Week 39 - Struggling with the Brazilian heat.

It is so hot here and I struggle with the heat.   Sometimes I think about coming home.  The heat zaps my strength.  When you walk all day and no one wants to talk to you it is discouraging.  The heat makes it difficult to sleep.  I dream about being transferred to Alaska or Canada where it is cold.

Everyone just keeps telling me that summer hasn’t even started.  Even my companion struggles with the heat.   He comes from a state that is supposed to be hotter, but he says that this is the hottest place he has ever been.

I drink lots of water.  I can’t go an hour without water.  The only relief I have found is a cool shower. But, the second you walk out you become hot and sweaty again.

For our p-day, we went to a farm.  It rained so it wasn’t as hot.  There was a cabin in the woods and we were able to fish and eat churrasco.  We caught and released lots of tilapia.  We didn’t eat the fish.

Week 38 - Merry Christmas!

Feliz Natal! (Merry Christmas)

I probably will be on for only a few minutes. We are at a member’s house and they only have one computer.  My companion still needs to email but I’ll talk about this week and what all went on during our Christmas call

We will be working on our investigators house later today. I think some members of the church will help.  It’s to put up a roof. They actually were given much of what they lost and stuff like clothes and tools to start working again. Elder Farias and I are fixing them churrasco on Christmas eve.  That’s Brazilian BBQ.  If you ever have been to a Brazilian restaurant where they come around and carve you some meat that is churrasco. It literally just means BBQ but they do it different here. The cuts of meat are way different too. We will probably buy contrafilé, fraldinha, and linguiça.  They only season meat with salt. But its like huge chunks of salt and it falls off while your cooking. It is so good!

We have a Christmas conference tomorrow.  We are heading to the presidents house for Christmas lunch.

Week 37 - Cleanup and reconstruction

This week we helped our investigator clean up after his house burned down.  A part of the house survived so they are all sleeping in that section.   The community helped them out so much. They received a bunch of food and clothes and tools to try to get their business started again. This coming Saturday the elders quorum is going to help build their house. The church is buying wood and roof tiles.  They are getting smothered with help!

So transfers happened and I’m staying here with Elder Farias!  I didn’t want to leave or lose Elder Farias for Christmas.  Elder Farias has been here for four transfer cycles ( 6 months). Since he has been here longer, he is more likely to leave next.  This means I’ll probably be here for at least a couple more transfer cycles (three months).

I can play almost any hymn on the harmonica at this point!  I totally want to come home playing blues harmonica but I don’t know if I can learn how to with the one I have.

People have Christmas trees here, but most are only about two feet tall.