Tuesday-
Today was such a good, but really long day. We technically threw 2 days
together and just called it 1. Flew out of PHX to Atlanta and then took
a 9 hour flight to São Paulo. We arrived early this morning and were
welcomed by a bunch of elders speaking Portuguese at us. Kind of
intimidating. I share a room with Sister Barney, Sister Goodrich, and
Sister Kearns. They're all incredible, I love them so much already. We
kind of had a chill day, other missionaries told us to take advantage of
the free time we had so I took a nap!! Then we had choir and I kind of
sang to A Child's Prayer. It's way harder to sing in Portuguese. But
after singing it a few times I feel like I caught on to the words. It's
so cool to hear so many praising God through song in a whole new
language. We had a really good devotional too! (but looking at my notes I didn't write a whole lot down, oops).
Wednesday- we started all our classes today and needless to say, it was super stressful. We
had orientation and President Snyder said something that was in my
patriarchal blessing, super cool! We had our first "investigator" today,
it was so cool, we shared the time with Kadie's district and it was so
spiritual. Portuguese is intimidating when you first hear it, try to
speak it, read it, or write it. Actually all the time. Slowly but surely
getting better.
Thursday-
most of our day was spent learning and throwing ourself into the
language..which isn't bad, just super stressful and exhausting. We had
service and got to help in the laundry room for bedding and stuff. We
had so much fun! And then we had physical activity, we played volleyball
(we, as in my district and Kadie's district). We really don't have the
most athletic group but it was still super fun to bond with them all. Honestly they're all so fun and cool people. We had our first real lesson
today, all in Portuguese, waaaay hard. I can teach in English, I know
the doctrine. but when I need to change the language it's sooo much
harder. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though. Maybe because Sister Barney was there. She's so much better with the language than I
am. She basically answers all the questions. But I can give a very
simple prayer, bear a very simple testimony. So at least I'm
progressing.
Friday- I was so done today. My brain didn't work at all today. We studied all
day and I feel like I didn't figure anything out and nothing was sinking
in. I feel so far behind in the language compared to my district... I'm
studying every day and every night, I don't know why I'm not getting it. Not much else happened today.
Saturday-
Elder Barraza is our district leader and is spiritually strong. He
shared a devotional (we do one every night) and he shared about how he
came to know that this is where the Lord needs him. He shared some
scriptures D&C 18:10, 15-16 I really love these verses. They helped
me to know my purpose here, and made me even more excited to get out
into the field.
Sunday-
(I have 5 mins left, I'll try and hurry) but Sundays are definitely my
favorite day in the CTM. Sacrament meeting was in English, minus the
speakers who decided to practice their Portuguese more, but I understood
some of what they were saying. I met some really awesome sisters,S ister Kapp, Sister Driggs, Sister Colton, and Sister Westover
(unfortunately went home for health issues) but they are so incredible.Sister Westover taught relief society and spoke about the priesthood, I
already knew the priesthood was amazing but I think I kind of took it
for granted and didn't take advantage of it as much as I should/could
have. I'm sorry! But it was so good!
I'm out of time but I'll be sure to write about the rest of my week next
time. It's truly so spiritual here all the time and I love it so much.
Brazil is gorgeous and I'm already in love with it. I love you all and
miss you tons!!!!
My District
Elder Barraza
Elder Goodwin
Elder Bates
Elder Kozlowski
Sister Kearns
Sister Barney
Sister Goodrich
Sister Southwick
Sister Skelton
LOVE THEM!!!!
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