I will tell you about my week now and as I do this I will send pictures over and
explain about investigators and the situations we are dealing with
right now!
So first things first! the misquitos have gone away!!! we finally got
two more fans. We close our windows at night so the misquitos don´t
come in and if they do come in they get blown away!! hahah so yeah my
arms and legs have stopped iching and are starting to get back to
normal! whahoo!! by the way I did try repelant many times but... that
didn´t help to much. about an hour or so later I would wake up iching
but no worries things are really getting better! also its still pretty
hot here! but you know what its just a part of the brazilian lifestyle

well I am absolutely love serving with sister Tamily. She is teaching
me so much everyday. like for example everyday we have to talk to 10
new people on the street or clapping doors. well she shares her
testimony super stong with each of them. I got into a habit of saying
about the same thing with every person so it got boring and tireing
and i was wanting to know how to make things fun and exciting again.
well I paid more attention and bam! I noticed how she was sharing her
testimony so much so yeah this is my goal to just share what i know!
so guess what! this past week we had a leadership meeting here and
guess what!! one of the assitants to the president that served in
Agronomia after me told me that one of the random people that i talk
to on the street him and his family are getting baptized!! how cool!!
Every day we record everything and all the addresses that we got in
our area book so yeah this is were they found this person. I
absolutely don´t remember this person but they remember me somewhat.
they remeber that some blond American talked to them. So yeah the
elders were like `sister Gregory!`haha I have a lovely accent here so
people can tell right off I´m american but yeah at least what I did in
Agronimia really worked! They are going to send me a picture of this
family and I have plans to write them a letter soon.
hmmm so yeah guess what! we have three people preparing to be baptized
right now!! Anderson who is a cousin to roberta. Roberta is the
daughter to Roberto and Ana Lucia. He is like another Jeferson! just
wants to be baptized. He had been taught by missionaries years back
and has visited the church many different times. like stake and
general conferences with his cousin Roberta. Well he came to stake
conference about two weeks ago. we set up a teaching appointment and
then the first time we taught him we invited him to be baptized and he
accepted!! how cool huh!! we also asked him why he likes this church
he said he likes what we do as missionaries. right then I thought man
he will be a great future missionairy!! so yeah he did have a baptize
date for saturday but... his mom is a little intense... the other
night after we taught him he went to is cousins house for a bit and
since he lives pretty far away and didn´t go home right after his mom
got nervous and for a bit no one could find him. well late that night
they found him walking on some street. so yeah she got really nervous
and well doesn´t want him to have anything to do with church right
now... so yeah we will visit him and his parents this week to get
things settle and just great again. just got to love situations like
this huh?!! haha well don´t worry we will do our best and soon enough

he´ll be baptized right along with his mom! hahah
well right now we are working alot with families! we found cris and
ekesle. Cris is a ward member´s sister. But his ward member is less
active along with her family. So yeah this less active family is in
the area of the sisters and cris and her two boys are in our area. so
us sisters are working with these two familes. well the first visit
with cris and her son we found out that missionaries had taught them
years back but weren´t baptized because she was living with the dad of

one of her boys marino. Also she had issue about accepting baptism
because she was baptized in the catholic church. well she is

separtated now from this ex-boyfriend/husband and has been for the
past two years. we also explained how we have the authority of god

only in this church and explained the whole thing about the apostasy and

the restoration. we invited them to be baptized but they didn´t accept
it the first visit. well we marked 3 nephi chap 11 for her to read.
the next visit she told us she read that chapter and now wanted to be
baptized because she is worried about being condeemed haha so yeah her
and her son will be baptized feb 18th! how cool is that!
so yeah our difficulty that you have your missionaires share their
experiences and testimonies about is getting our investiagators to
church. they all want to head to the beach sunday for some reason. so
yeah need some help with that. Also just have them share their
testimony of the book of mormon and why they know it to be true. also
maybe some help when quiting smoking and how going to church, reading
the book of mormon could help. I hope this helps you out!! I will now
send more pictures over and explain some situations ok!!
well I love you all!! have a wonderful week!!
-Sister Gregory

-P.S. SIster Daniele´s parents said its alright if she gets home
friday. so yeah I will write her a letter tell her that she has to let
the people know that will be settin up her flight plans!
also for Jeremy: I am finishing a letter to you that in this letter I
replied to your e-mails! Also let kailee know that it was wonderful
getting a e-mail from her!! made my day!!

