Hi Everyone!

I´m sorry if none of you get personal emails this week, but the email time is extremely limited this week. It´s Sister Sorensen´s last p-day in Brasil, so we went to Brás and therefore only have a little time to do emails. Sorry.

This week I learned and saw many funny things. Some things were also not so funny. The not-so-funny things all involved death. I saw my first leftover Macumba sacrifice. We were walking along the street and something smelled unpleasant. I start looking around and Sister Sorensen just grumbles "Ah. Macumba." There was a beheaded chicken right there on the sidewalk. Complete with clay bowls full of questionable substances. Lovely.

I also almost stepped on a pancake rat. There are many rats in the road that have been run over so many times that they look like pancakes. This usually isn´t a problem, except that this particular night was rainy. So the rat was soggy. I excecuted what I´m pretty sure would be an award-winning breakdancing move if anyone had been there to see it.

I also almost stepped on a dead cat. That was the only one that kind of fazed me. I didn´t see it at all, I just was walking along, and Sister Sorensen was like "Did you SEE the dead cat?" I was like "What dead cat?" Then I realized that not only had I almost walked over the freshly dead cat, but I had, in fact, walked through the evidence of how it died. Gross. These shoes deserve more credit.

Moving on from dead things. On Tuesday we were walking to our meeting (no sign of creepy marriage guy), and I saw a man sitting on the sidewalk up the road. My first thought was "Gross. Every inch of this sidewalk has been repeatedly covered in fecal material." My second thought was "Hm, from his posture and the bottle next to him I´m going to assume he´s drunk. That describes the willingness to sit in poop." As we got closer I realized he was on the phone, and that the phone was HUGE. Third thought: "Wow. It´s like one of those cell phones from the 80's!" Finally, we walked passed him and I realized that no, it was not an 80's cell phone. It was a music box. He was talking to a music box. My mistake.

We also saw a pimped out gangster bike. We´re walking along at night and I hear what has to be a "Wanna-be-gangster" car approaching. As it passes us, I realized that I was, at that very moment, seeing the strangest contraption ever. It was a bicycle. Just a normal bicycle. With a speaker system that blasted bass well enough to rattle your teeth. But wait, there´s more. It was decked out with those lights that change colors and accompany the music. And the seat was as far back from the handlebars as possible. Par-tey.

As for the new missionary training. I learned a very important lesson this week. Sister Sorensen informed me that she wanted to show me something, but she had to find one first. I was like "Ok.....vague, but ook." We keep walking along until she finds what she´s looking for. She points out one of those plastic microcentrifugation tubes in the road. She´s like "See that? Know what that is?" And I was like, "Yes. It´s a microcentrifugation tube." She stared at me for a little while. She has a very well-developed stare. I informed her that we use them in my lab at BYU. Her response: "Well Sister. They aren´t doing medical testing in the middle of the street in São Paulo Leste. Those are for cocaine." I see. Duly noted. Now I can judge just how much any particular street needs the gospel. :) Our area is in desperate need.

Sorry this letter is kind of short. Busy busy busy. :)

Have a good week!

Sister Peart