vans

So. This week my feet started hurting, where the big toe and foot meet. I ignored it forever until I found out a part of my foot is numb! So, I called the doctor guy for the mission and I have been rockin Vans for about 4 days now WOO. The only down part is it is constantly raining, and the shoes are canvas. One day they were completely soaked and I was afraid that they would still be wet in the morning, and I needed to use them the next day! It is so humid here that sometimes our laundry hangs for two days before it is dry, so you  can imagine how I was feeling. I prayed and prayed and prayed and was like,"Seriously, Heavenly Father, I need these shoes to be dry tomorrow so I can wear them. The only way they are gunna be dry is if you dry them." And guess what. THEY WERE DRY yeah! Miracle, right? Yes. Prayer is AWESOME. My left shoe has a hole in the top, and they are black, so I wear a black sock on that foot and a tan sock on the other foot haha because I only have 3 tan socks and 3 black socks. I guess I lost a whole bunch of my tiny socks while moving around. But thats okay!

This is a really yummy dressing we ate yesterday at a members house.

Smashed garlic

salt

Olive oil

A little vinegar

Pepper (probably the kind you grind yourself in a grinder i imagine would be better)

So simple but goodness it was delicious. We ate it on our salad.

Also a member made this chicken wrapped in cheese then wrapped in ham then a TEENY bit of tomatoe sauce. It was really good too.

Also, breaded chicken with a little ketchup and cheese on top baked. It was good.

Sounds super weird, but I was in heaven. Fo realz.

I am really loving it here. So, remember how I said it rains? We were teaching an investigator who has tile floor (no one has carpet) and kids run in and out of everyones houses and no one cares. So we are teaching her and her sister (ages about 23 and..15, 16?) and this little kid about 2 years old runs in the house. He runs to the spot where the floor is soaked from the rain and starts dancing around. He then slips and smacks his head on the floor and starts crying immediately. Geisa and Geisileine (the investigators) start cracking up and laughing at this little kid and he runs out of the house to his own house. Bahahaha I was laughing soo hard. I even laughed more when I wrote it in my journal and right now when I started sharing with you all this hilarious story. hahahaha and the kid came back.

Well, I am out of time. I love all of you! Dont forget it! 

Love,

Sister Indago Clarke

Another week in Pernambuco

So Pernambuco is the state that I am in, and Recife is the city. And it's pretty cool. The people here are really humble and live with so little. I feel bad because our house back at home is probably 2 and a half of these houses here. I feel like I have too many things and I want to give everything away, but I don't. Some people here have mud floors and sheets as walls. But they are all so nice and loving. 

If I could get rid of one thing it would be mosquitos. I get bit every day multiple times a day, but I guess only my legs taste good because the bites are only on my legs. I envy the Elders becase they get to wear pants and shoes that cover their whole foot. Sand and dirt and mud get on my feet and dirty feet is my least favorite thing. Some roads are paved, some cobble stone, and some are just sand or mud. But, I will have to deal right ha ha.

So the sun sets at 4:30 over here. It's really weird because it will be 5 o'clock but seem like it's like 9pm. But it is a lot cooler, temperature wise, when the sun is down. It's hot, but I'm not dying over here.

A lot of people will gather around whatever tv they can find to watch soccer. So on weekends there are a lot of drunk people wandering around yelling goal and cheering when Brazil wins. It's pretty cool, I wish I could watch the soccer games! But alas I cannot. But this week we were walking to some investigators' houses and we encountered a drunk guy. He was stumbling around and speaking Portuguese, of course, and I couldn't understand. I was trying really hard to understand, but I came to the conclusion that Heavenly Father didn't want me to understand haha and I was okay with that. We gave him a Restoration pamphlet and told him to read it then we pretty much ran away. Sometimes being paper white is a perk because people listen to us, but then sometimes it is not because it attracts drunks  and crazies. I feel kinda bad because I just ignore them and walk away, but then I remember I am a daughter of God who deserves better, right? 

Anywho, it is really hard to get people to church here. And We walk to the investigators' houses and "pick them up" aka walk with them to church. And people always say,"yeah! i'll go to church!" and they never do. So we had a couple people planned for church and I was expecting none of them to come, but I was still praying. WE HAD SEVEN PEOPLE COME TO CHURCH whaaaaaa. Yeah, all were surprises! It was awesome. I also bore my testimony yesterday at church. I seriously DID NOT want to. But I had this feeling in my heart like,"Go...go....go....go...go bear your testimony..GET UP THERE I WILL HELP YOU SAY WHAT I WANT YOU TO SAY." And I really was helped. I don't know why I needed to bare my testimony, but I felt a lot better after I did. It was good. 

We do a lot of contacting and talk to everyone. I actually really like it because I hated talking to people when I was at home (people I didn't know). My next line I am going to try to use is,"Para, eu sou um anjo do Senhor. Eu estou aqui para salvar você e sua família." (Stop. I am an angel of the Lord. I am here to save you and your family.) haha my Zone Leader told me that a missionary did that once and I thought it ws brilliant.

The food here is really good but I don't know how to ask if they can write down the recipe. I will study that today and ask the members from now on because there are a lot of things I want to make at home. They eat rice and beans and pasta with everything. Rice beans pasta meat. Bam. Also, I used to hate catchup but I am eating it out here. And Mortadella blegh I used to hate slicing it in the deli at Fry's but here I eat it. It's weird. There is a fruit called maracja and IT IS THE BEST FRUIT EVER. It is yellow and tastes so good. I wish we had it in america. 

I love all of you! You are all awesome. Thank you for your love and support. Til next Monday!

Love,

Sister Indago Clarke

more Brazil!

Welp...estou aqui no Brasil.

