Newsflash

I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with creative titles for my entries, so my apologies for the incredibly lame-o ones I do end up using. I have good news to share with the blogging community of Living and Loving: as of today, I am officially a fully-documented Brasilian. Sure, I always had the Passport. Yes, I paid an absurd amount of money for Brasilia to send me a color-printer copy of my birth certificate on printer paper. Yes, I am registered to vote (and paid a penalty because I didn't do it when I was 18...woops. How could I have forgotten to do that on my 18th birthday 3 days before my high school graduation?) Yes, I received my CPF card in the mail a few weeks ago and don't really know what it's good for but everyone makes a big deal about it. After all these things, I was still missing one, last document. Today I finally got my Identidade, my general ID card that serves the same way as a driver's license serves in the US. (Except mine doesn't let me drive...and don't worry, I don't want to get that one.) The picture is terrible and my thumbprint looks like my finger is the width of my foot, but nevertheless, it's here and I'm a real person now. My skin might be white as a ghost and my hair might be blonde (according to them,) but I am legally as Brasilian as my doorman and the President. I just took a picture of all my documents laid out to show you, then realized that putting a photo on the internet of all my legal documents with my ID numbers clear as day was about the dumbest thing I could ever do. So, sorry. I guess you can't see all my cool Brasilian things. :(

Today I also bought an English/Portuguese Bible, which was actually more exciting for me than getting my Identidade. I have been waiting to buy this Bible for a while, until I had a little extra money, but after using my friend's at the retreat this weekend, I realized that it was invaluable and I needed to have it now. I spent the rest of the afternoon staring at it, so excited for every time I will use it and get to read the same verse in English and Portuguese, side by side! It is going to be a great learning tool for me to learn Portuguese, and will be so helpful to use in my classes when my readers don't understand a certain story or scripture in English. Fun fact: the Portuguese translation for "Passover" in the Bible is what we call "Easter." I could not figure out last week why my friend was complaining that his birthday is close to Passover, and therefore he only ever gets chocolate on his birthday. I found this strange, as I thought about how I personally had never given anyone chocolate on Passover...until I read the Portuguese-English Bible this weekend and realized what he had been saying. And thus I just demonstrated to you another perk to having a Portuguese-English Bible.

Two of my readers believe in Predestination and this is weird for me. Not weird because I think they are weirdos, but weird because when I was preparing for this internship, I prepared myself to show Jesus to non-believers, and did not prepare to discuss the validity of the doctrine of Predestination with fellow believers...like not at all. If you have had this same experience, please send an email or comment my way with some advice. The battles are entirely based on scripture and our individual interpretations, which is what makes it so hard.

Okay, I have more to say but I want to be respectful of your time. I'm thinking that this is the week I'm finally going to buy the things I'm missing in my apartment. You know, maybe some silverware, a spatula, pots and pans. It's amazing how long you can go living without those things. :) Have a good week!

Verse of the week, just because it's my favorite:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. -Philippians 2:3-4

and in Portuguese...

Não façam nada que seja motivado por despique, nem que seja provocado por interesses pessoais. Mas sejam humildes: que cada um considere os outros superiores a si mesmo. Não pensem unicamente nos vossos interesses, mas procurem também aquilo que interessa aos outros. -Filipenses 2:3-4