Poster Child for Improving International Relations

Divisão

We went to Jundiai this week to do our split with the ST´s.

We were visiting with this guy who was baptized on Saturday.  He was bummed that I couldn't stay for longer than a day, because he wanted to do a dinner and have all the sisters make a food from their native country.  I told him it was okay, because the only thing I really know how to make is cookies.  He asked what a cookie was and I explained that it was a dessert that we like in America.  The following conversation happened.

G:  You guys only have sweet stuff there, right?  Not salty?

Me:  Yep, I had never seen salt before I came to Brazil.

I had him going for about a minute before he realized that I was joking.  After he calmed down, he asked, "But you ARE joking, right?  You really have seen salt before?"  I assured him that I had seen salt before, because there is a really famous lake in my state that is known for being salty, and I´d seen salt there once.  Basically I´m the poster child of improving international relations.

CHRISTMAS

Good things about Christmas already!  President Marsh said we´ll have the chance to go to the temple this month as a mission, and I`m very excited to go. 

We also are participating in the Light the World project that the church does every year.  We made cookies and delivered them for all the people in our apartment building on December 1st as our service project.  We had one family tell us they didn'tt want anything we were giving because we said we were missionaries of the church, but the rest of the people were really nice.  We left some cookies for the rude family anyways, because we´re nice and they obviously need some Christmas cheer.

Lxxxxsa for the Win!

So, we were teaching this couple, and they have been being taught for a long time.  They stopped progressing in the last couple weeks, and we went to their house last Sunday to give a last lesson and explain that we couldn´t keep going to their house to teach them.  It was sad, and awkward, and I was glad it was over.  

BUT as we were walking through the city center a few days later, Lxxxxsa, who works in one of the shops there, called for us as we walked past her store.  She told us that her husband didn't really have interest in learning the gospel to begin with, but that they´d started taking the lessons together because they needed to legally marry in order for her to be baptized.  She said that she didn't want the disinterest of her husband to stop her progress in the gospel, and asked that we come and teach her on her lunch breaks so that she could continue to learn more about the church.  I seriously almost cried, it was awesome.

Things are pretty calm here overall.  I finally bought an umbrella to replace the one I broke in an epic battle with a chihuahua, so that´s nice.  I hope you're all doing well, and enjoying the Christmas season!