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.

First, this week was "Holy Week" WOW! That is all I can say! They take this stuff pretty seriously! On Friday....on my people at the Catholic Church! They were there like all night and there was this big statue of Christ and people had made like a statue thing of the Death, something like that! Anyways they all walk around and bless the statue, then they fast, but their fasting is that they cant eat rice hahaha! Then they fast for 3 days and they do it again on Sunday but do a statue of Jesus resurrected! We kind of got the shun the past couple of days but we just had to let people know that we do believe in Jesus Christ, that he lived and died for us and rose again on the 3rd day!..........But holy week is over and now people are back to normal! So all is well! 

So this week was a good week! Sister Montemayor and I just went out and Killed it! We are still on the find and we are wanting to get some baptisms, we think that we have one on May 3! Her name is Mary Joy! She is 13. She has been listening to the missionaries for a little while now. She comes to church and she is reading the Book of Mormon! I love it! The only problem is her mom! He mom is a horrible example and tells her all these lies! She will let us teach her in their house but when we go she gets really nasty to her girls! It breaks my heart because what mom wouldnt want something good for her girls! Anyways, we went yesterday to ask the moms permission and she was kind of nasty to us but in the end told us she could do whatever she wants! So for this girl we just pray all the time that she will over come this! And that her mom will get a soft heart! She wants to be baptized and be better but it is just her mom! So we will continue to teach her and hopefully her mom will realize that we arent bad and that the message of the gospel will improve the lives of everyone!

As for us, Well I am learning a LOT of tagalog! HAHA it isnt bad but we are still trying to find our funk in teaching! My language has improved so much because know it enough now to teach her! So she speaks to me in English and I speak to her in ilong-ish! So it is a good mix for her! Everynight after planning we have english class! She wants to speak better english So I told her I would help her! She asks "Why do you say it like that" Sometimes I really dont know why, it is hard for me to speak english sometimes so I tell her "I dont know, it is just the way it is" HAHA So needless to say, I am a way good teacher! HAHAHA just kidding! But all is well here! We are fine! 

This Easter Season! I for sure know that Jesus Christ is my Savior! He came to earth and lived and died for me so that I can return to live with him again! I also know that the Atonement is real!!! Everytime that we are sad or happy or whatever Jesus Christ knows because he experienced it! He wants us to become like him so we need to strive every single day for it! I know that the Church is True! I am so grateful for this time to be a missionary! It really is the best! I love you all! Be good and be safe! I pray for you all the time! Have a great week!  

Love Sis. Polatis

Hey Everyone! 

That is so cute that you guys are counting down my days! It actually brought a little tear to my eye when you said that Dad is saying the number everyday until I arrive home! I am glad that you guys are excited because I am really excited to see you all! Don't worry about entertaining me when I get home! You know how I am! I just need a hair appointment and dentist appointment and some shopping and I will be all set:) 

This week has been pretty good! We had a really fun easter! 

- branch dinner... Consisting of everything you could ever eat in a Romanian home. Drob (ground up chicken liver and chicken put into a meat loaf formation) Chicken..... potatoes... kozonac bread... cinnamon rolls.... brownies... more bread.... eggs...... cake.... placinta.... ha lets just say the table was full. They do this thing where they say Isus a inviat.... then you smash your boiled egg with someone else boiled egg and then the other person says Adeverat a inviat... then they smash their egg with the other persons. It is hilarious... you win if your egg doesn't smash! I lost to a 6 years old kid! ha   

- Also at this branch dinner... crazy story... this couple that was crazy... keeps randomly showing up to our church for free stuff so one of the members invited them to the dinner. Well they showed up and the guy smelled super super bad and they just walked in saying "yay free food." Well our members were ticked and would not have them destroying the hard work they put into the feast. So we made them this huge packet full of food and bread and treats and asked them politely to leave. Well they were so mad! and told our missionary, Elder Rose who is the brach President "I want to speak with the pastor." He then looks at them and says.. I am the pastor. They were so mad! so they finally leave after like 10 min. Then I had to run to the store.. on the way back I just said have a happy easter. Good day... Well then the lady starts freaking out and yelling and saying she is going to kick my butt! ha Then the members were really mad because she threatened me.. ha I just laughed! 

