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| Sorry it's sideways, but you get the idea! |
Então... Lot's to say now. Looks like I’ll be emailing at
roughly12 every Monday. Today it's 1 because we couldn't find a lanhouse...
apparently E. George's last area had one on every block... Yeah Paranoa
doesn't. Weird and cool to hear about grandpa. And fast, wow. I'll think about
that whole letter writing thing. I totally would, but I never have anything to
reply to, which makes thinking a lot harder. I should get any mail that arrives
every Thursday (because that's district meetings), but I never received any
boxes yet, which had me confused... I'll be asking E. Craig about that...
Basically, will write for sure if I receive anything :P, and
if I don't... I'll write when I get around to it or have anything worthwhile to
say.
Not at all surprised about E. Bushman's response... I
figured he would have issues with someone that actually wants to get things
done and follow rules and whatever else. He could speak WAAAAAAY better than I
could though, so I figure he'll be fine.
My first week was interesting. Since we are opening an area,
we have no area book (magic book full of people to talk to), no references, no
investigaros (didn’t’ want to fix this one :)), no member's addresses
(didn't even know the Bishop for a while), no nothing... So we did a lot of
doors the first couple days. We have three investigators and an inactive that
we are teaching consistently now, which is good. Now we have to hunt through our
list of contacts for more. Oh, if I didn't say before, E.George got here last Monday,
so he is pretty lost too.
At any rate, I don't mind it. Lots of walking, lot's of
finding ways to avoid blisters, and lot's of sitting quietly and not understanding
anything. People are pretty nice about it though, it's kinda just a
"pick on the guy that can't understand anything" sorta thing. There
are six of us here in Paranoa: The two of us, Es. Craig and Brasilian-guy-that-I-can't
-remember-how -to-say-his-name, and two more Brasilian Elders, E. Aleida and E.
Alves. They are all nice and try to make me speak more Portuguese, which is good.
They are trying to learn English too, so it's kinda a game of "attempt to
understand what that guy's saying in your own language and then reply in
his". According to instructors in the CTM, there is no such thing as
a biking mission (or car mission) in Brasil, so I won't need to buy one yet.
And actually I was still on the $100 that I took with me on the plane (hehe I'm
cheap). I also get money for food and stuff from the church, so I probably
won't be spending a whole lot. I'll probably get some sometime soon, but I'm in
no hurry.
By the way, it's been stupidly wet here... and kinda cold
(which is weird, because I know it isn't). Already getting used to a little
more heat than at home. Food is fine. We got lunch with a member everyday so far
(except today), and every single meal consists of rice, beans, some sort of
meat, and maybe something else. Beans aren't going to kill me, but some of the
meat is WIERD. Such as the pig tail, nose, and ear that E. Craig
accidently got yesterday. Members are totally cool about it though, they just
laugh at you for not being able to eat weird meat.
Interesting stories would include my first lessons... but I
don't really know everything that happened... so that would b difficult to
share. Basically my job this week was to talk briefly about prophets, recite
the first vision, and bear a testimony. I've been promoted now though. Now
I look up scriptures every now and then and teach about any basic principle
that E. George picks (before the lesson). Last night we had a family night
thing, and it was entertaining. I understood close to nothing, and they were a
kinda loud group, so they had fun with it. Watched shhort movie in Portuguese
(but all the stuff in the movie was English, the stuff the guy was writing and
stuff on the walls) then ate a snack thing. And of course at this point they
were all saying "haha, have the new guy bless the food". So I did.
Haha. They were shocked when I actually said a prayer without much difficulty
(of course I kept it pretty simple, but eh, still counts). The looks on their
faces were great.
Uhhhmmmm.... Dunno what else. Is the time difference still
6 hours here? it's 1:30 now. Dunno how much longer I'll be here, just as long as
E. George is.
So..
Tchau,
Elder Funnell
I then asked- How's your apartment? This is his response...
Pretty nice. in comparison to a lot of houses anyway. The
gate and door are impossible to open and close (but I don't have the keys, so
ha), and the kitchen is somewhat terrifying, but everything I need works just
fine. Weird thing is that the shower and toilet are RIGHT next to each
other... kinda annoying because water gets EVERYWHERE when you shower. Oh well.
Oh, and there is not really any such thing as carpet, so people just have squeegee things to move water around outside, in the bathroom, and for the
kitchen sink.
AND.. there is no such thing as
a front yard (although I did see ONE yesterday), and every single house has a
gate. So we actually can't "knock on doors". We clap at gates... not
as cool sounding. Aaaaand.... I guess the only other thing is that it's very
easy to tell how relatively wealthy someone is based on the tile that they use
for their piece of sidewalk. If it is dirt, expectt the house to be dimly lit and
have little more than basic concrete floor and sorta working furniture. If
it has some basic bleh tile, they have a fairly nice home. If they have totally
clean, fancy looking tiles... they are rather well off. Odd observation to
make, I know, but yeah, gotta observe something when you have no idea what
people are saying.
