7/2/18 - Gripê is DEATH!

Gripê is DEATH! Tuesday I got super sick with the flu and had a fever over 102 with aches and chills. Not cool. I got a priesthood blessing at a zone conference and said a lot of prayers. My comp was really good at taking care of me and tried to insist we stay in so I could rest but I assured her that I would heal faster if we kept working. So I took some meds, said more prayers and we kept working. As soon as we left the house I felt better and was able to work as normal but the moment we got back everything fell apart and I was back to being super sick. It was a miracle. That lasted for a few days and then I felt a lot better, but my voice was gone. I'm going on day 3 of not being able to speak. haha! My American accent is already super thick, my verb conjugations aren't always correct, and now my voice is gone too. If you can imagine my raspy voice approacing a porta saying "Olá! Podemos deixa um convite com você?" with only every other word actually making sound... yeah this has been fun. haha! 

INGLÊS WEEK ONE WAS A SUCCESS! We had 12 people show and it ended up being a lot easier than I expected. It was so fun to have them correct my mistakes in Portuguese while I helped them with English. None of us know how to speak the other language 100% correctly, so it was a great big party of "Como sei diz?" and "Buscar no dicionário por favor!"

We found a really cool investigator named Neide (Pronounced Nedgie). She moved here last week and doesn't know anyone. You know what that means? WE GET TO BOMBARD HER WITH LOVE AND KINDNESS AND FRIENDSHIP AND ALL SORTS OF BEM VINDO-NESS! It's super cool how God sets up our lives so we're in the right place at the right time. Anyway, she said she'd been praying about which church to join in her new area. She previously ran with T-Jotas (Testemunho de Jeová), but she said she doesnt like their bible much. We taught her the Restoration and invited her to pray about it and the Book of Mormon.she told us right there "I don't need to pray about it, I already know it's true! I've felt the Spirit of God answer my prayers right now"" We were thrilled but told her she still needed to pray about it and recieve that witness. She's hesitatnt about being baptized because she was baptized into the Assemby of God and she doesn't thinki she needs a second baptism. We're working with her.

In Portuguese the letter R is pronounced like and Engligh H so you can imagine all the weird pronounciations I've heard of my name. This week I was called Sister Bolo (Sister Cake) That's a new one. Usually it's Sister Barbie, Sister Baho, Sister Barbeque, or Sister Baholow. I get a kick out of all my different names. 

I'm understanding and speaking enough Portuguese now that English takes concentration. I'm finally getting all my comp's jokes! Little did I know she is HILARIOUS! And now that I speak decently people get my jokes too! They actually laugh and don't just give me weird look and sympathetic chuckle. PROGRESS!

World Cup is still a thing. I love it. Brasillians know how to party. I have my super cool cousin Elder Lever serving in Vitioria about 500 miles north of me right now and if you get his emails you'll know BRASIL IS SOCCER! Having the whole city shut down during jogos is hard, but the fireworks, horns, people screaming, and dog barking everytime Brasil scores is super fun. 

If you're taking the Book of Mormon Challenge with me you should be finishing page 203 today! 

Brasil is cool. Missions are cool.

Tchau Amigos!

Sister Barlow 

Brasil São Paulo Norte

 1) The most festive street in all the land.

2)  My way of celebrating O Cupo de Mundo 

3) The giant Lady Liberity that we found at an American Shopping center during a Zone Conference

4) Inglês day 1