New York City!!!!

My Dear Beautiful Family:                                                        August 15, 2013

I write you this evening because we seem to have received our reassignments early. I am not sure why exactly... but they were in our mailbox today and after about 2 hours of serious melt downs from every single person in the district - (as we were not expecting them for another day) we opened them. I don't have time to send pictures today but I'll send pictures and a better letter tomorrow. GUESS WHERE I AM GOING. Guess. Do it right now. Oh, also- I'm totally not breaking any rules right now, they told us we had to give all flight information before the end of today. Anyways... on to it. Remember all the dreams I had before I got my initial mission call? Now I'm just being a horrible person and making you all wait before I tell you... READY?!?!?!?!

I'M GOING TO THE NEW YORK CITY NORTH MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just before we opened our reassignments
and we were freaking out

Is that enough exclamation marks? Because I don't think it is. Do you know HOW many times I dreamed I was going to New York? I dreamed at least 4 times before I got my first mission call, and I've had two more dreams here about serving in New York. JEN - how close is this to where you live? Tom - where in New York did you serve?! I'M SO EXCITED. It's such a tender mercy from the Lord. If I can't be in Brazil - I'm SO excited to be in New York. I sobbed. It's fine. Because of the dreams. But seriously. I've felt sick most of the week being nervous over this reassignment. There's so much emotion behind it because not getting a visa is hard. We have all been nervous and panicking EVERY time someone calls over the loud speakers (cuz that's when they announce visas). It was hard because I have felt needed in Brazil, and I didn't want it to feel like I was just flung somewhere random. I KNOW I'm supposed to be in Brazil someday. But it's not my turn right now and I feel so overwhelmingly blessed to have been given the gift of KNOWING I'm needed in New York too. I don't have a visa simply because the Lord needs me to be in New York right now. I honestly can't stop telling you how blessed I feel. I'm needed in New York and for that I am truly grateful. Besides all that mushy stuff - NEW YORK IS BEEF PACKETING AWESOME. And I'm stoked. AGH I'm SO STOKED.


This is right after opening the reassignment
& I'm freaking out even more!!! :) 
(Sister Cleveland is going to Oklahoma)

Now because they told us to give you flight information - I leave at 3:30 AM on Tuesday morning. My flight leaves UT Tuesday August 20 at 7:10 AM and I arrive (via Georgia) in Westchester NY at 2:25 PM. Sister Cleveland is going to Oklahoma. I'm gonna miss that girl. :( But we're both going to Porto Alegre North someday so, that's very happy. No one else in my district is going to New York so I think I'm flying alone. Which is scarier as a missionary. But it's fine. :)

I'm supposed to have at least $200 in travel fees... could you maybe check that for me Dad?

Anyway... I'm gonna let you go because I'll be emailing again in like... 15 hours. But I love you all SOOO MUCH! I can't wait to talk... write to you tomorrow!! :D :D I hope you have sweet dreams!!! :D

Love,

Sister King

ANDREW!!!!! FINLAND!!!!!!!

August 9th, 2013
FINLAND HELSINKI!!!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! OH my goodness!!! Thank you SO much for sending me the skype pictures of everyones faces, and I tell you what that is EXACTLY what my face did! haha AHHHHHH I have been giddy about that for like 14 hours now. I am SO excited for you Andrew. Thank you SO much for sending me a Dear Elder of your mission call!! I felt like I was opening my call all over again. haha If you want the play-by-play of my exact reaction as I got your letter, it's kind of funny actually. So, I was in my classroom writing in my journal cuz we were done with planning for the day, but we have to stay there until 9:30. My whole district knew I had been waiting for a Dear Elder from Andrew King and my district leader came in with the letters, held my Dear Elder up to the light and said "IT'S ANDREW!!!! OPEN IT SISTER KING OPEN IT!!!!" But I did exactly what I did with my mission call and freaked out a little saying "I can't do it!!!" haha and I didn't even know for sure if you had gotten it yet. So I wrote in my journal "I hold in my hands what could be the answer to where Andrew is going on his mission. I'm freaking out. I can't stop shaking..." And then I held the letter up to the light again and saw you had addressed it with Elder Andrew Christopher King and I yelled out "It IS his call - He started with Elder King!" And then I had the whole district surrounding me as I burst into tears flopped down onto my desk. haha I didn't even cry when I opened MY mission call. Anyways. They were very patient with me. I finally pulled myself together and opened your letter and said the exact same thing I said when I opened my call: "Oh wow." Which was followed by "WHERE?!" from my district. And then I read your letter to them and everyone screamed and cheered for you. And I sat in shock a little bit. Hahah so now you know, I was basically right there with you. :) I am SO excited for you Andrew. I was up way late last night trying to sleep but I was so insanely excited it took me forever to stop shaking! haha I basically screamed it at everyone I knew that MY TWIN is going to Finland on his mission and I am SO EXCITED!!! (Have you gathered that I'm SO excited yet?... I'm so excited.)


