Dear Family,
I don't have much time to do this, so I hope you don't mind if this email is all over the place.
I am doing great. I am really liking this whole experience so far. I am currently in a trio. My companions are named Sister Felber and Sister Zeller. We all get along really well. I could see myself being friends with Sister Zeller outside the mission. On Tuesday I am going to be a temp. companion for a Sister Feistner. Sshe has been here for 6 weeks. Her companion just got her visa and will be heading to Brazil. I will still be in the trio, but I will walk around with Sister Feistner before and after classes. We are on completely different levels, so we don't go to the same classes or anything. That's why i'm not going to be her permanent companion.
I absolutely love the Portuguese language. It is so beautiful. The second I walked into class the first day, my Instructor, Irmao Cangelosi only talked Portuguese to me. That's pretty overwhelming, but it's amazing how much you pick up that way. I've already taught two lessons in Portuguese and will teach another tomorrow. As you can imagine, the lessons are pretty rough. Although we have learned a lot of Portuguese in the few days we have been here, not nearly enough to teach a good lesson. I get kind of frustrated because most effort is put into having the investigator understand what we are trying to say. There is no way I can bring the spirit into the lessons yet. I was so nervous to teach the first lesson because we had to after only being here for 2.5 days. Wanna hear what made it worse? The "investigator" is someone I have talked to before on BYU campus. He sat next to me in the math lab and was totally flirting with me. So going in there and making a total idiot out of myself while trying to teach a lesson in a language I don't speak was kinda humiliating. Lessons will get better once I can speak better! And I hopefully won't have him as my investigator the whole time!
My district is really cool. We are all visa waiters, so I am assuming our district is just going to get smaller and smaller as people begin to get their visas.
You should have my address by now, yes? Please post that on the blog and facebook. Getting letters at the end of a hard day is the absolute best.
Yes, I got to see the Christmas devotional. It was great!
Church the other day was quite the experience. all testimonies, prayers, etc. are done in Portuguese. Every week the branch presidency randomly chooses a couple of people out of the group to speak on the assigned topic of the week so every week you have to come with a prepared talk in case you get called. It wouldn't be so bad, but the talk has to be in Portuguese! They really know how to push you out of your comfort zone here!
I am pretty much out of time, but I love you guys. I am doing great. It is hard, but I have loved all the learning that I have done here and the spirit that is so easy to be felt here. I'll write you a letter to explain more in detail. Don't be afraid to forward this to friends and family.
Love you!
Sister Autumn Barnes
No comments:
Post a Comment