MTC 10/8/12 - 10/15/12

October 8, 2012 - October 15, 2012 
"This week we had conference which was SO AMAZING!!!!!!!! I was so excited for the announcement about the missionary age! I know several girls from college who were dying to serve but had to wait another two years to be 21. Now they can just pack up and go! I'm sure there are going to be soooo many more missionaries now!"

"I'm learning to distinguish between a papaya and a mango. I used to always mix them up, but no longer! I had a mango for lunch. I'm starting to get really used to the food here."..."my lunch meal is always the biggest meal of the day. Oh, and I'm getting used to meat, meat, and more meat with some rice and beans and fruit on the side."

"The week here went well. We celebrated Children's Day! It was a lot of fun!"..."on the 11th we went into the cafeteria to find colorful banners hanging from the ceiling and polk-a-dot balloons all over and lots of little stuffed animals and little stuffed flowers all around. Then all the cafeteria staff dressed up fun. One dressed up like a full clown and the others had bright colorful wigs and huge sunglasses and stuff. It was fun! Oh, and we had chicken nuggets! lol! All kids like chicken nuggets!"

"...they do have hot dogs here, but they don't have hot dog buns. They just put it in some sauce thing and serve it. Or once they cut a strip down the middle and put cheese in it."


"Oh, and last week they had cozinhas for the first time!!! They were really good!" Cozinhas are basically like a potato batter filled with meat and cheese and fried.

"My companion was talking to a couple who had served as mission presidents of the Brazilia mission when it still had Cuiaba in their mission and the lady looked at my companion and said 'you are white. wear a lot of sunscreen or your skin will get damaged." and her husband said 'you will melt"..."Oh, and she also said to wear a lot of bug spray in Cuiaba. Haha, sounds like I'll come back looking tan like a brazilian and having a permanent smell of bugspray and sunscreen. It'll be worth it though."

"In a week, my companion and I are signed up for a special musical number with a small choir to sing Consider the Lilies. I love that song. Oh, and every Sunday we get to sing the Brazilian national Anthem."

"I've seen a lot of plants here that are interior plants back home and come in little pots and have little leaves and stuff, but then here they're growing naturally and all over and... they're the size of trees! Like the bottle brush plant. Here it's a bottle brush tree. It's really pretty. Oh, and that little plant I saved from Walmart a week before I left, those are all over the place here with leaves as big as Sally!" (our dog)

"Each week I feel like I can understand more and more and this week we'll get Brazilian roommates so I can get used to hearing it more."

"I'm starting to be able to have conversations in Portuguese, though they're really simple, but it's a start. I know the Lord is really blessing me. It's crazy that we're even here in a different country learning a language we didn't know and going who knows where to talk to people about the church. And why? Because it's true. That's what makes it all worth it."