That one week when....I got lice AGAIN.

Alright universe... it's done being funny. This whole "getting lice" thing. Yup.

so my companion and I have a goal today that we are JUST going to sleep today!! And I mean it! so.... not gonna write a ton. 

But I am gonna write about the happy moment when Ione got baptized!!

She came up out of the water and I thought she was choking... or water up the nose or something crazy. But she was praying!!! 

awwwwww what a sweet lady!! love this woman!

everyone have a great life!

TCHAU

--sister Hennefer

Watch out car, there's a horse!!

ALRIGHT!!!

So this week entire... (week entire? no, this entire week. Portuguese is taking over my grammar) I've been thinking about how I can describe how flipping giaaaant my new area is. And this is how it went... 

Wow... let's think City Center, Eagle Mountain... yeah... probably my subdivision and the subdivision next to us (you know... the one where the Monson's live?) 

and then I found out our subdivision is a little bit bigger.... 

Alright... so our entire subdivision, the subdivision of the Monson's... and the subdivision where Eagle Valley Elementary is. Yeah... that's really big... and probably accurate. 

But now I'm fairly certain I've got the perfect example of my new giant area. 

Endless. 

hahahahah no just kidding. Those three giant subdivisions ---and all the empty land in between. All walking... and hot....and the church lies on the other end of eternity. Haaahahahah But I love it!! 

Uruguaiana has the feel a lot like LaPoint, Utah. TONS OF HORSES. And cows... but mostly horses. Wild horses, tamed horses, baby horses... phantom horses. Just horses!!! 

My new companion is Sister Brito. I lived with her in my first transfer. Here is a picture of us eating a delicious Brazilian Pizza (yes, there really is a difference) Aaaand.... the other picture... is a picture of my tristeza. (that means sadness)

Do you see my wool-sock suck-up-your-foot-sweat-thing that I love so very much? Yup... it fell... four stories... on the roof of our neighbor's garage..... 

so yeah maybe you'll all be recieving a video of a crazy sister skimming rooftops in Brazil. 

Well!!! Sorry to make it short this week but I actually have emails to read! *yaaay for family love!* 

Thank you all for the emails and the pictures!! I flipping love to receive pictures!!!! 

TCHAU

Sister Hennefer

AH! Before I forget! I have an invite/request for everyone. What is an experience (hopefully a positive one) that you had with member-missionary work? 

woooooot excited to hear your answers!!! And if you haven't had one yet... talk with your local missionaries or your Bishop!! And they will be thrilled to invite you to partake in the joy of sharing the gospel!

 

Alright. so a little bit more.

Yeah... this girl knows what's up.

The next pictures are of a cute girl that I love to death!! She and I together almost created chaos because we think we are so funny. And the last picture is of our ward mom.... Love this woman. She totally gets and understands missionary work. And she and her husband are working towards being sealed in the temple!!!!


WHOOOO HOOO but now the computer is going to kick me off soon!! But I just want to say... I love you all! And Know that... everyone and their dog says that Uruguaiana is super super hot... so basically I'm gonna be a different race when I sent the next pictures. hahaha

TCHAU!

--Sister Hennefer

(oooh! Everyone should read Mosias 4: 26-27 and know: God expects you to serve your neighbor. But also take care of yourself. Because you are important, too.)

Bat returned, Transfers, young women leaders are awesome, singing in FHE, and no time!

Wow!!! What a week!!!

First of all you should know that the bat didn't really return! The Elders in our ward made this funny little thing out of springs, tape, and cardboard and had the sisters put it on my bed! hahaha it was really funny.

But there you can tell that an American wrote it... because it's actually "Amaguinho Voltou" but!! All is well and it's still really funny.

Yes!!! I got transferred!! D8 what a horribly sad and yet a little bit awesome feeling!! I have to say goodbye to my beloved Sister Oliveira Santos. The picture is of us four in our ward here in Santa Maria. This ward and this Transfer was so much fun. I laughed so much with Sister Oliveira Santos. And the Elders in our ward were so much fun to work with. This picture (and the picture of us with towels on our heads) I will cherish forever!!!

