Transfers!

Hey Yáll!

This week was transfers. I got transferred to Vila Virginia 2 in the Itaquaquecetuba Stake. I took over the training of Sister Andrus. Poor thing. Hopefully she´ll come out of it alright. She´s pretty much already trained, so that´s good.

Sorry about not writing last week. I´ll give you a story from my last week there in Vila Esperança: Sister Bruno and I were so desperate for something to do that we decided to knock on doors one day. It was terrible. We knocked on doors for two hours and not one single person let us in. Or was even interested. Sucky. BUT, after two hours of rejection, we decided to sit down on a bench for five minutes and rest. As we were sitting there I noticed that every single pigeon in São Paulo had decided to come to the same little park at that exact moment. I was a little confused as to the purpose of this gathering, but then I saw this old lady walking toward the park with two big bags. I got really excited. I pointed it out to Sister Bruno and promised her that we were about to have a Mary Poppins experience. I´ve always wanted to see a crazy old lady feed the birds. Lifelong dream accomplished. It´s a lot cuter in the movie. In real life it´s actually just pretty gross. But after dumping two big bags of scraps into the mass of pigeons, she sat down on the picnic table and began to break up some loaves of bread. The funniest part was that there was a little girl and her mother that also paused to share this moment. The little girl (probably about 4 years old) got really excited and began to talk loudly to her mother about the "doves". Her mother informed her that they were pigeons, not doves. Undeterred, the child informed her mother that yes, they were doves. Her mother began to talk about how they are the rats of the air, and dirty, and gross. Her daughter looked unimpressed. Finally the mom told her that if she got too close she would get a bug that would eat her blood. That made her quiet for a couple moments. Taking advantage of the silence, her mom grabbed her and put her in the car and drove off. Lifelong dream accomplished and a little girl´s childhood destroyed. Good day.

But moving on to new stories in the new area. One of my first days I revealed to my companion that I´m crazy. We ran into this guy and started talking to him and I noticed that he had a UT longhorns shirt on. I got excited and I tried to tell him that I live in Austin, but in my excitement I lost the ability to speak both Portuguese and English. So I ended up just doing this weird jabbering noise and pointing very forcefully at his shirt. Both he and my companion looked at me with a considerable amount of concern. I tried again. "I live there. I´m from Texas." Pointing again at his shirt. He still looked concerned, so evetually we left. I was a little embarrassed.

It rains a lot here. A lot. There are four sisters in this area, so we divide it in half. My companion and I are in the hilly parts (lots of exercise), and the other Sisters get everything at the bottom of the hill. Considering the amount of rain we´ve been getting, that becomes a bit of a problem for them. I will steal their photos someday and send them to yáll, but suffice it to say that there has been a lot of flooding. They had to take refuge in a bakery for two hours one day because the road became a river and was taking everything away. And then once, when we asked them how their day went, they were like "Well...we tried to visit this person...but they had water in their house up to neck-level. So we´ll go back in a few days when the water goes down a little bit." Poor Sisters.

Yesterday I talked with way more drunk people than I ever want to see again. We were talking to this girl outside of a bar and this super drunk guy kept asking us if we wanted some ice cream. In that creepy way that weird guys ask small children if they want candy. We kept saying no. Then he got confused about where to buy ice cream. We kept talking to this girl, and by the time we were finishing up, he came out of the bar with a liter of ice cream. We told him no thank you. The girl looked up at us and was like "It´s for yáll!" and we were just like "Nope, it´s for you. We´ll come buy on Tuesday!". Then we walked off while she glared at the betrayal. She wasn´t actually mad though. When he saw we were leaving he was like "Wait! Where are you going? I bought you ice cream!" Drunk people.

We also did a contact with a man yesterday, and I was having the HARDEST time understanding him. It was ridiculous. Then, by the end of the contact, he informed me that he doesn´t speak Portuguese, and asked me if I speak Spanish. Everything made sense then. We had been speaking two different languages. But we still understood each other more or less. Portuguese is better than Spanish. Just so you know.

Another funny thing about languages. When I got here, Sister Andrus told me that she really wanted to work on her Portuguese this transfer, and she wanted my help. (Apparently when they got the transfer call, her companion got excited for her and told her that I speak REALLY well. Lies. Unacheivable expectations. Awesome.) Anyways. Last night she admitted something that she hadn´t wanted to tell me because she thought I might think she´s dumb. She was like "The other day, you told a story and I got SO excited because I understood the whole thing! And then I realized that you were speaking in English." I found that hilarious.

