Physically and Spiritually Staying in Shape

This week was all about Christmas. The branch had an afternoon at the chapel with Churrasco (barbeque type lunch) and then a big dinner. Because of the big lunch I was in no shape to eat dinner :) I passed out the candy canes you sent and everyone loved them. It´s wierd to me that these people have never heard of candy canes, but for us it´s part of the Christmas tradition. At the activity we had a tone of less active members participate. We´re trying to work with the less actives and get them excited again about the gospel.The hills here are killers. This picture doesn't

do them justice, but they are literally 90 degrees
and we always arrive at the top out of breath.

I´m looking in my daily planner to see exactly what we did this week...a lot of walking. We have the entire city and our investigators are sometimes on opposite ends of the city. When one appointment falls through it´s not such a good feeling because normally it takes a minimum of 30 minutes to arrive at the houses of our investigators. The people that live too far away to walk, we catch the bus, which is always a hot spot to make street contacts and invite people to visit the church.

This past week I finished reading all the general conference talks...from May. It took me a while because with only 1 hour of personal study time and so many things to study, I can´t read conference talks every day. But it feels good to look at my Ensign all marked up and think about all the things that I learned. We recently got the October Ensign (the special edition about temples.) I´m tearing through it, but it makes me miss going to the temple weekly. I can´t believe it´s been so long since I´ve been to visit the temple! The branch will be going on another temple trip in January because of a couple that´s going to go be sealed. It´s so great to see members that literally count down the days until they can visit the temple again. Sometimes we take advantage of the fact that the temple is so close to us when really we should remember always the blessings of going to the temple. I love hearing about the temple experiences that everyone back home has in going to the temple, especially grandma.

So, this is my new adopted daugher, Nilzielle. She wanted a Christmas tree for Christmas, so an Irmã in the ward went out and cut off a tree limb for her to decorate. We used the decorations you sent mom, so it was perfect. Nilzielle has never had a Christmas tree before and was super excited to put up all the christmas lights and decorations! Thanks for all the supplies! Oh...and she´s obsessed...i mean OBSESSED with Japan. You have no idea how much she loves me just because I´m Japanese and when she saw our family photo she was super excited to see how Japanese mom is.

This is just a clip of what rainy season tastes like here in Patos de Minas. I´ve heard that other cities are worse...yikes. I tried speaking in English, but half way through my brain tired and Portuguese came out. Sorry! Talking this Saturday should be interesting :)