So... it'll be Me and Elder Hintze who are leaving for Uruguaiana!! I'll be headed for the ward Cabo Quevedo and Elder Hintze is gonna be our Zone Leader!! Believe it or not but I'm actually excited for the 7 1/2 hour drive to the other side of the state. And I will be taking many pictures of the country border line Where Argentina lies!! My area boundaries touch Argentina! Que Legal!

Everyone cried. ...it's true. I'm going to miss this area like no one knows! I learned tons of things here. Firstly: Portugues. I still don't speak or understand perfectly but I'm off to Uruguaiana!! Whooo hooooo!!! 

I will get to you all the address and info and stuff you all need next week. But for now... it's gonna be a sad and yet exciting week! Here's to my second area.

Oh, and the third picture is of Elder Hintze and my English class. That was a fun class to teach. Gah! Que saudades!

More Fotos!

Mais Fotos!

LITTLE TINY EGGS. hahaha they were delicious. and yes they have normal eggs, too. i just like to buy these cuz i think they're funny




 loved the christmas package, mom. thanks!! Sister Ramos and i love to put the little tiny ornaments up every day

woooooooot pictures!!

a dangerous and scary stray lamb that wonders the streets here and eats everyone's grass! it was on Irma Julianna's lawn!! And I got a GOLDEN photo!! ...and then I was too loud and it started to follow us and it freaked me out so we hurried inside



baptism of vinisius!!



Ahh... i love these two. Carla and Celso were baptised about a year ago and i'm pretty sure they are the most beautiful couple i've ever seen in my life. the song they sang was beautiful and i loved it. They have three awesome children and they love us like they're our parents. love them! Celso is learning English and he loves to hear about what i've learned and i love to hear about what he's learned. so great!

That one time when THE BAT RETURNED!! No wait... four hours later when I got LICE!!

Yeah so... bats and lice. Let's get to story-telling!

Alright. So Sister Oliveira Santos and I decided that our room is miserably hot at night--let's sleep with the window open!! Yeah! Wow! What a great idea! (and just keep in mind... I sleep right underneath the window)

Nope. It wasn't. The first night... it was raining. And it was perfect. A nice cool breeze was coming in and we didn't have any insects. It was perfect! Around four or five in the morning The wind picked up and I got a little bit of rain on my face and bed-- a little yelp but all is well; I just closed the window.

WELL. The next night we do the same thing--sleep with the window open. But this night was a little bit more dificult. At around 4:00am I was having the hardest time falling back asleep because mosquitos had been eating me alive the whole night. And everything was super itchy. uuugghhh que CHATO. But all is well, I will continue to suffer through the night. And then 45 minutes later I woke up to the weirdest noise ever. Scratching on wood. It was so bizarre. And it was really close to me. And I thought to myself, "maybe the dogs outside are.. digging at something?" Because let's be honest, the neighbor's dog is constantly barking and making noise through the night. But it seemed so much closer to me than usual.

"O que barulho, isso?" "What the heck is that sound?"

And then my heart dropped when another sound started with the wood-scratching noise. Freaking creepy GRUDGE noise!! It was gutteral... and it came from some kind of creature. And then I felt something flop onto my leg!!! I looked down and I knew it was a bat!!

My companion says that when she woke up to my scream she was convinced there was a man in the room, climbed through the window, with a knife in hand. I am pretty sure I dissaperated (please refer to Harry Potter) accross the room because I don't know how I got to the door so fast without knocking over our two fans and two chairs.

I cannot even believe how creepy bats are. (Did you know that the word "creepy" does not exist in Portuguese? Probably not, but now you do!) It looked like a black, rotting frog with wings and ears.... And then Sister Oliveira Santos and I got to laughing so hard we didn't even know what to do. We woke up the other Sísteres in the other room and then all four of us were a mess. We peeked through the door and saw that our bat friend was creepily crawling over my precious clothes! *cringe* And then he spread his wings and headed straight for the door!! Where our four faces were.

Just imagine four 20-year old girls almost 5:00am with a bat headed towards them. I'm pretty sure our neighbors downstairs have a strange idea about what Mormons are.

Well, we all talked and laughed and debated for about 15 minutes. But when we opened up the door again, he was nowhere in sight! We all just assumed he flew back out the window and all is well.

Deception strikes again! Because all was NOT well!

