I hear everything is going well! I am grateful! I have some crazy stories to tell you! Well I am sick. It is not very fun, but i haven´t died yet! I´ll tell you the story. So i have had a sore throat the past few days. Friday it wasn´t that bad, i had hoped it would get better. Saturday it got much worse but it still can´t have been that bad because i don´t remember, and i worked all day anyways. Then Sunday i woke up and it had gotten really bad. My throat swelled up really bad and my uvula, or whatever that thing is back there, got so swollen! It just sits on my tongue and i feel like i have something in the back of my throat constantly.
Well Sundays are make or break days so i, being who i am, worked anyways. In the morning we run around and wake people up and bring them to church, then we usually attend the middle class and sacrament meeting the last block. I played the hymns again, which is fun. After words i called Sister Vecchi and she said she would send info on where to go, doctor wise. Well my throat hurt real bad and i didn´t realize it but i had a fever too. That afternoon i just zombied around until after ward choir, Marcello and Marlucia took me to the hospital cause nothing else is open on Sunday. You have to thank Brother Magelsen! Irmã Marlucia is like my Brazilian mom! That family does so much for the missionaries and for people, i don´t know what would have happened if they weren´t members. So thank Brother Magelsen cause Marlucia took care of me.
The hospital was funny. Derek in portuguese should be pronounced like Dereky, with a roll on the r. But we speak Bahiano here in Itabuna. So the R has an H sound. Dehecky. Haha it was funny to hear people try to say my name. It was closer sounding to deck than de heck. Anyways i had a fever, was dehydrated, and still had a swollen throat and hangy thing. So i got some medicine and am doing slightly better today. I hope to continue recovering. Haha when i was at the doctor he asked me why i was here. I thought he meant in Brazil but he meant here at the doctor. So i started answering, I am a missionary... Pretty funny.
So now on to the crazy stories of the week! I´ll start with the reason i got sick. Remember that family that almost was baptized but their baptisms fell at the font? Well to sum them up Jamille, the mom was lying a lot. Trying to take advantage of the church, which wasn´t continuing to help her. She just turned out to be a big liar. Well, she hates us now. Originally she was a reference from a member of the Califórnia ward because she lives in my ward, Fátima. Well Veronica, the one who referred her, has been helping her out by giving her food. When the baptism fell, Veronica stopped helping her. We found out this week that Jamille gave our names to a Macumba leader. Macumba is the Bahiano equivilent to Voodoo. The Macumba priest or whatever apparently knew Veronica well and told her about it. Long story short. Jamille had some voodoo people cast spells on us, and i am probably responsible for the death of a chicken! Haha that is a goal fulfilled my friends! Seriously though, some times you see like a random chicken leg laying in the street because someone was doing macumba.
Other crazy stories: Last week one of the missionaries saw a drunk man laying in the street half in the gutter. The man pointed at him and said, ´Morreu! Morreu!´ (Moe-hay-oh). That means die. haha Speaking of drunk people, the other day Elder Ricker and I were waiting for Bishop to come to a lesson with us. So we were waiting outside our house. There were some people drinking and being stupid. All of the sudden we were startled because one woman had thrown a glass cup in the road. Haha She had tried to throw out the rest of the beer, and threw the whole cup. I am glad i have never had alcohol.
Oh yeah, i was going to tell you. I have plenty of mosquito bites, but don´t worry. It is not that bad. I am doing alright i promise!
So here are some quick things: It is okay here, culturally, to be a grown man and fly kites. Lots of people fly kites. The other things you can do here as a grown man? Listen to girly music really loud while driving, and watch soap operas. The soap operas here are a must see. haha once i past three house in a row, all watching the same soap opera.
Well the mission is going well. We were extremely blessed this week to find some extremely prepared and elect people. One guy, Vitor, contacted me and said, `Hey you guys are Mormons right? I want to go to church on sunday´ This kid is a flippin stud! Haha and another guy we found had moved here to change his life... Yes! haha
All in all, the Lord guides our every step. And we find the people we are supposed to find.
