Week Forty Five.

Hello again everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well. So this week was interesting. I will just tell you first, that I have been praying a lot to better my relationship with my companion, and then... she got sick and hurt all this week. I don’t really know if that was an answer to my prayer exactly, but hey, it worked.

Last Tuesday morning Sister Rodrigues woke up with her eye hurting a lot, it was all pink and swollen. So after our meeting and lunch we went to the local free health clinic. They didn’t have anyone there for eyes so sent us down town. Well we went there and they said that because she was over 21, anyone accompanying her had to wait outside (in the street, at night, downtown). So we tried to explain that we had to stay together, about the mission and the rules. He said she was 24 and could handle herself. So... I ended up waiting outside in the street, at night, in the middle of the city (I am an American, and everyone always thinks that we have a lot of money). So I was a bit scared, and alone, but talked to a nice lady who was also waiting. It was very weird. As it turned out that my companion had something like pink eye, but that it takes away the protective layering of the eye. It burns and feels like your eye is popping out. But I had to put eye drops in her eye every 6 hours. Oh, and this is super contagious, so I have been washing my hand a lot, and getting after her to wash her hands too.

The doctors told us that she has to rest the next day. That day we tried calling everyone to see if someone could make visits with me and someone else stay with her, well no one wanted to catch what she had. Sooooo... We ended up staying in the house. But our nice Zone Leaders came to our area to help us out (because the area has been struggling a bit). So I made them brownies, or tried with this recipe. They don’t have brownies, but because all the Americans talk about them, all the members and missionaries know about them and want them. But it’s really hard without a simple brownie mix and other things. But they turned out pretty good. But the next day she really wanted to leave the house, so as we were leaving our apartment building, she fell down the stairs (one elder said because she was blind from her other illness, :)) But she fell and ended up sitting on top of her foot, It was a pretty bad fall, I saw it. So.... She then couldn’t walk very well for the rest of the week, and it actually is still hurting.

However we were able to work some this week. But the time that we spent together this week has strengthened our relationship, and I am very grateful for that. When we were able to work this week, we accomplished a lot.  Not only do we have a problem with the amount of baptisms, but were are having problems just getting our investigators to church. A lot of people told us that they would come, but because it was father’s day here in Brazil, it all fell through. Iwas not going to go another Sunday without any investigators at church. So we were calling some of our investigators and one of them kept saying that she was coming. It so happens that she lives just across the street from the church building, so I left the building went to her house to go get her. It turned out she wanted to go but was embarrassed. But we brought her there and she really liked it. So things here are improving slowly but surely and everything is good.

Today for our P-day, Sister Rodrigues showed me some of the cool things in the center of Recife. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to look at some of these things. We are planning on doing more things now on our p-day. We looked at a lot of flea markets, where things were super cheap! We then also went into an old prison where they made it into a tourist shops. I went into one shop and she asked if I spoke Portuguese, ha-ha, I have actually never gotten asked that before. It was funny. But then she kept giving us samples of sweets too. A hippie stopped us on the street and made a ´´art´´ metal ring for us, it was pretty cool. But during lunch we were able to talk to this funny old guy and shared a lot with him about the church. So things will turn up here. I continue strong, and thank Heavenly Father for all my blessings and my struggles. I hope that everyone has a wonderful week.

Love,
Sister Rebecca Nelson