week 70 . take a b[r]ow

Bom dia todo mundo!!! 

This week was a little challenging because Sister Castilho got sick with we don't know what and was basically dead for a couple of days (but all's good in the hood now). We're back on track. 

But last p-day (before the mystery illness had struck) a couple from the ward took Sister Castilho and I to a cultural/tourism center in the city. Way cool. It was an old prison and now it's full of adorable artisan stores with clothes and bags and other classic nordeste merchandise. There was even a museum! Granted, a small one, but the art history nerd in me was throwing a party. And I found cordel literature! Dream come true since I've been looking like my entire mission! 

We're still working with Paulo and Basilio. No baptism yet, but it's so so so close. I think that the Lord is testing our patience haha. Basilio wasn't baptized because he was feeling really sick yesterday and didn't go to church. Paulo is still working out his doubts. 

But we're pumped because Paulino is the best. He's following up with Paulo better than we are. When we went to teach them yesterday Paulo said that Paulino had just been showing him a part in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 31) and talking about the importance of baptism!! Paulo knows that this is what he needs to do, he just needs to have the courage to leave his doubts behind and step forward with faith. He's basically a member of the church already! This weekend was stake conference [mom note: a twice a year meeting where multiple congregations meet together] and Paulino and Paulo went by themselves to the Saturday and Sunday sessions! And yesterday they even took their niece with them! Member missionaries! (well one member missionary and one investigator-missionary haha). 

As we taught Basilio this week we saw that he was really blown away by the way to pray that we taught him. He's use to having to recite a memorized psalm or something else to be able to talk to God. So when we explained to him that we can talk to God by simply saying, "Heavenly Father..." he was blown away. It made me think about how amazing it truly is that God is so present in our lives and so easy to communicate with! I'm feeling especially grateful for prayer and the power it has in our lives. I don't have any doubts that God does hear and answer our prayers. 

With Sister Castilho feeling sick this week it was hard for us to get everything done that we needed to. BUT our district reached out and all of them helped us so much. We saw missionaries sacrifice their time in their areas to come out and help us. I am so lucky to be serving with so many selfless and generous missionaries in my district. 

#minhavida //

+ The elders went to the beach with Sister Soares [mom note: mission president's wife] last pday and they brought back a seashell for us. It had the worst fish smell so Sister Castilho put it in a glass with water and soap to try and clean it out. When she took it out of the glass we saw that there was still an animal inside. It was dead of course. And stinking up our whole house. So gross. Sister Castilho was brave and used her nail file to get the little creature out of the shell. 

+ We were with a recent-convert this week and he looked at me and said, "Hey you fall over a lot for no reason. Have you ever gotten that checked out to see what the problem is?" hahaha apparently my lack of coordination is a diagnosable sickness now. 

+ One of our recent-converts saw the other sisters (Weatherford and Nunes) at stake conference and turned to me and said "why are the other sisters more put together than you?" It's a profound question that I will spend some time pondering this week haha. 

+ Since the Mission Christmas Conference is coming up Sister Castilho and I decided to get our eyebrows done. We went to a woman who we know and who has really fantastic eyebrows (which means that she should make ours equally as pretty right?) Well. . .I went in there with chewbacca chic eyebrows and I walked out with two toothpicks above my eyes. There's even a cool chunk missing of my left eyebrow to add effect. My vanity won out over my sister missionary "who-needs-to-be-pretty" attitude and I might have shed a good amount of tears. Sister Castilho kept telling me that it wasn't that bad but every time she looked at me she laughed so that didn't help hahaha. BUT no worries people. After many fervent prayers my eyebrows are quickly looking normal again and when I put a little bit of makeup over the missing chunk part you can't even tell haha. And I've learned a valuable lesson in trusting strangers with my eyebrows, even pretty-eyebrowed strangers. ps... throughout the whole incident I just kept remembering the time that Nate [mom note: Meg's brother] shaved off half his eyebrow before family photos. Like brother like sister apparently. 

[mom note: after laughing hysterically about Megan's situation I went into mom panic mode sure that she was destined to a life of bad eyebrows with no hope of ever having friends again, let alone a husband. Those that know her well know what her eyebrows look like when she raises them...can you imagine what they look like now?!?! Right? So I did what any worried mom would do and googled "how long does it take for eyebrows to grow back" in hopes of finding some light in this dark situation. Good news people! The number of days needed to grow back her brows is close to the number of days left of her mission. In fact, she's just about 2 weeks shy of the total days needed which should mean when she steps off the plane she will not have reached "Chewbacca chic" status yet. That's a plus! And even better news...we'll have her back in 8 Fridays!!]

Well on that note. . . I hope you all have a wonderful week. Keep Paulo and Basilio in your prayers (a miracle will happen this week). And think twice before waxing your eyebrows. 

com muito amor

Sister M. Baker