Week 18 - Gravata

Ok before I forget because I keep forgetting to say this and I don’t know how! Penny got baptized on Saturday!! Sister Jeffery has been emailing me and letting me know how things are going. Remember how I told you that her granddaughter was dating a guy that is on a mission? Her name is Hannah and they started teaching her and she got baptized on the same day too! I was so so so happy to hear this. I wish so bad I could’ve been there, but I wrote her a letter this week and I’m sending it today. Also she said Hannah wants to serve a mission now too! Ahhh it’s so exciting!

Last week flew by! I can’t believe how fast each day goes by here. It’s crazy! We are seeing some progress as well! We are teaching Alana, the daughter of Maria, and her 11-year-old son and they are awesome! They are reading the Book of Mormon and saying their prayers! They didn’t come to church yesterday dang it! But we're not too discouraged, she'll come next week! Also Sevè wanted to come so bad but she had to work. Also, there is a lady- we still don’t know her name but she works at this pastel place (Malyssa told us a pastel is kind of like a calzone). We call her pastel lady. Every time we talk to her she’s working so we can never talk much, but she said she wants to come to church! So we've eaten there like 3 times in the past week haha. We want to ask her where she lives so we can go visit her house but she is always so busy making food. Hopefully we will see her at the church this week and we can talk to her more there. But she is also interested in the English and guitar classes there! Also we went to a wedding at the church this week, and the parents of the groom were very impressed with the church and the bishop and they want to start meeting with us and learning more! So we're excited for that, they are so nice!

Now I have to tell you about the interesting part of this week. Everyone is like don’t tell your parents about this but I don’t think you guys will freak out. At least you shouldn’t because I am perfectly fine and I haven’t felt unsafe once since I got here. But this week the police went on strike for a couple of days. They wanted a 30% pay raise. So anyways a lot of people decided that they would take this opportunity to go crazy and do all the crimes they wanted because there was no one to stop them. So we had to stay inside all day for 2 days. And then yesterday and today we have to be home by 8 pm. It was the most boring days of my life!!! We were all soooooo bored! But I got to take a nap for the first time in 4 months so that was nice! Idk what even happened out there or if it was even that bad, but President wanted to be extra safe just in case so all missionaries had to stay in for those 2 days. But it’s normal again now! And we were never even scared or anything so don’t get worried or think I’m in an unsafe place!!

Thank you dad for the detailed description of the track meet. Do that every time please!! And wow Rae you are awesome!!!!!!! I’m so proud of you :) Good luck in sectionals this week! I’m glad you guys got my letter finally!! I think it’s crazy it took 6 weeks to get there! I haven’t gotten anything from you guys yet. I wonder how long a box takes to get here! We will get to go to the temple in June. I’m excited! Also, idk why I always forget to tell you guys this too, but we are getting a new mission president in June too. He is from Salt Lake and he has I think like 3 kids that are still living with him! I hope it’s not too hard for them finishing high school in a different country! I think that would be so hard!

I have some good pictures this week. Some from us being bored to death staying inside all day and some from the wedding. We got all fancied up for the wedding because we had nothing better to do. It was on one of the days we had to stay in, but since the church is right by our house we were allowed to go. Hope you all have a good week. Love and miss you!!!!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Bride in the middle.

Stuck inside the apartment (in the picture above too).

Malyssa and her companion.

Week 17 - Gravata

I feel like I don’t have much to write since I just talked to you guys yesterday! It was soooooo good to see you guys!! Everyone said you guys are awesome.  It made me miss you all and kinda sad though. But it was definitely worth it! Next time we skype I’ll have almost a year on my mission! I can’t believe how quickly it already has gone by though.  Today is the first day of our new transfer. All the girls in my house are staying which was a big surprise. Sister Rodrigues has been in Gravatà since October so we figured she would get transferred. I like her so much so I’m glad we get one more transfer with her.

