Eu Amo Aprender

Hello family and friends!!

First of all, if you see Jeffrey this Friday give him a big birthday hug for me!!! Happy birthday bud!

This week has been soooo long but so good. I still absolutely love it here. We spend all day in the same classroom learning the language and how to teach and how to live in Brazil and I am so happy. Our instructors are both native Brazilians and they do not speak much english so it's been good for us to learn almost completely in portuguese. It is frustrating not to be able to say what I want to say, especially teaching practice lessons, but I have to see the bigger picture and appreciate the fact that after only a week here, I can somewhat communicate in portuguese. In the Bible and the Book of Mormon there are sections about the gift of tongues and I believe that God still grants that gift. There is no way we would be able to have learned this much in just a week.

I feel kind of guilty because some of the people who came in the CTM with me are really struggling or overwhelmed and I'm honestly doing just fine. I am really happy here. I'm stressed and the language is hard but that's so small compared to how excited I am to be here and how much I love learning. I was thinking about last semester- I was not planning on taking Anatomy at all but a friend saved me from overloading my schedule(thank you Jessica) so I ended up taking it instead of another science class. A lot of the skills I learned in that class are skills I am using here to memorize and understand the language. Just another testament to how intricate God's plan is for each and every one of us.

Tender mercy moment: my great aunt and uncle are here!! I knew they were in Sao Paulo but this city is huge so I didn't know if I would be seeing them at all. On my 3rd day here we met my branch presidency(my church group leaders) and Elder Fluckiger is one of them! I get to see him and his wife a few times a week and though I don't know them very well, it is so nice to know that I have family here. My Heavenly Father is taking care of me :)

Still LOVE my companion- we get along so well and have so much in common. We usually find ourselves doubled over laughing at least once a day and I am so grateful for her! Those that talked to me before I left know that companions were the one thing I was really worried about so having her as my companion and friend has been a huge relief.

We also got our 2 last roommates! They are both from Brazil but one went to college in North Dakota so she speaks perfect English and Portuguese. They are both hilarious and I think we drive them crazy with all our questions but they help us so much. I also have a friend from BYU here and she is right across the hall from me!! Tender mercy.

I wish I had more exciting things to say but our days are pretty much just classes all day. I love love love this language and think it is so cool that I get the opportunity to learn it. Even though they are just actors, I feel so much joy every time we teach a practice lesson and can't wait to be able to meet and teach people in Maceio who want to hear our message.

Thanks so much for all the love, from family and friends. I'm sorry if I don't write back this week- we only get 45 minutes and this goes much slower on this keyboard. I really do take pictures of and read all the emails you send and it gives me the extra boost I need. Love you guys!!!

Favorite words so far: Coraçâo(heart) and alegria(joy) - I don't know how to do all the punctuation.

More weird/cool things about Brazil:

 - all the Brazilians call Utah "fabrica" which means factory because a lot of the American                     missionaries are from there, it is hilarious - so many colors, especially carrot colors
- Stef, you would go crazy - the 'toilet paper' isnt in rolls, it is kind of like a giant box of tissues
- there are 3-5 knobs in the showers and nobody knows why; you just twist a lot of random ones until    the water turns the temperature you want
- still only jiggly desserts

Muito amor, Sister Lauren Mather