The Sweetest Surprise and a Video

Monkey she sent for Kate.  Haha! She wrote letters to each of her siblings as well.

Note from Brigette: Most of Ashley's email time yesterday was spent trying to coordinate some information she needed for an upcoming doctor appointment. I got a message from her toward the end saying that she was out of time and that there were some pictures in her "draft" folder that probably wouldn't send before her computer shut off, but that I could go into her account and get them.  Well... they didn't attach.  And I was super sad!!!  As we returned home yesterday, there was a handwritten letter - the first of those we've received from her - in our mailbox!  What a sweet and tender (and much needed for this mom!) surprise!  I love the strength of her testimony expressed here.  She has always been a selfless young woman with desires to do what's right, but it is truly amazing to see all of that solidify through the experiences she is having.  How we love her!!

Mom and Dad!!!

I write y'all every week, but I'll never pass up an opportunity to talk with you more!  Mostly, I just want to THANK YOU OUT THE WAZOO for everything you've taught us, the standards you've set for our family, and for your examples.  Seriously!  Here I realize how CRUCIAL scripture study and prayer as a family is.   How essential Family Home Evening is.  Visiting teaching, home teaching, serving in callings, making church attendance a priority, EVERYTHING!  So many things that I was so blessed to just grow up knowing, are options to people, and that is really hard.  Thank you for always putting the Lord first in EVERYTHING!  Your example is just an innate part of me, and serving a mission has made me more grateful for this than ever.

Believing isn't hard for me, and I've to a degree taken this for granted throughout my life.  Wow.  I had no clue.  Life is so simple if we just let go of the need for things, turn to the Lord, and give Him our doubts.  I don't mean simple as in the complexity will leave, but rather, we'll always have one solidity to return to and hold to.  Trust God.  Nothing else is constant.  If we can trust God, tudo vai dar certo.  Everything will be RIGHT.  This is all we need.

So yeah.  THANK YOU from the bottom, top, and all around of my heart!  Para SEMPRE!

All my love,
Sister Little

* She also asked in her brief email that we share this video with you!  The title and subtitles are in Portuguese, but the audio is in English.  Enjoy!

A 3 month surprise

This week. I hit my three month mark on Thursday.  Word of the day for me that day....piolho......MUITOS!! Haha...look that one up!

Yup, lice.  A rip roaring case of it! BUT all is well now, and with expensive shampoo, and HOURS of sitting in a chair combing bugs out of my hair, I am now bug free.   HOURS! WE actually went to get it cut (I was on the edge of crying), but the hairdresser, Esmerelda (member-woohoo for people who love you!!), said that if we were cutting it just because of the lice, we didn´t have to. So we didn´t. My comp picked them out for the first day, and after that, every spare moment I had in the house, I sat in a chair and combed them out myself. Sheeshanoly! It was hard. But yeah- Happy three months in Brazil!!! You have LICE!!! HAHA!

Cleaning the house last p-day. More than 4 hours of cleaning to try to get our house in decent condition. Apparently it´s one of the worst...like ever....haha- glad I haven´t known anything else!

Oh! but this is how you clean a house in Brazil. Joga agua!!!!!! Throw water!!! LIKE FOR REEEEAAAALS!!!! It was super fun!!!

So - I´m going to melt here. It has been 41 degrees celsius and full sun all week. That´s 105.8 degrees farenheit. And humid (like, your clothes in the house are always a little bit damp when you put them on-NOTHING is every actually dry). So...yeah...spring starts TOMORROW (yup, it´s been winter, too.....) and summer starts the end of December......I will melt, or burn to a crisp, or I don´t know yet, but please pray for our skin and hydration!!!   I´m actually a totally different color than when I arrived here. I´m going to come home looking like Kyra!! I´m getting super dark, and my hair is turning red. It´s SO light in comparison to before. Everyone asks if I dyed my hair before my mission when they see photos! HAHA!

This was a SUPER HOT DAY that we had been walking in the sun ALL DAY, but we kept going, and were taught a lot of things-a LOT about the Atonement. 

Serving a mission teaches you a lot, a lot about the Atonement. There are days when you´ll sacrifice your study time to meet with someone because it´s the only time they can, pay for a bus, walk in 40 something degree weather (that´s celsius...), get sunburned, everything, just to get there and find that they´re sleeping or too busy making lunch to talk with you. You leave knowing that the message you have will change their life now, and offer them happiness, peace, unity in their family, security, identity, and SALVATION, but they don´t want it. Other things are more important. This is how the Atonement is- Christ did a lot more than get a bad sunburn. HE did EVERYTHING for us,  felt everything, suffered things we can´t imagine, and did it all for us, but so often,  far too often, we are too busy with other things to open the door He´s knocking at and take it. I understand much better the picture of Christ knocking at the door. That´s what we do all day, and wow. Yeah, I´m learning a lot about my Savior. I need Him so much, because I´m also learning how incredible incapable I am alone. I can´t do diddly squat alone. But, thanks to the Atonement, I´m not alone. And neither are you. Don´t forget it. PLEASE! It´s so easy, and I know we do forget, so please, remember. Pray to Heavenly Father, and He will talk with you.. He will. He promises He will, and I trust Him.

Sunburned!  You actually can't see it much on me.  Thank you flash!

1 Nephi 22:9 - "And it shall also be of worth unto the Gentiles; and not only unto the Gentiles but unto all the house of Israel, unto the making known of the covenants of the Father of heaven unto Abraham, saying: In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed."

Also, I´ll write more about my investigators next week when I have more time and more good news. Kind of a downer week to report, but GOOD THINGS ARE HAPPENING!

Boa semana!

