I LOVE IT HERE!!! The people ARE as friendly as everyone says, the food is AMAZING and the weather has been great so far! So much has already happened and I can´t believe that it has only been a week! Here are some of the highlights!
- The city that we live in is called Itaquaquecetuba (eat-ah-kwah-kay-seh-two-bah). Yes. I am still practicing how to say it. We live in a cement house like everyone here. It is a duplex with our ward mission leader, which is convenient. Our side has two bedrooms, a kitchen, living area, and bathroom. It would actually be pretty spacious for a house with that set up in America, which means it's HUGE here in Brazil. I will send a picture next week. The walls are all yellow, which makes me really happy. When I saw the bathroom, I was worried that we weren´t going to have hot water to shower with. But, we do, and so that was a pleasant surprise the first morning! I am very grateful for the hot water at this point because there have been a few mornings here that have been cold enough to where we can see our breath. And, since our house is just cement, it's basically the same temperature inside as it is outside! Fortunately, my friend advised me to bring a hoodie, so I am definitely warm enough (THANKS TASHA!!!).
- We teach a lot of people about the Gospel while we are just sitting in the street somewhere. We were teaching this girl about the restoration of the Gospel in the middle of the day and there were some fireworks going off behind her. Then, a few minutes later, we started seeing all this smoke... Then we started hearing the fire. About 50 feet away, on top of a hill right by us, a huge FIRE was consuming all of the tall grasses. It was spreading so fast and there was so much smoke! It was crazy! The funniest thing was that Sister Corbitt and I were thinking, "Um, is anyone going to do anything about that!?!?" because the Brazilians in the neighborhood were just looking at it and talking about it as if it was an every day thing, even though it was obviously NOT supposed to be happening! We think that someone finally called someone about it because it was getting huge - about half the size of a football field. In the meantime, the girl we were teaching was still paying attention to us, so we just kept talking! There were just enormous flames behind her while we were describing the first vision - no big deal. When we walked away, the fire was still going strong! We came back to that area a few hours later and the whole hill was BLACK. At that point, we were with one of our Brazilian friends, and he said that this is "normal" in Brazil and he wasn't phased at all. So. That was probably the craziest thing that has happened so far!
- I LOVE LUNCH HERE! Everyone is such a good cook and they go all out! I have eaten a lot of new things, but I haven't had anything strange or gross yet. We always have rice, beans, some kind of noodles, and meat. For dessert, we usually have "mouse," which I think is just pudding in American terms. My favorite thing is ALL of the meats, the fresh passionfruit juice, and the coxinhas - little fried stuffed dough things. ALSO!!! How could I forget!!! We have a padaria a few houses away from our house and that is BAD. There are so many amazing new types of bread to try! So far, the only kind of pao that I've tried is sweet (like that Hawaiian bread we sometimes got) with a yummy caramelized custard on it. SO GOOD! I can´t wait to try the other breads and biscuits.
- To be honest, every day is HARD. It´s hard because I can only understand probably 20% of what everyone is saying, and my shoes are super lame for how much we walk and how uneven the sidewalks are. Well, we usually walk in the street anyway. We´re going to the shoe store today and hopefully I can get something good now that I know what the streets are like! However, the 8 blisters that I have are kind of my battle scars from this first week and they make me feel so hardcore. Whoo!!! :) I LOVE the walking.
- I know what I need to practice with the language because this past week, when I invited someone to be baptized, they didn't know that I was asking a question... That's why you have a companion who can cover for you!!! Ha ha. Wow.
- Sunday was crazy because we had to literally RUN across Itaqua to collect our investigators (people who want to learn about the church). We were running in our skirts and nice shoes and everyone was staring at us, but it was really fun. We ran into the chapel just in time to go sit on the stand because I had to introduce myself to the whole ward. Oh dear! It was CRAZY.
Anyway, I love it here and I am so ready to work so hard. I love you all and I am grateful for your prayers. I know that the Gospel and the church are true, and that´s why I'm having such a good time in this crazy but awesome country.