I wish that I had a few awesome investigators that I could tell you about. Well everyone that we teach is awesome but we have none that are progressing! It stresses me out thinking about it! Most of the people just love having us in their house and they’ll listen so intently and always invite us back but when it comes to making any kind of commitment or coming to church no one wants to. So we always come to the point where we don’t know if we should go back and keep teaching or if they aren’t ready for the gospel yet. BUT I told you a little about the daughter of Maria. She couldn’t come to church yesterday because she works but she said she’ll come with her mom this Sunday. And also another lady that we're teaching name Cefè said she is coming to church this Sunday as well. So we are excited for that! We're going to try to see them as much as possible this week. Also the 10 year old that I told you about last week, we called President and he said she needs to come to church for 3 months before she can be baptized.  I think I explained all the rules about kids being baptized in my last letter so read that if you have questions. But we are going to go to her house this week and try to teach her parents too because if her parents are getting baptized then there is no rule about kids. So hopefully that goes well. And also we got a referral from the other sisters for a kid that was being taught a few years ago and wanted to get baptized but his parents wouldn’t give him permission. So he had to wait until he turned 18 which he is now and he's in our area! He hasn’t been to church in forever though, but we are excited to go see him this week. We had a lesson on Saturday with the family that I told you about last week. She is a single mom with young kids so we thought we should make her a cake and card for mother’s day.  I’m so glad we thought of that! She about cried she loved it! And her kids were both like tomorrow is mother’s day?? So I’m glad we could do something for her! We had a good lesson with her about the plan of salvation and we talked about baptism at the end and she doesn’t understand the need for priesthood authority. I think we need to teach the first lesson again (about the restoration) because the first time we taught it was really hectic and the kids were asking me a million questions about the United States. So I think we didn’t teach it and the need for a restoration very good. That is always so hard to keep people focused during the lessons because everyone always wants to ask about the United States!

I hope you get my card soon!! And I hope I get the box soon too! What is in it? I miss American grocery stores! I want good snack food. All I eat when I’m at home is bananas and crackers. Literally!!!! And sometime tomatoes too when I can find good ones.

Happy Birthday to Rae this week!!!! I can’t believe you will be 15. You look so old in the pictures dad sent. And your hair is so long!!!! And your legs are so toned what the crap?!!!! I was thinking about sending you guys a birthday package since all your birthdays are coming up, but I decided I’ll just bring stuff home with me when I come home. They have the best clothes stores here in Gravatà. The other day I bought 2 skirts for what would be 6 dollars in the US!

I have lots of pictures this week. Thanks dad for sending me pictures I love them! But remember to only send one at a time because it always will only load one and won’t let me see the rest. Mom makes sure he knows that! And also dad I think you need to change your profile picture for skype. I don’t think you realized that you put that on there haha. It’s like a picture of you not paying attention. It looks like you are trying to figure skype out and accidently made that your profile picture. Everyone thought that was funny :)

I hope you all have a good week. I loved talking with you yesterday and can’t wait till Christmas!!! Love and miss you all!

Love,

Sister Bedke

We were SO happy to be able to Skype with Malyssa on Mother's Day. This picture (and the one above it) was taken by a member of the ward Malyssa is serving in, who also let Malyssa Skype with us in her home.

Malyssa's Zone

Week 16 - Gravata

It rained this week! The weather was the best!!!! It is so much more fun to work when you aren’t dripping with sweat :) And everyone is saying that the weather should stay like this for a while now that fall is here! And then in winter it will rain more.

We had a good week this week! Still no one came to church yesterday, but we have 19 new investigators from just this week. We´re teaching 2 families now! One of them is a mom with a 12 year old son and a 10 year old daughter. They come to the church for English lessons, but the mom was never very interested in us coming to her house. But idk what changed because she invited us over this week. They are awesome!!! The kids are so smart and literally fought over who got to answer the questions and who got to read from the scriptures. The boy his name is Mateus wants to know everything about the United States. And it was the sweetest thing when we were leaving their house he said "Sisters I like you guys because I’m so happy when you’re at my house." It about made me cry!! They live really close to our house too which is good so we will be able to see them a lot. Hopefully they will come to church this week! The other family is great too. It’s a funny story how we met them. We were at the door of someone else’s house and talking to a man on his porch and this little girl was outside playing and she comes up and says come to my house next! So we did but her mom was busy. Then she told us go to my neighbor so we did and had a lesson with her. And then she told us where her friend lives and we went and taught them too! This girl is like 8 years old and gave us 3 referrals! But we went back to her family the next day and they are really nice! We had a really good lesson with them and are going back on Wednesday so I’m excited for that.