Walking around the temple grounds on a beautiful day.

Nothing that has happened this week is even remotely as awesome as my twin brother getting his mission call! haha but I'll still try to tell you some stories. It was a pretty normal week (Besides Andrew getting his mission call). My district got to host new missionaries on Wednesday which was SO much fun! We had about 850 come through, so that was pretty crazy. It was so strange being on the other side of things - as the greeters and one of the 'old missionaries' of the MTC. I don't know if they should have had me be a host because everytime one of my girls would start crying while saying goodbye to her family - I would be biting my lip trying so hard not to tear up too. haha! I wouldn't have trusted a host if she were crying when I came up to her. It's just such an emotional scene - that very first day as a missionary. But they have all been so prepared. It's amazing. One girl I got to host was going to Portugal and her Mom's maiden name is King! She hugged me too and decided she was okay with sending her daughter with me cuz "All King's are good people." haha! I loved it. This sister is gonna be -so- amazing. She was so excited to be there and it made me so much more excited too! I love it. Good experience - and we just got asked to be hosts again this next Wednesday so that will be fun!

The temple has been closed for cleaning but will reopen
Aug 11th.  I really hope we can go before we leave!

Portuguese is going well. As of Monday we were not allowed to speak English anymore, so that's terrifying. haha but no, it's actually been really great. It's actually weird to be writing so freely again in English cuz my brain is constantly wanting to translate everything. We had to do language assessments today which was also terrifying, but it's just so our teachers can see where we are at, and it's not like anything is graded so it shouldn't be scary. But it is. And besides my "Ich komme aus Seattle Vashington" attempt number 1, and my "Eu sou de Sister King" (I am from Sister King) attempt number 2, I did really well! haha and luckily that question was just a practice-and-make-sure-your-microphone-is-working question and I could redo it a couple times. The hardest question was to talk about the Apostasy, and why we still need prophets if the Savior has already come (maybe those were two separate questions... but still). We get like 25 seconds to prepare and then it starts recording. And we use no notes. But anyway, Portuguese is going really well! We've learned a lot of grammar the past few days which has been a little overwhelming to remember it all, and I'm still talking like a 2 year old, but I'm not scared to talk anymore. And I can understand everything our teacher and 'investigators' are saying and I can usually answer all their questions pretty well. So that's happy. :) Once I master those grammar techniques I'll feel a lot better tho. TRC has been really fun. We don't usually get enough volunteers cuz we're right during prime dating time at BYU - so we teach each other and the older districts get taught by the younger districts. It's kinda fun.

Another crazy thing is that we get our reassignments a week from today! I learned from some employees here that reassignments go through the exact same process as the initial mission call. We get put back into the system and we are reassigned temporarily by one in the Quorum of the 12. That actually makes me really happy. haha I guess I always imagined it was just a hired and stressed out employee somewhere having to deal with visas. haha but how's that for 5 mission calls in the family in just 6 months?! haha

Anyways, I love you all so so so much! Thank you for your wonderful emails!! They make me so happy! Andrew - I'm so incredibly excited for you. Being a missionary is the best thing in the world. Honestly, I LOVE being here and I'm so grateful to be one of the Lord's servants during this huge missionary effort. There is so much joy to be found in serving the Lord and in learning more about the gospel and the things He would have us do. I love you all!

 

Sister King

Oi Minha Familia Amado

Oi Minha Familia Amado... Amada? Nao sei. OI!!! Como vai?

