Singing?? in Brazil

Well this week was the week of brazilians that can't sing. They really really cant. Like at all. I am in charge of the ward choir because im the only one who has ever been taught anything about music ever in my life and so i was kind of designated as that. We will have a festa de Natal the day before christmas and we will sing there so they asked me to pick 2 or 3 songs and teach them to everyone. So here i am sitting at the piano trying to teach everyone and at first we start out on the melody. Easy right? I decided i would play the single one handed melody on the piano and they could sing along to the christmas song the first noel. Well i started out and almost stopped because it was soooo aweful. I tried with all my might not to laugh. Apparently the note i was playing wasn't the melody because no one was on it. So i told them to start over and i played the note and told everyone to repeat after they heard the note kind of like match the pitch. Well turns out they dont even know how to do that. Then there was this lady who was like 'its perfect, beautiful! Now lets add an alto part!' I almost lost it. I told her 'maybe it would be easier to just have one melody that everyone sang together' and she was like 'no i already know the alto part.' So she made one of the girls sing the melody while she sang the harmony. ..... I dont have words to describe it. I gently said that 'it was good but that it would be easier for everyone to just sing the melody.' She then said 'no its fine we will have half sing the harmony with me and half sing the melody now i want you to play the harmony part on the piano.' Then i had to kindly tell her that the harmony she was singing doesnt exsist... IT went like this for a while and she would try to teach people her part and i would just try soo hard not to laugh then finally i was like 'i have an idea, there is a part in the music already written in, how about if we all sing this?' And they were all like ok! So we sang the easiest harmony that i could think of and the "melody" and called it good. I can hardly wait for the party. The primary program was also this week. It was nuts!! You think ours is crazy! It is impossible to keep all these kids in one place, they kind of stopped trying. We had kids running up and down the isles with juice boxes and apples and cookies and blankets and babydolls and screaming and running away from parents and the singing, oh the singing... Its really hard to learn how to sing right when the music leader doesn't even know. But they sang with their whole hearts. As loud as they could! It was sooo cute! I love these kids. Some of them would look at me and blow a kiss or smile. Made my whole day!! We had 4 investigators at church too! That was awesome! I haven't told you all much about my investigators huh?! Well here we go! We have a married couple they live alone because their children have all grown up. They are about 60 years old. So cute. Their names are Sebastião and Lucrecia. Man i want them to get baptised. But they are having some serious problems. First of all when we went to invited them to baptism and Sebastião was all for it and Lucrecia said that she would pray and think about it. So we said that was great and that we would continue coming and teaching them the lessons. So we would teach and Lucrecia would understand and accept everything and i thought Sebastião was accepting everything he would nod his head and say "exactly, exactly amen!" And "amen Jesus!" and "oh God, God is good" over and over again, but then come to find out at about our 2 or 3 visit he wasnt understanding or even paying attention to a single thing we were saying! He wouldnt ask questions he would just nod his head and say amen. So we decided we needed to ask him more questions so we started over with the 3rd lesson. IT went like this:

'Sebastion, the first principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ is faith. Do you have faith?"

"Yes I have faith. God is good. Amen Jesus!"

"So to review, what is the first principle of the Gosple?"

"Jesus! Amen Jesus!" 

"Jesus is very important because he atoned for our sins. But the first principle of the gospel, the first point, is faith."

"exactly"

"So what is the first principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ?"

"Jesus Christ, Amen Jesus!"

"The first principle is FAITH"

"Exactly"

"What is the first Principle?"

"God is good."

"YEst sebastion, God is good but the first principle is FAITH!"

"Exactly!"

"What is the first principle? Ill give you a hint, its faith."

"Jesus"

"Faith"

"Faith"

Im not exaggerating. Im being very serious this is really and truely how one of our lessons went. Im serious. Another problem that we have with him is... You guessed it SOCCER! He watches soccer all the time and when someone in brazil is watching a soccer game you dont interupt them. So many times we havent been able to teach him a lesson because he is too involved in soccer. And Lucrecia has a very closed heart. She knows that the church is true. She started talking one time about how she has always been in the same religion and been happy about it until we came knocking on her door and started talking about her Savior. Then she started to cry and i was like yes! Shes going to be baptised! She is feeling the spirit! But then she got all weird and started cleaning stuff and was like "i like your message and i like you guys but i will not be baptised. You can continue to come and teach my husband and i but i will not be baptised." broke my heart. Missionary work is a work of heartbreak. Every day my heart breaks over and over again for the one time that someone accepts your message and is baptized. But when someone does! Man! That is happiness!!! 

Well i ate 2 weird things this week. i ate blood. I didnt know it was blood until after i ate it. It had been cooked so it was hard. They just watched me and i was thinking why are they watching me? and then they were like oh thats blood. It wasnt bad. It wasnt great and i dont want to eat it again because its blood! but it wasnt bad. The second thing is that certain types of Tea here arent against the word of wisdom and the brazilians are super into their tea. So i tried some the other day and you know after a really really long time i could grow to like some types but the first time drinking it is gross. really gross, but i could see myself liking it someday. 

In the pictures, we woke up early on pday and hiked to this giant cross thing. It was a couple miles on foot but hey we walk a good 10 miles a day so the 3 miles there and back wasnt much. Ha ha. It was cool! 

Also work is picking up. My companion and i are a good match. She is nice and loves to work hard which is a good thing. I am working my tail off lately! We have 3 families with baptism dates and 2 others with baptism dates. Super pumped!!! 

Well thats all for right now!! 

I love you guys!! im doing great and i cant wait for christmas!!

i pray for you everyday! i love you all!

Love, Sister Baker