I did a division this week with Sister Dana. She’s the other American that I live with. It was a lot of fun! She is a great teacher and was soooo encouraging and complementary of my Portuguese. I think I am just really hard on myself! Actually I know I

am. This morning I was reading my journal from the MTC and literally on the second day I was all frustrated because I wasn’t making any progress. Like what the crap it was the SECOND DAY!! I think I have issues!

I almost forgot about this!! Yesterday a lady in our ward had her little 10 year old cousin with her and she wants to get baptized. She’s been to church a few times in the past but it was before I got here. But anyways we talked to her about the gospel and she is awesome! but there is a rule in Brazil that just started in November that you cant baptize kids under 15 unless their family is getting baptized too or unless they have been coming to church faithfully for 3 months and have a responsible adult that will continue bringing them to church.

For my visa I’m not even sure why I had to do that. I think it was just to finalize everything. They took fingerprints of all my fingers and I had to sign some things. We stayed with the sisters that live in Recife. The picture of Recife was taken from their apartment.

Good job Rae with track! What are her times? I want to know everything with specifics! Good luck at the county meet!!!! Good luck to Cart with baseball! I want specifics for that too please!

I can’t believe you guys haven’t gotten my letter yet! I hope no one messed with it. It was kinda thick though maybe someone thought there was money in there. I don’t even know if that’s real that people will go through your mail or if everyone just says that. I’m so excited for that package though!!!! What’s in it?! I can’t wait! I haven’t gotten mail since I was in Idaho!! Sister Dana just got a letter last week from Valentine ’s Day. So sometimes mail takes a loooong time!

I am so excited for Sunday! We are going to a member’s home and my time is 4 or 4:30 so 2 or 2:30 for you guys. Make sure you are ready and answer! I will talk to you guys then :) Love and miss you!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Recife

Hello From Brazil!

Week 15 - Boa Vista, Brazil

I’m jealous you guys are in Oakley right now! And you get to eat grandma’s food!  I bet you are having such a fun weekend. I can’t believe Jessica is graduated from college! She doesn’t seem old enough to be done with school. And it seems like just yesterday we were roommates. Time flies! Wow and I also can’t believe Rae’s track times!!! That is so awesome she broke the school record!!! I wish I could’ve seen it. She’ll have to break it again when I can be there to watch :) I think I got confused about the city that I’m in because my ward is the Boa Vista ward but I think I’m in the city of Gravatà. Don’t think I’m stupid for not knowing because it’s really confusing! They have like cities and then a whole bunch of little neighborhoods with different names too and then I try to remember the street names so I can get around and that just makes me more confused. and then on top of all that the house numbers are so random. Like we will be walking down a street and one house is 22 and then the next house will be 372. Like what the heck! Everything is so unorganized it’s really hard to find people’s houses. And sorry my emails are really bad grammatically but this keyboard is different and I can’t find all the buttons!

This week was kind of slow. We didn’t get to work as much as we normally do because Sister Fortes was sick and then the next day I had to go to Recife and stay the night there and then go to the airport to do something for my visa. I went with Sister Dana who is the American that I live with. It was nice talking English for a while!! Going to Recife is quite the trip. We have to take three different buses and they are all packed full of people. We both felt so awkward because we were the only white people and everyone stares at us! I didn’t think I would stick out as much as I do here! But I literally have not seen one other blonde person in this whole area! At the airport for the visa thing the lady loved my hair. I had it up in a bun and she kept saying it’s natural and asking for me to take it down so I did and then she wanted me to leave it down haha. She was really nice!