Last story. We did a contact with someone that appears to be a ghost. We talked to this guy, Jefferson, that was sitting in a garage full of half-finished mannequins. When I asked, he informed me that he makes them as his profession. Cool. We talked for a while with him and he was really cool. I asked him if he would go to church and he said that he would. I asked him about 50 more times if he really would go. He insisted that he would. Then I was like "Well, can we pass by tomorrow and confirm?" He was like "Girl! You will see my little black face there!" Ok. Point taken. We went back the next day anyways, because he gave in and said that we could. When we got there, the garage was locked and the lady who lives there informed us that Jefferson moved to Rio two years ago. After insisting that I had talked to him on Friday, and looking completely insane, I accepted the fact that apparently Jefferson moved to Rio two years ago. Then I tried to remember if we shook his hand. Sister Andrus says we did. He didn´t come to church. I was so sad. And confused. About Ghost Jefferson. But last night we realized that he gave us his phone number, so we´re going to call him this week. We´ll see how it goes....

OH I ALMOST FORGOT! Everyone says that you know you´re fluent in a language when you dream in it, right? Well, I never remember what my dreams are about, let alone what language they´re in. But a couple days ago I woke myself up because I was talking in my sleep. In Portuguese! Another lifelong dream accomplished. Yesssssss!

All in all, I really like this area. I love Vila Esperança, but this area appears to be super cool as well. We´ll see how it goes!

Have a good week!

Sister Peart

Lots of pictures this week!

Christmas 2013

Christmas decorations 2013

Christmas gifts with Gabriel

Rainstorms that happen almost every day

Sunburn

Sis Bruno's candy corn sunburn

The view from a 17th story apartment

Some lady's laundry

Sometimes the jungle starts taking over again

Sis Bruno, Sis Peart, Gabriel, Janai, and AnaLaura

Rain

Hey Yáll!

This week was pretty...interesting. I left my mission a few times, got soaking wet a few times and realized that I hate personal trainers.

Tuesday we went to the temple in São Paulo, which was pretty sweet. It made me appreciate the talent of the photographer that took the picture for the little poster of the temple. Because it looks very nice and serene and in the middle of nowhere in the standard temple picture, but it actually is in the middle of a nasty city. Talent. There is also a Walmart near the temple, so we took a visit for a little view of America. It was kind of disappointing. They sell pretty much all the same stuff as the other stores here. They also seem to have missed the memo that walmart is supposed to have lots of blue and smiley faces. But whatever. I went to the back corner of the store and found the jackpot. Goldfish and Reeses. Those were purchased in a heartbeat. The Reeses were promptly consumed right there in the store, before the Brazillian sun made them into soup. Best thing ever. But I don´t mean to talk about the miraculous appearance of rare American junk food more than the temple. The temple was also lovely, and spiritual, and wonderful.

Wednesday we went to visit this family we have started teaching. We had explained the Restoration the first time, but clearly they hadn´t understood, so we decided to show the Restoration video and explain it again. We watched the film and then started talking; focusing a lot on the two little boys. Sister Bruno asked this 12 year old boy: "What do you think is going to happen after you die? What do you want to happen?" His response: "Well, I hope I will come back to Earth in a new life and be a woman." Symphony of awkward crickets. I´m not sure who was more surprised by that response, us or his father. His father sure seemed a lot more concerned. Because if that´s a little strange for a boy to say in the US, it´s SUPER strange for a boy to say here in Brasil. We weren´t sure how to tie that back in to Joseph Smith, so it was just tactfully ignored.

Thursday we went to the bishop´s storehouse with some of our investigators because their order was so big that they needed extra help to carry it. The storehouse is in the São Paulo, Interlagos mission, so I couldn´t even tell you were the heck we were. But it was far. It took over an hour and a half to get there. When we got there, they got all their stuff, we helped out with some service, took a look at the clothes they had there, and then got ready to go. When I walked out and saw their order I got a little apprehensive. It was a lot of food. Let me tell you, rice, beans, and flour are all very heavy things. Somehow, I got the sack with the rice, beans, and flour. 44 pounds to be exact. So we got to carry that for about 6 blocks, cross an 8-lane highway, catch an Ónibus (an experience that´s hard to survive WITHOUT carrying 44 pounds of food), ride the metro, catch another Ónibus and then walk about another 6 blocks. It was a lovely experience. Especially with my investigator walking behind me telling me that I was weak. As she carried the sack that had the toilet paper, sanitary pads, and 5 pounds of laundry detergent. But service brings blessings, so all is well.

