Carnival

Bom Carnival do Brasil!
This week is Carnival, or the equivolant of "Mardi Gras". As we are in a wealthier upper-class city, everyone has travelled for the 5 day holiday weekend, and we are left super alone in the city.
We live below the Bishop, and the Bishop travelled and the other family that lives in the same quintal travelled as well. It is extremely quiet and peaceful for the first time in a month.
However, the work has gotten extremely harder. Yesterday we walked for nearly five hours and I think saw 10 people on the street. We tried to teach a few people, but no one was at home, and one contact that we returned to informed us that she didn´t want to receive anymore of our messages. It was kind of a depressing day.

On the way back home a ginormous rain storm hit the city. The winds picked up and my umbrella was violently ripped from my hands. We had not other choice but to run home because I pretty much took a bath in the rain. It was actually hilarious, it was such a violent storm that there was nothing better to make of the situation than to laugh hysterically and scream in the streets (no one was at home, so we weren´t bothering anybody). Sister Brito had a good laugh out of the fact that my skirt actually slipped down to my knees because of how much rain it absorbed (again, no one was in the streets, so no one saw). The ability to laugh in these kind of situations makes life a whole lot brighter.

Which reminds me of a talk we shared with the less-active Sister that we are teaching her children (remember the story of the 5 kids, yeah, that family). It is Elder Wirthlin´s talk "Come What May, and Love It". In the talk he talks about various things we can do to react positively to the difficult things that happen in our lives. In it he says:

"The first thing we can do is learn to laugh. Have you ever seen an angry driver who, when someone else makes a mistake, reacts as though that person has insulted his honor, his family, his dog, and his ancestors all the way back to Adam? Or have you had an encounter with an overhanging cupboard door left open at the wrong place and the wrong time which has been cursed, condemned, and avenged by a sore-headed victim?

There is an antidote for times such as these: learn to laugh.

I remember when one of our daughters went on a blind date. She was all dressed up and waiting for her date to arrive when the doorbell rang. In walked a man who seemed a little old, but she tried to be polite. She introduced him to me and my wife and the other children; then she put on her coat and went out the door. We watched as she got into the car, but the car didn’t move. Eventually our daughter got out of the car and, red faced, ran back into the house. The man that she thought was her blind date had actually come to pick up another of our daughters who had agreed to be a babysitter for him and his wife.

We all had a good laugh over that. In fact, we couldn’t stop laughing. Later, when our daughter’s real blind date showed up, I couldn’t come out to meet him because I was still in the kitchen laughing. Now, I realize that our daughter could have felt humiliated and embarrassed. But she laughed with us, and as a result, we still laugh about it today.

The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable."

I loved the story about his daughter. In the lesson we all sat laughing about the situation and talking about ridiculous situations that had happened in our lives, and how we could have gotten angry or bitter, but how we decided to laugh and make the best of it.

We have also found a wonderful 12 year old, Michelle. She is the cousin/niece of an active family on our ward. We taught her the first lesson and afterwards when I was talking to her grandmother (that didn´t sit to hear the message because she was cooking) her grandmother informed me that Michelle is wanting to be baptized, but is a little embarrassed to say something "so soon"!! We will be visiting her tomorrow to talk more and see how her reading assignment and prayer assignment went!!

Have a wonderful week everyone!!
Sister Tittelfitz