Alright so since I didnt get a pday last week, here's my last week in the ctm! I had to give a talk on sunday, and how it worked was everyone prepared a talk and then while you were walking in you got told if you were speaking or not so i had approximately 2 hymns to get myself excited, but I survived!
Other than that, same as usual. We sat in a classroom for 12 hours. Sister Dewey and Elder Sheperd communicated soley through eye contact and telepathy, Elder Bishop made water bottle tornadoes, Irmão Oliveira pretended to have a worse accent than possible when speaking english, and Irmão Tavares made it a daily goal to turn me bright red with embarassment/frustration/anger/all of the above. We taught real lessons to fake people, I got "to accomplish" mixed up with "to buy" so I spent a week saying I accomplished sunblock and did we purchase our district goals?
Monday we had to say goodbye to everyone which was seriously so sad. In only 6 weeks I'm not kidding when I say these people have become some of my best friends ever, and to say goodbye for who knows how long?? Especially since we can't hug each other (well sisters can hug sisters and elders can hug elders but yeah) so goodbye handshakes were given and tears were shed. We did one final positive circle and ohhhhh my goodness were there tears.
So tuesday we arrived and Sister Dewey and I said our goodbyes and headed off with our new companions (mine is sister Periera). Then wednesday we spent unpacking, cleaning, getting to know the area a little etc. We really werent outside long, maybe an hour? and yet...remember when I got my call and every single person said "oh hun im scared for your skin"? Remember just last week when a woman at the temple asked if I'm allergic to the sun? Remember last week when Oliveira stopped me to say "Sister, você é MUITO branco, MUITO MUITO branco. por favor use sunblock, buy lots" and Tavares said I'm going to die here from the sun? Or when on the plane ride here sister Dewey commanded me to use sunblock so that she doesnt have to send out the email to district 39b announcing my death? Yeah I forgot sunblock and am already burned. Twas entertaining having a few different members tell me they're going to buy me a parosole.
Then the normal mission life began. Our zone leaders came to show us the area and brought us to meet some current investigators, Osvaldo, and Ari and Houra(???). Osvaldo is funny, when the elders told him theyd been transfered his eyes got wide and he said "hows this one supposed to help me, she doesnt speak pórtuguese!" and I was like oh please, I know portuguese have some faith in me! So he made me say the prayer just to see if I could. It made me laugh though.
In all our lessons, I'll confess I dont always know exactly whats being said. But when its my turn to speak, I dont trip over my words, I dont hesitate, I just speak and words come out, not always exactly what I was planning on saying but always ends up being good. Seriously, the gift of tongues is a real thing. Not always in the way I want it to be (meaning snap my fingers and be fluent already) but real nonetheless. Just gotta have patience. And remember that I literally asked for this so I can't complain ;)
street contacting is an interesting thing because most of the time, no one cares and we get blown off, but at times its clear that one of the people there so very much wants to listen but is holding back because of the other person there-their friend or sibling or something. We talked to a man the other day and briefly mentioned eternal families, and he said all his family has died already and he got a little emotional and started to ask to know more when his friend kinda pushed us away. But we got an appointment with him! Hopefully we manage to get there :)
Theres a lizard that lives in our house. I've named him João Pedro for Irmão Oliveira. He seems to like it here because he's always here.
Alright next week I'll have the greatest email ever (i hope) because next week we /might/ have baptisms!
Tchau Tchau, até a semana próxima, Sister Steele
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