best day ever

BEST DAY EVER at work. Started off by getting an email of this banner I designed that's being displayed behind home plate at the World Series games! Found out that they will be paying me for my trip home in December. Because I am technically free lancing they normally don't do paid vacations but they are making an exception for me! Followed by this amazing video. I know, I might be a little behind schedule seeing as this video already had over 500 million some views but this is seriously the most AMAZING THING EVER! Left me in tears.

hump day

So when I think about missions I obviously think about mine. Everything I know about a mission I know from my personal experience. I'm just not sure if the things I did were only in my mission, only in Brasil, or all the missions do it. And your probably thinking do what? Well there are tons of things we do or say that I wont bore you to explain all of them but one of the traditions is hump day. 

The significance? Hump Day just means you have reached the half way point in your mission, the 9 month mark and figuratively you have climbed that hump.

So what do the sister missionaries do? They stuff their dresses with a pillow and take photos. I just got this from my lovely friend who is on a mission. Miss her SO MUCH! 

After I saw this picture it made me think... it's been a little over 9 months since I have been back. And then made me think 9 months before that I was celebrating my hump day. How the time flies! Somehow I didn't get away with just stuffing my shirt with a pillow. Sister Tamires stil looked gorgeous in her photo and somehow after letting my companion take full control over what I looked like (not even letting me look into a mirror) mine turned out like this.. Thank you Sister Martins. 

Upside down sign...

Now that's slightly better (just because you can read the sign) not because of my face. Just look at that unibrow...can you say sexy?! Love the weird things we do as missionaries. Let's hope that the one day I am preggo I don't look like this. 

vovo lola

Hoje e o aniversario da minha querida mae do brasil mas conhecido como vovo Lola!  PARABENS!!! Conheco essa pessoa quase um ano e meio atraes mas eu ja sinto que conhecia ela minha vida inteira. 

Tudo comecou no primeiro dia pday at em Sao Carlos. Claro eu precisava ir pra casa dela e conhecer essa pessoa tao famosa. Todo mundo na missao falava dela. Depois transferencia e transferencia e transferencia e com muitas despidias de  outras missionarias inclusive minha filinha Sister Albuquerque eu fui embora depois 6 meses. Achei que eu era a pessoa mais abencoada pra ficar numa cidade amado com pessoas tao especias inclusive a vovo! 

Aqui sao algumas coisinhas sobre ela...

-E raro pra ver ela sem isso na cabeca dela....ela vive na conzinha!

-Ela sempre estava nesse lugar cozinhando pelo mundo inteiro (literalmente nunca vi panelas tao grande como ela tem)! Ela e o exemplo perfeito de alguem que so serve o proximo. Ela nao so faz isso como todos os missionarios que passam por ai mas com todo mundo. A casa dela sempre esta aberta e todos os vezes eu chegava ai eu sentia como eu tivesse na minha casa. So ela nem me ligava quando eu nao queria beber refrigerante. So ela me deixava pra beber minha bebida preferida..agua!  Eu na casa dele era onde eu sentia vontade pra abrir a geladeira dela e pegar o que eu queria como eu tivesse na minha casa mesmo. 

-Ela fala exatamente como ela sente. Por isso a gente se da muito bem. Se ela gosta de vc...voce vai saber mesmo. Se ela acha que vc e muito chato ela vai falar isso na sua cara. Por isso eu amo ela...sempre e bem honesto igual de mim.

-Ela ta apaixonada por corujas. SO olha aqui!

-Eu ficava na casa dela no minimo 2 vezes por semana. Muitas irmas pagava dela pra que a gente pode almocar la. Qualquer dia nosso almoco caiu a gente fui la e nos divertimos bastante na casa dela com festa. Essa foi no meu aniversario.

- Ela gosta de conversar e sabe tudo mesmo toda a fofoca da missao. Se eu precisava saber de algo da ala ou dos outros ela era minha fonte de informacao. Nos possamos conversar por telefone por horas e horas...no minimo 2 horas mas 3 horas seria normal pra nos. 

- Ela sempre me deixava pra lavar as loucas dela nao e vovo :) a gente nunca brigou sobre isso e por isso eu amo ela!

-Ela sabe o lugar especial do meu coracao...torta paulista! e mais uma vez ela sempre esta pensando nos outros. Ela sabia que eu tava chegando e fez essa supresa! So olha minha cara...eu tava feliz!

-Ela tem um carinho inexplicavel pelos missionarias. Quando eu penso sobre meus filhos futuros servindo uma missao eu sonho que eles encontrassem pessoas igual dela pra cuidar deles quando esteja longe de mim...Sim sim eu ja penso nisso. Por isso minha mae amava a vovo. De todas as lugares minha mae amava ficando na casa dela e vendo a vida de so servico pelo proximo e por mim.

