Church on Google Translate - more like Mad Libs

Maybe they were speaking Creole, not Portuguese?

Lovely chapel that shares the parking lot with the temple, beautiful people. But Google translate? “Vacuumed in their seas?”

“Let’s go to the pharmacy I wanted?”

Maybe they were speaking Creole? I'm told they encourage folks to speak Portuguese in church, but not everyone knows Portuguese. (I tried “Portuguese/Portugal” instead of “Portuguese/Brazil” - it didn’t help.)

I did better just listening for Spanglaguese words and following the action that way. (I’ve been studying Spanish since kindergarten and was finally starting to understand church in Spanish-speaking branches — at least most of the time.)

In the Marshall Islands a kind sister translated for me for the first month, then said, “You got it now?” Sure. I got it. I didn’t understand hardly a word, but I just let the sounds flow over me and meditated. I loved it. Just being in a holy place with beautiful people doing nothing.

Maybe that’s what this year of church will be for me. I could have asked the sister missionaries to translate for me, but it was fine.

Thanks for walking the journey with me.

-Marci