Olaaa!!
So... it's carnaval right now in Brazil!!! Which means that basically everyone will be drinking and making bad decisions... But for the most part it's pretty chill in our area. We just have to avoid the orla (where I sent you guys that pic of the Amazon and Tapajós rivers meeting) and Alter do Chão for the next couple of days.
Sister Almeida asked me this week if I had written you guys about the wildlife here (somehow I always forget... and I never seem to have my camera with me to take pictures!) But the first thing that's pretty neat is that there are tons of chameleons. They are waaaayyy bigger than I expected. They always hang out in the mango trees along the road (in families!! it's super cute). There are also way too many vulchers here. Way too many. It got to the point that my comp. carrys rocks (and sometimes mangos...) to throw at them. They're everywhere in the road and aren't afraid of people... Also, everything about them is ugly. Even the way they walk, jump, and fly. Sometimes when our compromissos fall through we imitate them. Okay, vent over, I hate vulchers, you know the rest.
So we are still teaching Ana--and she is still awesome! We taught her about the Book of Mormon (here we don't have very many copies... so we can only give them to the people who we think will actually read... so it's been a while.) But it was amazing! I love the Book of Mormon so much! She said she had been wondering about it at church and she had thought that maybe it was to replace the Bible. You should have seen the look of joy on her face when she started to understand what it really is---ANOTHER testament of Jesus Christ, our Savior. It was pretty great! We are also still teaching Maura, and she finally agreed to get married no civil. Whoo-hoo!!!
Oh, and could you all pray for my companion, Sister Almeida?? She's been having foot pains for a few weeks now, and this week it got so bad that she can't walk. :/ We have to wait until Wednesday to take her to a doctor because of Carnaval. I'm not really sure how we are going to be able to work this week... but the Lord always provides a way, right?
This week our zone started something super neat! It comes from a talk that a past mission president in Florianópolis gave, describing his experiences. We cleaned our house SUPPPPEEERRR well (to invite Christ to come :) ), studied miracles of Christ together, listened to some hymns from MOTAB, sang I am a Child of God, and then we prayed for one another, fasting for each other's needs. It was such a special experience. My love for my comp. grew so much.
Well... that's enough for this week. Love you all so much!
Sister Dickerson