- We went to easter midnight mass! So cool! We went to one of the oldest churches in Galatis that is along the danube river! I made it home with my candle lit again this year so my sins are forgiven again! wahoo!!! It was a lot of fun! So many people out! 

- Sunday was fun.. we were kind of dead.... ha but we had sacrament meeting. Later that day all of us met and had crepes at the church and we had permission to watch a disney movie! it was a lot of fun! We watched wreck it ralph. I had never seen it so it was cute! 

I am really glad that we do have this time to reflect upon our Savior during Easter. I am so grateful that I came on my mission. I have learned so much and I am excited to just keep progressing. My mission is not the peak of my life. It was just a good jump start to the rest of my life! I love you all so much! I can't wait to see you and give you all big hugs and kisses on your cheeks... just like the Romanians do... be prepared for that! (lip stick all over your faces!) haha Have a great week! I love you all! 

va iubesc! 

cu mare drag, Sora Abby Polatis!

Katniss--on her way to Roberts in a few weeks!

I think that Primrose has to stay!!!

Hi Family!!!! Tudddooooo bem!!!

  That pug already died!!:( Man that kind of made me sad and I didnt even know that dog. Darn it. Ha it sounds like everybody is doing good though. Maddy you should´ve just ran for some loser position in student council like your older brother, then it would´ve been guaranteed:) Wow I bet the next couple months are going to be full of really fun things!! Abby is getting home and Sam will be graduating. That is going to be some really exciting stuff.

   Well I have some exciting news for Granny..... I played the piano in Sacrament meeting yesterday:) Hahaha I haven´t practiced for like a year. They came and asked us if any of us could play the piano and no one could and I said mais ou menos (more or less) so we just sung the first him without the piano, but then I was looking through the rest of the hyms that we were going to be singing and I saw that the upcoming hyms were songs that i could play so I just jumped up there to play the sacrament hymn. Ha I don´t know what I was thinking but I actually did a pretty good job. There is a member who is getting married in like 3 weeks and she asked me if I would play the piano while she sung at her reception... haha I dont think so. But she is going to bring me a piece of the music to practice and see if I can do it. So I´m sure Grandma will be really happy about that.

    We had 5 investigators and church yesterday, but the ones that are supposed to be getting baptized this next Sunday did not come so we will have to push their date back. We have a member who is getting ready to serve a mission who is sharing the gospel really well and giving us quite a bit of refferals. We recieved a referral from another set of missionaries who told us that they found this Brazilian who lived in New jersey for most of her life, so we went over there and got to teach in English ha:) So much easier. Her husband doesnt know much though so we were still teaching in Portuguese also. The mom is pretty open and is for sure going to start reading the BOM but the husband is a little more against religion so we´ll see. Ha it is really hard to keep all of our investigators in order and I still am really confused about the area and where everyone lives but we found like 13 new investigators last week. That would never happen in the states haha. They aren´t the most solid but we´ll teach them. The language is coming along. I am starting to get pretty comfortable in lessons and I haven´t heard (no entende) that much this week so I think I`m getting better. Its still really difficult to understand people, unless I know what topic we are talking about, but I know that will come with time. Ha we have this recent convert named Carlos that wants to come and live at our house for who knows how long haha. I asked him what his plans were going to be if he came to the states and I don´t think that he really has any. Probably just wants to come and learn English better and enjoy the life in the states.

    The weather here has been pretty great. It´s probably been around 70s but it is so up and down here that I still am always drenched with sweat. Oh so I had to go and buy more stuff for my throat and the closest thing that they have is this inhaler thing that you put a pill into it and then it crushes it and then you just suck in the stuff. Really Ghetto!!!! Who knows if it will actually work, but that is what sister Tanner was told would be the closest to what I had. It should be good. My throat feels great and I still havent had any problems so I´m not worried about it. The food is really good here though and the Irmas really stuff you full ha. Other than that I think this week I have to go to this Police thing to go through all of my papers and stuff. We were all supposed to do it in the MTC but something happened so now we are going to do it this Wednesday. Our next transfer is already this next Tuesday!! Crazy stuff. Easter was great. We have a lot of chocolate to choose from thats for sure. It really seemed like just another work day though:) I´m loving it here and am really glad that I have this opportunity to bring the Gospel to these people that really need it. It is really fun getting to speak with a lot of people each day. The gospel is true!!! Keep up the great work everyone!! Love you All tons!!!

