The last couple of weeks got away from me, so this letter’s a mash-up. This week, we had our first district meeting and met them for the first time. We drove an hour east to BraganΔa. It’s so interesting to us how here in the North, we drive through “no man’s land” and then suddenly a city appears. Some are small, but some are pretty big. BraganΔa has over 35,000 people - and an IKEA! So it’s legit. We were greeted by this guy in one of the squares:
Here’s our district - a few from Utah, Oregon, Washington, Texas, and Elder Azevedo from Venezuela. It was so fun seeing a couple of sisters! We talked fashion and where to get the best deals. Everybody crowded around a phone for the first half of training with the ZL’s and then we went to the chapel for the rest of the training. Elder Smith (taking the picture) is the District Leader, so he did the training. I understood almost nothing, but picked out a few words on the board. 
They have a tradition of singing “Called to Serve” at the end with their own verses and actions. We just joined the circle and swayed with them. 
I’ll try to send the video separately.
This is Elder Rasmussen and he’s 6’ 4”. Elder Spencer called him “the gentle giant.” He’s finished his mission and is going back to Oregon this week.
The favorite part - lunch at the mall!
I forgot to take a picture with our food, but it was good.
We found out that Elder Smith is a convert and I asked him to share his conversion story: He grew up near Seattle. His parents are divorced and both Christian Jews. He said that he had a few LDS friends in high school and liked how happy they were. They seemed to be involved and do well in school, but not as stressed as he was. So he decided to live like they did. He set goals for himself and said he reached every goal. Good grades, success in track, nice girlfriend but he still wasn’t happy. He talked about it with his mom and she said, “Maybe you need God in your life.” So he started looking around. One of his LDS friends invited him to church and he liked it, but kept looking. Then he went off to college. At college, someone asked him if he’d liked to talk to the missionaries. In that first lesson, he felt something and wanted to know more. He read the Book of Mormon and the Spirit bore witness that it was true. He knew it. His parents supported him when he got baptized, but weren’t thrilled when he later decided to serve a mission. But they’d noticed the change in him and how happy he was, so off he went. The only member in his family.
Elder Rasmussen and Elder Azevedo had taken the train (and a bus) from their city, so we gave them a ride back to the train station. We squished four elders in the back seat, had Elder Spencer drive, and I sat on Dad’s lap.
Next day, Elder Spencer got word that he’s leaving! We were kinda bummed cuz we’d just barely gotten to know him, but that’s the life of a missionary. But we had two more fun meals before he left.
A sister in the branch, Sister Silva, regularly has the elders over for lunch, and this week, she invited us too. Her husband had a stroke a few years ago and is in a wheelchair and can’t speak. But she’s a goer and never complains. They share a house with another family and live on the top floor. They have a huge garden, that she takes care of, and a few chickens and two ducks.
We stopped by the store to get some shorts for Dad cuz he didn’t bring any and it gets hot on our walks. Portugal is the most interesting combination of old and new. This is one of the new things: You put your whole purchase in the bin and somehow it scans everything at once. No need to run things one at a time. You pay with your card and you’re done!
Before we said the prayer, they explained that they sing a song with their daughter first. Then, the three of them sang a song about closing their eyes and being reverent for the prayer. It was really cute! After dinner, we headed home. Here we are carefully coming down their narrow, steep stone stairs. 
My new best friend, Patricia.
Then Dad spotted a duplex for sale and had to call on it. It was $260,000 with 4 bedrooms up and down. He wanted to see it, so the realtor came over and took us through. It was older and kind of run-down inside, but the deal-breaker (because we’re serious buyers) was that it was $260,000 just for the bottom floor.
Then after our walk, Dad was getting hungry, so we stopped and got our “first lunch.” The people love to sit at the cafes and visit - and we love watching them. It’s so fun! The older men will sit for hours with their tiny cups of espresso and shoot the breeze.
That night was our Friday date night, so we went to a traditional local restaurant. It was just a bunch of guys grabbing a bite with friends after work. I was the only woman. Not great, but authentic and only $11.00 for both of us.
The next day, Elder Williams arrived, so we drove he and Elder Q to their apt and helped them unload everything. Elder Williams is from Utah and a brainiac that finished his AS degree in high school. Nice guy. Hauled the heavy suitcases up four flights of stairs!
That night, we went to a fancy restaurant that turned out to be a churrascaria, like a Tucanos. It wasn’t $11, but it was good! We still don’t really understand how it works, because they just kept bringing seconds and thirds of meat. We finally said we’d had enough. We were so full!
They were super nice and kept asking how we liked it. The people eat late here, so at 7:00, we were the only customers in restaurant. But at 8:00, 5 groups came in and things started hopping.
We were also speaking in Sacrament meeting and I was SO nervous. We’ve been here 2 weeks and I can barely introduce myself. Of course, Dad prepared his talk in Utah eight weeks ago. I prepared mine the night before. Dad went to bed at 9:30. I went to bed at 1 am because I was wrestling with Google Translate and how to put things in my own words, and then listening to Google translate over and over, so I’d be able to pronounce the words when I read it. I brought a picture of our family as a visual aid. A picture is worth 1000 words, right?? So, I figured that was half my talk right there. 
I had prayed that they would understand me and they did! Or at least they said they did. I had to pause a few times and ask “Como se disse….” to get a word I didn’t know. I only cried a little, so that was a plus. 
People were very kind and thanked me. It’s been interesting. In Mozambique, I was totally lost for four months. I couldn’t speak or understand a thing. I still don’t understand worth a darn, but I can communicate what I’m trying to say 60% of the time. I looked at the notes of what Chad Grunander said during our blessings, when he set us apart. One of the things that he blessed me with was that I would be able to speak the language when necessary. Seeing as how only two people speak some English, it’s pretty necessary all the time. ;)
Sometimes I’ll get the gist of what they’re saying, and make a comment or share an experience. The older sister speaks some English, so I’ll whisper “Are you guys talking about XYZ?” and she’ll say yes or no and then translate it for me. Having a vocabulary of a three year-old is pretty humbling.Kelvia teaching.
After church, we had our lunch in a classroom. They don’t have any long tables, so we pushed two little ones together. Turns out, the president who go make the main dish - stroganoff. The man works from 8 AM, to 7 PM. We’re wondering when he sleeps, because he does EVERYTHING! The stroganoff wasn’t like our kind of stroganoff and it was delicious! It tasted like Indian butter chicken.
Then off for an hour drive to our a little group of five in Chavez.
During the sacrament, she ate half of her piece of bread and then reached behind and gave the other half to Lily. While I was leaving one of the songs, I totally lost it and started giggling. I was looking out at the dog laying on the chair and Lineker videotaping me. I had to raise the songbook up to hide my face because I couldn't stop laughing. So, somewhere on social media is a video of me leading the song in really bad Portuguese and a flappy arm. It’s great.
I sure love you and think about you guys every day.
Love you so much,
Mom/Kim
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