Happy St. Patrick's Day! and showing Brazil to an African.

For some reason, folks, my cell phone told me it was March. And I
don't know why, but I totally believed it. Enough that two or three
days ago I told my American "roommate" (we live in four) that St.
Patrick's Day was coming up, woot! And she was like, "Yay, that's my
grandma's birthday as well!" Today, I yelled HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY
to her, and we celebrated for a couple minutes...then she looked and
me and was like, "Sister Petty. It's April. WHAT ARE WE DOING?"

The Petrolina sun does weird things to our brains.

My dear friends and family, training truly is probably the coolest
thing I've done here on the mission, even though I'm only a week in.
My "filha" is fantastic -- patient, sweet, loving, and with a huge
desire to help the people here. I am learning a ton from her. She's
just a bit shy with making contacts and challenging people to baptism,
but this week we'll fix that.

It's neat to show Brazil to an African. Some things here are
normal-ish for her, others not. The fruit here is much huger for her,
like it is for me too. When she first saw a mango she didn't believe
it was one. (Speaking of mango...I'm addicted. How much money is a
mango in the US?) And when we went to buy bread, her first reaction
was similar to mine: "DOZE pães por 2 reais?! Que é isso?" (12 fresh
white rolls for about one dollar. Too bad they don't have whole
wheat.)

The sun is baking us both. While I get red, she'll get beautifully brown. Sigh.

This week was rough with investigators. We saw two baptisms fall
through, even though we did absolutely everything we could. This week,
however, we will see these people take this step of faith.

I'm so grateful for all I'm learning about the love of my Savior. It
is so personal. I don't understand this, but I feel it. For THIS we
are here on missions -- to show to the world that our Lord loves us so
much that He calls latter-day prophets to guide us. The Book of Mormon
is true. It is an ancient record written by prophets of God who saw
our day. Read it. Pray about it. And never stop.

Portuguese phrases that I will miss when I go home, none of which
really have an English equivelent:

"Que é isso??"
"Embora lá!"
"E aí! Beleza?"
"Que saudades!"
"Isso é bom de mais."
"Fique firme e forte!"

Amo vocês,
Sister Petty

P.S. April 20th is coming up. Let's pretend that means I have
officially 6 months on the mission.