"Okay, forgive me, because this email is definitely going to scatter
brained....I literally just have a list of things I wanted to remember
to tell you guys...
Life here continues to be
going well, with the occasional rough patch, of course :) We're still on
the exact same schedule as always, so there is a lot of class time and a
lot of Portuguese! The one new thing we've started is something called
TRC's, which is kind of like teaching a home evening lesson to someone
who's already a member and speaks fluent Portuguese. Volunteers come in
and talk to each companionship for about 20 minutes. The volunteers are
almost always students from BYU who served their missions in Brazil or
Portugal (Portugal-Portuguese accents are SO hard to understand!!). It's
a lot of fun and we love asking them for advice!
Our
district is as good as ever. They are definitely like my family away
from home. Elder Bush is doing much better; thank you to everyone who
has been praying for him and his family. I think I forgot to tell you
guys, but we adopted two Elders about two and a half weeks ago, Elders
Payne and Nunes. They were already done with their six weeks at the MTC
and even had their travel plans to Mozambique, but they had visa
troubles at the last minute. We were a little bit nervous about having
new people, but both of them fit in perfectly and we love them so much.
Sister Moss and I got very close to them, and so when they left
yesterday morning, it was super hard. We're going to miss them a lot. I
can't imagine what it's going to be like in two weeks when the six of us
have to say goodbye to each other! :(
I bore my testimony in Portuguese on Sunday
and I was so nervous!! But it went really well and a few people who
have been here forever told me that my Portuguese is sounding really
good. We also performed our special musical number this past Sunday.
Elder Payne, Elder Christensen, Sister Moss, and I performed a
four-part a capella version of "Nearer My God to Thee." It went really
well and the Spirit was definitely present in the room. Then, Sunday
night, we had devotional with Sheri Dew! She is definitely a powerful
woman. Her main point was that we are going to encounter really hard
questions in life, and if we're not willing to wrestle for answers, we
won't get any. It was cool to hear her speak :) Mom, I know you wish you
could've been there haha After that, we watched The Joseph Smith movie,
which is way powerful, and then had a circle of trust, which is where
we go around and compliment our district members. It was a very
emotional day haha
In other news, I tried out
4-square this week! It is sooooo competitive here; it's like the
Olympics or something. But I'm proud to say that after getting
immediately eliminated multiple times, I'm starting to improve and
actually get people out other than myself! Woohoo!
I'm
loving Portuguese, even though it's very difficult. Any time you want
to say a verb, there are at least 24 different ways to conjugate it!!
I'm sure there's something similar in English, but I never have to think
about that! So yeah, it's hard. But it's such a beautiful language, and
I'm starting to get it more and more. On Sunday,
I realized that I understood almost everything anyone said at the
pulpit, so that was a cool moment. I still have so many weaknesses, and
it's way hard to stay confident and positive some days, but you just
have to rejoice in the little successes and remember that God is super
good at (everything, but also) making weak things (me) become strong (me
eventually). :)
I've also been loving to
doodle and write. I doodle and write out Portuguese phrases during class
(so I can stay awake for 9 hours of instruction!!) and it's been
something that brings me a lot of joy :)
You
know what else brought me a lot of joy?? Getting a package of cookies
from my family!! Seriously, you guys are the best. When I got a package
slip, I was literally jumping up and down :) Mail is the best thing
ever. Scratch that. The Gospel is the best thing ever. And then family.
And then Portuguese. And then mail. Or sleep. That might be a tie.
Next,
I received a priesthood blessing from Elder McKee and Elder Bush this
week for comfort about the mission, and let me just say, thank you to
every worthy priesthood holder out there right now. Seriously, thank
you. The priesthood has blessed me in so many ways, from my mission call
to my setting apart to my father's blessing to the sacrament to any
other priesthood function. You guys rock. We need more men in the world
who are worthy and confident and who can change the lives of those
around them through the power of God. How exciting that the power and
authority of God has again been restored to the Earth?! Seriously, we
are so lucky to have such an amazing gift from God. Keep it up, men. You
guys are my heroes."
