Vila Sônia - Week 8

I got the package last Tuesday, the day of our zone meeting. It was AMAZING. It was so perfect. So so so perfect. It was the best feeling in the world. Dr. Pepper Twizzlers? Pickle chips? Extreme Sour Patch Kids? Perfect! :D And let's not forget the peanut butter. I think we're going to buy some sliced bread and Nutella to take advantage of that :) It's really the best thing. And gummy bears too! The Starbursts were awesome as well, probably the best I've ever had. They don't have Starbursts at all here, so those are a welcome addition to any future package :) It was incredible to have some American stuff again, even after only 3 months, haha :)

So, Eduarda got baptized! She is the daughter of Vicente, and Vicente got to do the baptism. He was a little nervous, but he got it on the second try! After holding her under the water a little longer than is probably necessary :) But it's all good. Not many people at all came to the baptism, even though I guess all the leadership knew. So that was kinda lame, but it can only get better.

Also this last week we found out that it is a mission rule to learn English. President Cabral will do the last interview for every missionary in English, so the non-Americans have some learning to do. Which means, we're encouraged to speak English at home to help them! So that's super cool, it's always fun teaching English.

The rain has been a welcome addition to our weather, it pretty much always rains in the afternoon, so the days are only sunny for a little bit.

I haven't really had anything crazy as far as food. Some interesting new fruits, which are always sorta an acquired taste. Kaki (persimmon), and Jaca (jackfruit). Pretty interesting fruits, I can't even begin to describe them.

 

  

Persimmon

Jackfruit

So on Wednesday, something neat that happened was that we had a lesson with Juiz and Josefa (I think that's how you spell their names) where we watched the video of the Restoration. We've actually done 3 Restoration lessons with them, because they don't understand our accents I guess. But we finally got it! And they said that they were very impressed by the video, and that they felt peaceful during it. Also, that he wished the video would never end because he was so drawn into it :) So that's awesome! 

On Thursday, we had the training with Elder Aidukaitis of the Seventy! He taught us a ton of cool stuff, and lots of practical ways that we can improve. I think it could really change the missions of a lot of people. I hope it will, anyways. It definitely changed mine.

On Friday, something funny was that we had another attack from our little gang of children that lives on this one street. Every time they see us, they just come running down and crowd around us, trying to take stuff out of our pockets, asking us how to say English words, trying to get us to give them pass-along cards, and stuff like that. It really feels like I'm in a foreign country when there's a ton of little Brazilian children crowded around us.

Sunday morning, we passed by Alfonso's house to pick him up and walk with him to church, and he said that he didn't feel like he could go to church, and that he'd be lying to God or something like that. And he just didn't get it that church ISN'T for perfect people. 

None of our investigators that said they'd come to church actually came to church. So that's a depressing "0" to report :/ And, because our zone leaders said the night before that every companionship HAD to have an investigator at church, we walked around for the first two hours of church, inviting people to come to church. And nobody did, unsurprisingly. It got better though, after we had tacos for lunch, haha :) so Sunday at least didn't end badly. And Barbara made coxinhas again, plus arroz doce. Which is just rice and milk and sugar, stuff like that. Sweet rice.

Anyways, that's all the news from here. Thanks to everyone for the prayers, e-mails, and support! All three are greatly appreciated :) Until next week!

Elder Bratsman