#59
Hi mom!
Sister Clark
Glad to hear things are going well. I can't believe all the
changes. It's going to be weird when I get home. I can't believe it's
already August. And already P-Day. This was the fastest week ever. Time
has been moving too fast. I only have 3 transfers left and I'm not ready
to leave Brasil! And I found out that they had a transfer here of only 5
weeks so I'll be coming home a week earlier than I thought. Noooooo!
Well, Sister Mendes and Sister Salazar left Tuesday night on the
boat. She took the cellphone with her because she thought she would need
it to find the sisters' house there in Santarem. We
didn't have a phone for 2 days. I don't know how the missionaries in the
past did this work without a phone. Sister Oliveira and Sister de Jesus
arrived Friday morning. They couldn't get on the Lancha Thursday
so they had to take the barco over night. So Sister Shepherd was my
companion for 2 days. That was interesting. 2 Americans trying to speak Portuguese.... We had to work both of our areas so we walked the entire
city of Oriximina. We walked a lot. So I feel like every week I always
have a good story to tell. The only thing this week is that my heels
started to crack open. The members said it's because the pavement is so
hot, it's burning through my shoes and my feet are drying out. It's so
hot here that the pavement will break your shoes in half. Luckily this
hasn't happened yet. But it already happened to Sister Mendes and
another sister here from the states with her chacos. So back to my feet -
a member gave me a pedicure haha and I've been taking good care of my
heels. There was a sister here who had the same problem and she didn't
take care of it so it got all infected and was bleeding and oozing and I
guess it was pretty gross and she couldn't walk for a week. That
will not happen to me.
We FINALLY received Book of Mormons. We've been without them for 4
weeks. The sisters brought them from Santarem. So Sister Oliveira is
from Curitiba. She just got transferred from Santarem so we were in the
same zone last transfer and she goes home in October. If I stay with her
one more transfer this will probably be my only area. But Sister
Oliveira is awesome! I love her.
We received a referral from the zone leaders and taught her on Friday. she's super prepared. We went back Saturday
and her mom told her she can't "switch religions". We're still teaching her but I'm not sure if her mom
will let her get baptized. We met her uncle and guess what? We're going
to be on the radio this Saturday
to talk about what we do. I'm pretty excited. And we're going to start
an English course. Everyone is super surprised with how well I can speak
for only having 2 months here. The gift of tongues is real.
We're spending most of our time now making contacts because we want
to teach people that live closer to the chapel. Our whole teaching pool
is at the other end of the city and nobody comes to church. It's pretty
frustrating.
Also this week started the festival of Santo Antonio. Last night
there was a lot of fireworks and nobody was home. Literally, every body
in the city was down by the boats. So we went to a little cliff by our
house to watch the fireworks and look at the river because they had
little paper lanterns floating in the water. It was really cool. I want
to come back here during all these festivals and actually be able to
watch everything!
Well I think that's about it. We have to go to Santarem AGAIN this Thursday for zone meeting. Maybe now I'll finally be able to buy a hede.
Love you! Until next week!
#58
Maybe I have a
parasite.... I've had the same kind of stomach pain 3 times already
since I've arrived. Who knows.
Oh remember how I was so excited to sleep on a mattress?
Well I've been sleeping in a hede for 2 months so I had to readjust to a
real bed and I actually had a hard time sleeping. My back hurt worse on
a mattress. But now it's okay.
Well we had transfer calls yesterday
and Sister Mendes and Sister Salazar are leaving. Sister Salazar
arrived with me and I cant believe she's already going! Which means I'll
be staying here for one more transfer with Sister Shepherd. Our
companions arrive on Wednesday.
My companion will be Sister Oliveira. We're already in the same zone
and she went with me to the federal police for my visa so I already know
her. I'm so stoked she's super nice and goes home in October. She's
from Sao Paulo.
I went on exchanges with Sister Salazar. It was awesome. She loves to
talk with everybody so we made 24 contacts in one day. Which is pretty
rare. And with contacts, we met some pretty interesting people. We met a
man who is 70 years old, has already been with 7 women and has 21 kids.
And he's been with the 7th woman for 21 years and he STILL doesn't know
if he'll stay with her. Sheesh.
Wednesday we had a lesson with an investigator and
we met his daughter. Guess what? She was baptized in 2003 and a year
later went inactive because she lives too far from the church. We are starting to work with her to reactivate her because
she still has a testimony. She's awesome. And her dad came to church
Sunday! He has a baptismal date for next Saturday.
So Thursday
we had a little incident. Sister Mendes and I returned to our house
quickly to drop off some things before heading to the wedding at the
church. When we arrived at hour house the gate was open and I thought it
was a little strange. When I opened the door Sister Mendes' doll was on
the chair with a knife and a book of mormon with a post-it that said Eu
nao gosto dos mormons (I don't like mormons). Our house was trashed.
Sister Mendes and I locked the door and left running. I have never been
so scared in my life. We didn't know what to think or what to do because
how could someone break into our house? We arrived at the church and
told the bishop what happened. We wanted someone to come back with us
just in case someone was in our house. Then we told Sisters Salazar and
Shepherd. They didn't believe it and we kind of laughing because they
thought we were joking and they didn't see it for themselves. Then Sister
Mendes started telling everyone what happened. Which was a little
annoying and the other sisters were really really mad about this. And
they were totally calm. I was thinking because they hadn't seen it yet.
They said that we were exaggerating. Back to before we arrived at the
church. Sister Mendes asked me if I thought that this was a joke. But
how could it be? It had to be real. And then I thought of the
handwriting and that it looked familiar. Sisters
Salazar and Shepherd are completely calm and laughing at the whole
situation. Are you connecting the pieces? Because I started to. And then
the bishop pulled us all four aside and told me and Sister Mendes that
this was a joke. The other sisters said of course it wasn't but then
Sister Mendes said "If I find out that this was a brincadeira (joke) I
will call President and let him know what happened". Then they started
to look at one another. I asked Sister Shepherd loud and clear (in
english)
if this was a joke and she said what do you think? and then
just walked away laughing. So then we all went into a room in the church
and they told us that it was all a joke. Oh and this was all in the
dark because of course the power went out in the chapel. Oh those
Brazilians, they like a good joke. I can laugh about it now, but was
like annoyed because it really scared us. I just have to roll with it
here.
So I'm just very grateful for this week and this transfer to be over.
I
love my mission. I love serving people here and sharing the gospel with
everyone. This time is very very important to me. The church is still
true. I still have a testimony of it and of missionary work. All I can
say is that we have the Lord on our side or how else could we make it
through?
Glad to hear things are going so well at home. Have an awesome week! Until next Monday!
Love you
Sister Clark
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