Coming home for medical treatment

Prayers please, Kayla will be returning from her mission to Brazil on Friday. She has only been out a year and is very sad to be leaving her mission and the people of Brazil that she loves so much. She has been having some health struggles. 4 months ago she started having trouble swallowing. She is always positive and not one to complain. The problem progressively got worse but she just kept going and didn't say much about it. She had a scope done on her throat and some other tests and they gave her some medicine that helped for awhile but about a month ago it got to the point she couldn't swallow any food. She has been living on protein drinks since then and been to the hospital in Brazil multiple times where she had many tests including an endoscopy but they have not been able to find out what the problem is. She has lost 26 lbs. She has also recently started having episodes where it is difficult for her to breathe. We didn't receive her usual email on Monday and we were very worried. Her mission president called us that night telling us that day she had been sitting on the curb having trouble breathing and feeling like she was going to pass out so they took her to the hospital. She wasn't able to email us because she had been in the hospital all day that day. She hasn't wanted to say much and didn't want to worry us but it has now gotten serious enough she needs to come back to the U.S. to get medical care and find out what the problem is. The only thing they know for sure is she can't swallow anything solid and her stomach is full of inflammation but they don't know why. We are hoping to get her better quickly so she can return and continue to serve. Thank you in advance for you love, support and prayers.

Laurel

Emergency Transfer

Hello everyone!

I hope all of you are doing fantastic! A lot of changes happened this week! My companion ended up having to go home to take care of some health problems and I couldn't be in Aruja alone so I was emergency transferred! I'm now in a trio in Vila Galvao. I was actually really sad to leave Aruja...I really loved the members, our investigators, mountains, horses etc. so I'm hoping that at some point I'll be able to go back there. My new companions are Sister Torres (my best friend from the CTM) and sister Santos, they are both Brazilians and I just love them so much! I have no idea how long I'm going to stay here or where I'm going to go. But that's pretty much what happened with me this week. I don't have too much time but I'll give a better update next week. Love you guys.

Love sister Peine

Aruja!!

Hello everyone this week was a good week. I learned a lot and I am loving being here in Arujá, the members are sooooo amazing and THERE ARE HORSES AND MOUNTAINS HERE!!! I don't have much time but I will send some pics that show a little of what we did this week! Love you all and I promise the next email will be better! amo todos vocês boa semana e beijos!!!!
Love, Sister Peine

Transferred

Hello my people!! I love you all and I hope you're doing great! So this week was wild. I don't remember if I said it or not last week but it was transfer week last week and I was transferred to Aruja! I was in the city in my last area and Aruga is very different, it's in the interior of our mission. THERE ARE HORSES AND MOUNTAINS here. They are tropical mountains but none the less a mountain is a mountain! I was so happy to see the cows and horses I got a little teary eyed, I was so excited. I also got my new companion that will be my daughter in the mish (the fam is growing) fresh from the CTM. Her name is sister Meio and she is from Fortaleza Brasil. This week has been a good learning experience. I also am loving the area. We are doing what they call opening an area which is when both missionaries are new to the area and both missionaries have no idea where anything is. The map has become one of my new best friends. The members here also help so much, holy cow they are amazing! Irmao Januario has gone out with us a couple of times and showed us a whole bunch of our area and where the members live which has been SUPER helpful and everyone in this ward is just excited about missionary work so I'm just pumped! We also found a bunch of people to teach this week who are awesome! They are so funny and we are already buddies! This area also has tons of hills, giant hills... but I think walking up them all day everyday builds character so tudo bem! But really it's not bad, you get used to it pretty quick! The area is super beautiful and the field is truly white and ready to harvest here in Aruja. I'm just happy to be working in the field. This week I was studying in Alma 5 when Alma basically is calling the people unto repentance and he asks them if they died tomorrow if they would be ready and then says how the Lord is sending them an invitation that is to come unto him, come unto Christ saying how his merciful arms are open for us until the perfect day that we will be able to hug our Savior who's arms are open unto us because we repented and tried to be more like him! So I hope you are all coming unto Christ especially with the new "Come Follow Me" curriculum that the church has sent out. I was thinking about it this week and how the prophet is truly called of God to receive revelation for all of us. Because we have our spiritual body and our physical body. We feed our physical bodies every single day because if not we are going to get weak and probably a little grumpy because we are hungry. It's the same with our spiritual body. If we only ate food on Sunday we are not going to be very happy campers the rest of the week! Just like with our spiritual body if we only study and feel the spirit on Sunday how are we going to have the light of Christ throughout the week and feel the joy that the gospel brings! Our spirits will become weak and even a little grumpy just like our physical body without food. We need to feast upon the words of Christ like it says in 2 Nep 32:3. Now we even have an organized study that the church (Lord) has given us to help us feed our spirit a little every single day! The church of Jesus Christ is perfect because it's his church. Man, I just love Jesus Christ and I know he loves all of us because he gave us a loving prophet to guide us and soooo many other things. I hope you're all being spiritually fed every single day and lighting the world with the light of Christ. Love you all. Amo todos voces e uma otima samana para todos.

Beijos
Sister Peine

MERRY CHRISTMAS, FELIZ NATAL, FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!

So ths week President Miller called me asking if we could take in another sister because a sister had to go home because she was super sick and left her companion companionless. So of course we said yes and picked Sister Amorim up in the mission office Tuesday morning. She will be staying with us until the end of the transfer and I'm super excited! This week was a great one. A lot of people that we are teaching came to church and we also took the Lord's recent convert, Matheus to the temple, it was so much fun. The temple is truly incredible. I have like no more time but this week was a good one, also shout out to mom I got the Christmas package and I have been happily eating fun dip, candies and butter mints in the streets of Brazil all week and my comps loved the lights! Love you momma! Hope you all have a great week and a very merry Christmas remembering our Savior Jesus Christ, the best gift that our Heavenly Father gave to us. I love Him and I am so so so grateful for the atonement in my life and that through him we can all always become a better person. Merry CHRISTmas to all of you love you lots!
Love, Sister Peine

Endoscopy

Hello everyone!

Well, this week was an interesting week...So we got a call from the president this week and I will be training another new missionary! I will also be leaving my area, Vila Matilde and will open another area which should be a good time. I've never opened an area before but I always like a good challenge so I'm excited...I think! I still haven't met my new daughter (companion that I will train) yet but I will tell you about it next week! I've also been doing some tests for my throat that's still having some problems so hopefully everything works out okay with that. I actually did an endoscopy and they put me to sleep and that was about 2 hours ago so I'm still feeling super happy so I hope this email makes sense. I'm sad to leave sister Fuentes and Amorim because I just love them so much. They are like sisters for me and have taken such good care of me while I've been on these nice medicines. Well I literally cannot remember anything else but I love you all. Be nice to each other always. Hope you all set goals to help you grow closer to Jesus Christ. Love y'all. Ate a semana que vem beijos.

Love, Sister Peine