Olá a todos. This is my last full week of CTM. Next week I’m only here for 4-5 days and then I’m on a plane heading to Recife and my first area. Time is going so quickly yet nothing big really happened this week. I figured I would write a little about the missionaries I’ve been serving within my district so far just so you can all get a feel for what life has been like for the last 5 weeks.
Elder Merrill is our district leader. He is from Southern California, he’ll be serving in Recife South, and is big knowing the rules guy. He’s not always a big following the rules guy (we still can’t convince him to get the Elders to meals on time) but whether it’s basketball, Uno, or ping pong, he seems to have all the rules memorized by heart. His catchphrase is “It’s in the handbook,” which none of us know how to check because they are all in Português.
Elder Durling is Elder Merrill’s companion. He is from Highland and is also serving in Recife South. Elder Durling is a competitive sportsperson. When we played volleyball yesterday, he kept spiking it and nearly killed some of our teammates because of how hard he serves. He did end up hitting Elder Draper’s phone which was on the sidelines and made it completely nonfunctional. Elder Draper got a new phone today though so all is well.
Elder Draper is one of three in our district going to Recife North. He is from Smithfield, Utah, and is a big intellectual sportsperson. He is always fiddling with a Rubik’s cube or talking about chess. Last week he made a goal to read every conference talk ever given since the time he was born before the end of his mission. He’s finished 2005 and has started 2006. If he keeps it up at this rate, he’ll be done by Christmas.
Elder Benson is Elder Draper’s companion. Elder Benson is from West Haven and is heading to Recife South. For Elder Benson, most words longer than 5 letters are too long for his taste so he shortens them. We hear a lot of “show”=shower, “sesh”=session, “chick”=chicken, and “por”=Portuguese. Sadly, some words in Portuguese are very long and difficult to pronounce and we have had to remind Elder Benson that he cannot be shortening some of them or else he changes the meaning.
Elder Hiatt is next and he is from LA going to Recife South as well. Elder Hiatt lived in Portugal for a year so he has a major advantage over the rest of us except that he struggles with the Brazilian accent more than we do. He has created a couple of things in his time here such as the Hiatt Diet (eating everything he sees) and the Hiatt Riot of floor 6 (he played Called to Serve on his violin and got 200 elders to have a mosh pit during our 3rd week).
His companion, Elder Smith is from Mesa, AZ. He’s going to Recife South too and is a runner. When we play basketball, he is so fast and weaves through everybody else like we are not there. He also has the oldest and longest-lasting nickname of any of us here. We call him Elder Smeech or Smeechy because, on the first day of online class, that’s how our teachers taught us to pronounce Joseph Smith’s name in Portugês.
Elder Foutz is from Bountiful and going to Recife North. He is the tallest of any of us, I think he’s 6’4″. He’s never played basketball or volleyball before but he’s already one of the best in the district at them. He’s probably the most diligent of any of us. Whenever the rest of us are just sitting around and talking after meals or in between classes, he gets on DuoLingo and starts practicing. He’s going to do very well with the Portuguese aspect of missionary work I think.
Elder Manwaring is his companion and is also going to Recife North. Elder Manwaring is from Idaho Falls and is very passionate about Chipotle, the movie Onward, and hating on the CTM food. He’s a really happy guy and none of us can really take him seriously even when he’s trying so hard to convince us to agree with him. This last week he got all of our Elders to get buzz cuts because he said it would make them look “tough”. It didn’t really work but they all love their matching hair.
Sister Fuller is my companion and is from Clifton Idaho. She is very mature whereas the Elders are not. She’s good at humbling the Elders in basketball and volleyball and at cheering me on when I figuratively (and literally) drop the ball. She always is studying a new conference talk or doctrinal topic and tries to share her insights with somebody in the district she thinks needs to hear it. She’ll do incredible with sharing when she’s in the field.
I’ll wrap up with some of the best quotes from our time here in the CTM and a quick spiritual thought.
Quotes:
-“Soooo Chiiillll” = all the Elders everyday
-“Exatamente” = originally our instructor but now everyone says it
-“Não Boné”= a very literal translation of “no cap” used by our Elders every day
-“Fries and Cheetos”= a play on the Portuguese phrase “Faz Sentido” which means “makes sense”
-“Can you disappear tomorrow”= what Elder Manwaring accidentally said to our instructor in Portuguese when he google translated “Can you fade [my hair] tomorrow”
-“Voce Já Sabe”= “You already know” Elder Smith’s go to phrase
-“That’s crazy”= Elder Hiatt after literally any sentence
-“How are you still talking”=Elder Smith to Elder Manwaring in the middle of class for no real reason
-“Top G”= our instructor’s favorite answer to “How are you?”
-“Bro just breathed in his soul”= Elder Manwaring about Elder Foutz
-“I love Portuguese”= Elder Benson in the middle of a dead silent classroom without any prompting
-“What do you mean it’s not dark, I can’t see a thing” = Elder Manwaring while closing his eyes
-Elder Manwaring: “It’s a second-hand Bible. No that’s not the right word, second something.” Elder Smith: “Second foot?” = during a roleplay activity with the two of them acting as a companionship
-Elder Manwaring: “Did you show many church videos on your mission?” Instructor: “Yes, one family we never even spoke to. We showed them a video each lesson and they were all baptized.” Elder Manwaring: “Why are we learning Portuguese then?”
Spiritual Thought:
In 2 Nephi 33:6, we read “I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.” This verse is very simply beautiful on it’s own but when I considered the context this week it made it more meaningful. This was written by Nephi, the original Nephi, and he wrote about 575 years before the coming of Christ. The fact that he could rejoice and celebrate something that has not even come to pass yet shows his strength and faith in Heavenly Father’s timing. Right now, being fluent in Portuguese and being a great missionary is not something I can quite see in myself just yet. But I have faith that it will happen and can rejoice and glory in the fact that through Christ and with a little time, I’ll be the person I want to be.
That’s all for now, love you all and can’t wait to start messaging from Recife soon! Tchau Tchau.
Love,
Sister Alyssa Grace
São Paulo, Brasil
