Birthday week

July 1, 2013
Dear Family,

Sister Sherrard, thank you for your letters! They were great and made me laugh. I have got one on the way for you. I promise.

We actually live above a member. So it is her garage that you see in the picture. We can only enter through the door next to the garage. And it is Sister Moraes with the Banadana. Surprisingly I am still one of the youngest people here. We have three 19 year olds and me who is twenty but most sisters are 23 or 24. 

P-day is about cleaning and shopping and sending letters and it seems like our p-days ALWAYS go really fast. 

We have a cell phone but we can´t text from it. And I don´t think we will get to use facebook and we don´t use computers at the church. During the week it isn´t usually very hard to get a hold of people. The weekends are alot harder. 

Seminary, at least in Ala Pajuçara, is taught by the ward mission leader Tuesday through Friday at 7 at night. The only ones that go are our recent converts. 

This week was a little crazy with transfers and people in and out of our house but it was great. Weekends have been really hard for working (Brazil played again against Spain- by the sounds of the fireworks I think we won! woohoo!) so we were determined to work really hard during the week and meet our goals early. What a blessing this was. We met every goal we set and we had some great lessons. When we are determined to work the Lord will always help us. When we slack of or are whimsical about our efforts - I´m not sure

ah! ã - a squiggle! I just figured out how to get it! That is exciting and will help when I write president. Anyway....

This week was ward conference in our ala. The stake president was there and he gave a great talk and lesson in Priesthood/Relief Society; It was funny because he reminded me of Dad a little. He told one story about when he was a teenager and wanted to get an earring and when he asked his dad  if he could get one. His dad responded "If you get one, outside of this house you are not my son" (or something to that effect) He didn´t get an earring because he would rather be identified as the son of his father. I love this for two reasons. 1- all of our recent converts are teenage boys with earrings. I hope they learned something. 2- How true should this story be for every one of us. We strive to live good lives and to keep the commandments and act according to the will of the Lord that that we can Always be seen as a child of God. We really are all children of God and He loves us more than we can every understand but when we are identified as his children we can understand that love just a little better. 

Thank you for the Happy Birthdays! Happy Independence day! Thank you in advance for the package! (I laughed at the religious stickers. The people in the office will be really confused).

Love, 

Sister Martin