"Vale a pena" is a phrase I use everyday here in Brazil. It means "it´s worth it". So many things that are in my life have proven to be worth it. When you´re nicer to your mom and dad, they´re more willing to buy you Pei Wei (wow, so trunky for american food). When you do well in high school, you get into the college you want to attend(Yay for the frozen tundra-BYU-Idaho). When you choose to serve your Savior, He places THE MOST INCREDIBLE people in your path. That is what He did for me this week.

Katia and Valedon BOUGHT RINGS! Ugh their the most incredible couple. They talked to my companion and I about how they met and what this marriage and baptism will mean to them and left me bawling. They just really get it. They want so badly to enter in the temple and get sealed for eternity. They´ve had Family Home evenings with families in our ward and our ward is doing great with integrating them into our cute ward family. Katia told me I had to Skype with her any potential husbands to make sure they were good enough, LOL. Shes totally a mom to me and gets on my back for not putting on sunscreen or not drinking enough water. So their wedding will be May 4 which is next transfer so my companion and I are PRAYING that we stay here.

We started teaching this AMAZING FAMILY. Theres a guy in our ward who was a bishop in Manus but had to move here with his parents because their health is deteriorating. So we´re teaching his old parents (seriously the cutest old couple of all time), and his two sisters. They´re the most giving family I´ve ever met. And they really have a desire to be together forever. It was so amazing to see this man be the only member in his family to helping us preach the gospel to the people that he loves the most. Sometimes the most sacred work of God we can do, is in our own homes. I cant wait to do that in my home one day.

We had Zone Conference this week which was fun because it was my first one. There was a slide show of all the missionaries that arrived and all the missionaries that will leave soon. So my picture passeed and then so did my companion´s. I cried. LOL. I just love her to pieces and I cant believe I have to send off another companion next transfer. She´s been such a blessing in my life. And she understands my need for Coke so obviously shes a good person.

My mom requested that I put more "culture" in my letters. I also said if I put more culture in my letters people would never come visit Brazil with me. But I can always talk about Brazilian food. They have these things called Maria Malucas thats sweet bread with coconut baked inside and I get little baby ones at this bread store. The bread store is called Bom Pao(Good Bread... really creative). All the workers know Sister Jackson and I and make us try new stuff EVERYTIME. Also I eat alot of pastels. They´re like wonton stuff with meat in the middle. Like empanadas but not. I get frango com catuipury which is like a mozarella cheese sauce. Yes, the clothes are a wee bit tight.

Everything is great here in Conjunto Novo Ceara! I really love everything of where I am and who I´m serving. Thank you for your continuous support and love from all. Ate Segunda!

Com muito amor,
Sister Myers

A Casa De Americanos

 Sister Jackson and I

The difference between an hour. It's either pouring rain or hot as an oven. There is no medium.

Brazil is the bees knees.

Hellllllloooo family and friends. Thank you for reading my emails. I know you´re actually just waiting for a crazy Brazil story to happen. But my mom also reads this email so we keep those ones out. Man, this week was awesome. Our investigators are awesome, my companion is awesome, our ward is awesome, Brazil is awesome, and Sister Myer is..... happy. Gotcha!

Investigators are full of miracles. Katia and Valdeon are seriously the greatest humans I´ve ever met. They now have enough  money for wedding and all they need are rings. So this week they´re buying rings and marking a wedding date for May! We were visiting them with this couple in our ward and when Katia and Valdeon said they needed rings they TOOK OFF THEIR RINGS AND HANDED THEIRS TO THEM. LIKE DEAD SERIOUS. Thats how awesome the members are here. I was so confused because I couldnt figure out if she was joking. But she was serious. Man, this would only happen in Brazil.

So I dont remember if yáll remember but I´ve been teaching Caio, Gustavo, and Artur since my first day here. They´re the most amazing young men who have the biggest desire to serve missions. The problem was that their dad wouldnt let them be baptized. There was something within the family that happened this week and the dad finally agreed. You guys, I cried. Like I was just so happy because this is all these boys wanted. So I should have pictures next week of that. YAY!

Everything is great! I finally feel really comfortable with the language so I´m working alot on my American accent. Which is so hard. Its 80% of the battle to learn Portuguese... well. The alphabet is really so different from English and Spanish so its hard to speak like a Brazilian. Plus Fortalezans cut off all their words. But I have time to keep learning so its golden.
Thank you for all your emails and support. I keep telling my mom that I´d thought that everyone would forget about Sister Myers by now but Monday mornings the inbox is full of words of encouragement and love. Thank you so much for your prayers and love. Boa semana para voces!
Com muito amor
Sister Myers

The local bakery, Bom Pao. AKA the reason why my clothes don't fit.

