Frying Pans.... Who Knew Right?

Right now my mission life is entirely in Portuguese. The happy: I am picking up Portuguese loads faster. The sad: nobody understands my movie quotes. Haha. But, I say them out loud anyway, and when my companion looks at me inquisitively, I just say, "Aquele filme que..." and then she tries to come up with the name of the movie in Portuguese. It's a fun little game we play.

For example, yesterday during church I could not understand the Creole in Relief Society. This one point all the ladies were yelling in Creole (Creole only has one volume) and I turned to my companion and said, "I like Mass better in Latin, it's nicer when you don't know what they're saying!" 

And today, after five months of burnt pancakes, we finally broke down and bought a frying pan - hence the title. I had real pancakes for lunch today. It was marvelous. 

This transfer my companion and I have been spending a lot of time in the far part of our area Achada Gomes. It takes about 30-40 minutes to walk there and the caminho is filled with hills; but Achada Gomes is very scenic (looks like that postcard you all picture when you think "Africa") and crazy things happen out there. 

This week as we were hiking out of Achada Gomes we could see a crowd gathering up ahead. We were with two of the Young Women in the ward, and they asked some people around us what was going on. Apparently a woman in on the other side of the ravine had died the day before and now her spirit was in an old woman on her porch just up ahead. The crowd was gathering to talk to the deceased woman and ask her specific questions to see if it was really her - she was getting them all right. 

I didn't want to draw any attention from the crowd, because I'm really pale and always draw attention, so we debated going back to one of the young women's houses until the crowd died down; but it was getting late and we needed to get back before the light was gone, so we decided to just walk past fast and with purpose. However I of course drew the attention of the crowd, and the old woman stopped talking and her eyes followed us as we walked past. We debated stopping and having her explain Paradise and Prison to everyone, but thought it better to just keep walking.

Also, big news, our house has been sprayed for cockroaches, so we are now almost cockroach free! There is still a few that hang out in the fridge, but the floor doesn't move anymore when we flip the light. Happy day! Now we're just working through some water problems, I can now say I know how to plunge a toilet and a sink!

Love you all!

Sister Hanzel

Sister Miller, Sister Fernandes, Sister Cardoso, and me