Há muitos lojas de roupa aqui

Carta Semanal:

Pronto! hahaha. Last P-day was another lazy one. We looked around for some clothes for Élder Rivera to buy. He´s got this funny attitude about shopping because he realizes he´s going home in 8 months, so he´s starting to buy stuff for home. Há muitos lojas de roupa aqui. (there´s a lot of clothing stores here). One of them, we stopped in and they asked questions about us almost immediately because we stick out like sore thumbs here and not a lot of people were in the store to begin with. They started gushing about us when we told them we´re Americans and especially me. They said I looked like I´m from Finland because of my eyes, hair, and skin. 

It´s funny, hahaha. Para terminar de nosso dia, nós fomos para uma casa de um membro para assistir ´´o outro lado dos céus´´. After we watched the movie, I became a lot more grateful for the comforts we have as missionaries as compared to back then.

We also did some service for an old, less-active lady in the church. We dug out some weeds and grass that were all over her saplings and garden and such. I felt like we were in the jungle, it was nuts. I have some pictures to show you guys before and after. Her name is Zita. She´s very stubborn about coming back to Church or reading, even though she has a desire to do it. It gets frustrating trying to get people to read the Book of Mormon or to pray because their only excuse is ´´oh, I don´t have time!´´ or ´´I was busy´´. For me, that´s not even a valid excuse. Prophets from the Book of Mormon and the Bible spent their whole lives dedicated to the gospel. We´re spreading a message that is of eternal consequences and will bring you happiness. Mormon spent his whole life abridging the plates that we hold in our hands, and you´re telling me you can´t read a brief chapter for 5 minutes and pray before you go to bed? I don´t know, maybe I´m being too hard but it´s annoying sometimes as a missionary.

Remember that girl I told you about, Ana Carolina? She gave me a late birthday present earlier this week. I took a picture of it. She gave me a Guns ´n Roses CD (which is officially just something to take around with me now because I can´t listen to it), some soap, calogne, and a letter. At first I thought she had a big crush on me or something. The letter is indecipherable, even for Rivera because her handwriting is terrible. But I got bits and pieces out of it. She basically thanked us for bringing her this message and how she knows the things we´re teaching are true. It brightened my day.

I love the relationships I´m starting to have with the people here. The other Elder in our apartment is pretty cool, Elder Graça (Cape Verde, Africa). They´re all pretty cool but he likes to joke around with me sometimes. He leaves in about 4 months and he makes sure to make a point about it when people ask because he´s pretty excited to leave. He says that he wants to keep track of my progress as a missionary when he returns. He keeps telling me that I´m going to be AP (Assistant to the President) someday and he says that my ability to speak Portuguese is better than one of the American AP´s now. Of course the only difference is, is that he´s been here longer and can already understand the people. But for me, that made me feel better to know that my potencial could be better than a lot of Americans here. Even Rivera asks me occasionally for help on pronunciation or which words to use in our lessons. Very rare, obviously, but its also reassuring to know that even the more advanced missionaries don´t know everything yet and it´s nice to actually be of assistance. Only a matter of time until I get that good! :))))

Anyway, not a whole lot more happened this week. Same ol´, same ol´. In case you wanted to know, I got a list of the transfers for the next couple of times. The transfers go: January 25, March 12, April 23, June 4, July 16, and August 27. So that means one is coming up and I´ll most likely be getting a new companion. There´s a good chance I´ll be staying here in 7 de Abril, but who knows? I could get moved too. Stay tuned!

Love you guys, as always! Can´t wait to here from you guys next week!

-Élder Skinner