Transfers!

Hey yáll!

Sister Peart, Bruna, Sister Andrus

Sister Andrus, Cristina, Sister Peart

 

So, transfers happened and now I´m training a new American, Sister Day. She was the only American Sister that got there that day, and she´s mine! Muahahahaha. :) By some miracle she got her visa before her report date, so she spent all 6 weeks in the Brasil MTC. She´s pretty cool, she´s from Kentucky, she´s 19. She thinks I´m funny, so we get along great. :)

I didn´t keep track of all the funny things that happened this week. Sorry. :/ New planner and everything. Next week I´ll do better. 

So Sister Day came to Brasil in January. Therefore she is super white and we draw a lot of attention. It´s also been raining every day, so she hasn´t had an opportunity to tan. On Saturday night we were finishing up the day and I was figuring out which route to take home. I explained to her my thought process; "Well, right now we are looking super American. And the people seem especially drunk this evening, so I´m making an executive decision. We are not taking the quick way home, as it involves cutting across several unlit, rather sketchy, drug filled back allyways. Which means we´ll have to walk in a big cirlce, alright?" I thought she might be sad about that, since we had walked a lot that day. Her response: "That´s alright, I need to walk off that chocolate bar we ate today so we can eat those cupcakes when we get home." That´s my filha. I am teaching her well.

She clearly has a very positive outlook on life. She showed that on her first full day in the field. Right when we went out to work, it started raining. A lot. A lot a lot. As we were heading to our area, we came to the first river. Usually it´s just a road, but that day the situation was a little wetter than normal. There was no way around it, so we just had to wade through it. This happened three times, just to get to our area. Obviously, no one wanted to talk to us, or let us in, so we walked around in the pouring rain for about 4 hours. After the first couple hours, she turns to me and is exclaims, "This is so awesome!!" With a carefully blank face I asked her to please explain, while searching for signs of sarcasm. She said, "Now I can say that I´ve been stuck in a tropical storm in Brasill!" That´s very true. She definitely earned the right to make that claim. Awesome indeed. :)

I also realized that my self-confidence is going to take a nose dive when I get back. Sister Day was like "Sister Peart, I saw three different guys check you out today." My first thought was, "Only three"? Then I saw the problem. Here I walk around in whatever clothes happen to be cleanest, whether or not they match. I don´t do my hair, my makeup ran out a long time ago, and my face appears to be allergic to São Paulo. And people still tell me I´m pretty. I´m going to return to the United States one day, start wearing matching clothes, start wearing makeup, start trying to control my skin condition, and yet I´m still going to be a "sweet spirit". If I´m lucky. Otherwise I´ll go back to being a "rather-sassy-and-way-too-sarcastic spirit". Oh well. What can you do?

In other news, the time has come to start getting rid of the foot tan line. I want to be able to wear normal shoes when I get home, so I figure it doesn´t hurt to start now. Even though it´s still another 8 months. Summer is on the downhill now, so I have to take advantage of what´s left. Today I will purchase some sandals. This is a momental occasion on so many levels. Because I never wear sandals, even at home. So yáll can be proud of me. And feel free to send me a letter expressing just how proud you are of me. :)

Have a good week!

Sister Peart