Sept 26,2012

 

  I love you!!!!

My week has been interesting...it was a hard one for sure! i learned sooo much about teaching and the gospel, my sweet companion, sister king, is soo patient with me! When we do companionship practice teaching i always ask why we need to do this or why that is important lol it really helps when you are teaching!!!

I’ve learned that I know the gospel is true, but explaining it...a little different haha

I wrote a letter, but i think mail will be slow for a while; the post office is on strike! o yah, when you write letters. don’t forget to put the zip code!! i did get 3 at one time hahah so you never know how long it will take!!!

I really am blessed to be here. I have seen the district grow so fast! there’s an elder here, elder morris, who couldn’t even read out of the portuguese book of mormon when we got here, and now when we read he can read it really well, but he can go line for line and translate it! it really is amazing to see the Lord shaping and molding us!

We had a devotional last night and watched a talk from elder neal a. anderson to the provo mtc and one thing he said I really liked. He was talking to missionaries and said that the Lord will shape your back to be able to bear the burden placed upon it! I know that the Lord is shaping me to withstand the trials and the successes I will have on my mission!

oh! Sunday was my 1st day conducting and we have a brasilera sister get up and share her conversion story and someone to translate. Well I asked my roomie if she would share her story and I would translate....omylanta! it was sooo bad!! We get up and I’m trying to translate, I understood about a half of it haha I couldn’t do it. I’m so glad there’s a brasilera sister there who can speak english too so she helped me out a lot! I still have a lot to go with the language. But it’s coming!

This gospel is true, it is hard, but it’s worth it!! vale a pena!!!

Tell everyone thanks for the prayers and support. I love you all so much. I’m on a mission for you guys!!! I want you to know that. I love you so much

Love sister benedict

 

Sept 19,2012

oi!! this weeks been so good!

 

I dream in portuguese!!! i just wake up n dont understand anything!!! haha we went to the police station this last week to become official here! We were there for like 1.5 hrs! but there was a strike goin on when we were there! people all had on the same shirts and were taking pictures and had black and yellow balloons! i wanted a balloon but they left before I could get one!!

Everyone here i tell that im going to salvador say two things 1) the food is way good there and 2) its super hot there!!! So hopefully i dont sweat myself to a puddle haha.

We celebrated chile´s independent day yesterday. It was cool cuz for lunch they had it all decorated and the cooks dressed up! the chile flag was hanging up too. We had dulce de leite for a present!!! omylanta dulce de leite is soooo goood! muito bom! and they had popcorn for dessert too. We dont usually get stuff like that, so i got to have some caramel popcorn!!! my favorite! idk why but being here I just crave sweets hahah

Couple cool experiences, I was studying the scriptures the other day and they just came alive to me. idk why in particular, but I remember reading and just..understanding them! it was so cool! legal! But now when I read I understand who people are and what they´re doing. I'm able to cross reference! I'm not that good, but I'm getting there. It's realy neat!

oh!! so every  week we have to prepare a talk for Sunday because we dont know whos speaking in our district. Well I was having a  hard time figuring out what I wanted to talk about and try to translate. I wrote like 3 diff ones, tried to translate but I wasnt feelin it. Sunday morning I rewrote one just in portuguese but still dint feel confident with it. I just knew I was going to get called because I didnt feel prepared....yah guess who got called to speak Sunday!!! yupp sure was me! I did as much portuguese as I could. I did about half portuguese-half english so it wasnt too bad! I dont even remember what I said haha I asked them why they´re here and their purpose as a missionary basically! It was good tho. The 2nd counselor in the branch presidency kept saying how surprised he was that I was speaking that much portuguese and how much I was trying!

oh another thing..The mission presidents wife, Sis Degn, cornered me in the lunchroom yesterday and asked me to be the new sister coordinator! So basically I meet all the new sisters and write them notes and host the Sunday evening meetings!! I dont know portuguese well enough to do that!! I dont feel qualified enough to do that. It's a small little thing, but im freaking out about it! I know the Lord wil help me though!!!

 oh we got brasilera roomies!! I'm so stoked! they speak no english, but surprisingly Sis King and I understand a lot and can communicate with them so its neat to see that our portuguese isn't that bad haha my journal is halfway filled already and I'm not even halfway throuhg the mtc yet lol I shoulda bought like 18 journals!!!

