Here in Fortaleza there isn´t anything to different than the USA for New Years. There are tons of people and everyone seems to be having a party. There are however alot more ´´tipsy´´ people out walking on the streets. This all started at about 3pm Saturday afternoon. Our teaching schedule was all crazy because of this. People were still out of town, going to a party or getting ready for the night. It was better for us to go visit members and less actives. There was a ´´festa´´ Saturday night at another Church building and we got the OK to go to that. It started at 7:30 and there was games food and of coarse my american friend that is in our stake. He of coarse came ready for the new year by bringing ´´Uno´´. This game is actually pretty popular down here. There was a lot of people playing up until 9:30 when the missionaries had to be home. We went home and planned our next day then headed to bed. I stayed awake up until I hit my pillow. However I did wake up at 12:00 said HAPPY NEW YEAR, and then fell back asleep. There was a lot of people yelling and lots of fireworks. I think it was the first time in my life that I was actually annoided with fireworks. Then again I was waking up evrey hour after midnight to people setting them off until 5am. New Years day was pretty normal. There was a little less people in church and even less people on the streets, it was almost like a ghost town.
This week we continued to work with our progressing investigators and find some news. We did some ´´divisions´´ with other Elders so it was cool to work with some other missionaries. Two days that we did these divisions, I had one day with a missionary thats learning to speak english that I have know since August and the second day I worked with another Elder that spoke english fluenty. However, my english was a little rusty so that day was basically in Portuguese.
For the most part, everything was back to normal here. People are home finally and the excitment of the holidays has gone done. This week will be normal. We did have the chance to talk with an Evangelical man on Saturday afternoon for about 2 and half hours. It was half ´´bible bash´´. He said the most random things about God, Jesus and the Bible and there were times when he would say random english words look at me and smile. I´m pretty sure he tried to get his wife in for ´´reenforcement´´ but all she did was come out with Garána (Pop). Elder Nabas said he was not planning on drinking it until he saw me do, just to make sure there wasn´t anything in it. I looked at him with the most confused look when he told me this and all I said was ´´thanks´´. We left that house laughing for awhile and it was definatly an experience that I said ´´I am totally writing this in my journal.´´
I don´t get scared talking about doctrine or anything like that in Portuguese like I did when I first got here. My testimony is firm and I know that the things I teach are true.
Love you guys, hope your have a good week, Até semana que vem!
Love,
Elder N. Anderson
