natal who wander are lost: week 26 . we [KNEE]d some help over here #strugs

Links in red (click for info)

This week we have learned that our house here must be cursed. . .why? Because Sister de Paula has a problem in her knee. She's had it for awhile, but it's getting worse. And my companion Sister Keese also started to feel a lot of pain in her knee. We went to the doctor and she's on bed rest for at least 5 days. She can't even walk around the house without someone supporting her because she feels so much pain. Poor sweet girl, it kills me. So I've had a lot of "down time" this week. I'm doing exchanges with Sister Carvalho during part of the day every day so Sister de Paula can get some rest and I can work some, but it's been mainly confusion trying to work in the two areas. We're working really really hard and seeing almost no success. But even though I get frustrated I'm still so happy here.

There have been blessings to this too. . .I've gotten so close to the sisters in my house. It seems like we've been living together for months, not weeks. I've gotten to watch just about every film the church has produced, all of them fantastic and extremely tear jerking (but Sister Carvalho cries almost as much as I do so I have a crying buddy!), and I've gotten to work with Sister Carvalho. She's a fantastic missionary! And we have a great time together. We both trip a lot which is a riot. And we both get lost fairly easily which makes everything even more of a riot. We're both Juniors [mom note: missionaries are put into companionships with one missionary being Senior companion (usually the missionary with more time out in the field and more experience) and the other being the Junior companion] who don't know the areas that we're in so it's a lot of walking by faith haha. I love her so much and it's been an adventure working with her haha.

It's been awhile, but here's another #minhavida

+ We all ate hot dogs that we ordered from a man in the street, maybe not the best idea. and I was really hungry so I ate two. Definitely not the best idea. The next day when we were on our way back from interviews with President Soares (gave me some great advice on how I can utilize ch 6 of PMG!) [mom note: PMG = Preach My Gospel a missionary manual for teaching and studying] I was practically running to our house to go to the bathroom. Made it in time (barely) and was feeling sick the rest of the day. Including another surprise attack of the same problem (think my story from the mission christmas conference) and I had to use a members bathroom. Don't even want to think about how much time I was in there. I'm hoping that since I'm a newbie in the area they'll forget which sister locked herself in their bathroom forever. hahaha

+ Riding on the bus with Sister Carvalho. I was sitting down and a woman walked past me and hit me in the face with a giant bag (that I'm pretty sure was full of either bricks or cans of cat food). We were dying laughing. And then a couple minutes later, the bus took a turn that I wasn't expecting and I almost fell out of my chair haha.

Even though this week was a little bit out of the ordinary for the mission, I am loving every second here. I've had a lot more thinking time than normal lately and I can't help but think about how 6 months have already passed me by. It's unbelievable how fast the time passes. 1/3 of my mission. It's made me want to work that much harder to really utilize the next year that I have here. This time is once in a lifetime.

I love you all so much and I feel so blessed to have so many amazing family members and friends (I got so many emails this week! So good to hear from all of you, I love you all and wish I could respond giant emails to you, but just know that I'm thinking of each and every one of you!) Thank you for everything. I hope you have a wonderful week!

Até o próximo segunda feira. . [mom note: "until next Monday"]

com amor

Sister Baker

P.S. the theme of our house is 2 Nephi 18:15 hahahha "and many among them will trip and fall (Sister Carvalho and I) ; and will be broken (the knees of Sister de Paula and Sister Keese) and imprisoned (Sister Keese on bed rest)

[mom note: We also received a handful of responses to personal family letters. Here is what Megan had to say in those}

DYING about Disney princess Emma Watson. Belle! Perfection.

Also planning on killing the people from Hershey's who are ruining the hopes and dreams of all American chocolate lovers. This is why I'm moving to England.

So pumped for Ash and Ali Blake too! And Talyon! Can't wait to hear where he goes. [mom note: all friends with mission calls]

Bug bites are better here in Natal.

Haven't gotten a (professional) hair trim yet, but I might have trimmed my own ends a little bit (don't hate me mom) I hate spending time on Pday to get a haircut.

I need some plain colored tshirts to go with skirts (pretty much whatever color), T25 workout videos or really whatever workout dvds (we're allowed to use them) gotta get skinny this year before I come home haha, church movies. That's all I can think of that I'd like.

Photos. I'll work on it! Sorry for the long time without pictures. [mom note: we haven't gotten pictures from her in a month. Although in that time we have gotten pictures from members and investigators. Just yesterday we received pictures from one of Megan's investigators in Mossoró taken as Megan prepared to leave for her new area in Natal.]