Hello fam!

We had our first baptism this week!!!!!!!!!! WWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a kindof crazy but very exciting day. So we were planning on having it on Saturday but then we couldn´t get a member of the bishopric to come so we had to reschedule for Sunday before Church. It was going to start at 8:00, but you know Brazilians, no one comes to anything on time so by 8:30 people started to slowly show up. Then somehow the keys to the main closet were lost so we couldn´t get a jumpsuit ready for him! I don´t really know exactly what happened, but we eventually found the keys and ended up having the baptism actually during the second hour before Gospel Doctrine. It worked out well because all of the other investigators who were at Church were able to watch and there was a lot of support. It was hard however because we had a whole program planned out but were unable to do most of it. All is well though, the ordinance is all that really matters and that went great. Sebastião was still able to be confirmed in Sacrament Meeting so he is now officially a member of the Church! It has been so rewarding to watch him grow in the gospel over the last few weeks. He has changed a lot and continues to learn and yearn for the scriptures. It is an honor to have the privilege of teaching him.

On Friday we had a practice for this Christmas choir coming up. It was all day long so Sister Jales went on splits with another missionary. It was really fun and felt awesome to be a part of a good choir again. We still have a lot of work to do but I have a feeling it will go really well. After the practice we all went over to the ice cream shop across the street and bought açai. It is super delicious. It is the blended up berry in kind of like ice cream form with chopped bananas, granola, sweetened condensed milk, and this sweet powdered milk stuff on top. Heaven in my month. And only about 4 dollars for all of that! Totally worth it, and we can pretend it´s healthy because it is a berry. :)

We got caught in my first major rainstorm this week! The rain here is kindof crazy because it comes out of nowhere. In the morning it is sunny and clear so I do not bring my umbrella out as often as i should (it is kind of heavy to carry around in my bag every day). Then at night it comes on with a vengence. We got super soaked one night this week but we still had a few contacts to do so we went for it strong! It was pretty crazy.

Speaking of contacts, we had a few different days this week with that choir practice and Sister Jales had to go to the doctor one day (but we got everything figured out and she is going to be fine, don´t worry), so we were unable to get many contacts a few days. We somehow managed to get 81 on Saturday! I know that the Lord is helping us in whatsoever we need.

The biggest challenge of this week was the culture. The language is actually coming along pretty well. I am starting to really understand people, especially at Church. When we are talking to people on the street I almost always have somewhat of an idea about what we are talking about. The very free, laid back schedule has been a little difficult for me to get used to though. In California everything was extremely straitlaced (kind of like my whole life has been) and we were exactly obedient in every way. Here everything is a little more carefree so it will take me a while to relax and go with the flow. But I am starting to love Brazil more every day and the people we are teaching are really getting into my heart. This is exactly where I need to be! The Lord is teaching me things I never thought I would learn. Life is good.

Sorry this email is not very long today. I took a long time sending pictures in different emails this week. I hope they all came through!

Beijos,

Sister Marchant

P.S. At the beginning of my time here in Brazil I had an interview with the President and he said I could write to him in English for a while because he reads it well and it would be a lot faster for me. This week I will officially reach my 1 month mark (woo!) of time in Brazil so I wanted to start writing in Português. Let me know if this is a problem or if you want me to translate for you. I will hopefully be able to write more in my email to you all now however. (just not this week...)

Olá Presidente!

Esta semana faz uma mês que está no Brasil! Eu quero tentar escrever em Português agora. Meus emails vão ser mais corto mas seria bom para mim começar escrevendo mais em Português.

A semana passado estávamos muito ocupadas e fizemos muitas coisas diferentes. O mais importante, tivemos um batismo! Sebastião (quem você conhece) foi batizado e confirmado ontem. Foi um pouco ocupado por que temos igreja o mesmo tempo, mas ainda foi muito espiritual. Sebastião estava feliz e tinha paz durante todas as reuniões ontem. Os membros foram muito simpáticos também e a experiencia foi muito bom para todo mundo. Foi o primeiro batismo de ambos Síster Jales e eu. Estamos muito felizes para ele e sabemos que ele vai continuar progredir no evangelho.

Estou animado para o coral também! Acho que depois de um pouco mais ensaios será muito bom.

Estou começando acostumar à cultura de Brasil. É um pouco diferente para mim mas estou aprendendo mais todos os dias e estou amando as pessoas aqui mais cada dia. Eu quero amar as pessoas aqui e esta missão com todo minha coração. Eu quero servir exatamente como Deus quer para mim. Eu O ama e eu ama o evangelho. Jesus Cristo faz que tudo que nós experienciamos aqui numa missão vale a pena!

Muito obrigada por responder meus emails. Ainda umas poucas palavras significa muito para mim.

Obrigada!

Síster Marchant

Tomara que você possa entender este email!