Monday, February 11, 2013
Katie's Feb 11 email
Boa tarde, familia! Tudo bem? Como vocês estão?
I cannot believe it´s already been another week... my goodness time is flying. I feel like I just barely wrote and everything is the same.. haha I´ll try to think of some stories.
First off, how are each of you? Please keep the pictures of Bentley coming! What a little cutie. Oh I can´t wait to just mush him and love him everyday! So fun. Love all the stories and updates. Why is everybody sick?! Bah! I hope you all get feeling better soon.. that´s no fun. Bec, thank you for your email! It´s so great to hear from you! Oh all you cute faces.. I miss you! But glad to hear everyone is well. How is school and work going? Can you believe it´s February?! Sheesh. Tell me more of what´s happening, alright?
I got a letter from mission ties last week with pictures of baby :) So fun. Thank you! Also, got a letter from Grandma Carol which was so sweet. Thank you, Grandma! I´m still horribly behind on letters so bear with me for a little while...
Well, this week was good! We´re teaching a lot and we have some really good people we´re working with right now. A few.. but we´re struggling with our group right now because nobody is really progressing. And those who are progressing are progressing very very slowly. So it´s been difficult because many are ready and they want to move forward, but they have fear or hold ups somewhere and are not moving. We´ve been trying this week to focus again on finding new people. We´re working in different areas and different neighborhoods to try to find people who are ready for the Gospel, but it´s proving to be a very difficult task. So so many people we talked to this week either have already met with the missionaries and aren´t interested, or met with the missionaries and think it´s all good but aren´t willing to change, or are already baptized and have left the church for various reasons... bah. It´s been a challenge. But not a challenge that we can´t handle with the Lord´s help. So we´re just striving to do everything we need to be doing in order to be worthy of the Lord´s help so that we can find the right people and really begin to do what we´ve been sent here to do.
I´ve been studying a lot about faith this week. And been doing a lot of searching.. searching my heart, searching the scriptures. My companion and I have been talking a lot this week about how we can have more `fogo nos ossos´ or fire in the bones´.. how we can have more desire and passion to be doing what we´re doing. Some days we´ve been walking around just doing what we need to do, without really remembering why exactly we´re doing it, or remembering how important this work is. That´s been a lot of our focus this week is trying to really focus on what we´re doing and how we can best help this people. To genuinely lose ourself in this work, so begin to love the people more fully, and to be in tune enough with the Spirit to know how to help them. It´s a work in progress. Hopefully this week we´ll get better.
This morning we studied a talk called ´´A Four Missionary´´ (I think) and it´s so powerful! It talks all about becoming who we want to be. To creating a vision of the kind of person we want to be, and then acting on the vision and doing everything we can to strive to be that person every day, every moment, in everything that we do. And as we do that, then soon it will become our nature and we´ll genuinely be that person. I´m going to be focusing on that this week as well.. really striving everyday to become the kind of missionary I thought I would be and that I want to be.
Man, I´m boring this week! Sorry... I´m completely exhausted in every way :)
I finally tried matte (not sure how to spell it..) yesterday.. it´s a drink here that EVERYONE drinks all the time. I dont know how to explain it very well.. (lookit up on google), but it´s essentially this green herb or plant stuff that they put in these certain type of cups and then hot water and drink it... horrible explanation haha sorry. Look it up. But it´s the thing here. And everyone just passes it around and drinks out of it. So yesterday we were at a member´s house and they made me try it... they were trying to explain exactly what the green stuff was, and ignorant me was pointing outside at the grass and asking how to say that because it looks like shredded up grass... when they realized what I was getting at the whole room was rolling and saying, no no no no! You can´t call it that! Apparently it´s very offensive to the Gauchan (I don´t think that´s a word...) culture to say they´re drinking grass, `the food of cows´as they said... haha oops :) But I tasted it.. and it is grass. I´m convinced. Looks and tastes like grass. It´s gross. But, it´s a huge part of the culture, so I had to try it. Maybe one day I´ll learn to like it..... then I´ll be a true Gaucha!
I think we´re going to start teaching English this week... hoping it´ll help us find new people! I have no idea how to teach english though... it´ll be an adventure! I´ve also been asked to teach a few members how to play the piano... we´ll have to see how that goes too!
Okay, going to cut it here because I´m just as boring as boring can be. I´ll send some pictures to make up for it :)
I love you, cute family! I pray for you every day. I hope you can feel my love and prayers being sent your way! You are the best ever examples to me. Thank you for your faith! You are an inspiration to me and I look to your letters and examples often for advice and how to handle situations. You are such a blessing to me! I LOVE YOU! Have a most wonderful week!