Sis King and I click so well, we get along really well which is nice! We went to the temple this morning and did initiatories!!! It was so cool. They did it in portuguese (of course!) but I got an english cheat card to look on. It was cool to do that because of the promises the Lord makes to us as we keep our covenants! I had forgotten most of that stuff when I went through the first time! I was sitting in the celestial room and the lighs went off!!! All the lights in the temple went off haha it was kinda funny! I dont think I'll ever have that experience again!

 One more story... when we eat we come in and grab a tray then our food. Well the other morning as I was going to grab a tray I saw on another tray a cocaroach!! It was smushed on top of a tray hahah it was all twitchin n stuff! Welcome to brasil!!!!

I love you guys!! I pray for y'all every night! The days are getting better! I forget how much I love and miss singing until we sing in choir!! I love this gospel, I love the temple! ! I love this gospel, I love where I'm at!!!

a´te mais!!

Sister Benedict

ps we get out every pday to go shoppin and walk around :)

 

Sep 12, 2012

Wed, Sep 12, 2012

oh mai!!! it’s so great here! It has been hard; we are sitting in a room for 8 hrs a day! so it’s hard to keep the motivation sometimes!!! i keep sticky notes in my planner of things to tell you so here goes!

We had sorbete 7sept cuz it was Brazilian Independence Day!! best lunch EVER!!!! omylanta it was such good sorbete! ummmm Sis king n i had a fast from English Friday, and it was kinda hard but good for us! I want to learn it so bad n it’s not coming like I want it to. But it’s coming! I sit with Brasileros as much as I can and developed some really good relationships with them! we had a group of Brasileros leave on Tuesday. It was hard because they were my volleyball buddies! They taught me how to say bom trabalho!! So every time we played everyone said it haha!

 My teachers are way cool. One is from Salvador, irmao viana! He’s so funny! In class we learned numbers and if you say a number in class and it’s not in Portuguese the elders have to do 15 pushups n sisters do 15 backpack lifts! Well I got in trouble n said the time in English and he made me get up to do 15 backpack lifts like a bicept curl. Well as I was doing it, one of the times my skirt totally flew up haha my backpack caught my skirt and took it with it!!! haha it was pretty funny! irmao viana said I didn’t have to do anymore!! hehe whoops!

I had a neat experience the other day. We were learning how to introduce the book of mormon and to invite someone to be baptized. Sis king was my investigator and I had irmao raphael help me (he was our teacher in the morning cuz irmao ramos didn’t come..fubeca!!) but he was helpin get me started then I was able to bear my testimony about the book of mormon(em Portuguese) and I just had such conviction that I know the book of mormon is true. I know that the church is true! I really do mom n dad. I know with everything in me that Jesus Christ died for my sins so I could be here. I am so grateful for that!

oh I’ve been sick like the past week!! An elder in our district was sick the 1st week and its spread! So I’ve been blowing my nose a lot!! I was going to sing for devotional(solo) on tues but I was still sick gosh dangit!!!!!

 Sunday was a really good day for me. It was very spiritual which is what I needed! They had the movie 17 miracles playing and I balled my eyes out the whole movie!

Our devotional tues night was about heroes and I just kept thinking about dad. Even sitting here makes me kinda emotional. Dad, you're my hero. I think about everything you've done for me and all of the support you've given me and the things you did so I could have the best opportunity in life. Thank you dad. I am deeply grateful for you. I could always come to you with problems or any gospel question and you knew what to say! Mom, I miss you that’s just a given!!! I love you guys so much!!!

The temple was amazing as always. I had a hard time gettin through the veil, though. the temple worker spoke very good Portuguese and well...you know how great my hearing is!! haha I made it though, that’s all that matters!!!

what else....oh maracacha!!! such a good drink. it’s like a passion fruit type drink! sooo good!! and patatas dulce! it’s a green potato but its sweet. so good!

