So! Highlights from THIS week:
-We got to attend a baptism! Huzzah! It was from our
district, which is a first time attending a baptism that wasn't ours (because
this district is exploding). Her name is Sue, and she was JUST outside our
area, so the elders in Soho got her. Shame.
She's super golden, baptised in five weeks like Steve was. Her children are
looking to be baptised as well, and her less-active brother is totally coming
back to church. When we walked into the chapel there, we turned a lot of heads
(apparently it's been a while since sisters have served there). Elder Peschier
goes home at the end of this moves, and he got to baptise her. Him and Elder
Chu just kept hugging each other. Sad we couldn't join in.
-We got fed by Brother Hamilton two weeks in a row now:
-The first week was oxtail stew (if you've ever seen oxtail,
it looks like the spinal columns of a crocodile and you have to eat the meat
like a sparerib) and venison (which he discovered on the side of the road. A
little advice for cooking roadkill--rigor mortis sets in and lasts only a few
hours after the animal has died. He always checks to see if the deer is stiff.
If so, it's fresh. If it wobbles a lot, leave it alone, you don't know where
it's been. Unfortunately the spleen usually bursts on impact and is super
poisonous, so I don't know how we deal with that.)
-The second week was Chinese, but Lina couldn't come. Shame.
However, Brother Hamilton cooked proper food and was this close to making
chicken feet for us. But he stuck to chicken meat, razor clams, massive
mushrooms, and the Holy Trinity of Chinese cooking--spring onions, garlic, and
ginger. Beautiful food. The best part was him bringing out a grey hog's ear on
a cutting board and asking for volunteers. Yes...it's true. With a fork in one
hand and the butcher knife in another, I sliced two pieces of pig ear, vein and
all, and ate them. The most disturbing part was how nice it was. Tasted like
ham and bacon rinds. I feel more and more cultured each week I'm here.
-Lina's baptismal service is all organized and she agreed to
live the Word of Wisdom this morning. Fantastic.
-Our other less-actives are making huge leaps and bounds!
One came into sacrament meeting for the first time in five years. Amazing!
-We got to work out in Alek’s yard. Apparently the bin laws
are more stringent than I supposed, or dumping stuff at the tip must be really
expensive because we discovered floor boards, rebar, a windshield, children’s'
toys, ceramic pots, and entire panels of asbestos. After digging all of it out
of there, we discovered the most beautiful soil I've ever seen. We dug it out
and put it in the planter boxes :)
-It's cheaper to get fresh vegetables in the town market,
but we have to buy them Friday or Saturday. They get cheaper as the day goes
on--4 avocados for a pound or less. Nice.
Things are carrying on with increasing speed here. I'm so
grateful for Sister Paulsen's eager spirit and ability to recognize things as
less important--I can only imagine I gave my trainer loads of grief for
stressing about things that would work themselves out and not stressing enough
the things that are incredibly important. There are many decisions that we as
missionaries have to make in regards to our investigators--while we want them
desperately to come to church, that does not mean we break down their door in
the morning and drag them there. Sometimes we have to let them sit for a while.
It's a tricky balance and many days I feel like the frustrated parent of
rebellious teenagers, who learned so well and were so easy to be entreated at
the beginning and then have a phase of ignoring us or the things they've
learned. We will do our best to focus on the future, which is a hard thing to
do when you live week to week out here.
Keep working hard and get excited for Conference! It'll be
my first April Conference in the UK ,
and I hope they spend all of it talking about England ,
Scotland and Wales Brazil
Love from,
Sister Willard
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