Brazillian Funeral

Once again, another great week! Oh my gosh do I love missionary work!

So, first off, Fabio didn´t get baptized. That was a little sad, but not the worst situation ever. He has been having problems with his ex wife and he wants to sort out all these problems before he gets baptized. So, we´re going to shoot for this week. Keep praying for him! He really is an amazing guy. This past Sunday, he played the violin in sacrament meeting. It was the best, because all the members came up to him after and congratulated him. I swear, he knows our ward better than we do. It´s always hot here.

 

Also this past Sunday, I went to my first Brazilian funeral. The patriarch of estaca piracicaba is in our ward and his mother-in-law died. So, he asked me and Fabio to play the violin at the funeral. It was so cool in a sad sort of way. They use legit coffins here (like the kind vampires use) and they surround the body with flowers. It was really pretty. 

I loved playing the violin with Fabio. We played "God be with you til we meet again", "How great thou art", and "Nearer my god to thee". It was very spiritual and everybody was crying, including Fabio. We reminded him about the Plan of Salvation and how death isn´t the end. He got a little happier after that :) I am so grateful for the plan of salvation.

I am doing fantastic, seriously. I honestly love being a missionary. It is the best. It is also a little weird because I forget all the time about my life before my mission. I´ve started to call this effect the missionary veil. And let me tell you, it´s super thick. I don´t really get homesick and it´s actually super easy being without music and technology. I love it :)

Portuguese is great! Also this week, my teaching skills in Portuguese improved. I took all of the books I have in English and I locked them in my suitcases. I can´t believe how helpful this has been. I should have done this since week one. Oh well. Now, Sister Lopes and I teach together about 30-50 percent. The other 10 percent is Sister Scott. She is coming along really well with Portuguese :) I love it! Teaching and asking questions in another language is so cool. 

Other than that, this week was pretty chill. IT´s still super hot here, but now it rains every now and then. I can always tell when it´s about to rain because it gets extremely hot for like a day and then dumps rain. It´s pretty impressive. February is the hottest and also has the most rain, so I´m looking forward to that, yay. I don´t mind it too much during the day, but the night is awful. But, I love Brasil :)

 

Sorry this letter is so short. Have a great week and enjoy the cold for me :)

Love, Sister Whitney