Grandma is going on the TREK???? What??? My mind is like in shock right now! Is that even possible?? I thought they like push handcarts and what not??? Well good luck to her, and you are right, hopefully she will be alright and return!! Return being the key word!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNDEE!!! I hope that you had a great day! I am so excited to see you and I want to hear all about your summer in Idaho! I bet you just had a blast!!!! I love you!

Ha about the grainerys! It is always a big process. But You know how things go! You start something and then it turns into something bigger than we thought but in the end it will all work out!

Well eventful, sort of! I said last week that I didn't feel like I had enough time in the day, so we just started going out,,,,,like ALL DAY!!! We were able to get in so much teaching this week, I loved it and didn't feel so stressed out because that is what I am supposed to be doing! So score!!

First, So this week, RAINY season has begun and I am not loving it! In the city its not bad, your feet just get dirty but here you are muddy and it has made it hard for our proselyting. The side by the beach is fine it is just sand but the mountain part is hard! We have been doing a lot of "barefeet" it is easier to walk the fields, you dont get stuck!!!:) All the locals do it so we figure that it cant be that bad!

So we had to go to the Lacno family this week! We needed to prepare them for their interviews, BUT since it was raining and it wasnt like a little trickle, it was like a mini typhoon everyday! But we walked all the way then we got to the river--------FLOOD!!!! IT wasnt like super high it was just fast, so we took off our shoes just kind of pulled up our skirts and crossed. HAHA it came to my thighs and i was with 2 members it came to their waists but we all just laughed and prayed that we wouldnt fall! But we got there and it was a huge blessing, all the people that we had planned to teach we all home and willing! So out soaking wet teaching was worth it! That really will be something that I wont forgot! 

Saturday night, we went to teach one of our LA members, he is 17 he comes on/off and his cousin who is our investigator. Well the LA dad isn't a member but he is kind of hard hearted and I was always a little bit nervous feeling around him. Well we finished our lesson and we are just talking while waiting for Sis. M to come back (we were on splits) well he sits down and started  talking to me. He opened up a lot, First he was joking, then he told me the elders used to teach him, but he stopped because he was offended my some hypocritical members. So I kind of just took the soft approach, I just agreed with him and told him but told him "the church is perfect, the members aren't" then I invited him to come to church and he was hesitant!  But I just shared with him just my testimony, he started crying!! He committed to come to church and HE DID!!! He said that what I said (and to be honest--I don't really remember, so it must have been the spirit talking to him) touched his heart! His wife is a member and they are always fighting because she wants him to be a member! But He said he will try harder and he knows it is true, he just needs to get over the pride in his heart and make the commitment! 

I know that the Church is true! That we are all instruments in the Lords hands! And it doesn't matter how tired, or happy or frustrated or anything if we are following the spirit we have the potential to change lives! But we have to be so humble and willing to follow the promptings! I know that the Book of Mormon will change anyone's life if they will read and pray about it! Being a missionary has been the hardest but most rewarding experience of my whole life!! I remember when I was preparing and I wasn't like 100% into it! Like I wasn't sure but now that I am here and have done it, I am molded! I know what Heavenly Father expects me to do everyday of my life! FIND HIS SHEEP and help him! Even though we all have struggles and they are all different IF we rely on the Savior we can overcome anything!!!!

I will see you all next week!!!! What a weird thought/feeling that is!!! I love you all! Be good and be safe!!!!

Love Sister Polatis

So first, I am a palagpat and didnt write it last week

MADDY---HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope that you had a great day!! We were in Bacolod so we tried to celebrate it up for you there!!! We can celebrate again when I get back!!! HAHA I love you and hope you make the best of this year!!!

DAD---HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!! Yesterday the primary sang for all their dads, (all 6 of them) and it was touching! I remember all the times of us doing that! I love you hope that you have had the best day ever!!!

Well this week was a little bit different! But it was also way good! My feelings of being torn kind of hit in and I really feel weird saying that! HA But we did really good at our findings and people just started coming out of the wood work so we were grateful for that!!!

First, we had our zone conference in Bacolod! I was so excited that we were there to spend our P-day, so we shopped around then we had our conference! I loved it! We learned mostly about following the spirit and working with our leaders! So hopefully we can apply it in our area to get it strong before I split!

We got home around 2 on wednesday! So We got on the bus and we were all so tired but the bus lately has been so crowded So we get on and we are sitting then and this lady and her husband get on the bus and it is so full and she has this baby like 4 months old maybe, anyways NO MEN will stand to give her the seat, so I stood! For the whole 4 hours I stood on the bus and it was a blessing in disguise because I was able to talk to the people standing next to me! So I was grateful! It wasnt that horrible! But we got back and just got at it! We had a lot to teach. So we went and prepared our investigator for baptism! We stayed really busy this week just trying to find and play catch up from the days that we missed!

So Finally, My whole mission I have wanted to attend a wedding! Well saturday we got to attend! It was at the church, well they asked me to play the piano so at the last minute I got the Cannon in D and played come thou fount! The judge said it was like he entered heaven haha I just laughed and was lucky my fingers would work! That was in the morning and then in the Afternoon we had the baptism for BeBe -Criestil! It was so fun! The spirit was so strong and since she has been bearing her testimony for the past 2 years she did really good! We took so many pictures for them so that they can remember. Her little sister CJ never got any pictures from her baptism just in decemeber so we changed her clothes and took pictures for her as well! IT was so fun!

I have been having these feelings of struggling a little bit like managing my time, I just feel like there isnt enough time!  So we missed teaching some investigators and we were nervous that they wouldnt come to church because we didnt see them, well after RS I turned the corner and all 3 boys were there! It was a blessing! I was so excited and way happy that they came! If they will continue to strengthen their faith there will be no problems!!!!

