Some Words From Natasha

Now that I have more time to talk about the Brazilian experience, I can elaborate on my comments. The economy is 95% self-employed. That explains the many shops for specific purchases. There are shops that are specifically pharmacies, supermarkets, electronic stores, pet shops, salons, bakeries,hamburger shops (very different from American hamburgers), magazine stands, etc. At night, there are people who set up little barbeque stands on the corners of intersections to sell "shishkebabs." All the shops and stores are painted different colors, For example, the salon that I am looking at right now is painted red. Down the block is a fruit and vegetable market that is painted white and yellow. It is extremely stimulating to the eyes.

Belo Horizonte is filled with many different new construction projects. There are many new apartment buildings going up in the city. The city is made up of neighborhoods. The neighborhood that we work in is Palmeiras but the neighborhood that I live in, Betania, is adjacent. I live in a small apartment with a family from the church, Ronaldo (Father), Roselia (Mother), Daniel( 13, Son), Jardel (9, son), and Grandmother (Silvia). There are 6 of us in a very small 3 bedroom apartment. Surprisingly, the space seems to be just the right size. Rosileia is a nurse and Ronaldo works in an Arabian bread factory. He works very long days. She is currently home on medical leave because she broke her foot a couple months ago and then had a case of appendicitis. But she has recovered very well and is now back to normal.

The church family has received us better than I could have ever imagined. They are constantly offering help with anything and everything. I feel like we have a wonderful church home here in Belo Horizonte.

Our Reading sessions are going very well. Kavan has around 12 readers, I have 12 readers, and I think Chase has 13 readers. That is my educated guess. We are meeting with most of the readers 2-4 times a week, which fills up our schedules very quickly. Almost all of our readers are very dedicated to learning the language and some are also taking English classes along with coming to our lessons. Some have said that their "dream" is to learn English. This makes us feel like we are definitely making a difference. Most of our readers have heard the scriptures that they are reading and have a belief in them. Some of our readers are church members and some go to other churches in the area.

We are having team devotionals everyday, which does amazing things to our attitudes. It gets us out of the rut of feeling like we aren't doing very well and helps us to understand that doing anything in service to the Lord is doing a wonderful thing in thanking Him.

Our first party had 25 people in attendance. It's theme was American Card Party and I made cookies and brownies ("cooks and browns" as Matheus likes to say). We had some games of Uno and Apples to Apples going and everyone was having a good time. It was a success!

On Saturday our Missionary, Ricardo, took us out to the camp that the church owns. They boys did some real physical labor while I helped Hanata and Camilla prepare breakfast and lunch for everyone. It is a very beautiful place and I am sure that Kavan will post some picutres of the camp. I don't have much time on the internet or else I would. After lunch, we walked down the mountain to a stream and swam for a while, then walked back up the mountain, which was very difficult with all the mud and such. But, I survived to write it in this blog, haha. Anyways, I must go. Thanks for following our blog!