Here in Brasil, I only knew Easter was coming because of all the "ovos de
Páscoa" (Easter Eggs) in the grocery store. There were no fluffy bunny cartoons,
no peeps, no jelly beans. Just big, chocolate eggs with a prize inside, all
wrapped up in shiny paper. They're expensive, too. On Friday night, we stopped
at our favorite little mercedinho for bananas and the owner MADE us eat a feast
of super expensive fish with him (he tried to offer us wine, too, but we escaped
that one), and then he MADE us accept a little ovo de Páscoa. God bless that
man. He's always giving us free food and water. We were super excited about the
easter egg and took a picture with it. I realized that I'll only have one Páscoa
in the mission! How strange....
Sister Freitas, the one who was attacked by a dog last week, is from
Porto Alegre. She wants to know if Ryan remembers Elders Wadsworth, Cocks, or
Oliveira, because they taught and baptized her during Ryan's time in the
mission.
My Português is coming along. Improving day by day. People tell me that I
have an accent still, but the strange part is that they all think I'm from
Argentina. After I speak, people always, always are confused about where I'm
from. Sometimes they think I'm from Rio Grande do Sul (where Ryan served), and
other times they think I'm from Argentina. It's rare now for people to assume
I'm an American after hearing me speak. Strange, huh? I'll take it! I don't know
how I developed such a warped accent-- I try so hard to speak like the
Bahianos-- but it's better than an American accent! I was especially delighted
this past week when Sister Freitas called me on the phone, sounded super
confused about who she was talking to, and later in the day told me that I
sounded like a Brasilian on the phone. Yes! Progress at last!
As far as the work goes.... Well, I'm sure we're doing some good here.
There are 5 people who were formerly inactive members who are now coming to
church every Sunday. So that's good! Maybe if we can keep this up, the work will
start to progress more rapidly.
I was reading about the temple the other day in True to the Faith and I
was very impressed by this statement: "Only the home compares to the temple in
sacredness."
Wow. What does that tell you about the importance of the home and
family? This week's challenge for y'all is to ask yourself: How is your home
like the temple?
I had a very powerful hour of study going off of that one
thought. It sure clarifies why the leaders of the church are always stressing
the importance of the family, and why the adversary is attacking it so
ruthlessly. I'm surrounded every day here by broken families and let me tell
you, it all begins with the choice to live together before you get married. You
don't have to be religious to see that here. It's just a fact. All of Brasil's
problems as a nation can be traced back to broken families, and broken families
can be traced back to the fact that marriage is not important to these people.
"It's expensive and unnecessary," they say. Then come children born out of
wedlock, being raised by their grandparents, aunts, uncles, one parent, a
sibling, or gangs, then having children themselves out of wedlock and the cycle
goes on and on. Here in my area, about half (or more) of the people we teach are
illiterate. When the people are illiterate, government is easily and quickly
corrupted. It's a fast downward spiral in a nation when marriage, home, and
family are not a priority.
I have a testimony of the Family. I have a testimony that, truly, the
only way to change the world is to preach the gospel of repentance. I love that
I get to do this every day!
-Sister Railee
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