Long time no post! - Lots of changes!
I just reviewed my last post and wow, so much has changed since then. An oppurtunity sprang up for a position as an insurance broker, which I was excited about working at. It was with someone at church too.
However, after thinking about it and praying over it, i could not take it. I felt so heavy due to the prospect that if I worked there, I'd have to commit to a year of working there and I know that i would have to keep my word. I had my family on my mind mostly and the thought of not seeing them for over a year or just for a visit. that I should be in the States would not go away.
My friend Koki really helped me give me good wisdom on this. So, I've decided to start my voyage back to the United States on Christmas and once I return, this blog will either have no more updates, or change into a different blog. :)
A few weeks ago I was really blessed to spend time at Igor and Aliane's house again, this time with a couple and their kid who came from Columbia. They are actually americans but they work in Columbia and met Igor online through skype because one of them is also part brazillian and speaks portuguese. It was a weekend of mixed languages. I never been in a room where we had to constantly switch languages back and forth in order for the conversations to work but it all happened quite naturally. To give you a background, the couple from Columbia spoke very limited Spanish (only lived there for a few months),
and the husband spoke English and Portuguese but the wife and kid only spoke english. Igor and his wife speak Portuguese and Spanish but no English. I speak English and Spanish but no Portuguese so in order to have us all "in" on the conversation, we had to constantly translate to one another what the other person said in the person who was receiving the transmission in his/her language. I actually picked up a lot on Portuguese and there were some sentences I could understand completely and others that had no resemblance to Spanish. It was very stimulating. It was very cool to see how generous they were and
how on fire they were and hungry for fellowship. We also went downtown one night and witnessed to some people. We spoke to a woman a part of a Peruvian cult here called "Las Israelitas" (The Israelites), who only believe that we must follow the 10 commandments and nothing else. It's strange in that there's a lot of "Israelitas" here (I've encountered several in Pichanaki. They completely disregard all the Bible except the parts that talk about the Law of God. It's strange that they are only limited to Peru. THe time was very refreshing too to speak english with this couple from Columbia originally from New Jersey.
I'm finished taking Spanish courses. I'm very content with the level I've reached. I haven't reached the desired C1 level but I feel that I could pass a B2 exam on the DELE (an international exam which recognizes your level of Spanish). A B2 is equivalent of passing Upper-Intermediate.
My time with the brothers here has beeng good and at times difficult too. One left our room due to some differences but everything is going well now. One brother got baptized last week along with 3 others in the CHurch. I've been teaching English several times a week to someone's children and translating Missionary reports into English for a missionary society in the States which has been keeping me busy. A brother from Cotiwasi, an american missionary and his wife have been staying in the church as well and we've been passing a lot of time together. We've shared a lot of common stories together. I was very impressed with thier
perfect hillbilly Spanish from COtiwasi. The other night we ate pancakes together because it's been a long time since we have eaten american breakfast.
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