Remember Joelma? the woman we baptized last sunday? Remember her daughter Larissa? and Jr who was also baptized? K, well we seriously LOVE them. Theyre hilarious! The salt of the earth. And they absolutely adore us.
Larissa, the daughter of Joelma, is wonderful. Shes crazy, and we love her, but shes a bit irreverant & shes got a bit of a wild streak. Well last night sis s & I went over to their place to see how they were doing to find Larissa & Joelma with a "cat in the cream" or "cat ate the canary" look.
We sit down & Larissa gives me & Sis S something wrapped in wrapping paper. Then Larissa says something like:
"We know you cant use these now but after your missions we expect you to use these!"
Okay.... a lil scared now.... so we open up these presents that these recent converts/investigators bought us.... aaaaaaaaaaaannddd....
-_-
Lets just say they were under the definition of "unmentionables"
Thats right. No Im not kidding. Before my mission I had absolutely no shame when it came to "unmentionables" but it would appear that as a missionary I get easily embarrassed...
BRIGHT RED! me & poor Sis S! Had absolutely no words! It was a mixture of hilarity & humiliation.
We obviously didnt take a picture inspite of the fact that it was pretty funny, in the fear that after the mission, Im pretty sure that if Pres. G were to find those pics on facebook... I would die.
But yeah, first words out of my mouth were:
"How in the heck am I supposed to explain these to my next companions????"
Any ideas guys? Oh the shame!!! Is nothing sacred???
Anyway, but lets go to something more spiritual now, shall we?
id like to share with you a story that Marcello, the 18 yr old who is seriously amazing who baptized Jr.
Marcelo is preparing to go on a mission & he literally has only 2 ties, one set of pants, one set of dress shoes, one white shirt. The other week a homeless man came clapping at his front gate, as is normal here in Brazil, asking for a pair of shoes & a shirt. Marcelo tells him he literally has nothing to give him, but then gives this man the flip flops off his own feet. As Marcelo hands his only pair of flip flops to this man, the man raises his hands up to the sky and with a loud voice says, "God in Heaven, thank you for Marcelo and bless him."
The man then thanks Marcelo again and walks away, shoes now placed on his swollen & cut feet.
As Marcelo recounted this story he became emotional, tears streaming down his face & my heart literally swelled within me.
Truly, family & friends, there is always always something more we can do. We can give more, we can do more, we can serve more.
Every day I see the want and needs of people, like Marcelo, who literally has nothing to give, and yet he gives the shoes off his own feet to a man who has nothing.
Being charitable and having charity is not giving of our abundance, but giving of our wants. It is giving of the things we love most, giving of the things we dont have a lot of, to those who have less than we do.
Love you all! Miss yall!
xoxo
for your viewing pleasure, this is how hardcore us sisters are. show me your war face!! haha
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