This week I will give you a little lowdown of how the living conditions are here in Brazil...but it isn't complaining, just information. As of this week, the end of my 3rd week in this transfer, I have blisters all over my feet, so walking many miles-which I do each day-sucks. I am still living out of my suitcases because the apartment I am staying in is really small and there are 4 of us staying here at the moment. We don't have room to put anything away in closets and my bed is on the floor with my sweatshirt as my pillow. All the walking we do is to referrals and either they are never in their house or the address they give us doesn't exist. We would call but our phone has no credit until the 17th so we can only receive calls and call other missionaries until then.
I enjoy the work, it is very fun and I am getting better and better at the language, and we are very close to baptizing someone, so we are praying and hoping it works out. Right now I am reading the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon, and I am understanding about everything because of the way I am reading. Every time the Lord is speaking I highlight all of the "I" or "me" or "Lord" or "God" and this makes it easier to understand-paying attention to who is saying what. My companion and I work hard, every day and all day, all we do is work and work, I love it. I am always doing something, when I am not I feel almost claustrophobic because everything is so close together here. Last night I was standing on a hill in Rio and I felt the openness and it was crazy I felt SO calm and I remembered how long it had been since I was that much in the open! The zone we are in right now is probably one of the most dangerous zones. We live in one dangerous zone and work in the other. It is kind of disappointing, it is not that dangerous. You hear gunshots often, sometimes daily depending on where you are, but you never see anything. The military does a good job keeping things under control. We are definitely protected because we are missionaries, and we are fine, but the members have no faith, everywhere we go they say we will die...It is ridiculous. I just go but I stay out of the really bad favellas around here, that is plain stupid to go there. The other 2 Brazilian missionaries we live with are awesome. They are way cool and full of love.
There is not too much going on here, just faith, work, and trying to baptize. That is all we really have time for, we have a lot of Family Home Evenings set up for this week so that should help everything go smoother. Love you all.
