Ola, everyone!! I really wish that the accent marks would work so that it doesn't look like my Portuguese is comletely terrible.
This week has been pretty busy, as usual. I'll start off by answering some questions. Sister Goimerac is, in fact, going to Sao Paulo South. Actually, everyone in my district is going there aside from Elders Kohls, Underwood, Bravo and Poulsen. Oh, and Elder Cisneros is our District Leader and he does remember the Millers!! Good call, Sister Miller! Connections everywhere. Also, everyone thinks our stake back home is pretty cool because of all the cool stuff I've told them that y'all have told me about Trek. Good job, everyone! We don't have culture classes at the CTM anymore. We just ask our teachers questions. Our two teachers are Irmao Durfee (Durf-Durf) and Irmao Duerden (Joao). Although I do like both teachers a lot, I'd have to say that if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Brother Durf-Durf. He's married and his kid, named Rad, just turned one. He tells us all kinds of stories about how his son is a MAN and is pretty nice and hilarious. Its interesting to see how both teachers deal with Elder Underwood. Also, we have gym time almost every single day. If you don't have scheduled gym time, you stil have your own Personal Fitness time. They have two gyms here. One has a track and a basketball court, volleyball and a few elliptcals and bike machines and weights. Its fun if you want to be social. However, I like the gym in 2M. Thats actually the one I would recommend Spencer to go to while he's here. There's a bunch of weightlifting stuff, a whole lot more machines, and you can also watch church movies/videos/conference talks while you work out if you want. You just have to bring your own headphones if you want to listen to the videos. I like it better because its not as crowded. There´s also a field where you can go jog or play soccer or sand volleyball. Its pretty cool. Also for the sisters, every morning at 6 they have fitness classes. Yoga, pilates, kick boxing, zumba. I haven´t tried any yet though. Next time. Also, mom, Sister Goimerac says she knows Sister Meyehara and that she hopes she is doing well! They went to Brazil together, you´re right.
Loo will have soooo much fun at EFY! Sounds like her summer is packed with a bunch of amazing experiences. Tanner, if you are EVER bored, WRITE ME. Seriously. A lot.
So, one day this past week, Sister Goimerac and Sister Jacobsen were super tired. So we left our personal gym time a little early so that they could take a bit of a nap. I don't know if that's technically allowed, but they really needed it. Hopefully the Lord understands. Anyways, I woke Sister Goimerac up when we had about 10 minutes until we had to be back in the classroom. Sisters Goimerac and Jacobsen both have the top bunks. Sister Goimerac threw a pillow at Sister Jacobsen to wake her up. Immediately, Sister Jacobsen sat up and exclaimed "OI!!!!" (by the way, thats like saying hi in Portuguese). It was hilarious. The funniest part, though, is that later Sister Jacobsen didn't even remember doing that.
We have 2 new investigators who look surprisingly very similar to our teachers. Their names are Marcos (aka Joao or Irmao Duerden) and Jairo (aka Durf-Durf). Marcos is so supremely frustrating. He is a religious person but doesn't really go to church. He is also VERY logical. He doesn't really take into account his feelings, which can be pretty frustrating. The first lesson where we taught him was pretty frustrating for me. Aside from introducing ourselves to him and bearing my testimony at the end, I didn't speak at all. I couldn't understand a word he said. It was sooo supremely frustrating!! After our lesson, Sister Goimerac and I went back to the dorm to grab her journal and I launched a pillow across the room as a healthy way to get out my frustration. Apparently my face was terrifying. Sister Goimerac said "Like a she-bear!!!" I probably won't do that again... But it did help! Our first lesson with Jairo was completely different. He's a Catholic and believes strongly in God. In his first lesson, I was able to speak so much more than I could with Marcos and I understood him a ton better. I also teared up when telling him the 1st Vision story in Joseph's words. I KNOW he felt the Spirit. We realized what the difference was and it was kind of like a DUH moment. Before Jairo's lesson, we said a companionship prayer together. We forgot to before Marcos' lesson. DUH! So for our second lesson with Marcos, we said a prayer before going inside. It went better, but I still couldn't speak much. I have a feeling that its because we are not teaching what he needs to hear. When we teach what people need to hear, the Lord helps out a bunch. I feel like thats what happened with Jairo. We just need to find out what Marcos needs to hear!
Last Sunday we also finally had our temple walk! It was a ton of fun. We also watched The Testaments after devotional. It was incredible. Sister Goimerac and I got closer because of it, I think. It may have been because at the end both of our eyes were leaking...
THE BROADCAST IS THIS SUNDAY!!!! I am pretty excited. I'll be in the choir for it, and that is such an amazing thing. Oh, shoutout to Mr. Doke! So, our choir director, after we sing at devotionals, always does a nod and mouths good job, and that reminded me of Mr. Doke because he does the same thing.
Also, something amazing happened on Wednesday night. We went to bed at 10!! It was amazing. We felt so refreshed the next day!
Here are some of the quotes that I absolutely loved from this week. "Their hearts will soften because of your vulnerability." I just love that. The woman speaking was talking about speaking another language. She said even if you don't know what you're saying, speak it anyway! Then she said that quote. It just made so much sense to me. It really is true, as well. Another one I loved was "Its not who you AREN'T, its who you ARE." That one is pretty self explanatory. Basically, its saying that you ARE enough. And I really needed to hear that.
Everything is pretty hectic with trying to set up for the Broadcast this week! All the new Mission Presidents will be here, along with several General Authorities. In fact, we aren't supposed to use the usual cafeteria anymore. That is strictly for those authorities and mission presidents. We may see some of them walking around the campus. We've been instructed to give them their space and only talk to and shake their hands if they come up to us. These times are super exciting!
I can't really think of anything else to say right now, so I guess this is it for this week! If I forgot anything, I'll just send it in a letter to my mom :P
Tchau tchau!
Sister Anna Kirsten Shell
Love Kirsten's letters!!!!!!!!
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