So I´ve been trasfered here to Novo Hamburgo, about 40 minutes from Porto Alegre by bus. It´s a decent sized city with a fairly large downtown area with tall buildings and such. And our area is a good chunk of the city. It´s big, but that just means there´s always plenty to do. I´m sad to leave Venâncio Aires, Sister Inhuma and I were really starting to have a lot of success there, and I love the members and the people. There are families there who are literally like second, third families for me. But Novo Hamburgo is nice. It´s very pretty here. It feels like we´re nestled in the mountains. It´s very hilly, and from some parts of the city you can see for miles. And with Sister Braga we´re working very hard. My legs are already tired from all of the walking, and climbing hills. There are seriously hills almost 90 degrees. But she´s actually pretty easy on me. At times we take a longer route so I don´t have to climb some of the really steep ones before being more adjusted. And Sis. Braga´s pretty awesome. She´s from Rio de Janeiro and talks super fast with a lot of slang. So at times I don´t understand her, but for sure my portuguese is going to improve with her help. She´s very good about correcting my speech without making me feel stupid. Though there are things she corrects that I´ve been saying since the begining. I don´t know why my other companions didn´t correct me. But she´s a hard worker and we´re getting along very well already. And she´s going to teach me how to cook like a brazilian. I´m going to learn how to make rice and beans, and this cake we saw in a bakery that she said she knew how to make with bananas on top. It´s going to be great. I hope she know how to prepare bananas to eat with dinner too. Here you can cook the bananas, fried maybe? and eat them with the rice and beans, meat, everything. It´s so good. You wouldn´t think so, but really, it´s like my new favorite thing.
And Novo Hamburgo is a lot warmer than Venâncio was. I don´t know if we´re having a heat spell or something, but it´s been super warm this week. It´s chilly in the morning, but by the time we´re halfway to our lunch appointment we´re taking off our coats and sweaters and socks. And especially after lunch when we´re walking quickly to our appointments it gets pretty warm. In Venâncio everyone said that the worst of the winter was in July and August, so I´m curious if this warm weather will stay or it it´ll get cold again. Either way I think I´m prepared.
So I got the package Thursday and it´s perfect! between you guys and the package from Jackie I´m swimming in snacks and goodies. While I was opening the package my companion was like who is this child and where did my companion go? I got a little excited over the pop tarts and swedish fish, and the much needed shoes. They´re perfect, thank you.
Sister Braga has a lot of Brazilian pride and was asking why the snacks were better than what they have here, and I tried to explain how pop tarts are comfort food, but I´m not sure she grasped the whole concept of comfort food. But all the same she´s enjoying the snacks along with me. She especially likes the milanos.
This week was good. I´m not sure if I have anything distinctive to share. The area´s really hard. It´s big and there hasn´t been any real success in a while. At times it feels like we just walk and walk and walk all day without anything really happening. But our numbers are improving. In the two weeks I´ve been here we´ve had more lessons. Slowly but surely things are looking up. This weekend we´re going to a neighborhood kind of far, we have to take a bus to get there, because a member there has a sack full of referrals. We´re excited to get out there. All week we´ve been feeling impressed to go there, and so we were super excited when Marcia arranged to go with us. Neither of us know the streets there so we need a member who lives there to help us navigate. We just love Marcia. In the two weeks I´ve been here she´s brought a non-member friend to church with her every Sunday. So we´re pretty excited to work in Roselandia, this neighborhood.
But really life is good. Sis. Braga´s a lot of fun. Even when we´re tired we always find something to laugh at. The other night we were walking home and it started to rain. neither of us had our umbrellas and this was RAIN. It was pouring and we were still on the other side of the city of our apartment. But we had fun singing songs. I sang "Singing in the rain", and we just laughed and laughed. By the time we got home we were soaked through, but tudo bem. Nothing warm pajamas and hot chocolate couldn´t cure.
So that was my week. I´m tired, but happy. I´m excited to get fired up tomorrow at Zone conference.
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