Sister Little

Omni 1:26

A Sweet Miracle, a Mini Hurricane, and Other News!

A woman we have been meeting with told us this week that she didn´t want us to come back after watching some horrible anti-Mormon videos on youtube. We bore our testimonies, and explained everything, but when we visited her the next day, she said she was done. The day of the video, we explained what we could (as in, my companion did, because I do NOT have the words to explain lies about polygamy and massacres and everything), so I bore my testimony (my very simple testimony I have in Portuguese), and asked her how she felt while watching the video. Scared. Yeah, me too. But now, I want you to pay attention to how you feel in just a minute. I then sang Onde Encontrar a Paz or Be Still My Soul, and PRAAAAYED like I´ve never prayed before that she would feel the Spirit, and Heavenly Father answered that prayer. Wow. What a testimony builder to me of the DIFFERENCE I feel between the world and the Gospel. The Spirit is SO REAL! The next time we visited, she still said that the church wasn´t for her, and she didn´t want to meet anymore. I´ve been praying for her everyday since, that if anything, she´ll at least pray and begin developing a relationship with Heavenly Father because she doesn´t pray now. AND GUESS WHAT!!!! HOLY MIRACLE!!!!!! She showed up aaaaall by herself to Sacrament Meeting!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOSSA QUE BÊNÇÂO!!!! [What a blessing!] So pray for her. We´ll be visiting her again.

Sisters Bastos, Little, Paiva, and L.Souza

 Transfers: I stayed in my area (Hooray!)

Minha nova companheira!  [My new companion!] SHE IS AMAAAAAAAAZING!!!!!!!!!! Sister Bastos! She is seriously AWESOME!! We are super similar and work super well together. I think I´ve laughed more this week than I have on my entire mission yet!! She´s super spunky.  Sister McPherson (the other American in our house) got transferred, so it´s just me in our house now that speaks English. I actually have barely noticed the no English thing (before, we spoke English at night). My brain is a little more tired, but it´s really not even a problem at this point!

My umbrella finally was done in this week. Yup. I didn´t yet know what rain in Brazil was like. Now I do. I think we had a mini hurricane one night (luckily we were already in the house). SERIOUSLY looked like Ike with the wind and rain.  Flooded our front room, but luckily everything´s tile, so we just shoved all the water back out (my English is dying...I know that sounds funny, but I don´t have a better word...)

 

Pretty view from yesterday!

 

 

I GOT TO SEE SISTER PILCHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sister Pilcher is one of her friends from BYU that was called to the same mission.)  TWICE THIS LAST WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was seriously the happiest reunion EVER!!!!!!!!! We basically just hugged and laughed and giggled some more and chattered away in Portuguese (THAT was cool!!!!). Oh my goodness, I love her so much, and NOSSA!!! She had an amazing testimony and all BEFORE the mission, but NOW!!! She just GLOWS!!!!!! It´s amazing!!!!!!!!

 

 

The achilles is getting better. Little by little. The KT tape and Strassburg sock are miracles!

 

All my love!

Sister Little

New foods, investigators, and changes ahead!

 

 I ate COW LEG this week!!! Yup!!! Like the whole thing just hacked up and cooked!!! It was SO GOOD!!! (I say that, but the first about 5 bites, I had to not think about it, so I wouldn't gag...I had to think about just the flavor-which was good- and NOT about the texture or what it really was) It's called Mocotó. It was good, and I ate two oranges and drank hot water after, so I didn't have stomach problems either!! (My Brasilian comp had some stomach something after, and she said it was because it's been too long since she's had it and isn't used to it any more, so being an American and NEVER having eaten it before, yup..I totally rocked it!!!!! ) The family who shared it with us was TOTALLY surprised that an AMERICAN ACTUALLY LIKED IT!! Super funny!

 

 

Madalena and her daughters Debora (22) and Danielle (16) are really sweet. We've been teaching them for a while now. Madalena has a testimony that is growing so well and she's reading her scriptures everyday. We're finally teaching the boyfriend of Debora now, too, Thiago. He's learning quickly, and we're praying that everything goes well for their baptism later this month. Danielle has been really busy with school lately, so we're trying to teach her more. We'll see how that goes. In the way of prayers, they need prayers to come to church and continue living the commandments with strength.

Also pray for Maria and her son. She's about 80 years old and is caring night and day for her adult son who is mostly incapacitated from some accident that happened. She's willing to be baptized and cumprir todos os compromissos [fulfill all the commitments], so we just need to pray that her son will be well, and also that she'll be able to take at least an hour out of the house for Sacrament Meeting. 

Also, in general, pray for the testimonies and strength on Ana Mara and her mom, the family of an other Maria, Nelson (he needs prayers of health and the capacity to remember the lessons, so he can continue strengthening his testimony), and Luis so that he can continue down this path for the right reasons. 

 

 

 The girls I spent time with while my comp had meetings for the end of the mission deal-i-o. Two of them left the CTM the day before I went in and know Irmã Araujo and Irmã Tamiris. That was a sweet, sweet love note from Heaven!! 

 

By the way, killing off your mãe [mother] stinks. (Mission slang. Desculpa. My "mãe" or 'mom" is my trainer on a mission, and she "died" today meaning she finished her mission and went home. When you're the comp -companion- of someone who 'dies", you essentially kill them off. Yup.) It makes you super homesick, and your schedule goes out the window, you miss them like crazy, and everything changes again. BUT I pray that these changes will create more growth, and I'll get to keep training with another missionary and learn new things. Heavenly Father knows everything perfectly!

 

 I love you a lot!!! Hugs, and thank you for saying that you love me more than tacos. That made my weeek! 

 

All my love,

Ash