What a crazy week! So I mentioned prior that new missionaries have a blue dot on their name tag labeling us as new missionaries or "greenies." Good news! They are letting me take mine off today which is awesome!
I feel like I have been here forever but this is actually probably the happiest I´ve ever been. I love love love the CTM (Center to Train Missionaries)! My district is like my family in so many ways we get along so well and I love each one of them. They really are my Brothers and Sisters. My district consists of Elder Jarcho, Elder Jones, Sister Peterson, Sister Conlin, Sister Uryan, and Sister Thomson and I.
We have a lot of fun especially during our atividade fisica or exercise time in English. ;) We usually play Lightning [a basketball game to determine who can make a basket before the other] with a bunch of other missionaries. Elder Jarcho played basketball in high school, so we get pretty competitive sometimes...well all the time actually! :) After about four times of me beating him he finally had a win [however, I did not tell him I also played basketball in high school]. He was sweating like crazy after he finally got the win.
When we got to the CTM they told us the fastest way to learn Portuguese was to sit by the Brazilians at meal times. At first it was hard because I didn´t know a lot of Portuguese but now I can actually carry on a conversation with them, which is pretty crazy since I´ve only been here almost two weeks!
The missionaries will call me Sister Smartchee (that´s how they pronounce it at least) or just smartchee... which I´ve started to actually like. For some reason Brazilians think that having the last name Smart is funny, I get quite a bit of attention which is really nice to have lots of friends and people to talk to. I would say eighty percent of the CTM missionaries are natives so it makes learning the culture and language really easy.
There is a hall in the CTM that has no ceiling - in order to let sunlight in but when it rains the hall gets super slick. It started raining really hard one day and we, Sister Thomson and I realized that we had left our window open so we started sprinting back to our room. Luckily I saw the Elders on the other side of the hall shaking their heads to stop running but Sister Thomson didn´t see them trying to get her attention before it was to late. She fell good and hard - kind of like the falls you see on America´s Funniest Home Videos - most of all I am glad Sister Thomson is okay!
So I´m known as smartchee and Sister Thomson is known as the "American that fell." We can´t say we never made an impression while at the CTM!
A lot of the Brazilians like to learn English from us as we learn Portuguese from them. I think the greatest thing about Brazilians is that they are genuine. If they think you messed something up they will tell you , if they think you aren´t good at Portuguese they will laugh at you. But I´ve actually received lots of compliments about my Portuguese and how I can speak extremely well for only being here for almost two weeks! I can actually understand pretty much everything which is a huge blessing I know God has given me. One of the instructors actually said that I don´t have an English accent when I talk in Portuguese, maybe one day when I also get a tan and I´ll start looking like a Brazilian too.
My favorite instructor that I have is Irmão Lima. He is probably one of the best people I have ever met! He thinks at this point I´m fluent in Portuguese but I always tell him I´m far from fluent but that I am always working to improve! He says the funniest things sometimes, he blames it on the fact that he is our comic relief for our stressful studying. The hardest part about the CTM is that every minute of every hour of every day you are doing some sort of studying whether it´s language study or Gospel studey or companion study it just never really ends. Irmão Lima makes it a lot more bearable! For example he calls beef jerky ´Jerk Beef´ and one time he said, "I´m so hungry I could eat a plankton." You probably have to be there for those to be funny but I thought I would share them anyways :). But I think the real reason he is my favorite is because he believes in me. He always asks me hard questions and pushes me to always respond in Portuguese no matter how hard it is. My district calls me the translator for the class. And he always asks me to translate the stuff that he says if my district doesn´t understand which is pretty cool!
I have had the opportunity to teach almost ten lessons in Portuguese. The first few were hard but it´s getting easier! In my last lesson I actually recited the discussion, The First Vision by memory in Portuguese. The gift of tongues is so real! I know that in those ten lessons, I used words to bear my testimony I didn´t know I remembered. I know now more than ever that God loves me and that he really does bless me through strict obedience, faith, and a lot of hard work.
Before I came to the CTM, I had heard that Brazilians ate rice and beans for every meal but is actually 1000 percent true! It takes time to get used to but I think when I come home I´m actually going to miss my rice and beans. They are also really into eating this stuff that´s a mix between Jello and pudding, I am starting to acquire a taste for it. :)
When we went to the police station on an assignment, I met some missionaries that are serving in São Paulo Sul right now! The Brazilians call our mission São Paulo Sul-ceso which means São Paulo success; so I´m excited to see what that´s about! Also, I almost tore my skirt getting into one of the vans to go to the the police station which would have been fun... and after everyone got off, I was still in the van so he almost drove away with me in it. I think that the biggest thing I´ve learned is that uncomfortable situations are totally okay! And that trying and putting yourself out there is so important.
