NATAL!!

Dear Family,
Hello! Feliz Véspera de Natal! (For those of you who don´t “fala português” that´s Portuguese for …. Merry Christmas Eve!!) ;)
I can´t believe it´s already Christmas again! This year totally flew by! And another Christmas finds me in sunny, warm, exotic, tropical Brazil! (aka Paradise—at least that´s what Webster´s Dictionary told me Brazil meant!) hahaha!
I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! I am so grateful to serve my Heavenly Father and Savior—especially at Christmas time!
Well, life is going well here. I´m still in my first area, Cuiabá with my trainer, Sister Bulhões. Now, we have two other sisters living with us which is a blast! One is a gaucha (from the South) and the other is from Utah. Everyone thinks Sister Reynolds and I are sisters because she has auburn hair and basically the same skin tone—I believe Anne of Green Gables described it as a ´rose leaf complexion´. Hahaha! Really, that´s a poetic way of saying pasty white, but with this sun, our arms and faces are getting quite tan.
We have been witnessing many miracles every day here. I love it! Among other things, we visited both Patrícia and Guilherme (the Pasqualin cousins that live here in my area). I know it isn´t chance that I got sent to the exact mission where they live. Our visits were very fun (they are very sweet, good people), but they don´t really want anything with the Church at this point. I´m still going to call to invite them to Church though. Who knows when they will be touched with the desire to know more. We gave Tuka a Mundo Feliz DVD and tried to mark with her and her husband, but she gave an excuse that she´s really busy til after Christmas. So, after Christmas when Marina comes to visit, I´m definitely going to hold her to that compromisso! We taught Guilherme and his wife the first lesson, gave them a Mundo Feliz DVD and Book of Mormon, but they didn´t pray because they stayed up with family til about 2am. It was really good we visited them though because even with all the years of contact with our family, they never really knew much about the Church or what we believe. God moves in mysterious ways and the seed has been planted! I am going to continue to pray on their behalf. Both women are pregnant so maybe this will open up another opportunity. :) We had our Christmas Zone Conference and us missionaries (sisters in our apartment) received a call from Pres. Milder, asking us to prepare 2-3 hymns. They turned out really well and helped invite the Spirit even stronger into our conference. I love learning more about the gospel and strengthening my relationship with my Savior! I have such a long way to go to arrive where I want, but I am taking things one step at a time, one principle at a time, one attribute of Christ at a time. I feel stronger and stronger every day God´s love for me and the direction of the Spirit. It is such a blessing to serve a mission! I wouldn´t trade this experience for anything in the world!
Tonight we are going to have dinner with Pres. Milder´s family. We are going to sing some more hymns for them (Sister Milder asked us to). But, we´re going to start with a special rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer complete with choreography! HAHAHA! I´m really excited! We´re going to video it for y´all to see when I get home. We´ll see how President Milder likes it! Hahaha!
We have planned a great service project for Christmas Day, but I´ll tell y´all more about that after it happens (next week). How´s that for a cliff hanger?! Tune in next week!
Love, Sister Ellis III
P.S. Thanks for whoever helped with my email, but it´s again at 91 %. Mom and Dad—could you please start printing off and deleting the emails for me? Thanks!
P.P.S. Thanks Matt for the email. I appreciate all your insights and experiences and encouragement.
P.P.S.S. Thanks, Kit for the photo book. And Kev, Ryn, and Elle. I loved it! Sorry I opened it before Christmas, but I already knew what it was and wanted to show off my beautiful family!
P.P.P.S.S. That sounds awesome Mom and Dad and Em the program at the CTM. Who´s going to be Joseph?! ;) Remember Em, you have to wait for him for 2 years. Hahaha! I´m excited to hear how it goes. Til tomorrow! I´m so excited to talk to y´all I can hardly stand it!!!!!!