Dear Mom and Dad,
Before i begin telling you about my adventures, can
somebody tell me why the word suave, as in to be smooth, is
bad? We were eating dinner with a family and their daughter
kept sneaking dessert while her mom was turned around. I told
she was smooth, as in, as in she had sneaky skills enough to
get away with eating dessert. My companion Sister Castro asked
who taught me the word smooth and then asked that I never
repeat it. I thought you could say that, oops.
I found out Monday of last week that I was leaving the
next day for Brazil. There was one other sister living in our
house that was also going to Brasil, she was the only other
person to receive their visa. I managed to pack pretty fast,
but she had a lot of stuff. It took 3 people a whole day to
help her finish. I just tried to stay calm so that she would
stop worrying. We took a direct flight from JFK airport to Sao
Paulo and then waited a few hours in Sao Paulo for a 1 hour
connecting flight to Ribeirao Preto. The office elders met us
at the airport. Apparently they had just barely found out we
were coming too. They took us to the mission office where we
received a huge welcome from several more office elders and a
few sisters that I would soon come to find out would be our
companions. We met President Prieto and his wife, who speak
absolutely no English and are finish their time serving here
this week. President Brum should be arriving this week. We
never went to the mission home. I guess President Prieto
doesn't do that because my companion has never been there
either. We received our assignments right away, got a bit of
training, and off we went. My companion is Sister Castro.
She's from Sao Paulo....she doesn't really speak English
either. What an adventure. I'm praying for the gift of
communication with my companion; so far its going alright.
We were supposed to catch a bus to Penapolis when I
arrived a Wednesday, but my companion lost her photo id....
She tried to explain to the bus driver that she was Brazilian.
He didn't really care: no photo id, no bus. End of story. I
was good though with my American id, which I was super
grateful to have. Thanks mom and dad. I'll be taking buses a
lot, so I'm going to need that. We spent the night with Sister
Training Leaders and attended the wedding of one of their
investigators. Oh, I arrived on the birthday of Ribeirao
Preto. The ward had a party to celebrate. So in my first 2
days, I attended a wedding and a huge ward party.
I'm learning to speak Portuguese. Its an adventure.
The hardest parts are remembering the doctrine while trying to
explain in Portuguese and understanding peoples'
names/relationships. I forget everyone's names because they
are way different and because they say them in Portuguese. We
are teaching an 8 year old girl and I said her name like 30
times, and every time I said her name, she said I was wrong.
Sister Castro finally stepped in and said it was because I had
an accent. We taught this wonderful little girl last night at
what I thought was her house, with her family. We taught the
Restoration; she has an amazing testimony. Her mother shared
her testimony, it was a great lesson. I came to find out
thought, that she actually lived in the house behind them and
it was actually her neighbor's mom that was sharing her
testimony. We were having a lesson with a member president!
Boy was I confused. It happens a lot (well, a lot for one
week).
We eat lunch with a different family everyday. We
don't eat a whole lot other than that. Brazilians basically
eat a huge lunch, and then crackers and juice for whatever
other meal they want. Which explains why people always tell
the missionaries to eat more! eat more! Its because its your
only real meal of the day. Don't worry though, I get enough to
eat. I just watched the broadcast from President Monson. And,
I should have another 40 minutes of email. But, I have just
been informed that I need to finish now. My companion says
were leaving. I' not really sure why, but apparently I'm
supposed to be done already. I'm super confused at the moment,
but I love you. My companion is amazing. I have a testimony. I
kind of-ish, sort of understand Portuguese.
I love you both.
Sister Hoggan
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