It has been a great week!

Ola !How are you all doing?! I~m doing well. This last week was much better, in fact it was GREAT! I~m finally adjusting to the life of a missionary and really do love it! It is a lot easy to love life when you aren~t thinking about yourself. So this past week I stopped thinking about my pains and afflictions and focused on the work. It was awesome! I~m still exhausted every night and fall asleep before I hit the pillow, but the walking doesn~t bother me that much anymore. And I won~t ever get used to the sun so I just learning to deal with it! The hottest months here are October through January so I should be a little bit more comfortable after that! A 70 yr old investigator of ours said this was the hottest December she had seen in years and years. Nice. Things are going great though. I really love Sousa and absolutely adore the people here. We~ve made so many friends just by saying Bom Dia to every person we pass on the streets. The work is going okay. There are a lot of Catholics here who are very VERY into their religion so that makes things discouraging at times….but don~t worry all we do is allow people the opportunity to accept. In the CTM they told us a mission is primarily to convert the missionary and secondly to convert the people. I have to say I am more converted now than ever…which makes it hard when people reject the gospel. The other night we were teaching our last lesson of the day and I was teaching about the Book of Mormon. We asked the woman if she would read 2 chapters and pray about them, she took one look at it and said, `nope. sorry i~m catholic´. I couldn~t help but tear up. I held this precious book in my hands that has blessed my life more than any other book and people don~t even want to do something as simple as pray about it. It hurts, but my companion says I~ll get used to it. I love being a missionary though. It is turning out to be the greatest blessing of my life. The Lord has blessed me with so many tender mercies this week. He really does love and watch over His missionaries! This next Sunday I have to give a talk in church. 10-15 minutes of straight Portuguese!!!!! Ahh I hope I can do it! Pray that it will go well! My present to myself is to teach 6 lessons (which is a lot for here) and then eat Acai with my district. It should be great! So today is Pday and I have to tell you I just had one of the best meals of my life! The branch president here invited all 8 of us missionaries over for almoço and he made churrasco! Imagine the food at tucanos restaurant, but a million times better. All the missionaries were just in heaven. I seriously thought I was going to die from happiness…seriously…one of the best meals of my life. After we had all the beef and sausage we could eat, we ate tons of ice cream. It was just the best lunch ever! The members here are just the best. They feed us lunch everyday and always make themselves available to go with us to teach investigators. What a blessing! I~m getting used to the poverty here, but things still shock me from time to time. This past week we were walking through a neighborhood and had to watch our step because half of the road was straight sewage. It is going to be interesting when the rainy season arrives and all the roads are 1-3 feet deep in water. People still stop and stare at me when I pass, but I~m so used to it now that it doesn~t even phase me. I~ve learned to ignore the town drunks too. They only bother you if you acknowledge they exist. I don~t ever feel like I~m in danger though....Sousa is a very friendly place. I actually do have Pday next Monday so please tell everyone to write! love, sister wood.