Friday Sister Bruno got to go to the Leadership Council, because she´s the new Sister Training Leader and therefore get´s to go to the fancy, secret meetings. So I stayed with a Sister from Ecuador that has been on the mission for 4 and a half weeks. I learned that Spanish and Portuguese are not as similar as I had thought. That night, when we met up again at the metro to switch companions, it started to rain. This was interesting since I had a pretty good sunburn from it being so hot and sunny that day. Sister Bruno and I crammed into the metro car (it being during the "Breaking the Law of Chastity Because the Metro Is SO Packed" hour) and as we rode along it began to rain with a frightening intensity. Then it began to hail. When we got off we found the entrance of the metro packed with people who were unfortunate enough to have forgotten umbrellas. That included us. The drunk man that we always buy chips from was raking in the money though. He stood there at the entrance with a cart full of umbrellas for sale. Smart man. After waiting for a little while it became clear that the rain was going nowhere. So when the torrent turned into just rain, and no hail, we decided to just run for it. At the bottom of the ramp we gave up running, since we were already soaking wet. We started the journey home, stopping occasionally to wipe our burning eyes. (You don´t know acid rain till you experience rain here in São Paulo). On the way home there is a point where the sidewalk is about a foot wide and you have to walk in single file or someone has to risk the road. Generally we walk in single file because it also happens to be on a blind corner and drivers here are insane. As we were at this point a car comes flying by, completely undeterred by the flooding, and sends a wave of water our way. Poor Sister Bruno is shorter than me, so it enveloped her completely. We just stopped in shock and stared back at the car. It hesitated for a second, and then kept going. As we finally got to our street, the exact same car pulled up and a man/woman shouted "Sisters! Do you want a ride home?" Since we were like 5 houses away from home, and we had no idea who this person was, we declined. But at least they felt bad enough to come back.

Saturday we started off the day by going to a ward activity. Our ward doesn´t do many activities and the bishop always asks us to go and show the ward that we support them. When we showed up there were two people, plus the bishop, there. Since it was a physical fitness activity we changed, and joined the "group". I guess the bishop somehow knows this personal trainer guy, and he got him to sign on to teach our ward about physical fitness for four Saturdays. It was terrible. I despise exercising. And this man was very obnoxious. He was like, "Do more, do more, I know you can do more!" Yes, Mr. Annoying Shouting Man, I CAN do more, but unlike you I have to walk for 8 more hours today! And tomorrow, and everyday after that for 10 more months! But I sucked it up and did it anyways. One of the two people there was the old lady that we had lunch with, so when it was over we just hobbled with her to her house. She let us use her shower while she made lunch. Then we walked around on our new jelly legs for the rest of the day.

Sunday. Pain. So much pain. It-took-me-10-minutes-to-get-out-of-my-bed-and-into-the-shower pain. I don´t know if I´ve mentioned it before, but we live on the 3rd floor. Took forever to make it down all the stairs. Got to church and shared knowing glances with the other two people who were walking around like they were 200 years old. Best part is that we were speaking in Sacrament meeting and I was not super capable of getting out of my chair without a boost. Luckily I made it to the pulpit without collapsing, so everything worked out ok.

Today I am still in pain, but my knees have stopped giving out, so that is progress.

Yesterday I also ate my weirdest lunch. Pig knees. She put the dish on the table and said "I hope it´s good, it´s my first time making it." I asked her what it was and she yelled from the kitchen, "Pig knees". I looked at my companion and was like......"Did she just say pig knees?" Sister Bruno wasn´t sure, so she asked again, and got the same response. The lady walked out of the kitchen just in time to see our twin looks of alarm and started backpedaling. She was like "It´s actually just the lower part of the pig leg, but they call it 'pig knees.'" False. Definitely pig knees. I got a B+ in Anatomy, and that was most definitely a knee bone sitting on my plate. It wasn´t too bad, but I did not take seconds.

Today I made Brazillian juice for the first time. Passionfruit. Turned out alright, but it was a really small passionfruit that someone had given us. My advice: always eat passionfruit in juice or something. It´s not super delicious plain. Also they say it makes you sleepy. I figure it makes you about as sleepy as turkey does, but the way our recent convert was talking about it, you´d think it was a medically proven sedative. Whatever. It´s better in juice anyway. 

Not sure what else to report, other than this morning I got bit by a mosquito right in the middle of my forehead. This wouldn´t be a problem if I didn´t seem to have some sort of allergy to the mosquitos here. All my bites swell up to at least the size of a quarter and turn bright red. At the moment, this bite is dime-size and pink, so we´ll see how it goes. Hopefully it will stop there.

