Cada Semana e sempre melhor! So this week was a lot better. I decided that I don´t
really like Sundays yet because I´m not too sure how to communicate with
everyone and I have a lot harder time conversing about things that aren´t of
the gospel because I don´t know too many of the words. Mom, have no fear!
I have another mom here. More like grandma but mom. So we have a
woman we visit every night at 8:30 because she´s non active and was just
baptized 3 years ago. Her name is Josefina and she is precious! She´s around
60 years old. Everything we need, she takes care of for us if we´re
starving, she´ll make Jantar for us. My companion, if she needs anything,
usually Josefina buys it for her. We never leave her house without a bag
of food with us, either bread or eggs. We don´t ask for it, but it´s
inevitable. Also, so we have 4 missionaries in our house. One of
them is American so it´s nice whenever I really need something or can’t
understand something important, she helps me out. We also decided that
we´ll vent to each other in English only on PDays because it’s extremely hard
to express our feelings and tell stories in Portuguese.
So Tuesday, we have a new investigator named Fatima.
We first met her in the street her house is on, and while we were standing
there talking to her, this dog comes up behind me and pees on my feet.
Literally lifts his leg and pees all over my feet. No one else noticed so
I tried not to make a big deal and acted like nothing happened, because it was
HER dog!!!!!! Lucky I was wearing my crocs because it was a rainy day.
But literally the rest of the day dogs kept coming up to me and sniffing my
feet and I was so paranoid another dog was going to try to mark me. So
yes, I now have a new fear. But back to Fatima. She´s a really
humbling person. Her house is 1 room, with a couch, a bed, a set of
bunkbeds and a stove. She has a husband, 2 daughters, and a son and 6
dogs and 3 cats. She has 1 outfit, and it doesn´t fit her. She
wants to be baptized and that’s our plan for her, but she has health issues
with her heart and didn´t make it to church this Sunday. We visited her
another day for another lesson and after we asked if there was anything we
could do to help her, she cried because she feels that her youngest daughter
who is 15 is ashamed of her so Fatima wants us to find more clothes for her
daughters, if we´re able. So we´re working on a project now in the ward
to start a donation to clean out closets since summer is coming. If not,
I already know which clothes I´m going to give her.
We marked 4 other people for baptisms this past week, so
it´s going to be a white Christmas here! (because the field will be clean) so
I’m actually really excited for this month. Natal is huge here and even
all the other churches go crazy over board with decorations and stuff. So
a thing I´ve noticed, no one hangs pictures on their walls or decorates the
insides of their house. Probably because it’s all concrete. And
another thing, everyone always wears jeans!!!! At fist I thought it was crazy,
but now I understand. It gets extremely freezing after 7 at night.
and also, if people only have pants, they don’t need to have different clothes
for the winter. So really nothing else awesome happened this week.
Except that we have a family of investigators, and remember the homeless guy
that I helped last week and gave my cake too? Cidney is not homeless.. he lives
with this family. So that was awkward and surprising, but cool none the
less.
I really am so very grateful to be serving the Lord at this
time. It’s frustrating and it’s hard but I don´t want to be doing
anything else. The Lord sacrificed His Son and Christ gave his LIFE so
that we can return to The Lord. So I will sacrifice these next 16 months
and give everything I have.
And mom, I don’t know when we Skype yet. We have a
zone conference tomorrow so I´ll try to find out. We haven’t gone to the
temple or worked outside the temple, we’re too far away! I need my black skirt
that I was going to take but didn’t, and my blue and white polka dot skirt! My
clothes are ugly on me now.. OH. eventually I’ll need more deodorant, but
I’m fine for now for sure. I’m good on everything else. I would
like the mint chocolate covered Oreos, Tristan will know what I’m talking
about!!! Thanks for the sour patch kids, they saved my life. And about
Aunt Dot, that´s really cool and really awesome because I had a really strong
feeling about that.
Questions Answered-
Our church is a concrete building like you find on St Simon's. The ward is bigger than ours, and more people come!! Yesterday all 8 of us missionaries sang in sacrament and it was way cool!
Most days start out rough but they always end great! I bought us ice cream this week, that helped it get better!
I've truly been blessed, the language is going great for me! At the first I was like is this the language I learned in the CTM?
On p-day we just hang out around the house, we made a cake and talked. We're in a mountainy rural area with nothing to do.We bought groceries but there is no market here or shops.
I don't eat breakfast, I eat a banana every morning. I'm starting to like the food! and my feet are Marvelous!!! HaHa!!!
P.S. I found out my companion's family hasn't sent or emailed her anything, I'm happy to share with her. She loves lemon heads as much as me and peanut butter!!
Justine's Pictures (New at the Bottom)
Justine's Pictures (New at the Bottom)