Love,
Sister Williams
- The city that we live in is called Itaquaquecetuba (eat-ah-kwah-kay-seh-two-bah). Yes. I am still practicing how to say it. We live in a cement house like everyone here. It is a duplex with our ward mission leader, which is convenient. Our side has two bedrooms, a kitchen, living area, and bathroom. It would actually be pretty spacious for a house with that set up in America, which means it's HUGE here in Brazil. I will send a picture next week. The walls are all yellow, which makes me really happy. When I saw the bathroom, I was worried that we weren´t going to have hot water to shower with. But, we do, and so that was a pleasant surprise the first morning! I am very grateful for the hot water at this point because there have been a few mornings here that have been cold enough to where we can see our breath. And, since our house is just cement, it's basically the same temperature inside as it is outside! Fortunately, my friend advised me to bring a hoodie, so I am definitely warm enough (THANKS TASHA!!!).
- We teach a lot of people about the Gospel while we are just sitting in the street somewhere. We were teaching this girl about the restoration of the Gospel in the middle of the day and there were some fireworks going off behind her. Then, a few minutes later, we started seeing all this smoke... Then we started hearing the fire. About 50 feet away, on top of a hill right by us, a huge FIRE was consuming all of the tall grasses. It was spreading so fast and there was so much smoke! It was crazy! The funniest thing was that Sister Corbitt and I were thinking, "Um, is anyone going to do anything about that!?!?" because the Brazilians in the neighborhood were just looking at it and talking about it as if it was an every day thing, even though it was obviously NOT supposed to be happening! We think that someone finally called someone about it because it was getting huge - about half the size of a football field. In the meantime, the girl we were teaching was still paying attention to us, so we just kept talking! There were just enormous flames behind her while we were describing the first vision - no big deal. When we walked away, the fire was still going strong! We came back to that area a few hours later and the whole hill was BLACK. At that point, we were with one of our Brazilian friends, and he said that this is "normal" in Brazil and he wasn't phased at all. So. That was probably the craziest thing that has happened so far!
- I LOVE LUNCH HERE! Everyone is such a good cook and they go all out! I have eaten a lot of new things, but I haven't had anything strange or gross yet. We always have rice, beans, some kind of noodles, and meat. For dessert, we usually have "mouse," which I think is just pudding in American terms. My favorite thing is ALL of the meats, the fresh passionfruit juice, and the coxinhas - little fried stuffed dough things. ALSO!!! How could I forget!!! We have a padaria a few houses away from our house and that is BAD. There are so many amazing new types of bread to try! So far, the only kind of pao that I've tried is sweet (like that Hawaiian bread we sometimes got) with a yummy caramelized custard on it. SO GOOD! I can´t wait to try the other breads and biscuits.
- To be honest, every day is HARD. It´s hard because I can only understand probably 20% of what everyone is saying, and my shoes are super lame for how much we walk and how uneven the sidewalks are. Well, we usually walk in the street anyway. We´re going to the shoe store today and hopefully I can get something good now that I know what the streets are like! However, the 8 blisters that I have are kind of my battle scars from this first week and they make me feel so hardcore. Whoo!!! :) I LOVE the walking.
- I know what I need to practice with the language because this past week, when I invited someone to be baptized, they didn't know that I was asking a question... That's why you have a companion who can cover for you!!! Ha ha. Wow.
- Sunday was crazy because we had to literally RUN across Itaqua to collect our investigators (people who want to learn about the church). We were running in our skirts and nice shoes and everyone was staring at us, but it was really fun. We ran into the chapel just in time to go sit on the stand because I had to introduce myself to the whole ward. Oh dear! It was CRAZY.
Anyway, I love it here and I am so ready to work so hard. I love you all and I am grateful for your prayers. I know that the Gospel and the church are true, and that´s why I'm having such a good time in this crazy but awesome country.
Love,
Sister Williams
