Beautiful Passo Fundo

Hello Family!!

What another crazy week it has been. It has been an adventure for sure. Passo Fundo is GORGEOUS. Seriously, I feel like I´m in paradise. Also, it is a lot colder here than in Porto Alegre. I´m not sure if I just hit a lucky week or what, but seriously most days were around 20 degrees (C of course) hitting a high of just 30! Bah. It´s been so great. Also, on saturday it rained and lighteninged ALL DAY and I was actually freezing cold. What a weird sensation the cold is! haha It´s hotter today but... man. How weird it was to be cold again! There are palm trees lining the roads and ... bah it´s gorgeous. I´m in the heart of the city again tho! I wonder if I´ll ever serve outside the city! haha 

View from our room

Things have been good. I´ve been trying reeeeally hard to learn the area because next week is transfers. Sister Pasini has already been here 3 transfers so we´re pretty sure she´ll be leaving and I´ll get a new companion. Which is a little terrifying because I will have only had 2 weeks here! Hopefully this week I´ll be blessed (for the first time in my life) with good directional skills and actually know where I am. haha I usually take a whole transfer to become familiar with an area. Anyway... It´ll be yet another adventure. haha 

Agua de coco with Sister Pasini!! SO GOOD! 

It´s been great living with only Brazillians! They are fun and I can already feel myself speaking better Portuguese. At the beginning of last week, Sister Pasini and I didn´t ever really talk except when we had to because... well... I don´t really speak Portuguese. Last night we were chatting and she said (in Portuguese) "You know what Sister King, we wouldn´t have been able to have this conversation a week ago." and it made me so happy! We can - with the help of my awesome cherrades skills - hold actual conversations! haha we read the book of mormon together every day, 2 chapters in Portuguese and a chapter in English. It´s a blast. :) Also, she´s very serious about giving me my language study time, which I am very grateful for.

How many sisters does it take to get my boot off?

I don´t have a ton to report with the people here. In general though - people here are a lot more receptive (can you believe that is possible?) and apparently it´s the "heaven of the mission" where everyone wants to go. :) So I´m happy. The people we´re teaching are wonderful. I can´t call anyone by name yet because ... we´ve only been to their houses like once and when you meet SO many people every day, it´s hard. But I´ll get there. And it´s fun to be able to meet people here and at least kind of talk to them rather than "Oi, tudo bem?" and then thinking: "please don´t ask me anything. Please don´t ask me anything" after shaking their hands. haha awwhhh it´s been fun.

It´s really been weird, I´m not gonna lie. My first in-Brazil transfer feels a lot like my New York to Brazil transfer. All new people, all new place. I guess I didn´t expect it to feel so new, but it´s good. Even the accent here is different! I´m gonna have such a confused accent by the end of this! haha We learned in the MTC the exact accent Porto Alegre had. Here they pronouce milk (leite) "lay-tay" instead of "laytch"... it´s really very strange. haha anyway. It´s good tho. I´m thouroughly enjoying Passo Fundo and I´m gonna love my last week with Sister Pasini (and hope that by some miracle she isn´t transfered!) haha 

I love you all! I hope you are all doing weelllll!! It´s so good to hear from you! Thank you for all the emails and prayers and happiness. :) 

I love you!

Drea

Sis. Cleveland & Surprise Transfer!!

Hello Dear Family!!

Well... this week has definitely been the craziest week of my mission thus far. I´m not even gonna spend time talking about how crazy it was because... well... I´ll just get to it. 

It all started on Tuesday. I was SO thrilled because - do you remember my MTC companion? Well, she´s here in Brazil now and her trainer just finished her mission and went home mid transfer. So that meant Sister Cleveland was without a companion. And the mission decided to put her in a trio with me and Sister Furtado! I was SOOO excited! It feels like forever since I´ve seen Sister Cleveland. So, she arrived and we had a blast. But, her first two days here she was doing all the new-to-Brazil stuff and wasn´t actually with us. Sister Furtado and I worked as usual and were having a wonderful week. Then, on Thursday we had our first day as a trio. It was fun! It was a little strange to teach in three, but I liked being with the two of them. 

At the temple!