I just found the elder who has the picture of me with my fly in my powerade! haha

 

It rained in Provo!!! And we were all so excited that we ran outside to look at it. And well... I ended up in puddles of course. ehem. You can't see the puddle very well, but it's there. I promise.

Well. This week has been ... eventful. Ready? I promise no rules were broken in the making of this next sentance: I threw toothpaste at my companion, she stabbed our roommate, we snuck out of the MTC, and got babies!! HAHA!! Okay, no judging that's just my cliff-hanging opening statement! Which is completely true. But hear me out. I promise I didn't break any rules!

The toothpaste thing is just because I have horrible aim and threw my empty toothpaste bottle and hit my companion instead of the trashcan. I never was good at basketball. The stabbing thing? Well, that's true. She re-pierced our roommates ear which healed up in the first week. EW. All I could think the entire time was "You let Kimmy Gibbler punch a hole in your head?!" So I jump-roped in the hallway and had nothing to do with it (It was during gym time... hence the jumprope).

Now for sneaking out. That was a TOTAL ACCIDENT I SWEAR. Do you remember how we have gym time every day and we go up to the fields and play beach volleyball? Well... Apparently sometimes the field closes! There's this tiny little sign outside the gates which tells you if the field is open or not. Aaaand we missed it. And nobody stopped us. So we were walking to the fields and I was like "hmm... I wonder why no one is playing soccer today!" And kept walking. Then we realized no one was playing volleyball either and that the equipment place was closed. Ehem... So we ran back to the MTC and realized we completely forgot to look at the sign and the field was closed! hahaha OOOOPSIES. So we just did gym time in the actual gym. But not without looking so ashamed as we came back through the gate and waved at the guard! haha I'm honestly surprised more people didn't miss it. We sat and watched the gate for a while to see if anyone else would miss the sign so we wouldn't feel so silly... but no one did. We know now. It only took 3 weeks.

And BABIES!!! Okay, so the MTC bookstore is consistantly out of stock with EVERYTHING Portuguese related. Last night, right before dinner we found out they just got a shipment of mini Preach My Gospel's in Portuguese!!!! So we ate as fast as we possibly could and joined the stampede to the bookstore. And I GOT ONE!!! They had mini hymn books too, but I already have one of those thanks to my wonderful friends at the Maxwell Institute. :) Anyway, we all had mini PMGs and it seemed like the whole MTC was abuzz with people yelling "BABIES!!!" And jumping around like it was Christmas morning. haha Oh the little things...

Anyway... I told you I didn't break any rules! haha it was quite an eventful week though. Another one of our Elders got his visa and left to Brazil on Tuesday! It's crazy... our district is DYINGGG. The sisters outnumber the Elders now and we have had more people get visas than any other district has for a long time. I start to wonder if the consolates are getting faster but I'm just not sure. I don't think about my visa much because I'm honestly so happy being here and I know the Lord will get me to Brazil when he needs me to be there. In fact, I KNOW that. Cuz an Elder in another district just got his visa and he went through the LA consolate. And didn't submit his visa papers until like a week before I did. Meaning, wayyyy after a ton of other people here at the MTC submitted visa papers. He must be needed in Brazil cuz, that's a miracle.

On that note - another REALLLLLY exciting thing this week is that I get to be an MTC host next Wednesday!!!!! I just found out yesterday and I am SOOO excited!! I can't believe I'm in my 4th week. I'm already hosting for the new missionaries and I feel like I just got here yesterday. Honestly, every new week that rolls around just blows my mind. If you don't know, MTC hosts get to stand on the curb and greet the incoming missionaries, take them by the hand (not literally) and help them get their badges, to their rooms, and help them find their classrooms. I'm pretty much stoked. :)

This is in front of our new "free bin" find! Someone found the title of liberty and we hung it on our wall and signed it. You can also kind of see my hair cut. It wasn't very much. ha ha

