a prancing moose: Storytime - January 13, 2014

MUAHAHAHA.

Everybody loves to hear those words.

This week we were returning home from a usual soaked-to-the-skin, split-with-members-filled day. Happily Portuguesing and talking about the day's events when we began to realize something.... something was different.

In fact. Everything was different.

Our street was invisible.

Invisibly-black that is.

The power was out in BRAZIL.

Okay, I don't know about the rest of the country. But our little part of the world was deathly black. And thus began our adventure.

With Cloud-cover and about infinity things to trip over and run into in the streets, we made our way back to our little home. Once, safe and sound we quickly realized that our flashlights were in our..... suitcases?.... somewhere.. a few 20 minutes later with little light circles as our guides, we began planning for the next day. That is... until we heard some sort of critter and saw a little black shadow.

And thus the freakout of the century began.

4 cockroaches who like the darkness and don't like the rain were subsequently killed and hush-screamed about and cried about. Good thing we have a certain Sister Moura who had the pleasure of detailing the cockroaches from "her land" that are the size of a rat, AND FLY. She explained that the little monsters here were just like.... little bees.

I didn't agree.

I think they like us because our house is so clean. Seriously though.

I found another lizard above my study desk too. so cute. Too bad we can't have pets.

We also did a service project this week and learned.... the real importance of " clean up cleanup, everybody everywhere, clean up clean up, everybody do your share."

Because my soul died a little bit.

The sweet sister who lived in this house was absolutely constantly overwhelmed with work, 3 kids, 9 dogs, 4 brand new baby puppies, a crazy aunt, and cooking, and taking care of her aging mother. and so.... BUMBUDUMDUMMMM sisters to the rescue.

Lets just say...1000 dead spiders in the window frames and 5 years of grease coatings disappeared in 3 hours. It was fun. We celebrated with cake.

But in reality. Missionary work is a lot more than stories, and laughter. It is about heart-searching, capacity-stretching, teaching, and learning. It is about putting the Lord's will first, and watching Miracles happen. It is about applying principles and learning the gospel first hand.

It is about losing yourself, and finding yourself

And most importantly about finding God, and helping others find Him.

I love you all ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. Try not to melt, Southern Hemisphere, and try not to freeze, Notherners <3

p.s. eat the pancakes while you can, Americans.

Pictures:

Our friendly friend Roberta, the lizard.