Welcome to ELDORADO

Welcome to ELDORADO

It finally happened. I'm here in the field!!! Okay, I know I was
technically already in São Paulo for the past 6.5 weeks, but that was
in a sheltered and nurtured environment, and I've definitely left that
in the dust lol. Yesterday, everybody going to São Paulo Sul left at 7
and drove an hour to the Mission President's house, and we met him and
chilled there for a while.Then we went to a chapel for transfers to get our new companions, and surprise, when we opened the doors to go inside, the entire mission was standing and clapping and cheering for us and it was equally endearing and embarrassing (but mostly endearing).

So we were there for like 6 hours, and I was feeling pretty good cause
I could understand a decent portion of what was being said; then I
got my companion, and she´s from northern Brazil and has an accent like
you wouldn't believe. She talks at basically a whisper but goes about
100 miles an hour, and I get like 40% of what she's saying, max. Then she
told me not to worry cause of the area, Eldorado, it wasn't that far; so we
proceeded to ride a bus for 3 hours and let me tell you, there's no
such thing as a smooth ride in Brazil.

So we finally arrived and walked up two huge hills with our arms full
of bags and groceries and made it to our apartment, which is pretty
nice, aside from the nearly vertical half spiral staircase of death
that leads up to it and the faint aroma of stale vomit in our front
room that I just cant seem to find the source of. As I lay in bed
last night listening to the dulcet tones of cars barreling down the
street, and Brazilian Funk being played so loud it rattled our window
(haha just kidding we don't have windows they're actually just aluminum
shutters, so there's not a gaping hole in our wall); I just started
laughing to myself like´´hahahahahaha, what have I done?" :-)

But this morning we had a really great zone meeting and everyone
shared their testimonies, and I was reminded what I'm here for, para
convidar as pessoas a achegarem-se a Cristo. Even though I pretty much
have zero idea what Im doing right now, and my dear sweet companion
Sister Moura literally just pulls me around by the wrist as I ask her
to repeat herself for the 4th time; the one thing I can do is testify
of Christ. I know that He lives, and I know that He loves each and
every one of us, and because of that He made it possible for us to
live with him again. Even if I can't do anything else right now, I know
that as long as I do my best then the Lord will take care of the rest!

I love you all and thanks for hanging in there if you're still reading
this mega email!!

LooOOovvEEee,
Sister Curtis