Minhas duas maes sao assim mesmo... so pensando nas outras. Como eu sou grata pra 2! Um mae do Brasil e um daqui. Eu amo voce vovo e mesmo sendo longe de voce eu sempre to pensando em vc. E cada vez a gente conversa eu sinto que a gente nunca perdeu um minuto de tempo. As coisas eu vejo em vc eu vejo em e mesmo. Como eu sou grata por voce na minha vida. Voce realmente e uma mulher incrivel e um exemplo pra mim sobre como eu quero viver. Voce e um das pessoas mais especias na minha vida e eu sinto que ja conhecia voce na minha vida inteira. Eu sei eu fui pra uma missao e pra brasil pra encontrar certas pessoas e vc e umas! Isso e por um ano e meio de voce sendo minha mae e por muitos anos pra frente pra vira a vovo das minhas filhinas futuramente. EU AMO VOCE!! FELIZ ANIVERSARIO!!!

...sorry in advance to those who might not understand.

tuesdays tune

i LOVE conference

Just want to say this man is called of God. And that huge announcement he made today changing the age of young men and woman wanting to serve missions was indeed inspiration from God. Have I ever said that I love conference? Because I love conference. Like LOVE.  To the point that I take this thing very seriously. I take notes. I don't like to watch it in big groups so I can get more out of it (hence the reason I left the bishops house which had about 20-50 people to watch the morning session at home). I don't talk. I try not to eat too much before the sessions so I don't get too full which leads to sleepiness. I go in seeking answers and always come out with those answers being answered.  This conference was no exception. The church is so true and I know this more than ever. How could anyone listen to this any deny that we have a loving Heavenly Father who has provided us with a prophet and apostoles to lead us in these last days. I don't think I have said this yet but I LOVE conference.

Here were some of the wonderful things I heard over the course of this weekend. 

- When we have a trial we have not been robbed but a huge blessing awaits us if we remain faithful. 

-All that is unfair about life can be made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

-We need to give people the precious gift of our time.

-God knows things about us that we don't know about ourselves.

-When one sees clearly with the heart, everything else is invisible. 

-Many of the deepest regrets of tomorrow can be prevented by following the Savior TODAY.

-With faith comes trials of faith which brings an increased faith.

-The Lord's will will be done in his own time and his time should be enough because he knows what's best!!

-His time might not always be our time but the Lord ALWAYS keeps his promises. 

We need to do the things that make us familiar with the Lord as he is familiar with us. 

-Challenge your to-do list to serve and follow a prompting from the Lord. 

-Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. 

-Our discipleship isn't what type of trials we have but how we endure them.

-Testimony is a point of departure not a final destination.

And my particular favorites...

-The crowning of love is always loyalty.

-External circumstances don't determine our happiness. WE determine our happiness. 

-It's not a race. It's a journey and we should enjoy the ride (can I just say I loved to find out that Uchtodrf is highly competitive like myself. That made me love him that much more! but yes I do need to not be so competitive all the time and to enjoy the ride)
-We can't go back and change the past but we can repent. The atonement of Christ allows us to leave those things behind so we can move forward with a determination to BE better, to DO better and to BECOME better.

-What Holland said at the end of his talk really struck me to the core and left me in tears. One of the things he said which will become my new motto was this...I love thee and will NEVER look back until this work is finished!!

Yep. That explains everything I know and feel in such simple, short words.  I look forward to that day that I will meet my Heavenly Father and Jesus and they will tell me well done my good and faithful servant. Thy work is finished. Thank goodness I have these men to help me stay on track. I feel so uplifted. This is the true church of Christ and can't wait to listen and relisten to all these talks these next few weeks at work.  6 month countdown to the april session starts...now!

lucky number 24

Since I have been living in DC I have been attending institute regularly.  In the beginning of class our teacher has everyone in the room answer some random question. A couple weeks ago the question was- how many times have you moved in the past 5 years?

I had walked in late and had literally 1 minute before it got to me for my response! By the time it got to me I didn't have a clear answer. I threw out the number 10 but after my turn passed I thought...I really want to figure this out. So I did and here is my moving log.
1. Hinckley hall (provo, BYU dorms)
2. Taylor Hall (provo, BYU dorms)
3. King Henry apartment (provo)
4. My home (Thousand Oaks, CA)
5. King Henry apartment (provo)
6. King Henry (different apartment)
7. My home (Thousand Oaks, CA)
8. Israel 9. Condo (provo)
10. Crestwood apartment (provo)
11. House (provo)
12. My home (Thousand Oaks, CA)
13. MTC (provo)
14. CTM (Sao Paulo, Brasil)
15. Sao Jose do Rio Preto, Brasil
16. Franca, Brasil
17. Aracatuba, Brasil
18. Sao Carlos, Brasil
19. Sao Jose do Rio Preto, Brasil
20. Ribeirao Preto, Brasil
21. House (provo)
22. House (Alexandria, VA)
23. Apartment (Alexandria, VA)
24. The list will only continue seeing as my lease ends DEC.1

I seriously have a problem. Some of this was out of my control like the mission thing. I was transfered when I was transfered. But a good majority was my doing. I wanted to study abroad, I decided to pack up and move home after I had just gotten settled at school to serve a mission or the really important matters- In the summer I had to move to a place that had a pool. So since I have graduated High School I have moved 24 times. Now that's something worth celebrating.

tuesdays tune

LOVE this song...not this guy's hair.