Mad's Happy Life: MONDAY

first weeks, new beginnings

Dear Blog readers,

I feel like it was just yesterday i was telling you all about the latest adventure of being thrust out of what we would call the comfort zone. And although it has been a week and things have settled a little bit, i would consider myself still...far from that comfort zone. But thats totally okay, it makes life more interesting..right?

Contagem is a little city outside of belo horizonte-its no more than an hour bus ride to get from BH to here, and the area is FULL of factories. Lots and lots of factories with lots of pollution. Sister sackley has lost a lifetime already within this first week. Also, the area is huge. HUGE. The elders talk a lot about how their areas are a lot bigger than sister areas...but i never actually understood it until tuesday-when we walked a solid 2 hours in one direction (walking fast i should add) and still, we were in our area-and the MIDDLE of our area at that. After a long day i was trying to get a little sympathy from the district leader-(which is always a mistake-sympathy from an Elder) and i told Elder how our area is ginormous and i have no idea how we are going to be able to get to everything we have going on. To which Elder Tanner responded-sister sackley. You can get on a bus for 2 hours in our area and you would still be in our area. Touché elder, touché.

Also after a solid 76 days of use, the G.I. Joe sandals have died the ultimate death of smelling if not worse, equal to that of the dead rotting dog i accidentally stepped on the other day. Their last day of use was especially bad-with a bad case of rain to finish them off, and a great foot fungus discovered the next morning. So long G.I. Joe, see you next time-or never.

I should probably talk today of the fact that this past week we met the real life version of the emperor´s new groove family. Remember the cute family in that movie with the little boy and little girl and the pregnant mother? They live here in Brasil. After a day of drinking lots of water, Suelen (my comp) had to pee. There is no such thing as public bathrooms here in brasil, you just knock on a door and ask to use their bathroom. So i told her to take her pick. We were in the middle of the favela and the pickings were slim. I was surprised when she picked the worst of the worst- a door that was made of old cardboard. Almost immediately after knocking, the two cutest little kids peeked their heads out of a hole in the cardboard. Their mother invited us in and upon further investigation we found that they were ex-investigators. Patricia, the mom was expecting their fourth child (Which is a ton here in brasil). They had an 8 year old brother, a plump little 4 year old son, and then a 2 year old daughter with pigtails equal to that of the movie. The home wasnt bigger than my front room, the bathroom door was fabric, the bunkbeds falling apart, and scarcely any food or clothing in the house. I cant lie, it was the poorest, saddest situation I have yet seen here in Brasil.

As i waited for Suelen, the 2 year old told me i was very pretty-i had french braids that day and she wanted some just like mine. So i sat on the sagging bunk beds and she stood between my legs and waited patiently while i did her hair. She was VERY excited about her two little braids after i was done and ran from wall to wall singing ``eu sou bonitinha!!`` We thanked the family, and asked to say a prayer with them before leaving. The father, Wallison grabbed the 4 year old and we all knelt while 4 year old carlos said a very humble, sweet prayer. He thanked God for the angels that made his day happy, for the food that they had and for the new baby brother they would be having soon. As we left the house I couldnt help but notice how very humble their circumstances were, and yet they could have been the kings of kings-the little family from Emperors new groove had found some sort of happiness, of well-being that the rest of the human world was missing. There was no televison in their house, no toys to play with, only one little lightbulb, and no sweets. And yet, they had everything.

Everthing except the gospel-and it just breaks my heart that because they are not married (And have no money to get married), we can only say a prayer, braid the little girls hair and thank them for using the bathroom.

I cant lie, mission work brings the most heart wrenching feelings, more than i could ever imagine feeling. And it is so crazy to me that we FEEL them. That we feel these strong emotions that, if i had never come to brasil-i would have never known portugues, let alone the cute little family with the cardboard door.

Love you all, sister mad.

Pictures!