Ola minha FAMILIA!!!!!!!!!!
I am super happy and LOVING it here in Sao Paulo. I'm just going to try and cram as much stuff in one email as possible because I only have 30 minutes.
Can I just say Brazilians are the best???? They are so loving and sweet. When we first got here they all started hugging and kissing us on our necks (what.) Every time we talk they are so kind and smiling and so excited for us to be here! At first I was super nervous to talk to them in Portuguese (not that they speak a word of English) because I can barely congugate anything but then I did and they are the best. They LOVE helping us with learning the langugage and they talk super slow for us too. We teach them English so it works out perfect. They are seriously the nicest most humble people you will ever meet. Every time the natives ask me what mission are I'm going to and I say Manaus they all go 'Ohhhhhhoohhhhhhhh!!!!' MUITO MUITO QUENTE SISTER!!! haha and one time this instructor was telling my companion about how hot her mission is (she is also going to the north but she is on the coast) and then he turned to me and asked and I said Manaus his whole face just dropped. Then he said "Oh sister. Boa sorte!!" He also told me it takes 20 hours to drive across my mission THATS HUGE. I found out it gets up to 56 celcious which is like 120 degrees ahhhhhh. But he said it will be the best.
They feed us MUITO MUITO!! I seriously can't eat all of what those sweet little Brazilian ladies make for us haha but luckily the guys in my district eat the rest of it for me. The fruit is to DIE for oh my goodness it doesnt even taste the same it's just amazing. They also have a sweet workout room!! Sis Brown and I work out really hard every day but it's kind of gross how much we sweat with the humidity!
We have already seen 5 big bugs. And I screamed. I will send you pics in a month. We were doing an ab workout on the ground and I looked to my side and saw a huge cockroach and died. I won't be doing that again.
My Portuguese is definitely improving. It helps to talk to natives all the time even though they all speak in a different way.
Today we got to go to the Sao Paulo temple!! Our alarm didn't go off this morning and we woke up at 6:26 and the bus for the temple was to leave at 6:30. I think we just didn't hear our alarms because it's so hot we sleep with a huge fan and we couldn't hear it! Yeah I won't be sending the pics we took cuz we look a little rough haha. The temple was small but so beautiful. We used the headsets. (I dropped mine on the ground during the middle -super embarrassing). It took 4 hours because there were 2 people in our zones going through for their own endowments. That would stress me out to do that all in a different language because they were Hispanic!! When we got there we didn't even think to look up how to ask for our sizes and this sweet little man comes back with 2 xl dresses and we were like ummm and then I told him my shoe size and he literally gave me man shoes that I had to wear the whole time hahahaha. They also gave us man packets!! What the heck haha I know we look bad but not like men!!
When we finished it was pouring rain outside which was awesome. The rainfall here is huge but... it's still stays hot?.
We have gotten in trouble 2 times for wearing our workout or pday clothes in the wrong areas (which first of all this place is tiny like I CAN'T KEEP TRACK) but it's super funny because this Brazilian Elder will go on and on at me and my comp and we just say "no intende" which means we don't understand! It's kind of funny but we are doing our best - there are just so many more rules here than in Provo.
Our teachers are AMAZING. They are so nice and genuine and we have given 2 lessons already. Sis Brown and I make an awesome team. We have set up goals for ourselves: 30 vocab words a day which makes about 200 a week and then 1 grammar rule a day and 5 phrases and 2 scriptures to memorize. Hopefully we will be somewhat prepared for the field! (even though its way different but every little bit helps :)
Yeah this place is AWESOME: I love all your emails!! I seriously have run out of time but you guys are all the best. My address: I'm not sure but I do know you just have to look up Brazil mtc address and then our mailbox number is 6 our district is 03A and my room number is 317 - thats all I know!!
Don't worry about me everything is going great! Today we got to go to the little store on the side of the temple and I bought a mini hymn book :) sweet. We also got a free cookie from Mr. Cheneys. Brazilians don't really believe in sweets so that will be awesome.I haven't gotten sick yet!! Yesss we're just super careful about our water and make sure we are always hydrated. My allergies started acting up so it's a good thing we packed all those allergy meds ;)
Love you all so so so so so so much!! By my next email I will be halfway done at the MTC :))))) Thanks for all the love and support!! I'm just so super happy - I know this is exactly where the Lord wants me to be because I have received so many answers to my prayers and felt such comfort. Today I prayed at the temple to be able to specifically understand people better and when we left our leader started speaking and I understood everything. It was just a for a few minutes but it was such an answer to my prayer and I felt hopeful. I can already tell I'm going to be sad to leave these people. They sufffer so much but give us everything.
Love you so much!!
