Chick-Fil-A

Well, I have some very sad news.

I murdered a lizard this week. It was horrible. I felt so bad. I've already written about it in my journal and at least two letters. But I shall tell the sad tale once again. Sister Lords and I got up to go running (that's right!) and I tried to close the door and felt a bit of resistance--so I pulled harder (never give up, never surrender) and the door closed. But when we opened it again we found several pieces of lizard that had been squooshed across the floor. I swept him up into the dustpan (solemnly) and then we went for our run. We sort of forgot about him until that night and I found his shriveledness in the dust pan. Because I've already experienced the horrible smell of dead lizard I decided to dump him off the balcony. Sigh.

Anyway, let's see. We do have four sisters now and it's been good. A little bit crowded and very dry, but Sister Lords is a great runner so we've been able to get out exercising for the first time in forever! It's so great. And Sister Lourenco is hilarious and made us a very...good lunch on Saturday (see picture). I do have to say that I hope starting my fast with cow stomach (?) doesn't become a tradition.

We had a pretty funny family night last week with a couple investigators and their less-active family members. Afterwards we were just talking and one of their little boys came in with their cat dangling by its ears and he just started jumping up and down with the cat bouncing along with him. I started laughing so hard. That poor cat. I've also seen another of their little boys standing on it with both feet as he raced his little toy motorcycle across the ground. Ah. I love the mission.

I have also found my new best friend. His name is Frederico and he's Josefa's 11-year-old grandson. After branch counsel a couple weeks ago when I shared the cookies, he also had a few and since then he's been referring to me as the Sister with the delicious biscuits/cookies. Anyway, he's my favorite. He walked by as we finished our lesson with Susana and Zemar and started clapping. We brought them cookies again and I'm pretty sure he's going to be proposing any day now...

I know a lot more happened this week. But I can't think of what to tell you. We're in the finding stage at the moment as most of our investigators have decided they're not interested or they're moving to the island of Brava. Stinkin' Brava. But it's all right. It's always good to search for the people that God has prepared.

It doesn't seem like we'll be getting a new house after all (which is good, because I don't think I could stand to be farther away from Sucupira), but today--for the first time in over six weeks, we got water from the system! And it was FREEZING. I took a shower and it was ridiculously cold. We filled up all our jugs and giant barrel and our tank on the roof even started filling up like it was supposed to, but then stopped. That seems to be the problem. There's something wrong with the tubes so that the tank doesn't fill when the water comes. But. That was exciting.

Oh man. We had lunch at this pastry place today and they brought us straws (pretty irregular as it is), but they were straws from Chick-Fil-A (I have no idea how to spell it) and I was so confused! Oh the random things that get shipped over from America.

Sorry, I didn't write much about the work today it's been sort of a slow week. This area's a little bit more difficult than some others, but I know there are a ton of people waiting for us. We just have to find them (and hope they're willing to stop drinking, smoking and breaking the law of chastity)!

The flies are out of control and everyone's getting eaten by mosquitos (I've been all right since I'm so bitter).

The mission's so crazy, this country's out of control and I couldn't imagine a better place to be!

Love you all!
-Sister Brooks