Until next week...
Sister Kane
Xoxo!
I cannot believe it´s already been another week... my goodness time is flying. I feel like I just barely wrote and everything is the same.. haha I´ll try to think of some stories.
First off, how are each of you? Please keep the pictures of Bentley coming! What a little cutie. Oh I can´t wait to just mush him and love him everyday! So fun. Love all the stories and updates. Why is everybody sick?! Bah! I hope you all get feeling better soon.. that´s no fun. Bec, thank you for your email! It´s so great to hear from you! Oh all you cute faces.. I miss you! But glad to hear everyone is well. How is school and work going? Can you believe it´s February?! Sheesh. Tell me more of what´s happening, alright?
I got a letter from mission ties last week with pictures of baby :) So fun. Thank you! Also, got a letter from Grandma Carol which was so sweet. Thank you, Grandma! I´m still horribly behind on letters so bear with me for a little while...
Well, this week was good! We´re teaching a lot and we have some really good people we´re working with right now. A few.. but we´re struggling with our group right now because nobody is really progressing. And those who are progressing are progressing very very slowly. So it´s been difficult because many are ready and they want to move forward, but they have fear or hold ups somewhere and are not moving. We´ve been trying this week to focus again on finding new people. We´re working in different areas and different neighborhoods to try to find people who are ready for the Gospel, but it´s proving to be a very difficult task. So so many people we talked to this week either have already met with the missionaries and aren´t interested, or met with the missionaries and think it´s all good but aren´t willing to change, or are already baptized and have left the church for various reasons... bah. It´s been a challenge. But not a challenge that we can´t handle with the Lord´s help. So we´re just striving to do everything we need to be doing in order to be worthy of the Lord´s help so that we can find the right people and really begin to do what we´ve been sent here to do.
I´ve been studying a lot about faith this week. And been doing a lot of searching.. searching my heart, searching the scriptures. My companion and I have been talking a lot this week about how we can have more `fogo nos ossos´ or fire in the bones´.. how we can have more desire and passion to be doing what we´re doing. Some days we´ve been walking around just doing what we need to do, without really remembering why exactly we´re doing it, or remembering how important this work is. That´s been a lot of our focus this week is trying to really focus on what we´re doing and how we can best help this people. To genuinely lose ourself in this work, so begin to love the people more fully, and to be in tune enough with the Spirit to know how to help them. It´s a work in progress. Hopefully this week we´ll get better.
This morning we studied a talk called ´´A Four Missionary´´ (I think) and it´s so powerful! It talks all about becoming who we want to be. To creating a vision of the kind of person we want to be, and then acting on the vision and doing everything we can to strive to be that person every day, every moment, in everything that we do. And as we do that, then soon it will become our nature and we´ll genuinely be that person. I´m going to be focusing on that this week as well.. really striving everyday to become the kind of missionary I thought I would be and that I want to be.
Man, I´m boring this week! Sorry... I´m completely exhausted in every way :)
I finally tried matte (not sure how to spell it..) yesterday.. it´s a drink here that EVERYONE drinks all the time. I dont know how to explain it very well.. (lookit up on google), but it´s essentially this green herb or plant stuff that they put in these certain type of cups and then hot water and drink it... horrible explanation haha sorry. Look it up. But it´s the thing here. And everyone just passes it around and drinks out of it. So yesterday we were at a member´s house and they made me try it... they were trying to explain exactly what the green stuff was, and ignorant me was pointing outside at the grass and asking how to say that because it looks like shredded up grass... when they realized what I was getting at the whole room was rolling and saying, no no no no! You can´t call it that! Apparently it´s very offensive to the Gauchan (I don´t think that´s a word...) culture to say they´re drinking grass, `the food of cows´as they said... haha oops :) But I tasted it.. and it is grass. I´m convinced. Looks and tastes like grass. It´s gross. But, it´s a huge part of the culture, so I had to try it. Maybe one day I´ll learn to like it..... then I´ll be a true Gaucha!
I think we´re going to start teaching English this week... hoping it´ll help us find new people! I have no idea how to teach english though... it´ll be an adventure! I´ve also been asked to teach a few members how to play the piano... we´ll have to see how that goes too!
