Hey everyone!
Quick Updates:
Favorite Scripture: 2 Nephi 32: 3,5
Health: I may or may not have heat rash. Or humidity rash. Or detergent rash...? Or new soap rash? Or maybe food allergies? Surprise, surprise here in Brazil, nobody knows!! So as of now I have a huge rash across my entire chest and stomach. How awesome is that, right?
Weather: Probably the reason I have a rash. It has rained for the last 3 days. And by rain, I don´t mean a light drizzle. I mean we got pounded for 11 to 12 hours a day for 3 days straight and then it just was normal rain for the other hours of those days. Who said not to bring an umbrella? So the weather is...Brazil. It was 43 to 45 degrees Celsius the days that it didn´t rain. Meaning it was around 110 to 114 degrees Farenheit. With humidity. LOTS of humidity. I will explain why when i get to the "area" portion. During December and January it is supposed to get to around 48 to 51 degrees Celsius. Meaning 118 to 123 Farenheit. WITH humidity. I am going to die. Hey mom, remember that day I was born?? Yeah, me neither. But anyway, I will die at the same temperature that i was born in. Only this time, there will be humidity. :) I am pretty sure I have never sweated or walked this much in my life. Gotta love it.
Trainer: Ok so my trainer is Elder Cabral. Surprise, he is Brazilian. He is from Santa Catarina (sp?). He speaks faster than most high school cheerleaders. The problem is...it is Portuguese. Thus and therefore, I cannot understand. I have to tell him probably 8 or 9 times per day to slow down. No joke. I have to have him repeat things about 3 times before I can finally understand. I believe that my brain is in a stage of confusion. It is registering Portuguese but not at the right speed. So i hear an entire sentence as one sound. Sometimes two. Oh and people from Santa Catarina don´t pronounce the entire word. Even people here can´t understand him sometimes. He says "est..." instead of "estAR" or "começ..." instead of "começAR". So it is way hard. One of his sentences sounds like one or two words. It is very frustrating. I have prayed for patience and understanding all the time. And that maybe if God wants, He can just make me fluent overnight. But I said that I would leave that one up to Him. But we get along ok. He has a strange sense of humor. But that is just how Brazilians are. He is friendly and we both try to understand each other. So for the most part, I just need to learn to speak portuguese at the speed of light and we can be good friends. No big, right?
Area: So this is the moment you have all been waiting for. My area. Ok so when they changed the boundaries to the Londrina mission, they cut about 55 percent of it out. They added a part of the Curitiba (sp?) mission, though. That part that they added included Iguaçu Falls. AKA the second largest set of waterfalls in the entire world. Guess what my area is? Hey you are right! Foz do Iguaçu. The Catarattas. Iguaçu Falls, Foz Centro. That is my zone/area combo. It is soooooo humid. And so hot. the area I am in is ridiculous. We have this street that is like the hardcore rich people street. i see incredibly nice cars in this one area and tons of nice stores and all kinds of stuff ( oh and as a side note - they have lingerie stores everywhere in the rich area. why is this important? it isn´t. it is just incredibly awkward, because they have actual models. like, live models. wearing the lingerie. in windows. talk about strange.) Anyway. SO yeah it is very rich. but then we walk about 2 miles or so to our area where we teach and there are so many poor people and we teach in the favelas and stuff and that is pretty tough.
It is hard because the people that we are teaching just don´t have potential. I mean you have as much faith as you can but the bottom line is that they don´t have the desire. I mean if they let you teach the first lesson, and then they pray and go to church and receive an answer, then you have lesson 2 and 3. meaning you have to commit them to baptism and the gospel. which most people have a ton of trouble with. then you get to lesson 4. law of chastity and word of wisdom and keeping sabbath day holy are dang near impossible. people don´t want to get married, they don´t want to stop drinking and smoking, and they don´t want to walk all the way to church. it is soooo hard and has been a big struggle for me. but i am praying. and i will keep praying.
when i can get this language out of the way and actually get to my permanent address (yeah, i am the only elder from my district without a permanent address yet because the house i was supposed to go to was given to the sisters so now i am in a house with 4 other elders and my comp) i think i will be able to deal with a lot more.
i know this is a struggle. missions aren´t supposed to be easy. but i know i am supposed to be here. i just have a lot that i still need to know. it has been hard, but i know that with the help of the Lord, i will be able to adapt.
anyway. sorry that i couldn´t respond to everyone. i only have an hour and i had a lot to catch everyone up on.
i love you all! thank you all for the emails this week. they were all awesome.
i should be emailing every p-day from 11 to 12 our time so like 6 to 7 your time?? pretty sure.
love you all!
E. Scott Ghormley
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