Then Thursday night happened. haha We got a phone call and Sister Furtado was in the other room so I answered (though, answering the phone when you know they´ll respond in Portuguese is TERRIFYING cuz it´s impossible to hear what they´re saying. Anyway.) It was the APs and they said "We have bad news" tho I didn´t know it at the time cuz I ... haven´t learned that yet in Portuguese. So I just said "Fala, Elder" and all I heard after that was "emergency transfer" and "pack your bags" and "tomorrow." haha I asked if they meant me, then gave the phone to Sister Furtado while I had a mini heart attack. 

 

Wooden  puzzle I bought of the Plan of salvation!
We can take out all the pieces and put them in as we teach!
How COOL IS THAT?! I was stoked. 

So, turns out a sister is going home sick, and all in 24 hours I packed, said goodbyes and am now in Passo Fundo - o fin do mundo! haha Seriously, it´s the end of the world. It took us 5 hours by bus to get here and is the furthest area from our mission center. It´s insane. I´m in a house with 3 Brazillian people (hahahaha never gets old) who don´t speak English and my companion is Sister Pasini. It´s been interesting. She´s adorable tho and I like her. I just never know what she´s saying. But I will. I will learn SO much faster here because I have no other options but to speak in Portuguese! 

But before I left, I got to go to the temple with Sister Furtado (they let us go because Passo Fundo can´t go to the temple because it´s too far away. So it´ll be awhile before I get to go) and it was SO wonderful. The temple is like our chance to go home for an hour or two before we hit the world again. So so good. And I´ve officially been through the Porto Alegre temple more than any other temple now! haha I said goodbyes to Sonia, Vilson, Andressa, and Marcio which was hard. But we´ll be in touch.

Really, it´s just been the most whirlwind of a week I hardly know what happened at all. I woke up yesterday completely confused and had no idea where I was for like 5 minutes. That´s how fast it all happened. haha Sister Pasini is from Curitiba and has been really fun to work with. We´ve only taught like 2 lessons together so I don´t really know anything yet, but it´s been good. And Passo Fundo is GORGEOUS. You should look it up on a map cuz I have no idea where I am. haha But it´s so pretty and our apartment is 11 floors up so we have NO BUGS!!!! HALLELUJAH!!! That has been a huge relief. 

I miss Sister Furtado, but I´m doing well. It´s a good chance to make a jump in the Portuguese. Sister Wright told me before I left "I feel like we´ve taught you to crawl, and now we´re asking you to run - but we skipped the part about walking!" haha she´s so cute. It´ll be good.

Things are (as you can imagine) rather insane today, so I will be short on email time. I love you all so much though and hope all is well! You are the greatest!!

Drea

20 January 2014

I Love Rain!

Oi Minha Querida Familia!

Esta semana foi ótima. Muito rápido, e bem legal. Wooo!

This week was good. It was kind of a lot of the same ole thing.There were a lot of meetings this week though, so I was with Sister Schumacher 3 days while our companions went to meetings, and went on divisions with other areas. It was crazy. We work well together and we get the job done. It´s just a lot more scary without a native speaker with us. It forces us to have confidence in our Portuguese though, and that´s been really helpful. Sometimes the hardest thing about being here is the fear of speaking to people and having them not understand. It´s so much harder to try when you know you´re with someone who can say it perfectly. I find myself not wanting to teach because I don´t want to mess things up. And because I´m scared they´ll say "entende nada" cuz that´s just frustrating. But... as far as I know, I haven´t done damage yet (and sometimes I make the lessons funnier cuz I mess up words)! haha I can teach the lessons all the way through and I can at least get the point across when they ask questions. The happiest thing is that I can actually understand the questions! haha I know we receive a lot of help with Portuguese on those days when we´re together - and for that I am grateful.

Pretty spot we found while walking to an appointment.
It´s a weird angle because we had to set the camera on the ground. haha

This week was zone conference, which is pretty much my biggest fear. They do role plays and I just fail at those in Portuguese. The whole zone sits in fear while they call out names (am I making another Hunger Games reference here?) of people to do role plays. I got called up to do a "conversational role play" with Sister Schumacher which is TERRIFYING because normal conversation is the hardest thing for me. We both sat there in terror and tried to make lame conversation. They ended up getting someone else to do it... so that was remarkably humiliating! haha BUT I got three letters after so HOOORAY!! That was a happy ending.

