Feliz Ano Novo

Well well. Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all had a great time partying up the new year! I went to bed at 10:30, but was awaken by all the fireworks that went off at midnight! Boy were they LOUD! After waking up I was unable to get back to sleep for a long time and decided to use my time wisely and do my nails---a vain, but useful talent I have acquire here in Brazil. New Years Day was probably one of the worst days of the year---missionary speaking. NO ONE WAS HOME and everyone who was home was drunk. I got really tired of only finding drunk people to teach and we ended up teaching a lot of less active members for the rest of the day. The member that offered to give us lunch on New Years, forgot and we ended up in a canoe without a paddle. Is that the saying? who knows...anyway.. No one was open for lunch....well actually one bar was open. We bought an agua de coco there to fight back the thirst. They only thing I had in my cupboard at home was a small package of drink mix mom sent me a little while ago and a package of jello. It turned out to be a decent lunch...better than I thought. This week was pretty good. We taught a lot of people and definitely made some new friends. I´m really loving the people here in Guarabira. They are all super nice and friendly. I´ve really fallen in love with one family here. They are relatives of the Cristiane--the bishop´s wife in Tibiri. Cristiane is definitely one of my favorite people here in Brazil and it is only logical that her family should be just as cool as her! Her sister lives here in Guarabira and we are teaching, her son, Geo´s girlfriend, Ariane. We always teach at Geo´s house and he has the funniest, craziest dog ever. It is a mini pincher named Nubi and he just goes crazy during the lessons! He climbed up all over me last night and I had to keep him at bay with a toothbrush...which is his chew toy. It was really funny holding him off with the toothbruch with one hand and trying to mark a part in the Book of Mormon with the other. But i have to tell you, I miss my dog Buck! This past week we went to Mamanguape again, but this time for interviews with President H! I was great to see President and Sister H again and I definitely enjoyed the interview. At the end of the interview, I asked President H to give me a blessing. At the end of the mission I´ve just started to get really tired, emotionally, physically, etc and of course President H gave me a beautiful blessing that I will be able to finish off the mission well. He also talked about all my ancestors that are seeing my mission and are proud of my sacrifice. He also told me to always remember the faith of my parents and to remember who I represent....not only the Savior, but my beautiful family as well. Anyway it was a great blessing and we both were crying by the end. I´m convinced that the priesthood is just about one of the coolest things that exists! Well. I hope you all are doing well. Continue to do the things that are right. We were placed on this earth at this time to prepare the world for the coming of the Savior. Thank you all for your faithfulness and righteousness. I know the Lord is blessing you and loves you all dearly, as do I. Have a wonderful week!!