Okay, going to cut it here because I´m just as boring as boring can be. I´ll send some pictures to make up for it :)
I love you, cute family! I pray for you every day. I hope you can feel my love and prayers being sent your way! You are the best ever examples to me. Thank you for your faith! You are an inspiration to me and I look to your letters and examples often for advice and how to handle situations. You are such a blessing to me! I LOVE YOU! Have a most wonderful week!
Until next week...
Sister Kane
Xoxo!
Monday, February 4, 2013
Katie's Feb 4 Letter
Boa tarde, familia! Tudo bem?
Can you believe it´s already been a week? I can´t! Holy cow it went fast. So great to hear from you all! Thank you all for your emails and love and support! And to the friends that emailed, thank you!! I love to hear from you as well. You are welcome to email me as often as you´d like, I just can´t reply. I´ll do my best to get letters sent back in reply when I can! I´m horribly behind on letters... there´s just not enough time in the day, I tell ya what. But I´m working on it, so be patient with me :)
Okay, Bentley is the cutest thing in the world!!!! Oh, I´m gonna die he´s so darling!!!!! I just wanna squeeze him!!!!! Oh, so so so darling. I love all the stories and pictures!! Please keep them coming! Ahhh so cute! I´m just gushing on the inside right now. Take all the pictures you can! And Kels, just go ahead and plan on having another baby in about a year and half when I get home, okay? :)
Glad it´s warming up for you guys! Oh how I envy the fact that you have winter right now... I am beyond excited for the day when it cools down here! Skiing sounds like it was a blast!
I have to admit, I miss the CTM for one reason and that´s I miss getting letters from my cute family throughout the week! It was the best! But, I´m learning to be patient with letters I suppose :) Mom, after emailing yesterday, I got a letter from you!!! We ran into the Elders on the street and it was the best surprise to get a letter! Thank you!!!! I sent one to Missionties today so hopefully you´ll get that through your email in about a week when it arrives there. Watch for it to come through!
Okay, my turn I guess? This week has been good! Really good. It went so fast! But things are definitely getting better. Each day it gets better, I feel more comfortable, I understand more, I speak a little more. Each day gets better. It is definitely still a rollercoaster, and there´s ups and downs throughout every single day. My emotions are very much so closer to the surface here in the field haha :) But it´s great. Everything is going really well.
It´s hot hot hot hot hot here. There were a few days this week where it had to be close to 100 degrees, zero wind, and a blazing sun. Carumba. ´Ta loco. We were a little concerned about fast sunday to say the least, because walking around in that kind of heat all day without water is not safe.... so we prayed for rain, multiple times leading up to the weekend. Let´s just say, Heavenly Father answers prayers! Saturday it rained almost all day and cooled everything down which was the biggest blessing. But it wasn´t a ton of rain, just rained a little here and there throughout the day. Sunday we woke up and everything was still wet and overcast but it wasn´t raining. I figured we were just going to be walking a few houses to make sure our investigators were going to come to church, to the chapel and back and we´d be fine without an umbrella........ Oops! We got to our first investigators house and it started to sprinkle.. we stood under a tree and thought we´d be fine... then we started walking to the next house when I swear the heavens opened and dumped down every drop of rain they had. It was out of control. We rain to a member´s house and were literally dripping when we got there after just a couple of minutes. But, we had work to do, so we braved it, linked arms, and ran back outside to the next house! After talking to all the people and ensuring a way for everyone to get to church we were soaked from head to toe. Literally as if we had jumped in a pool. Everything was wet. So, we laughed our way through the streets back to our house, quickly changed into dry clothes, and went on our merry way to church with wet hair, no makeup, and a big smile on our faces because all of our investigators came to church :) What a day! So just remember, if you ask Heavenly Father for something, be prepared to receive it :)
We are trying hard to turn things around here. And the ward is finally jumping on board and helping us! I think they finally saw that we are actually here to work and want to help this ward, and so we´ve finally received support and enthusiasm from them which is going to help tremendously.
We´ve found some great people here who are ready for the gospel in their lives! We´ve got a good group of people to teach now, which makes the days much better. Still always looking for more though. It´s been great to teach more and see people really start to open up to the gospel.
Dad, you had mentioned something to me in a letter a while back about missionaries in some areas knocking on doors and asking to leave a blessing on their home and just saying a prayer with them. It´s a great way to work because people are more willing to listen to something like that! We do something similar here, just me and my companion, I don´t think many others do this. But we both were blessed with half way decent singing abilities, so we knock (or rather clap outside the gate) and explain we´re missionaries and what we´re doing, and that we would like to sing a hymn for them. So we go in sing a hymn, say a prayer blessing their family, and ask to return another day to share a message. It seems to be really effective and has helped us talk to a lot of people! Any fear I had of singing in front of people is gone now haha.
