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