But Yes, I am freaking out! I really never thought that it would come this fast! I look at the calandar and I just have mixed feelings! I am way excited to see you! I promise that! Just weird is all! I will kill it these last couple weeks and end with a bang!! I love you all! I am so glad that I am here! I am so glad that I have had the best support in the whole world!! Be good and be safe! Have a great week! That is so funny that Anndee is staying with you! I bet she is having a blast! Maybe she will want to move to Idaho! She can go to rigby high school! :) Another great education haha! JK

Love you!!! 

Love Sister Polatis

    Hey Family. How is everyone? Man that sounds like some good work building those bins. That´ll be a big change to see when I get back thats for sure. So yea the reason that I am writing today is because today was our temple trip so our pday is today. The temple was amazing as usually. Ha it is a little harder to get there from this new area. I think it takes a little over 2 hours. Ha the metro gets really crazy, especially during the Copa do Mundo. Ha speaking of the World cup, we finally got permission to watch the Brazil game yesterday:) The rules were that we had to watch it in a members home with and investigator. Ha well we couldnt really find an investigator that was able to come with us until we found the niece of one of our recently activated members. So we invited her and she came right along with us to watch the game. Brazil won thank goodness. This country would go on a riot if  Brazil didnt make it past the first round. I think that the states have a pretty good chance too. Everyone asks me about which players I like and stuff but I dont know anyone on the teams ha. I told them that no one in the States really knows about the cup. Ha they get really shocked at that statement. But afterward we had a lesson with the niece and re-committed her to read the BOM. I guess her mom doesnt like the church and wont let her go to church but we´ll see this week.

    Ha we had really sweet miracle happen this week. We were walking down the street when Elder Obi sees this surfboard up on the porch of this house. Elder Obi is a surfer, so he wanted to just see if someone surfed in this house to start the conversation and then of course tell them about the gospel. So we clap at this gate and this really cool guy comes down and starts chatting with us and says that the surfboard is his brother in-law´s surfboard, but then we invite him to hear our message and he accepted really quick. So we get to the top and go into his house and meet his wife (yes we finally met some one that is married) and she is really really awesome. They are probably in their early 30´s and have 2 kids. We taught them the restoration and told them all about the book of mormon and they really liked it a lot. The wife said that she felt really good and just had this really good feeling while we were there. In her prayer she thanked Heavenly Father for sending his servants to her. I love it when people really do realize that we are called of God to serve them. That is definitely key on them trusting us and keeping their committments. We set a date for July 13th with them and they said that they would work towards it. They are really cool with us and like us a lot even though we sometimes dont know what they are saying haha. It was definitely a really cool miracle.

     We set like 10 dates this week ha. I dont know how solid they are but I think a goal is good for everyone. Our recent converts also got the Holy Ghost on Sunday and are doing really well. We are starting up an English Class here now because we have a lot of people that are really interested and really want to learn English. The ward is really great here and it seems like they have a vision and for sure want to be a missionary ward so I´m excited. We are helping this one guy quit smoking who comes to church every week and loves the gospel. A member helped us set up a plan with him and now we check up with him every day so he can work towards his baptismal date. Things are going great though and the mission is awesome. Thanks for taking the time to tell me about all the events at home, I really enjoy that::) I love you all alot! Have a great week.

Love Elder Polatis

   Boa Tarde todo mundo!!!! Wow, Its already Father´s day tomorrow? That is really fast!! Dad I hope you have a great one and know that I always look up to you and that you are the best dad a guy could ask for!! Have you put the boat on the lake yet? This girl back in Iowa made me a notebook that has a picture of the wake on it, so it reminded me this morning. Oh and also happy Birthday Maddy!!! How was it? Did you finally grow older than 5 years old (ha remember). It´s so great to hear that all is well with everyone and that you all are having a great time.

   So first off I have some big news.. I got transferred last week over to Ribirao Pires into an area where Gregory served!!!!!!!!!!:) Ha pretty incredible right? Its been a long time but I have found a few people that still remember him. The Second Counselor in the ward was less active when Greg was here and he said that Greg helped him out so much and changed his life. Ha its almost a little scary how much he loves Greg. I guess that Greg gave him a tie and he cut it at his wedding (tradition) and now he still has it. He showed it to me yesterday at church and sure enough there is a PO on it and he cut off the Latis. Never thought it would happen but I´m excited. This area is a lot nicer than Diadema. There isnt just houses stacked on each other like it was over there. So my new companion is an American from California. He is black so when I got announced that I was with him I thought for sure he was a Brazilian but sure enough he is American. He also waited for his visa over in Wisconsin for a year, so he only has 1 more transfer than I do here. Ha he is a stud. His name is Elder Obi like Obi one kenobi!!:) We baptized these two young men yesterday which was pretty sweet. I think that we can get a lot of referrals thats for sure. Their familes came too so we will for sure see if they will be interested and take the lessons. Oh yea and another thing, we live with the zone leaders and one of them is Elder Witham again!!!!!! Haha he just can´t leave me. We have a good time and it makes missionary work a lot more fun.

     Sheesh so the World Cup is slowing things down a little bit!! Everytime Brazil plays we have to go inside and take cover haha. You dont really need to watch the game to know what is going on. I already knew what the final score was before any members told us because everytime Brazil scores you can hardly hear anything but screams and fireworks going off every second!!! Ha it´s pretty wild. But there are still a few people who dont even watch the cup so we talk to them:) Yesterday we were teaching at this less actives house and this guy, I think he was like their neighbor or something, he asked me who I was cheering for. Ha and I said jokingly os estados unidos. Ha his reply was simply, I will kill you. Hahaha so I took it back and said of course Brazil. I think that the states play today but sadly the first presidency said that no missionaries in Brazil can watch the world cup, so we can´t watch any games:( Brazil plays again tomorrow against Mexico so we´ll see how that is. Ha I think it is about the same whether they win or whether they lose, everyone goes crazy and gets wasted!! Its all good though, I havent really ran into anybody that was against the missionaries or anything. Most of the people are very very friendly to us. 

