First Letter

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Ola!

Well, there should be an accent on that, but you get the idea.

Happy Birthday, Miranda!! Oh, I'm so sorry I couldn't come to your birthday party!

Okay, now I will try to tell you all about my first few days here.

I love it. I really do. My companion is Sister Laimana, from Hawaii and she is amazing!! (She hasn't touched my brush, yet, Paul.) And Sister Tirrell (17th ward) is in our Zone, but not in our District. But she is in our room. She is the only Sister in her District, so she is a solo sister and often we have a little trio which is a lot of fun. We have two wonderful Sisters who share our room. They've been here about five weeks and are going to Brazil. They're so helpful and we're really lucky to have them.

Our District is AMAZING! There are eight Elders and four Sisters (which is apparently unusual to have that many Sisters). Everyone is going to Portugal Lisbon except for me, Sister Laimana (!) and one Elder, Elder Questas. The Elders are so impressive. They seem so little, but they're great. Our District Leader is my favorite! He's always smiling and is such a sweet little Elder. It's great. And we have some amazing teachers.

Classes: incredible. We've been studying and discussing our purpose and how important it is to care about the people we teach. My favorite quote thus far: "No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care."

We've also learned what I feel is quite a bit of Portuguese in such a short time. I can pray and bear my testimony (simply). I absolutely love Portuguese! I'm sorry, but it's so much cooler than Spanish. There are some funky accents and tildes and parts of it really sounds like Chinese. There are lots of 'm's where 'n's should go and 'i's that really are unnessary and a LOT of ''sh" sounds. I feel like I sound like I have a lisp (which would be fine if I was going to Lisbon--haha, get it Cheryl?). But it's beautiful and so much fun to learn.

I'll be honest. I have felt overwhelmed several times, but it passes quickly. There's so much to do and I have to keep telling myself that I do have eight weeks to do it.

Ah! I don't know what else to tell you! Basically we think about three things here: The Gospel, Portuguese and Food. I haven't been too impressed with the food here, but it's all right. I did have some delicious tomato basil soup.

Here's a cool story that Bro. Matheson told us. There's a school in Portugal that was founded around 1170 and the students there wear capes, it's basically a castle and the library looks enchanted. Guess who attended this school? Yes. That's right. J.K. Rowling.

Here are a few interesting things I've heard about Cape Verde (CABOO VERD-uh):

In some areas we will be washing our clothes by hand.

We cannot drink the water and may have to wait in line every day to receive water.

It's really hot.

That's about it.

Oh. And it's definitely the coolest mission here.

The only things I really don't like here are the showers and the pillows.

Well, that's about it.

Thanks to all who have sent me letters! I feel so loved!

There are so many other things I should say, but I can't really think. This is probably very disconnected, but hopefully it makes sense.

I know I'm where I'm supposed to be. I love it here. It's hard and wonderful and crazy and sweet and totally, totally the right place for me to be.

Eu sei que Jesus Cristo e nosso Salvador. Eu sei que Ele vive! Eu testifico que Deus e nosso Pai Celestial e Ele nos ama. Eu sei que somos as crincas de Deus. Eu sei que o evangelho e verdadeiro e O Livro de Mormon e verdadeiro. Eu sei que Joseph Smith foi um profeta e Presidente Monson e o profeta. Em nome de Jesus Cristo, amem.

I love you all and miss you! Be good!

Geronimo!

Sister (Irma) Brooks

Oh! The subject. [Emma’s e-mail subject line read, “The Good Little Runner.”] It's false, but refers to me. I had another Sister refer to me as that during gym -- which is fun and I've been able to run a little bit on the track.