Macacos Me Mordam, SEMENA 4 TERMINO!

Descupla, minha computadora nao feliz com portuguese. 

Mas, Less than 2 weeks left!!!!!! 

In case you wanted to know, Macacos Me Mordam means "I'll be darned" in Portuguese. However, It doesn't translate over as I'll be darned. It literally translates to "Monkeys bite me". How wonderful.

Funny story of the week:

Sister Rasmussen, Sister Tyler and I are teaching Carlos. We were talking about something spiritual I suppose, when Sister Tyler goes to share her testimony. No big deal, that's how every lesson goes. She goes to say, "I am grateful for" Which is "I sou gratos por" Instead, she says, "Eu Sou Gravida". which means, " I am pregnant" So she says it, continues on. I caught it, look over at the investigator, who looks at me, and we start busting up. He broke character he was laughing so hard. The funniest part? Sister Tyler didn't even know what was going on, she didn't understand what she said.

Look at that sassy little Sister Rasmussen. I live with that. you can just FEEL the attitude right? ;)

(P.S. Don't worry I totally love her)

Anyways, as you can tell, portuguese is going great ;)

I can understand 90% now, but speaking is the hard part. Eh, I'll learn it when I get there right? 

Nothing else really happened this week.

My companions are scared of me, I apparently look like I'm going to kill them in the mornings. Sister Rasmussen takes off her glasses when she wakes me up,so she doesn't have to look at me. What are you gonna do right?

Right now, we are playing a game called Assassins. Ever heard of it? We play it with spoons. Apparently we have a spoon with someones name on it, and you have to stab them with it. But there are of course rules. Not during class, devotionals, in front of the branch presidency of course. This is what we do to fill our time. 

Finished the Book of Mormon the other day. 23 days. Starting Jesus the Christ. Super excited for that. 

Portuguese is going pretty well all in all. Hard days for sure. But I've got lots of stuff memorized, and I can pretty much say what I want to without notes or a dictioanry. So that's a plus.

Sister Tyler leaves on Monday, then a week later we leave, so it's getting down to the wire!

A few of us sang during church on Sunday. We sang a child's prayer. Without practicing. Let's just say we should have recorded it. Priceless.

Still in the choir, starting to get used to singing. But tonight's going to be super special because we hear a general authority is coming. No big deal. 

Even though we are all pretty much the same age, the longer you are in the MTC, the newbies coming in seem so much younger than you. No joke. I feel like a grandma right about now.

The food here is getting better. Probably because the only thing I eat is Captain Crunch.

Never gets old.

It's been raining here a lot, thank goodness, I was going through withdrawls!

It's starting to get really stressful here too. Lots to do, no time, and with all the doctors, I've gotten behind. So I got into running. 4 miles a day keeps the stress away! And kills your knees. That too. 

Anyways, love you all! Keep up the Dear Elders!

Love,

Sister Leake

Hello there! Its Sami again. I just wanted to encourage everyone who can, to send Sister Leake letters through emails, and ESPECIALLY through DEAR ELDER! Dear Elder is the best because if you get it sent in the morning they can print it off and have it delivered to her that same night! Its a wonderful, and free, service to both families and missionaries. 

As you already know from her previous letters, right now Sister Leake is having some health problems that I can't really get into without her permission, but I know that she would love to hear from you all. Please, contact her, all the info is up and to your right on this page, it really does help. And please, please keep her in your prayers. 

With love!

Week 3 down, Week 4 up to bat!

Tudo Bem!

Okay I don't even know where to begin! 

As many of you know, I've spent the last week pretty much living in the hospital, so to ease the worry, let's start there!

Started with a migraine, then a stomach ache, and then 10 hospital visits and 9 doctors later... we're here! 

I originally went in to see the doctor for Migraines, which he then sent me to a Neurologist for. The next day I got sick with what I thought was food poisoning (Yes, the food can be that bad. I ate a moldy apple yesterday). The doctor thought I had appendicitis, so  he rushed me to the ER. Turns out it was just a popped cyst. I know, not good either, but I am alive, so that's a plus. I went to see the Neurologist last Thursday (and got to call home again! :) ) he's a bit worried so he ordered a like 5 different tests, which is what I've been doing for the past couple of days. MRI's, Ultrasounds, and EEG's. 

We couldn't resist taking a picture of this. Oh the joy of hospitals.

I get more ultrasounds here than a pregnant lady. And most of the time I come back from the hospital and go straight to class, so I sit with goop residue on me all day. Today though, I went to get my EEG. I had Sister Rasmussen come with me this time (Pictures to follow). So here we are, in this room, and I have these wires stuck to my face and scalp and shoulders. I'm laying on this bed to get ready to take the test when the doctor turns out the lights and walks out. Sister Rasmussen doesn't know what to do, so she lays on the floor to take a nap, no big deal. They start the test, and I'm doing these weird monkey breaths, moving my eyes around for them etc. They turn on this strobe light, and all of a sudden I hear this huge BANG. Sister Rasmussen is laying under my hospital bed, thrashing around. At this point i'm trying not to laugh and pay attention to the test. Then I hear her move around, and I hear paper rustling around. And then I hear her start writing! Mind you, it's pitch black in this room, and my comp decides it's the best time to write a novel. What a weirdo. Then the doctor has me take a nap, and I'm laying there trying to relax, when her stomach decides to sing opera. Moral of the story, don't take Sister Rasmussen to the doctors with you ;)

Yeah, more hospital pics. That's where I spend most of my time. so that's the pictures you get.

So yeah, nothing on the results yet, but keep me in your prayers nonetheless!