     So yea with two Americans again, we have to pay good attention to what people are saying but I really think that my language will improve more because I wont rely on the Brazilian to understand and respond now. We were walking on the street last night and we found a couple just sitting on the sidewalk so we talked to them and they invited us in. They were pretty sweet and accepted the baptismal invites. They don´t really work or anthing right now because of the Cup so we will be able to teach them a lot. We have been talking to a lot of people on the streets and have been finding a few eleitos (elects). Also went one exchanges with elder Frost who is companions with Elder Witham and we went and taught this lady the Restoration. The Spirit was strong and she was in tears when I started to say the first vision.. ha then I kind of forgot forget a part, so I just paused there until Elder Frost secretly handed me the pamphlet to finish it. Hahah it was just a good spiritual pause. You have to let the Spirit teach:)

     Well I love you all and hope everyone has a great start to the summer. The weather is still perfect here so I´m liking it. Man I heard the Heat lost so thats a bummer but oh well. Love you all so much!! Happy Father´s Day again Dad! Love you all!!!!! Have a good week.

Love Elder Polatis

Well this week was great! Very long and I am so tired but it was great! First, I met up with the elders in my batch! All americans and tuesday we flew to manila! WOW, it is so much different than Bacolod and to be honest I missed Bacolod. HAHA so much Tagalog. all of us were like nose-bleeding like crazy-----------nose bleed is when they talk and you dont understand. And we would try to talk to them but they dont understand Ilonggo! So we were all back to speaking english! Medyo weird! But we went to the temple and while we were there I ran into Kaden Robisons Mission President. I asked if Kaden was there but he said no, but he told me he would tell him hi, and now he is a zone leader I guess. But the temple was great! I felt so good and I am so excited to go back!

We made it back to Cauayan and just rocked it with our teachings! We were on the find and it worked. Hopefully we can help them progress and get them on their way to eternal life hahah! Joke. But saturday we had a baptism. YES!!! For christian. He was the one that just randomly came to church. He is 13 years but looks like he is 8. He shared his testimony and was so happy to be baptized. He will be just great! Has the cutest smile.

On Sunday we went to pick up some of our Recent converts the ones we went for didnt come but our investigators who werent really progressing were all ready and they came with us. They were all boys but I didnt care! I was excited that they came. There were 4 of them. Well I told the story of the 4 Sons of mosiah and how they were disobedient at the first but then they changed and became good missionaries. HAHA after church they said that when I said that I looked right at them. Maybe they will all change and it will be for the better. 

I love you all I miss you! I hope you all keep being good and being good! I will see you all soon! We are headed to bacolod again later today! Be good and be safe

Love Sis Polatis

     Hello Family and Everyone!!! How is everything going. The language is coming right along though. The only thing that really stinks is I like to joke around with people alot and it is still a little bit difficult to get my jokes across in Portuguese. I have been reading a lot about the gift of tongues and being and authorized servant of the Lord so I know if I put in the work and really strive to learn this language that it will come fast and get easier and easier:) 

        So today is transfer calls and the call still hasnt come yet so we are waiting. I think that there is a possibility that I will stay but who knows. This week has been a pretty good. We found 10 new investigators to teach and set like 6 dates with them, but with every good thing comes opposition and that is that we were dropped by the two ladies that came to church. So that was kind of a bummer, but I´m really excited to start helping this new pool of investigators start progressing. We are teaching this couple who are really young but already have twins, I think I already told you about them, but we went and visited them last night and it just looks hard. Whenever one would stop crying the other one would start crying. I felt really bad and told them that we could wash there dishes for them if they wanted:) But they are really interested but of course have the excuse that they are just too busy to get their reading done. So we told them that by our next visit they need to make sure and read what we told them to read. They said that they will for sure this time so we will see. We are also teaching quite a few teenagers, so we are working on getting them to some activities at the church.

      The World Cup starts this week though. Everyone is starting to get all excited. Its actually pretty cool. They are painting Brazilian flags on the roads and putting up banners everywhere. I kind of wanted to buy some paint and paint the US flag on the street but I would probably get killed so probably not. Our studies will now be switched to 4 to 6 at night which are the hours of all the games. I thought that the World cup would kind of hinder things but it actually has made it a little bit easier to find and talk to people because everything is going to shut down ha. Oh yea and you have to pick a team here from the state of Sao Paulo, so I am a corintiano:) Its really funny how worked up everyone gets about how much they like or dont like a team. I´ll have to ask Greg what team he is.

      Yesterday we had a stake conference broad cast with Elder Richard G Scott, Elder M. Russell Ballard, and another authority that I forgot his name. It was really good though. Elder Scott can speak Portuguese so he gave his talk in Portuguese. Ha it was a little bit of a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese though. I asked some of the members if they could understand a lot of it and most of them said more or less ha. I like it a lot though. He gave a talk about prayer and communicating with Heavenly Father which he kind of gave a similiar talk when I was in the MTC in Provo so I got to hear some more counsel with prayer. Elder Ballard talked a lot about sharing the gospel with the technology that we have. It was a really good conference and good to see a big group of Brazilian members.

      Well I will have to inform you next week with what happened at transfers but everything is going good here and I am turning into a Brazilian ha. At lunch I eat so much because I know that I wont eat again until like 9:30. But the people are so nice here and really need the gospel because some people really have some rough situations. Thanks for everything and all of the love and support. Love you all!!!!

Love Elder Polatis

HAHA what an eventful week! CONGRATS SAMMY!!

Congrats Ellie! That is a so great!  I have the prettiest sisters in the whole world! I just got shy to come home! YIKES!!!!!! After living here for a while I am not quite up to "gwapa"Standards! Help me please! HAHAHA Maddy needs to move here, everyone is just like her! They always just lagaw-lagaw haha she will fit right in! 

Well this morning we hear a "tag balay"at like 5 am! I thought it was for the house next to ours but it wasnt. It was for us! Our investigators and recent converts, who are all boys and fishermen came over and brought us about 1 1/2 kilos of fish! They went out and worked last night and wanted to share with us. We wanted to buy it but they wouldnt take money! So we traded some of our Asian Mangos for the fish! HA I hope that it was a fair deal! I have become a fan of the fish! Weird how your taste buds change! But they were funny, we shared with them just fast and all was well.

