Exciting news!!

Como vocês estão? P-day has been so crazy! Sister Read and Sister Dos Santo slept over last night so we didn’t go to bed until after midnight. Sshh don’t tell President Jayme. We had to get up around 5 a.m. because our new district leader planned a big zone activity. We went to a Chacara today! Basically it is a house in the jungle with lots of trees, rivers and ponds. (Chacara is a small Brazilian country property or a large urban property with some rural characteristics, such as an orchard.) We had lunch, played games, and rested in some hammocks. It was a lot of fun, but now we have only a little time to write emails today. Dang it!

I’ll admit this week went by so slow!!! I think it is because I want this transfer to go by fast, ha so it is going by slow!! The work was really good this week. We had to move Karleainy’s baptism to this Saturday because the branch took all the youth camping. It was Carnival here this past week so everyone was on vacation for a few days. We decided it would be more special for her if more members from the ward could attend. Hopefully everything goes well for Saturday and she doesn’t change her mind.

Jonada is progressing wonderfully! She is now smoking six cigarettes a day. I glued a picture of Jesus on her cigarette box when she wasn’t looking. Ahaha. I hope it encourages her and that she will continue to have faith! She keeps telling her boyfriend that they need to get married, but he doesn’t want to. He is never home when we go to teach her. But hopefully we will be able to talk to him more this week. We set a date for her two sons; they are 14 and 17 years old. If everything works out they will be baptized February 27th! So hopefully that will help her to have a stronger desire to get quit smoking so she can be baptized!

So, I have some very exciting news!! We taught Josulte and Antonio Monday night. We asked Antonio if he had decided about marriage. When Sister Boyack asked him, he answered but he mumbled so I couldn’t understand him. So then he said, “how long does it take for the marriage papers?” I started freaking out! I said, “So you guys are going to get married?! Let’s go get the papers right now!” They seem pretty happy with the decision! They said they will get married and baptized! The Spirit was so strong in the room! My eyes started watering after they told us. I am so happy for them! I know they are making the right decision and that they will be so happy! Yes they will have problems, but I know with the gospel in their lives, they will be able to work through their problems. So now we are working hard to get their marriage papers in this week so they can get married and baptized before transfers on the 22nd of March. I know this family is one of the reasons Sister Boyack and I are still together. Words really can’t express how excited I am for them! I can’t wait to send you guys photos of the wedding and of their baptism. The best part is Antonio asked us about the Manaus temple and when it will be finished and stuff. So I can tell he is excited to have an eternal family. Wow, I can’t believe we have been teaching them for over three months! I am just glad we didn’t give up on them and that we continued to teach them! I will always remember this family because I love them so much and I know Heavenly Father loves them! I really want to stay in contact with them after the mish.

Life here in Boa Vista is really good! Our new Zone and District are awesome! Everyone seems really excited to be here and they have set a lot of goals. Sister Boyack and I just need to keep our energy and excitement going as well. Tomorrow is Zone Conference which means I will be getting my packages, but we won’t be getting any mail until transfers again. Ah. But I will survive.

I love you all so much!

Love you lots!

Sister Crystal