I truely love being a missionary. On Sunday we got to hear a talk by Elder Holland (a recording from his talk at some other MTC) and it really changed the way I think about ... everything. He talked about the importance of being a missionary and the importance of not wasting time. I only get 18 months, and to waste one of them would be only giving the lord 17 when he's asked for 18. He told us there will be days when we wake up and say "What have I gotten myself into?" And that if we didn't have those... well... we will. And we do. But that if missions weren't hard, they wouldn't mean so much to us. "Salvation was never meant to be easy" he said, and "to reach our Calvary we must sometimes cross through Gethsemane." I loved that. Missions aren't supposed to be easy. He had us reflect on our ancestors and the hardships they went through. My ancestors, the pioneers, did harder things than I can even imagine. And it's overwhelming to recognize and feel their help while we do hard things - different than they ever imagined. This gospel is so real. It's so true. And to work for it brings me the greatest joy of all. I don't know if MTC devotionals can be found online, but Elder Holland's "Missions Are Forever" is one of the most amazing talks I've ever heard.

I love you, my wonderful family! I thank you so so much for your love and support. I don't know what I would do without you!

 

Love,

Sister King

PS.  We had a substitute teacher all last week who is from Porto Alegre! It was kind of awesome to get to hear more about Porto Alegre and to hear real Brazillian Portuguese! His uncle works in some church place down in Brazil and said that the CTM in Brazil has capacity for 600 missionaries, and there are only 250 missionaries there right now because of visas. Also that in years past over 50% of the missionaries in Brazil have been from the USA, but right now only 7% of the missionaries are from the USA cuz visas are so hard. Anyway... like I said, I really don't think about my visa much. I'm not really worried about it. But maybe we just need to pray for hearts to be softened so the work can go forth in Brazil!

Tudo Bem? It's P-Day! P-Day!

Oi Minha OTIMA Familia!
Tudo Bem? It's P-Day! P-Day! Party and Party and YEAH! (ehem... I promise I don't have that stuck in my head. But it IS Friday, so it works. Okay. I'm singing a hymn now.)


Porto Alegre!

It's been a good week. I've so enjoyed all your letters! Thank you so much!!! This week went so much faster than last week did! We were talking about what the topic for Sunday would be and I was like "Wait. Why are you telling us this now? We just wrote talks yesterday." And then I realized it was Thursday and it's time to write talks again! Oh my goodness... speaking of that...

Sundays here are like the Hunger Games. Seriously - hear me out. So, first of all, they only do one shift for breakfast and lunch, so we have thousands of missionaries trying to get cold cereal at the exact same time. It's pretty brutal. (Maybe they do two shifts... I don't really know. But there's definitely 20 minute lines to get cereal on Sunday.) Sister Cleveland and I might start eating vending machine food on Sunday mornings. haha anyways. THEN we have to write talks IN PORTUGUESE. EVERY WEEK. And we don't know if we'll speak until approximately 8 seconds before we're supposed to go up. President Hodges calls two missionaries (the tributes) from the congregation and they yell and scream as they walk to the front to give their talks (not really). Besides that, we're all divided into districts and whatnot and the 'oldest' districts get the best chairs. Hunger Games? Yep. But President Hodges is WAYYYYY awesomer than President Snow. So that's good. :P And nobody has died. So that's good too. haha No, I actually think Sunday is my favorite day. We study all different materials and it's a sweet break. I just thought the similarities were funny. haha

Speaking of dying. I'm finally getting the dorm experience here! haha I did laundry (lavanderia) in a laundromat for my very first time last week. I don't know how I survived 4 years of college without ever having to pay quarters for laundry (We don't use quarters here either... but same idea). Also, the showers. One time the showerhead fell off and hit me in the face. HAHAHA!!! That's definitely a new experience as well. ALSO. Sickness spreads like wildfire cuz we live within like 5 steps of each other. We're all kind of dying. But not really. I am actually so ENTERTAINING right now! I sound like Andrew (which is wonderful... if you're andrew. Or a man in general). haha It's kind of funny cuz I really don't feel sick, but I have a man voice and definitely a cold. So I'm glad Shar sent me with Emergen-C! And I've been taking my vialherbs too. So I'm set. :) BUT speaking of showers and being sick. Yesterday I was in the showers and there are ALWAYS girls singing at the top of their lungs. It's kind of ... well... anyway. I decided to join them yesterday cuz I sound like a man. I sang a beautiful base part if I do say so myself! And every time I'd start singing I would burst out laughing cuz I sound so funny!! I think I freaked them out cuz... typically there aren't base parts in the women's showers. And they stopped singing. Oopsies. Really I'm fine, I'm super blessed for not feeling super sick. And all the other sisters have started getting better, so I'm not far behind!

