This was a very interesting week to say the least. It started good and ended really wierd.
In the beginning:
We started teaching a 27 year women this week named Nete (Thats Ne-Ch) she is really ´´gun hoe´´ about religion and is looking for the right one. She was luckily a reference from a member that is in our ward. She has a little daughter named Emily who is 6 years old and of coarse likes to mess with the Elder that is still learning portugues. On Monday, we gave her the first lesson and in return she gave us cake, juice, and a bus money home. She lives on the other side of our area and refused to let us walk home. We tried explaning that the bus would take longer and that walking was faster, she said no. We tried explaning that we had no money, she said take this. We tried explaining that we needed to go to another appointment and she walked us to the bus stop. So instead of taking a short 20 minute walk home we ended up walking 30 minutes at the bus stop and then all in all it took about an hour and a half to get home. We recieved a phone call that night about interviews with the new president, President Souza happening on Wednesday. So lets fastforward. I woke up shaking in my pants because I was so nervous for my interview from what we heard, he speaks no english at all. So as we took our hour bus ride into Aldeota I was running over vocab in my head over and over. ´´You have nice shoes President´´ ´´How do you like the weather?´´ etc. When we got to the office, I was greeted by a tall man giving me a hug and of coarse speaking no english. President Souza as well as his spouse seem very nice. I guess I was nervous for nothing. Our zone was all together and he called us in one by one. Luckily when he called me in, I had stopped sweating. I suprising understood everything he said. I presented my study journal, planner and area book all in portugues! WHOOP!! I came out pretty confident and even asked him if we could make a little detour into centro (Large shopping place) on the way back so I could get a pull-up bar. He said of coarse :)
We have been concentrating on finding new people to teach. A few investigators fell through this week and decided that it wasn´t really for them. We met this interesting 80 year man named Pedro who had alot of questions. Including asking us if we needed financial help at all. He said he was willing to support us in anyway. I couldn´t help but laugh a little when he was talking. I also started to learn how to talk about family history and show my family tree to a few recent converts. Thanks Grandpa McCune! Elder Birdsall and I are rapping up our traing with watching ´´The District´´. It is part of the Preach My Gospel training now. ´´´The District´´ is 3, 45-minute videos of Missionaries serving in San Diego. It is kinda like reality tv for missionaries, (comparable to the Real World). We had a good time watching those even though I had watched them at school, before entering the MTC, in the MTC and now here.
I guess the way we ended the week is here! Elder Birdsall was feeling pretty sick this week with back pains and head aches. We held out till Friday to call sister Souza and she said she would make some calls. We came home on Friday with a phone call from São Paulo, the area medical doctor down there. When we talked to him, he described what he thought was going on. Elder Birdsall appreantly has a virus attacking his brain causing brain inflamtion. Sounds pretty intense I know! Turns out that we needed to stay home all weekend and Elder Birdsall had to rest up. So all day Saturday and Sunday we stayed in, besides going to church. Yes, I was suffering from cabin fever like crazy! I wrote letters, I cleaned, I read, I studied, I cleaned, I danced in the kitchen. I did all that I could but literally felt like I was going insane haha! A few of the members stopped by and brought food so it was really nice. I also suprised myself by talking on the phone to alot of people who kept calling. My portugues seemed like it progressed alot. Especially at church when EVERYONE thought I was sick.
I am doing fine and truly loving the work and the experiences. It is a way different life style but I enjoy it every single day. Love you you all! Ate Semana que Vem!
Te Amo,
Elder N. Anderson
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