January 17th E-mail

Dear Family and Friends!

Life is good! Life is different, but it is good!

Brazil truly is a cool nation!

The most exciting thing that has happened this last week.......Sister Felber and I got two new roommates! Neither of them speak English! One of them, Sister Conegundes is from here in Sao Paulo, the other, Sister Ferinho is from Mozambique. They are both going to my mission! It has been interesting trying to communicate with them. It was pretty hard at first, but it is already getting easier. It is a little difficult because most of the vocabulary that we have learned is gospel related. It was kinda hard to talk about sheets, soap, etc....but its definitely getting easier. They are really cute and correct me everytime I say something wrong or struggle with a sentence. I like that about them....they are trying to help me!

This week we had to go to the Federal Police Station to get fingerprinted and confirm that we are here in the country. We took advantage of that and did some missionary work while we were waiting there for over three hours.

Today we went to a place called Rodizios....sound familiar? Yeah.....this food was amazing! Chicken hearts, spicy sausage, guarana. Lots of meat! Good thing I am a carnivore! And they had french fries there.....I have missed those!

So....the part of the mission that I was most scared about is almost here! In two weeks I am entering the mission field. I will leave on a Tuesday morning. I was nervous about getting my boarding passes and knowing what to do in the airport, but I will be with Sister Conegundes and Ferinho, so that is comforting to me.

The Portuguese is ok. I still struggle putting sentences together. Hopefully it will come. I know all of the learning is going to happen in the field....but its scary to go into the field not knowing the language very well! Pray for me! I have noticed that I have excelled faster than some missionaries in the language, but then there are other missionaries who are excelling much faster than I am as well.

We got a new MTC President this week. His name is President Degn (not exactly sure how that is spelled). He seems really cool. His wife is super friendly. I like them a lot. It will be fun to see what my Mission President and wife will be like.

I went to the temple again today. So much fun! I almost died about 5 times on the way there and back though. When I am in the middle of bus or van, I dont get too freaked out by the traffic, but today I sat in the very front of the van.....and being in the front of the van is a lot scarier. Crazy drivers!

I have loved all of the learning I have been experiencing here. It can be exhausting at times, but I love it. One thing I have learned as I have been here.....the scriptures truly answer every question in life. Any question that an investigator throws out can be answered in the scriptures. I know they were written for our day and contain the word of God.

I love you all! This church is true!

Sister Autumn Barnes

P. S. The weather is really warm! I dont really notice the humidity.....but it rains a lot!

Tell people if they want to write me within the next couple of days to start mailing to my mission address.