My wonderful district before the three elders left

It was a really surreal experience seeing all the new missionaries this week. It wasn't as weird last week cuz I still felt so new. But this week I felt so weird. It was weird because somehow this MTC thing is the norm now. I don't feel new anymore and MTC life is not abnormal anymore. I was remembering the day Aaron dropped me off and how long I felt out of place. It was just weird realizing I feel in routine now!

 I did MTC choir this week!! I'll write more later, but it was the best experience. I basically sobbed the entire time. haha I hope to do choir all the time! I love it!

Missionaries leaving the devotional! haha SO MANY! :)

PORTUGUESE! We start TRC today (where people who speak Portuguese can come volunteer to listen to us butcher their beautiful language) so I'm a little nervous. But it'll be good. We haven't gotten to teach much the last few days so it'll be good to be back in the swing of things. I learned a few things. The word for Lawyer is 'advogado'. HAHAH!! And Speech Pathology is "fonoaudiologia" which is just awesome. Also, I learned how to say bathroom. But now I can't stop saying "Bahnhof" instead of "Banheira" or whatever it actually is. Do you know how many times I've asked to go to the train station? But of course no one knows what "Bahnhof" means cuz it's German! It's probably better that way. Apparently I ask to leave the MTC to go to the train station almost everyday. haha! Someday I'll get it right.

The door to our district room, "believe in miracles"! And we all signed it. :) It's pretty great. :)

Awh the life of a missionary. I can't believe I'm telling you all this. But the other day at lunch, I was SO excited because they finally fixed the blue powerade machine and so I got myself a glass, sat down, and this fly landed on my cup. I started wafting him away but he wouldn't leave! At this point I was making a fuss cuz I FINALLY had powerade and this fly was keeping me from it. So everyone was watching. I wafted a little harder, and then - I kid you not - he DOVE into my powerade and started swimming. I guess I can't blame him. But it was a little traumatic, except we were all laughing SO HARD!! I couldn't stop. One of those silent and shaking laughs... you know? I have no idea why it was so funny. But then the next day in class our teacher asked "any good news" and we told him about the fly in my powerade and we were all laughing SO hard again and he was like "oh wow. I miss being a missionary. You guys are so boring!!!" HAHAHAH it was pretty great. So that's probably the highlight of the week! hahah just kidding.

We've started playing beach volleyball with our whole district during gym time, so that's been so much fun! I'm starting to feel some of my middle school skills coming back to me! :P haha It's really great to be outside once in a while, and it gets us outside the walls of the MTC and looking at the temple. haha

All the sisters in my district... don't know where we're goin!

Anyway, things are good. Portuguese has been going well. Our main teacher has been gone this whole week, so it's been tough to have a substitutue, but the sub is actually from Brazil, so it's been good to hear some real Brazillian Portuguese even though we're not in São Paulo. Also - our sub served in Porto Alegre!! He's answered a lot of our questions and one of the first things he said to us was "I hope you speak some German!" MWAHAHAHA! YES! I made like 200 flash cards this week so, that's been a party. We'll see how tonight goes at the TRC. Oh, Mom - you asked about P-Days! Our P-Days last until 5:00. But we get the whole morning and afternoon to basically do what we want. But they still have some things for us to do, like Portuguese assessments on the computers. So we stay busy. :) It's a really good day for a P-Day though so our zone can start getting ... unsick! haha

ahhh I hope you are all doing well! I love you so so much. Thank you so much for keeping me posted with life and the happenings! I have the best family on Earth. It's the truth. I'm gonna try to send some more pictures again, and someday I'll send a recording of me singing Popcorn Popping with a man voice. I sang it the whole way back from Volleyball yesterday and got some ... interesting looks. haha!   Anyways, I LOVE YOU ALL!! Eu espero que vocÊs são feliz e saude. Eu não posso ... wait... até ouvir de vocÊs a próxima semana! Eu te amo! (Thats the best I could do without my dictionary... and without knowing quite how to work the PortuguÊs keyboard. haha I LOVE YOU!) OH! Also, real quck. I can totally get pictures in emails!  I didn't know if I could, but it works! Thank you for the pictures! :D
 I LOVE YOU!