We always eat lunch at the house of a church member.  They eat huge lunches here and then just a little dinner. There is always rice and beans and usually noodles too. And then either chicken or beef and then they cut up tomatoes and onion and also they love green olives here! But they don’t have the red thing in the middle they have a seed. And I didn’t know that the first time and I about broke my tooth biting into it! And then sometimes people will mix it up and I’ve had this casserole thing with bologni a few times.  They also love bologni (idk if thats how you spell that). Oh and they always have juice too! But their juice is like a smoothie and it is soooooo good! They have this fruit I can’t remember the name but we don’t have it in the US and it is my favorite for the juice! I love all the food! There hasn’t been anything that I haven’t liked yet! You would think I would have a lot of stomach problems but I haven’t yet!

Portuguese is getting a little better. I need to be better at always speaking it. Sister Fortes knows enough that if I don’t feel like thinking it out in Port then I just talk in English to her and I need to stop that!! I definitely have been able to start saying more when we teach people though so that’s good.

We have a lot of people that we are teaching, but none are really progressing. We don’t know what to do! It kinda seems like everyone really loves having us in their house, but just want to talk to us about life and not about the gospel. There are a few people that have a lot of potential though! It’s just hard because we can’t see them as often as I would like to. Our area is HUGE!! And a lot of the places we aren’t allowed to be in when it gets dark which is 5 o clock here. So by the time we are finished with lunch at the members we usually work around that area because it would take another hour just to walk to the other parts. We want to do something different because we don’t feel like we are being as affective as we could be but we just aren’t sure what! Hopefully we can figure that out. We haven’t had any investigators at church for 2 weeks now! Yesterday we had a really good lesson with a lady named Zefé. She told us that she felt God’s presence when we talked with her. And she even told me that I spoke with power!! And that made me so happy because I talk so slowly! But it’s true that it’s not the words that I say that they remember it’s the feelings that they feel. We were so happy about that lesson. Hopefully we will see her at church! I wish we could just drive up to her house and pick her up!! She lives like a 40 minute walk away dang it!

Have you guys got a letter in the mail from me? I sent it two weeks ago from today. I hope it gets there and no one opened it because it was kinda thick. I put a map of Recife in it and some other things I can’t remember. Oh and for Mother’s Day what time would work best for you guys? Would 2 or 2:30 work? That would be 4 in the afternoon here. And what is your skyping address? Let me know all that!!! I am so excited to skype you guys!

How is Livee? I miss her!!! There are so many stray dogs in the road here it about breaks my heart! And we can’t pet them because a lot of them are sick. Sometimes I still do because I can’t help it. But when you pet them they start to follow you haha.

Dad-- when you send pictures only send one at a time because it always only lets me see the first one and then not the second. But keep sending them because I love seeing you guys! I have a lot of pictures to send so hopefully it will work!

Love and miss you all!

Sister Bedke

Ola Minha Familia!

Week 14 - Brazil

This week has flown by! It was a great week! Most importantly.....we had our first baptism yesterday!!! Sister Fortes and her last companion have been teaching her for a while but she came to church for the first time last Sunday and felt the spirit so strongly and wanted to be baptized. She was baptized after church yesterday! Her name is Maria and she is such a sweetheart.  She was crying the whole time yesterday and kept saying over and over how happy she was and how pure she felt.  She told us over and over how her life has been so much better since she met the missionaries. It was such a great day! Me, Sister Fortes, and the other two sisters in the area sang How Great Thou Art at her baptism. I love singing and music in Portuguese because it’s the one thing that is the same as in the United States!