The next morning after my shower, I was looking at my little selection of clean clothes to wear that day. And I picked up my bra and thought to myself... "hm... why does this seem heavier than usual?" To my great dismay I found our little bat friend cuddled up nice, safe, and warm in my bra!!!! *destruction and chaos in my mind*

Noooo!! so I quickly put all of my clothes on with my eyes fixed on my not-so-innocent bra. And then I called the other sisters into the room while I struggled hard core to get the bat out of my bra!! After some self-peptalks and speaking portuglés to my new friend. I flung my bra out the window, my hand holding onto one strap--and our creeper frog with wings was holding on to the other end. And shouting and yelps continued.

The other girls were all huddled in the hallway watching in horror screaming as if THEY were the ones holding a bat two feet from their faces! hahahaha It was really funny. And yes, we recorded the whole thing. I can't send it through email due to mission rules, but I will guard it safe and sound on my camera until the day I die. hahaha

Yep. So that day we went around telling everyone our hilarious story about the bat who returned... until Sister Oliveira Santos found LICE IN MY HAIR.

D8 Que tristeza essa?? Yeup.... so we spent four hours that day picking out 14 lice bugs out of my hair. uuuuugghhh How did I not even know there was a little insect home on my head?? I wash my hair two times a day!!

The next day we found four lice bugs and a billion eggs. And yesterday I found 5 teeeny teeny tiny lice bugs and like... 20 eggs. Yes, I am grateful for chemically inclined shampoos, vinagre, and the fact that our District Leader's mom is one of the presidents of DoTERRA oils and he shared his oregeno with me. :)

Well!! That's all folks!! Love you all!! Remember that God loves you!! Because I love you too!

Síster Hennefer

Whoops

Baaahhhh-Tchê one day I'll have time to just... DO EVERYTHING.

something super funny happened in church yesterday. A recent convert lady, of 72 years was (she has about one year in the church) talking about a conversation she had with a friend the other day. And they started talking about religion. And her friend said, "But Eva, the Catholic Church is true!!" And Eva (our 72-year-old convert friend) said,

"No sirree!! GET OUT!!" aaaahahahahahaha she told the story in front of the entire Relief Society with her arms in the air. baah-tchê it was so funny.

gaaahhh I don'

---this was the end of her email. 

cue new email

well I accidentally sent that but basically I'm out of time to write much else.

Know that all is well over here in Brazil and a safe warning... don't visit families that have little tiny red houses (they look like dog houses) in front of their property.

O.o

Love you all!! Heavenly Father loves you too, I guess ;)

love,

Sister Hennefer

First Transfer

Well!! My companion was transferred!! This is my last day with Sister Ramos!! D8

These 6 weeks FLEW by. i cannot even believe it!! And I'm a little nervous and super excited at the same time to introduce our area (which i still don't know very well) to my new companion/trainer Her name is Sister Oliveira Santos and she is BRAZILIAN!! Woooot!! I'm so excited!! She's been in the field for about a year and everyone says she's gonna help me tons with the language and the rest of my training. 

Yep.... my first transfer. gonna be legit. 

Everyone is sooo sad to be "losing" Sister Ramos and Elder Marley. I'm pretty sure every single one of our "moms" cried. Irmã Carla called us this morning and just cried at me. I'll tell you: it's already hard to understand native portuguese over the phone... but CRYING native portuguese was basically an adventure. I understood "so much love" and "I'm going to miss you all so so much" ....thanks, mom... but I'm staying. hahahaha aaahhh love her. The members here really are an amazing example to me and what it means to be involved in missionary work.

I absolutely LOVE Christmas here!! Imagine... all the stereotypical things you think about summer... hot sun... BBQ's, Sun lotion, Swimming, Fireflies, warm breezes at night, starry skies, ice-cream, and backyard gatherings.

for the Brazilians all these mean one thing: It must be Christmas!! Whaaaaaaat??? hahaa yeah. True story. So different. And so awesome. love it. 

WELL! I hope everyone has a fantastic week!! And I am going to try to use the last of my minutes to figure out how to send more pictures. :) :)

lots of love!! and lots of laughter!! Remember to wish my amazing parents a happy anniversary HOJE!!!

Some verbs... are just too easy to mix up.

This week I asked my companion who we're going to eat for lunch that day.... that was an awesome way to start our day... Suggest canobolism. 