This past week has been an adventure! I love it! Best to all of you!
I feel like I have been here forever but this is actually probably the happiest I´ve ever been. I love love love the CTM (Center to Train Missionaries)! My district is like my family in so many ways we get along so well and I love each one of them. They really are my Brothers and Sisters. My district consists of Elder Jarcho, Elder Jones, Sister Peterson, Sister Conlin, Sister Uryan, and Sister Thomson and I.
We have a lot of fun especially during our atividade fisica or exercise time in English. ;) We usually play Lightning [a basketball game to determine who can make a basket before the other] with a bunch of other missionaries. Elder Jarcho played basketball in high school, so we get pretty competitive sometimes...well all the time actually! :) After about four times of me beating him he finally had a win [however, I did not tell him I also played basketball in high school]. He was sweating like crazy after he finally got the win.
When we got to the CTM they told us the fastest way to learn Portuguese was to sit by the Brazilians at meal times. At first it was hard because I didn´t know a lot of Portuguese but now I can actually carry on a conversation with them, which is pretty crazy since I´ve only been here almost two weeks!
The missionaries will call me Sister Smartchee (that´s how they pronounce it at least) or just smartchee... which I´ve started to actually like. For some reason Brazilians think that having the last name Smart is funny, I get quite a bit of attention which is really nice to have lots of friends and people to talk to. I would say eighty percent of the CTM missionaries are natives so it makes learning the culture and language really easy.
There is a hall in the CTM that has no ceiling - in order to let sunlight in but when it rains the hall gets super slick. It started raining really hard one day and we, Sister Thomson and I realized that we had left our window open so we started sprinting back to our room. Luckily I saw the Elders on the other side of the hall shaking their heads to stop running but Sister Thomson didn´t see them trying to get her attention before it was to late. She fell good and hard - kind of like the falls you see on America´s Funniest Home Videos - most of all I am glad Sister Thomson is okay!
So I´m known as smartchee and Sister Thomson is known as the "American that fell." We can´t say we never made an impression while at the CTM!
A lot of the Brazilians like to learn English from us as we learn Portuguese from them. I think the greatest thing about Brazilians is that they are genuine. If they think you messed something up they will tell you , if they think you aren´t good at Portuguese they will laugh at you. But I´ve actually received lots of compliments about my Portuguese and how I can speak extremely well for only being here for almost two weeks! I can actually understand pretty much everything which is a huge blessing I know God has given me. One of the instructors actually said that I don´t have an English accent when I talk in Portuguese, maybe one day when I also get a tan and I´ll start looking like a Brazilian too.
My favorite instructor that I have is Irmão Lima. He is probably one of the best people I have ever met! He thinks at this point I´m fluent in Portuguese but I always tell him I´m far from fluent but that I am always working to improve! He says the funniest things sometimes, he blames it on the fact that he is our comic relief for our stressful studying. The hardest part about the CTM is that every minute of every hour of every day you are doing some sort of studying whether it´s language study or Gospel studey or companion study it just never really ends. Irmão Lima makes it a lot more bearable! For example he calls beef jerky ´Jerk Beef´ and one time he said, "I´m so hungry I could eat a plankton." You probably have to be there for those to be funny but I thought I would share them anyways :). But I think the real reason he is my favorite is because he believes in me. He always asks me hard questions and pushes me to always respond in Portuguese no matter how hard it is. My district calls me the translator for the class. And he always asks me to translate the stuff that he says if my district doesn´t understand which is pretty cool!
I have had the opportunity to teach almost ten lessons in Portuguese. The first few were hard but it´s getting easier! In my last lesson I actually recited the discussion, The First Vision by memory in Portuguese. The gift of tongues is so real! I know that in those ten lessons, I used words to bear my testimony I didn´t know I remembered. I know now more than ever that God loves me and that he really does bless me through strict obedience, faith, and a lot of hard work.
This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Before I came to the CTM, I had heard that Brazilians ate rice and beans for every meal but is actually 1000 percent true! It takes time to get used to but I think when I come home I´m actually going to miss my rice and beans. They are also really into eating this stuff that´s a mix between Jello and pudding, I am starting to acquire a taste for it. :)
When we went to the police station on an assignment, I met some missionaries that are serving in São Paulo Sul right now! The Brazilians call our mission São Paulo Sul-ceso which means São Paulo success; so I´m excited to see what that´s about! Also, I almost tore my skirt getting into one of the vans to go to the the police station which would have been fun... and after everyone got off, I was still in the van so he almost drove away with me in it. I think that the biggest thing I´ve learned is that uncomfortable situations are totally okay! And that trying and putting yourself out there is so important.
This past week has been an adventure! I love it! Best to all of you!
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