It was such relief to visit with for the first time, to hear in her voice and see in her eyes that she is adjusting, that her faith is growing stronger. I'm so proud of her!
She has been asking me to send her downloads of some of her favorite Christian and instrumental songs. Whenever she does, I drop everything to meet that request because it makes me so happy to send her whatever kind of motivation I can.
She told us that she will be going out into the field on February 28th. The whole entire missionary program is a modern-day miracle. It's amazing to me that these missionaries can spend a month and a half to two months learning a language and then just dive in.
I'll copy-paste her letter below.👇👇
Well, I'm on day 26 of my mission, and day 10 of Brazil MTC. There's kind of a lot to talk about, so we'll see how much I can squeeze into this email.
Today (Feb 10th) we went to the São Paulo temple to do an Initiatory, endowment, and sealing to parents. Last night I prayed that I would be able to understand at least the endowment when we went through. We got there, and they entire ordinance was in English. So, technically, it was an answered prayer XD. It was a really sweet experience, though. I don't know when the last time any of you went to the temple, but they've changed the video for the endowment again. They've changed, added, and removed details, so I recommend going again.
In terms of companions and my district, I'm having a good time. All the girls get along really well, though they talk a little too much about their love lives for my taste, and my companion isn't quite as punctual as I am, but I can't complain. The girls are really nice and we all mesh well. One of the elders in my district (Elder McElderry) is really loud and his companion (Elder Fawcett) is a lot quieter. I can't tell if Elder Fawcett actually enjoys his companion's company or not...
The food is pretty good. Often I don't know what I'm eating, but there have only been a few things that I don't particulary enjoy. Everything else is quite tasty to me. They serve Pão De Queijo every single morning, and beans and rice are served for lunch and dinner. On Thursdays we get ice cream after lunch and pizza for dinner. The only thing I wish they had more of was fresh fruits and vegetables.
They also give us vending machine money here. It's called Grancoffee. All the missionaries have an app on their phones that's loaded up with R$12 every single day. The snacks are really good, and the vending machine is stupid smart XD. You know that awful feeling when you buy something from a vending machine, the thing spins, and then your snack never falls and you lose your money? Well, not a problem here. If your snack doesn't come out the first time, Grancoffee waits for a second, then sends it's little net back up to fetch it a second time. If you never get your snack, it refunds you automatically.
[I don't really know how to describe the city, so I'll just have to send pictures at some point.]
Some funny stories:
Yesterday (Feb 9), our evening teacher, Irmão Deivyd, had us practice teaching our companions in Portuguese. We were supposed to pretend to stop someone in the street and give them a brief overview of the Book of Mormon and try and set an appointment. Once we were finished, he had us all get up, and he led us outside to a gate that overlooked a sidewalk. He turned to us and proceeded to inform us that we were to stop the people walking by and try and place a Book of Mormon. We panicked, of course. I, personally, wasn't super nervous, but I was laughing so hard. A few of the girls were feeling nauseous (this keyboard doesn't have spell check, so sorry for any and all typos). Finally, our teacher told us that he was just messing with us, and that we were going to practice with our companions again; he just wanted to leave the classroom.
Elder Fawcett did actually try to talk to someone, though. A random guy was walking by and Elder Fawcett just went "Oi! Você gosta de futebol?? (Hi! Do you like soccer?) The guy responded with, "No." And Elder Fawcett just went, "Oh." They ended up having a little conversation though. It was hilarious.
Also yesterday, my companion and I (Sister Stott) were studying out in one of the gardens. Once we had finished, she started to put her shoes on, then she flipped out, kind of shouting, kind of not, "There's a caterpillar in my shoe!" Then, out plopped a three inch long, fat, fuzzy caterpillar. We named him Herbie.
On the 3rd, all the new missionaries had to go to the police station for passport stuff, or something. I don't really know why we were there. But, after breakfast that day, we new missionaries gathered together to get on a bus bound for the police station. However, before we even left, one of the Elders (Elder Stevenson) got pulled aside and led back inside the MTC because he didn't turn his passport in on the first day. It was wild, because I didn't see him for two days after that (not because anything happened to him, of course, but because I just didn't notice him. It was just funny because it felt like a freaky dystopian movie). At the police station, when we reached the front of a very long line, we noticed that our guide/interpreter was gone. We couldn't find her anywhere, so we just went onward into the police station and handed our passports and document to the Brazilian government workers who spoke no English and hoped for the best. Very exciting.
We also have "choir practice on Sundays and, maybe, Wednesdays. We sing various hymns in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, and sometimes Japanese in French (my favorite).
Speaking of French, there's an Elder here - whose name I can't remember - from the Congo, I belive. His native language is French, so he is actually completely alone because no one else except an instructor or two speak any French. So, he sits by himself and doesn't really talk to anyone because he can't. It's sad. But I did have a little conversation with him in my super broken French. It was all I could do, but he seemed happy to converse in a language he understood anyway.
In terms of seeing how Heavenly Father is looking out for me, I have one other story.
Some of you are aware of my horrible hair destroying habit, but that night it turned out to be a blessing. During the welcome devotional on I think the 1st, one of the members of the MTC presidecy's wives (Sister Beck) noticed me out of all the new missionaries because I was messing with my hair, and she sent her husband to come get me after the devotional because one of her kids has really bad anxiety and a similar habit, and she wanted to see if I was doing alright. If I'm being honest, the first two days of MTC were really hard, so I wasn't really okay when she asked, and I opened up to her. She's been looking out for me ever since, asking me how I've sleep or just how I'm doing in general.
I probably forgot about a lot of stuff. There's always more I could talk about, but I think I'll call it good here.
Love you all lots and hope you're having fun in North America.
Tchau!
Sister Miriam Rawlins
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