A few more lines

Hey Lovelies.

All right.  I live in a dream land.

Our house is humongo and amazing.  It was supposed to be for some senior missionaries but they had some health problems so we are living in it and it has two bathrooms and 3 bedrooms and a giant living room and a kitchen and everythang.  Sooo fancy.  Holy cow.

Speaking of cows, all the milk in Portugal comes from the Azores because there is 1 cow to every 2 people on the island.  Green hills with cows.  Fo reals.

Sister Wach is WAY organized because her previous comp was WAY organized and it is awesome and she is going to help me organize my life.  Hallelujah.

I got to take a plane from Lisboa to the Azores with two Elders and we got McFlurries in the airport and it was exciting to just be hanging out with guys for a bit and it made me feel, just a tiny bit, like I was in an airport with Wayne and Nate, and that made me really happy.

Have I told you how much I love the Elder-Sister relationship?  It is just the best thing ever because they are all young but they are also hilarious and awesome and since you are all just missionaries you can really just be friends and it is like a brother-sister relationship.  I am a big fan of missionaries, and missions, in general.

Sister Wach likes RUNNING!  I prayed the night before last that my new comp would like running.  Miracles, people.  We ran on this fantastic little dirt road for twenty whole minutes this morning and my heart was beating like it hasnt for a long time and the enorphins flowed and I was like YESSSSS!

They speak WEIRD Portuguese here.  Ha!  I am going to come home sounding like a freak.  Whatevs.  Nao faz mal.

I apologize for how many times I use the word JUST in my emails.  Do you remember that part in Gilead where Marilynne Robison writes about how John Ames has to consciously not use the word JUST all the time.  I need to work on that.  

I wish I could talk to you all on the phone.  I want to tell you about this place and what I am learning and how beautiful Carla and Daniel´s baptism was last Sunday and how tired I am and how I´m feeling and what I´m thinking about how I´m feeling and this crazy day I had last week where I kind of had a break down and felt so totally depleted but got through it and it taught me a ton and something inside my heart just kind of broke, in a really needful way, I think, but I can´t really describe it.  

Anyway.  I´m alive and well and me and happy and trying to be a good representative of Jesus.  But heaven knows I need a lot of His grace, so keep those prayers coming!

I. love. you.

Sister Sandholtz

PS. My address is: 

Rua do Paim 82 1 Esq. Po.

Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel

Portugal 9500

This is the best address to use for mail to me (both letters and packages).  If you send stuff to the office I will get it ... maybe ... at some point.  I heard of someone having to pay to get a package because it wasn´t marked as a gift.  Don´t know if that is applicable, Mom, or if you already sent off that one with the cd for Sister Warburton.