Other news.... we´re excited to finally have money to be food! Haha we were waiting for our funds to come through forever and the bank is forever away and can only be used on P Day, so we´ve been scrounging to get by. But we have money now so we´re excited about that :)
All is well here in Brazil. It´s all starting to feel a little more normal and a little more like home :) Day by day, that´s the key.
I am grateful and excited to be here. It´s not easy, I promise you that. But it´s worth it. That´s the promise, right? I can already feel things changing within me and I´m excited for this time in my life. There´s some very special people here. I know Heavenly Father is a part of every detail of our lives and He watches over each of us very closely.
I love you, family! With all my heart! I pray for you everyday. I pray you are well and happy and being blessed with all the things you need :)
All my love,
Sister Kane
Can you believe it´s already been a week? I can´t! Holy cow it went fast. So great to hear from you all! Thank you all for your emails and love and support! And to the friends that emailed, thank you!! I love to hear from you as well. You are welcome to email me as often as you´d like, I just can´t reply. I´ll do my best to get letters sent back in reply when I can! I´m horribly behind on letters... there´s just not enough time in the day, I tell ya what. But I´m working on it, so be patient with me :)
Okay, Bentley is the cutest thing in the world!!!! Oh, I´m gonna die he´s so darling!!!!! I just wanna squeeze him!!!!! Oh, so so so darling. I love all the stories and pictures!! Please keep them coming! Ahhh so cute! I´m just gushing on the inside right now. Take all the pictures you can! And Kels, just go ahead and plan on having another baby in about a year and half when I get home, okay? :)
Glad it´s warming up for you guys! Oh how I envy the fact that you have winter right now... I am beyond excited for the day when it cools down here! Skiing sounds like it was a blast!
I have to admit, I miss the CTM for one reason and that´s I miss getting letters from my cute family throughout the week! It was the best! But, I´m learning to be patient with letters I suppose :) Mom, after emailing yesterday, I got a letter from you!!! We ran into the Elders on the street and it was the best surprise to get a letter! Thank you!!!! I sent one to Missionties today so hopefully you´ll get that through your email in about a week when it arrives there. Watch for it to come through!
Okay, my turn I guess? This week has been good! Really good. It went so fast! But things are definitely getting better. Each day it gets better, I feel more comfortable, I understand more, I speak a little more. Each day gets better. It is definitely still a rollercoaster, and there´s ups and downs throughout every single day. My emotions are very much so closer to the surface here in the field haha :) But it´s great. Everything is going really well.
It´s hot hot hot hot hot here. There were a few days this week where it had to be close to 100 degrees, zero wind, and a blazing sun. Carumba. ´Ta loco. We were a little concerned about fast sunday to say the least, because walking around in that kind of heat all day without water is not safe.... so we prayed for rain, multiple times leading up to the weekend. Let´s just say, Heavenly Father answers prayers! Saturday it rained almost all day and cooled everything down which was the biggest blessing. But it wasn´t a ton of rain, just rained a little here and there throughout the day. Sunday we woke up and everything was still wet and overcast but it wasn´t raining. I figured we were just going to be walking a few houses to make sure our investigators were going to come to church, to the chapel and back and we´d be fine without an umbrella........ Oops! We got to our first investigators house and it started to sprinkle.. we stood under a tree and thought we´d be fine... then we started walking to the next house when I swear the heavens opened and dumped down every drop of rain they had. It was out of control. We rain to a member´s house and were literally dripping when we got there after just a couple of minutes. But, we had work to do, so we braved it, linked arms, and ran back outside to the next house! After talking to all the people and ensuring a way for everyone to get to church we were soaked from head to toe. Literally as if we had jumped in a pool. Everything was wet. So, we laughed our way through the streets back to our house, quickly changed into dry clothes, and went on our merry way to church with wet hair, no makeup, and a big smile on our faces because all of our investigators came to church :) What a day! So just remember, if you ask Heavenly Father for something, be prepared to receive it :)
We are trying hard to turn things around here. And the ward is finally jumping on board and helping us! I think they finally saw that we are actually here to work and want to help this ward, and so we´ve finally received support and enthusiasm from them which is going to help tremendously.
We´ve found some great people here who are ready for the gospel in their lives! We´ve got a good group of people to teach now, which makes the days much better. Still always looking for more though. It´s been great to teach more and see people really start to open up to the gospel.
