Okay!!! My week was great, at the
beginning I knew nothing, and now I can actually talk to these people!
My companion/trainer is Elder
Cavalcante and he is from Fortulaza, Brazil. He has an accent from the north,
which is way fast, and he has to slow way down for me to understand him
sometimes. But his accent is understandable, and he's a lot like Dad. He makes
jokes and teases me plenty. But as always, I play back. My accent is difficult,
apparently, for people native here to understand. [I have an ] American accent,
and half of them don't have a clue where I'm from just because I have an accent
that isn't from Brazil.
We don't have to go anywhere to do
laundry, as we have the things to do it in our house. I don't have pictures of
the house ... oops … Next P-day. I have been talking with Blake and Jason [friends
from home who are now missionaries], and I'm glad I have. They have been a
great help here. Oh yeah! Will you send a paisley tie here? Or a few? Apparently
they don't have them down here, and all my encounters with Brazilian
missionaries have started with them asking if I have one to trade with them. My
companion actually won’t stop bugging me about it some days.
I had a great experience that I'm
sharing with just you because it was way special for me: My companion and I
were "knocking" gates on a really sketchy looking street and we got
talking to one woman named Rose (Hoe-see) and we got to enter her home and
start teaching her. She actually felt the Spirit right off the bat and teared
up after the prayer. We taught the Restoration (the first lesson) and set a
date to go back and talk to her next Sunday because she works every other
afternoon.
Now, on Tuesday we had a brief
switch of companions as mine is the district leader here. Elder Peay and I went
out and proselyted most of the day. We found a wonderful family and taught them
the Restoration. After which we found a really interested investigator who has
a lot of "deep doctrine" questions. (for example, are there more than
one God, where did He come from, etc.) I was mostly following Elder Peay lesson-wise,
as I had NO idea what was going on. I chose the streets, and we
"knocked" them. That's my outward value right now. You’re going to
see "knocked" like that a lot just because we don't actually knock.
Those of you in Brazil now know. You clap outside the gates. We actually were
really careful that day because there was some really drugged up guy wandering
around beating things.
We have some great families we're
teaching. One investigator is getting baptized this week! whoo! We know she's
feeling the Spirit because we showed her “The Testaments” film and she cried
from when Christ was crucified all the way to the end.
My companion and I actually missed
an appointment one day this week due to (oddly) weather. When it rains here
usually it's not hard and in the evening. But to our surprise on Wednesday we
actually just about drowned in the street! It started raining and neither of us
remembered a coat or umbrella, and we got stuck under a little shop sun shade
and waited for something like an hour before we could get out from under it,
and we were still wet up to our knees! More, the streets weren't safe to walk
on due to the torrents of water pouring down them! That was an adventure I was
glad I didn't have a camera for!
Beyond that, we're out doing the
Lord's work, and I couldn't be more excited to be learning the most difficult
"romantic language" in the world. Until next week!
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| Elder Smith and Elder Cavalcante |
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| Elder Smith and his mission president |
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| More singing at the Christmas Conference |
