My
companion is awesome! She´s a vocal performance major at U of U (We duked
it out - all´s well ;D), and we´ve already been targeted, and we´re
singing a special musical number in about a week and a half for mission
conference. Oh! The Song we´re singing is Savior Redeemer of my Soul
(Salvador, Redentor de Minha Alma) which is the song I sang in Sacrament
Meeting the day I decided to serve a mission and filled out my papers.
No coincidences-I learn this more and more everyday. Oh, and Mom and
Dad....you were SO right about me using my piano on my mission, and I
believed you.....but I didn´t expect to be asked to play some of the
songs for the CTM choir on my FIRST DAY in the CTM!!!! You were
definitely more right than I knew.
Portuguese is
BEAUTIFUL!! It´s super hard to learn it this fast, but it amazes me how
it really is coming. I was super frustrated with myself last week (and
this week...it comes and goes)that I wasn´t understanding everything my
instructors were telling us, or couldn´t say everything I wanted to at
mealtimes to the Brazileros or in lessons with pesquisadores
(investigators). I´ve had to take a step back on occasion, and go,
"Okay, I´ve been learning this language for 2 days, or 4 days, or a week.
The fact that I can sit through a three hour class and understand
everything my professora is saying is a miracle." Even if I do freeze in
the moment a lot, I´m learning fast. We were told yesterday that our
district is the fastest learning English district. this is such a
blessing. The Dom das Linguas (Gift of Tongues) is definitely different
than I expected. Before a mission you hear everyone´s stories about these miraculous moments where they just had the words to say or understood
what was being said even when they felt like they shouldn´t have been
able to. Yes, I´ve had little moments like this (which I fervently thank
Heavenly Father for, I can assure you!!!! Blessings from Heaven!!), but
it definitely works differently from what I expected. The Gift of
Tongues is almost imperceivable. I work my tail off from the moment I
wake up in the morning until I fall asleep to vocabulary and lessons
running through my head. We have classes from 7am until 9:45pm.
It´s hard. (They finally began giving us our actividade fisica
(exercise-"physical activity") time this week, and that´s been a big
help focando e trabalhando (focusing and working)!) I´m realizing that
the Gift of Tongues is the ability to keep working, speaking,
translating, and doing everything in a language that you didn´t know
anything but "Tudo bem!!" "Bom dia" "A cobra come abacaxi" and "Eu tenho
minha borbaleta" a week and a half before when you´ve already been
studying for 12 hours that day. That´s the miracle. It´s the most subtle
blessings that infiltrate our lives and make the biggest difference for
us. Look for them.
So yeah! Life here is hard,
and wonderful, and exhausting, and fantastic, and hard, and hard, and
did I mention hard, but I´m learning that hard maybe isn´t a bad thing.
You hear that a mission is hard, but nobody ever tells you how or why.
I´m going to, because I feel like I would have been much better prepared
if I had known some of these things before hand. Here´s my big one for
now:
You get homesick. Yup. End of story. Amen. This has
probably been the hardest thing for me. I miss the comfort of knowing
people at home, getting hugs from all of your friends and family, being
able to help those around you (being able to COMMUNICATE with those
around you). It´s hard going a week and a half without hearing from or
being able to share things with your family that you used to see
everyday. Even being away at school for a year didn´t prepare me for
that (It's really different not being able to text your mom, dad, or
brothers when something cool happens or when you´re just lonely.) This
has been hard, but it makes me think of how the people I will teach
would feel for eternity if they never heard the gospel. I know that I
have my family forever. That´s not something I question or worry about.
Last week I had to write in my journal that quitting was not an option
because I knew that if it was, it would only become harder to resist
that option, and I KNOW KNOW KNOW that EVERYTHING is made right in
Christ, and EEEEEEEVERYONE needs to know that. That´s why I´m here.
Oh man, i watch the clock at the top of my computer tick down, and wow, that´s stressful! 10 minutes left...
Okay-funnies and miracles!
In
the hallway (or class, or the refeitorio, sanitarío... (cafeteria,
bathroom...some words come in Portuguese first. Sorry. I think I´m
remembering to translate them all...)) we speak only Portuguese. If you
get caught speaking English or Spanish you get the
"que...que..........????" Or POR-TU-GUESE (por-too-guess is how it
sounds). There´s one intructora (she´s one of the fancy coordinator ones
with a walkie talkie) she chants "POR-TU-GUESE POR-TU-GUESE
POR-TU-GUSES!!!!" While pumping her fist in the air. We "desculpa" our
way out and chant with her, but it´s super funny. We´ll do it to each
other, or the other day she was outside the cafeteria, and was just
looking in, mouth closed pumping her fist, and we all stopped to check
what language we were speaking. It´s great.
I definitely told
an investigator last week that instead of "i know that Christ helps me
to become better" I said " I know that Christ helps me to become a
women" Yup. that happened. I realized later when I wrote that sentence
again...yeah...her smile wasn´t because I was sweet and sentimental. Ha!
Melhor and Mulher are a little close for my liking...
Also,
my companion called the Son of God an egg while saying the First Vision.
Yup ovo is egg. (not ouvie -o or however hear Him was spelled.
Time to go, so much love to all!!! Eu sei que Jesus Cristo ayuda-nos tornar-nos melhor. Todo dia Cada dia!!!
Amo-se!!!<3
Sister Little (And yes, I´m "Sister", not Irma bc Irma is a Catholic title here for a nun. Yup. )
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