Dad, you had mentioned something to me in a letter a while back about missionaries in some areas knocking on doors and asking to leave a blessing on their home and just saying a prayer with them. It´s a great way to work because people are more willing to listen to something like that! We do something similar here, just me and my companion, I don´t think many others do this. But we both were blessed with half way decent singing abilities, so we knock (or rather clap outside the gate) and explain we´re missionaries and what we´re doing, and that we would like to sing a hymn for them. So we go in sing a hymn, say a prayer blessing their family, and ask to return another day to share a message. It seems to be really effective and has helped us talk to a lot of people! Any fear I had of singing in front of people is gone now haha.
Other news.... we´re excited to finally have money to be food! Haha we were waiting for our funds to come through forever and the bank is forever away and can only be used on P Day, so we´ve been scrounging to get by. But we have money now so we´re excited about that :)
All is well here in Brazil. It´s all starting to feel a little more normal and a little more like home :) Day by day, that´s the key.
I am grateful and excited to be here. It´s not easy, I promise you that. But it´s worth it. That´s the promise, right? I can already feel things changing within me and I´m excited for this time in my life. There´s some very special people here. I know Heavenly Father is a part of every detail of our lives and He watches over each of us very closely.
I love you, family! With all my heart! I pray for you everyday. I pray you are well and happy and being blessed with all the things you need :)
All my love,
Sister Kane
Monday, January 28, 2013
Katie's Jan 28 email
Last week we didn't get an email because Katie traveled from the MTC to Santa Maria. She was able to call and talk to me (mom) for a few minutes, which was priceless. She sounded SO HAPPY and was really excited to be out in the mission field. This is her first email from her area.
Oi familia!!! I am so so happy to finally be able to talk to you and tell you all about life here! Ive got a lot to tell you, not a whole lot of time, and a weird keyboard, so bear with me :)
I am here! It´s real life! I still am a little bit in shock!!
But FIRST! BABY IS HERE!!!!! HE´S BEAUTIFUL!!!! Congrats Kels and Joe!!!! Oh he looks so precious. I want to just hold him and kiss him and love him!! You guys look so happy. Thank you for all the details and stories about it :) I cant wait to meet him! Please give him lots of love from me, okay? Keep sending stories, updates, and pictures! Oh he´s so precious!!! I am so excited to meet him! Congrats again! So very happy for you :) Im so glad everyone is happy and well. My prayers are always coming your way!
Okay... I´ll just jump in because I gotta hurry!
So, I am here! Okay, so we arrived at the airport on Tuesday afternoon and the APs picked us up.. guess who? Ross Pagotto! So strange! Such a small world. Then that first night we met our President and his wife, they are wonderful! Then we met our trainers! Sister Nascimento is my companion :) She is darling. Smaller than me.. for the first time in my life I feel like a giant. She really is wonderful. So sweet. Such a hard worker. She is Brazilian, and does not speak English :) She has been in the mission for 15 months already.. she´s pretty sure this will be her last area. She leaves the week before Mother´s day I believe? She is from Joao Pessoa which is northeast. Side note... my companion in the CTM is going to Joao Pessoa and I´d always tease her because the accent from the northeast is so strange and so difficult to understand. So we were always talking about how difficult it was going to be to get used to that accent and that she was going to talk funny too..... and then I got a companion with that very accent :) Funny. At first it was so hard to understand her because it really is very differenet from the Sao Paulo accent which I was used to. But, now I can understand her better than any one else here! But Im going to talk so strange... Sao Paulo mixed with Northeast mixed with Gaucho.... ooorrr... probably I´ll just have an American accent :)
Anywho, she´s great. So patient. And works works works. Its so good for me. I know Im going to learn a lot from her.
Okay, we are here in Santa Maria. Not in the city itself, we´re 30 mins outside of the city. And, yes, we are opening the area. I don~t know exactly what the elders who were here did, but from what we can gather they didn~t work much. We were left with no direction, no investigators, no support from the ward, and a very very very messy house! (We spent the first two days here just cleaning. Then luckily the mission presidents wife came and saw and sent someone to clean it for us because it literally would have taken a week.. it was outrageous! But a huge blessing that we got help. Now its a great house! The biggest and nicest one in the mission in fact! Its great.) So anyway, we are starting from scratch here! Its going to take a lot of work to turn this place around and to find people, but were going to do it!
Its definitely not like I imagined it... But it´s beautiful! Very diverse... everything from rather rich to dirt poor. It´s been humbling.
