I am in Braga right now, and it is beautiful. But all of Portugal is, really.
Braga is an interesting area- there are a lot of universities here, and a lot of
young people. There is a huge group of Young Single Adults, and they have
activities several times a week, which is nice because most of the people we
teach are in that age group. There are buses but I guess the routes aren´t very
good because we just walk everywhere, walk and walk and walk and sometimes run
because there is never enough time to get to all of our appointments. The people
here are very receptive, and Irmã Lima, my trainer, has had a lot of converts in
past weeks, so hopefully we´ll be able to teach lots of people! It is neat to
see how Heavenly Father has prepared these people to receive this message. I had
thought almost all the people we talk to on the street would not want to talk to
us, but we carefully and prayerfully choose where to go and find people to talk
to, and most of the people we talk to agree to set up appointments for
lessons.
Since there were so many new sisters, almost all of us are
tripled up instead of in duos. So my other companion is Irmã Olson, who was at
the MTC with me. Elder Baltodano, who was in my district in the MTC, is also
serving in Braga. We run into the Elders a couple times a week, on Sundays at
church and also sometimes when we teach at the church, so it is really nice to
see him, just to see a familiar and friendly face. It is nice when we teach at
the church because it is only about a 20-25 minute walk from our apartment, and
usually we have a few appointments scheduled in a row. We usually only teach at
the church when we´re teaching a guy who lives alone and we don´t have members
who can come with us.
Irmã Lima is super nice and patient, which is good
because I´m still struggling with the language. She is from Cape Verde, and
doesn´t speak much English. Although actually I think her English is getting
better faster than my Portuguese, because Irmã Olson and I are always needing
her to explain what people say. It is kind of frustrating, not being able to
understand much. It is funny, because in lessons, I can teach well enough, and
usually understand what the investigator says, more or less, but just talking to
people in general it is really difficult. People are really nice here, though,
and patient. Mostly they are impressed that an American is here trying to learn
their language, which I think is different than America, where people sometimes
get a little frustrated with people who don´t speak much English. This makes me
want to be extra extra extra nice to people I meet when I get back who are
trying to learn English, because it is so hard being in a country where I can´t
understand anything and can´t communicate very well.
A lot of the people
here are from Africa, a lot of the others are from Brasil, and the rest are
Portuguese. Apparently a lot of the African people speak Creole, but I can´t
tell the difference yet because I don´t know Portuguese well enough. I guess
they are very similar, anyway. Our ward is maybe half African, and the rest is
split between Brasilians and Portuguese. And there´s one family from England.
Sometimes they speak English to us.
I haven´t tried any really different
food yet. The only weird thing was smoked ham flavored potato chips. We´ve eaten
at members´ homes twice, and it really hasn´t been that different yet- pork and
potatoes and such. The rice is a little different, and they use different spices
and things with the meat, but it´s just food. No tripe or black pudding or even
any seafood yet, but I´m sure I will have plenty of opportunities to eat strange
foods. The bread I´ve tried is really good, and they drink a lot of juice, apple
and orange but also nectarine and pear and probably other fruits but those are
what I´ve had.
Zone conference was really good. I
didn´t understand every word but it was a good meeting, we talked about goal
setting and teaching with the Spirit and other important things. A bonus was
that it meant most of the day we were riding on trains and sitting in meetings,
so it was good to have a little break from walking everywhere. Ha.
All of
our investigators are super awesome. I haven´t met all of them just yet, but
there are a few we are working with that we hope will be baptized on Sunday. My
first real progressing investigator I think is Aumi, because the others Sister
Limã had taught before. We have a few other new ones, but he is the first one
that I´ve taught twice. He is super nice, and from Brasil. He is friends with
one of the recent converts in the ward. He is here going to school. He told me
that I speak Brasilanese, not Portuguese, which is funny because I´ve been
consciously trying to say the t´s and d´s and s´s right. But I guess there is
more to it than that, because he totally knew I had learned my Portuguese from a
Brasil teacher. Ha. I thought it was funny. And was glad he at least recognized
I was speaking the right language. One of my friends who went to Brazil got
there and started speaking Portuguese, and someone asked her, "Why are you
speaking English? You´re in Brasil!" I think I will figure it out soon enough.
One of the good things about having to learn a language is it means I have to
rely on the Lord that much more, because there is really absolutely no way I
could teach these people on my own.
It has been a whirlwind of a week, really hard but really good. I hope
everything is going well at home.
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