Hello Brazil!!

Week 19

Sister Robyn Perez is now in Brazil

Received 05/19/14

 

Communicate with her:

Email at   robyn.perez@myldsmail.net>

Or write using www.MissionTies.com, letter service in Brazil for faster delivery!

 

Let’s catch up, since there were no letters for Weeks 17 (May 5th) and 18 (May 12th).

 

Tuesday, 04/29/14 – flew to Brazil from the New Mexico Farmington Mission via Durango, New Mexico (alone!) >>>Denver, Colorado (alone!) >>>Atlanta, Georgia (about 30 missionaries from all areas of the USA congregated in Atlanta for the trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil at “6:50 in the morning!!! ughhh all day travel!”

 

Wednesday, 04/30/14 – arrived in Sao Paulo approximately 7am. Took a taxi to Missionary Training Center (CTM) in Sao Paulo. Great experience at the CTM, but daily language overload, extremely exhausted!

 

Tuesday, 05/13/14 – left MTC for Campinas. En route stopped at a local square, was given 6 Books of Mormon and told to go hand them out! Arrived at the mission home and met new companion, Sister Mota.

 

05/19/14  

Sorry about not being so communicative...I had like no time to email in the CTM and the computers were very slow...so my bad!! 

 

So, the CTM in Sao Paulo was awesome! Granted, my brain hurt every night from speaking and listening to Portuguese (they allowed no English to be spoken)!! But it was a much needed 12 day refresher! Sometimes I felt like I was in a daycare because we always had babysitters and then we got launches (???) at night after planning! The food there was super awesome and they had a sports track!!!!! So of course I ran daily!!! My comp was Sister Stevens and she was actually in the Provo missionary training center when I was there! Crazy huh?! She was awesome!! I love her and miss her!! We got to go out in the street to hand out copies of the book of Mormon twice...the first time Sister Stevens and I tried to give a Book of Mormon, we walked up to a woman who was nicely dressed. We kept trying to give her a message, but she kept trying to send us away. Being the good missionaries we were, we wouldn’t give up. Finally, the woman told us she was trying to work and we finally realized she was a prostitute and left her to work....hey everyone deserves to hear the gospel right?!?! It has surprised me how open the people are here to listening to the missionaries! They are really nice and help us when we say the wrong things!

 

All the Elders going to Campinas at the same time as me had been waiting for their visas in the field in the USAfor like a year!!! I was also the only sister from the American group going to Campinas! When we left the CTM we all had to do orientation first and then we had lunch with Presidente Perotti and his wife. His house is awesome!! Their car also sounds like an 18wheeler, it’s a diesel engine....ha, ha. After lunch they took us to meet our new companions, but we had to stop at the square...where we handed out OLDMs (Book of Mormon)...they brought in a sister for me and she spoke Portuguese at 1000 miles per hour!!! This sister, SisterMota, also turned out to be my companion! She’s from Brazil and has been out for 8 months! She is awesome and is the perfect comp for me! I’m always asking her to write things out for me and she is always willing to do it. She also makes me do a lot of the talking...I sort of hate it, but I know it’s only going to help me learn the language faster. I’m getting better at understanding her when she is talking super-fast! People also never believe me when I say I’m from the USA...they all say I look Brazilian!! Oh yeah in our house/apartment we have two other sister missionaries...Sister Pontes (from Fortaleza) and Sister Ware (from Kentucky; she knows my friendAlex Nickell!!!). The other Sister Missionaries are so awesome and I love them! They all really help me out here! 

 

This is the funnest AND hardest thing I’ve done...but I have to constantly remind myself that 4 months ago Icouldn’t even speak português! Now I can at least say a few things. Last night we had planning and sister Motaand I were making my goals for this week. One of them is to give the spiritual thought at 3 lunches (the Church members feed us lunch every day and it is the main meal of the day). Also, talk to people on my own when wemake a contact....ahhhh, I know it’s going to be tough but I can do it!! The Lord called me here so He will help me learn how to speak the language so the Brazilian people can hear the gospel! Scripture of the week 1Nefi 3:7! “And it came to pass that, I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord has commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”  

 

Eu amo vocês!!!   

 

Sister Perez #slayinit