Today I remembered a funny experience I had during my time as a Mormon missionary at Temple Square, Utah, and thought I would share it with you all. I should probably write all of my memories on here, but I confess I didn't keep a very good journal as it was just so busy. Besides, we met and talked to so many people that every day was really just a blur of faces and names. But there are some experiences that I still remember clearly, and perhaps I'll share more with you another time.
This experience occurred one morning, when my Brazilian companion, Sister De Almeida, and I were walking through Temple Square to get to the North Visitors' Centre. As the buildings hadn't opened for the day yet, there weren't many people on the square, but there were often people who would cross through on their way to work in downtown Salt Lake City, and we would say good morning as we passed people on the square. Sister de Almeida has a bit of a cheeky sense of humour, so on this morning she said "The next person we see, I am going to say 'Bom dia!'" (Portuguese for 'good morning'). Just to see what they would do! We assumed whoever it was would probably be at least a little bit surprised or confused.
Soon enough, we saw a young man coming towards us, who seemed in a little bit of a hurry as he briskly walked through the square. So, true to her word, as he approached us Sister De Almeida said "Bom dia!". Without even the slightest bit of hesitation the man confidently replied "Bom dia!" and kept on walking. Well, turns out my companion and I were the ones surprised! What was that?! He didn't even blink! We stood there stunned a little while afterwards, before we recollected ourselves and kept on walking. But soon we were having a little laugh to ourselves, as I said I'll bet that a few moments after walking past us, that man probably stopped and thought, "Wait a second - how did she know I can speak Portuguese?!"
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