12/10/18 - Ilumine sua comunidade

Here's the deal gente, Sister Bernardo is my best friend and I love her with all my heart. My new comp just finished training so I'm her first "normal" companion and it's so fun because she knows how to teach well but is still new enough that she's figuring out how she likes to do things. She's 21 and from Bahia. She's also fluent in English which is SO FUN. We speak English in our apartment and Portuguese on the Street. Seriously, the spririt is so strong in all our lessons together and our companionship study. Ah! It's the best!

The memebers here gave me violin to play during the Christmas season! *Insert enthusiastic fist bump here*

Our branch members here are amazing. Saturday afternoon they recieved notice that our branch was recieving 3 refugee families from Venezuela and one was arriving the next day. All of us dropped everything and in less than 24 hours we had found and rented them housing, arranged for all donations of furniture, clothes, food etc. In this same time frame we spent all Saturday cleaning and setting up one of the houses complete with Christmas decorations. I took it upon myself to use the landscape design skills my mom taught me and prune all the overgorwn trees. It was so fun. The first family arrived and I'm sure they were overjoyed to finally have a safe place to rest. ALL IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS! This is the way of the Savior. I'm so blessed to be serving in a branch where people are so selfless. They truly love, serve and minister in the way of the Savior. This was a miracle for our little branch because we have a lot of families moving. Some have been called to be mission presidents, others are heading to the US because of other callings etc. Our memebrship was decreasing. Us missionaries are trying opur best to baptize as many recent converts as possible but we were all praying more families would move into the branch. Lo and behold the Lord always answers prayers even if its not in the way we'd expect. The other 2 families will move in this week.

We went carloing in the plaza of Barueri yesterday as apart of #SejaLuzDoMundo. That was awesome. Sister Bernardo busted out some pagode beats and we spiced up some classic Christmas songs. I love all my compaions. They've all been wonderful but Sister Bernardo is an answer to prayer because she's the first one that isn't tone deaf. She sings well and  we have fun jamming together everyday.

Quote of the week: "I don't need bug spray, you're my bug spray. Just stay close to me. I think they're attracted to the light from your whiteness." - Sister Bernardo

But it's true. No matter what I do I get eaten alive everyday. Bug spray or no. Tudo bem

GO LIGHT YOUR COMMUNITY THIS WEEK GENTE! AMO VOCÊS!

Sister Barbie

1) Brasillians serioiusly clean SO WELL! I'm learnging lots of cool tips and new ways to clean.

2) The house when we were finished. (feliz natal baner is credit to Bernardo and I)

3) Singing in the Plaza

4) Feliz Natal from your favorite Sisters