First off, as always, excuse my crummy grammar. Portuguese throws me off and also, this computer things every single word is spelt wrong so there are tons of red squiggleys on my screen as well. hahahahaha

Então!!! I have tried lots of super delicious foods. But i think what cracks me up the most. Is Brazilians loove to eat Cough Drops for candy!! Something about it... just they love it. And not gonna lie... I do too. 

This week we held a baptism for Venicius! He's 13 years old, and his brother is actually our Ward Mission Leader. This kid is awesome. And he's so excited about the gospel. The week before his baptism we asked him if he, too, wanted to serve a mission and he said yes! And then we bore our testimonies on what it's like to be called of God to share the gospel. And i shared a little of my personal experience on how i know that my call, is for me, personally straight from God through a prophet. And his face just lit up!! His baptism and confirmation was really special. And I loved to see the happiness that was displayed on Irmão Rafael's face after the confirmation. It was awesome. 

And then we held a Talent Show this week, too!! That was super fun. It was such a great opportunity to get the members together and experience some really funny acts, as well as some really spiritual. And of course... because this is Brazil we started late and ended late... but tudo bem because we all had fun. :) 

oH... and to mention one thing.... so hot. Ugh... sometimes we see dead dogs and birds (really big birds, too) on the grass or the side of the road... I'm pretty sure they just laid down and died due to the heat. 

And sometimes I think i might join them. hahahaha I WILL PRESS ON!! 

have such a great week! love you all!! Seja Feliz!

--Sister Hennefer

commencing week 4 already??

Alright... so on this computer I cant figure out how to change the keyboard to English... so just bear with me on the whole kindergarten grammar thing... and also the awful spelling because Portugués is throwing me off.

This week i was reminded of the Summer when i lived with Kenna and Mathias. I remember Kenna showing me an exercise while running, in order to strengthen your ankles... and i thought, 'wow... to strengthen your ankles? That's so random and probably will never be applicable."

well i stand corrected... fell corrected... many times. hahahahaha i love the cobblestone streets. But only a few of the roads are cobblestone! the rest is just straight up rocks! And i find myself actually having to concentrate on the strength of my ankles!! And i just want to say... thanks Kenna. You are a wise, wise person. ;)

Umm!! Our bishop is so... cool!! hahaha He rode a motorbike to the church, up the church steps, rode around the building to the back --like the pro that he is! hahaha in a white shirt, tie, and black leather jacket!! Yep.. pretty sure he's the coolest bishop around.

Thanksgiving was awesome! Thank you all for the package stuff... teeheehee I loved it!! was awesome. and one day I'll have pictures.

Friday was actually kind of a rough day. Language...people...walking i dunno. just was rough. And it was the words of my Dad that lifted me up. A long time ago he wrote me a letter that I read at Girl's camp... and the words still encourage me. And i share them with you all because we all can benefit from them, "Chin up, sister. You're a daughter of God."

And now you have it! Life's hard, never said it wasn't. But remember your awesomeness of potential!! We all have something to rejoice!! Stand up straight, be proud of where you are. because we are all children of God! :) Thanks, Dad.

Well! last but not least... we had an investigator come to church who has not come for the past four years. and he enjoyed it!! it was awesome. Super duper neat.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

Sister Hennefer

commencing week 4 already??

Wowww on week three already?

We were at a member's house and teen titans was on the TV!! hahaha que legal. My childhood flooded before my braincells.

The members and the children here are so wonderful. The children were so excited to meet a new sister! And I almost had them all convinced that my actual name is Sister. Hahahaha but i finally caved in and let them know that my name is Bell. hahahah oh wow... you should all see their faces when i say my name. "Oh!" They'll say, "Very different, ne? What a different name" And then they'll try to repeat it several times. hahaha i love to hear my name with a Brazil accent!

Ugh.. last thursday... oh dear. We didn't have fans!! uuugh Sister Ramos and \i both thought we were gonna DIE. It was not my favorite thing. And for some reason my first week and a half here i had this horrible cough... in the humidity and the heat of the night I had to sit up and just sleep sitting!! 

oh.... oh it was horrible... and we caved in and opened the window but then there were mosquito and bugs in the room..... that night was horrible.