Love Elder Polatis

Hola tudo mundo!!!!

      Wow.... it´s different down here haha. My area that I am serving in is called Diadema, and I am serving in this ward called villa paulina. Ha and yea my new comp is Elder Searle!!!! Haha we were really excited at transfer meeting when President said that. I also live in this house with a couple of other Elders and one of them is Elder Witham!!!! Ha I served in the same ward as him in Iowa and he was my Provo MTC roomate haha. Crazy stuff!!! He is a zone leader now and has almost been here for 6 months so he has the language down pretty well. That is so good to hear that Greg and Kristin are having another baby! Para Bens!!!!!! I´m glad that the field is all planted as well and that Sam and Maddy are taking care of business!!  

        Well things are great here!!:) The people are really loving and actually smile sometimes when you talk to them. We have been teaching quite a few lessons also so its been really great. There is also this recent convert named Carlos who never really has anything to do, who comes out with us quite a bit. He is trying to learn English and i am trying to learn Portguese so we help each other out quite a bit. Yesterday at church I had to get up to the pulpit and introduce myself and bear my testimony. It actually went pretty well and I got quite a few compliments from all the members that I speak really well for only arriving here 5 days ago, but then they thought that I was good at speaking so then they started rambling off portuguese and I got lost haha:) We were teaching this guy that didnt have any of his front teeth and boy that was challenge!!!! I need this portguese to be as clear as possible for me to understand and this guy didnt have teeth ha. I need to hurry and learn fast though because this transfer gets over in like 2 weeks and President was asking me how good I am with directions and everything so I might be training already. Ha it would be crazy if that happened. Plus I finally have a compánion  that I really like. Elder Searle is sweet. He has been here for like 5 months almost and still isnt the best at speaking but he can understand pretty much everything. I think I am almost as good as speaking but I just need to hear portuguese more so my brain can get used to it.

    I dont think that Greg has served here in this area. I really need to talk to him and find out where he served. I am right in the Pavelas!! There is no huge city where I am at. I like it. There is some good jungle also so its cool. I definitely am going to get back into shape also. We walk all day everyday! Ha the APs are definitely not treated like the APS in the states. They have like this crappy apartment, while the APS in the states have like a nice truck and like a 3 story apartment ha. It is pretty fun taking the Metro and busing around. You get to meet so many people!!!

      The food has been really really good!!!! I still get really hungry at night though since we just have a big lunch and no dinner but I have some good little snacks and stuff. The weather has been pretty hot so I´ve been drenched most days. Today is like 50 so its actually pretty cool out there. But everyone is getting ready for the world cup and is really excited about that. ha I guess my team is the Sao paulinos haha. The members make you have a team. The language is coming and I have faith in the gift of tongues so it´ll come quick!! Thanks for everything. I hope that everyone got a lot out of conference! Ha it was really good for the second time in the MTC. Lots of great inspired messages. Love you all a ton!! Love Elder Polatis

My 1st comp in Brazil--Elder Searle

New Mission President in Brazil--Elder and Sister Tanner

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Brazil MTC!!  cool!

HAHA yes that is right! I am training again!!! Last Tuesday we thought we were safe, so we came home from district meeting and starting cooking and planning out our next transfer together..........then the phone rang!! I was so sad to hear that Sister Kumar would transfer, then Elder Wilstead goes, and.....Congrats Sister Polatis, you are going to be a mother! Haha I hope my reaction is different when I have my own real kids, I think I about burst into tears! I wasnt really expecting that. But it actually hasn't been to bad! My companion is Sister Montemayor. She is 27 and from Pampanga. She is a nurse! HAHA All my companions are nurses. She is cool though. She speaks really great english so the training part isnt that bad. But she teaches in Tagalog, because she doesnt understand or speak ilonggo yet. So we both have to be so sensitive to the spirit to keep our teachings in unity but really it isnt bad! I have a feeling that my next couple weeks will just fly by!