We had to go to Bacolod earlier this week for the follow up training of Sister Montemayor. Long but good bus ride. We met a lot of good people. We came back and just worked our little hearts out! I was inspired after the training to find and help leave this area so strong for sister Montemayor! We found 10 new people and they are families. That is probably my favorite thing here. Everyone is connected somehow and they always lead us to their families. The area that we found them in is a little bit far away from the church, but we think that they will be fine! The girls were way excited to see us and hopefully they will start to progress. 

On tuesday, we were out and we were far in our area and they storm came in. We were doing our teaching and then all the people were like, its getting bad, you need to go home. But by the time we got done teaching it was already here. The rain and the wind. Horrible. But before we left we went and just sat on the shoreline, with out little umbrellas while it poured on us. Sister Montemayor was like "Sister we need to go, we need to find someone to take us home" But When it rains here, no one is outside. So I just told her to enjoy the little moments.So we did! IT  was somewhat relaxing just sitting on the beach in the rain. HAHA that is my goal right now! Enjoy the little things! Heavenly Father has created so much for us and we need to enjoy it! Life is fun! There is so much to love! And like i  told her, no one was waiting to take us home:) HAHA

We found Elmarie this week! She is 12 years old and she says that she sees us all the time but was shy because she doesnt know english!, I told her "(in ilonggo) "Thats ok,, because I dont know how to speak english anymore either" HAHA she laughed and was surprised that I understood her. But she opened right up to  I love and miss you all! Be good and be safe!!!! MMMWWWAAAHHHH:) Palanggo ko kamo tanan!!!us and invited her grandma to listen in and her brother. So we are so excited about them. I just have to remember that the Lord will take care of everything, just on his time table. Our investigators who were drinking last week all came to church, I WAS SO GRATEFUL! I know they want to change, it will just take time! They can do it! At least they are still coming to church! 

I love it here! Yes, you are hearing me right! My little heart is stuck right here in the pines and I know at the first I never thought that it would be, BUT change happens! I love doing missionary work to see the lives of people change and have desire to be better. It is worth it! I think my letter is a little bit scattered but that is because my mind is kind of scattered haha ambot sa akon! Keep going and trying to find people. Sometimes people take longer but eventually they will come around! I miss you all but time is flying, weird na! I will definitely enjoy my last little go around. Sister Montemayor is more excited than I am I think haha but she is stepping right up and trying to get things all figured out. I always joke with her and tell her she is fine and doesnt need me anymore but she always gives me this look and says ""pwede ba"? Which means um.......no! HAHA I love her. She is good!

Have a great first week of summer! I bet it is going to be awesome!!

Love Sis Polatis:) <3

Oi Beleza!!!! Family how is everything going? Ha sheesh mom now that you dont have to write abby the letters have doubled:) Oh and you dont get me mixed up with the girls as much anymore haha jk!! Sheesh that is really weird to think that sam is all graduated and maddy only has one year left of highschool. Soon Rigby highschool will be barren of Polatis´ and will not be cool anymore. Granny looks awesome and cheerful as always. Ahh Sam will do his own thing? That´s really sweet. I really enjoyed when Kaden and I did that for a month and then we failed haha. But it was a great side job thats for sure. Ha and you can´t blame the jeff Dabell thing on me alright, it was Jaron!!:) And Maddy stay away from Madison!! They are all trouble!! On the outside they appear to be zion, but on the inside they are ravenous wolfs!!

     Well my companion, Carlos, and I went to this place called vinte cinco last week. I bet Greg is familiar with it. It is just this street that has a bunch of cheap stuff. I went and got my brazilian flag and some sweet jerseys:) It was pretty cool being right in the middle of the big city, but it was pretty wild at the same time with the world cup being so close because everyone is trying to buy stuff for it. That was really sweet though. We also had zone conference this week and I got to be reunited with Elder Searle for a little bit. It was President and Sister Tanners last zone conference. They will leave on the 27th to go to his other calling now. 

      Things are going pretty well though. Just been doing a lot of conversas and seeking out the eleitos. We have some good lessons set up for this week so we´re excited to have some new investigators. We had lunch with this one irma who´s husband is not a member but is really awesome. Ha he has been through like 30 missionaries and the mission president before president tanner has taught him as well. They even have a picture of them with the president in their living room. It is really really tough to figure out why he has not been baptized. He loves the missionaries and knows the church is true. We asked him what stopped him before and he said work, but right now he doesnt work on Sundays so he just said that he is used to the relaxed life on sundays. We talked to his wife the sunday after and she said that he was talking about how good he felt when we were there and how happy is was and that he was going to come to church in the morning, but then when morning came he said that he didnt want to anymore haha. Sheesh!! But I´m sure that everything has been done to help him make the plunge but we are going to pray about him alot and see what we can do to help him act.

   Next week is already transfers again which is crazy. This transfer really flew by. We had a meeting with the stake yesterday where President Tanner came and gave a little training on missionary work. The stake of Diadema has been the highest baptizing for the past 3 years but the month of April there was only 3 baptisms and not much more in May. So our whole stake is kind of in a slump or something because we are struggling right now. It was a really good meeting though and should really get the members back thinking about missionary work more. We have recieved a couple of referrals but they havent been very promising. I think the hardest thing right now is church for people. Everyone has work on Sunday or they are have an excuse about soccer games. Its a little frustrating, but we have some good promising people so we´ll get them progressing this week. There is this one member who is getting ready to serve a mission. He speaks like 5 languages so he helps me with portuguese a lot, but he knows everyone!! He was really good to take out one day last week because he would just say oh I know her lets talk to her. So it helped us alot to have him there and to make people feel comfortable to set up some appointments.

