Portuspanglish

It is interesting to try and speak to a Chilean in Portuguese. Sometimes it is almost impossible to understand him and he is amazed that the Brazilians understand me (which they usually do at least).  Now that the missionaries here in Votuporanga are much more international, things are definitely more interesting.  It’s funny that Elder Silva (the Chilean) sometimes has problems with things that were never a problem for me. You would think Spanish and Portuguese are basically the same thing but he speaks with a very strong accent. He has a lot of trouble with z's because I guess in Spanish, z's make an s sound. Funny that in English, we have the same sounds for these letters that they have in Portuguese but in Spanish they don't.

But enough language talk. My week was good. We have been working hard to be more concrete when we invite people to do stuff. This week did okay.  As a matter fact, we talked to people and in the first visit they accepted not only to be baptized but were willing to set a date for their baptism. Often times these dates fall through but it is crazy to think that there are people out there that are that ready to accept the Gospel. It was a good testimony of what the Mission President has been saying because it’s been a while that he has said we should do this and I never completely believed it would work as well as it has been. Sometimes we just need to have a little more faith and try stuff out.

My mission is good well. I am almost a quarter of the way done. It is crazy to think that I only get to serve this long three more times.

I hope you all have a good week.  I love you all!

Elder Russell

This is a picture of my district right now. From right to left: Elders De Oliviera, Silva, Sibenichler, and me.