Final Week!

Outside the CTM with her companion and one of her teachers.

Guys, I just have one more week in the CTM! Then off to Santos! It´s crazy. These past 5 weeks have gone by soo fast. I don't have a lot of time today, so sorry it´s gonna be short. We pretty much just pounded out Portuguese this past week. This last week is pretty much just getting us pumped for the real work, and final touches on the language. Aka subjunctive. My favorite. 

Last Wednesday devotional was really neat. First of all, I had the opportunity to play the prelude for the meeting and that was really scary, but also, it felt good to play the piano again. Then, we watched a broadcast from the day before by Elder Christofferson to the Provo MTC. He talked about the name of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the importance of using it. Too often, we refer to it as the Mormon church or the LDS church, but that is wrong. He spoke very directly, but it was a good chastisement. 

I´m so glad I can be here in Brazil, and I want to do the best I can. I miss you guys. Have wonderful weeks. Eu amo vocês! 

Tchauzinho!

Sister Herron 

On the Streets of Sao Paulo

Ola, everyone! Hope you all had a fantastic week. Not a whole lot happened for me except spending 10 hours a day in class learning Portuguese. It was good though. On Saturday, we had the interesting opportunity of going proselyting. We took a bus to a fairly busy street in downtown Sao Paulo, and we just started talking to people. Our goal was to invite people to meet with the missionaries and learn more. It was really difficult. We only got one referral, and we think he may have been homeless, so the missionaries might not actually be able to visit him...but he was super nice and very patient with our Portuguese. Almost everyone we talked to were super impressed taught we had only been learning Portuguese for 3ish weeks. Other than our one referral, we talked to 3 Jehovah Witness missionaries. (We didn’t know until we talked to them. It was really awkward.) We also talked to some kids who couldn’t understand us and we couldn’t understand them. It was pretty rough. They were cute though. We talked to a sad looking guy at a bus stop, who didn’t want to talk to us. And we talked to some younger guys, who we found out were only interested in talking to us because we were young, white Americans...they asked us to go to a party with them I think. It was weird and kinda uncomfortable. But if nothing else, it was a really good practice speaking and understanding the language. Overall, it wasn’t my favorite thing. It really pushed me out of my comfort zone, and it was kinda emotionally and mentally draining, but next time, it’ll be awesome!!

Nothing else really happened this week, so I guess I’ll just share some weird Brazilian culture things. One big one is that they are very blunt about race. Me and my district are sometimes really shocked at the things people will say, but apparently it’s totally fine. They really like jello type desserts. Almost every dessert they have here is like sweetened condensed milk that has the texture of jello. I don’t really know. Brigadeira is really good though. It’s the same texture but it tastes like chocolate cake batter. Last p-day, I bought some chocolate that has sugar crystals in it, and that is really good. I also bought a Portuguese hymnbook last p-day and I am super excited about that. I promise my emails will be more exciting after the MTC. Pretty much every day is the same here and doesn’t make great email material. 

A spiritual thought from this week is a thought from Elder Holland. He said the reason missionary work is so hard is that it was never easy for the Savior. And I think that applies to other aspects of our lives, too. He suffered everything for us, and sometimes, if we are trying to be like Him, we’ll have to suffer a little too. We won’t have to suffer anywhere near as much as He did, but if we want to have charity and become more like Him, we’ll need to feel some of that pain He felt. On that happy note, I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Com amor, 

Sister Herron

Halfway There!

Today marks my halfway point through the CTM! In 3 weeks, the real deal will start. I still spend 95% of my time studying Portuguese, but we're really making progress now. As we're getting better at teaching and speaking, we're getting new challenges to push us, too. This past week, that meant splits. We switched companions with native Brazilians and taught lessons with them. It was really hard. It was kinda frustrating because I felt like I was being overestimated and underestimated at the same time....but it was good, and I learned lots from it. Even if they did get a little frustrated with me, my Brazilian companieras were super super sweet, and they were so willing to help me. Another challenge that started last week was giving lessons without any notes. At first, it was really hard, but Sister Gillis and I have gotten a lot better at it and the Spirit is stronger when we don't use notes. 

It's only been 3 weeks, but I've become good friends with everyone in my district. There are 10 of us--8 elders, Sister Gillis, and me. Sister Gillis, Elder Lines, and Elder Larson are going to the Santos Mission with me. All the other Elders are going to Santa Maria. We're an interesting bunch. Yesterday, we had a guided meditation session. It probably wasn't the best use of our time, but it was nice and relaxing. One of my favorite things each day is playing volleyball with them. Almost every morning, we have 50 minutes of actividade fisica, and we just play volleyball. I've gotten a lot better at it. 

Every Wednesday and Sunday, we have choir practice and devotionals. I really love those evenings. The Spirit is really strong during them. Everyone is in the choir, so it's just the entire CTM of about 500 missionaries singing together. It's in Portuguese, so I don't always know what I'm singing about, but I can still feel the spirit. I think that is a witness of the Gift of Tongues. After choir, we have a devotional where all the English speakers get to wear headsets, so we'll actually understand.

