week 8 . brazilian streets + me = #minhavida

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Howdy everyone! (already running out of ways to start my emails haha)

This week flew by. Yet again, the work just takes up every second of my time and most of my thoughts. I think it was President Packer that said the secret to missionary work is work! And if we work really hard we won't feel homesick and we'll have all of these other amazing blessings. [mom note: It's actually a Ezra Taft Benson quote but we'll cut her some slack haha. The quote and the whole talk it came from can be found here] And it's so true! I definitely get homesick from time to time, especially in church on Sundays (I miss english church haha), but overall I'm thinking about the language or our investigators or the members of the ward. What a blessing!

Kay I've got a post it note in my planner with a bunch of things to tell you or ask you so this email may be unorganized. Just a heads up. 

Mom, my pilot g2 pens are going fast. haha I know this is prissy as can be, but if it's possible could you send me some? .5 size! If you can't it's not a big deal, but you know how I love my pens so I thought I'd ask haha. Also an english hymnbook? And a picture from my baptism, it's good to show investigators. Also the instructions for how to tighten and loosen my chacos, they're a mystery to me. The chaco instructions don't worry about sending, you could just email me a picture of them so I can print/take a picture of the email. Sorry if I'm coming off as needy, just things I thought of during the week. 

Alright let's talk about the nordeste. Aka, the northeast. It's very very different here than it was in Sao Paulo for the CTM. The accent is nearly impossible for me to understand haha. I can usually figure out what Sister Garcia is saying, with just a couple words not making sense, but everyone else...it's like they're speaking portuguese with their mouths full of rocks or something. But the people are sooo sweet and loving. Old ladies give me hugs and kisses 100 times a day. The members of our ward are especially awesome. I'm being taken care of big time here. Aka, getting fat from all of the treats they give us. 

Something else different about the nordeste is...paralellipipidu. (probably spelled wrong) [mom note: I think paralelepípedos was what she was going for] What is that you ask? A strange sneeze? A spell from Harry Potter? Wrong! It is a death trap pretending to be a road. And it's pretty much all we walk on. Just imagine cobblestone, but with bigger stones that jut up higher than the grit stuff between them. And they're far apart so if you look up for one second, your foot will get trapped between them and you're going down. (yelling timber). Or at least I am, a hundred times a day haha. The other day I went to hug this member outside her house, and I hardcore tripped on the paralelipoo (that's what it should actually be called) into her. Oops haha. #minhavida

Sister Garcia told me that all the sisters say that whenever you drop your Book of Mormon (we always have one in our hand) the stomach of your future spouse gets bigger hahaha. So I keep a tight hold on my Book of Mormon now. 

I saw a little tub of Cetaphil at the pharmacy for 144 reais! [mom note: $58.80] WHAT?!?! I thought I was reading it wrong for sure. Some stuff here is cheaper than in the states, but there's stuff like that that is crazy expensive. 

So we haven't had any baptisms yet in the two weeks I've been here. Which isn't normal here apparently. It's crazy to me, but people get baptized every week here more or less. But we have this amazing investigator who just gets it. He was 100% prepared by the spirit for us. And he's really patient with my portuguese and he wants to learn english and he's just a gem. His name is Tanielieson. He came to church yesterday and you could tell he just loved it. I'm so EXCITED about teaching him this week because I'm almost positive he'll be baptized this Sunday. General Conference and a baptism???? I might die of happiness. 

So I can't pick one chapter of the Book of Mormon this week to share with you, because I'm just obsessed with Alma in general right now. Before my mission I thought Alma was sort of a pain because it was so longgg, and I just got frustrated with it. But my oh my it's AWESOME! So much about missionary work, and a hundred other great things too. Some stuff that I noticed in my scripture study this week:

+ Alma the younger is a sass when he's teaching. someone asks him a question, and his reply is basically, hold your horses I was just getting to that haha. 

+ We always need to be increasing our testimony through prayer. Alma 5:45-46. Alma, the prophet says that he strengthens his testimony through prayer and the spirit. 

+ Ammon probably wouldn't be allowed to go on a mission nowadays because he passes out every two seconds because he's so dang excited about the gospel. 

+ A desire to believe and a willingness to try the word is all we need to gain faith about an aspect of the gospel (cough cough gift of tongues! haha)  

+ I want to be a missionary like Alma, Ammon, Aaron, etc. they're perfect. 

+ If i don't get married in this life, I'll marry one of them for sure

And thus ends another week in BRAZIL. So grateful to be here. I can't remember which chapter, but I think it was 30something in Alma, he says that it is our privelage (spelled wrong? don't have spell check and i'm forgetting english) to believe in and to serve God. I'm feeling that big time here! I'm so amazed every day that God trusts me with this work, the same work that the Savior did when he was on the earth! I'm so blessed to be here in Brazil, so blessed to have a knowledge of this gospel, and so blessed to have an amazing support system in all of you. And to have the best family in the world. I'm sure of it. I miss you guys and love you so much. 

Have an awesome week!!

Paz fora (Peace out. Doesn't actually make sense in Brazil so I'll use it with you guys)

Sister Baker

PS The billions of cats here are still the best. Or you might even say the cat's pajamas hahaha