Estou Tentando

Is it okay to brag a bit on a missionary blog? No? Okay then. I won't. But I will tell you that I have been rather impressed with myself today with how much Portuguese I have spoken. It's a very strange thing, and a small phenomenon that I think I am going to enjoy watching transpire over the next weeks and months. My family left Brazil when I was six, and therefore I stopped speaking Portuguese when I was six. However, it's still in my head, and by some kind of lingual magic, it just appears out of nowhere. I'll be attempting a sentence and a word will just pop out that, I promise, I have not consciously considered before coming out of my mouth. It's just there. In the words of A Goofy Movie, strange things are happening to me. However, my grammar is terrible and I can't conjugate verbs to save my life. At least I know this, and I embrace it. My friends are taking great pleasure in teaching me, and I appreciate them so much for having patience with me.

So all of that to say that I am exhausted! Constantly bouncing between two languages (in my head and in conversation) is seriously tiring. Good thing I'm loving it anyway. It is so great to be with everyone again. It took no time at all for me to be reminded of why I fell in love with this place so quickly last year and came back. I'm excited to meet the rest of the new readers from this summer and continue with their LST reading. It will probably be a week or two before I actually begin maintaining a regular schedule (lots of settling-in to do,) but I am anxious for that time to arrive.

The holiday at Genipabu was less of a retreat and more of a relaxing day by the pool, very similiar to the way Americans celebrate the 4th. I had a lot of fun catching up with my friends Sergio and Pollyanna and getting to know one of the new readers, Sarah. Tomorrow will be my first Sunday since I arrived and I am excited about being with the entire congregation again.

Thanks for your comments, emails, and messages. I promise I will get back to all of you soon, but please know how much they have meant to me. I have lots more to say, but I think this is enough for today. Oh, and the title of this post means "I'm trying." It's what I say every time I mess up in Portuguese. :) Estou tentando!!