Hey! First, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh my gosh! Madelyn!!! I am sorry for laughing but that is horrible! What is happening as you drive! You have the "greg curse" HAHA its ok! You need a car like sylvia!!! No matter what you could never tell if you ran into anything! And second......PLEASE dont get in my car! HAHA bawal ina para sa imo!

Second.......HAHAHA oh abby, hanging out with Aunt D and Grandma! I bet that was legit!!! I would probably have lost my mind as well! But that is good that you went! You are building a relationship with them!

Well this week was alright! We had a lot of good but sometimes with the good comes the bad!

We started out this week going out and getting all ready. We have just been doing a lot of follow up trying to prepare our investigators for baptism! We have some lined up but it wont start until June! But funny story, 

So there is this little girl, she is a member and has been for 2 years, she is active, but she asked about her record number.........ya she doesnt have one! She was baptized and they forgot to confirm her!! For 2 years, so she is now one of our smartest investigators and she will be baptized in June, everytime I ask her a question she goes (in a whiny little 10 year old voice) "Aye sister, member gid ko ya!" Meaning like she is a member! But she is cute! I am happy to be here when she becomes a member!

Well, we took a chocolate bread thing to celebrate one of our Recent converts birthdays! Well she is the cousin of the boy we told you about last week who was doing so good not smoking and drinking, well we walk up to the house and all 3 boys see us coming and take off running around to hide the stuff they were drinking and smoking. So we made a joke saying that we werent the police then they joked and said "YA you are worse than the police, you serve God" So I laughed but then we shared and I was way serious. It broke my heart a little bit so we are now back to waiting to see if they have desire to keep their commitments! But we wont let it get us down! We are fine! We are still trying to just keep finding!!

But this week I have been focusing on my patience! I need it and I know that is something that will follow me forever! So I better make sure I can master it here! I love you all! I cant wait to see you and we will all just chill and have a great time! I know that what I am doing is the work of God!! Keep studying!!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!

Love Sis. Polatis!

      Hi family!!! Wow!! Haha what an exciting week. No we were missing church so it was a punishment for both of us. That is so great to hear that Abby is getting back into the groove of things. Congrats Sam with Seminary Graduation!! 

Sheesh and I bet that it is starting

to get nice and warm over there. It has been a little bit chilly here and it has 
been raining non stop. Ha everyone is always in shock when they see me because I 
still just wear my short sleeve white shirt while my companion is in his sweater 
and everyone else has their coats on. Ha I am really enjoying the weather 
though. 50 degrees is a lot better than -30 ha.
      Well so I´ll start with some bad news. We did not get to have a conference 
with Elder Anderson on Wednesday:( That was the day that people started rioting 
and everything so it wasnt safe to travel to the center of Sao Paulo. I guess it 
wasnt safe to travel at all because everyone in the mission had to stay in the 
apartment until 6 that night. I guess that the people had started a few buses on 
fire and had blocked off a bunch of roads. Everyone here is really really angry 
about the world cup and how the government is using their money to build 
stadiums. Ha I think Brazil used to like soccer until now. So that really stunk 
missing out on that, because now we are not going to reschedule it. No worries 
though, where I am at it is pretty calm so it hardly effects us.
      So we had this lesson with this young couple that has twin babies and we 
already taught the mom once but this time we had them together. They are only 
like 17 years old so very very young, ha but every time I spoke the guy started 
smiling and cracking up a little bit. Haha so then I would start cracking up 
too. I asked him why he was laughing at me, and he just thinks my accent is 
really funny, but that he could understand everything that I was saying. Ha I´ll 
take that!! As long as I can get the message across and fulfil my purpose than 
I´m good. The key is to not get offended because once you get offended you will 
be scared to talk. So I just laugh about it. And when it came to the baptismal 
invite he accepted and did laugh that time so that was good. The problem is that 
they are not married. That is a huge problem here and makes it very hard to get 
them progressing, because usually they have a lot of excuses of why they cant 
get married. We lost one investigator because she does not like her husband at 
all and would never marry him but cant move out because she has no where to go, 
so she said that she will just continue to read and see if she can make it to 
church.
       Margarida was finally confirmed yesterday!!! Sheesh that was a close one. 
We also had a couple ladies there. One lady was a miracle because we just 
contacted her and gave her a brief lesson of the restoration and invited her to 
church, but this was the sunday before because she is only available on sundays. 
But then we called her on Saturday night and she actually said that she was 
planning on coming!!:) Ha so in the morning we went and walked with her to 
church and I think that she really enjoyed it. Other than that we are trying our 
best to find people and talk to everyone on the streets. The members are a 
little stagnant right now but we will focus on helping them do missionary work. 
But yea everything is going great and I am definitely getting more and more 
comfortable with the language and with  the work here. Thanks for everything and 
have another great week:) Love you all!!
Love Elder Polatis

This is Abby (Sora Polatis) now adding to the blog now that I am home! I just want to thank all of those that supported me during my mission. It was an amazing experience! I loved all my companions I was able to serve with in Romania and Moldova. I will be forever be changed by my mission. I know that this church is true. I am so thankful for it to be in the center of my life. I know that Heavenly Father cares about all of us so much. I know that with His help I was able to complete my mission. The Atonement is the greatest gift that we have been given in this life to overcome our weaknesses and trials. The Book of Mormon is true! I loved being able to have time to really study it every day. It is such a blessing in our lives. I loved my mission so much! I am really thankful to be back home with my family! I am blessed with the greatest family in the world! 

Dad & Mom!! I love these two:) 

My Fan Club!

Grandpa Polatis

I had to wear the fur hat!

Grandma Rounds 

Family Photo

Mom!

Best Family in the world) 

WELCOME HOME ABBY!!!!! 

 I LOVE LOVE LOVED seeing you all on skype! It was good to see everyone and hear how are you all! I hope you had a great mothers day!!

BUT, man what a rough week! HAHA seriously. For the past couple Sundays we were in missionary heaven with our investigators attending sacrament and progressing the way that they were, then we go on Saturday to review the Baptism interview question with our 3 candidates and they arent home. They were living with their grandma but I guess their mom came and took them and now they live far away!!! Heart crusher! I was so excited! Bummer deal. We will try to find them and refer them to the missionaries closer to them! But a lot of our investigators are moving to Manila for work! So we are back to square 1 but we will find more!