So General Conference was great! I wanted to make it my most memorable because it was my last in the mission, But the District center is so far we just decided to download it and watch it in our church, well we ended up watching it in the clerks office. HAHA definitely memorable! I loved all the talks. I had a lot of questions in mind and most were answered. I liked the talk of Jeffrey R Holland! How we will have to stick up for what we believe. But also do it in the right way! Many times here we get a lot of comments and heckling, but if we continue just being Christ-like all will be fine! Heavenly Father will help us and if we keep it cool, people will see that we are all disciples of Jesus Christ! I was so impacted and am so excited to apply them in my missionary work as well as my life! 

This week we didn't really have that much proselyting time with coming from Bacolod and getting Sister Montemayor all settled in but we were able to get some lessons taught! We went to the Rivera family! One of the boys that is listening is 22! He really listens and wants to know what is right! He brought his friend in the listen as well! So I just felt something different in the lesson, I wasn't quite sure what was going on, So i asked if they had any questions and the friend starts asking questions about the Plan of Salvation! I think that he is baptist! Kind of debating with us, but as we moved on and talked about the spirit world he got really quiet and I couldn't really read him! Then he asked some questions but got silent again! So we finished up the lesson and he wanted to pray! He started to pray and he started to cry while he is praying, he just thanked Heavenly father that he has a plan for us after this life. He never told us what happened, just shook our hands and told us something inside him told him that what we said is true! I was so excited to teach him again, So we texted him to meet again, but he moved back to bacolod!!! But he responded again and in all caps "Dont worry Sis Polatis, I WILL FIND THE MISSIONARIES" It was a bittersweet moment I wanted to teach him but I know that he is in the Lords hands now and I cant wait for him to visit to see what happens! 

I am SO stoked for Greg and Kristin! Congrats to you and your family!! I am so so so excited! I will pray for a girl! (Hope thats ok) Mom, about school! Bahala na lang! Medyo subo na ako! Basta thats life!!! EITC na lang! You can apply there and I will just say my prayers. I heard something like carrying our burdens cheerfully and to be honest, I am cheerful!! Everything happens for a reason! I know that what I am doing right now is right! I know that when we dedicate our lives to the Lord we will be blessed. I am grateful to be training right now! I thought I would have smooth sailing my last little bit but I was wrong! President told me he put me in Cauayan to train and to build the area! It will be kind of hard but do-able!! I love you all and am so thankful for the letters! Miss you all but I will see you soon!!! Have a great week! Be good and Be safe!!!!----Tell Heidi thanks for the letter, and to tell Marley---No I didnt have time to go sledding, maybe next week:) HAHA Halong kamo da!!!

Love Sis Polatis

Buna Ziua! 

Congratulations Greg and Kristin!!! I am so so excited! Wahoo! I am so glad that I will be home for that! Good job on Tennis Sam! Rock it! When is your graduation? I will probably be home for it! Can you guys believe it .... 30 days! Yes I am kind of freaking out! ha it just seems unreal and it seems like I have always been a missionary and that I will always be a missionary so sometimes reality hits and I do freak out! ha But I am excited at the same time! Crazy that Maddy is a senior! Wow... time has gone super fast! That is so cute about Tate... ya he will basically speak fluent Portuguese in like 2 months. You all sounds like you are doing great! Also a shout out to the Breinholt family! I received your letter last week and it was super super cute! I have not received a letter for months so it was fun to get one! :) 

Well this week... Sometimes i am not sure whether to laugh or cry about my mission. I usually just burst up laughing because there is really nothing else I can do! ha But so this week - remember how last week we had 11 lessons and all these new investigators. Well this week... they all kind of dropped us or are not interested. We actually still had 2 lessons this week with one women that looked really promising. We talked about the plan of salvation. She read through the pliant and read the chapter in the Book of Mormon. She looked like she was making progress. Well then the second lesson she basically told us she doesn't believe anything we have taught her and has no desire to really know if it is true - she just wants to learn for "informational" purposes. I was a crushed - We had studied so hard for her and I really wanted the lesson we had planned to hit her hard... but nothing... she would not even pray at the end. So we are kind of back down to zero again. If there is one thing I have learned on my mission is to be positive. So I am not going to let it get me down.. these last 30 days are going to rock regardless of if I am teaching all day or contacting all day long! 

