You had the noodle dream?!

So yeah, this entire week all of my dreams have been in portuguese. It´s trippy, but I can actually understand more in my dreams than I can when I´m awake. Most of them consist of me being home and talking to people in portuguese. I dont know where this comes from, but it´s cool none the less. Portuguese is slowly starting to take over. When I do speak in english its hard to not have a few portugese words in there unconciously. Now if I could just work on that accent. Holy cow, I have got to sound so strange to these people, because we´ll be walking down the street, and I´ll smile and wave at people and say something, and they just look and stare. This whole week has been like that, everybody just stares, all the time. I´ll smile and wave, and they just stare. Dude, I know I talk funny, but a smile and wave is universal, at least respond likewise. I seriously dont get it. It must go something like this -

 

...what is that? It looks like a person, but it´s...white?

Dude, João, check this out...it´s a person...but it´s...white

Hey Maria, get the kids, it´s a...white..person

 

*Everybody comes outside*

 

Hey look! It´s waving! How strange!

 

Honestly people, what gives? Take a picture, it´ll last longer... There will be a group of kids playing outside, and halfway down the street I can hear them talking about me. When I get closer all the talking stops and everybody just stares. As soon as I get my back to them, they start laughing. I seriously dont get it. Whatever, crack on.

 

This week has been slightly better than last. But, with the addition of stepping in something every single day. If it´s not dog crap, it´s gum, and if it´s not me, it´s Elder Lima. Everybody here owns a dog, and they run around everywhere, and crap whereever they want to. You constanly have to be on your guard. At night it´s horrible. If it´s not crap, there is always SOMETHING to trip on. The roads and side walks hear are horrible, and I am always tripping on something. It is usually in front of a pretty girl, a group of kids, or when a bus full of people is driving by.

 

Sorry folks, I lied, I was not called to the Brazil, Londrina Mission. I have been called to the "humble you quicker than being beat in a shooting match by a blind kid" mission. You cant have ANY pride on a mission. If you do, you wont for long. You´ve just got to grit your teeth, and push on. One of the hardest things for me to learn out here is humility. Dude it friggin hurts when you catch that humility bat in the teeth. When God wants you to learn something, He dosent care how bad it hurts your natural self, as long as you learn it. And it sucks for me, because I´ve got alot of pride. And I´m not saying that to be humble, it´s true, and it´s going to take alot of work to strip me of it. I know though, it will be for my good, and I will be a better person for it though. Hebrews 12:11 makes me laugh, because it´s so true.

 

So yeah, we´re steadily moving towards the baptismal dates for our families. It´s awesome because they are coming to church, and meeting the members, they have a bunch of questions afterwards, which means they´re thinking, which is always awesome. I love questions, I love to ask them and I love it when people have them. I like to get people to think. Why are you catholic/baptist/whatever, why do you believe this certain way, and so on. The majority of the time, they do something a certain way because that´s what their parents did, or that´s just what they´ve always done. We ran into some Jehovahs witness the other day. They stopped us, and after we passed around our little pamphlets I asked them why they believe the way they do. The replied with a couple of scriptures, one of which was isaiah 43:10-11. I had to wait until later that night to read what they were in english, and I couldnt believe it. They totally missed the point of verse 11. Yeah, I completely agree with you, besides Jesus Christ there is no saviour. I´d like to learn more about the j-dubs, because they dont seem any different from Jews at first glance.

 

Well, I´ve gotta go folks -

 

Oh, and real quick, out of like, 30 something people that I email every week, only 3 people responded as to what my strengths and weaknesses are. Dude, does nobody read my emails? ELDER STANDARD NEEDS HELP PEOPLE. I´m asking you because you most likely know me, and know a little about me. So, I´ll try this one more time -

 

PLEASE RESPOND AS TO WHAT MY STRENGTHS, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHAT MY WEAKNESSES ARE. I know I´m awesome, people. Help me figure out what my weaknessess are so I can work on them. Please. I dont know how to put it anymore plain. This isnt some bullcrap request. The more I can improve myself, the better I can help other people. I´m serious about this.

 

Thanks,

Elder Standard

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