Week 17...Campinas, Brazil

This week was a lot better for sure. I can say this now that it is over but before money was really tight. We receive 110 reals every 2 weeks which is fine but we had to pay for the bus everyday as I mentioned earlier. So by the time the 2 weeks were over we used 90 reals for just the bus. So we had 20 reals to pay for everything. This was impossible because just to eat lunch was 10 reals. So there were lots of nights we were going to bed hungry. This last week was really tough because my companion and I both only had money to pay for the bus for 1 more week. Then we decided we would look at the bank to see if we had anything. We looked at our bank and we had 200 reals in it. We called our president and asked why and he said that he felt like we needed it and he said that he will change it so we receive for every 2 weeks. It really was a blessing.

 

Also one night in the last week we were especially hungry. I´ll just say that lunch wasn´t the best. Then a member from another branch stopped us and paid for food for us. It was these giant hamburgers that I think I could live a week on. I put a clothes pin next to it in the picture so you can see how big it was. This week I really learned to trust in the Lord and he will protect and nurture us.

That promise of Moroni is really true. (Blessings often come after a trial of our faith). During that day that we saw our bank accounts we saw many miracles. One was a tucan sitting in a tree, which is really rare this far south. We also found two new investigators and one crazy man stopped us to talk to me in English and just where we would´ve been there was a car that flew around a corner not looking at all. I don´t mean for you to feel sorry at all. I just want you guys to know how much the Lord is blessing my life right now.

 

As for the stories I have some new ones now. I have come to love the dogs anymore as I think those are the only things we see. Finding people is really tough. One house that we went to there was this dog, well I wouldn´t even call it a dog. It was more like a large hamster but, it was trying to bark at us. It was pretty funny because I think it was sick. It would bark (which sounded more like a smoker´s wheeze) then sneeze twice and repeat. I didn´t have my camera so I couldn´t make a video of it but it was probably a good thing because he probably would´ve killed himself trying to "get us." 

This transfer is over and it flew by. It is crazy to think that I started 4 months ago. It has gone by so fast but I feel like I´ve grown so much. I can now read Portuguese plainly and I can understand a lot more. Only when I hear words I don´t know is what messes me up.

 

I am excited for these next 6 weeks. I feel like we will get a lot of work done and I plan on being fluent at the end of these 6 weeks. Ok, maybe not fluent but close to it. Thank you for your love and support. I appreciate the prayers and know that they are returned every night. I love you guys so much.

 

Love,

Elder Saueressig