April 13, 2015
Hey Everyone!!
So much has happened in the past two weeks there is no way that I can fit it all into one little email! It took about 48 hours of travel to finally get to my new area in Brazil. I am in a small satellite city of Cuiaba called Pedra Noventa. The people here are very, very poor. My companion who leaves after this transfer said that this is the poorest area he has been in.
Now I want to tell you a little bit about the people. Like I had mentioned they are super poor, the poorest people here basically just live in big wooden shacks that are just two rooms. One has a stove to cook and a refrigerator and the other has a bed to sleep. The nicer houses here are made of brick but are still very small. Despite the financial difficulties of the people they all want to feed the missionaries. They are sooo loving. The sisters argue over who feeds us the most. We get feed for lunch and dinner almost every day. The big meal here is lunch, so we always have that with a member but so far this last week they fed us dinner every night as well. If anyone was worried about me losing weight you don´t need to! Oh and the members try to talk to me but I pretty much have no idea what anybody is saying ever. Occasionally I can pick up on a few words and understand what they are talking about but for the most part I have no idea.... But I can still feel their love.
My companion is Elder Machado. He is great, I already feel like we are friends and he is easy to talk to about anything. The biggest thing he is helping me to understand right now is to work with the spirit. He is so in tune and it seems like he always knows what the Lord wants us to be doing. I can tell that I have a lot that I can learn from him, and I look forward to the short time I have with him before he goes home. (this is his last transfer)
There is so much I want to tell you all about but just know that I am loving Brazil. There are some things that take a little getting used to, like not having any water for the past 3 days and electricity that shuts off randomly, but it is great here!
I love you all!
Elder Rice
