[Note from Sam's mom: The red spot outlines the town of Chapecó (roughly 175,000 people). The light highlighted area is the state of Santa Catarina, which is the mission boundary for the Florianopolis mission. Where Sam has been serving until now is on the island on the far right (ocean side) - where the headquarters of the mission in located. The boundary on the far left of the state borders Argentina. Chapecó was founded by Italian immigrants and has a majority of its population descending from Italian, Polish and German ancestry. It is 2,200 ft above sea level.]
Hello All!
As of right now I am sitting in a lanhouse (internet cafe) in Chapecó and it feels like my hands are going to fall off of my body!! Yay for being transferred to one of the coldest places in the mission for the dead of winter!!! Wooohooo! As far as the actual transfer part of the transfer.. We went to the center for one last big meeting with President and Sister Queiroz, I met the new American that is going to be trained by Sister Colares (my old comp) and gave her a few (a lot) of tips and things that I wished I could have had explained to me in English.. I GOT YOUR PACKAGE mother dear (but I couldn't actually get it in my house and opened until Saturday night). We got on the big fancy bus with reclining puffy chairs and headed off on our 13 hour bus ride through the night. We watched glorious mormon classics like The Book of Mormon Movie (strangest/funniest thing ever), Work and the Glory 3, and then Charly (to which basically everyone cried and therefore pretended to be sleeping when it ended) (or maybe that everyone was just me... hehe). It went by relatively fast.. got to sleep a bit.
My new companion is Sister Godoy from São Paulo (not Lori's mission). She has been on the mission for the same amount of time as me, but seeing as she didn't have 2 months learning a language in the MTC she has had one more transfer than I and is the senior companion. I actually kind of enjoy the fact that we have a similar amount of time. It makes me feel more like an equal contributor to the companionship instead of just someone to bop around behind and be directed on how to do everything.
{Random insert for Lori Lund---There is a guy in your mission that was dating Sister G. and he said that two sister missionaries contacted into him while he was at a restaurant.. Was that you? Ever contacted into some guy who has a crush on a missionary in a restaurant? OH! And if you remember Sister Stahly from the MTC, she is totally in my mission and is living in my apartment! She's the one who had the idea to dress up for Halloween. I was talking about my best friend in São Paulo and she said that she was in the MTC with you for a month and has pictures with you too. haha random}
We are now in Ramo 2 in Chapecó which is larger than the other Branch (Ramo). The city is split in half by the main avenue. There are a LOT of missionaries here. In just my branch we have 4 Sister Missionaries and 2 Elders. There are 6 more Elders in the other Branch too. It's kind of fun. We go in groups for lunch and there is a lot of work to do here in the large city. The only downside is that there are now 3 companionships for the members to give references, and neighborhoods are strangely split up. The other two Sisters are Sister Boyer (my comp from the mtc) and Sister Stahly (Americans) and those two sisters also live in our large apartment. It is amazing!! For the first time in 3 months I am able to actually talk and express myself and have a personality again! I didn't really realize how much I missed using my own language to communicate and it is so nice to have a break from only Português every once and a while. Before I came it was only those two americans and 5 Brazilian sisters with them and I had only heard the Brazilian point of view of the situation.. that the americans don't try to talk to them, that they are probably saying bad things about the other sisters.. I personally decided that I wouldn't let Sister Godoy feel left out, so whenever she is in the room or near we speak in Português, but still. It's amazing. The other sisters explained that they weren't talking bad about the Sisters.. they were just trying to remain sane.. Plus, sitting in a room with 5 Brazilians all talking fast when you are still new to the language? Yeah. I sure know that I wouldn't have been able to understand them.
But anywho. I decided that here I wouldn't be mistaken as someone who is quiet and shy, so on Saturday at the ward's FHE I decided to go forth and learn everyone's names. It was quite fun! The only ones that I had a hard time with were the names that have no base whatsoever in english and that I didn't already learn in Ingleses. I could tell that the ward members really appreciated it and now I know a lot more about them than I did in my other ward already. It was also great because the only person that I asked "So, how long have you been a member?" to isn't Mormon and therefore I was able to set up an appointment to go to his house this Saturday.
This area is huge and hilly.. we don't use the bus here like we did in Ingleses.. but the hills are good when its freezing-they warm you up! The only problem is that the other sisters before us left us nothing (no investigators, nothing).. SOOO we are starting from scratch. I did my first contact of the mission the other day. It's actually kind of strange how easy it is to do here in Brazil. You just ask if you can leave a blessing in their house, they either say that they're Catholic and not interested (rare) or they invite you in or give you their address and phone number on the street. I am interested to see what results we get from this. These days we are kind of just wandering around with a map and trying to get to know the area. Sister G was in Chapecó before, but she was in the other Branch, so it's new for her too.
Basically it just now is starting to feel like the mission that I had expected. The contacting and how it's all working now. As for the package-- LOVED it! I would give you my address here for letters and packages because once you're in Chapecó you generally don't leave for a good 6 months.. but we are trying to move apartments right now. Our apartment is big and nice, but the showers have a tendency to only have luke warm water which will just randomly turn off. When it's freezing outside (and I can see my breath while normally breathing inside), the worst thing to do is to take a shower in icy water (did that yesterday). Woo!! The package was perfect. Had everything that I was just thinking that I would need. We are excited about the American things too, even though in the cold it doesn't feel like July 4th should.
Lately I bought a pair of boots, and some more tights and gloves. The heating pad is great!! Only problem is that the only outlet it doesn't work in would be the one next to my bed.. haha of course. It DOES work in the one by my desk so I will be warm while studying. We are trying to get permission to get a heater in our apartment--Sister Q was all for it, but seeing if we have the funds is another story.
Anywho, next week I will send more pictures.. I left my camera at home. I will also make a list of things I may need. As of right now I am finding most everything here. Clothes are kind of expensive, those boots were the only ones that were in my size that fit in Chapecó.. soo thanks for the support! Hope you are all having a cheery summer-ish!
Love,
Sister Reising
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