Fun Reunion!

Heyo! So everyone´s talking about this new Meet the Mormons movie. I´m excited to see it when I get home. Mom, that story about the candy man was the theme of the Christmas devotional that I went to a couple years ago at Temple Square. Loved it! Sister Custódio goes home in January, so we still have Christmas together... the same time of year that we spent together last year! I opened a few things from the boxes, but nothing wrapped in gift paper yet. I used the blouse that Nana sent for a leadership council. There, I got to see Sister Barker!!! 

This week was pretty good. We found lots of new people to teach and miracles are happening. The majority of these people need to get married. And unfortunately, the place where people get married legally is closed until January or February. But I have faith that we´ll continue to find people who are married legally or single. It´s going to be great :). One of our investigators is "married" and  has four childen, one died in a car accident a few months ago. When the sisters met her, she was completely depressed and just wanting to escape this life. I didn´t know her during that time, but from what she´s told me, she was absolutely miserable. You´d never be able to tell though. Today, she´s a woman of incredible faith. She´s at church every Sunday and, despite some difficulties that she´s going through, she recognizes the change that the gospel made in her life and has faith that everything will work out. I´ve never met someone with such desire to be baptized!  I´m excited for the day when she´ll enter those waters. I´m so grateful for what I´ve learned from her and so many other people we meet here every day. These people are truly incredible. Sorry the e-mail is short this week, but know that I love you all and appreciate all the love and support. Hope you have a wonderful week, full of thankfulness and turkey. Gratitude is something incredible. It can cure everything. Love you guys! Boa semana e feliz Dia da Ação de Graça!!!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

Off to Leadership Council for the first time together! 

 Got to see Sis. Barker for the first time in 8 months .. OH HAPPY DAY!

With all my 14 month old mission buddies 

Together again with some of my favorite sisters from Grageru 

Trying to take a picture in front of Feitosa and the Maceio lighthouse, but I don't think you can see anything!

With Sis. Custodio

With Sis Lopez and a letter that Elder Woodbury wrote for us ... we had to put our two letters together to understand what he wrote us!  Hahaha 

Happy 14 Months Sister Ball!

Cutting a coconut with style 

Drinking agua de coco 

Jesus + Work = Success

Christmas and Airplanes

2 months for Sis. Custodio and 3 for me!  Don't worry, we're still focused and loving the work :)

The Girls Are Back!!!

Hey Fam Bam! How´s it going for everyone there in Idaho? From what Mom and Dad wrote, it sounds like everyone´s great! To answer your 'trunky' questions super fast, Mom, I don´t think I´ll be a river guide anymore. It´d be super cool, but it´s not very realistic. I deferred for BYU until September... I´ll just have to worry about FAFSA and rooming, I think... well, you might have to for me haha. I´ll definitely talk with Jess and Alex and every other RM from Brasil in portuguese when I get back. This is a language I can´t afford to lose! And David will have to re-teach me spanish haha. Glad he´s doing well after returning from the mish!  I wish I could be at Kendall's sealing so badly, but I´m so stinkin´ happy for her. And Courtney! So happy she´s going straight to the Brasil CTM! She´ll love it!!! Tell her to keep her eye out for a miracle tie... I´ve been wondering about what happened with that guy. I got the package, thank you! I still haven´t opened it and I think that´s killing my companion more than me, but it´s all good :). Oh, speaking of my companion, she´s a pretty familiar face. YES! I returned to Socorro 1!!! I had told Presidente in one of my interviews that I felt that I had been transferred from here a little early and I guess he remembered and let me come back! Aaaaaand, with the best companion ever--SISTER CUSTÓDIO!!! Yep, I´m back with my 'mom,' my wonderful trainer! Now, I have some new responsabilities too, so it´s going to be different, but I´m so happy to be where I am with who I am. Sister Custodio and I are Sister Leader Trainers so we are responsible for taking care of the sister missionaries in Sergipe.  We´re living with Sister Caetano and Sister Sleeman who are working in my old half of this area, so it´s going great :).

This week, we already saw some great miracles. We visited a couple that didn´t want to get married, no matter what the circumstances were. We went there, shared what the Spirit told us to share and at the end, asked how things were going with their marriage. They both smiled and told us that they want to get married as soon as possible so that they can be baptized. Que legal! We visited another young woman who accepted to read the Book of Mormon and be baptized with such excitement that we couldn´t help but smile. I´m so so so happy to be back here. Wow, it was tough to leave Eduardo Gomes, but I´m glad that I´m at least in another great area with a wonderful companion. I´m excited for the future and the miracles that are soon to happen. I love you all and hope all can continue to go well. Stay strong and remember the joy that the gospel brings in our lives. I love this work and our Heavenly Father´s plan. It´s truly so perfect. And I love you guys! Tchau!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

 Thank you for the packages!  Still haven't opened them but I'm excited to see what's inside!

 Us four in our house (me, Sister Custodio, Sister Caetano e Sister Sleeman)

 With a pigeon, whoop

 Our district

 Caught a fish!

 Sister Sleeman and I laying next to a little scrapbook I made for Custódio during my training with her... it´s just a little lengthy :)

 After playing volleyball

The girls are back!!!! With my 'new' comp, Sister Custódio! :)

Goodbye Eduardo Gomes, I'll Miss You!

