(:

This is a PASTEL! Yay! I can send pictures again! (:

HELLO! Family, I am just so dang happy. (:

We are pumped to be here in Votorantim! It's a HUGE area! I'd like to see a map of the city next to Sorocaba. I know it's close because we are part of a Stake in Sorocaba. It feels like a perfect mix between Jandira and Ouro Fino - the people, the houses, the feel. It's all lead up to this point! (It actually reminds me of Johnstown!) The area and ward are presenting lots and lots of new challenges but we're ready! We share the ward and the house with another sent of Sisters (who have been here a while) and the city has one other ward with Sisters too.

We also will only have 6 companionships to lead, which will be about 2130948324 times more effective! Especially with two in this city that we'll be able to work more closely with them. We are now responsible for the call-in reports and key indicators of the Sisters. So we've been promoted from District Leader to Zone Leader. (;

Sister Zapata: She is from Buenos Aires, Argentina and studies Chines at BYU-I. She is fluent in 5 languages and is almost a black belt in Kung Fu. What?! (She learned English in a British accent and it's about the cutest thing ever!) If that were not all exciting enough, she is also an excellent, fantastic, astonishing, exemplary servant of the Lord and a powerful instrument in His hands. I'm blown away by her techniques, talents, and testimony. I'M SO HAPPY! (:

SO we're white-washing the area. We arrived without a trace of an actual investigator, or at least updated records of their existence. But we have acquainted ourselves with everyone in the area book and are starting with that because we all know what happened when Alma checked his area book (Alma 8:10, 15-16, 18-32). It's going to be great!

In the mean time, we have stumbled upon a golden family and two outstandingly elect people this week! The family went to church yesterday! One of these others we met last night.

So we were finding our way home but still had 15 minutes before 9:00 and decided to take a new road and knock a few doors. The street, one behind the busy central avenue, fell in complete silence. As we noticed this, we started to hear the soft sound of a flute in a familiar tune. As it played "Hark All Ye Nations," we started running like idiots to find where it was coming from. (can't wait to see the video of this one in heaven) We stopped in front of a little house and rang the doorbell. Out comes a 20 year old guy named Netto. We taught him right there on his doorstep and the Spirit was so strong! Right before he left his last job a few months ago, a coworker told him that she felt impressed to give him a Book of Mormon and marked a part for him to read. He never talked with that coworker again so he's been waiting to find out more and to find the truth. WOO!!

Thought from Boyd K. Packer:

"Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into God's presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality."

I love you way big! Have a good one!

Love, love, love,

Sister Vaughn