Thursday, March 12, 2009

Communication

At church on Sunday morning, one of the sister missionaries came up to me and asked if I speak Portuguese. I told her I did and she then asked if I would go with them to an appointment that afternoon with a lady they had contacted. The woman was from Portugal and spoke English, but she had a pretty thick accent and the missionaries thought it might be helpful if I was there and could speak Portuguese with her. I agreed to go with them and Mr. Frisby also decided to come. All went as planned and we met the missionaries at the lady's house. She was an older lady and immediately reminded me of all of the older Portuguese women that I had ever come in contact with on my mission in Portugal. We started talking with her and I asked questions and talked with her in Portuguese. We read some scriptures in Portuguese. Most of the time she was speaking Portuguese, but sometimes she would speak English. I was speaking mostly in Portuguese and then translating for the sisters. So, after about an hour or so, we got ready to leave and the missionaries asked me to pray in Portuguese. So, I prayed - all in Portuguese - and after I finished, the lady looked at me and said, "oh, you speak Portuguese." I sort of laughed and then confirmed that, yes, I speak Portuguese. She seemed a bit surprised and told me that I spoke very good Portuguese. I thanked her, we left the house, and we all had a good laugh. I wonder if she realized that she was also speaking Portuguese?

8 comments:

Sharon said...

Maybe you were actually speaking in tongues.

Andrea said...

Sounds like a great experience. So, she didn't realize you spoke it until after the prayer?

cara said...

I can't believe she didn't know until AFTER the prayer! Crazy! I didn't know you went to Portugal on your mission. My dad did too! Weird.

cara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Molly said...

Ok, that is hilarious. Seriously.

Gordita said...

That's pretty funny. Good job on speaking the Portuguese.

Dana said...

That is very funny Jenni. Hillarious

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