April 29, 2008

WELL! Its true I´m here!!!! I`m having a blast too!! I love the CTM (brasil MTC) Its an amazing place. I am growing SO much! Its almost inconprehensible. The past couple days have probably been some of the amazing days of my life. Today we went to the São Paulo Temple. Its gorgeous. Ive made a lot of friends, and even have two brasilian roommates. Its unbelievable how hard it is to talk to brasilians though. I understand almost all of it when they speak (unless theyre from Rio, and then I can´t understand them at all.. unfortunately one of my FAVORITE sisters is from there, Sis. Menegotto. She´s adorable.. anyway). The other hard thing about it is they all love to speak english (those that took it in school) so its really easy to just try and speak english with them..Anyway, so driving from the airport to the CTM was a sweet ride, but it didn´t really hit me that I wasn´t in utah. Its ENTIRELY different, but it still didnt hit me. Today however, we were driving to the temple and I realized it. It hit me pretty well. It was a mix between adrenaline and sheer . It was awesome. One of my professors is from Belo Horizonte, so I´m trying hard to learn the accent from him. Most times I feel like I know very little when it comes to the language (like yesterday when Sis. Hodgson and I taught the 2nd lesson to some brasilian missionaries..) Other times I think I´ve got a bit of a grip (like during class when the teachers TEACH in somente português, and I understand everything, so rad.) Its an interesting experience all in all. I´ve been asked to learn the national anthem on the piano (brasilian anthem that is) to play for tuesday night devotionals. Its kinda scary, but cool. I also am the ONLY pianist in my district, which means I play every song, every sunday. 0.oI wanted to thank EVERY member of my family, once again for being so amazing!!! This past week I have become electrically aware of how INCREDIBLY blessed I am. I can´t even put into words how grateful I feel for the amazing family I have. The world here is VERY different from America- which is a very ¨duh¨ statement, and everyone says that, but there is no way to describe how incredibly blessed our family is. SO blessed. I was thinking about how everyone in one way or another has to ¨fight¨to get onto their missions. There is always opposition. And I thought I had a bit, throughout the years just prior to my mission, and whatever- but I´m realizing, I really didn´t have to fight very much. The Lord has blessed me SO much. The one thing that has really impressed me the past little while is the support of my family. I don´t even know how to express how much it means to me how EASY it was to have your support with this decicion. I´ve taken Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many things for granted in my life (like, every single thing ever) But one of the things I regret most is taking the love and support of my family for granted, and I´m SO sorry. I love each and every one of you with all my coração, and I pray for you todos os dias.
Another thing I took for granted was oatmeal. I miss grits and oatmeal.. and spinach..But the FRUIT here is INCREDIBLE!! flavors I never even dreamed of! It´s pretty sweet.. Oh hey, I just found the " key on this keyboard.. sweeeeeeeet...Anyway, So things are good.Eu quero compantilhar com vocês uma experiência eu tive esta semana proxima.... Not specifically, but a vague descrição (don´t judge my português, I´m still learning..)Anyway, I`ve learned this week com FORÇA, que meu Pai Celestial, respostas minha perguntas. Sempre. Eu sei com TODO meu coração- God speaks to His children. It is the greatest blessing in my life- and there is NO other explination other than it is because He loves us.It is the basis of our existance, it is the reason we are here- why we have families- why we have every good thing in our lives! Because God loves His children.Eu não tehno mais tempo, então, I´m going to take off, but I love you all so much!!!! Email is the best and fastest way to send me things. It takes about 3 weeks for snailmail. so if you were to send me something snailmail today there is a VEEEEERY slim chance it would get here before I left the CTM. Very slim. SO- Family- email, but writing letters is MUCH more personal and enjoyable- but until I get out into the field where I~m a little more stable, it´s not terribly practicle. [Mom: I might start sending you a "friends" email to send to meg/becky etc. B/c otherwise it will take me 3 weeks at a time to correspond with them. Let me know what you think... ]OK well I love you all! I am indescribably happy! (and I mean that in more ways that one, because where I~m at right now, I can~t speak english OR portuguese.. its pretty.. fun.. lol)I apologise to all of the people that I mailed my email address to with "myldsmail.COM"... yeah its ".net" ... whoops..Thanks to Michael for the email! I don´t have time to write a personal email back this week, but I will for sure next week. Generallly that´ll be how I write back: you write me, and then I´ll write you back, but I´ll try to remember to make time for those who haven´t written me yet, I know life is crazy and its hard to write!!! But mine is too.. :pHey chelsey! thanks for the note! Tell randy he´s grounded for not writing me too! I sent a letter to my mom (and wendee..) about how to send packages to the CTM, but unless you send it like.. today.. its unlikely I´ll still be at this address. SO I´ll have to send you my address next week for my mission home. OUT OF TIME! LOVE YOU BYE!