First Week in Ingleses

Sam and companion, Sister Colares (from Manaus, Brazil)

Olá Minhas Amigas e Familia!!

Que bom que eu estou aqui! Agora é dificil escrever em Englese, mas eu vou tentar. Jota Kah (JK).

Por favor, Imagine that you are sitting at a family dinner--whole extended family there, everyone laughing and talking at the same time, food getting passed from one to the other, people arguing, kids running around... Now, imagine that in Português and you dont speak a word of it. Welcome to my first lunch here!! It was CRAZY! I thought that I understood Português, and I do, most of the time.. But with many people all talking at once at speeds that I doubt a police radar could read I was, as one might say, a bit lost. That was a great way to be welcomed to real Brazilian culture. The women there were adorable though. My favorite had to have been the grandma.. she was so wrinkly that I couldnt help but think "what is holding this woman together?" but at the same time, she was super short (as most Brazilians are) and she came up to a little below my chest. Also, she had on glasses that made her eyes look ginormous and basically she looked like a human version of Wall-e. Therefore, she's my favorite. :) Could I understand a word that she said? Nope. But did I love her anyways? Sure did!! :) I love the people in our ward. Every one sees me and says,"New Companion?" Followed by "Does she understand Português?" Sure do! (as veçes) Everyone says that I am really doing great so far. Do I follow absolutely everything? Not even close. Am I able to talk for long periods of time with people, if they are patient and talk relatively slow? Yes I can!

My lovely companion, Sister Colares, from Manãos (the jungle.. literally) is very patient with me. She is learning English, mostly because I am forcing her to.. hehe, but she's so fun. We laugh all the time, she helps me and explains how to do things in Português, but most of the time I understand. Or we'll just look at each other and decide that what we're trying to say is not really thhaaaat important and therefore we'll stop. OR, I will just smile and hand her my dictionary for her to look up the word. I'd say I understand 90-95% when just me and her are talking, and probably 70-75% of when we are talking to other people.

I get to teach an English class 3 times a week! It's absolutely amazing! I love it! I have anywhere from 20-40 students depending on the day and that is how we do most of our contacting. (and on my first day one student brought me a sack of colorful chalk! I love Brazilians!) We have them fill out an info sheet and at the bottom we ask them if they would like us to visit them. Many people do! We went over to the house of this one family that I loved from the first day--they were so sweet. We talked with them for about an hour about a lot of things, and then we asked if we could share a message. We started off singing a hymn (as we always do here, interesting), and the wife started to cry. We shared our brief message and the entire family was just beaming. We could feel the spirit so strongly there. They said that we could come back and hopefully they will continue to progress with us. It was so cool to actually be in a house with a family and really teaching by the spirit this week!

My lovely companion loves to look over at me with a smile and say, "And now my companion would love to share a message with you." She did this the first meal that we had when my head was quite literally spinning because of the Português chaos, and I grabbed my unmarked scriptures in Português and found a scripture I remembered and shared a message. It was fine because it was with the members (we are fed lunch--the biggest meal--every day by the members), but later we were with an investigator and she looked over at me with that same smile and asked me to share a message. I knew LITERALLY nothing about these people. She hadn't said a word about what they needed. So I grabbed my scriptures and a different scripture came into my head. I hadn't thought about that scripture in quite some time, but I opened up to it and shared it. It was EXACTLY what they needed to hear. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. After we left my companion was like, "That was perfect! Totally a witness that you were guided by the spirit. That was exactly what they needed to hear." I can't even begin to relay all of the different times that I have felt guided by the spirit here (in just 5 days), but I have--it's incredible :)

I love it here! The people are great--my first day a couple of people thought I was Brazilian, but I think they were just old, and were blind ...and deaf.. haha. jk. I can't wait to get more tan so that I WILL fit in!

As for mail. I didnt get anything when I was at the center on Weds, but we are going again this Weds and hopefully I will get something then. I think I will be brought my mail about every week because we are so close to the center. The only random things that I could dream to ask for would be hand soap in a dispenser (they only have bar soap here and it gets pretty nasty) and a couple magic erasers! The walls in my apartment are horrendous!! (it previously belonged to Elders), but I think that that would be useful. I have access to General Conference talks here--I will get the Liahona every month, and I also have my notes from it.. Wasnt it grand? :)

LORI LUND!! Im totally going to send you a letter. Prepare to get excited now! BAH!! The entire time I was at the MTC I was thinking, Lori could be walking outside RIGHT NOW and I wouldnt know it!

LOVE YOU ALL!! I can't wait to have more things to tell you!

'Legit' Sister Reising (Seester Hey-sing) (how its pronouced here)

Oh! Random: If you're ever in Brazil and in need for a laugh, just try to have Brazilians say words like "World, or Think) Probably the funniest thing ever (they dont have these sounds in Português)

Ps These photos are of me and the one km walk to a member's house for lunch, my comp and I right now before I get my hair cut (so excited to see again!) and of the AWESOME DISNEY wall we found. LOVE IT-- Brazil knows what's up too.. hehe