The language.... Oh the language.... I thought I was getting by okay in the CTM..... Truth is, they just talk very very slow in the CTM and we only talked about gospel matters which is the only vocabulary I know.... So... that´s also been an adventure! I really can´t understand much of anything. Ever. My companion is a professional, and so personable and is great with the members and everyone we meet. I am doing my best to understand bits and pieces... It´s going to come. I know it will. But right now, it´s just a huge struggle to follow any conversation. I can communicate with my companion fine. But when we´re with other people and they´re just talk talk talking a million miles an hour... I´m completely lost. So I don´t say much then. But, it´s okay :) I´m pushing through it and know that the language will come with time. I just need to be patient!
I logged on to my email and their were a few emails from other missionaries that I read and were exactly what I needed... just about having an optimistic attitude, being humble, and having hope and faith that things will get better. And one about the Savior and everything that He endured during His mission, and when we put that into perspective we have nothing to be complaining about. And we were called to do what the Savior did, and we stand as His representatives, so we need to keep going, work hard, have faith, and serve with our whole hearts. So thats what I´m going to do! Everything will fall into place. One thing is for sure.. I have never prayed so much in my life :) And I have never been so sure that God lives. I am absolutely certain, with everything that I am, that God LIVES. That He is in the details of our lives. He is watching out for each of us at every moment of every day. He is guiding us and pouring out His love to us. I am certain of that. He loves us more than we can even begin to comprehend. He IS our Father in Heaven and we are His children. I have never been so sure of anything in my life than I am of that one fact. I love my Father in Heaven and am more grateful for the knowledge of His love than words can express.
Okay, time is up... I´ve got to go. But I love you with all my heart, cute family! I miss you! Know that I am well. That I have an excellent companion, and that I am in the Lord´s hands. And doing my very best to do the work I´ve been called to do. I pray for each of you every day! You are the greatest examples to me! Thank you for all your love and support!!! I LOVE YOU!!!
Sister Kane
Oi familia!!! I am so so happy to finally be able to talk to you and tell you all about life here! Ive got a lot to tell you, not a whole lot of time, and a weird keyboard, so bear with me :)
I am here! It´s real life! I still am a little bit in shock!!
But FIRST! BABY IS HERE!!!!! HE´S BEAUTIFUL!!!! Congrats Kels and Joe!!!! Oh he looks so precious. I want to just hold him and kiss him and love him!! You guys look so happy. Thank you for all the details and stories about it :) I cant wait to meet him! Please give him lots of love from me, okay? Keep sending stories, updates, and pictures! Oh he´s so precious!!! I am so excited to meet him! Congrats again! So very happy for you :) Im so glad everyone is happy and well. My prayers are always coming your way!
Okay... I´ll just jump in because I gotta hurry!
So, I am here! Okay, so we arrived at the airport on Tuesday afternoon and the APs picked us up.. guess who? Ross Pagotto! So strange! Such a small world. Then that first night we met our President and his wife, they are wonderful! Then we met our trainers! Sister Nascimento is my companion :) She is darling. Smaller than me.. for the first time in my life I feel like a giant. She really is wonderful. So sweet. Such a hard worker. She is Brazilian, and does not speak English :) She has been in the mission for 15 months already.. she´s pretty sure this will be her last area. She leaves the week before Mother´s day I believe? She is from Joao Pessoa which is northeast. Side note... my companion in the CTM is going to Joao Pessoa and I´d always tease her because the accent from the northeast is so strange and so difficult to understand. So we were always talking about how difficult it was going to be to get used to that accent and that she was going to talk funny too..... and then I got a companion with that very accent :) Funny. At first it was so hard to understand her because it really is very differenet from the Sao Paulo accent which I was used to. But, now I can understand her better than any one else here! But Im going to talk so strange... Sao Paulo mixed with Northeast mixed with Gaucho.... ooorrr... probably I´ll just have an American accent :)
Anywho, she´s great. So patient. And works works works. Its so good for me. I know Im going to learn a lot from her.
Okay, we are here in Santa Maria. Not in the city itself, we´re 30 mins outside of the city. And, yes, we are opening the area. I don~t know exactly what the elders who were here did, but from what we can gather they didn~t work much. We were left with no direction, no investigators, no support from the ward, and a very very very messy house! (We spent the first two days here just cleaning. Then luckily the mission presidents wife came and saw and sent someone to clean it for us because it literally would have taken a week.. it was outrageous! But a huge blessing that we got help. Now its a great house! The biggest and nicest one in the mission in fact! Its great.) So anyway, we are starting from scratch here! Its going to take a lot of work to turn this place around and to find people, but were going to do it!
