Three more days until transfers!

Here is a family that we hang out with almost every P-day. The girl in blue is Victoria and she just got her mission call.

Everything is great here in Boa Vista. This email might be a little short because I don’t have any exciting news and the work was a little slow this week. P-day has been good. We woke up and went to the salon. We both got manicures and pedicures for only 20 reis! So like 10 bucks. Their manicures and pedicures are a little different here, but it was still nice and my feet feel so good haha. Then we went to Victoria’s house. She is leaving for her mish next week. We are all planning to come back to Manaus in 2012 and party! The temple is supposed to be dedicated then so mom maybe you should start looking at hotels?!! ahaha.

It is time for transfers so everyone is really excited to see what is going to happen. They will call us on Saturday to let us know if we will be staying together or if someone will be leaving. All of the senior companions here want to leave, so maybe they will all be transferred out.It’s funny how comfortable you can feel with someone you have only known for almost three months. We got in our first sort of fight this week (ha we sound like a couple). My umbrella broke so Sister Boyack offered me hers. I told her no because I didn’t want her to have to suffer in the sun because of me. But she kept insisting and kept getting angry because I wouldn’t take it (the stubborn German in me). So we didn’t talk for almost two hours. Hahah. I finally said sorry and things were instantly better. Ha, the mish is really preparing me for marriage. I know that in any relationship, sometimes you just need to say a simple sorry and things will be better! Ha, but we are getting along just fine.

But there have been a few problems this week with the zone. The first counselor in the mission presidency called the zone leaders because all the members and the branch presidents have been complaining about all the duplas (missionaries. (We found out later it was just the elders they were complaining about). So we had a meeting on Monday with the whole zone!! Basically they told us that people need to start showering every morning and night (gross eh? I can’t believe some of the elders don’t shower every night), we need to wash our clothes more, shave everyday, and don’t spend a lot of time at members home. Hahaha, I was laughing so hard during the whole thing. Those poor elders need to learn about hygiene. There have been other problems with elders not being obedient, but I think they resolved those concerns. After the meeting we made American pancakes for everyone! It was a lot of fun.

We planned a branch activity this week with our ward mission leader. We played games and served ice cream after. But the best part of the story is… our mission leader forgot plastic cups and spoons. So what did they do? They pulled the cups out of the TRASH, splashed some water on them and served the ice cream. I had no idea until Sister Boyack showed me left-over lipstick on her cup. I laughed for at least 20 minutes. Hahaha. So next activity we plan with the ward mission leader we are going to remind him to bring cups and spoons.

I went on my very first division on Saturday. I was so NERVOUS! I went with a cute gal from the YW program. She is 16 years old and really sweet. Sister Boyack went with Tamaties. It was kind of fun to be with someone else for three hours. Our main objective was to contact five references and teach them a short lesson. So we were able to talk to four out of the five. Only two seemed really interested so we are going back to teach them this week. They seemed to be able to understand me so that was good. I took Liyanie to get ice cream when we were done to thank her for helping me. It was a little overwhelming experience but I am so happy it went ok.

Our investigators are good. We can’t find Marcos at home anymore. We have decided to just leave him alone. Maybe he will change his mind in a few months or something. We only had two investigators at church this week. During Sunday school we heard this horrible screaming. Our cute investigator Karliany (she is getting baptized Feb. 13) kept looking at me like, “what does this church do to people?” We found out later that it was Tamaties (the girl who has mental challenges). Poor girl I feel so bad for her. They took her to the doctor because things like this shouldn’t be happening. The doctor thinks it is physiological so he gave her medicine to take. I really hope it helps her and these things stop happening to her.

Jonada didn’t come to church on Sunday and she is having a hard time trying to stop smoking. We set a goal for her to only smoke eight cigarettes a day. So Monday we went to her house and she keeps smoking the ten she normally smokes a day. I am not sure how to help her. I think she is the type of woman that has spent her life trying to make other people happy and has never cared about her own happiness. She doesn’t seem very confident in herself. I don't know how to help her. What do you think dad? What would you do? We had her set three goals of things she would do to help her not want to smoke and then we set three goals that we would do to help her. So we called her last night to see if she only smoked eight and she said she smoked 15!! So obviously whatever we did caused more harm. So I really don’t know what to do. I feel like she just needs more encouragement and love but Sister Boyack thinks we just need to be more forceful and stuff. Ah, I guess we will just keep praying for her.

That really sums up the week. We are going to visit Helena again tonight! Her mom is really starting to warm up to us so I hope we can set a date for her again soon.

So thank you all for your love and support! I Love you all so MUCH! Have a great week!

Sister Crystal



This is how we 'cool off' every night.




The Elders I came with from the CTM.