Ola!!!
Today has been muito interesting already because the fire alarms went off at about 6:29. I still had a minute of sleep. I needed that! Oh well, I suppose. There was nothing wrong, except for maybe the fire alarm malfunctioning...
Oh, and we have also decided to speak Portuguese all day today! Even though I'm speaking some Portenglish.... I'm still trying!! Haha
Okay, so the broadcast on Sunday was pretty amazing. I know that none of you really saw me in the choir. Thats because we ended up being on the second to last row in the very middle. Literally, I sat right next to an elder. There's one part where you can see my suit jacket and some red hair though! Its during the opening song. So go look and tell me if you can see which one is me!! Irmao Durf-Durf (aka Durfee) said he thought he caught a glimpse of my hair, so you probably can too. Most of the apostles were there, but the First Presidency, for some reason, was not. I'm not quite sure why, but it was amazing all the same. It was so cool to see how crowded and full the Marriott Center was. If any of you have not yet watched the broadcast, I encourage you to do so!! It was so cool.
Well, our investigators Marcos and Jairo are progressing pretty well. We found out that Marcos works with a church organization. For his job. EEP!!However, he said he read the chapter we assigned him and thought it was "interesting" although he wasn't too sure about its validity, because it was in the Book of Mormon. We tqalked about his concerns and questions, and he's very concerned about "proper authority" so we talked with him a lot about that. Since he knows the Bible very well, we read about Jesus Christ's baptism and asked him why he thought Jesus went all the way to John the Baptist to be baptized. He considered the reasons before saying that it might have been because John had the proper authority he was wondering about. We assigned him to read another chapter in the Book of Mormon before he left. In our next lesson, we followed up and went back to the first lesson because we felt that we needed to go back over it. The Spirit was so strong in that room when I told him the First Vision story. Instead of looking at his phone or his nails, he was intently listening. We both testified and then read him Moroni's promise to him. Then, we asked him to be baptized. He told us that if he gets an answer from God about our church being true, then of course he will be baptized. We told him that God would answer his prayer, and testified and promised blessings. He also thanked us for our faith, which I thought was cool. So I'll update you on Marcos more next week! Jairo is a very humble man. We have been teaching him, and he is learning a lot. He's a Catholic and has never questioned his church. We asked him if he had ever asked God if his church was true in prayer, and he said no. We taught him how to pray without recitation and he said he would ask God which church was true. We had him practice saying prayers without recitation by saying the closing prayer. He said the most heartfelt yet simple prayer I have heard in a long time, and it was such an amazing experience for me. I know he has been feeling the Spirit when we teach him.
That's throughout the week as far as teaching goes! So, Monday night, it rained as we were leaving our classroom! It was so awesome!! We ran and put our stuff down in the room and then went out and had a dance party in the rain behind our building. I wish I had pictures, but as Sister Goimerac said, "You can't really capture moments like this!"
Tuesday, we did a killer workout during our personal fitness time and I'm a little ashamed to admit that my legs have been sore alllllll week.... Also, our devotional that night was with Janice Kap Perry! She has written many songs in the Children's Songbook and some hymns as well. She is so amazing! At the beginning, her husband introduced himself as "Brother Janice Kap Perry" and spoke to us a little bit. Then, she was talking a little bit about their story and told us his first line. Apparently he turned to her in a music class and said, "I was just thinking- those lips look like they're made for something much better than playing clareinet." If that wasn't hilarious enough, right after she said that, he sprang up from his chair, walked to the pulpit and kissed her! And I don't mean a little peck on the lips either. It was hilarious! Of course, he got a standing ovation from all of the Elders. I hope when I'm close to eighty that I have a relationship like they do! And as he turned away to sit down, Sister Perry said, "Oh, I think I'll tell that story again!" so he kissed her again! They're hilarious. Her comment after that was "I know that man like a book, but today I don't know what page he's on!" They were pretty hilarious.
I also did a journal entry in Portuguese the other day! That was pretty cool, I suppose. The grammar is probably horrible but I had fun with it! My favorite lines that I wrote are "Eu quero dancar, e eu quero dois macacos!! Nao, eu PRECISO dancar e eu PRECISO dois macacos." Hopefully that actually makes sense in Portuguese. It amused me.
We had interviews with our teachers this week about life at the CTM. I had mine with Irmao Durf-Durf, and it went fine. It was all about whether or not I was adjusting to the CTM, how I felt I was doing with Portuguese, how my companionship is going, etc. Mine was the shortest interview in our class. I guess that's just because I don't complain too much!! haha.....
Well, I'm officially a little more than halfway through with my stay here at the CTM! There are some days where I go "HOLY COW, I've been here three weeks!!" and then there are other days when I go "Holy cow, I've only been here for three weeks..." As one of our Relief Society speakers noted, "The days are like weeks and the weeks are like days!" Oh, she was so cool. She was born in Brazil and had all the Portuguese speakers stand up and she spoke to us. We were on the front row at that meeting and she made eye contact with me and smiled at me. Because I'm just that cool. Her name is Sister de Agostini (sp??) and she was awesome. The first thing she said was "I feel like I'm standing in front of a host of angels."
I love going to the temple each week on P-Day! Its so awesome. Its such a good refresher during the week for me. Like a rejuvination. (I don't know if I even came close to spelling that right.......) And I can't go wait to go today!
Sister Goimerac and I are still bffl and it seems like everyone can tell. Irmao Durf-Durf even mentioned that in my interview to him.
I can't really think of more to say right now, so I shall proceed with sending pictures!! Love you all!
Tchau tchau!
Sister Shell
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