Its definitely not like I imagined it... But it´s beautiful! Very diverse... everything from rather rich to dirt poor. It´s been humbling.
The language.... Oh the language.... I thought I was getting by okay in the CTM..... Truth is, they just talk very very slow in the CTM and we only talked about gospel matters which is the only vocabulary I know.... So... that´s also been an adventure! I really can´t understand much of anything. Ever. My companion is a professional, and so personable and is great with the members and everyone we meet. I am doing my best to understand bits and pieces... It´s going to come. I know it will. But right now, it´s just a huge struggle to follow any conversation. I can communicate with my companion fine. But when we´re with other people and they´re just talk talk talking a million miles an hour... I´m completely lost. So I don´t say much then. But, it´s okay :) I´m pushing through it and know that the language will come with time. I just need to be patient!
I logged on to my email and their were a few emails from other missionaries that I read and were exactly what I needed... just about having an optimistic attitude, being humble, and having hope and faith that things will get better. And one about the Savior and everything that He endured during His mission, and when we put that into perspective we have nothing to be complaining about. And we were called to do what the Savior did, and we stand as His representatives, so we need to keep going, work hard, have faith, and serve with our whole hearts. So thats what I´m going to do! Everything will fall into place. One thing is for sure.. I have never prayed so much in my life :) And I have never been so sure that God lives. I am absolutely certain, with everything that I am, that God LIVES. That He is in the details of our lives. He is watching out for each of us at every moment of every day. He is guiding us and pouring out His love to us. I am certain of that. He loves us more than we can even begin to comprehend. He IS our Father in Heaven and we are His children. I have never been so sure of anything in my life than I am of that one fact. I love my Father in Heaven and am more grateful for the knowledge of His love than words can express.
Okay, time is up... I´ve got to go. But I love you with all my heart, cute family! I miss you! Know that I am well. That I have an excellent companion, and that I am in the Lord´s hands. And doing my very best to do the work I´ve been called to do. I pray for each of you every day! You are the greatest examples to me! Thank you for all your love and support!!! I LOVE YOU!!!
Sister Kane
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Katie's Jan 15 email
Oi familia!
How is everyone doing?! Is there a baby yet?!? I got some letters from Sunday that said not yet... I'm so anxious!!! He needs to come before I leave the MTC so I can get pictures the next day!!! Otherwise I'll have to wait a whole week or more! Tell him to get on it, will ya Kels? :)
How is work? School? Winter and snow? Everything else you've got happening there? I love to hear it all!
Okay I've got a lot to tell you, so I'm just going to jump right in!
First off... LAST P-DAY! Holy cow. Time has flown! I am SO excited and anxious to be leaving. A week from today I'll be sitting in the mission home in Santa Maria... Nossa. We're doing all the greatest things today before we go! We went to a churrascaria (spelling?) today.. it's like Rodizio's but real life. Real Brazilians. Real Gauchos. And much cheaper :) It was delicious! So. much. meat. And that's going to be everyday in the mission where I'm at... nossa.
Next, we got a new companion!!! She was the only one to get a Visa from ALL the people waiting in Provo. She had been there for 6 weeks already. So she was in the same week as us and now we are in a trio! It's been so great. She is awesome. So happy, so positive, so funny. It's been such a blessing to have her with us! Sister Christensen's the name. She's a keeper.
