Stories From Salvador: A Chronicle of Sister McKenzie's Life in Brazil: Bom dia mundo! (Good morning world!)

Coming into the last week of the transfer, can you believe that? It’s literally been some of the fastest weeks of my life! We were just finishing training and now I’m a month away from 6 months ahh. I think I will probably go to a new city this next transfer, but we shall see!

This week was wonderful! Some highlights were our English class, the ward CTM, going to the market, meeting new people and learning from Sister Felartigus (she is the best!). It’s so fun to teach our English class Sister Grundvig and I love it so much. This week we were teaching the verb “to like” (gostar). She was a little late so I started translating the first hymn, “Hark all ye Nations” when she got there we realized that I had written a bunch of the words wrong L but they couldn’t tell and we just fixed them . Anyways, we started teaching them “This Little Light of Mine”, which went well! They like to sing! I told Sister Grundvig that we should draw things they like to do. She thought I said “ write things with light”, she wrote the word sun first, which worked for both. Then she wrote the word lamp. I asked Sister Grundvig, “ Do you think a lot of them like lamps?:” and she said no it has light. We are drawing things that have light, right?”. I said, “Things they like”, I think Portuguese is weakening our English communication skills, haha. Some things get lost in translation still when I speak Portuguese, but I feel like I can express myself (with a personality YAY!!) and I understand when people talk to me. I am trying to learn more vocabulary and practice writing, but speaking is going well! They think I’m from Argentina! J That’s probably not the best accent to have since a lot of Brazilians don’t like Argentina, (the two biggest countries in South America, so it’s always a competition and with World Cup around the corner its even more so) but I am happy that at least they think I am from south America J.

I’m really loving it here. The people are so amazing. They love to share and they are so open to meeting new people. When it rains (pretty much everyday), even if we never met them before someone always lets us inside. Actually when it’s sunny they invite us in too, haha. Everything is very calm here, there’s no rush for anything. Stress is not a word to them, they just live each moment and are happy. I’m learning so much about true happiness here. We meet people everyday that have little in material things but they are so giving with all they have and are truly a happy people. What a blessing it is to serve them. I know I’m where I need to be and it is the right time. We are all becoming who Father needs us to be. Keep smiling, loving, serving and growing! I love you!