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So first the big news...

(NOTE:  Received on April 27, 2010)

I have no time today, pretty much. So...here goes a lot of randomness.

Last Tuesday, after emailing, my comps and I went to a grocery store, just to check it out. Observations: They have an aisle for rice and beans, just like we do for cereal. I didn't know there were that many different kinds of rice and beans. And cereal is basically none. And I was pretty excited to see they have pints of Haagen-daas ice cream...except not really, after I checked out the price, because it costs R$17.90 for a pint, which is like a little more than half that in American dollars. They also had Kinder eggs and Kinder chocolates...yes, of course I bought and enjoyed some!!! Last Tuesday night, we went out in the dark after gym time, and cleaned the streets. Because Elder Nelson was coming on Thursday, and apparently we wanted the street around the CTM to be trash-free. Wishful thinking, if you ask me! But it was pretty fun. It was great. :) Also, Tuesday, I. Lopez changed the song ending for the song that I would be playing for choir when Elder Nelson was here. Yeah, that was fun....but it ended up working out well. He wanted an organ sound on the fake piano at first, and I told him it would sound ridiculous cuz I didn't have time to change the fingering. So he tried it, and I won that battle! :)

The night before Elder Nelson came (because my comps and I had been studying apostles and apostleship), I was thinking about preparing to hear an apostle of the Lord speak the next day, and how best to prepare. WELL...it came to me in my sleep, as I was apparently reciting the 13th Article of Faith in my sleep. I kid you not. Oh the funny things of missionary life! Just like how all our jokes have gotten ridiculously cheesy. I now understand why RMs (returned missionaries) are so weird at first!

So anyway, Elder Nelson came on Thursday. He got there with his wife and Elder and Sister Godoy, of the area presidency. They stood at the front of the auditorium, while the choir finished singing our first prelude piece. Then President Clark got the mic and said that Elder Nelson wanted to shake all our hands before the devotional started. And since I was sitting on the end of the front row, so I could get to the piano when I needed to, I got to be the first one to shake his hand! I met him and his wife and the Godoys! And then their speeches were fantastic. Absolutely wonderful! I'd been freaking out because I didn't know the song perfectly that I would play for choir, and then it was going to be the one during the devotional, not as prelude when no one was paying attention. Well, it ended up going really well. No complaints there! So that was fantastic. I never dreamed I'd have an opportunity to play the piano for an Apostle of the Lord, so it was a very special opportunity! That night, during study time in our classroom, one of the Elders told us how his hem on his pant leg was coming undone. So I helped him fix it. That was pretty entertaining.

Friday we went contacting, in downtown Sao Paulo, and that was intense. We handed out three copies of the Book of Mormon, and talked to a bunch of people, including a guy who used to be a member of the church but was now inactive because he drinks and all that and he wants to come back. so we talked with him for a while, and took his name and number, so we could pass it on to someone here who could do something about it. That night, there was a language meeting for teaching us how to teach Brazilian companions English. Elder Carnes, who is the Elder in our district who is most vocal about struggling with Portuguese, was asked to say the closing prayer in English. Well...he failed. Hahahahah, he didn't remember how to pray in English, and our entire district just lost it entirely when he said amen. You have to know this kid. He provides a lot of entertainment for us

Monday, I was reading Jacob 7, after studying Jacob 5 last week. And it's cool because in Jacob 5, it talks about how we need to labor diligently to bring people to Christ. And in Jacob 7, it talks about how Sherem labors diligently to convince people that there isn't a Christ. So how much harder do we need to work? Cool. I liked it. Monday, my comps and I did a lesson on the Atonement for my district, during class. It was so good, and even if no one else got anything out of it, I really benefitted from studying the Atonement so deeply for a few days!

Temple today was awesome. Last time I'll go for a while. Praying in Portuguese is about all I do now. I leave next week. I'm excited. I have no mail here for a couple weeks. Hopefully I'll have some waiting next Tuesday at the mission home. K, I love you! Tchao!

-Sister Ogden

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