This
was a crazy week as well. I feel like it would be safe for yáll to
assume that every week is going to be crazy from now on. President has a
lot of faith, and his prayers work like charms...
Normally
we have zone meetings on Monday nights, but this past week they
switched it to Tuesday morning. So Tuesday morning me, my companion, and
the two other sisters that we live with were heading to our meeting. We
usually take one bus to the terminal and then take another to the
church building where we have the meeting. We take the first bus, no
problem. We get off the bus at the terminal and start walking to where
we´re supposed to go while the other sisters go to put some more money
on their bus card. We stop next to this man for a second, to locate
where our bus is going to come in, and he starts talking to us.
The
first sentence out of his mouth is "How do you say marriage?" We stared
at him for a second, and Sister Sorensen was like "...what?" Again, he
asks "How do you say marriage in English?" After a couple more seconds
of staring we determine that he must be crazy and she says that she
doesn´t know what that is. He starts to talk some more, but Sister
Sorensen interrupts, saying we have to go catch our bus. So we walk walk
to the opposite side of the terminal and sit down on a bench.
As
we´re sitting there I see him making his way slowly towards our bench.
I´m staring at the ground like the greatest secrets of the universe are
written on the concrete while Sister Sorensen keeps saying "Just ignore
him, just ignore him, don´t even look at him, blah blah blah."
Obviously,
ignorning him didn´t work and he started talking to us again. Sister
Sorensen starts acting like she doesn´t speak very much Portuguese,
while I pretend that I don´t know Portuguse at all. In reality I was
wishing that I didn´t understand Portuguese, as he was telling Sister
Sorensen all about how he wants to marry me. She´s trying to get him to
go away, and failing, so she gives up and just starts talking to me in
English. I´m like "So we´re just going to pretend like he´s not there?"
And she´s like "Yep, just keep talking in English."
Unfortunately,
he was very persistent and kept talking to us. I looked over to where
the other sisters are and almost died of relief when I saw that they
were coming over to our bench. Sister Alves is Brazillian, so I knew she
could save us. They get to the bench and look a little confused as to
why we´re blatantly ignoring this man that´s obviously talking to us. I
inform Sister Jennings that this man is wanting to marry me, but I
wasn´t sure how to discretely tell Sister Alves since she doesn´t speak
English.
Luckily,
she caught on pretty quick from the what the guy was saying and started
telling him that I wasn´t interested. He began insisting that I loved
him and that I needed to marry him and go live with him in Brasil.
Pretty quickly, Sister Alves lost her patience and informed him that we
were missionaries and that he needed to have some respect and stop
saying the things he was saying. Finally, our bus arrived and the other
three sisters shove me on the bus. It was one of the super giant ones,
which was good, since he followed us onto the bus. I ran through the pay
point, to the end of the bus while the driver informed the crazy man
that he needed to leave. It was gross. Why me?
As
we were riding the bus, the sisters informed me that I needed to buy a
ring to wear like a wedding ring. Everyone else has one. Now they tell
me...
Also
on Tuesday, I was beginning to get sick and started feeling like I
wanted to die. The lady that we had lunch with was convinced that I just
needed to eat 4 more plates of food, and then I would be healed. False.
I spent the whole day on Wednesday in my bed, except for a couple hours
when I dragged myself to the lesson we had with Marcel that night. And
only because he was getting baptized in a few days. The family was super
nice though and fed me crackers and sprite and bought me some medicine.
On
Saturday night we got to visit Sister Sorensen´s uncle. In reality, he
is her grandpa´s brother, so he´s her great-uncle. But whatever. He has
four children; two sets of twins. One set is 22 years old, and one set
is 23 years old. Crazy. But, it was super fun. I had pizza for the first
time in Brasil, and we got to leave our mission. The part of São Paulo
that he lives in is super fancy. I felt very out of place. Also, they
eat pizza with a knife and a fork. It´s very difficult. Eventually I
just picked up the crust and ate it with my hands. Like a savage.
Our
president and his wife drove us there and back, and it was super crazy.
He has a GPS, but the map on the GPS looks like they gave a 2 year old
some crayons and had them draw the road system of São Paulo. We also
stopped on the way back and took a picture in front of a giant
Cathedral....at 10:30 at night. Sister Ferrin said, "This appears to be a
bit of a seedy area at night." Understatement of the century.
Speaking
of seedy areas, I´m starting to be a lot better at identifying the more
sketchy parts that we´re in. The road that our church is on would be
one of those parts. That´s where we got mooned. We were explaining to a
man where our church was, and he was like "That road?! That road is
dangerous. It´s full of druggies." How do you answer that? "Yep, that´s
the one! But the church is very nice. No drugs at all. We have a fence."
I
know there were more stories that I was going to write, but now that
I´m sitting at the computer I can´t remember what they were. I need to
write them down, like I did last week....
BUT! Marcel did get
baptized yesterday! It was exciting. I have pictures, but this Internet
place doesn´t let you send photos, so I´ll have to do it another day.
Anywho. That´s all I have time for today. Everybody have a good week, and write me lots of letters. :)
Sister Jennifer Peart
RUA CAÁ-AÇU, 229
Belenzinho, São Paulo-SP
03171-020
Brazil
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