Irmã Brooks.: On this week's episode of letters from Sam

HAHAHAHAHAH. I´m starting to think that´s what every week is going to be like. Although, my companion finally spilled the beans to me that Mem Martins is a weird area and it always has been. BUT. That won´t get us down! And this week, we got the privilege of creating a new area within our area, because now there are going to be 6 missionaries in our ward. So......that´s gonna be fun. Here´s to hoping it´s Elders and not Sisters, because then we won´t have to have two more girls in our house, but I´m pretty sure just for typing that it´s gonna be sisters. Well...we´ll all find out next week. "On next week´s episode of...." I actually say that all the time at the end of lessons. We usually tell them like what we are going to talk about next time and sometimes it´s real awkward, well...everything´s awkward, but anyways, and I´ll say (in my best Soap Net/Portuguese Novela voice) "On the next episode of...lessons with the Sisters!" Yeah...it´s hard to be funny. Yeah, so anyways, we spent 3 hours drawing lines this week. So who knows what´s going to happen, but hopefully that reorganization will turn Mem Martins luck around.

Also, I knew I was giving up a lot of things for the mission, but I did NOT know that warm water was going to be one of them. After taking cold showers for 2 weeks, we FINALLY have hot water again and it´s the greatest thing in all of the land. You guys, don´t take advantage of this blessed, blessed miracle.

This week was funny and strange and weird and all of those things. I can´t really remember anything that happened. Except one day, we were making our way to try to find this girl´s house. We´re walking and walking and then we ask these people for directions and they give it to us and then we´re walking and walking and then we see McDonald´s, so we stop for a DC, and then we´re walking and walking and then we´re in the middle of this huge industrial area. Then we stop and ask this lady for directions, and she tells us to go in front. So...we keep walking, and then we stop and look around and realize we´re just in the middle of a bunch of big roads in like like huge industrial/commercial/shopping area, so we´re like okay, let´s ask this lady at the bus stop. So we do, and she tells us to go in the exact same direction the other lady said. So we play frogger and run across the road and start heading in the direction the ladies told us. Then, we´re turning and turning and turning, and all of a sudden, I realize... WE ARE LITERALLY WALKING ON THE ON RAMP ONTO THE HIGHWAY. THOSE CRAZY LADIES TOLD US TO WALK ON THE HIGHWAY! I don´t know how they do things in Portugal but there wasn´t even a shoulder! Seriously, WHAT? Needless to say, once I noticed, I stop and just turned around and started laughing forever and then we took the bus home. Seriously, who are these people?

In other news, we´re kinda struggling with our investigators, but our recent converts are seriously SO legit. It´s awesome. They just want to learn and soak it all in and it´s so inspiring and I love it so much. One of our recent converts Paulo is the funniest. He hates praying in front of people, but last week, they called on him to give the closing prayer in Sunday School, and after he came up to us and was like, ´I´m good for a year, Sisters!!` Because that´s how that works. But then he got called on again yesterday and it was the funniest thing ever, because he just looked at us and then afterward was like, `Three months!! Three months!!´ Oh, he´s the sweetest soul. I love everyone here so much. They´re so awesome. And they just have such a sincere desire to learn. It´s precious, and makes me want to be a better person everyday.

Funniest thing ever. I saw a group of summer sales kids around here and just died laughing. Oh, I miss Provo.

Also, I´ll have you know Dad, that I still do your making up song thing. Like everyday. But it´s generally to church music or a hymn and my comp thinks I´m the worlds strangest person, but I´ve actually gotten her to join in on it with me and it´s funny. So, just know that I still think about you barging in my room in the mornings singing those strange songs to me and doing your funny little dance moves.

Oh another funny story, I tried to tell the Young Women this week to stay beautiful (fica bonita) in Portuguese, and they all just looked at me like I was an idiot, and they were like...`yeah no, we don´t say that. It´s fica bem. (Stay good).` They don´t play around with their language here and it´s hard for me. #translationproblems

Also, will someone tell Kaylie Trussel that I got to watch an episode of Phineas and Ferb in Portuguese at a members house (There was nothing I could do about it people. I tried real hard not to.) and it was the funniest thing I´ve ever listened too and it made me think of her and when we bonded over this freshman year.

I LOVE YOU MORE THAN I LOVE PORTUGAL! #notsorry

Sister Brooks