We had an awesome experience last Saturday. Every Saturday night we have a workshop with all the North Americans and it's usually in English. Which is refreshing to say the least :) It's a different workshop every week and we never know what we're going to be doing. So this week we were divided into groups and it happens that they always put the sisters together in their own group. Being that there's, well, three of us here, it was just my companions and I in a group. We had 4 different "investigators" that we were to teach. In English. It was a strange transition at first and we kept accidently saying things in Portuguese. Funny. But once we got into it it was SO neat to just be able to really express ourselves the way want to, to be able to say everything we want to, to not be stumbling over every other sentence, and to just TALK. I LOVE Portuguese, and love learning it, and love teaching in it.. don't get me wrong. But I just cannot yet express myself how I want to in Portuguese, so this was a refreshing night. We got to our last investigator and started talking to him. We went into every lesson blind and had to figure out what each person needed. So we started talking and found out that his wife had died not too long ago and he was struggling so much, searching for answers, for hope, anything, and was completely lost. As he talked to us and we started teaching about the hope of Jesus Christ and the gospel, and that he would be able to see his wife again, there were literally tears in everyone's eyes. We were able to express everything we wanted to, and understand every thing that he was saying which... doesn't always happen in Portuguese. Yet. But the Spirit was so strong and powerful. It was the neatest experience. I sat there thinking "WOW. This is why I'm here. This is why I am doing what I'm doing. To bring people hope! To give them something more in life! To tell them that they really do have a Father in Heaven who loves them and understands everything they're going through. To tell them they have a Savior who can make every wrong right. THIS is why I'm here." My companions and I walked out just in awe and so grateful for that experience. It gave me hope. I look forward to the day I can have that same kind of power in words in Portuguese :) One day... one day. It may have all been role playing, but it made me realize that there are people in Santa Maria who will have real pains like this, and that the message of the gospel will give them real hope like this. I'm SO happy to be here! And it's going to be REAL in just a week!!! :)
Also... it actually already became real yesterday! We went proselyting! We were not expecting to, because it normally happens on week 8 and 9. We're on week 7, but we are leaving on week 8. So we thought we were just going to get jipped and only have one day of proselyting. But they came up to our classroom after lunch and said we were going out in half an hour! We were given 4 copies of the Book of Mormon to give out, and were sent on our merry little way, out into the big scary world of Sao Paulo. It took my companion (only Sister Christensen and I went, because Sister Anderson isn't leaving a week early) and I a few minutes to really grasp that this was real. I felt a little like I was thrown in the hunger games arena where it's like real life but actually it's not and all the people were actually just members who we were going to practice with... okay hunger games is a really bad analogy. Scratch that. It didn't feel real. Better? :) But once we got up our courage and started talking to people it was awesome. Okay.. after the first creeper old man who tried to kiss us and said after we asked if he believed in Jesus Christ, "Oh yes, if two beautiful girls like you believe in Jesus Christ, then I definitely believe in Jesus Christ!" Good grief. So... after him, then it was great :) Also, about half way through the afternoon, the skies opened up and the rain came down! It went from nothing, to pouring in about two seconds. We literally ran back to the CTM and were SOAKED in just a few minutes. So, we changed, grabbed our umbrellas and headed back to slosh around in soaking shoes all afternoon. It was the best! Really, I loved every minute of being out yesterday and being a "real missionary" as we kept saying to ourselves. Also, I have the worst wardrobe and shoes in the world for Brazil. :)
Also... it actually already became real yesterday! We went proselyting! We were not expecting to, because it normally happens on week 8 and 9. We're on week 7, but we are leaving on week 8. So we thought we were just going to get jipped and only have one day of proselyting. But they came up to our classroom after lunch and said we were going out in half an hour! We were given 4 copies of the Book of Mormon to give out, and were sent on our merry little way, out into the big scary world of Sao Paulo. It took my companion (only Sister Christensen and I went, because Sister Anderson isn't leaving a week early) and I a few minutes to really grasp that this was real. I felt a little like I was thrown in the hunger games arena where it's like real life but actually it's not and all the people were actually just members who we were going to practice with... okay hunger games is a really bad analogy. Scratch that. It didn't feel real. Better? :) But once we got up our courage and started talking to people it was awesome. Okay.. after the first creeper old man who tried to kiss us and said after we asked if he believed in Jesus Christ, "Oh yes, if two beautiful girls like you believe in Jesus Christ, then I definitely believe in Jesus Christ!" Good grief. So... after him, then it was great :) Also, about half way through the afternoon, the skies opened up and the rain came down! It went from nothing, to pouring in about two seconds. We literally ran back to the CTM and were SOAKED in just a few minutes. So, we changed, grabbed our umbrellas and headed back to slosh around in soaking shoes all afternoon. It was the best! Really, I loved every minute of being out yesterday and being a "real missionary" as we kept saying to ourselves. Also, I have the worst wardrobe and shoes in the world for Brazil. :)
Okay, I am out of time... I'm not sure if I'll be able to call when I am at the airport.. I'll try! Mom, will you send me a letter through mission ties giving me a few phone numbers in case you don't answer? I actually don't remember any of them... :)
I love you so very much!!! Thank you for all your support and love!! I miss you and pray for you everyday. Be happy, keep working hard :)
Ahh, next time we talk I'll be in Santa Maria!!! LOVE YOU!!! Tchau tchau :)
Sister Kane
Sister Kane
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