Crazy in Brazil

Hi Everyone!

This week I will hit my year mark, and to be honest, the weird things have just become way too normal! I follow my companions around the house and I feel bad for them because they have to hear me talk nonstop, and usually at night we are chatting and then it is 10:30pm, lights out. It’s "goodnight companion, love ya’”, two minutes of silent me, then, "wait, just one more thing", and then I never stop talking, even in my sleep. Poor things.

The worst thing on the mission is when irmas give dessert that you don't even like, but you have to eat it, and you get fat from it.

After a year, I have officially forgotten how to walk like a normal person. My companion gets so mad at me because we aren't even in a rush sometimes and she's says, "Sister Vance, slow down … we don't need to be running right now!" Haha, then I realize that I am sprint-walking. The time has gone by so fast, because the season never changes here … it goes from summer to hot weather, summer, sometimes even hotter weather, and then boiling rain sometimes. I just feel like I have been here for one three month season … summer!

My favorite thing that happened this week was when Fransica (woman in the pictures from church last week) was in our Gospel Principles class. She is a little rough around the edges and has that rough smoker voice - but is an absolute angel! The class was about eternal marriage (a missionary’s favorite topic … NOT!), haha. She just started to understand about BEING SEALED and she blurts out, "wait, but my husband died before we were sealed, oh no, I lost my chance! Well, looks like I gotta go find me another man”! I just lost it. One of the speakers in sacrament meeting asked a rhetorical question in his talk; she knew the answer and just belted it out. I was so happy about it. Haha, she’s great.

Antonio is so awesome. We mark chapters for him in the Book of Mormon and he reads the same chapter 3 times to make sure he understands! That is completely unheard of here! Also, one morning during planning, my companion and I looked at each other and said, "Today let’s do something different, something exciting, and something CRAZY”! Haha we ended up going to the Centro and trying to contact people in different places. My favorite one was a woman who I passed and she was talking on the phone. I felt like I needed to talk with her, and so I chased (followed and maybe stalked) her for five blocks, and the minute she hung up I tried to talk to her. She looked at me, then looked away. I asked her what her name was; she heard me but gave me the HARD CORE IGNORE. I got uncomfortable, grabbed my companion and just said "run", haha. It was so funny because I just totally felt that I needed to talk to her and was so determined to baptize this woman, but that was the outcome! Haha, sometimes I feel like the Holy Ghost just messes with me and is trying to test me to see if I will be obedient. Or maybe one day when she tries to complain to God that she never had a chance to hear the gospel, I will be close by and remind her, "no, I CHASED AFTER YOU!" Life here is filled with crazy and sacred experiences, and I am so grateful for both.

Love you all!

Sister Vance