Hey family! Thank you for sending the photos, Mom. I really appreciate it! It sounds like, as always, everyone´s doing well. Glad Cam got to help with Jr. Miss. I remember seeing and hearing about those junior girls when I was younger and thinking how old they seemed... now they seem so young! Cam will be one of them in just two years! It´s weird because for me, she´s still just a little girl, but I meet young women here who are younger than her but seem so much older because I didn´t know them as little girls. I guess she´s really growing up fast. How´s Noelle doing at BYU-I? She´ll be home kind of soon for the holidays, neh? That´s also great to hear that the radio was playing Christmas music! Here, everyone is already decorating their houses and the shops are decked out in Christmas stuff. There might not be snow here, but at least they know to start Christmas early :). Thank you so much for sending the package! I´ll be happy with whatever you guys send. It already means so much to just get something in the mail! Oh, about the fabric for our dresses... yes, a less-active irmã was making dresses for us. Here, it´s a tradition to make a dress to wear for when you get home, so to economize a bit, I got a dress custom-made that I´ll use to go home and for our Christmas Conference. It turned out pretty! Tell Kyle congrats on his mission call! Sister Lopez has a friend there in Guatemala right now.. Elder Trone! He´ll love it there! And I´m so excited for Courtney to got to Interlagos! Did she already get her visa? Hope so!

Okay, I´ll write about transfers now. So everyone stayed!!!! Except me :). I was transferred and I´m not sure where I´ll be going still, but I´m excited. Holy  moly, I´ll miss this place and the people here, but I know that the Lord knows what´s best for us. I´m just so grateful that He gave me the opportunity to spend a little time here in Eduardo Gomes. I feel that this is where I´ve learned and grown the most as a missionary and a person. The members, our investigators, my companion, the sisters we live with, the people in general, and everything have helped me so much! Every missionary that passes through Eduardo Gomes is a pretty darn lucky missionary. Sister Barros will be training a greenie, so that should be great for her! Other than that, it was a pretty normal week. I´m excited to meet new people and have new experiences. Thank you for all you guys do for me! I´m so grateful for all the many blessings that I have in my life! My prayers and love are with you!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

Mouri with caramel corn we made last P-Day

Overalls!!!

With N & W, two great little girls!

Eduardo Gomes with Sister Lopez

Happy Halloween!

Dearest Family,

Merry Christmas! Oh wait, that´s next month. It just seems like it´s already here since everyone is talking about it in their e-mails and we already started listening to Christmas hymns forever ago :). Mom, loved the idea about finding an ornament to bring home from here. I´ll make sure to do that. 

Sounds like Halloween was a blast! Here, they don´t really celebrate it, but after arriving in our house that night, we dressed up, bobbed for apples and ate caramel apples that I attempted to make. The caramel just broke a few teeth, but everyone´s okay ;). So cool that Steven won a prize for his costume, wooohoo! I hope that Grand Dad gets home safely. Always praying for him and his well-being. And sounds like Helen´s funeral was a good experience. Mom, please don´t talk about 'your turn'! Que susto! Glad you´re enjoying your classes. That´s cool that you got the opportunity to be the 'teacher' for a class. I´m sure you did great!

So this week was a pretty normal week. We´re still looking hard to find people that go beyond the first or second lesson and make an effort to wake up for church. It´s funny how the Lord´s timing is. Yesterday, I was talking with Sister Lopez about this, but a bit more hopeless. And today in my personal study, I read something that opened my eyes. I read a story from one of Presidente Uchtdorf´s talks where he spoke of a woman who spent her life dreaming of being the perfect mom and perfect wife, but ended up a single elementary school teacher. She often was very bitter that her dream hadn´t come true and failed to recognize that, although the Lord hadn´t blessed her with children, He had blessed her with the opportunity to change the lives of hundreds of children as a teacher. He said that many times, when we´re looking for the beautiful red roses, we often times fail to recognize the beauty of the countless forget-me-nots around us. It really helped me to realize that even though we may not be finding people who want to accept the gospel and be baptized, we´re being able to help countless other people and I´m being blessed more than I know.

Yesterday after church, the young women walked with us to lunch. They paired off with us and practiced being missionaries for a missionary activity that they were going to have a little later at the stake center. The young woman that stuck with me was such an example. She literally stopped every single person in our path. It didn´t matter what in the world that person was doing, if they were almost sleeping of boredom or incredibly busy, she talked with them! We helped the young women learn how to make contacts and ask for addresses to share a message with everyone, and they did so well! It was a great experience for me to see their determination to share the gospel with everyone. As for investigators, we´re trying to help a few right now think a little longer and pray a little more before giving up on the gospel.  But that´s about it. I love you all so much and am so grateful for your love and support! It means more to me than you´ll ever know! Have a fabulous week and keep on keeping on!

Com amor,

Sister Ball

Modeling our dresses before having them made

With E, an investigator and mom of two little girls who were baptized a year ago. 

We made banana bread!

The most monstrous hot dog I´ve ever eaten... can you see how the members are trying to make us fat? 

One last photo of our cool district before Elder Gross went home... our LZs weren´t there, but that´s all good. 

Happy Halloween! Sister Lopez was a doll, Sister Bento tried to be Pocahontas, I was Rapunzel, Mouri was Pastel and Sister Barros was Mrs. Claus. 

We carved a melon with the baptism symbol

With my new 'comp', Bianca! Yesterday, the young women helped us talk with everyone in the streets and Bianca teamed up with me. 

With Superman! On this same day, we ran into The Incredible Hulk too!