Hey everyone!
This week has been pretty alright! The beginning of the week was really
hard because all of the Sisters in the district got sick...we all had SOMETHING
awful, and no one knows what it was...but it´s all good now and we´re back to
work! We´ve got lots of new investigators, but baptisms are coming super slowly
because NO ONE here is married...it´s so weird. But that´s definitely our
biggest problem. People here are together 20 years and just never got the piece
of paper. So strange. But at least they know the Gospel is true! :D
To answer mom´s question about houses, yes, houses here are extremely
humble. A lot just have cement, wood, or dirt floors, and there are definitely
bugs everywhere. And when we take the boat to Belém, there are houses hidden in
the forest that are just little shacks. It´s way different.
Hah, and the members here like to show us how fancy they are by feeding us
charque. Pronounced like shark. But it´s horse meat. And goooodness gracious I
don´t like it at all. But I eat it almost every day :P At least it´s food
though. We walk and sweat so much that seriously, any food is good. I´ve lost a
little bit of weight, but nothing to worry about just a few pounds. HAH. And I
made the grave mistake of pretending to like a certain dessert the Sisters in
the ward gave us...and now they make it all the time. Let this be a lesson to
you all that lying is bad. badbadbad. But it´s all good...I now have a goal to
enjoy charque and cupuaçu (the dessert).
Something hilarious that I love about here is that everyone recognizes me
as an American. So when they see me walking down the street, people scramble for
the one word or phrase they know in English, and they yell it as we´re walking.
Haha it cracks me up. I get a lot of ´how are yoooouu?!?´and ´yeessss!!´ haha I
love it. And when I respond in English they just go crazy and ask me to talk
more...and then get upset that they can´t understand. It cracks me up.
We´re finally moving houses this week...no more giant ants and spiders and
slugs in MY BED. Woo!!
Something we do here every day before we leave the house is bear our
testimonies. So I´ve been doing that a lot in Portuguese. One of the sisters in
our district is from Argentina, and she literally has forgotten spanish...and
with mother´s day coming up, she´s trying to practice spanish so she can talk
with her family. So she bore her testimony in Spanish. And because of this, the
sisters let me bear mine in English. To them it was all the same...but to me it
was so weird! None of the words flowed right and I kept questioning if I was
really saying the right thing or if I should have used a different word instead.
So...that was reaaaallly weird. It´s just getting way easier to say Gospel
related stuff in Portuguese. So...by Christmas I think I´ll have a hard time
talking to you guys. :D
One last thing! Sundays are the hardest days! The days we need to get
investigators to church. This sunday was awful. We have one investigator, Glory,
who really wanted to come with us, but she didn´t know how to get there, and she
doesn´t have a car or bike or anything. So we got to the church to look for
someone with a car, and the only person with a car there randomly had a flat
tire. Then church started, but NO ONE was there on time who could help us. Then
an hour later, someone finally came...so we went with him, and he ran out of
gas. Literally right out of the parking lot. And of course it was pouring rain.
And of course Glory lives reallly far from the church. So...we walked. And
eventually everything worked out and we made it just in time for sacrament (they
have sacrament last here) And Glory absolutely adored it, and she wants to get
baptized asap. So...I guess I learned to not give up...and that SOMEONE doesn´t
want our investigators at church. Endure to the end people! Love you all, talk
to you next week!
Love,
Sister Neal
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