Eu Amo Brasil :)

This week was a lot easier! Thank goodness. Its still hard and I don't ever really know what's going on, but I love the people. We taught more lessons this week, which really helped. I started making a list of observations to describe Bebedouro. Here is what I came up with:

-lots of 1 way streets

-Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way, so watch out!

-lots of motorcycles

-stop signs do not mean ANYTHING. like at all

-rice and beans at every meal! I love it though :)

-rice, beans, and meat

-no air conditioning pretty much anywhere, just lots of fans

-every house is surrounded by a gate. Nicer houses have a wires extending the gate at the top with a current running through to shock anyone that tries to get past (due to crime)... we have a gate around our little house as well with locks and keys for each of our windows

-sometimes the toilet paper is like tissues... you pull out 1 square at a time

-I miss washers and dryers... We have a washer type thing and a clothes line

-no one here knows how to play the piano!

-kisses, even for the woman you just met on the street (and handshakes for all men of course)

-waking up at 5:30 so we can catch a bus and travel an hour to district meeting every week

-meeting someone on the street, intruducing ourselves... "Can we come and share this message with you another day?" "Pode (Yes, you can)"

-weird names I cannot spell or remember

-soda with every meal... Guarana or orange soda

-people love sitting outside because its cooler than their houses, so its really easy to talk to people

-its a regular occurence for us to walk an hour to lunch and then an hour back

-members feed us lunch here and they go all out, and it is so so so good

So about this week... The beginning of this week was really hard. Wednesday, I was thinking about the kind of missionary I was in California and I just wanted so badly to be that same missionary; to know what was going on and to always be able to respond to the things people say... I realized during my study that morning though, that I can either be so focused on the end, on being able to understand everything and speak, or I can enjoy the time its going to take to get to that point. If I just wait to enjoy it, I am going to miss a lot and be miserable. There are still hard moments, but this week was a lot more enjoyable. Its officially fall here and is cooling off a bit! I'm still getting a really good tan though. I cannot imagine what I'll be like when I come home.

I got my first hug from a man on the mission this week. It was a really old man we met. We were leaving, I stuck my hand out for a handshake, and he pulled me in for a hug. Then the same thing happened to my companion. Sometimes, its inevitable, I guess. It was amusing!

We are teaching a man who is scheduled to be baptized on April 5! So so neat. He is great. We taught him 3 times this week. My companion does a lot of the teaching, but I got to the point where I knew I had to speak, so I spoke, and he really listened, really listened. We were explaining the importance of baptism, and he expressed that he really didn't feel ready. Somehow we got to talking about the Bible, we showed him that we had the same Bible as him, he took the Bible to look at it and opened to Psalms 1 and started reading. He began to cry as he read, realizing God knew His situation and was responding in the form of this scripture. He then agreed that he needed to be baptized on April 5.

What a week :) Adventures in Bebedouro!

Eu amo vocês! Obrigada sempre por suas oraçoes!

 

Com Amor,

Sister Shipp