So kind of funny story... We were trying to change all of our light bulbs anyways... long story short one of them like blew up and then all of our power was out in our entire house... we were leaving to iasi in like one hour.. we had just bought all our groceries for the week and we had a load of laundry in the washer... I wanted to die... We had to hurry and call our landlord and then take our food to the church fridge... needless to say I was kind of stressed but we made our train!!! it was just funny because we we got back from Iasi our house still didn't have electricity and it was freezing and midnight so we were walking around with flashlights and just jumped into bed until they came and fixed it the next day! ha it was really cool though because the electrician was super nice and was AMAZED  that i spoke Romanian. our land lady was there too and she asked us "are all of you missionaries this nice?" and the electrician guy then said "look at them it is their religion." It was super cool! We were able to talk a little bit more about what we believe! so it was cool!  

We did get to go to Iasi this week for zone training! It is always so much fun! We gave a presentation on how to better use the Book of Mormon in our missionary lives. I talked about how we need to study it more so that we have more power behind our testimonies. Well I then make everyone sing the primary song scripture power including making them lift up there scriptures when we said scripture! it was really cute and I made a video of it! so it was a lot of fun! We ate a greek place after that was so so good! So I am for sure a fan of Iasi! 

It was Sora Parkers birthday this week so I woke up and made her pancakes and then we opened her package from her family.. loaded with those reeses Egg things.. I wanted to die! those are the best ever! It was pouring rain outside so we watched some more general conference! We just had a lot of fun! 

General Conference was amazing! I can't wait to study all of those talks more once they are all printed out...I am going to put them on my ipod today so that I can listen to them as I am getting ready and eating meals! They were so so good! I loved Elder Bednars talk and Elder Uchtdorfs! So amazing! President Monsons from the Priesthood session! Man... powerful! there was many that I really loved but those are just a few that really hit me hard! 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your love and support! I have the best family in the world! Keep being great! This church is true! 

va iubesc! 

Sora Abby Polatis 

Hola Familia!!!!

     Well it is finally P-day and I get to email you and tell you how crazy Brasil is;) I can't believe how massive this city is. When I was flying in all I could see was city. Crazy stuff. Haha and Jaron was right about how people change lanes here when they are driving, you just stick your front end into the next lane and pray that the other guy slows down. Ha I learned that on our way to the MTC. My companion is Elder Merrit. He waited in Washington for like 9 months. His portuguese is a little on the bad side but I've been working with him. We have some Brazilian roomates that know a little bit of English but not much. Its really fun learning how to speak to them better. I also met a kid here who just got here a couple of days ago who was in the Provo MTC with me haha. So atleast there are a couple other missionaries that had to wait as long as I did.

      The MTC has been really fun though. It's really relaxing to not have to plan or anything and to get to play ball every day:) Good stuff!! Definitely a place to learn Portuguese because that is all I hear everyday. In Provo the learning process was way slower. It is crazy that I already leave on Tuesday. Time flew by here. Some cool things that we have done though is going out on the streets and proseletying. Each companionship gets 6 BOMS and we just go and talk to people for an hour!! Very very cool. The gift of tongues if definitely real. It was really cool to be able to explain to people what the Book of Mormon was and how it can help them in Portuguese. I couldn't understand everything that they said back to me of course haha but they are very nice people and it was very cool to see people accept a Book of Mormon that easily. Definitely way to different than from being in the states ha. If I would've been able to do that in the states that would have made my whole transfer:) The food is also good here as well, and we have hot showers and everything that we need. I was kind of expecting to be roughing it but not here in the MTC.

       We went to the Sao Paulo temple this morning for our P-day and it was beautiful!! Ha it was a little weird having to wear the headphones during the session but it was good. The session was in Spanish so I didnt want to risk it ha. Oh and they didnt let us take our cameras so I didnt get to take any pictures darn it!! Oh and we only get like 45 minutes to email so I'm going to have to cut it a little short:( But things are going great and I'm ready to hit the pavement again. I'll make sure and finish my medicine. I have been keeping up on it and I think that it is starting to get a better!! I still have these weird burps every now and again that I dont know where they are coming from but who knows. And no we didnt get to watch the Womans broadcast, hopefully Mandy my investigator back in Iowa did though:) I think for conference I will split it up and watch some in Portguese and In English:) 

      Love you all and am grateful for everything that you do. I dont know when i will be able to write again but we'll see. Have a great week and enjoy conference!!!!

Love, Elder Polatis