his wife.

Week 19 - Gravata

I never know how to start my letters! Dad, thank you so much for the detailed description of Rae’s track meet. I almost felt like I was there it was so descriptive :) I was cracking up reading it. But do that every time! I’m so excited for Rae!!! When are regionals? And holy crap her mile time is amazinggggg!! I wish I could watch her win state :)  Also good job Carter on the baseball game!! You’re awesome! Thank you for the pictures!

I haven’t gotten any letters or packages yet. But maybe they are at the office in Recife, I don’t know! Our zone leaders go to Recife I think once a transfer and bring back all the mail for us. Is it really expensive to send letters here?

I don’t know what to say about this week! The 10 year old girl that we can’t baptize yet, Clìvia, was the only investigator in church yesterday. She is awesome though! We are going to start teaching her mom this week so hopefully that goes well! If she wants to get baptized then Clìvia can too! Alana is doing really well. She works on some Sundays which is hard! But she has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. Her 11 year son, Caeo, has been reading as well. She said she’ll come to church this Sunday because she doesn’t have work, so fingers crossed! Also we’ve been teaching the parents of a member. He is 11 years old too and he is the only member in his family. He is the cutest kid ever and always has a smile on his face. I’m not sure how interested his parents are though. It’s the weirdest thing, they make Junior read his scriptures, say prayers, go to church and everything, yet they won’t do it themselves. I don’t get it!! We were teaching a lady named Betania and she was progressing so well! She’s been to church once! But she called us this week and her husband is stupid and she moved out of the house and is getting divorced. She’s living with her friend not in our area for now, but she said she’ll call us when she finds a place of her own. It’s so sad! Also we found a lady name Neves knocking on doors. She is such a diva, but she is so funny. She asked me if I would marry her grandson!!! And he was sitting right there, it was so embarrassing! And also he’s like 16 I think! It was awkward. They are catholic, but they love us and are interested to learn more.

Sister Fortes is awesome!  She is a great missionary and teaches the gospel so well. Before my mission everyone would say that missions are an emotional roller coaster and I didn’t understand how or why but since I got to Brazil I understand perfectly!  I’m learning a lot that is true. I have to remember that.

We get to go to the temple this week! On Wednesday! I’m so excited! It’s going to be so pretty! I’ll take lots of pictures for you guys. I don’t have any pictures for this week. So next week I should have a lot. We are having a mission conference on the same day too. It’s going to be so fun! Hopefully I’ll see Elder Zeitner from my MTC district. We are split into half though since there are so many missionaries.

I think that’s it for this week. Sorry this letter is kinda boring. Next week I’ll have lots of pictures. Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Bedke