Also, I realized what a true Washingtonian I am this week. It´s been raining a bit, and everytime we´re inside while it´s raining, I feel like I´m back in primary. Do you remember that one day it snowed in Sequim while we were all at church? And no one could sit still cuz we just wanted to watch the snow? That was pretty much me alllll day. I just wanted to be watching the rain, or outside walking in it! haha Oh how I love the rain.

The family of Sonia, Vilson, Marcio and Andressa!
All dressed up for sunday! :) So happy!!

Jimmy was confirmed this week!!!!! What a happy day that was. I am so excited for him. It´s been a long time waiting for that day. He´s still confused about some things, but he´s making progress. And that makes me happy. 

Besides that, it´s been a fairly regular week. The days all blur together and before we know it, we´ve made it to another Pday! haha things are good tho. I have the coolest companion ever, I´m in a wonderful area, the Portuguese is... coming... and I´m happy. Thank you all for your amazing emails! I love you so much! I hope all is well! 

Drea

Feliz Ano Novo Familia!

Pictures coming...

I forgot my little dinglehopper to connect my camera to the computer! I had some fun ones this week! (mostly cuz I dressed up like a ninja on new years. haha)

Minha Familia!

Feliz Ano Novo, Familia! I feel as if I could fall asleep now and sleep till the next new year! haha really though, this week was good. :) The new year was crrrazy here! It´s about how Aaron described it on the Christmas chat. I don´t know what fireworks they had going on here, but it definitely sounded more like missels and ... WWII outside. haha people really love lighting things off here! It was an adventure for sure. On New Years Day we were out teaching someone and saw the COOLEST thing! Someone came walking down the road with an accordian, right? That was cool. But they went into this room... building thing... it was like a restaurant of sorts. Just where a bunch of people can gather and everyone can see inside. Anyways, they went to this place and started playing and pretty soon tons of people from around the neighborhood started running to gather here with their own instruments! Pretty soon a whole band had gathered and we had SUCH happy music to accompany our lesson! haha It was a lot like German polka music and it made me so happy! The people we were teaching said that it´s an old "gauch" tradition and happens whenever someone in the community has a birthday or on holidays and such. I was pretty happy to have gotten to witness that! How fun! They weren´t practiced or anything... just heard the music and came to join right in!

Our companionship :) She´s the best.

The Portuguese speakers decided to be crazy,
and the Americans were ninjas! haha I don´t know why...
we just decided to dress up for once. Sister missionary ninja.

American ninjas on new years eve

This week also, Sister Furtado and Sister Loss went on splits with some sisters in another area. That meant that Sister Shumacher (the brand new American in the house - has 3 weeks in Brazil and fresh from the MTC) and I were together for 24 hours to teach and ... be missionaries in Portuguese! With not even two months of combined experience in Brazil. haha we were TERRIFIED. But we had so much fun! It was a good way to see what we´re actually capable of and it was a good way to force us to break out of our shy shells. We taught a lot, and people actually understood what I was saying! haha We sure had help that day.

Yesterday, Marcio and Vilson showed up to church in white shirts (Marcio was in a suit and tie) and Andressa and Sonia were in dresses! Marcio passed the sacrament and Sister Furtado and I almost cried. haha I made them stand in front of the church and took a family picture of them because it was just so happy! I love that family!

It was a good week. We had some rain which was SO refreshing! I forgot how much I love the rain. But I´m trying to enjoy the sun while it lasts. :) I hope you are all keeping warm and healthy and happy! I love you all so much!! Have a wonderful week!!

Drea

PS. 

bahh I forgot something I´ve been meaning to tell you!

Portuguese. Sister Furtado´s accent is rubbing off on me! haha The Portuguese (from Portugal) speak all their s´s with a "shhh" sound. This week during one of our lessons I said "pedimoshhh" and in ENGLISH I said "Shomebody is over there" and "While I was at the MTShee" bahahah ahhh it´s ridiculous! She laughs SO hard every time. Also, this week I got asked if I was from Australia. AND Ukraine. How strange. Apparently my accent is REALLY confused. haha

Anyways. That´s all.