Woah!

Oi gente,

I only have one thing to say about this week. Holy hot. So hot. They are starting to ration water by cutting of the water in different neighborhoods on different days. I realize that yáll are all dying of freezing weather up there, but we are literally dying down here. I say literally because there actually was a little boy in our area that died because it was so hot. He was just sitting in front of the elementary school, waiting to go in for class. And it was just too hot. Poor thing. It is officially the hottest summer in about 70 years. Of course it would be this summer that I chose to go on a mission. Anyways. That is all.

I made a drunk man very angry this week. Last Sunday we were waiting for our Ward Mission Leader to meet us for a visit. As we were waiting, this very drunk man came up to us and started getting upset that we never visited him. He apparently talked to some Sisters before I got here, and they said they would visit. I am not responsible for other missionaries poor decisions. He was talking to Sister Andrus, because she is much nicer. I guess the I-will-punch-you-in-the-face-if-you-try-anything face is a univeral thing, no matter the language. Anyways. She got his address and said we would visit next Sunday. By that time our leader had shown up, and with his help we were able to leave. At that point I made an executive decision as senior companion that we were absolutely not going there.

Anyways. Here´s the part where he got upset. It was Friday night. We were walking down the street with one of our less-active recent-converts, going to a ward activity. Mr. Drunk Man sees us pass by and yells after us. I told Sister Andrus to ignore him and just keep walking, but then the yelling got too intense. So we stop and turn around. He bypasses Sister Andrus and storms right up to me. As effectively as a severely drunk man can storm. He points at me and starts the most irritating conversation ever, way too close to my face:

 "You did NOT come by my house on Sunday. I sat there WAITING!" 

"What are you talking about?" (Always start out playing ignorant with drunk people. See where they´re coming from.)

"I KNOW it was you! I recognize you because of your glasses!"

"Look here, Mr. Drunk Man. We talked to you on Sunday, right?" 

"Right." 

"And we said we would pass by the next Sunday, right?" 

"Right."

"That Sunday hasn´t happened yet. It´s only Friday."

"......I sat there WAITING!"

"Right, well we´ll pass by next Sunday." (That was a lie. We are not going there.)

After a few more cycles of this irritating conversation, we were able to leave, with him shouting after us. I asked Rafael (our recent-convert) about the man. Apparently that´s as sober as he gets. Lovely.

Funny Portuguese incident. A while ago, we were at lunch and the lady said to the nearest Sister: Eat more! You barely ate anything! The Sister, who had only been in Brazil for about a week, responded with "Sai fora!"

For those of you who are unaware, "Sai fora" is a moderately rude phrase that is completely inappropriate to use in response to pushy hospitality. It pretty much means "Get the heck out of here, you idiot." It was kind of hilarious. Her trainer had the lovely experience of practicing some intense smooth talking. I was dying, but trying to do so quietly.

Last thing. I discovered, the interesting way, that our apartment doesn´t seem to have a smoke detector. Because I woke up Sunday morning to our entire apartment full of smoke. I remember smelling it in my sleep and thinking, "Dang it, that stupid man is smoking outside our window again." Wasn´t him. The air was FULL of smoke for a good mile as we went out to bring our investigators to church. I asked our investigator what it was and she informed us that the people here in Itaquá just have a bad habit of burning things. She was like "They just like to set things on fire." Oh, right. I also enjoy setting things on fire in the middle of a drought. Brilliant.

Anyways. That is all. There are like 20 missionaries that just came in to use the Internet here. We had a zone activity, and we left first to get the computers. Hehehehe. But the eye-daggers are starting to sting. So yeah.

Have a good week!

Sister Peart