That We May Be One

3 Nephi 19:23

Heavenly Father rocks! Seriously, it´s been so hard here the past month and then yesterday... Waabaammmbbbb! Haha sitting in the congregation yesterday was one of the best feelings I´ve had since being in Brazil. After the meeting I turned to one of our investigators and said, ´´I didn´t understand one thing that they just talked about, but ooooohhhh I feel good.´´ Haha the Spirit was overwhelming. Let me try to explain 

First off, it´s funny to get your letters and read about school cancellations and the snow. It´s super weird because here it´s the exact opposite. You go to bed sweating and you wake up sweating... Haha there´s no air conditioning either so every house has two to three fans. During studies in the morning too, you have sweat dripping down your face. Sister Perrotti (I can finally pronounce her name right! (Mission President´s wife)) last week sent out some guidelines for working and hydration because of the heat warnings. Haha she also gave us this weak sauce, homemade gatorade recipe... Anyway, it´s hot. Reeallllllyyy hot, and we spent most of the time out in the sun trying to find people again this week. Because lunch is like Thanksgiving everyday, when we do teach after lunch, it´s a battle to stay awake. Haha a combination of being tired of walking, being in the sun, and having a full belly... Anyway, hard life right? 

Actually, yes. Haha this week was a climb. Instead of going day by day, I´ll just give you a recap of Friday. WORST DAY EVER!!! Haha

Our lunch that we were really looking forward to (she´s incredible at cooking), fell through last minute. So, because we had planned to go eat hamburgers with an investigator for dinner, we decided to have a light lunch at ´´Herbalife`` (it´s popular in the states too - it´s like a smoothie, healthy business). We decided to have a ´´shakey´´ for lunch because three of the workers there are actually investigators.Whoop! Flavia, a mom who´s currently investigating came over to me when I came in and sat down. My companion didn´t stand up to shake her hand when she walked over to him. Thinking that was odd, I stood up to greet her and shake her hand... AAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! SHE KISSED ME!!!!!! Hahaha oh man... If you want to talk about awkward situations, trust me, you won´t even get CLOSE to how awkward I was after that. Hahaha seriously, it was terrible.  When I grabbed her hand to shake it, she put her other hand on my shoulder and pulled me in. She pressed her cheek against mine and made a kissing noise. Not knowing what to do I made some sort of ´´quaking´´ noise. Hahaha oh man, I don´t even know how to tell this story… She pulled away and looked at me, told me that I did it wrong, and then DID IT AGAIN! AGGGGHHHHHHHH!! I was in the middle of the store and everyone was looking at us. After being kissed twice, I stood there completely lost. COMPLETELY lost. I mentioned a few months ago how awkward I was when a lady hugged me... Try to picture me getting kissed twice. Man! Everyone started laughing because they could sense how different it was for an American, especially a missionary, to do that.  My companion lost it too. It was easily, the most awkward experience of my life. Whoooo, that alone made Friday the worst day in Brazil... 

Not long after that, we met two guys sitting next to each other on a ledge outside. I sat beside one and Elder Lee by the other. I don´t know why but we both fell asleep talking to them. BOTH of us! Haha I would´ve never guessed how draining a mission would be. I'm more tired now than I was during two-a-days. 

After being kissed (twice) by a mom and then falling asleep on a street contact, I was walking toward a lady getting out of her car. My mind was still thinking of how I can avoid getting kissed in the future, and my body was still trying to fully wake-up, that I lost complete sense of where I was at the moment. When, all of a sudden, the curb came out of nowhere...

I still carry a Book of Mormon with me everywhere I go, so when I tripped, I threw the Book of Mormon at her and superman´d through the air. Haha man... Being as tired as I was, not focused, and some solid scuffs on my knees and hands from sliding on the concrete, I just layed there. Haha, I totally forgot what I was doing! Not only did I throw a Book of Mormon at her (luckily it missed her) but I was laying face down, right in front of her. After about five seconds, I realized what I was doing, where I was, and then stood up and just smiled at her. Haha because it´s still a struggle to communicate with the people here, I just started laughing. I smiled, told her that I represented Jesus Christ and that I was here to talk to her about the amazing Restoration. My companion couldn´t hold it was easily the worst contact ever. The lady was nice about it though and told us that she had to go. 

More happened on this day, like pouring rain for 2 hours straight and wasting 18 reias on a crummy meal, but Sunday was awesome. 

Because the number of them doesn't matter, Ill just say we had a real big miracle yesterday with investigators at church. I couldn´t hold back the tears from seeing investigator after investigator come in. It was awesome.  After church, the member in charge of missionary work for the stake came up to me and said that, ´´We got his attention now.´´ Since then, we´ve had ward member after ward member come up to us asking how they can help. Because it´s difficult to communicate, I just smile and look at Elder Lee... Haha anyway, yesterday was a tender mercy

I love it here. I love the grind and I love the people. Although the culture is a bit.... different, I love it too. Oh, and most of all, I love representing the Savior! Everyday, all day. 

´´Can´t stop, won´t stop.´´

Elder Welch