I´m BACK!!!

hi, finally I am able to write again...wow, it seems like forever since I´ve written. Sorry to keep you all waiting. It´s been an interesting week. Last Tuesday nite(which was a week ago, i know, but bear with me here), we went to a meeting at the same Brasilian church we went to last sunday nite. I didn´t really know what it was about, but when we got there it was mostly women. Then this lady was speaking, and she was really loud, and she started praying and speaking in tongues. I found it really weird, and weirder because it was in Portuguese. Apparently this is common, but I didn´t really like it. God also healed one lady through her, and I found that very different. But I was really upset that day because I had been coughing, and I´m not really patient. I was really fed up with my cold, and the runny nose and everything. So, everyone was standing up but I was sitting down because I wasn´t feeling too good. Everyone around me was praying and being really loud, and then all of a sudden that lady came and was beside me, and she touched my shoulder and started speaking in Portuguese( I think she was praying). Anyways, I started to cry and I felt a warmth throughout my whole body. She left me then , and I kept crying. After that, I felt a little bit better, and since then I my head wasn´t all stuffed up. I´m feeling much better now, and I only cough when I laugh. But I really do believe that God healed me that night, and he used her to pray for me. It was such a cool experience, even though a little weird. So thanks for all your prayers for me, I know they helped too!
Well, I do want to write a little bit about the food here. I´m not drinking as much pop as I thought, and we do eat cheese(in portuguese it´s called QUEIJO) However, their cheese is definitely not as good as the stuff mom buys, and I miss it! We have rice everyday, usually with a bean sauce, as well as a juice of some sort(usually Goiaba). Everyone here says I don´t eat enough, so they keep pushing me to eat more. If you know me well, at home I like to eat, so I think they´re just trying to fatten me up!!! LOL
Last Friday when we were at Vôo Livre, Joyce was away, so I got to teach all four of her classes by myself. It was pretty boring, because we were just reading, practicing their pronunciation. Thankfully 2 of them were advanced classes, so they speak a little more English than the people in Graça´s classes. I had to do an exercise with one class about long and short vowels...that was an interesting experience! They finally got it though!
On Saturday, it was Graça and Pámela´s Birthdays, so I got to celebrate a typical Brazilian birthday(and yes, they did sing Parebéms pra Você ....and the little chant afterwards...it was so cool!)Parembéms pra Você is their "happy birthday" song... I taught it to my family after I came back in November. So, that was neat.
Yesterday after church Graça and I went out for lunch with André and Celça and Pámela and Luiza. We went to Pier 21, where there is a food court. It is beside the water, so afterwards we got to walk around down at the shore. Luiza is so cute, and she can say my name now(when she´s not mad at me!) It was funny, though, because I asked André to hold my purse for me when I took the girls down to the shore, and when we were just about to leave, I realized that I didn´t have it. I asked him where it was, and he gave me this horrified look, and took off to the bench where we had been sitting. He left my purse there!!! I told Celça,"That´s the last time I leave your husband in charge of my things!" She laughed, and agreed with me!
Well, I´ll write more later...hopefully it´s sooner than later!
Love to you all!
Love, Ash :)