I'm excited, but a little nervous, because this Saturday, we are going Proselyting on the streets of Sao Paulo somewhere. It's going to be hard, but I think we'll be ready for that challenge by the end of this week. It'll be really cool to meet actual people and talk to them about the gospel. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Don't forget to count your blessings.

Com amor, Sister Herron

Ola Again

Hey everyone!! Another week down at the CTM. I’m already a third the way through my time here. It still feels like I just showed up. But I can understand a lot more Portuguese now. It’s funny trying to speak to the Brazilians here. Some of them know they need to speak super slow with baby language and some of them don’t know. This week, we’re going to go on splits with Brazilians to practice teaching lessons. I’m pretty nervous about that, but it’ll be ok, and I’ll learn a lot, right? 

A couple of funny Portuguese translations from this week:

´`Speak now or shut up forever``

``What is your paper as a missionary?``

Our instructors are both Brazilian, and they can speak English pretty well, but sometimes it just comes out a little weird. It's great though. 

Last Pday, we got to go to the Sao Paulo temple. On the outside it looks pretty small, but its super pretty on the inside. Lots of stained glass. After we went to the temple, we could go out on the streets around the CTM. We went to a fruit market, and a guy gave us a slice of starfruit to try. It was super good. I realized afterwards that I’m not supposed to eat street fruit, but I didn’t get sick so I guess it's ok. It was really fun to see the different people and to try talking to them. One guy told us he used to be a member of the church, and I bore a very, very simple testimony to him, so Yay! It’s fun to just walk around and see the sights and smells of this city. It’s so pretty. 

Other than that fun adventure, I’ve just been studying the gospel in Portuguese pretty much the entire week. It’s a lot of work, but I’ve already progressed so much. The Gift of Tongues really is real. There’s no way I could have come as far as I have without a lot of help from Heavenly Father. This week I felt the spirit really strong testifying to me that I am here in Brazil for a reason. There are people here waiting for me to come teach them. And when I meet them, I need to be able to communicate with them. 

It is such a great experience here! I love it, and I love this gospel. Thanks for emailing me. I love you guys!

Tchau tchau for now!

Sister Herron

Ola!!! Semana 1

Ola, guys! I just finished my first week in the CTM in Brasil. It's been a crazy week, but also a lot of spiritual kind of fun. I got kinda sick on the flight here to Brasil, but I'm so glad that I'm here now. I'm at the CTM in Sao Paulo, which is a missionary training center. I'll be learning how to be a good teacher, about the gospel, and lots of Portuguese here for 5 more weeks before I go to Santos. My pday is Wednesday, but I'll be emailing on Tuesdays. Don't ask me why. I don't know either.  My companion is Sister Gillis, and she is from Houston, Texas. She is super sweet, and we get along really well. We're also rooming with Sister Jensen and Sister Tew. They're super sweet, too. I would send you a picture of us, but we can't send pictures while we're in the CTM. You'll just have to wait a few weeks. 

Sao Paulo is the coolest city I have ever been in. It is huge. There are skyscrapers as far as you can see in every direction, and it's colorful and exciting. On Saturday night, the city was a party. They like American 2010 hits here hahaha. We got to go to the Campinas Temple last Wednesday, and that was definitely an experience. We hadn't had a single Portuguese class yet, and only a few people there could speak any English. But we did it, and it was a good experience. It's the middle of winter here in Sao Paulo, but the weather is perfect. Everyday its like 68-73 degrees. The windows are all open and one of the hallways is missing a wall, so it's open and fresh in this building all the time. Tomorrow, during our pday, we'll be able to go out on the streets, and we're all really excited for that. 

I already feel a lot more confident in my Portuguese. The great thing about coming to this MTC is everyone is constantly speaking Portuguese. At lunch and dinner, we will sometimes sit by the Brazilians and just try to communicate with them. We're pretty limited in our Portuguese, but it's really good practice and it's fun when we understand each other. 

The food here is kind of interesting. They always have ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, which I'm not sure I like yet. For lunch and dinner, there is ALWAYS rice and beans. It's pretty good. I'm not sick of it yet, but it could happen. They also always have fruit, and lots of different kinds of juices, and I'm still figuring those out. They also really like sweetened condensed milk and gelatin for dessert.

It's been great being here. But it's hard. We're learning a lot in not a lot of time. We're already teaching our third lesson in Portuguese to Marcio today. He committed to baptism yesterday, so that was super exciting!!!! He's really just our instructor, but it's still exciting. I'm surprised at how much we are already able to understand him and to answer his questions. It's really hard, but we're learning. 

The Espirito Santo is very strong here. I've learned a lot about myself and about the gospel during this past week. Heavenly Father really wants to help us in our missions, but He can only do so much. He can't do our part for us because we have our agency. We need to work as hard as we can, and He will make us capable of our tasks. That's why I'm studying so hard here. It kinda feels like finals week here :) It's fun though. I have a great district, and we're helping each other. 

I hope you all have great weeks. I love you all. Don't be afraid to write to me. I might not have time to respond to you each individually, but it means a lot. 

Tchau tchau!

Sister Herron