Sis Arbuckle
I am super happy and LOVING it here in Sao Paulo. I'm just going to try and cram as much stuff in one email as possible because I only have 30 minutes.
Can I just say Brazilians are the best???? They are so loving and sweet. When we first got here they all started hugging and kissing us on our necks (what.) Every time we talk they are so kind and smiling and so excited for us to be here! At first I was super nervous to talk to them in Portuguese (not that they speak a word of English) because I can barely congugate anything but then I did and they are the best. They LOVE helping us with learning the langugage and they talk super slow for us too. We teach them English so it works out perfect. They are seriously the nicest most humble people you will ever meet. Every time the natives ask me what mission are I'm going to and I say Manaus they all go 'Ohhhhhhoohhhhhhhh!!!!' MUITO MUITO QUENTE SISTER!!! haha and one time this instructor was telling my companion about how hot her mission is (she is also going to the north but she is on the coast) and then he turned to me and asked and I said Manaus his whole face just dropped. Then he said "Oh sister. Boa sorte!!" He also told me it takes 20 hours to drive across my mission THATS HUGE. I found out it gets up to 56 celcious which is like 120 degrees ahhhhhh. But he said it will be the best.
They feed us MUITO MUITO!! I seriously can't eat all of what those sweet little Brazilian ladies make for us haha but luckily the guys in my district eat the rest of it for me. The fruit is to DIE for oh my goodness it doesnt even taste the same it's just amazing. They also have a sweet workout room!! Sis Brown and I work out really hard every day but it's kind of gross how much we sweat with the humidity!
We have already seen 5 big bugs. And I screamed. I will send you pics in a month. We were doing an ab workout on the ground and I looked to my side and saw a huge cockroach and died. I won't be doing that again.
My Portuguese is definitely improving. It helps to talk to natives all the time even though they all speak in a different way.
Today we got to go to the Sao Paulo temple!! Our alarm didn't go off this morning and we woke up at 6:26 and the bus for the temple was to leave at 6:30. I think we just didn't hear our alarms because it's so hot we sleep with a huge fan and we couldn't hear it! Yeah I won't be sending the pics we took cuz we look a little rough haha. The temple was small but so beautiful. We used the headsets. (I dropped mine on the ground during the middle -super embarrassing). It took 4 hours because there were 2 people in our zones going through for their own endowments. That would stress me out to do that all in a different language because they were Hispanic!! When we got there we didn't even think to look up how to ask for our sizes and this sweet little man comes back with 2 xl dresses and we were like ummm and then I told him my shoe size and he literally gave me man shoes that I had to wear the whole time hahahaha. They also gave us man packets!! What the heck haha I know we look bad but not like men!!
When we finished it was pouring rain outside which was awesome. The rainfall here is huge but... it's still stays hot?.
We have gotten in trouble 2 times for wearing our workout or pday clothes in the wrong areas (which first of all this place is tiny like I CAN'T KEEP TRACK) but it's super funny because this Brazilian Elder will go on and on at me and my comp and we just say "no intende" which means we don't understand! It's kind of funny but we are doing our best - there are just so many more rules here than in Provo.
Our teachers are AMAZING. They are so nice and genuine and we have given 2 lessons already. Sis Brown and I make an awesome team. We have set up goals for ourselves: 30 vocab words a day which makes about 200 a week and then 1 grammar rule a day and 5 phrases and 2 scriptures to memorize. Hopefully we will be somewhat prepared for the field! (even though its way different but every little bit helps :)
Yeah this place is AWESOME: I love all your emails!! I seriously have run out of time but you guys are all the best. My address: I'm not sure but I do know you just have to look up Brazil mtc address and then our mailbox number is 6 our district is 03A and my room number is 317 - thats all I know!!
Don't worry about me everything is going great! Today we got to go to the little store on the side of the temple and I bought a mini hymn book :) sweet. We also got a free cookie from Mr. Cheneys. Brazilians don't really believe in sweets so that will be awesome.I haven't gotten sick yet!! Yesss we're just super careful about our water and make sure we are always hydrated. My allergies started acting up so it's a good thing we packed all those allergy meds ;)
Love you all so so so so so so much!! By my next email I will be halfway done at the MTC :))))) Thanks for all the love and support!! I'm just so super happy - I know this is exactly where the Lord wants me to be because I have received so many answers to my prayers and felt such comfort. Today I prayed at the temple to be able to specifically understand people better and when we left our leader started speaking and I understood everything. It was just a for a few minutes but it was such an answer to my prayer and I felt hopeful. I can already tell I'm going to be sad to leave these people. They sufffer so much but give us everything.
Love you so much!!
Sis Arbuckle