adelly, brasilero red heads and unicorn girl.
Dearest Blog friends,
Hello! I just thought I would start off this letter by saying I am loving Brasil. And that I dont understand ANYONE and sometimes people talk fast or pretend to not understand me, but I love it here. The people are beautiful, the streets are beautiful and so is the language. Brazillians are VERY animated with their words and hands and sometimes I feel like I am in my big fat greek wedding where everyone is shaking their hands and yelling. Its a loving yell obviously, but I am getting very good at whooping my arms and yelling at people. I know, its a talent.
On that note, since Sister Arnell and I are the closest home to the mission office for sisters, we get to have sleepovers ALL THE TIME with other sisters in the mission. This week we have three nights of sleepovers. We love it...most of the time. This past week we had sister barão and sister bezerra (two brazillians) come stay with us. They are very animated and LOUD. We had a great time and Sister Barão told me that I have beautiful hair...(it is starting to get shades of red from the sun...which makes me nervous for what it will be in 14 months...) she told me i was a ruivo....a brasillero redhead. I have freckles and brasillero red hair and she told me its probably why the men like us so much-because my hair color is very uncommon here.
And while we are talking about my hair, I made the decision before my mission to not cut my hair on the mission...especially not in a foreign country...anyways, there is something in the water or food because my hair is growing like harry potters. Its already mid back and I am realizing very quickly i will be far beyond unicorn girl by christmas time. oh boy. I think first thing on my list of things to do when i get home will be to chop it all off...if i last that long....
The air here is strange as well...or something because i am experiencing all sorts of strange things here. My earing hole decided to start closing up as well...I pierced my ears at 12 and have never had an ear infection before but i do now. And all the American sisters I have talked to so far have had the same problem, so i constantly have to have earrings in or they will close.
Brasilleros love americans. And they love american music too. Our neighbors house is seperated from ours only by a small thin paper wall. And thank goodness our neighbor has good taste in music. Many nights we go to bed listening to Adele or some other beautiful music. Also, Brasilleros LOVE adele. And they call her adelly and they dont even know what she is saying. Sometimes they will ask you to try and translate. But they love her. And Amy Winehouse. Weird right? They LOVE amy winehouse.
So we had a lot of great moments this past week with investigators. We had FIVE investigators we found this week that we committed to baptism. And they were great investigators. Anna, my favorite ever who was meant to be taught by portlanders because she is all save the whales and stuff, anyways her boyfriend sat in on a lesson this past week and she bore her testimony to him that she knew this church was true and that the book of mormon was the word of God. It was a great moment and he felt the spirit and wanted to be baptized as well.
We also knock a lot of doors...i mean A LOT OF DOORS. Somedays we are on our feet all day long without sitting from around 1pm-9pm. Its long. So we knock apartments and it feels like a joke because we ring the bell and they talk to us over the intercom, and maybe its my western wats training, but we get rejected a lot and it doesnt bother me because i must be use to people rejecting me over the phone? haha. Anyways we were knocking a fairly rich area which is dumb and a girl answered and all we said was we were representitives of Jesus and she beeped us in. It was strange, NO ONE lets us in they normally come down...but she lets us in and she told us she was having a lot of trials and problems lately and that we were an answer to prayers. We shared the first lesson and she invited us back for tomorrow. Her name is Ana and she is 21 (just like our other anna) and we love her just as much.
....With this all being said, we had 5 ready to be baptized this next sunday. FIVE. And Saturday afternoon we tracted and between the hours of 1-6pm every single one of the five dropped. They called and told us no or we went to visit and they tried giving us the Livros back. It was the most horrible experience ever. And the worst part was they ALL have testimonies. And they didnt deny it either. One woman was like yeah i know your church is true and joseph smith is a prophet of God but I dont want to get baptized.
So we are yet again, starting from square one. And its ridiculous and it feels like we are getting no where. Fortunately though, we because friends with Fernanda (the heart of the ward) this past week. Fernandas husband and father are both in the bishopbric and she knows EVERYONE. Get her on your side and you are golden. She is beautiful and mid 20s and has great style, its not a problem liking her, its her liking you. And we accomplished this this past week. We decided to stop working in the favelas (long story) and we told her and her hursband about it....that was tuesday. We had not recieved one referral from the ward in the whole transfer....and then all of a sudden, we recieved 7. Just this past week. Some are dead ends, but we are hoping a lot will lead to good things. Fernanda is great too, she is helping out a lot so at least that is a start!
Photos for the week!
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| 1. my favorite poster here in brasil (God loves you!) |
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| 2. This is Gethlerme. He is a creep. One time we knocked his house and he answered and told us he wanted to preach to us....uh.....so we went in and he began telling us how he was catholic and evangelical and now he isnt anything because of his horrible experiences. We tried teaching him but long story short, it was a joke. And when we asked him to say the closing prayer he prayed and prayed and then stopped talking so sister arnell was like this is how you close...and he yelled at her that he wasnt done! So we see him ALL THE TIME now on the street. And he has a book about his horrible experiences that he tries selling. And he was the one that tried kissing us. We love him basically. |
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| 3. I love Brasil. SO colorful. |
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| 4. a home that belongs in the favelas. you know. |
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| 5. pão de quecho day. (cheesy bread day) our favorite day in america. We celebrate every friday with a roll that on the inside is basically cheese. It is delicious. And since fridays are long and hard we take a break at 5 and eat Pão. |
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i dont ever wear my toms outside because the roads are soooo steep and i am scared to fall, but i wear them in our house ALL THE TIME. Also, I have yet to wear my danskos. Big fat waste of money. Chacos every day. I will have a picture next week of my already growing tanline. And they dont have ice cream here. Or they do and it is SO expensive. the ice cream I am eating here costed 5 bucks. YEAH. I took that picture this morning at the office. Also, I got all the packages this past week from Cathy Grether and mom and mallory. I love the pictures from cooper and emma as well as the posters from the fam. A few cousins have really good handwriting and it made me realize they arent as little as i think of them being anymore!
I hope everyone is doing great,
Love sister mad.
p.s. a note for just girls to read-no really. dont read it if you are a boy.
So they have tampons here in brasil. But they are very different and dont work. Anyways, I had a tampon in my bag this past week and I dropped it on the ground and a man picked it up and was all Menina you dropped your candy! Sister Arnell died. Also, woman here dont wear deoderant. Its like a spray on hairspray for your pits. Warning to all sisters going out of the states-bring face wash and deoderant. They dont have either in brasil. ALSO FOR SISTERS GOING TO BRASIL-Buy neutrogena SPF 50 for your face. Its super super super good and it costs about 80 reihas here. (EXPENSIVE). I will need more soon mommy... :)
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