Some of the days this week have been really hard. It’s been hard for me to keep a good attitude sometimes when I always feel so out of the loop and never know what the heck is going on.  And sometimes I don’t think that is just because I don’t know the language. But all that being said I have felt it over and over again this week that Brazil is exactly where I need to be right now. I have grown more in these past 2 weeks I think than I did in my whole transfer in WA.  It’s because things haven’t come very easy and I have to rely on the Lord. And now I know I need to do that ALL the time not just when things are hard. I also know that there is a reason why I have to learn a language.  I’m learning better how to study and focus and just how to work hard for something that I want to be good at. I was getting impatient with myself (for some reason I keep thinking I need to be fluent with the language by now, don’t ask me why) but then I just realized that I wasn’t working as hard as I could.  So I’ve started to try to talk just Portuguese whenever possible no matter how long it takes me to say it and I spend extra time going through these notecards learning new words. That’s helped a lot. And the most motivating thing ever is going to lessons and not being able to say everything I want to say. That always makes me want to work that much harder. 

This week we got 10 new investigators! One of them is 20 years old and she just had a baby. Her babies name is Camilla and she is the most beautiful baby ever!! She is only 2 weeks old. Natalia is the mom’s name, and she seems really interested in the church. I still can’t believe how interested everyone is in learned about Jesus. They see the name on our name tags and want to talk about our religion.  It’s so crazy! We are teaching all women.  In church it’s mostly moms and their children and then like 5 men there.  

I put my pictures of snow in my bag this week and showed some of the people we teach. They loved it!!!! No one has ever seen snow here before and they all thought it was the most beautiful thing they have ever seen.  Yesterday in church I sat by a 12 year old girl name Cecilia.  She asked about my whole life! She thought all of our family’s names were so funny. She especially laughed at Brice and Carter and she loved the name Jessica.  I told her that her and carter should get married and she thought that was funny too :) She thinks Carter looks a lot older than 11.

I can’t believe I forgot this in my last letter! My area is Boa Vista!!! I’m not sure exactly how far away it is from Recife because we took the bus here. But it was like a 3 hour bus ride and we had to switch buses twice. It’s one of the coldest areas in the mission. and it’s still freaking hot as heck!!!! I have tan lines already! If you want to send any package or and mail you send it all to the mission office. 

Sister Malyssa Bedke
Brazil Recife Mission
Rua Das Ninfas 30
Boa Vista-Recife-PE
50070-050
Brazil

If you ever do send anything I’d like those granola bars that I like and then gum. They don’t have any of that here.

I think that’s it for the week! I don’t have a picture of the church here but I’ll get one and send it next week. The churches are BEAUTIFUL here. I wish I had a picture of the one in downtown Recife. It is like 3 stories and so pretty!!! I took some kinda good pictures from this week. One of me drinking a coconut. It’s not as good as I thought it would be. It’s so cute so I thought it would be like this sweet juice stuff on the inside so I was disappointed. And then I have some of all the chocolate people have given us for Easter. I’m gonna gain 10 this week I already have accepted it. Everyone just kept giving us more chocolate! And then some from Maria’s baptism too!

Good job to Rae in track! Tell me everything that happens. Times and everything! And congrats to Christine!!! They are adorable and I love the names! I can’t wait to meet them!! :)

Love and miss you all!!!

Sister Bedke

Oi!

Week 13 - Brazil

I survived my first week in Brazil!! I still can’t believe that I’m actually here! I feel like I’m in a movie. Brazil is amazing!!! I love it here. I cannot get over how nice the people are.  I could literally write a whole page just of nice things people have done for me. I don’t even know where to start! On my first day, I was the only American of the new companions so I couldn’t really talk much to people, it stunk. But a few of them could speak a little English and they tried to help me. And the secretary missionaries could speak English so they translated everything for me! I flew here (from the US) all by myself but it was totally fine. And then when I got to the airport we still had like 4 hours till all the other missionaries would arrive from the Sao Paulo MTC. So I got to know the secretaries very well!! haha One of them told me that the hardest part for him when he was learning Portuguese was to not start daydreaming during lessons and church when he had no idea what anyone was saying. I think we are twins! It is sooooo hard to focus when I’m just so lost!! The good news is I have my whole life planned out because I have a lot of time to think about everything! But I’m getting better at focusing because I want to learn this language as fast as possible. It so frustrating being confused all the time. 

