hello todo mundo!!!!!! ah what a week it has been! well first and most exciting thing of the week, a baptism this week!!!! i he is so awesome! we taught him the last lesson on saturday night and the elders and the bishop came with us. he had a lot of questions about the bible and the book of mormon. the bishop´(who is sooo awesome) helped to answer a lot of his doubts. then he asked about the gift of tongues. our district leader (elder s, hes great) turned to me haha. i bore my testimony and im not sure what i said but the spirit was there. when i finished elder s. said, "and that is the gift of tongues". i was so happy! my companion told me after that i said everything correctly :) about the language, im understanding almost everything and the accent really isnt as strong as people said it was. its a lot harder to speak though. i told president i was understanding a lot and he was happy. he told me to know verb conjugations and then everything else would come naturally. so im working on that now with sister o. my beautiful, wonderful companion. oh i cant wait till you guys meet her! she is wonderful! she knows the city so well and we always have people to teach. she is so patient with me and we work together in teaching our investigators. she really wants to learn english so its perfect! we laugh so much. mostly about things i say hahah. like saturday when we were street contacting i told a man "ontem e domingo" sister o. was writing in her planner so she didnt hear me to correct me. i kept saying "ontem e domingo" and the man kept looking at me and not saying anything. then sister o. started laughing. ontem definitely means yesterday. i was saying yesterday was sunday..on saturday. hahahah oh gosh i have a lot to learn. but the people are so nice and dont laugh or anything. sister o. says its easier because i look american so people dont really expect me to speak portuguese, nessa would have a harder time haha, and you too mom. they always ask me to say something in english haha. and everyone here think im 14 hahah. oh and the food here is wonderful! we always eat lunch with members and it has all been so good! its usually meat, a vegetable, rice, pasta and juice. and the fruit is soooo good and so is the bread ahh. we walk a ton and saint antonio de jesus is super hilly. and it is hot! but not too bad really. im so glad i brought good shoes and lots of short sleave shirts, those two things have saved me. and hand santizer thats a life saver too. and my water bottle. those things and my scriptures and im ready for anything! oh and my dictionary, that is also veryyyyyyyy necessary. our ward is so wonderful and the chapel here is beautiful! we are working on reactivation with some of the members, but the ward is really strong. the bishop is seriously the best and his family is so cute. we love them! we are working with the members for references and we have more great people to teach this week! it has been a little bit of a culture shock. the people live much differently here. but i couldnt ask for a better place to serve. im so happy here! i forgot to tell you, we live with two other sisters. they are both brazilian, one was sister o's trainer and had been out for 8 months, they are both so sweet and so beautiful. we eat lunch with them everyday and its always fun to come home and tell each other funny stories that happened that day. i really feel at home here. im already sad for the day i have to leave, i know it will go by super fast. ok im going to try to send pictures now! muito amor from brazil!
xoxo
sister mckenzie (maakenseee for brazilians)