 Our beautiful chapel

 This cat is in the same spot, sleeping this way everyday. We relate on a spiritual level.

 My favorite view from my area.

Heaven is cheering you on: today, tomorrow and forever.

Hello dear family and friends! This week went by incredibly fast but I guess thats what happens when youre having fun. Here in Fortaleza its been nonstop rain. And not weak Arizona type rain. Like deep rainforest rain. Well, I´ve never been in a rainforest so I dont really know but thats what I imagine. Its so nice to not be dripping in sweat everyday.
The language is coming along. Having a companion that speaks English AND Portuguese really well helps so much. I can speak well but shes helping me with my accent. A member in our ward said that I speak half Spanish and half Portugese. LOL which is probably really true. Theres a young man in our ward that just got called to Argentina so I´m helping him with basic spanish words. The hardest part is to seperate the words in sentaces because they speak SO QUICKLY and never annunciate the full word. So like "Posso" is "I can" but everyone says "pos". So its just little things like that. No one ever guesses Im from America anymore which is cool. Everyone thinks Im Argentinian or Brazilian. Then they see the last name "Myers". That ruins the imagination a little.
Investigators are slim. A lot of people here are so kind and open up their houses to any type of missionaries. So we teach ALOT of lessons. Usually at least 10 in a day, but very rarely are they people that want to hear more. It can be frustrating at times but I just remember my purpose isnt to baptize. Its to bring others unto Christ, even if that means for 20 minutes in their homes.
Life is pretty busy all the time here and I love it. Elder Holland said in General Conference "Heaven is cheering you on:today, tomorrow, and forever." I feel this in my life everyday. Even if we arent missionaries, there are angels cheering for us and hoping that we are making the choices nescessary to return to God and our Families one day.
Thank you for your packages, letters, and emails. This week was rather difficult for me mentally with very little successes. Many of your loving emails brought me to tears of happiness. Thank you for bringing me a part of home in Brazil every week.
Ate a proximo segunda-feira!
Com muito amor,
Sister Myers

The other sisters gift for my three month anniversary. 

Companheiro, Conferencia, e Casamento

Hello my dearest American friends and families who are enjoying nice weather in the states. Every person here asks if it snows where I live. I think the TV and Internet has brain washed Brazilians to think its always snowing every where in the US. Anyways, I had some huge changes and events this week that all start with "C", if you´re speaking the world´s greatest language.

Companheiro:
I feel like I´m actually been punked by my mission president. So I sent off Sister Souza to return to Sao Paulo after shes finished her 18 months (tear drop). And now I am companions with Sister Jackson. Okay let me start by saying she worked at Athleta. If that doesnt show that she´s my twin I dont know what does. So the first say I was talking about some sweet memories working at Gap and she looks at me and she´s like wait... I worked at Athleta. Then we went on to explain that we basically have all the same interests, same sense of humor, and love everything about food. Each day is super weird because we find out 10 new reasons of why we´re twins. Most importantly, we´ve worked so well together. When we teach, we´re immmediately in sync which is really hard to do. Ugh theres so much I want you to know about her. Just know, I´m in good hands.

Conferencia:
For those who aren´t members of my faith, members have the oppurtunity to listen to our prophet, 12 Apostles, and other church leaders who are called of God two times a year. It´s a huge deal for us. And it was this past weekend. To say the very least, the words touched my heart in a very special way. Because there are 4 AMERICAN SISTERS (seriously how does that happen?!) in our area, we got to have a room for English. The talk that touched my heart the most was by Elder Christofferson and he talked about Fathers. Being away from your family is hard... Being away specifically from your parents is difficult. To be where I am has everything to do with who my dad is and what he helped me become. Most importantly, we have a Heavenly Father who loves and watches over us. How great is that knowledge... to know we ALWAYS have someone; we are never alone. If you have interest to hear more or read some of what was shared visit:
lds.org.