I love my companion!! Her name is Sister Fortes and she’s from Sao Paolo. She speaks English pretty good too!! Sometimes I’m not sure if that’s a good thing though because then I’m too tempted to talk in English and not figure it out in Portuguese. She’s awesome though!!! She takes really good care of me. On our first day she spoke a lot of English with me and the other missionaries kept telling her she needed to speak Port and she was like you try going to another country where you don’t know the language and see how you like it! It was so funny. And she is so protective of me!! You don’t ever have to worry about my safety seriously. She always makes me walk on the inside of the sidewalk and practically holds my hand when we cross the road. Haha  She told me “eef anyone toches you, i keel dem!” Oh and also she always makes me wear sunsreen and bugspray even when I don’t want to!!! I told her I want to get tan and she still makes me!! I still am burnt though. She is so awesome and does so much for me. I’m lucky I’ve had such good companions.

Ok so about brazil!! These are the biggest differences that I’ve noticed so far. First of all the drivers are crazy!!!!! And everyone is always honking. I don’t think anyone looks for pedestrians ever. And then there is a million motorcyclists and they just weave in and out of everything going so fast and literally are like an inch away from hitting other cars and no one even cares.  The second big difference is the people are so friendly!!! Not that they aren’t in the states but it’s just way different here.  Everyone we talk to says we can come share a message with their families and they’ll give us their address and everything. And that’s like ten people a day that will invite us over. I can’t believe how open people are here! And then everyone hugs and kisses our cheeks. There was this one lady...I wasn’t really sure who she was but I figured that she was a member of the church because she invites us into her house and gives us water and food and then after we leave I asked who she was and Sister Fortes was like I don’t know I just met her! Everyone is so nice! Yesterday we were at the people’s house and I was sitting next to the grandma and she says something to her grandson and he comes back with sunscreen. Next thing I know she rubbing it all over me! She said I’m red and that I’m going to get cancer haha. I don’t think I’ll ever be tan because everyone forces me to wear sunscreen dang it!!

Our ward is so small.  I counted yesterday and there were 37 people in Sacrament Meeting. But we have 500 less active members. We have our work cut out for us. I keep wondering why I was sent to this area because it needs so much help and I feel like I can’t do much since I can’t communicate, but I know that there was a reason. I’m trying to figure out ways that I can make a difference with my limited Portuguese. We will figure it out! I had to play the piano right on the spot in Sacrament Meeting. They were about to start singing and then Sister Fortes says Sister Bedke can play the piano!! So I had to go up there and I had no idea what song it was because I couldn’t read the title!!!! But I got through it!  The last song was High on a Mountain Top which is supposed to be fast but I didn’t recognize what song it was till like half way through! Everyone was singing way faster than I was playing.  I thought I was playing the wrong song lol. I shared my testimony! It was really short and very simple, but I know that my comfort zone has grown a crap ton since I started my mission. When i went up there of course everyone gets silent and decided to pay attention!! But it was so cute because I could tell everyone wanted me to do well. Like the whole congregation would nod when I would say the words right and they would mouth the words that I struggled with. All 40 people in there did that. I about started laughing up there! And then when I said amen everyone said amen so loud like yay you did it!! Everyone is so nice! The little girls LOVE the missionaries. They want to be by us and hold our hands all the time and it’s adorable! And then they say all the English words they know to me. They were like "sister....HOT DOG!" :) And also in every class and every meeting I have gone to I get called on to say the prayer. Every single one!!! People like hearing me try to speak Portuguese I think.

The food has all been delicious. They eat really big lunches here and we go to someone’s house for pretty much every lunch. I don’t know how to say I’m full and not be rude!! But they say come mais come mais Sister! Eat more, eat more and I just have to suck it up because I’m not sure if it really does hurt their feelings or not to refuse. But it’s really good! And they make this juice stuff from scratch and I love it!!