So, when I first got here, There is this kid we are teaching.He is 17 and when I got here, he was so excited to listen to us, But then he would never read, pray or come to church. So we kind of backed off of him for a little while. He had a problem with smoking and occassional drinking. But he never would stop. Well a couple weeks ago he came to church, and has been attending ever since. He has come 4 weeks in a row, and always tells us he wants to be baptized. WELL, I am so excited because he has finally gone without smoking and he will be baptized in June!! He used to just come to sacrament but now he comes to all 3!! It has taken him a little while but he is doing it! He is one that I feel like that is the reason I am in Cauayan! He he such a funny kid and his home life is rough! He just needs a little help, someone that can guide him!! This is what he needs!

Nagtalak kami sang sabado liwat, (I think in english it is we climed on saturday again) It is hard to me to form a dang sentence anymore, But we visited Sister Lacno and he family. ALL of them came to church! They all were wearing their white shirts!! It is so fun to see them continue. I really think that they see the blessings that come from the gospel and even though they dont have a lot physically they know they need to support eachother and that Heavenly Father has a plan for them! I just have in my mind of them all serving missions and even though life is rough right now, it can get better! 

Yesterday, Elder Doane wanted to do a musical number in sacrament. So He asked me while i was playing the prelude music if I would accompany him. HAHA but, I didnt have any music. It was "Come thou Fount" I played it Saturday at the baptism  but i guess playing by ear comes in handy sometimes. Everyone said it sounded good so I guess it was a success!

Well I love you all! We are still just here in Cauayan! I have eaten more local food in the past 6 weeks than I have my whole mission. People here can live off like 50 bucks a month just going to the mercado! Sister Montemayor is teaching me how to cook so that I can cook for you! We gotta go to the market later and buy some fish! They all thing it is weird that most of our fish is frozen but we cant help it! We dont have a dagat!  HAHA anyways. All is well! I really cant believe that abby is home! It still shocks me! Keep on going strong! I love you all! Be good huh! Abby, send me some pictures!!! LOVE YOU!!

Love Sis Polatis

In the forest

baptism of Mary Joy

FHE at Isco Group

Lacno Family--it is SOOOOO Hot!

Went on splits with Sister Kiting--rained on!  felt good

    Wow!! I still can´t believe that Abby is home. Crazy stuff. I am really glad to hear that she is making the adjustment easily and loving life back at home. It was so good to see all of you too last week for Mothers day, you all looked really great!!!:) Mom I hope you had a fantastic day and know how much I love you and how grateful I am to have a Mom as great as you!! Thank you for everything!!:)

     Sheesh so Abby already had to give a talk eh? Man that sounds like some good pressure ha, but you gain so much knowledge on the mission about the gospel that you can just share it with everyone and share all the cool things that the Holy Ghost taught you and is still teaching you. This week has been a pretty decent week. We seriously cycle through investigators like crazy and they all have these crazy names so its really hard for me to keep them in order. It is such a relief though to be understanding the majority of what people are saying though:) Ha there are times when people respond and I just have to look at Elder Silva to save me and respond to whatever they just said haha. There are some Brazilians from the north that speak a million miles per hour and it is very difficult. My companion told me that he doesnt even understand what they are saying. We had a lesson with these young men who we met at a wedding, and this was like our 3rd lesson with them, and every lesson they bring one more friend so its great. The only problem is that with more friends comes a lot more questions so we are still on the restoration with them. I think the main problem is them seeing the importance of the Book of Mormon and reading it. So we are focusing on that with them because of course when you read the Book of Mormon you feel a different Spirit and a sense of Peace. It seems like with every one of our other investigators only one member of the marriage is interested and the other will not listen no matter what. so there has been a lot of trouble with get the whole family involved.

      Margarida, the lady that was baptized 2 weeks ago, still has not been confirmed!! She missed this Sunday to go on a trip with her daughter because her daughter is moving to St George today and I guess they wanted to spend some time together. She better for sure be there on Sunday or we might have to re-baptize her. Oh OH!! I got a call a couple days ago from Elder Witham in the zone of Ribirao Pires. And he told me that he was eating lunch in a members house and he saw this thing with a bunch of names of missionaries on it and he saw Elder Polatis, Idaho 2003-2005. Hahaha finally there is a trace of Greg here. I thought that was really cool. I hope I get to serve in an area where greg served. I think that I will only be with Elder Silva for one transfer because President told Elder Silva that I just need to learn the language and then I dont know from there. Our mission is really young so who knows. 

       I´m excited to get to hear from Elder Anderson this Wednesday:) It´ll be really cool to hear him speak portuguese and be able to understand him. I think it takes like an hour and a half to get there by public transportation so I dont know when we will get home for the night. Oh yea and I started taking the omeprazole again and it helps alot actually. I still think that there is something wrong with the thing that opens and closes from my throat to my stomach but it doesnt really bug, I just have to burp quite a bit, and so without the omeprazole acid was coming up and I think making my throat swell up. So now I feel great:)

       Well I´m so glad to here that all is well there and Abby made it home safe and sound:) This week is going to be a great one with new investigators and having people make it to church. I hope it is warming up there and that you all have a great week!! Love you all so much

Love Elder Polatis

SMILE  Jesus loves you!

Eldorado

Hola Tudddoooo Bem!!!?