But good news!! That night I dreamt  in PORTUGUESE! whoooooooooooot great life!! hahaha I told the Sisters that we live with and they almost died with excitement for me. Yes, yes, I know. It took a lot of work on my part. ;)

One afternoon on our way to lunch at a member's house. There was a lady getting off the bus who was struggling hard core to walk. HARD core. So we helped her. We chatted lightly (except for me... because i struggle to understand the natives) and when we got her to her house we all walked in silence for a long time... listening to the crunching of pebbles under our feet (COBBLESTONE STREETS BTW super super awesome) and i knew that all four of us were thinking the same thing.... our simple capacity to walk. Let us all be grateful for the little things, folks. And be glad that you are doing good with the little things that you have! :)

Horses. Horses everywhere. If you don't own a car you own a horse and that's how you get around. Pretty neat!

We clap our hands to enter houses. No one ever knocks on doors. Pretty neat! 

hahahaha one time... i thought i was gonna die of starvation. And... i needed to warn my companion that i get super irritable if i don't eat... well... using the only words i know i said, "Sister, if I don't eat... I will become... Satan"  ..............yeah we've been laughing about that for a couple of days

BAT IN OUR ROOM! I woke up in the middle of the night because my companion squealed! Sister sister Passarinho passarinho!! But \i knew it wasn't a little bird because it was so... quiet... and... it flew funny. 

oh yeah. it was a bat. it was so creepy!! And alarming... and it looked like a black frog with wings... with it's creepy little face and OH!! It was intense!! And the worst part is that our window was closed... all night... and all day the day before.... how long has Pedro the Bat (for that is what we named him) been rooming with us?? Yeah it was pretty funny.

the other day i totally biffed it on the sidewalk. Four missionaries walkin' like pros.... and the one goes down. ...and of course we tell the story to every person that we come accross. hahahahaha yeah it was pretty funny

sorry my stories are all kind of scattered and different! Don't have much time on the computers!! I love you all and I think and pray about you so much! Thinking about my little district from the MTC, hoping we're all still surviving! 

thinking about Jo and Sanna: it's that time of year for you two: please remember to wear lots of yummy smelling lotion!! I know your hands are cracking right now. 

love you all! have a great week!

--Sister Hennefer

Brazil

Hot. so hot. First and fair warning for everyone. The following email is going to have worthless and pathetic grammar and punctuation. Because keyboards in Brazil are different. And the particular keyboard I'm using is really stiff. so... yup. :)

The people are SO NICE!!! WE greet everyone with a hug and a kiss and i just love it. Everyone feeds us. oh my goodness i will never go hungry simply because i get fed SOMETHING whenever we go to a person's house. And it's especially humbling and precious when you go to someone's home where clearly they don't have a lot of food to begin with...and they offer you food anyway. 

I had my first BBQ here. OH. So awesome. The meat was perfectly salted and the vegetables here are so sweet. I actually eat carrots and enjoy them. true story. 

the language is kicking my trash. but every day im learning a tiny bit more and more. i love it

my comp!! her name is Sister Ramos. she does NOT speak English because she is from Columbia. She has been in the field for 11 months. And shes awesome. shes 25 years old and she is so... adorable!! She truly and honestly loves the people. But seriously though, how could you not love the people here? Everyone is incredibly patient and kind with me because they have to repeat themselves forty times each sentence. And usually what they ask me ... they use words that i know that i know!! But their accents are so thick. Especially here in the south. haha actually... just like how Texans talk much differently than new yorkers do? Yeah, in the mtc i learned New Yorker Portuguese. And here they speak Texan Portuguese. you know what i mean?  and then some of the people here just mumble. Straight up mumble. hahaha what a life. but its awesome. I'm learning a lot about culture and love. And its awesome!!

my hour is almost up!! i will have more time to send pictures and stuff next week because right now I'm still getting accustomed to all of this!! 

have a great week

love,

Sister Hennefer

Just an update...

Hey Everyone! This is Jo here... Sister Hennefer's sister and admin to her blog. I am aware of the lack of... activity as of late. I take full responsibility for all of you anxiously awaiting news from our favorite missionary. Due to some personal things coming up in my life, I unfortunately neglected to update this blog
But no more! I promise to deliver to you fine people the information and stories you desire!

Let there be no more delay! Enjoy, everyone!