Two Guys On A Scooter

10/1/2018

Sta'dretu?

The week passed so quickly I'm not quite sure what even happened. I got to go to my first Zone Conference which was really fun and inspiring to see so many other missionaries! I also got to see Sister Forsyth and honestly almost cried, I love her so much. Of course Sao Filipe is hotter than Hades, which really made appreciate the fresco paradise that is Covo Figueira. It was cool though to be around other people speaking in portuguese too.  The Creole makes things tricky and really confusing sometimes but at the very least people understand me and I'm beginning to understand a little bit of the Creole. By the time I come home I should be trilingual, so that's cool.

Teaching people all day is fun, but sometimes it's less fun. This week we were teaching a member’s sister and during our lesson she started to cry.  We hope that it was a good, feeling the spirit kinda cry, but she wouldn't say anything so we aren't quite sure. Then with all the less active work to be done in our area, we occasionally find ourselves giving a lot of faces (a portuguese term for reprimanding), which is both semi-satisfying and frustrating because it's a reminder that, for as much as we teach people, help them progress in the gospel and watch their faith grow, you can't stay to help them. You just have to hope and pray with all your little heart that they just remember how they felt, what they believe and that they can stick to that final most important doctrine; enduring to the end. Lucky for the Saints here, they have some very persistent, somewhat annoying, Sister Missionaries who refuse to give up... even when you avoid us for weeks on end, ducking for cover everytime we walk by, we will find and teach you!

This Saturday we hiked roughly 13 miles, making the trip to the bottom of Tinteira and back. Which, despite the long uphill climbs over lava tracks and a permanent burning sensation in my calves, was not the most difficult thing we did that day. No, the real challenge was teaching an entire family of Adventists after their sabbath day worship services. For the most part they were actually pretty nice, but we did have to hard core deflect some attempted bible bashing. Todo faz parte de vida.

Anyways, I hope you all have a lovely week and take some time to ponder in your hearts how you can make your prayers more meaningful. We receive answers according to the merits of our faith, praying without real intent is like paddling on just one side of a boat, you ain't gonna get anywhere! Read Enos 1:1-12 for some good content on that. Ter uma boa semana!

-Sister Bradley

P.S.

I ran out of batteries and my camera is dead, so this picture of the moon over the ocean is unfortunately all I've got for this week.