Vou vencer!

HI FAMILY.

HI FRIENDS. 

HI STRANGERS. 

Whoever the heck ya are, HEY THERE.

This week was still punch you in the face, spit in your guaraná, rain on your parade, kick your trash.... difficult.. But it was FANTASTIC. 

Things are getting better. I´m understanding my companion better. We´re conversing. No raised voices this week We´ve actually laughed a ton. Comic relief is a MUST on the mission. For real. 

Even the night after I emailed last week was better. 

We worked, visited people, walked like five hundred miles (mmkay, not quite, but kudos if ya know that song), and came home and planned and I was pretty much exhausted. Sister Anjos (super cool, from São Paulo) snuck in our room and said she needed to talk to the two of us... she was super sketch and I was nervous baha, but we came out and they opened the kitchen door and all 5 sisters broke out in PARABÉNS PARA VOCÊ, na na na na na na na (Brasilian birthday song), and we ate ICE CREAM and I taught the brasileiras how to cat daddy and bernie and i´m going to teach them the Haka and they want me to make them american cookies (they don´t know i can´t cook to save my life.. we will be experimenting this week. They don´t need to know that) and basically they love americans and I adore them so it works out pretty well.. SO FUN.

The next day... I ATE CHICKEN GUTS. I GOT A PLATE FULL OF RICE AND BEANS AND CHICKEN GUTS FOR LUNCH. I AM A BRASILIAN. It´s official. After I finished the plate, irmão decided to scoop up ANOTHER plate of chicken guts because he didn´t think I had enough. AI DE MIM. NO IRMÃO, I HAD PLENTY. Mas... I ate it. It´s fine. Bem vindos a brasil, né?

Later we were walking around in this bairro and there´s this MASSIVE muddy puddle on the side fo the road... we walk and walk and I pass the puddle... then my companion reaches the puddle.. and falls into the puddle. I was terrified. I really wanted to laugh but I didn´t know if she had a sense of humor at this point and i was terrified that she was going to be LIVID. So she pulls herself up, tries to get out, and falls AGAIN.... Same puddle.. busted her knee. s o a k i n g wet. soaked. I decide to help her out this time. She stand up...... and she LAUGHS. Tender mercy. I laughed. It was fabulous. some people were watching the whole thing down the road.. eek. But we kept going. She looked up and there was a massive rainbow in the sky... Tender mercies all over the place. God´s watching, just telling us to keep on going, take a few more steps. try one more person. Talk to someone. Try again. Stand up and go until you think you can´t go anymore, and I´ll help you keep going. 

So we kept going... and found ourselves in the middle of a torrential DOWNPOUR. we were soaked almost instantly. Didn´t have umbrellas with us. No raincoat. Nothing. Just soaking wet. We met a less active member of the church in a little hair salon in the rain. God absolutely had a hand in that haha. She feels like she can´t come to church because she´s seperated from her husband. She´s one of the sweetest ladies i´ve ever met (there´s a lot of sweet people here). She tended to Sister Novoa´s bloody knee. She let us stay in the salon until the rain passed. Gave us a towel to dry off a bit. So sweet. 

We left..... it started raining again. we were soaked again. We went to the other side of town for an appointment. We got stood up.. ha. It´s dark. We decide to contact people on the street. Torrential downpour AGAIN. We just laughed. We laughed basically all day long. 

I think it was President Hinckley´s wife, said something along the lines of how things happen and you can choose to laugh or cry about it it, and I chose to laugh. I don´t remember all of it. But the first week there was crying. Everyone was miserable. This week, we laugh. We saw God´s tender mercies and miracles in our days, even when they were difficult. All these thing will be for our good, and will give us experience. Tudo bem. All is well. 

The brasilians found out I can beatbox..... I tried to teach them. My companion is determined. YOU HAVE NOT LIVED UNTIL YOU´VE LISTENED TO A FOREIGNER (yes i am the foreigner here, but what i mean is essentially someone who doesnt speak fluent english) TRY TO BEATBOX. Find an asian or a south american or german or something, and teach them to beat box. boots-and-cats-and-boots-and-cats. Life does not get better than this, people.

I can´t even count how many people have told me im going to marry a brasilian. I think it´s mostly because they want me to marry their sons. It´s fine. 

I hope general conference was rockin! I saw the very last session in english and it was exactly what I needed to hear, but the other 3 sessions were only portuguese and I didn´t understand a THING.

We´ve gotta go, but know I love yall and I´m thinkin of yall and what not :)

AMO VOCÊS. 

Até mais,

Sister Morrill