Casamento:
Casamento in Portuguese means Marriage! So I´ve been teaching Katia and Valdeon for about 3 weeks with Sister Souza and now Sister Jackson. And within the next month they´ll be MARRIED AND BAPTIZED. They´re such a sweet couple. They moved here from another neighborhood to get away from family situations. They´re seamstresses and make the MOST BEAUTIFUL DRESSES for little girls. Anyways, as we´re been teaching them they´re desire to really know what is truth and what Church is the only church of God. They´re made the decision to be married and baptized. This week Sister Jackson and I will go with them to mark their wedding. Because we´re the closest people to them here, we get to be their witness!! Im so excited and really theyre the specialest of people. Definitely friends that I want to keep in touch with.

Everything is awesome here in Conjunto Novo Ceara! Thank you for the continuous love and support.
Sister Myers

 Conference, Sister Jackson and I

One Transfer Down!

I´m sitting here reading all these emails about Easter and laughing because it´s very much not a thing here. Okay I lied. Its a thing. But its more like "we got the whole weekend off so we´re all gonna get wasted" which is basically what happens here in Brazil every other day, so pretty normal. We didn´t do much to celebrate, it felt weird. Church was even different. We still had meetings and we had 3 talks about family, none about why we celebrate Easter. It was quite sad.... the church doctrines here are the same but the culture can be so different at times. But at our Easter lunch, Sister Souza´s parents surprised her at the house we were eating at because she left today. She was so excited but I was the one crying LOL. She was such an amazing trainer and missionary and hope one day in the near future to see her again. I also cried when she left but thats too much info. I apologize.
I´ve officially survived my first transfer(for all my non-mormons a transfer is 6 weeks you spend in a certain area of your mission with a certain companion). Good news! I´m staying here in Conjunto Novo Ceara and Sister Jackson will finish my training. All I know is that she´s American. Funny thing: Sister Mish (the other American I live with) has a new American companion too. So our house will have 4 AMERICANS in it. Which is insane because we really only have 8 or so American sisters here. I´m way excited.
Things I´ve learned during this transfer:
-I´m not very good at sharing but charity is an attribute of Christ that I am working on each day
-As a missionary, you have this inimagineable love for the people you´re teaching
-If someone feeds you something other than rice, beans, chicken, and juice its a good day
-Busy days are the best days
-God will never leave you comfortless
-Miracles DO happen
-Fortaleza: it either feels like a furnace or a wet furnace
Everything is really good here! The past couple weeks were difficult with not very much success but I´m excited to see what this new transfer brings!
Thank you everyone for your support. I´m still amazed with the amount of emails and letters and packages I´ve recieved. It warms my heart to know I have the world´s best cheerleaders.
Ate mais!
Sister Myers

Because I know all of you youngsters posted and Easter selfie, here is the last selfie of Sister Souza and Sister Myers.

This is Irma Socorro. She's an angel here on Earth and we visit her every week.

Happy Easter!

 The one joy of having a thousand dogs jump on you each day, is that some of them are bound to have PUPPIES!!!

Sister Mish, Sister Ferrieria, Sister Souza and Me.

Physically tired, Spiritually Uplifted.

Seriously how does Segunda-feira come so quickly?! This week was a little bit of heartbreaks. I felt like a teenage girl needing Titanic and chocolate ice cream this week. But just because sad things happen does mean you cant be happy!

We´ll start off with happy things. This week we were in the home of this very old, very religious woman. She was blasting this Gospel music concert when we walked in. As we ended our lesson we invited her to day the closing prayer. By this point, we were worn out. Mostly because she preached to us and not the other way around. Before she started her prayer she asked us for our names again and we replied Sister Souza and Sister Myers. She looked at us weird and began to pray. And she said, and I quote "Please bless these servants of God, Lord. I think they´re confused. Both of their names are Sister". Needless to say it was by far the best prayer I´ve heard.
Then this week was Sister Souza´s birthday. She turned 22 a week before she finishes her mission so we made sure it was special. I began the day by jumping on her bed and singing happy birthday in Potrguese, Enlgish and Spanish. Fun fact: her dad is a language professor and knows like 12 different languages so she too knows a bunch of langauages. But these three were the only ones I knew for the happy birthday song. We ate cake for breakfast. We ate cake at lunch at one of the member´s home, and ate cake for dinner. If I didnt have diabetes before the mission I do now. It was a great day and really special for her.
Okay not so happy news. Just about every thing feel apart this week. Our baptism for this week, started a new college course and was never in his home for us to prepare him for Sunday. Then Cristina who has the three girls, told us with her husband leaving she doesn't want anymore change in her life. Then Gustavo, one of the brothers we´re teaching said he´d ask his dad to be baptized for Sister Souzas birthday and when they asked he was very hesitant and never gave them an answer.
So now we´re here. And this is what I have to say:
"Opposition gives us a priceless opportunity to turn to God and rely on Him"
So that´s what I´m doing. I´m a representative of Jesus Christ. I am praying, fasting, and studying to be a better missionary for the people of Fortaleza. I know this trial is a gift. It's a gift that I can be broken down into pieces and have the faith that the sun will rise tomorrow.
Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. I can physically feel them day to day here in Brasil. I am so blessed to have friends and family supporting me all over this world. Thank you to those who have shaped me to be a missionary today. Its the biggest blessing of my life and want these next 15 months to be the best for my Heavenly Father and His children.
Com muito amor,
Sister Myers or in Portuguese, Sister Mi-uurs