Loving Missionary Work

New Year's

Playing in the streets of Brazil

Olha!!

I´ll try my best to explain some things that my mission president has done to help us
missionaries out and to send a recipe or two and to give you some
facts about brazil! so where to start! ok I´ll start with the food. so
right now its summer so we eat a lot of fruit. its grape season so
we´ve been drinking alot of grape juice . but usually in every home
for lunch we drink natural grape juice or something like that. Here in
porto algre they have alot of peaches, strawberries, bananas hmmm what

else? oh right now its watermelon season to!! so yeah enough with the juice. so yeah

what ever season it is we usually will drink natural juice or soda.
like orange soda, sprite or a soda called guardana. they only have
this soda here. but its super good! you´ll try it out some day!
hmmm... ok so your typical meal is black beans, rice, some type of
meat and cut up tomatoes, lettuce and onions. so here is an idea for

you mom! make some yummy juice, rice, black

beans (look up how you make black beans here ok i would send you a
recipe but I´ve never made them... i do have a recipe that i could
send maybe next week) they are known for the black beans, then for a
salad cut up some tomatoes and onions and put them in a bowl and stir
in vinager, salt and olive oil, then make a lasagna! haha I can send
you a easy recipe next week but just buy a lasagna ready if its easier
for you. then for dessert you can make a fruit salad and put some whip

cream on top.

here is a recipe for home made whip cream. egg white and

sugar. for every egg white you need I think two or three spoon fulls
of sugar. beat together in the mixer and when its not runny its ready!

there are alot of great recipes for dessert here just look up some
recipes for `Puddin` or some yummy tasty brazilian desserts! I´ll try
my best to send some recipes next week.
ok so about the mission. my presidents number one rule is to smile. to
always be happy no matter what! it really help out alot! he is always
so happy and just willing to help out with what ever!

hmmm what do you
want to know? so sister swenson is always helping out with the health
issues. right now we have to drink like 5 bottle of water each day.
its super hot here! and the misquitos don´t help to much. the nights
are super hot and we just have one fan. we are going to buy three more

because we are allowed to have one fan for each missionary. so hmmm...
ok the misquitos are eating me a live! my legs and arms are covered!!
it really looked like I have chicken pox! I´m not kidding! wake up

nightly ichy and sweating from the heat! but hey the gospel is so true
and i just love being a missionary! so its all worth it!

so yeah in

every house we enter they offer something. like juice, crackers, fruit,
a dessert or what ever they just finished cooking. we eat a lot. no

joke! but yeah its great. we have to talk to 10 peopel every day on
the street to find new people. and hmmm.... really the mission is
wonderful!! we walk and walk miles everyday in the sun. I load on sun
screen and walk with my unbrella while people yell asking me if its

going to rain. or its not raining. but hey I like my unbrella! it
makes me feel like a princess!! haha but really I don´t know what you

want to know?!

but this past week as i am now training have really

gained an appreiciation for the misison. its the greatest decision
I`ve ever made. this past week everyone is telling me that I am so close

to ending the mission. and you know what? it really hurts to say that
I leave in june. I really will have to end this mission. I love the
happiness it brings to me and the people here. the peopel are so

loving and really understanding and want to hear our message. A few
times throughout the day we get the same replies like I am going to
another church, i´m busy, and rarely they will be blunt and say I don´t
believe in god. this upset my comp. she started crying and I pulled

her aside and asked her what happened? I was use to these replies but
with her first week out this bothered her. She told me how could you
not believe in god when you have children? this woman was holding her
son. I told my comp you know what? its so important to remember to
keep a smile on your face. they have their agency and our job is to
let everyone know that we are misssionares and here to help them come

unto christ. people will reject us daily but as we keep a smile on our

face and do everything on our part we will fulfill our purpose. its
tough sometimes but its not worth getting down about things like this.
there will be trillions of moments that will be tough on the mission
but if we can keep our chin up and be happy the misison will be so
much better and we will walk away a wonderful person!

ok I really
don´t know what you wanted to know. I really got to get running so if
I left somthing out just send your questions next week.
so my comps name is sister Tamily! she is absolutely amazing! I love

serving with her! she really came prepared into the mission! I really
don´t feel like I´m training at all! we are already like best friends

too! our goal this transfer to reactivate family and baptize families!
the bishop wants us to visit one family in the ward each day to help

reactvate people. also there are alot of families with one or more non

members so yeah this will help out lots! so yeah this past week was
full of miracles and just was wonderful to get out everyday and work
like crazy! being a missionary is fun!!!

