Monday, September 7, 2015

"When you give a mouse a cookie..."

Except for me, the title should be, "When you ask to be shown your weaknesses..."

When you ask to be shown your weaknesses, Heavenly Father gives you just a little glimpse of them. Prayers definitely get answered, sometimes we're just not prepared for the answers. Oh well... É vida. Vamos continuar a melhorar cada dia. É assim... vida boa.  

This week we got the transfer calls. Presidente Amorim does things differently than Presidente Fluckiger. Now we get transfer calls on Tuesday nights, then we have to make our own travel plans, and then we leave on Wednesday morning. Luckily, I am staying in Gaia for one more transfer. FINALLY!!! I get to stay in an area for more than three months! :D We were at Xeca's house when we got the call and Xeca about started crying she was so happy. She didn't want me to leave. Yesterday Xeca actually told me that after my mission if I want to come back to Gaia I can live in her house and she'll help me find a job and a husband and she'll help me get Português citizenship e tudo. I think Xeca likes me. Sister Runyan and I are together for one more transfer and we're currently in the process of trying to find new investigators. We still talk to Carlos and Gabriel but Zé quit talking to us and we really need to find new people. We found one family that was taught by the missionaries last year. We're going to try to start teaching them again. Our little old lady investigator Maria José didn't get baptized. She doesn't really want to get baptized and to avoid doing the baptismal interview she nearly died.... yeah. That was probably one of the weirdest experiences ever. I don't ever want to repeat that ever again. I was a mess and I was crying and the elders were all there and they just kept making jokes. We have a brand new elder too. It was his second day in the country and he had no idea what was going on. Poor kid. He was so confused. Oh well.... little old ladies are so stubborn. 

We also found a guy named João.... or Juan. He's half espanhol and half português. We thought he was pretty cool (and way lost and a little weird... he's an "artist") and we started teaching him and it was all going great until he started asking me if I wanted to go to the bar with him and get a drink. It happens a lot so we didn't think anything of it because it's a very normal thing here, but then the second time he and his friend invited me to get a drink with them we figured it was probably best to just leave. Turns out he's not even in the country any more. He went... somewhere? We don't actually know. He just kind of wanders around. It was an interesting experience and if anything it makes me more grateful that I have a normal, structured life. :)

This week we also started teaching a gypsy family that lives in the zone leaders' area. The zone leaders have been working with them for months but the family also likes the Sisters and they respond really well to us. There are different kinds of gypsies and these ones are the kind that aren't dangerous at all. They're from Romania and they have a little bit of a hard time speaking Português so we talked to Presidente Amorim and he said he will try to find out if it's possible to have Romanian speaking missionaries teach with us using Skype. That would be really nice. They're a really nice family. They are actually some of the nicest people I've ever met, but they've got some struggles. They can't find work and they're trying really hard to quit smoking, but quitting smoking is turning out to be a huge battle for them. Also, not all of the family is here. Part of the family is still in Romania and they have relatives going in and out quite a lot. They're really nice though. 

I have run out of things to say. :) That's new. Oh wait, I remembered something. Presidente Amorim in his weekly email this week said that he wants to start corresponding with our parents so don't be surprised if you get an email from him. Maybe. I don't know when he'll start doing that. Also, I love p-day because then we do groceries and that way we have food in our house. We're much happier missionaries when we have food in the house. :D

Little Sister Smith

P.S. This week we tried teaching Ana and her kids how to make chocolate chip cookies.... Português people just can't quite get it.:) They tasted fine but they looked awful.  

The other picture is us with Gabriel. We had a lesson with him this week and he thinks we are just the weirdest people on the entire planet. :) He's pretty cool though. It was a really good lesson and he is progressing a ton! He just doesn't realize it. :D




No comments:

Post a Comment