Sister Souza making chocolate chips cookies every PDay

 Sister Souza and I with the family of Cristina

 The birthday of Sister Souza

Nobody said it'd be easy.

I wish I could say it´s a dream in Brazil everyday. I think when you get called to serve in Brazil you think it´ll be easy because the enire world knows if you serve in Brazil, the work of the Lord is really moving quickly here. Although I do see some truth in that here with our area, I don´t feel the same with that statement this week.
On a positive note, Maria Eduarda recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost in sacrament yesterday. She has quickly become minha filha(my daughter) and the love that I have for her and her family is so big. She lives with about 13 people, including step-mom, 2 aunts, and 2 sisters. Sos basically a family of girls which I completely understand. They´re all a wee bit crazy and always want to input their opinions. If thats not the Myers family, I dont know what is.
We´re working with two families which is great but each family has a big difficulty. I wrote previously about Cristina, Itelo, Jamile, Ariade, and Lia. This week, Itelo, the father, left the family. SIster Souza and I were in tears to find out yesterday. We´re going to visit the girls today. My heart hurts. I dont know what to say to a family that has gone through something so diffivult. I´ve prayed fervently that I´ll know what to say. I love this family. The girls are like my nieces and I feel like the cool aunt that speaks English. Imagine visiting a family 3 times a week... you´re a part of the family. It´ll be a hard week for them but I cant help but know with a surety that the Savior knows exactly how they feel even when SIster Souza and I dont. He can comfort her in ways we never will.
The other family is Jackson, Zelani, Caio, Gustavo, and Artur. We´ve worked with them since I got here. Theyve met with missionaries for years. The parents are less active members. Zelani(the mom) really loves the church, has a strong testimony, and treats the missionaries with a warm heart. Jackson(the dad) has faltered and has many doubts. Hes a sergant in the Brazilian Army so he´s kind of intimidating. But the three sons are the most faithful group of boys I´ve ever witnessed in my life. They STUDY the Book of Mormon everyday... like we´re talking writes summaries about what they learned and felt. Each of them bore their testimony a couple  weeks ago. We do a Family Home Evening Night with them every week and this week they taught their parents the Restoration. SIster Souza and I even made Elder tags for them. They´ve so strong but their dad wont let them be baptized. Its something I´ve prayed about, fasted for, and studied everyday. I know with time, these three boys can be baptized, recieve the priesthood, and serve missions. I´ve become so close to them and hope that one day, my kids will be as wonderful as them.
Right now Sister Souza and I are in the process of searching for new investigators. It´s really difficult because everyone and their mother here are really firm in their beliefs and dont want to give us the oppurtunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. At times it can be difficult, but I thank God everyday that Im here. I have faith that the servants of God are blessed to find those children of God to bring them Home. The work of Salvation will never be easy. But I didnt sign up for easy.
Thank you for your support. Every week is a treat to get emails from friends and family. Home feels so far away but really I feel at home. Brazil feels like home. How weird is that? Home is a place with more motorcycles than people, home is an apartment without a shower curtain, hot water, peanut butter, a dryer. Home is here in Brazil because here I´m serving the person that is most important to me in my life, Jesus Cristo.
This church is true. I know because I have prayed and asked many times. Mnay times, I recieved an answer. An answer of the heart. A confrimation that this is the way that I can live with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and my family para SEMPRE. Happiness comes from following the Gospel of Jesus  Christ. There is no other way.
I love you all and pray daily for you
SIster Myers

 This truck is always parked down our street and I call it my Jesus truck.