well I will send you a picture really quick! so gotta run! oh

almost forgot. Fragata to porto alegre is three hours and agronomia to
porto alegre is like 30 min.
sorry if I didn´t resond to everything!! next week I´ll try better!
hAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!! HOPE ITS AMAZING!!
I´ll let sister Daniele know what president said also!
Thanks love you!! Te amo!
sister Gregory

Christmas pictures & New Companion

OH my goodness! There are so many thoughts in my head! and well lets
just say that I have about a trillion butterflies in my stomach! Mia
nossa!! where do I start? do I tell you whats going to happen this
next transfer or start with what you told me in your e-mail...hmmm...
ok I´ll tell you the news you want to hear then reply to what you told
me ok!
so guess what!..... I´m going to be.....A MOMMY!! haha so yup I´m
going to train probably a wonderful brazilian because well I don´t
think any americans are arriving and well if I trained an American I
would feel really bad because man I´m american and speak with one
great accent! haha so yeah can you believe it? I´m going to train! and
let me tell you I´m super nervous!! haha but I´m excited also for a
good change and guess what else! I´m sticking around in Fragata
probably for about two more transfers! oh my goodness! So yeah I love
this area but when its my time to leave I think I just might be ready.
its been now four transfers and I´m now going on my fith here! and
when people train they stick with their comp for two transfers because
of the training program here in the mission! So yeah keep me in your
prayers because I´m going to need some help! ahhhh!! so yeah me and
Sister Negreiros are sticking here in fragata. Sister Vicente (Who I
did a division with me a while back) will be comps with sister
Negreiros. Sister Daniele is going to train again!! and probably will
open an area because she is leaving the wonderful Fragata and going to
Porto Alegre. SO yeah we just might not see each other till June...

how sad! oh well... Sisters from sao paulo and the bahia are coming

here so yeah lets see who us two will train! And my lovely comp sister
Fasterra is heading back to porto Alegre and will be comps with Sister
Witers an american. Sister fasterra and witers are both having
problems with their knees so they will do physical therapy together

and be able to help each other out also they will stay close to the

president! The only problem is well... Sister Witers is that one
sister in the mission that well lets just say isn´t the easiest to get
along with... I´ve been helping sister Fasterra out with being more
happy and just following the Lords will. I hope things will stick. We
also had a bit of time to talk to sister Witers about the situation

and I think things will work out just wonderfully!

so yeah this past week really was wonderful!! do you remember
robertinho? He was one of the friends of all the girls we baptized at
the beginning of december. well him and Mateus (the girls older
brother) got baptized this past saturday!! it was such a great
baptism. They are in the area of the sisters but it was great to know
that they got baptized and I was able to see some people I taught a
bit get baptized!! we also found so many families this past week!! I´m
starting to get the hang of things here and just am loving things!!
i´m sure I will grow a lot as I train this new sister but I am happy
we have found some new promising investigators!! I´ve got to end my
time here in fragata strong and find all those hidden investigators!!
haha
so guess what! I gave my second talk in sacrament yesterday!! and you
know what! the bishop told me I would be the first to speak just
seconds before I started to play the sacrament song!! haha well at
least it was before the sacrament! haha so yeah I just talked about

how its important to keep positive and look up rather than to your side

or on the ground. i shared the talk in the ensign about the missionary
that couldn´t speak german and was a little fustrated then got an
answer telling him that he wasn´t called to speak perfectly but to
serve with all his heart might mind and strength. I also talk about
our covenants we made at baptism and how there really isn´t a reason

to be negative or sad because we are tremendously blessed with the

gospel in our lives. so yeah then shared some scriptures and stuff

like that! so yeah I think i did an alright job and everyone told me it

was great! So yeah it was a great experience!
hmm.. what else?
sounds like dads work is working out! I am glad the atmosphere is
really good there!!
Kenners send me a picture of your new bed! congrats on buying it yourself!!

and kristina good luck in ecuador and send lucy and Hiram a hug for me!

Those kids are the cutest!!

well I think thats it for my e-mail. I will send you pictures next week

I promise! well that is at least my goal sorry I know i tell you this

weekly. but don´t you worry soon enough you´ll get pictures!!

well sure do love you all!!
boa semana!!
-sister gregory