     Well that was some rough news! I´m really going to miss Grandpa! He was funny funny man. But I totally agree that he will be so much happier now because even when I left he was kind of down and out so I can´t imagine what he was like a year later. The pictures all looked very great. That is awesome that the majority of the family was able to make it to the funeral and everything and it sounds like the service was fantastic. I can still picture Grandpa right now in my head riding the fourwheeler behind me mitch sam and maddy after we got in trouble for playing on the haystacks. Ha just cruising on the fourwheeler with his whip:)

       So my new companion is Elder L Silva! Brazileiro!!!!!! Haha he already has almost a year on his mission and is already engaged to this girl from back at home. He is from Campinas which is like 1 hour and a half away from here. Haha he is a funny guy though. He knows a little bit of English but not enough to have any sort of conversation. It was a little lonely at first and a huge change for me, because with Elder Searle we would just laugh all day long and joke about everything, ha but now it is a little quiet with Elder Silva. Ha I am greatful though because I am learning how to speak the language so much better because I am starting to have to think in Portuguese.

      We had a baptism yesterday after church. ha I think that it is a little strange that they do the service after church and then wait a whole week before the baptism by fire but tudo bem. Her name was Margarida, and they had already been working with her before I got here. I think that she had been going to church for like 6 months but couldn´t get baptized because she was not married and living with this guy. So the saturday before, they got married and then the next day she was baptized. Ha in the states its a little different, I think that she would have to wait two weeks before she could get baptized after her wedding. She looked really happy though and it was a great baptismal service.

       This week was a little bit slower. A lot of appointments fell through so we have been doing a lot of street contacting and setting up appointments for this week. So far our week this week is pretty full of people to go and see so I´m excited. Oh so we were walking down this one road after going to see someone, and we see a couple dogs and don´t think anything of it. But then as I am walking I feel this little sting in the back of my leg and I hurry and jerk my leg away and I look back and the dog just got done biting me. It was the weirdest thing. I hurried and checked my leg and nothing was there or anything so I´m really glad that I was quick enough, but the dog ripped a whole in my pants so I´m going to have to get that stitched up.

    So for Mothers day.. Abby wants me to wait until the Sunday after Mothers day so that I can talk to her too, so I´m going to call president and see if I can change it to the next sunday. I´m pretty sure that President will let me but if not I´ll call you before and tell you what time that i am going to be skyping.

     The language is starting to come though. Slowly but surely ha. We are trying to baptize this one lady who has been taught everything and is coming to church but her husband isnt too sure about it and he doesnt want to because of all the commandments and restrictions. Mainly on Sunday, because he said that is when he gets everything taken care of. So I asked him what is the purpose of commandments and he didnt really know, so then I just rebuked him in portuguese:) Haha no jk, but I thought the language came to me pretty well right there because he had never though of it like that. So we are hoping that he will have a change of heart and we can get them on date to be baptized.

      Well I hope everyone is doing okay with the loss of Grandpa. Without the gospel I know that this would be devasting, but with the knowledge that we have all is well:) I love you all a bunch and I´m grateful for all the prayers and everything that you guys do for me. Love you!!!

Love Elder Polatis

Spuddy-buddy, Elder Searle and myself!!  Lovin the threesome!

FAMILY

Well for me! First I am like in shock, I looked at the calendar and realized that Abby is almost done! Tapos na sia! I cant believe it! So weird! And about Mothers day! Our internet connection here is not the greatest! So I will probably call you! It will be around this time or a little bit later! Just depends! Just be by the phone! I will probably call a cell phone! Also, send me other numbers like Jaron and Greg and Lindsey so i can chat with them for a little while! But that will be on May 12!! I wanted to wait for Abby but President was kind of stressing that it is "Mothers Day" that is our focus! So pasensya gid Abs, 6 weeks na lang haha!! 

All is well here! My patience and drive get tested a lot in this area! It drives me crazy that people have no faith!Heavenly Father promises us so much and is it that hard to just show our faith and let the miracles happen? HAHA we had some investigators at church this week...we had 5 so our baptisms will be getting started again! It was rough, I was in a little bit of a drought! 

So to follow up--------------I dont remember if I told you! Sister Lacno, she is the one who lives like way far away in the mountains, she had her baby! This tiny like 5lb little girl! So cute! She just had her at their house! She still hasnt picked a name yet, I am trying to convince her to name her "Sarah" haha they always just laugh! But we are going to their home on Wed to do a CSP! They dont have running water, or lights or really anything...so I told the RS president on sunday about it so we will all go and Haul water up and down the mountain, and wash clothes so that she can rest! Hopefully it will all work out! I am excited to go help her! It is weird, In america when women have babies, the RS like attacks, making sure they have food and what not and gifts, here it is like no big deal--you have a baby and go to work the next day haha but they need to help her!

Well we didnt have a baptism-----------but we will! May 10! So the little girl Mary Joy! She was so good and so brave this week, she talked to her mom everyday about being baptized. Her mom was the same----------stubborn and mad but she kept asking! So then, we went on splits I went to Isio, that is where her house is. But I just had this feeling to take a Baptism Record and consent form, but I wasnt sure why, we were going to wait but the feeling just kept coming to me! Well as we were walking her Mom comes up to me, all smiles ( for a second I thought she was going to yell) But she was happy and asking about me and what not, then I remembered we needed a signature! So while I had her at her best for a second I whipped it out, the second I had the paper her face changed haha she was ticked haha like blood boiling ticked! I was so nervous---I dont know why! I am not scared of anyone but this lady for some reason kind of gets me a little bit! Any ways she was mad but signed it anyways, saying she could be baptized. So I was so excited. She told me to keep being a good example to her girls and hopefully they will end up better than her. Anyways, I thought all was good. Then Sunday we are waiting for her to come to church------------waay sia nagabot!! She didnt come! My heart was crushed---but her mom took her money so she couldnt come! But-------------There is next week! The Church is still true! Everyone has to face some sort of trial before being able to be baptized. HAHA so I will keep trying, sooner or later this ladies heart will be softened! I have come to love a challenge, and this lady is definitely a challenge. 

