Week of Rain

143260, 85.95km. We had a lot of rain this past week but it was good. Paraíba needs lots of rain. Also, this was a week of firsts and lasts. I had my last fast Sunday in Brazil. I had my last Zone meeting. But, I hitchhiked for the first time in my life. We have to walk for 40-60 min in the dark at 8:30 at night, so we decided to start asking for rides from people. Most people are pretty nice about it though. And we don't have to walk so far, which is the best part. Also, for the first time in about 5 years (or more) I'm less than 200 pounds. It was nuts when I found out. Also, another story: We were just walking along one day and all of a sudden, all these kids started running out into the streets waving their shirts or towels in the air. I was really confused. Then I figured out what it was. After it rains for 3 straight days, this type of ant with wings, called "Tanajura", comes out of the ground and starts flying all over the place. So these kids would hit the ants with their towels and put the fallen ones into bottles. Then they would take off the butt-part and fry it in butter. They say it's delicious but Mom always told to not eat ants. Also, this past week, I tried to make pineapple freezer jam but it didn't go down too well. It turned out to be pineapple soup with a gelatinous taste. But it was fun to make at least... Another thing that happened this past week was that I was made leadership! Assistant! To the zone leaders. I give trainings during all the meetings and I just help them sometimes. It's pretty funny. And, happy flag day for those of you that are into that kind of stuff.

Love you all!

-Elder Michael Carlson

[Michael sent us a bit more information about his current area in another email]

So, my area and my ward are called "Prata". Here, the neighborhoods (bairros in Portuguese) have different names, so all my areas have the name of the neighborhood that the ward is in, except for this one. Prata is actually part of a different stake. I don't know why... But, where I work is called "Catingueira" (kaching-gay-rah) and "Bairro da Cidade" (bye-who dah si-dah-gee). It's a pretty humble area. Most of the houses have at most 3 rooms (bedroom, kitchen and bathroom). There's lots of dirt roads (that are turning to mud with these rains). The housing is based more on where the chapel is, so the chapel is really close to our house but the area is really, REALLY far away.