5/28/18 - 2 Months!

Olá! I have 2 months down and I'm loving every minute!

This week was on the tougher side. In a single day we went from having 11 progressing investigators to 1. Either they quit investigating, stopped progressing, moved away, or became a creepy predator. Bummer. However, we are still smiling! Sister A. Ribeiro is always cheery no matter the situation. Her favorite English phrase is "I have to pee" so she would turn that into a dramatic opera when things got tough. It's a good thing not many people here know English because she loves to belt that out as we're walking down the streets everyday. I adore her. 

2 of the houses we clapped at this week were answered by naked people. Yeah that was scaring. Welcome to Brasil! haha. 

The whole country of Brasil is in a "panico" right now because all the gas station workers are boycotting something. Nobody has access to gas. Airplanes are grounded, the ônibus is not running, nobody is driving cars. It's quite the ordeal but I think its a blessing! This means there are more opportunites to find people on the streets as they're walking everywhere! We have a plan to find more investigators this week and with faith and few miracles I know we'll find people who are ready for our precious message. 

You could say it feels like i'm living some sort of cool video game where I'm trying to find the golden investigator like a treasure hunt while dodging these speeding cars and crazy dogs. 

One of my favorite parts of Brasil are the fruit and flowers at every turn. There have been many times when we're walking my comp will stop and pull something out of a nearby tree and start eating it. So far my favorites are Japanese Grapes and Brasillin Cherries. 

My Brasillian friends who read these emails, I need your help. Is scrambled eggs with spaghetti a common thing, or is my comp crazy? I have yet to understand this new combo. 

When I say tropical storms hit hard and fast I mean it! We were sitting on the street teacing The Restoration when a crack of thunder hit. The rains came down and the floods came up! We sprinted for a tiny near by overhang. Our investigator was kind enough to give us plastic bags for our scriptures and lend us un umbrella so we could make the trek back to our apartment to change. We were soaked, but it was so fun!

I cannot say enough about the members of this ward, they're amazing. Lunch is the main meal here and we eat with members everyday. The little girls in this ward treat us like superheros! It's the best thing ever! We had FHE with some members and some of our investigators and that was a blast. It's fun to know that the FHE format is the same all over the world! 

Ricardo is continuing to progress, but Jehovah's Witnesses have hit this area and have been preaching against us making it very hard to convince people to listen to us. His family are members of that church and have been trying to sway him in the other direction. We have faith if he keeps doing the basics his testimony will be made stronger and he'll eventually be baptized. 

Thanks for all your prayers, I sure do feel them!

Love always,

A slightly sun burnt Sister Barlow

1) 7 year old Alivia made paperdolls of Sister A. Riberio and I. Too cute!

2) Bruna's family we had almorço with yesterday. You can't tell from the picture but that dog is the biggest thing I've ever seen.

3) My favorite book with a cool looking flower

4) FHE with members and Thais!