I made a new friend though. He's my driver to my appointments, his name is Brent. He cracks me up. We actually get to listen to music (church approved of course). So he always makes my day.

Just a little stereotypical picture of us pointing on the map. Notice us pointing to the middle of the ocean. Mhmmmm. Let that sink in. 

Let's see, what else. Our Zone is HUGE now, the flood of missionaries is starting already. It's the worst. Like yeah, it's good there's missionaries, but the lines for food are so long. And I get crabby when I can't get my Cantaloupe. Our older zones just left, so we are officially the oldest ones, which sucks because I still don't know what the heck I am doing here.

Our BIG ZONE now.

We also get to host the new incoming missionaries tomorrow, so I get to sit there while they cry and carry their luggage. Should be fun.

Favorite people in the world. They make MTC life great!

This is my district. Happiest people alive.

We are now teaching 6 investigators. One of them, Sophia, is a crazy crazy investigator. She refuses to do anything because she thinks God is manipulative. So that's cool. At least we aren't the 2nd district. Their investigator randomly chants during prayers. What I would do to be a fly on a wall during that lesson!

Everything else here is going really good though! I'm not quite sure what to write in these emails, so please send me questions, that might make things easier for me! Love you all!

Tchau!

Sister Leake

****Just as a reminder, all words that are NOT ITALICIZED are purely Sister Leake's, so basically this whole post!! We all love and miss her dearly, and I KNOW for a FACT that she loves hearing from all of you! SO please visit the CONTACT ME box on the upper right hand side of this blog. 

My Testimony

Sister Leake has been hitting the books hard, only speaking Portuguese during her classes and most of the day. BUT!! She has something to show for it!!

You'll have to ask her exactly what that means in English in your next letter :)

Pictures from the MTC

**Here are some pictures sent from Sister Leake:

The Beautiful Sister Rasmussen stealing my camera. This is payback. 

And The stateside sisters who entered the same day as us left us with all their candy. So what did we do? Fat. We got fat.

These are pictures of our favorite people. Too bad most of them just left or are leaving this week :(

**in the future, all my words (Jenny's sister) will be italicized and Sister Leakes will be the regular font. 

First Letter!!!

We received the first group email from Sister Leake at the MTC, so if you aren't on the mailing list, all future emails will be posted here as well!

Tudo Bem! Week TWO!:

Oi!

Very stressful week! You have barely any time to breathe let alone study. How is it that you have 16 hours in a day, and STILL can't accomplish ANYTHING?! 

THE GOOD:

-As you know we've been teaching a man named Fábio. It's stressful because none of it is in English. He can't help you when you don't know how to say something in Portuguese. We were having troubles getting to him. We couldn't feel the spirit. Honestly, it's because we were basically just reading off of our notes. But can you blame us? We don't know this language! How are we supposed to teach it!? So we felt impressed to go in without notes. Call me crazy, but we did it. OH MY GOODNESS. It was rough, don't get me wrong. I'm pretty sure I sounded like a two year old. But the spirit was so strong. We didn't plan a lesson, we just spoke from our hearts. It was good. We were crying (Well my companions were, I have no soul apparently) and HE was crying. And all of a sudden, we felt impressed to ask to him to be baptized. He's rejected EVERY single time we ask, but we did it anyway and he said yes! Needless to say it was a good day :) Oh! Fábio is now our teacher. Now I know that he was never an investigator, it was all pretend. But the joy you feel when they accept the challenges you give them, and when they understand what you're teaching, it's still a good feeling. 

-We discovered a new treat last night. Nutella and sour patch kids. Try it. Just trust me.

-So I joined the choir. It's a miracle I know. But I actually love it. 

-I gave my first talk in Sacrament, and yes it was in Portuguese. Honestly easier in Portuguese than English.

-We received new missionaries in our zone! The sisters won't talk to us, but the Elders are a crack up! Not even in the MTC can I make friends with girls.

-A few elders got reassigned while waiting for their VISAS. one is going to Vancouver Mission, so look out for an Elder Ellsworth! He's our favorite in the MTC, we were sad to see him go!

- So there is an abnormally large group of Tongans here at the MTC. I love them. Seriously, they are the happiest, friendliest, loudest people I know. But some of our favorite people! This one Sister, all she does is grunt at me. I say hi, she grunts. It's fantastic. We have some great conversations.

THE BAD:

-Sister Savage, our half companion, got her VISA! So she's heading out next week, which means Sister Tyler is also leaving. So sister Rasmussen and I are going to be all alone! Sister Tyler might actually get sent home because she has a bad knee.

-I've been getting some pretty intense migraines here, so I have to go see a Neurologist tomorrow. Just a couple of headaches in my opinion, but they take everything too seriously here.

-The food. Seriously you guys, EVERYONE is sick here. EVERYONE. You can't go a meal without getting sick. 

It's difficult here, but I do like it. And the language is finally coming along!!! Expect a video coming up! Tchau!

Sister Leake.

Missionary Pictures

This will be mostly pictures, especially since I'm playing catch up and I have more exciting things to post!!

Back in January, after receiving her call, I was blessed to be able to take pictures for Jenny to commemorate serving her mission. Here are her favorites.

She is going on an adventure!

And so it begins...

If you are looking for the blog that will disclose the exploits of a certain missionary, Sister Janessa Leake, you are in the right place!

And I have to apologize, because Jenny, or Sister Leake, asked me to set this blog up a long time ago. Then life happened. I am her sister, and I will be your tour guide through her mission!

Back in January, she received her call. Watch the video below!!

In case you are wondering, that pin is where she is going! You can find out more about this small island nation by clicking here!

We are so proud of her, and so excited for her and this adventure that she is beginning!