November 17, 2014

I forgot to mention last week that there are actually 7 churches in Cabeceiras not including our school house haha. But this week was great, the guy that cut my hair today was talking about how he got shot one time by a guy whose girlfriend he kissed and he still has the bullet just below his ribs! Needless to say people handle things a little differently here in Brasil. This week was the annual celebration of the birth of Cabeceiras! So starting on Friday there was three days of partying for the citizens and lots of alchool sadly. So we spent some extra time in our apartment escondidos (hidden). On friday there were all the schools of Cabeceiras marching on the main road drumming and showing off their colors it was great and a great opportunity to talk to people and set appointments! Our appartment is right next to where the heart of the party was and on Saturday night i woke up at 3 in the morning and the party was still going strong, we had a little less people in attendance that next day for church haha. Also that night there was a couple fights we heard and gun shots! But we were safe in sound in our apartment, dont worry mom :) We look out for each other here.

Everyone thinks that im Japanese, its weird but whatever starts a conversation! Another thing that really different here is that people get married, or should i really say teenagers, at young ages. One of our investiagors named Douglas is 16 and has a wife and one kid and right now is building a house for them all! Its so weird to think about how young he is and all the responsibility he already has. sad, but hes really nice and is intersted in the church. Elder Matheus told me that he hasnt really seen this kind of lifestyle anywhere but here in Cabeceiras and its partly because of the lack of education and means people have. Another thing that really humbled me this week was that i noticed that probably 80% of the people i talk to here dont really know their dads. Its very sad, and had me thinking that in the states sometimes kids brag about what their dads do for a living, but here, its more like they brag that they even have a dad. So i am very grateful for you Dad! 

     On our way to an investigatrs house Gabriel, we say little kids sliding down a cement hill on 2 liter soda bottles and they were having the best time! Again, it just made me so humble to know that some people just dont have alot but they make the best of it. I feel like i am very ungrateful sometimes and now i really see how wrong that is. People here offer you so much even when they have so little, its just like Christ taught. It sometimes feels like being in the movie tarzan here because of all the forests and dirt roads, ill attach a picture of the way to an investigators house we had to go on, it felt like we were on a safari! This week especially though i felt like humbleness was something that i need to work on and really stood out to me.

    This week we saw a lot of cool wildlife! Does it count as wild life if its in your house? Because we had a lot of little visitors (bugs) in our apartment because of the rain, they just love us so much! THey also love oatmeal, and i discovered this when eating breakfast on thursday, ewww. haha but after flicking them out it was still delicious.We went to the Odells house this sunday for lunch and they live on the farm thats owned by the church. Its so isolated from the world! No one lives within 20 miles of them, but they are awesome, theyre from California and brother odell speaks spanish and sister odell is learning portuguese right now, if moving to a country where you dont know the language even a little bit isnt faith then i dont know what is! Theyre awesome, and on the way back we saw two mccaws flying right next to the car it was awesome! I didnt take a picture i just enjoyed it, we saw more later that day and a toucan! Also this baby crocodile looking thing i didnt take a picture there were people watching, also these cool birds that look a little bit like emus were just roaming the yard of the odells and then scampered away when we went out but they were really legal! (cool)

I tried some strange fruit called Picki which you cant bite but just scrape the skin off with your teeth, it was good! The baptism we had scheduled for Lucas on Saturday was canceleed because it was raining so much, but he went to church and we rescheduled for this saturday! This week was great nonethelsss, we got alot of references from the festival, and a nice old woman who is an inactive member let us pick tons of mangoes from her trees and eat sugar cane and also told us to cme back to teach her grandchildren! This week were also having a chess tournament among the elders, Elder Matheus and i are tied for first, and its double elimniation! But the church is really growing here its amazing, i am so grateful that the Lord is guiding us to people to teach, the Holy Ghost is real! 

Thanks for all the emails, i hope everyones week is great!