Sister King

Oi Minha Familia!

Oi Minha Familia!
HAPPY P-DAY!!!!! It's my first one yet and I tell you what, it is most needed and well deserved. Ten days of non-stop studying has been exhausting - but so great! My P-Days are Friday (obviously). AHHHH this is so surreal!! I'm so excited to be emailing all of you! We got to get on this morning and print off all of our emails so reading them doesn't count against our computer time! BOOYAH! I love whoever came up with that sweet little missionary help. (: Anyway - thank you all SO much for all of your emails!! They have been so incredibly fun to read and I've really needed all the love.
Things are good here! My companion is Sister Cleveland!

(I told some of you about her, she is Sister Barnes's cousin! Sister Barnes is the girl I blog stalked... ehem...) It's so funny cuz we both knew we would be companions before we even came to the MTC. It's been good. She's from CA and she's 20 - a BYU goer and has had 5 years of Spanish. So she rocks at Portuguese. My District is AMAZING. I seriously love my district. We have so much fun together and everyone is so supportive. We have the best teacher and... yeah... we're pretty spoiled. In just a week we've all become so close and I feel like I've known everyone forever. CRAZY part is that 3 of our elders got visas last week so they leave on Tuesday! We're so happy for them, but there were definitely tears shed cuz it's gonna be so sad to lose part of the district! There will only be 5 elders and 5 sisters then. I live in the same room as the other sisters and they're great. We've had a lot of fun. We decided our motto for the 6 weeks here is "Acredite em Milagres!" which means "Believe in miracles!" and has really helped bond us too. It's been really cool seeing the miracles of the MTC. One of them being how they handle SO MANY PEOPLE!!! haha

The food here is SO GOOD! I have such a hard time deciding every meal between chocolate milk, blue powerade, and POG. It's so cool! And I saw Sarah Workman the other day! It was so fun to see a familiar face! (She works in the MTC Cafeteria.)

The Portuguese is going well!

I have been amazed at the fast pace here. On day 3 I could already understand almost everything that was said in class, and we had to teach a lesson in Portuguese with only 2 and a half days under our belts!!! I was SO TERRIFIED. I pretty much just read straight out of the Preach My Gospel manual which makes for an incredibly boring lesson, but it was supposed to be a half hour and that's the only way we could think to fill the time. haha we've since taught 3 more lessons and on this last one, I didn't have A SINGLE NOTE IN PORTUGUESE!!!! I had a few English notes to remind me what to say, but I spoke for like 15 minutes without any portuguese prompts. It is SO COOL!! haha I can pray and testify without any notes or planning before hand (which is really nice when they start calling on you in class to do those things...) and I don't really get nervous to teach in Portuguese anymore which is a huge blessing. A miracle actually. I'm still horrible at it, I'm sure. But being confident enough to speak with mistakes has been a huge miracle in my life. I couldn't do that for a long time in German. I was tooooo shy! haha OOOH my goodness I can't stop speaking German. It's crazy. I had an interview with my professor em Portugues and he asked me to say the opening prayer. I totally broke out in German and had to stop and think for a bit cuz I couldn't remember Portuguese! He laughed after and I said "Es tut mir leid!" haha OY. That's been rough... but it's getting better. My German now is like "Ich komme de Seattle Washington e Eu gostou kaesa!" haha Gertuguese. Or Porman. It's great. :) The other day, our "investigator" said he would be baptized and I yelled out "JA SPITZE!" and didn't even notice. *sigh* I have gotten better tho. I just need to learn some exclamation words em Portugues. haha I love Portuguese. It's been so fun to learn and it's such a gorgeous language! Keep praying for me that I'll do well with it. It's hard. But I've learned a lot about the importance of obedience and hard work. I work so very hard and the results have been more than what I deserve.

It's pretty surreal being here still. The other day I was watching a devotional by Sherri Dew (on the tv) and some Elders walked in late and in my head I was like "MISSIONARIES!!!" And then I looked down and saw my own tag and was like "woah. That's mine." haha it was so crazy! People will ask my name and I still go "Andrister King... Sister King!" haha It's kind of funny. :P

Trying to look cool cleaning showers

Aaaaa!!  Foam in the face!!

