Bú kré bai igreja kú mi?

Ola minha família,
Guess who´s learning to speak Creole? That´s right, I am. Yep, I haven´t even learning Portuguese all the way, and now I´m learning a dialect of it anyway. (Creole is a Portuguese dialect spoken in Cabo Verde and Guinea-Biseau). After trying to talk to a bunch of poeple who "only" spoke Creole, Sister Juilfs and decided just to learn it. We know a few sentences now--enough to contact someone. My favorite sentence thing to do is to ask if they speak Creole, then ask in Creole if they want to come to Church with us (Bú kré bai igreja kú mi?). They think it´s hilarious to see a little white girl trying to speak it. And then they talk to us. And it´s awesome.
My descent into an old Portuguese woman has continued this week. We decided to try to make some hot chocolate, so we bought some powdered chocolate milk mix at the Mini Preço, heated up some of our (still a little orange) tap water in the microwave, and tried it out. It was alright. The only problem was, well, let me explain. We have about a million fruit flies in our kitchen. They are seeking shelter from the rain, and like to eat our garlic. Whenever we open the microwave, at least one flies in, thinking there must be more and better food inside. Instead it meets an ignominious death (find that Book of Mormon scripture), usually landing in our food. Well, this happened with our hot chocolate. I was using a spoon and pulled up a fruit fly. I just pulled it out, put it on a napkin, and kept drinking. Portugal is changing me!
We are seeing lots of miracles this week. One was that we were saved from an attack by a drunk guy by Santa Claus. So on Wednesday, the elders and we were doing an activity in all the different areas, contato da rua, where we go out with some members and contact people and sing and some other things like that. We started out in Cacém and then worked our way over to São Marcos. There aren´t very many people on the street except for right by the Pingo Doce, but unfortunately the praça right next to it is often inhabitted by a very angry man. He has threatened to kill the elders before (with his green water gun). We were near there when we saw someone we had contacted in Massamá so Sister Juilfs and I went over to talk to him. We were talking to our friend, who looks a little bit like Santa (he has a white beard and is very jolly). He was holding a trash bag that we offered to help with. He said no and after talking for a little bit we were leaving to stand closer to the members to help them. Suddenly, the drunk angry man started storming over. He was wearing a construction vest and a hard hat and had his watergun strapped to his belt. He started yelling at Sister Juilfs and I and tried to swing a punch at us so we started walking quickly away and he was about to chase us but our friend got in between us and started whacking him with the garbage bag. The trash was spilling everywhere and so all of us missionaries were leaving the area as the cops showed up to diffuse the situation.
Another miracle was that we found a wonderful lady, Paula. We talked to her on the street, and she didn´t seem too interested, but when we went back she listened attentively. When we told her that God has called a prophet again on the earth, she almost started crying. She is reading the Book of Mormon every day and wants to get baptized (we just have to help prepare her before she moves to Alemanha).
We also felt the gift of discernment this week. We had been teaching a lady in hte past couple months, but she decided she didn´t want to actually act on anything. We went over one more time to try to help her, but she basically said, "I´m fine the way I am. I will read the Book of Mormon every once in awhile but it´s not worth it to go out of my way. I don´t want to change my life". It was sad, obviously, but not just because she doens´t want to get baptized or anything. In that moment I had the distinct impression that she is going to the terrestrial kingdom. Because yeah, she´s a good person and a good mom, but she doesn´t want to esforçar herself enough to actually follow God. It was a big lesson to me, about a lot of different thing. Like how God knows everything--because I feel like I "know" her future, but it´s because I know HER. And about how we really will get a recompense according to our works.. and our desires. And that makes me want to re-evaluate myself every day and make sure I´m actually trying really hard. And also I am SO grateful that I was born into the Church and have such great parents :)
Another interesting lesson I learned was in Church this week. It wasn´t actually something that was being taught (I still don´t really understand the lessons unless I try really hard and then I get a headache) but just from observing everyone. I was looking around in sacrament meeting, how there were a bunch of people with crutches, one in a wheelchair, one that is blind, a few who can´t really hear, and a lot more with infirimities that can´t necessarily be observed right away. It made me think of that scripture "Come unto me, ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". The Church really is for ordinary people, with ordinary sofrimentos and trials and problems. We´re incredibily flawed--but luckily, Christ was incredibly perfect. And that´s why I´m here. Sister Juilfs and I are here to find our brothers and sisters who are suffering--who need to be healed-- and who WANT to be healed--and give them the tools to do that. But they have to want it, and they have to follow the Doctor´s orders. We´re just the pharmacists :)
I feel like Sister Juilfs and I are working really hard out here. We come home every night exhausted. And we were talking about if we are going to be this tired for the rest of our lives and I thought, "Yeah, if we do it right". We should wear ourselves out. We´re hear to WORK, not to sit around. We´re here to FIGHT, not to stand idely looking on. I am SO grateful for the opportunity to be here, serving the Lord and our God, fighting against the powers of evil. I am getting really cheesy, but this really is the most amazing experience I have ever had. Thank you for supporting me and for all your love and prayers!
I hope you have an absolutely fabulous week! I love you and am praying for you
Bú kré bai igreja kú mi? :)
Vos amo,
Sister Gidney