I am here in Brazil! I am here at the
CTM in Brasil and I can´t believe I have already been here for about
nine days! My preparation day is every Friday and I have about 45
minutes to email friends and family! I apologize if this is a little
sporadic but I don't have a ton of time to write.
Brasil
is a very different place from America. Different air, language,
people, time zone, the food is REALLY different, and I have a really
different schedule here at the CTM. However, the people here are so nice
and I am loving the food and culture more and more everyday.
On
Wednesday June 29th, I got on a plane and we flew overnight to the CTM
here in Sao Paulo with about 15 other missionaries! I had an aisle seat
which made it extremely difficult to sleep. I got about an hour of sleep
total for the entire night. We got to the airport, got our bags and then
went straight to the CTM and started our day. We got a little bit of time to
get settled in our rooms, eat some food, and then we had an introduction
from the CTM President. Then they gave us about 15 pounds of study
materials and scriptures and then our CTM teacher came and we went to
our class. All day I thought ´`just 12 hours until I can go to
sleep!`... ´just 7 hours 'til I can sleep.´´
My
professor is AWESOME! He looks like a little David Archuleta and he is
such a great teacher. He speaks muito rapido but he tries to slow down
so that we can actually understand him. The first day we were there we
just jumped right in and we didn't really understand much at all but he
made sure to explain things slowly and he spoke in English a little
bit.
Everyone here is so nice. especially the
Brazilian missionaries. They are so welcoming but the first few days
when they tried to talk to me or my district we would just give them
blank stares because they were talking super fast and we couldn´t really
understand Portuguese. At this point I can understand most of the
things my teachers and roommates are saying. The hardest part is
thinking of how to respond in the correct form, with the correct
conjugations and order of words.
On our second
day here we taught our first lesson (IN PORTUGUESE) to our
´pesquisadora´ who is one of our other teachers. It went alright and we
were able to bring in notes and we mostly just read what we had written
from our missionary phrases book. We have taught a lesson everyday and
tomorrow we are switching investigators and we will have 2 lessons
everyday!
Our roommates are both Brazilian and
they don´t speak any English. The first few days it was really hard to
communicate with them but it is definitely getting better! They said
they would help us with Portuguese and we could help them with English.
In Portuguese they don´t have the `th´sound so any word with a ´th´is
really difficult for them to say like `throughout´ or ´faith´. They are
super nice and it has been very entertaining to try to communicate with
them.
Our normal days here at the CTM start at 6:30
and then we eat breakfast at 7, classes from 8-12 Lunch, 12:45-4: more
classes. Dinner, Physical Activities. Usually one more language study
class for about an hour, then daily planning, then we have about an hour
to get ready for bed, write in our journal and then we got to sleep at 10:30! So sixteen hour days, 8 hours of sleep and most of the day is filled with classes.
Physical
Activity time is a super great stress reliever and break from sitting
in the classroom all day. We run 5 laps on a track and then we can play
volleyball or basketball. We have been playing volleyball and it is
super fun because the Brazilians get super into it! Also we are only
allowed to speak in Portuguese during physical activities so we learn
quite a bit.
Also, this past Sunday was the
BEST!!! We woke up and had a sacrament meeting with out zone (which is
about 25 American missionaries), We had testimony meeting, district
meeting, free time (to take a nap if you wanted to), devotionals and
choir practice! It was incredible!!!
I really
love it here and everyday I love it more and more! I am trying my
hardest to be my best and I am working really hard! I have 4 Elders and
then it is me and my companion in my district!
I love you all!
-Love Sister Hancock
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