My apartment is really cute! I think it’s nicer than my old one!! Maybe not nicer just cleaner.  I love the Brazilian style of it. It doesn’t have AC, but we stay pretty comfortable in there. I’m still not used to sleeping just on a mattress with no blankets.  I don’t want a blanket because it’s too hot, but I just feel weird not having anything covering me! It gets so hot here in the day! I’m just accepting the sweatiness. I pit out my shirts so bad and I don’t even care! Our area is HUGE and we have to walk up a lot of hills so by the end of the day I am a sweaty mess! 

The hardest thing is just not ever knowing what the heck is going on. I already never knew what’s going on and now it’s a lot worse.  I just want to be a good missionary and sometimes that seems impossible because I am so clueless!  I get frustrated at myself, but at the same time I have made a lot of progress in the first week. I just need to get better at focusing and studying every chance I get. This stuff takes time and I need better patience. I just want to talk to people!!! We live with two other girls and one of them is American so she can translate for me when I’m lost.  That is such a blessing!!

I have only a couple of pictures from Brazil because we aren’t supposed to carry our cameras around with us. And the pictures I have don’t even come close to showing how beautiful it is here! It is amazing!!! I want you guys to come see it! And everyone is just always having fun and so laid back. Oh and they like American music.  Every night is some kind of party and they have music blasting that we can hear at our apartment! But I’ll send the pics I have and then I have a few from Couer d’Alene in Idaho!  I probably left out so much stuff because so much happened this week, but my internet time is almost up!  I love and miss you guys!! Thank you for everything!!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Dear Family and Friends

Week 11 - Post Falls, Idaho

I have one week till I go to Brazil!! Have you guys had a travel scheduled emailed to you yet? They said they would do that.  I got an email today and it says I need to be at the mission home by 7 am on Monday and that my flight leaves at 10:15. Hopefully that's all I need to know!

Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes! I had a great day! When I woke up, the sisters I live with wrote me birthday notes on the mirrors and shower!  I opened my presents and I love everything!! Thank you so much!!!! But after that it was just a normal day. Then that night at the women's broadcast, Sister Jeffery told Sister Chamberlain that it was my birthday so she insisted on taking us out to the Mexican restaurant afterwards.  Her 8 year old came with us too.  She was so excited to hang out with the missionaries.  It was cute :)  And wasn't that so nice of her to send you those pictures?! I didn't even think of asking her to do that.  She was just taking all these pictures and then was like oh we have to send these to your parents! And then she thought it would be even better to make you guys a video.  :)  She was hoping it wouldn't make you cry haha! She is so sweet!

I loved the Women's broadcast! It was so good! Penny watched it too and loved it.  She was very impressed with the music which I though it was great too. She came to church again yesterday and loved it.  Yesterday was such a great testimony meeting.  Two less active people that we meet with regularly bore their testimonies.  It was amazing! One of them is in her 50s.  She bore her testimony of how she knows that Heavenly Father is aware of us and that he answers our prayers. And then it was so funny she singled me and Sister Jeffery out. She turned to us and said "and yes girls I AM reading my Mormon book." Everyone started laughing. It was such a good testimony! And then the other girl is a 14 year old. She bore her testimony about the temple and how she could feel how much God loves her when she was there.  It about made me cry! She has a really hard life and no family support.  Her and her sister would be at church every week if they could.  I took pictures with them this week because it was the last time we are meeting before I leave so I'll send those later.

I'm getting my hair cut today! I'm getting it all one length.  Hopefully its not too short :/ I probably won't get to write next week because I'll be on a plane!! :) But they said I could call when I'm in the airport if I have enough time. So be ready to answer! I might call during a layover and not in the morning. Just be ready all day on Monday! I'll get a picture with Sister Johnson today...I'm pretty sure I'll see her later.  That is so crazy that you served with her dad!! I can't wait to tell her!

Mom and Dad, thank you for the scriptures. I love all of them and it was a good reminder! You two are the best!! I love and miss you all so much! Next time I email I'll be in BRAZIL!!!!!

Love,

Sister Bedke

Malyssa with her companion, Sister Jeffery

Sam and Ramie (in the picture above)

Sister Hood is going home after this transfer. Malyssa said this is what missionaries do when someone is going home :)