I made it!! Travel started Monday from Seattle to Miami, then a 9 hour flight to Sao Paulo overnight. I met another missionary-sister King- at the gate in Seattle from Burlington and we were travel buddies the whole time which was a huge tender mercy! She is super sweet and I wish I could send pictures but the computers here are old and don't have SD card readers. Anyways, the first flight went by super fast and tender mercy #2! We flew right over Mt Si and North Bend so I got to see the valley one last time for the next 18 months <3 We got on the plane last in Miami so all the overheads were full and about 20 people ended up opening and closing compartments to find a place for my suitcase. FINALLY we found one in row 5... I was row 39 haha. An old lady wanted to sit by her family so she ended up switching me and I got an aisle seat(another tender mercy). I slept some of the flight and then met up with about 20 other missionaries at the pickup from Sao Paulo airport. We took a very sketchy\jerky\scary drive to the CTM(training center) and got our tags! YAY
The rest of the afternoon was freetime to get settled and unpack and take a nap- thank goodness. I am in a room with my companion- sister seamanu, who I LOVE- and 2 other girls from the states. We all get along really great so far. They tell us we have 2 more brazilian roomates coming but we don`t know for sure. Everyone that came yesterday is in a group called a zone and I reallllllyyy like mine. As far as I can tell, we don't have any whiners or lazy people or super high maintenance people. There are 3 districts in the zone- mine has 8 girls and 3 boys(i think). All but 2 of us are going to Maceio! Like I said, I also love my companion. She was born in Tonga but has lived in Utah since she was 3. She's super kind and easygoing and we have a lot in common. I`m so grateful!
Today was a pday( personal\preperation day) so we took a 90 minute bus ride at 5am to the campinos temple. It was so pretty and gave us more time to talk and nap on the way there and back. We have free time until dinner and then a devotional! Tomorrow we start our training and language classes which I am looking forward to.
I have only been here a couple days but already love it here. Everyone is so happy and excited to be here and the Spirit is so strong all the time. We`ll see how I feel next week but so far I think I am really going to like it here.
Weird, cool things about Brazil so far-
1-Everything is colored. buildings, cars, walls, everything is painted some kind of bright color. Also, there is graffiti everywhere.
2- It POURS every once in a while and I love it- thunder, lightning, everything.
3- Brazilians love to laugh with you and at you. they will help you with the language but also will laugh so hard when you can`t talk to them. it is hilarious, i love it.
4- Every dessert we have had so far is something floating in some kind of jelly substance. All of them have tasted good though!
5- Brazilians love Brazil. Flags are EVERYWHERE.
6- There are lots of motorcyles and they weave between cars which is terrifying because everyone here is a terrible driver.
7 - We are sisters, not irmas(portuguese for sister), because apparently they associate irmas with nuns. So everyone calls us `seeeeeesters` and it makes me laugh every time.
8 - In the CTM, we are not supposed to be speaking any english. We speak it between the americans but our schedule and all the signs are in portuguese, and all the workers only speak portuguese to us until we get it. If we speak Englsh to them they make us redo it in whatever portuguese we know combined with lots of charades to get our message across. Frustrating, but it really does help.
I was really nervous about coming but so far I absolutely love it here. I keep seeing so many tender mercies and I know I am where I am supposed to be! God has a plan and I trust Him so I know I am going to be just fine. All the time we hear the greeting tudo bem, which means all is well- thus my subject line! Thank you for all the emails I have already gotten- love you guys!
Love,
Seeeeester Mather
PS. So sorry for all the spelling and capitalization errors... we have Portuguese keyboards and everything is in a different place!
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