Clapping at the doors

Hello Familia!!

It has been a looong week. haha This was one of those weeks you always hear about before the mission. The one where you knock (or ... clap) every door you can see but not a single person lets you in. haha it wasn´t THAT bad, we did have some good lessons, but we walked SO much more this week than ever before. We had two really wonderfully cool days, but the rest of the days we both felt like we were melting. We knew it was hot outside when even the Brazillians we live with were talking about it when we got home. haha apparently Porto Alegre is a lot more humid than where either of them are from and ... well... yeah. It´s really hot. haha Someone said it was supposed to get up to 36 degrees yesterday. I have no idea what it actually got up to, and I don´t actually know what 36 degrees means... but... I know yesterday was HOT. haha I taught Sister Furtado the word "zombie" as we walked. The best part? Everytime we say anything about "Wow, it´s hot today" our members respond with "Just wait. We´re still coming out of winter. The summer is yet to come." And then I stop listening because I´m scared! haha

They have the beautiful Hawaiian flowers here - EVERYWHERE! (Plumeria)
They make me so happy!

It really was a good week. I don´t feel like I have any awesome stories because a lot of what we did was just walk and clap, walk and clap, walk and clap some more. But, we´re happy and healthy. haha besides the whole melting thing.

Thursday though, I taught my first solo lesson in Portuguese! My companion had a meeting, so I was with another sister teaching one of our investigators. I taught the whole lesson (first 6 commandments) in Portuguese mostly by myself! I also taught Word of Wisdom, and she accepted the invitation to live the word of wisdom! When we went to see her again later, she gave us a whole run through of what I taught. Which means she actually understood me! haha I was pretty stoked. It felt good. 

Kitties!!! This is the sword family I told you about a few weeks ago -
they have like 14 cats. It´s pretty wonderful.

I realized this week that my hardship in Portuguese is less in speaking, and more in understanding. I still don´t feel like I can understand a word anyone says. It´s so weird. With German I was the other way around. I could understand people, just couldn´t always respond. Here, people speak SO FAST and slurred that I still just can´t understand much. Which makes it hard to respond. I´ve also learned that there are like 4500 ways to ask someone where they´re from in Portuguese. Seriously, I hear a new way EVERY TIME someone asks where I´m from. Which is very often. And everytime I get confused and they laugh and ask me in English. It´s always the same way in English. haha So, last week I started just responding "Seattle Washington, Estados Unidos. Não Capital - Washington Estado." to every single question anyone asked me. haha it´s worked well so far! Anyways, Portuguese is fun. I love learning it, and it´s fun being able to say more now than I could a few weeks ago. I just hope the understanding starts to pick up! haha 

I bought an espitinho for the first time!
It´s basically just really deliciously seasoned meat.
Andrew would not like it here - meat is EVERYWHERE!

Well, things are good. We are working hard, having fun and learning a ton. I bought bug repellant this week, so that was definitely a highlight! haha sorry I don´t have as much to say this week. Know I love you all and that I´m so grateful to have your support! I hope everyone is doing well! You´re always in my prayers! I love you!!

Drea