Thursday, December 22, 2011

The First Letter from Sao Paulo

December 21, 2011

Ahhh! I finally get to email you! My p-day is on Wed and I arrived on a Wed. so I had to wait an entire week to be able to use a computer. So the MTC here lets you go out and wonder on your p-day. Today I went with my district and the new gym instructor to a restaurant that served food like Rodizios but it was a ton cheaper. It cost about 8 U.S. dollars. I ate way too much, but it was yummy. Then we went to a drug store to get some little things we forgot and to a little hole-in-the-wall shop that is there only for missionaries. They only have ties and scripture cases and things like that. It is so hot here! It is about the same as SLC in the summer.

Portuguese is hard!! I feel like I haven’t learned anything at all. There are a lot of Brazilians who don’t know any English at all so we can only communicate through sign language and grunts. My district is me and 10 elders. I don’t have a companion because there are no other sisters in the CTM that are at the same level as me. So basically I just have to be sure to be with one of the elder companionships when I can but I am still alone a lot. I room with only 2 Brazilians now. My one American roommate left for the mission field on Tuesday morning.

I have 2 teachers. One of them is brand new and doesn’t know a lot of English so class is sometimes a little hard to follow. Right now we are teaching 2 "investigators" one named Lidia (li-gee-a) and one named Paulo. They are really just our teachers acting but they make us teach in all Portuguese. I'm getting really good at planning lessons but still stink at everything else. If you say anything in English they will say "I don't know English, I don't understand". It’s frustrating because you know they know what you are trying to say but you just can't find the right word. I'm getting it though. It’s slow, but it’s coming.

It's hard to be away from everyone but I am so glad that I can be here!

Love Adrienne

No comments: