Today is September 19th, the first day of my second transfer in the field. Man, that went really really fast. I can´t believe it´s over. But i feel cool because now the real Elder Kent can get to work. I have done it all now, and this transfer won´t have anything to get used to, i can just go for it.
So here is the news on being sick. I was really really sick. Haha I stayed in about constant pain until Thursday. My throat was killing me and i went back to the doctor on Tuesday or Wednesday? I don´t remember. But they finally got me on this very expensive medicine and i feel so good right now! haha it was sad to me because we didn´t work those days until Friday. But being sick and quase morrendo was harder than missionary work. Ha! So you can imagine, now i feel like magic! Which is exactly how i feel.
The Lord really has blessed us with stellar investigators though so even though i was sick a lot last week we didn´t lose much work. We have at least two baptisms happening this Saturday! I´m so excited. I am sure i mentioned Daniela before, but a lot has happened. She has been praying, and reading and has been to church 2 weeks in a row! Haha sometimes it is impossible to get people to do what she has already done. But because of this she received an answer, she knows the church is true. The other day she went to an activity with the young women, and that night we saw her walking home. We talked to her and she said something like oh yeah the activity was great! I can´t wait to get baptized! haha Let me tell you, that phrase is sweet beautiful music. haha
So here is a funny thing about Brazil. No one understands the words Restoration, Apostasy etc.. except the members of the church right? Well a funny thing we do sometimes in contacting some people if they are very upfront with, ´well i already have a church´. We like to ask, oh does it have a lot of apostasy? And people don´t know what that means so they say yes. Haha It is really funny but not necessarily necessary! haha we´ll watch that one.
The weather is great right now, but it rained a lot this last week so it has been crazy humid. You just walk down the street and think, oh goodness its really humid! Haha Like Sunday morning it rained but got hot and sunny before we got all our people to church, so we were walking in that.
Haha another funny thing we do every once in a while, parcore! Haha my companion will be walking along and then do ´parcore´. Parcore is those crazy athletic 20 something year old guys who do tricks and athletic things like flips off of buildings and yada. So we do parcore off of sidewalks. I have to admit the smaller scale may make you think it´s less cool, but it really isn´t. haha!
So we saw this crazy man walking around the bairro Monte Cristo the other day. It was amusing. Then we saw him again later, my companion dared me to contact him. So i walked right up and did. We didn´t get very far into the conversation before another guy walked up and started balling us out! haha This new guy apparently was saying Hey you can´t talk to guys like him. This is a flavela, you gotta be careful. taltaltal. Meanwhile the original crazy man just turned around and walked away, and resumed talking to himself mind you. I almost bust up laughing right there. And the second man left but was still warning us and all. In the end, we were left standing on a dirt road, in Monte Cristo which isn´t THAT poor, i wouldn´t call it a flavela.
Another cool thing about Brazil. Everything imported is flippin expensive demais. So a lot more people ride bikes growing up. They are crazy and zip and ride really fast all over the road. We speculate these bike riders save up and buy motorcycles. They continue with the wheelies and crazy driving till they die on their motorcycles and then pass the legacy to another young bike rider. Haha seriously though, these people can ride bikes.
One more cool note, while i was in the doctor's office a lot this week i had the opportunity to watch the cartoon show Dungeons and Dragons in Portuguese. I just want you all to know it was amazing. haha in reality i wasn´t really watching and couldn´t hear anything anyways. But still! DnD the cartoon!
Well to close up my letter, i love it here. I love being a missionary. I have a transfer here in Itabuna now, and i am really trying to be a lot more outgoing. I have been timid i admit during my mission so far. Well today i bagged it all and am ready to be crazy Derek Kent again. i´m pretty excited actually! This transfer is going to be great. I know being sick this week was a major tough thing for me. But through this adversity i have changed for the better and i am glad.
Elder Kent
P.S. A dog urinated on my backpack again. That is the second time in two weeks! Oh goodness.
