Last week i also splurged and got some cookies from the grocery store. It is like Europe here. Well this is kind of how i imagine Europe because I’ve never been there. Lots of stores and grocery stores and whatevs within walking distance. All the roads are pretty small. The sidewalks here in Brazil would make you laugh. They are crazy bumpy with no rhyme or reason. By far the most popular cars here are little economy cars with a hatch back trunk. Just like those Ford Focuses back home. Everyone seems to drive versions of that car with all different car brands I’ve never heard of. Some people have driveways here, meaning their driveway is six feet long connected straight to the road. And the garages are tiny. Here in Brazil you do not knock on peoples doors, because most people have a patio thing with a fence/gate combo right up against the edge of their property. Some people even park their little hatch back cars on the front patio thing. Anyway, I meant to say here in Brazil since you don´t knock on doors, you clap out by the gate until someone answers. Pretty different.
So this is week four completed. Not this Friday but next Friday we get to go out around the CTM and proselyte with Books of Mormon. I feel so excited to do that! I feel as ready as i´ll ever be right now because 75% of my Language in Portugués consists of gospel related things.
Well as you may have guessed already, every Brazilian who meets me says, Elder Kent... Clark Kent? Elder Clark Kent?! It is pretty funny. Another cool thing, Brazilians pronounce names funny. Mine comes out sounding like Elder ´Kensh´. The word quente sounds the same as Kensh, and Quente means Hot. What else can i say?
My companion and I teach a lot. Well we all do here in the CTM. Last Friday i think, we were teaching our teacher Irmão Costa as he played the part of an investigator named Igor. Igor is based on a real life person Irmão Costa taught. Unlike the other Elders, most of them, my companion and i never teach in English. Our motto is, if you can´t say it in Portugués you´d better figure out something else to say because you´ve been sitting there going, ´uhhhhh´, for 30 seconds. haha! We always teach in Portugués and though it is hard because you can´t always say what you want, we are getting good at saying everything we want in round about ways and very simply. Anyway, we were teaching Igor about the restoration and we bear testimony/promise the blessings that he will receive for choosing the right. We got to the end of the lesson and i started bearing my testimony. The spirit came over me very strongly, it was cool because you could feel a difference. I began promising him blessings he would receive for obedience and telling him that God loves him. My Portugués came out great and even though it was simple Portugués, it was powerful. So powerful Irmão Costa started to cry! It was awesome, and my testimony is reaffirmed daily because of things like this. I helped him feel the spirit so strongly, in a different language! I am humbled to know that the Lord is using me to help others. What a neat experience.
So 4 of July was this Monday! Haha talk about greatest day ever! Except for all those days i get mail ha! For lunch, all the Brazilians who work in the refeitório put up decorations and United States flags! We ate burgers, fries and Brazilian hot dogs! And for desert they put out huge bowls of ice cream! So awesome! I love it here at the CTM! It is rather large to me, but really small compared to Provo. We often refer to it as Hogwarts because it has a lot of secret staircases and things waiting to be discovered. Oh and the 3rd floor corridor is off limits, ha!
I see Presidente Clark all the time, and shake his hand frequently, which i know you don´t get to do in Provo. I am starting to read and understand a whole lot more out of my scriptures in Portugués. I am reading them in the morning. Classes are great, choir is choir. We have a new director every week, one of the Elders do it. And they almost always try to make the songs 400 times harder than they need to. It is pretty hilarious/fun though.
Most Brazilians are really nice. Brazilians are nice in general. When we go out into São Paulo we always say Oito everyone and that´s cool. Last week though, my companion got ignored by this old lady. He was pretty hurt inside. hahaha it was funny. Well, we´ve been having the normal winter weather. About 70 degrees right now I think, and its cloudy. Lame. However this still feels kind of like summer. In Salvador, where I’ll be in a month it is way hotter. I am out of time!!!
