Last p-day we went over to a member's house and we played War, a board game. I don't know if they have it in the States, I think it's a little bit like Risk. It was cool, they had cake, so it was good. Then we went to Laura and Louisa's house and taught them about the Word of Wisdom.
On Tuesday, we had a district meeting in Rio Branco. So we walked. It took about 45 minutes to get there, and it was better than spending 6 reais on bus fare. Luckily it wasn't super hot that day. Speaking of hot, right now it is 86 degrees in here, which is disgusting. Usually our house is significantly cooler than outside, so I don't even want to know what temperature it is outside. The sky is gray, so it'll rain today. That's how the weather works here. It's blazing hot in the morning, and then in the afternoon, it floods, literally. I will probably come back pretty tan and/or burned, but I will try to be better about using sunscreen. :) After the district meeting, which was fine, our lunch was from a sister that works at a school, so she had it delivered to the school. So while we were waiting at the school, we found that they had a foosball table, slightly broken, but it was fine. So we had a good time playing foosball, us two. Then we went to Bianca's house, taught her. They also had lemon cake and neapolitan ice cream, which was awesome. Then we went over to Laura and Louisa's, taught them about tithing. Oh, at the district meeting, Elder Moreira told me that Ivanilde passed away. When I was in Samaritá, he was a recent convert, and whenever we went over to his house, he gave us smoothies. Sad.
On Wednesday, it was Dia das Crianças [Day of the Children]. It's ridiculous how many holidays they have in Brazil. I started to get a cold sore on Wednesday which has continued until today, which stinks. Not much else.
On Thursday, planning. There were two pots of ice cream. Not pots... um... how do you guys call the containers of ice cream? Here it's in 2-liter pots. During planning I did a big clean out, there were 51 repeated referrals (I wrote references in my journal... I think I've been calling them references for about one year and ten months). :) Same person twice. It was pretty organized besides that. Then after planning, we did the pre-interview with Laura and Louisa, which went fine.
Friday, it was the mesata [allowance], so we walked again, because there's not a bank in our area, there's only a bank in Rio Branco. So we walked all the way over there to get our money. It was pretty rough, it was sunny, and I didn't use sunscreen, sorry Mom. It was an hour there and an hour back. It was so hot. Lunch was good, then it started the Noah-like flood. She lent us an umbrella. (Lent? What is the past tense of lend? I'm not sure...) She did lend us an umbrella. :) It was a flood/storm. Probably up to the middle of our shins. And you guys know how Brazilians floods are, all the water goes into the sewage systems, and then the sewage water comes back up. Yay! :) So that was fun. (I think my shoes are already dry, but I haven't dared to touch them since.) Because we got our money on Friday, and the barber man isn't open on Mondays, I got my hair cut on Friday. It was cool because a lady that was in the salon paid for it, I'm not sure why, just because she's super nice, so that was awesome. In my last week I'll get my hair cut again so I come home all nice and chique. :) Anyway, after the flood, after we came home and washed our legs off, we went to Bianca's house, taught her. They had cake and ice cream again. Then it was Laura and Louisa's interviews with Elder Hoskisson, our district leader.
Saturday, the Elders from Samaritá had a baptism and we went and filled up the font for them. Because, I don't know if you remember, Rio Branco and Samaritá use the same rented building for church, so they don't have a baptismal font. The only chapel in the area is here, so all the baptisms are here. The baptism was cool. I played the Baptism hymn from Jon Schmidt. It was fun to see some of the members from Samaritá again. Elder Jensen [from Texas] asks me "How long does it take to get the language?" I say, "Three months to be comfortable, six months to be fluent." He's cool. There was really good cake for the baptism, I've been eating a lot of cake as I look back over the week, goodness. :) Then our daylight savings started which was lame because we lost an hour.
Yesterday, it was my first Sunday in a long time, probably nine months, where I didn't have to play piano in sacrament meeting, because there was a lady that did, so that was nice. It was our testimony meeting, so I introduced myself. We had lunch with a couple that look like kids, even though they're 22, but they're short and skinny. Our neighbor (who is the ward mission leader) his sons were taught by Elder Carlos to do the rubik's cube, who was taught by me, so I guess they're kind of my cubing grandsons. :) I talked to him and showed off my cube collection, it's always fun talking to a fellow cuber. On Sunday afternoon, we filled up the font again. I practiced piano while that was happening because we can't leave the chapel. Then some youth started to show up and I showed off my square one cube and also the pyraminx. Not very many know how to do it, but a lot of them are interested. Because of that and the piano, I'm quite the celebrity, haha. :)
Then it was Laura and Louisa's baptism! It went great, I don't think there were any hitches in the baptism for once. Elder Barbosa baptized Louisa, and then one of their relatives baptized Laura. Unfortunately, while they were in their white clothes, they took pictures, but I didn't know about it because I was practicing the musical number which was Oração de uma Criança (Child's Prayer), which all the youth organizations sang. I just got one picture after the fact. So Laura is the older one, Louisa is the middle child. The youngest daughter is Lívia, and she is super adorable. The faces she makes, it's really funny. After the baptism, we went over to their house where we had more cake and sandwiches and juice, which was awesome.
Then it was Laura and Louisa's baptism! It went great, I don't think there were any hitches in the baptism for once. Elder Barbosa baptized Louisa, and then one of their relatives baptized Laura. Unfortunately, while they were in their white clothes, they took pictures, but I didn't know about it because I was practicing the musical number which was Oração de uma Criança (Child's Prayer), which all the youth organizations sang. I just got one picture after the fact. So Laura is the older one, Louisa is the middle child. The youngest daughter is Lívia, and she is super adorable. The faces she makes, it's really funny. After the baptism, we went over to their house where we had more cake and sandwiches and juice, which was awesome.
And today, nothing has happened yet, but it is my one-year-and-ten-month anniversary. So today we're going to buy açaí because it's hot, and then at night we're going to buy pizza because there's no such thing as a mission anniversary without pizza. I think that's it for me. Tchau!
House tour of Parque das Bandeiras
No comments:
Post a Comment