We got invited to a Birthday party! Bebe (Crystal) she is the daughter of the Sister who works with us all the time, and they are so nice! I love those girls. She was turning 10. So Sister Montemayor and I went out and bought a small cake for her to take to the party, They were so excited. She was like "this is my first cake ever for my birthday" HAHA 

We have had a lot of our Less Actives come back to church! They are all missionary age boys!! They all are saying they want to go but not acting so we are going to help prepare one or two and hopefully the rest follow! There is about 15 here in this branch and some sisters wanting to go! It is what this branch needs, then when they come home they can get married and be leaders!! HAHA it all makes sense in my mind!:)

But things are good, Sister Montemayor is good! We still have our Language study in the day for Ilonggo and our English study at night! We are still trying harder to teach more unified, it is fine for her, she can speak Tagalog and they understand, but I understand it a little bit, like I get the concept of what is being said but I am trying to emphasize to her to speak more Hiligaynon! Apply what we learn in our language study! I know that it is hard but it will never come if she doesnt try! So that is our goal this week! 

But I know that the Church is true!! Even though in this area, so many persecutions! Not just to us but the members and investigators as well! But that is the beauty of our Agency! We have to keep picking to do what is right even if the world is against it! The choices we make bring us closer to our Heavenly Father and that is what is the most important! We just have to keep going and continuing on! Heavenly Father will bless and guide us for doing what is right and being a good example to those who give us grief!! But all is well here in Cauayan, not much happening!   Love you all! be good and be safe!!! Tell everyone HI!!! LOVE YOU!!

Love Sis Polatis

teaching Jenna--our new baptism

Buna Frumosilor! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! LA MULTI ANI SI SANATATE! I am so excited for you on your 38th birthday this year! :) I show people the picture of our family and everyone calls you my sister "ah she is so young! she is so gorgeous!" I always agree with them and say that I pray every day that I will age as well as my mother! .... I will continue to pray! I hope that you have a great day! You are the best mother in the world! I really don't know how I got so lucky! :) 

Well the final countdown is on! I can't believe it! 16 days until I am back in Idaho! I am actually feeling really good about coming home! I mean don't get me wrong I absolutely love my mission. It is amazing... but I am excited to see you all and to keep progressing and moving forward with my life! 

This week was super fun! 

- I had an exchange with Sora Kelly! We have been with each other since day one in the MTC. This mission has really bonded us for life! We have so much fun when we are together and we were reminiscing on all the past mission experiences!  It was a lot of fun! 

- We have a new investigator! She is super cool... in her 50's... she is super classy! We are really excited to work with her and we meet with her tonight! 

- I also cut my companions hair this week! like 3 inches off. I guess I am needing to switch my career path in life.... hair stylist here I come! I was actually super super nervous but I guess you see how much she trusts me. It actually looks really good! 

- We had the big conference in Bucuresti this weekend. 5 hour train to bucuresti Saturday night... we slept over with Sora Peterson. (my old companion) it was so much fun! The next day we went to panduri and EVERYONE was there. My people from Constanta, Mihai Bravu, and Galati. I loved it so much! it was the huge district conference! So we had someone from the 70 come! and it was really good! I took pictures with everyone and was saying all my goodbyes! I actually didn't even start tearing up until one of my girls from Contanta thanked me for being such a big influence on her life! She is turning in her mission papers in June! I was so touched! I for sure would have come to Romania just for her! She is amazing! 

Well Family.... I love you all so much! thank you for being great! Keep being great! Have fun this week:) mmmwwwaaauuuhhh! 

va iubesc! 

Cu mare drag, Sora Abby Polatis 

Heyyyy Family!!!

      Elder Searle was actually telling me about that last monday how is grandma knew Angie and that they were talking about us being companions. Well I have some very sad sad news about that.... Elder Searle is already getting transferred!!:( We just found out this morning and we were really upset. The Idaho boys only got to serve together for 3 weeks darn it!! So now I am going to be senior companion over my new companion that I am getting. I´m pretty nervous because I am still not too familiar with the area and everything so I´m really hoping that I get a brazilian companion that can understand everything that people are saying ha.

    So that´s the bad news, oh and Elder Witham is leaving the house to!! Well this week was kind of slow!! We had to go to the central of Sao Paulo to spend the night with the office Elders because in the morning we had to go the the Polical federal to get legal here. It was really fun because I got to see everyone from my Brazil MTC district so we had a good time. But the Policial federal took 6 hours so we decided to stay another night at the office Elders apartment because we had another meeting in the morning called Nova Forca with the President and everyone. So we just went out and did some conversas with people out in the big city!! Ha it definitely made me like my area a lot better because people in the big city are always in a hurry and don´t really want to talk to you, but here in little Eldorado usually they will give you their address and let you stop by. The trick is to catch them at the right time though.

    The language is coming right along I think. We had a good lesson last night where the words were just starting to come to me and they could actually understand what I wanted them to understand. I really do need to be patient though because I´m still not really used to the way people talk so I have trouble understanding what people are saying. Carlos the recent convert that comes with us a lot, I can understand pretty much everything he says because I have gotten used to the way he talks. So that´s really good.

    Guess who I went on exchanges this week with.... Elder Hales!! Ha my good old companion from the Provo MTC. It was really fun. He is a funny kid. Ha I will see if I can send some pictures of me and him because he has lost like 45 pounds and looks completely different. So we took a pic together just like the one we took in the mtc. Ha its pretty funny. But yea Elder Hales was saying that I speak really well. My goal is by may 26 (which is 2 months in Brazil total) I will be able to understand everything and be able to have good conversations with people. So I need to work really hard to make sure that happens. Oh so some big news... Elder Anderson is coming to Brazil to have a conference with us!!!!!! Haha can you believe that. First I get to hear him in Iowa and now a year later I get to hear him in Brazil! So Crazzzy!!!

    Well I love you Mom and hope that you have an amazing birthday!!! Thank you for being such a great example all my life and raising me to be able to be worthy and enjoy all of these wonderful blessings. We are having a baptism this weekend and have some good dates for May so it should be a great month!!. I love you all so much. Have a great week!!

Love Elder Polatis

Elder Hale from the provo MTC

Our churchouse

my apartment

My Idaho brother is being transferred!!!  So Sad!

Elder Hales now in Brazil after losing 50 lbs.