We did an awful lot more of knocking doors this week, which is always exciting. By this point I can understand and be understood by almost everyone at their gate (as long as their dogs aren´t barking too loud, which is a really big if). Once inside, Síster Medrado usually does most of the asking questions and social stuff, though I can do more of that now. Then we teach the lessons as simply and powerfully as we can and commit the people to come to church with us on Sunday. This area is a little harder than some, so we are looking for new ideas for finding. We were hoping to have some baptisms this weekend but as commonly happens, difficulties arose and they fell through, though we´re still working with the candidates and hoping to get them baptized soon. The other sisters had a baptism this week, though it was really stressful and difficult to make it happen. But they managed great and our mission overall achieved 51 baptisms this week. If we can get 88 more before the end of the month, we´ll finally be able to go to the temple. We also did some hunting down of referrals and contacts in the street, which was interesting. The maps and streets are really accurate but the house numbers are not, so you never know if someone gave you an incorrect address or if you just can´t find it. For example, our house number is 3, the house next to us is 1045 A, and the apartment building across the street is 240.
We had rain this week, which was nice in the heat. It usually rains only in the afternoon and is pretty quick, but because it´s so hot, we often have massive thunderstorms and crazy hail. Last Thursday, during a storm of Biblical proportions, we knocked on the first door we saw and found, to our great surprise, that the sisters were already inside teaching the first lesson. Since they usually don´t work in the bairro of Pilarzinho, this was a really crazy coincidence.
I bought a new umbrella because in the same day, the handle of my old one snapped off and a tiny ferocious chihuahua tore off the tip and punched several holes in the fabric. I laughed til I cried when this happened, but I really needed another because of all the rain. My new one rains quite a bit inside the umbrella as well, but it looks like something I can fix. My scriptures, thankfully, didn´t get too wet, though almost every experienced missionary here has scriptures that are almost illegible from being soaked so many times.
I made a risky move this week and got my hair cut, which was scary. I explained that I just wanted the ends cut, no more than 4 or 5 centimeters, and the hairdresser nodded in agreement and cut my hair off almost to my shoulders. I really wanted to cry when I saw it, but I guess shorter hair is more practical and easier to take care of in this heat. Also, my companion compared me to Mulan, who sacrificed her long hair for something of greater value and since I love that movie, I guess I feel a little better.
One thing I´ve found is that unfortunately, there aren´t a lot of people in the state of Paraná with lighter hair or eyes, so I attact a lot more attention than I would like because of this. It´s usually the first thing people mention when they see us and I fear it may be distracting from our purpose. My companion suggested I dye my hair darker to blend in a little more, but I´m too scared to go that far. The other day, an older man who somehow didn´t notice my accent started talking about how great Brazil is because we have such diversity and yet are united in purpose and we didn´t dare tell him that I was actually from the US. I think most people assume I´m from Santa Catarina until I start talking.
Yesterday was Síster Medrado´s birthday. It´s a little hard to find ways to surprise your companion when you´re always together but I managed all right. She was taken care of really well by the ward, so I think she had a great birthday.
That´s about all I can write for this week so so long!
Love you all,
Síster Nielsen
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