02 de Abril

Hi Family!

Thanks for your emails! It is always so good to hear about what is going on at home.

I didn´t get to see very much of conference, actually, and the part I saw I didn´t really understand. Saturday we were only allowed to watch if we brought an investigator with us. We ended up bringing someone for the last half hour of Saturday morning, so we heard President Eyring´s talk. I didn´t even see Saturday afternoon, with the MTC choir! (it was on very late at night here anyway) And then we were late for both sessions on Sunday because we were talking with investigators (and trying to get them to come with us). It was all in Portuguese, so I understood more or less what the talks were about, but it was a bit more difficult than usual. Haha. I figured I would just read the talks (in English) but now I am going to try to figure something out so I can listen to the MTC choir! Bring my speaker or something next week when we do email. That is so exciting that they were there. And exciting David Archuleta was there too!

 

I wish I had some awesome island stories, but I don´t really. Ha. The island I´m on is São Miguel. It´s pretty big, I think. And it is very beautiful here, very green with lots of hills. There are palm trees here, but actually I think there were more in Braga. The only sad thing is, while there are lots of beautiful places to visit, none of them are in our area, so it´s not like we can go see something exciting on Pday. But our area is plenty beautiful as it is, even if it´s not a ´destination´ and we get to see the ocean every day. The people here in general are poorer than those in Braga. It is interesting, because there are some areas, like where we live, that aren´t that different-- people have nice, normal apartments and some of them even have TVs and cars. But there are some areas that are so, so poor, it is like a different world. It´s hard to believe that it´s the same island. We have children come up to us in the street asking for a copy of The Book of Mormon, because they don´t have any other books in their houses.

I ate some fish the other day at a member´s house. It was pretty good, though I wasn´t totally sure how to eat it, they just had these tiny fishes, whole, and they were salty. And we also were served spaghetti with ketchup and a fried egg on top. That was different. The members here are pretty awesome, though I don´t know too many yet (given it was conference weekend). One family has given us all these ananás, which are kind of like pineapples but really small. And delicious.

I am loving it here, even though it is really hard. I am still having a lot of trouble with the language, and the interesting accent and different dialect doesn´t make it easier. It sounds almost French. It is difficult because Irmã Suzarte is on her second transfer as well-- I don´t think this usually happens, putting two ´greenie´ missionaries together, especially since I don´t speak the language very well yet. I think it will be a long time before I forget that moment, our first morning together, when we sat down for companionship study, and pulled out the training manuel and just looked at each other and laughed. It is frustrating sometimes because I can´t communicate well with my companion or with our investigators, but I really really need to learn, because Irmã Suzarte really really needs a companion who can help out. It is good though, because I think I will learn faster (both Portuguese and how to be a good teacher) than if I were put with a more experienced companion. I am grateful for this opportunity to completely and fully rely on the Lord, because there really is no way we could do this by ourselves.

And hey, at least I get to struggle through this on a beautiful island. And I am plenty healthy and happy and life is good. I will try to send some pictures sometime soon.

I love you all!

Julia