Interlagos

President closed Tatui. I'm opening an area and training a sister from Argentina who only speaks Portuguese and Spanish. She is an excellent companion. I have much to learn with her. I'm excited to see how she works when we can finally work. The whole first week of her mission has been a continual stream of not working--closing Tatui, coming back to the city, buying food and cleaning a filthy, disgusting house... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We're in Interlagos now, an area that looks like it has never had sisters, but I can't tell. Nothing here suggests it. The area is enormous and the Elders that were here before us absolutely destroyed the place. There was rotting pizza in the stove, the bathroom has not been cleaned in at least 6 months, they left dirty clothes inside the armario covered in some strange red dust I don't want to think about, and the cleaning lady outside was mopping the courtyard with an old pair of men's garment bottoms.

We've spent the last 2 days just cleaning the house. The work here is stagnant--there hasn't been a progress record since March, and yet the Bishop still has 3 baptismal forms. And from what I'm told, all three of those new converts are inactive now. There is no map. There is no list of members. There is no teaching pool... and my new companion, poor thing, thinks I know exactly what I'm doing.

Yeah... lots to do, lots to do...

Some things to laugh at... eventually:

• If you're a missionary, never go to the Autódromo in Interlagos. It's not a great place to find new investigators. And if you're going to go there, try not to go there with a less active laurel. But if you really, really have to go to the Autódromo with a less active laurel, try not to take a video of it with the mission cell phone.
• Burros! adj the word President uses when you show him the video of two elders you don't know with a less active laurel at the Autódromo.
• So the dedication of the Manaus temple was a landmark occasion... I'll never forget the sound of my companion retching in the bathroom stall, then showing me a wad of toilet paper spattered in blood from her throat... 
• We found out today the washing machine broke a long time ago, and no one bothered to tell the mission office. Now I can tell my ancestors I've washed my clothes in a bucket before! [NOTE: What I should have done]

OK, that's enough bad news. How about some good news?

Sister is just sick, but she's NOT dying. That's beneficial.

When President saw how dirty our bathroom was, he actually called out to Sister Pinho, "Amor, you have to see this!" She answered back, "No I'm afraid!" I laugh every time I think about it.

I had a culture collision at a member's house. Mickey Mouse said "Puxa vida!" The members there still don't understand why it was so funny to me. I tried to think of a similar example, but realized that anything I said in English wouldn't make sense to them. So I just reminded them that where I came from, Mickey Mouse doesn't speak Portuguese.

Sorry, that's all I got. Maybe next week things will be better!

--
I am, as ever, your humble servant and never-deviating friend,
Sister Doyle