Sleep is a little hard to come by here. We are working so hard for so long that when it comes time to lay down at night my mind is always racing and I'm always trying to remember the million things I learned that day. Most days I wake up singing some song in Portuguese but it always turns out something like what ran thru my head this morning: (to the tune of "Onward, Ever Onward" in Called to Serve) "Quando! Cinco Quando! Pode ler meu gato sim!" Which translates to "When! Five When! Can you read my cat yes!" hahahaha I should learn that song in portuguese. It's ALWAYS in my head and there are always random Portuguese words popping out of my mouth. The other day I woke up saying "Teu amor meu Pesquisador!" Which is "Your love, my investigator." HAHA Where does my brain get these things? Pesquisador is probably my favorite word tho. So that makes sense. Anyways, I got an extra blanket from the custodians and I've been sleeping better now, which is good!

I LOVE getting the Dear Elders. I have loved those SO MUCH!!! It's so so nice to get an email at the end of a long hard day. It's kind of nice to get those cuz I can read them every day and it's same day delivery and FREEEEE so... anyway. I love those. And like I said, there's nothing better than working hard all day and getting a sweet happy note from one of you. But I do get a decent amount of time to email on P-Days as well, so no worries there. :)

Well, it's definitely been an adventure. I love the Provo MTC a lot more than I expected to and I've learned SO MUCH. We've been challenged to read the whole Book of Mormon in the 6 weeks that we are here, so that's been cool. We've also been challenged to memorize like 30 scriptures em Portugues... sooo... that's gonna be hard. But we'll get there I suppose. The temple is closed for almost the entire time I am here (it opens like 3 days before I leave) so I don't get to go, which is kind of a bummer. But it does give us more time on P-day which is nice. haha Some of you asked about sending pictures in email and I really don't think that's a problem at all! We'll have to experiment I guess, but I imagine the MTC lets us open pictures! If not... for sure I'll be able to in the field. :)

I love you all SO SO MUCH. I can't even tell you. Thank you all for being so supportive, for your letters and your love! It means so much. I'm doing well. I'm happy, I'm healthy, I'm learning a TON, and I'm in good hands. Da Igreja e verdadeiro!!!! (I can't do hash marks... the e is supposed to have an apostrophe thing over it...) The time is short, but I'm grateful for my 90 wpm typing from working at Sawtooth!! wooooot!

I LOVE YOU!!
Sister King

Entering the MTC

Aaron & Andrea at MTC drop off

Andrea is a new missionary.  She entered the MTC yesterday.  Since Chris & I are on our own mission in Africa, Tom & Sharilyn and kids took care of Andrea this past month.  Drea had fun with them.  She & Kaydance even made a music video together!  They saw her off on her mission.  Emily & Aaron met her at the place in SLC and Aaron took her to the MTC.  What a wonderful, loving, supportive family.  How grateful I am for them all.

I (Drea's Mom) will keep up Andrea's blog for her while she is gone.  I will post letters she write and pictures she sends.  She is still waiting for her visa to go to Brazil so in the meantime she is learning Portuguese in the Provo MTC.  Her brother Aaron also went to Brazil.  How exciting that they will both be able to speak Portuguese to each other!

Single Digits

Well, the day has come. I have officially reached single digits and I'm FREAKING OUT!!! I'm so so excited!!

When I first got my call, that little countdown said 120 days. And today it says 9. How did that even happen?! If it's already been 4 months since I got my call, this mission is already practically over. Which is horrifying. It's gonna go too fast.

I remember asking a friend how she felt just 9 days before she left. I don't remember exactly what she said, but if she's anything like me (which she is) she felt something like this: 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Yep. That about sums it up.

Today I also finished 100% the Pre-MTC training, and got my final vaccinations for Brazil! What a day... dropped into single digits, completed training, and got yellow fever and meningitis. OY. Or as the Brazillians say: Oi! Which translates to: "I got yellow fever and meningitis today! Hello!" hahah Yeah... I've also been working on Duolingo. Almost to level 5 in Portuguese! hooray!