Oi!

"Oi família! Tudo bem? Eu estou muito bem agora, nesta semana foi um pouco difícil, mas hoje foi maravilhosa. Oh, wait, I can think and talk in English now. That's different. Well I survived my first português-only week. The first few days were a little rocky, okay maybe a little bit more than rocky, but I'm adapting. Elder Loyola and I are getting along fine, and we're working together better. The first few days I got pretty frustrated. It can get pretty lonely not being able to speak your native language or be able to express yourself in português either... but I'm adapting quickly to portuguese-only life. Its actually really quite surprising how quickly you can learn when you are totally immersed. There's a big noticeable difference between this week and last week. I wouldn't say I'm fluent, but I'm definitely closer than I was last week..."

"During this week, nothing big really happened. Its always a struggle to find investigators or even people to teach. Forget the stereotype about walking down the street stopping and teaching in every house. We walk for miles and miles and do lots of contacts and people will give us their addresses, but when we go to teach them they either: 1) Lied 2) Aren't home 3) The house doesn't exist. We are always trying to find new people to teach, but we're not find much success; Its a bit frustrating. But we're not quitting..."

" Yesterday was a holiday called Dia dos Crianças (Day of the Children) and there was literally nobody at home or on the street... all the Brazilians were amazed when I told them we don't have that holiday back home. I told them that we have Mothers Day and Fathers Day and the rest of the 363 Days are all for the kids. They thought that was funny..." 

"Nothing too exciting happened this week, just lots and lots of walking and trying to find someone to teach. Yep, I'm a missionary. I still keep having those moments where I stop and realize I'm in Brazil, as a missionary, speaking Portuguese, changing peoples lives. We have lots of trials and challenges right now but I wouldn't have it any other way..."