Forget Dogs...

October 13, 2014 Forget dogs...WATER is mans best friend, Im convinced. Dogs are much lower on the priority scale of man. This week was rough, unsurprisingly, and muito chato. It was eye opening though to understand how many things you truly take for granted in your native land, that you never really think about, such as two knobs on your faucets and shower, to adjust the water to hot and cold. Everywhere here has one knob, and one knob only. But things much more important than this are things such as the ability to communicate with those around you! Some people are timid to talk with strangers, but others just cant do it because they dont know what the heck anyone is saying! Thats pertty much where Im at right now. Im definitely improving as far as understanding other people, but Im still timid to speak a lot in conversations because I dont want to mess up the flow of the lesson that my companion is engaged in. In the CTM the teachers pretend like they can basically understand what you are saying, even if you make some gramatical mistakes. This is very misleading, because in the field, when you make gramatical mistakes or say something wrong, people look at you like something is wrong with you haha which has happened many a time. So needless to say its a struggle here in Brazil country, but its not without successes as well. Some of our conversations with people I can understand almost everything, while other times I cant understand bulufas. Its most hard to put myself out there and try to converse with people even though theyll probably look at me like my head is on backwards, or theyll just start talking to my companion instead haha often times also I feel like I totally know that what I just said made sense, and was said in a way that the person on the other side should have understood perfectly, and then they say O QUE? WHAT?? But its ok. Missionary work in Brazil is a little different than in the US also, for example we got let into probably 8 houses in 2 days here while clapping in front of houses, offering to say a prayer to bless families living in the house. In the US, I got let in 3 or 4 times at most in 15 months haha Ive met some awesome people with so much faith and humility, most of whos names have failed me but some include Iliana, Fernando, Philipe, and Flavia. I know with time, with prayers, and with faith Ill learn this darnd language eventually. Thank you so much for your prayers and faith- keep it up! Love, Elder Hirschi