We have trc every week which is like a recording of teaching. So we teach another district who are pesquisadors and they record us! it’s so scary and I don’t like it but we do it each week!!! nossa senora!!! Its good tho!

ummm what else, nothing really exciting! just my life as a missionary! I love my district. they are so funny. We have running jokes like every single day!!! they crack me up!!! I love it here. i don’t feel like I’m in Brazil still. Our window faces the courtyard and so do the classroom windows!!! We got lucky. The elders in our district were nice enough to take pictures of the city at sunrise and sunset for us...arent they so nice! (grrrrrrr!)

              I love you guys so much!!! i got the letter from tiesh. seriously made my stinkin day!!!!! gosh I love my family!  Days really do feel like months and the weeks are getting shorter! i hope I’m preparing enough and staying focused!! I love you guys so much. Give the family my love

kisses

Sister benedict

eu sei que deus vive. eu sei que o livro de mormon e verdadiero. estou muito grata pela opportunidade estar aqui e server um missao em salvador! sou muito grata pela expiação! gah eu amo este igreja muito mucho!!!

te amo, te extrena

Translation:

I know that God lives. I know that the book of mormon and verdadiero. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be here and serve a mission in salvador! I am very grateful for the Atonement! gah I love this church very mucho!!!  I love you, te extrena

 

 

 

First impression of Brazil and the MTC

mom! omygoodness i have 27 min to tell you my last week! its amazing here. i sent you a letter with some funny things that happened. i love it here. its been hard! but we get up at 0630 n study basically all day. we have native teachers and they are hilarious. we get to practice teaching in portuguese and english. im surprised how well i can understand and speak portuguese already and its been only 1 week! before i forget my fav scripture is 2ne22.2 sorry i dont know how to do a colon sign on the keyboard. ps i cant even speak english anymore haha my brain is thinking portuguese! um my companion sis king i just love her! she wants to work and she wants to learn so im so blessed to have her as my companion! oh so the first night i was so stoked to take a shower right...so funny story. i strip down and am in the bathroom..well i open the shower to jump in..theres 4 knobs!!! 2 higher and 2 lower! i have no idea whats what so i just started turning them haha the water was freezing so i tried turning the shower off...i could not firgure it out!!! after like 20 min i had to have sis king help me figure out how to turn it off...mind you im in a towel still and this is our first night together haha it was so funy! oh ps..she has an addiction to peanut butter too!!! and we get apples and banans every meal! im in heaven! (id type a smiley face but idk how to) but its good here. one of the first things we learned how to do was bear our testimonies in portuguese and pray. so sunday was fast sunday and we did testimony meeting with our branch and i got up and shared most of mine in portuguese!!! we practice our testimonies in portuguese in class with our disctrict-we have 11 people in ours. 2sets of sisters and 3 sets of elders...1 trio! i love those guys. but anyways when anybody bears their testimony thats when i feel the spirit the most. i just love it here. the food is amazing!!! its all chewy, or soupy...nothings realy crunchy here so iv managed to spill on myself every meal haha.  went to the temple today! it was amazing the temple is so beautiful. when we got to the veil the temple worker said everything in portutugese and so i figured i had to. so i said everything in port. it was kinda cool. the celestial room is beautiful too...almost as beautiful as brighma city! um so i forgot so much things...like umbrellas. the lang is kinda hard to learn cuz everyone speaks a dif dialect kinda like the us and their accents. but im learning that i need to rely on the lord. i miss you guys, but there is not a doubt in my mind this is where i need to be. thank you so much for loving me and supporting me on my mission. im going to sing a solo next tues nite devotional. we sang come thou fount in portuguese for choir..its my alltime absolute favorite song! i love you!! i know the gospel is true. eu sei que deus e um filho de deus. seu muito grato para a expiasao. eu sei que jesus christo murreo para meus pecados...i love this gospel! i love sao paulo! its beautiful!!

ate mais

love love love

sister benedict!!!!