Anways. I hope yáll have a lovely week! If you have a moment, feel free to write a letter! And send it. That´s a very important part of the process.

Até mais!

Sister Peart

Fireworks

Hey yáll.

Again, the longest week of my life.

First things first. I hate fireworks. São Paulo has no rules about the use of fireworks. Or, if they do, nobody feels obligated to obey them. It was impossible to sleep on New Years Eve. It felt like we were in a war zone. People are insane. They were all standing on top of their houses and chucking lighted fireworks off the roof! Here in São Paulo, the houses are all built on top of each other without any sense of organization, so I was afraid that a firework was going to come in our window. My bed being under the window, I had an emergency fire escape plan all drawn up in my mind...just in case. At one point, I was just about to fall into a half-sleep, when someone miscalculated their throw and a firework slammed into our house. There was no sleeping after that. I wasn´t watching the clock, but I could still tell when it hit midnight. At first I thought it was a roll of thunder that just kept growing and never stopped. After about 30 seconds, I realized that that was the sound of all the people, in one of the largest cities in the world, setting off fireworks at the same time. Crazy. After that night, things went back to normal. A few fireworks every day.

In the United States, I believe that New Years Eve is the big event to celebrate. Everyone parties and then gets on with the new year on the first of January. Not here. The first of January was bigger than Christmas was. We showed up to one of our investigator´s houses and found the entire sink, along with a trash can, full of empty beer cans. Stupid holidays.

On the way back, we saw a person in the street ahead of us. They ran down one of the intersecting roads, and after they were gone my companion and I both looked at each other in confusion. Was that a man or a woman? It looked mannish. But it was wearing a skirt and flowery shirt, and looked like it had boobs. As we passed that intersecting street we found 20 full-grown, slightly overweight, men dressed up as women and playing soccer in the street. Interesting. I thought about passing out Word of Wisdom pamphlets, but decided against it.

One day we were talking with one of our teenaged recent converts and she was telling us that there weren´t many women that drive Ónibuses. True fact. She said that the women drivers were all crazy. I find the men drivers to be crazy, so I wasn´t sure how to respond to that. The next day, we were in the middle of crossing the street (definitely our turn to cross) and an Ónibus came within three feet of flattening my companion. It was a lady. I found the irony humerous.

Just in case yáll were unaware, it is very hot. I don´t think I have ever sweat this much in my entire life. And I worked as a cart-pusher during the summer in Texas. Hot, hot, hot. The other day we were sitting at lunch, and my companion asked if my nametag had hurt me. I was a little confused by the random question. She said she thought that maybe it had poked me, because it looked like I was bleeding. It did, in fact, appear that I had been bleeding, but there was no wound. Then the man who was feeding us lunch discovered the problem. I was sweating so prufusely that my nametag had started to rust and was rubbing rusty sweat all over my skin. Gross, gross, GROSS.

Let´s see, what else. We met a man in the street who gave me the nickname of Barbie. His whole family has agreed that I look like Barbie. We went back the next day and then we met his 28 year old son, who is uncomfortably convinced that I am a lovely person. He asked me how to propose in English. I´m tired of these people.

Worst story ever. We went to teach this cute old man named José. When we got there, he asked if we could do the lesson in his workshop down the street, because we would be disturbed in his house. We were like, ok, whatever. When we got there we saw two cockroaches outside. He informed us that an hour or two earlier he had sprayed bug killer inside, so now the cockroaches were leaving, but that there should only be a couple, already dead, ones inside. Whatever, that´s fine. We walked inside. The walls, ceiling, and floor were crawling with about 5 different species of cockroaches. The biggest ones were a good 3-4 inches long. Some flew. Not ok. While my companion struggled to keep down a panic attack, José informed us that cockroaches won´t hurt us. Don´t care. They have to die. I spent a good 10 minutes killing every cockroach I could. I felt like I was playing that dancing game they have at Gattiland. The one where you have to step on the spiders that light up in order to win tokens. Like Wac-a-Mole with your feet. After we at least cleared the floor space, we sat down and started the lesson. I decided to exercise my faith and close my eyes during the opening prayer. When I opened them again, José had a huge cockroach on his foot. No more closing of the eyes. As Sister Bruno taught the Restoration at light speed, I killed every cockroach that came within reach. By the end of the lesson there was a pile of about 20 cockroaches. Gross. I guess you could say I´ve conquered my fear, but they are still nasty.

That´s all I have time for, but hopefully it gave you a somewhat accurate picture of this week. Have a good week!

Sister Peart