This week I kept notes on things to email home about. Behold.
We encountered our first cockroach in the apartment this week. And guess who found it? Me. Yes. The only one of us four that is terrified of the little beasts. I was in the bathroom at the end of the day, taking off my shoes to get ready for my shower, but I realized that I had left my towel out on the line, so i left the bathroom, retreived the towel, and when I came back in to the bathroom there was a big nasty cockroach with antennae waving around on my SHOE! I yelled and Elder Rodrigues kept saying ´´mata-lo! mata-lo!´´ (kill it! kill it!) i stayed outside the bathroom. He sighed and shook it off my shoe. It went skittering away but he took my shoe and beat it to death! It took about 7 solid whacks. I was traumatized for the night.
I saw a rat this week. We were walking up a staircase and it just ran across the stairs right in front of me. Yuck.
Here in Vitória, you simply put your trash on the sidewalk anywhere and workers come by periodically to collect it. We collect our trash bags by the door in the apartment so we can grab them on the way out. As we went to pick them up one day, something big and black sped out from under the trash bag and across my shoe. I let out a rather embarrassing yelp which made Elder Hein laugh. It was a lizard.
As you can see, there are creepy-crawlies in Brasil. I am adjusting. They seem to be attracted to my shoes...odd. Moving on.
We found one woman who invited us to come back and teach her the next day. Due to difficulties we couldn´t make it to her house until 45 minutes after we scheduled the appointment. To our surprise, she was just arriving home! It was perfect. When we finished talking with her and concluded the lesson, she said to us that the past few years she has been feeling something has been missing in her life and that she had just started praying to God to help her fill the void she felt it her life the week before we ran into her. She told us she doesn´t believe in coincidences, and we agreed. Really neat. And I understood everything she said! She is vacationing in Guaraparí this week though, so stay tuned for news. I will refer to her as Teresa.
I did an exchange this week. Elder Hein went to leadership training because he is a district leader, so I was with Elder Wilson from south Jordan, Utah in Serra-Sede. About an hour and a half bus ride from downtown Vitória. It was neat. We taught some great lessons, gave a blessing, and had some good lunch. It was much more rural and calm there. Good to mix things up. It was my first time outside of the city of Vitória since arriving here. The bus ride on the way back is along the coast with beautiful panoramic sunset views of Vit´ria, the Terceira Ponte, the beautiful beach, and a giant cruise ship leaving the port. Gorgeous.
We were introduced to a woman interested in being taught by a member. Both the member and the woman live in one of the tallest high-rises in downtown Vitória. I was so excited. We were only on the fourth floor, but the building is right on the port with views of the gigantic barges. This was all side details compared to the lesson. The lesson we had with her was fabulous. She came to church yesterday and really is feeling good about it. it´s a great feeling to help people come closer to Christ. We were there again this morning where we gave her a Book of Mormon and explained and taught about its importance. I loved it.
Downtown Vitória is way neat. Bustling shops and buses roaring by.
Brazilians have funny accents when they say American things. Some of note, in case i haven´t already shared these.
Titanic, pronounced (chee-tun-EEE-key)
red hot, pronounced (hedge hotch)
notebook-as in the computer kind-, pronounced (no-chee-BOO-key)
A samba group has started practicing for Carnival across the street from our house. It is very loud and noisy, but neat at the same time. They practice until about 10pm. Welcome to Brasil.
An old lady who is suffering from dementia came to church on Sunday and when she saw me she apparently said ´´I want to sit down next to this bonitão´´ referring to me. Bonitão means ultra-handsome-male. Everyone in the Sunday School class was laughing, but I didn´t know what on Earth she had said, which only made everyone else laugh more. Gotta love it.
Thanks so much for the mail! I received 7 letters! My first batch since arriving over three weeks ago! The mail system has caught up with me! Each of the letters from family and friends alike were written with a strong dose of personality, which was AWESOME. I laughed and smiled as i read.
I didn´t even get through all my notes! The weeks are so full here. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Enjoy your winter folks.
Até mais,
Élder JOSHUA BODILY
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