Bryndee Down South: How do you spell excited in Portuguese?

Guess what?!?!? Transfers are Wednesday! I’ve officially been on my mission for one transfer, and am halfway through my training... but that’s not why I'm so excited for transfers. Im excited because......... Our companionship is going to be a trio! And, this new sister is a visa-waiter, on her way to Brazil, so I GET TO LEARN PORTUGUESE!!!! we will now be getting an hour of language study every day, and we get to start teaching a Brazilian sister in one of the neighboring wards. I am so stinkin' Excited!

The only down side to transfers: we have no idea how we're going to get there, because we have run out of miles for the month. Our car only gets 1100 miles a month, which is difficult because our area is close to 1000 square miles... so, long story short, we've been doing a lot of walking the last couple of days (porter- I am never, ever going to make fun of your sock tan-lines again, because I'm currently sporting some pretty sweet ones from my loafers...) If I'm being completely honest though, I would much rather be out walking then in our car, so I don’t really mind too much.

This week (few days?) has been much calmer... fewer police incidents (although, officer Chris did tell us we were pretty gutsy when we were out walking one day... we always seem to run into officer Chris whenever where in the sketchy parts of town. He must need the gospel! :)) and more lessons... back to normal :) we did get to go to a stake women’s conference though! (we can't go to ward or stake events unless we have an investigator or less active we're working with there...luckily, we got one of our investigators there) we learned about budgeting, meal planning, the new youth curriculum (can I just take a moment to say how much I LOVE the new youth curriculum? It is preparing these kids to be missionaries like you wouldn’t believe, because the lessons are taught just like a preach my gospel discussion is... it’s wonderful!), and writing a personal history. There was lots of food, decorations, and a tearful woman... your typical women’s meeting :)

People we've been working with this week:

Tasha (have I talked about her before? I don’t remember...) - She's a single mom, with a tiny 5 month old baby named Derricka (she loves my name, because they're spelled the same... she says it every time I’m over there!) who is going in for surgery in Augusta this week. She committed to baptism, but is working on giving up smoking. She came to church this week with us, and LOVED IT!

Sis. Usry- She's a less active woman with twins, amber and Austin (who's autistic). She LOVES when we come over, and always ends up teaching us a few things. She's also working on a WOW problem, but she is really progressing towards giving up her cigarettes! her problem with church is that she's afraid to take Austin, because she doesn’t want anyone to say anything about him... I guess it happened in the past, and she knows if it happens again, she'll leave the church for good. We are hoping to work with her on building her faith to the point that she goes to church because it’s what she believes in and not based on the people there and what they say.

Shelton- He is the friend of a member (Member missionary work! totally the way to go!) and we got to teach him for the first time on Wednesday. We taught the restoration and he was SUPER excited! he's working his way through the Book of Mormon, and we usually call him every night to catch up on where he is in his reading (he lives really far away...) we're hoping he can be baptized on the 11th :)

Those are the main ones.... The others are all having a hard time progressing, but we're working on it! ;)

What I’ve studied in the scriptures this week:

I've been reading up a lot on the women in the scriptures, the Wives of the prophets, and Emma Smith in particular. In D&C 25, the lord calls her an "Elect Lady". I’ve decided that I’m going to live my life in such a way that I can be called an Elect Lady by the lord. There are so many great women in the scriptures to learn about and emulate! A few favorites: Rebekah (genesis 24), Ruth and Naomi (the book of Ruth), Abigail (1 Sam 25, one of my very favorites! she's amazing!) Nephi’s wife (I forgot to write the chapter down, I’ll get it to you next week... I believe its 1 ne 11ish?). And the woman with an issue of blood (Matt 9, Mark 5, and Luke 8.).

Well, I hope y'all have a fantastic week, and are sharing the gospel like crazy!

Ya'll have a blessed day!

Sister Derrick