It. Is. AWESOME! I love it! But it is very hard because i only understand very little. BUT the Lord will help me. I am here for some reason. 

Sorry if some of the words turn into diferente words, i am using An. iPad that is programed for portuguese. Só it keeps changing words!

It is really funny here because when there is a socar game, NO ONE is outside. Some shops are éven closed. And we always know web there wars a gola MADE because there will be An. Eruption of,"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!" and people will shoot off fireworks and beep their Car horns for a straight 5 minutes hahaha i always largo in my head because my companion doesn't find humor in it like i do.

Sister Pereira is brasileiro and she is very Nice. She speaks like five English words, só i speak portuguese all the time. It is hard. But good. It is Hot here, and it stays Hot. Showers are cold, BUT it is awesome because that is the only time you have tô cool down. There are no balancetes. People use sheets BUT aah it's só Hot i cant éven use a sheet. 

People stare át. Me because i have light hair white paper and glue colored skin and blue eyes. EVErywhere! I just say,"Olá! Bom dia!" 

Well this iPad is annoying me. I want a computer! Todas is a holiday só we are át. A member's house. I love all of you! Eu amo vocês!

Love Sister indago clarke

Picture

baptized children

BRAZIL

These group emails are a lot easier because I won´t have to type the same thing over and over. So if you don´t like it, you gotta deal XD

Well, my first day here was the longest day ever because it was like two days long. And I was like,"What the heck have I done!" I was so confused. I arrived with 5 other missionaries. And we realized we knew close to no Portuguese and couldn't understand anything. We couldn't read the signs...it was weird. We exchanged our money and the currency is a little more than $.50 to each reai (hay-eye, Brazillian currency) I ate a bread ball with cheese and it was good.

When I say everything is different I mean everything is different. Even the catchup. People here drive like crazy so we walk. It's nice to walk everywhere because I don't feel like Im getting fat haha. Lunch is a giant meal, but it is always good. We are fed by a member almost every day. Rice and beans ALL DAY ERDAY. But I looove rice and beans so it works out for me. There is this soda that is so good called Guaraná. IT is delicious.
 Also, the Coca-cola and Fanta are wayy better out here than back at home. It's great, because people don't judge me when I have coke for breakfast! It's acceptable out here! THESE ARE TRULY MY PEOPLE! But seriously....I don't drink very much water, it tastes weird. But I do drink it sometimes.

There are no carpet, only tile. And the houses are small. I feel spoiled out here.

Sometimes we hop on this tiny bus thing and they drive crazy. The roads are bumpy and some are dirt. It rains almost every day, so there are always puddles of water and mud. I have learned that umbrellas are only good for keeping your hair dry. They really don't help with your clothes, so I hate using it. It's heavy.

I am having a good time out here, I love it. The people are so nice and so patient with me and the language. I Wish I could understand and talk more, but line upon line, precept upon precept, right? Yes. That is right. My district and zone are really helping me a lot with learning. They always give us tips to study and things to do to help me learn.

Our zone is the best zone in the whole mission. Our mission hit 215 baptisms for the month on June, crazy! But success is not determined by the number of baptisms. I will say that again...SUCCESS IS NOT DETERMINED BY THE NUMBER OF BAPTISMS. It is determined by your dedication and willingness to work hard and be diligent and find those who are willing to listen. I like walking because I can talk more with people and contact more. I feel the spirit when I bare my testimony, even though it is broken portuguses, and I am helped because words just come to my head. And when I get frustrated I can't speak as well as I can when I am happy.

I love all of you! Thank you for your support and love. I hope all is well, I'm sorry I can't email as much as I would like.

Love,

Sister Indago Clarke

June 7, 2013

SO, first things first. I GOT MY VISAAAAA! I'll be heading out on June 17th, 2013 around 2:15 my time. Yay! I am super excited, but SUPER scared too because I will be just dropped into Portuguese everything all the time. Weird. I will probably come back red, like a lobster. Or a giant freckle. And I can guarantee I'll forget how to drive.

And, today, we are going to a Cubs game, yay! With the whole mission. Just imagine 218+ missionaries at a baseball game! We are all so stoked. We rode the train into the city again. It's nice. I love the city.

So I have been learning a lot, and I can tell that I am becoming more and more aware of people around me, like I can feel a genuine love for them! Even the huge jerks.  It is so nice, not being upset, and being able to be happy, and love everyone. And not that fake "I love you, but I am going to keep to myself" no. It's like a genuine, "I want to do all I can to help you." But, it's up to them to let me help them. And most often, they don't want my help.

Right now there are like 20 missionaries in the apple store using the email on the computers hahaha It is pretty comical.

My companions Sister Kershaw and Sister Najarro were really sad that I am leaving in a couple weeks. Also, a lot of other missionaries told me to just call the Recife Mission President and just stay here instead. Haha. It makes me feel loved. The missionaries here are awesome. But it goes to show that, no matter where you go, no matter where you serve, your mission will always be the best mission. Unless you are just a sad sack and don't pay attention to the good things. 

We have to do a lot of finding this next week. Knocking on doors, and contacting. It's really hard, but when I follow the promptings I get and just "go and do", it becomes easy and I am not so shy to talk to people randomly. We even chased someone, which sounds crazy, but we felt like we needed to talk to him! He was very nice, and didn't mind. But one good thing is he will remember the mormon missionaries forever. (We aren't as crazy as that sounds! I AM NORMAL! Except I am a missionary, so I don't know how normal you can actually be haha)

Well, I will be able to email on Monday as well. I love all of you and I hope all is well. This week Pday was on Friday because we are going to the baseball game as stated previously. I love you all and miss you dearly!

Love,

Sister Clarke