Joao Pessoa-Here I come!

So they are letting me email today! Yay! I~m in my first real area, Sousa which is about 8-9 hours west of Joao Pessoa. I arrived in Joao Pessoa yesterday at about 1pm with about 6 others elders--4 brazilians, 2 americans who were in my district. Joao Pessoa is BEAUTIFUL! The pictures definitely don~t do it justice. I felt like I landed in a tropical paradise! After landing we went to the mission home where we had meetings until about 6:00. Then we had a wonderful dinner at the Presidents house where I met my first companion, SIster Young. Yes she is american. She has about 3 months left in the mission field and speaks amazing portuguese. I just hope she has patience with me! We spent last night in the mission home and then jumped on a bus at 9am this morning headed for Sousa. Sousa is in the middle of a desert and from what I´ve heard one of the hottest places in the mission. I guess I will find out tomorrow! I thought I new what poverty was when I drove through Sao Paulo, but this place is POOR. Many of the houses are about the size of our dining room, and some are just made out of sticks stuck in the ground and covered with black tarp or pieces of sheet metal. And I´ve never seen so many farm animals loose in my life. There are random horses, cows, goats, and chickens that just aimlessly walk the streets. It definitely is a different world down here. I´m very excited though and in good spirits....but please pray for me A LOT this next week because I know it is going to be tough getting adjusted to everything. My companion and I are opening a new area I guess and the church isn~t way big here, but it will be! We live in a nice apartment with two other sisters who are extremely nice! The only sad thing I have to report is that it sounds like Christmas will be late this year for me. The mail is slowwwwww down here and because the postal system is almost constantly going on strike all letters and packages are sent to the mission home in Joao Pessoa. (so my mission home address is my permanent address for my entire mission) I think we only get our mail every transfer...so every 6 weeks I guess. My companion has been waiting for a package for a month and a half! Ill be ok though...át least I get to call you on Christmas!!! Here we have full sun. Luckily at night the temperature goes down quite a bit and there is a light breeze...It is probably only 85 degrees outside right now...very nice compared to midday. My last week at the CTM was awesome! I was asked to give the closing prayer in the fireside on sunday and was worried because it is always a member of the area seventy or a mission president who speaks. Anyway I probably shouldn´t have worried about giving a prayer, but I was...During the fireside I tried to plan out what I was going to say, but then just decided to ask the Lord to bless me and pay more attention to the speaker. When the time arrived for me to say the prayer...I calmly walked up to the stage and the prayer. As soon as I closed the speaker and his wife along with the CTM president and his wife all jumped up to congratulate me. They kept saying, ýou are ready! you are ready. They said my accent was perfect and I was overjoyed, but the praise didn~t end there. As I went back to my seat to collect my things people kept coming up to me and complimenting me on my prayer. Several people said they opened their eyes during the prayer to see if I was really the one speaking...because I guess I sounded like a native brazilian. The elders in my district said as I walked off the stage the head of every brazilian elder popped up...they were all amazed i guess! ha ha.. Anyway, over the next 2 days, no less than 20-25 people came up to me and complimented me. Now I say this not to brag, because I really dont speak portuguese than well, but to show you that the Lord does bless his missionaries with the ability to speak this language! See what is possible with the Lord~s help???!!! Well I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Obviously they don~t have it down here, but it was never one of my favorite holidays...so I dont think I´ll miss it. Like I said I´m doing great. It is wonderful to FINALLY be in MY MISSION! It is awesome to know that I was called to teach these people for a reason. They all seem so happy despite their poverty. The Lord really does bless all his children with what they need to be happy in this life. ~Well I hope you are all in good health and doing great. Sorry that letters will be few and far between. At least emails will be weekly! Give everyone my love and have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I can~t wait to get your email next monday!!!