Oi everyone!! I´m sorry if my email looks weird at all,
I´m still trying to figure out this Brazilian keyboard. It´s not letting me
enter, so it´ll just be one blob, sorry haha. I can´t believe it´s only been
one week since I left, it seriously feels like I´ve been out here FOREVER. I´m
doing so well though!! I love it so so so very much.
Getting to Brazil was tiring, but there were about 15
other missionaries traveling with me so that was really nice and it ended up
not being as scary as I thought it would be haha. Flying into Brazil was crazy
though-- I am definitely not in the United States anymore haha. A van was
waiting for us at the airport to pick us up and drive us to the CTM. When you
drive in Brazil, cars pretty much just weave in between each other and
motorcycles just zoom in between the cars so it´s pretty crazy. I think in our 15
minute drive to the CTM like 5 cops and 3 ambulances passed us! Funny story- so
off on the side off the road there was a river and then there were places along
it where water was draining into the river making waterfall type things. So as
we were driving into Sao Paulo, I was looking at the river and all of a sudden,
BAM- a naked man taking a shower in one of the waterfall things hahaha. It was
an interesting way to start out my experience with Brazil. The CTM is
absolutely wonderful though!! The spirit is amazing and we are blessed with
little miracles everyday.
All of the Brazilians are absolutely wonderful. They are
the nicest, most loving people I have EVER met. I love them all so much. I´ve
been blessed with an awesome companion! Her name is Sister Klimes. She´s from
Minnesota and 6´1´´ so there´s quite the height difference haha.
She´s so sweet and exactly what I needed. I´ve been
struggling with learning Portuguese, but she´s fluent in spanish and already
has Portuguese down really well so it´s nice to have her around. She´s also
really patient with me and I´m really grateful for that. I absolutely love my
district, they´re the best. So there´s Sister Klimes and I, Sister Thacker and
Sister Berg, and then we have a trio of Elders, Elder George, Elder Romero, and
Elder Heaton. Sister Thacker is from Iowa, but she´s actually related to the
Thacker´s that live in Upalco, so that´s really crazy!! Sister Berg is from
Idaho and is such a sweet girl, I love her. Elder Romero and Elder Heaton are
both from Utah which is nice and then Elder George is from Indiana.
The Elders are sooooooo funny. I love them. So we´re in a
classroom for the majority of the day studying, and so it´s very nice to have
them around because they make me laugh so much and are a lot of fun.
In my room there are two Brazilian sister´s-- Sister
Pedrosa and Sister Barbosa. Sister Pedrosa is the sweetest person I have ever
met and Sister Barbosa is so funny and so loving. I wish I could understand and
communicate with them a little better, but I´ll get there eventually. Brazil is
a gorgeous country. It´s so green and when it rains it RAINS haha. I love being
a missionary. I know the church is true and is what brings true happiness and I
can´t wait to share that happiness with others. I´m about out of time though--
hopefully next week I can share some of the experiences I´ve had and maybe send
some pictures. I love it here and I am muito muito happy. Thanks for all of the
emails! I love you all!
