Olá meu amigos! Tudo bem?
I’ve officially been a missionary for two weeks and I’ve been in the São Paulo CTM (Centro de Treinamento Missionário) for exactly one of those weeks. I left home at 4:30 Monday morning (July 17) and did not get to sleep again until 39 hours later Tuesday night. It was a very long day but they wanted us to adjust to Brazil time as quickly as possible. It worked, but I did not find it an enjoyable experience.
About a month before my mission, I toured the Provo MTC and since coming here I’ve noticed a few differences:
1. We have way less missionaries here. I personally think this is a good thing because I know more of who’s here and what’s going on.
2. Few English speakers. I also think this is a good thing because there is always someone to practice with. My first night here, one of the Portuguese instructors came up to me and asked me questions (in Portuguese). The questions weren’t to hard and I appreciated the practice. Afterward she asked me questions about English (all the instructors here are required to learn another language). It was fun to spend some time learning and teaching on my first day.
3. No food variety. We eat the same thing every single day. We have ham sandwiches for breakfast, rice and beans for lunch and dinner with either chicken or beef. The food is also very bland. We think it might be to make us more accepting and grateful for all the food we’ll get out in the field.
4. Meat chips and cheese bars. In the vending machines here, they don’t have things like Doritos, Cheetos, gummy bears, or Coke. They have every flavor of meat in chip form. I do not recommend the ham-flavored chips but the chicken ones are okay. They also serve cheese bars in the same vending machines. I wasn’t brave enough to try these until yesterday evening. Long story short, I will not be trying them again. Luckily they also serve Snickers and Sprite so that’s been my go-to snack this week.
5. Very little outside time. The Provo MTC is set up on a hill with acres of land and grounds for missionaries to enjoy. The São Paulo CTM is right in the middle of the city surrounded by houses, businesses, and apartment buildings on all sides. We have a little garden courtyard in the middle of the building and outdoor volleyball and basketball but that’s it. We relish physical activity time and try to study out in the courtyard whenever possible.
I had many great experiences this week that I would love to share but this is already long so I’ll just relate one and what I learned from it. On Thursday, we had our first in-person Portuguese class with our instructor Irmão Proença. During our online week, we learned a whole bunch of “survival” phrases. Things that we can say when we don’t understand or can’t think of a word. One of these phrases is “Como se diz ____” which means “How do you say ____”. During this lesson, somebody asked me to turn the heat down cause I was sitting near the thermostat. Trying to do everything in Portuguese, and knowing very little about thermostats, I asked my entire district “Como se diz ‘how'” or “how do you say how”. We laughed for a very long time once we got it and although I felt very stupid, I loved laughing with my district.
I later in the week was struggling with doubts and fears about pretty much everything. It got very overwhelming with all the things being thrown at me and I felt disconnected spiritually. It took me until about Friday to realize that I had been putting all my energy into studying Portuguese, mission rules, Brazilian culture, and Church news and I had not read my scriptures personally all week. Once I realized this, I began studying so hard and felt instantly better. Afterwards, this whole experience had me slapping myself in the head. It was like my “How do you say how” moment. I already knew what I should be doing and if I had thought a little harder or a little quicker, I wouldn’t have felt so stupid afterwards. But like my Portuguese experience, I laughed at myself, moved on, and made a plan not to make the same mistake again.
God wants us to recognize our faults but to not get hung up on them. He wants us to learn, laugh, and then change. You just have to let Him work with what you have to offer.
I would love to hear from you all and I think about you often in my prayers. I’ll send out the photos from this week in a reply to this email. Tchau Tchau!
Love,
Sister Alyssa Grace
São Paulo, Brazil
