Sister Cec

You can send me whatever chacos you want to I don't care. Just anything and whenever.  Also, I LOVE the scripture tabs from Amber, if possible could you send me the regular and the large, I am going to run out soon and they make me just love scripture study. There are two other girls in our district and we are also rooming with them; Sister Sterling and Sister Dahneke.  They are going to Curutiba Sul and Belem so I wont see them, but I love them. I love my companion now too, just took some praying and figuring out how to be around her but she is great and doing really well. SEND more pics of Ivie and Winston, I love them.

A typical day at the CTM-

Wake up at 630 and go to personal study at 715 in the classroom with distrito for an hour

815 breakfast, usually oatmeal and fruit and panini sandwiches

900 class until lunch at 12, we learn grammar, gospel prinicples and teach fake investigators

lunch

class until dinner at 430

usually personal study or language study by ourselves aka distrito goof off and chatting time because we never actually work lol

650 is usually atividade fisica so that's nice and fun and then we go back, shower, go back to the class and study more by ourselves and then go to our bedrooms and read scriptures and stuff

P'day is 5 am wake up and then go to temple at 6, then get back around 1 and shop or do whatever you want until choir practice at 6, then devotional then bed

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MR CHENEYS IT MADE MY DAY THE COOKIES ARE AMAZING I DIED I WAS SO HAPPY AND I SHARED IT ALL. if you got the photo they sent you, you can send it to everyone, and me. I wanna see it.

Can you put my email at the end of the group email because then people can have it?

Also,  I am the only girl here going to Brasilia...and there are only 2 other elders so that's kinda weird... but oh well.

Also if anyone is gonna be set apart soon, they should pay attention. I didn't really cause my mind was distracted but I WISH I had.  I love being a missionary, I love having a name tag. I know it will be hard at times, but somedays I just never want to take off the tag. A lot of us wish that we were in English speaking missions SOOO badly because we just want to go out and preach because we know so much...just a little problem called portuguese, haha. I had to do the veil in portuguese last week at the temple and that was an experience...A little rough but I got through.

OH!! we had splits this week. Minha companhiera spoke NO english so that was rough....but we managed. I finally was able to talk to her our 3rd day. Good practice because we proselyte for reals in Sao Paulo this week...Woohoo! We finally get out of the CTM! It's freezing all the time and it rained for the first time last night which was super cool. Some of the boys claim they've seen this UFO outside a couple times and its actually wild cause we have heard that from multiple people. Speaking of, we got two more elders in our distrito which makes 12 of us total. and FINALLY one is going to Brasilia so yay!!  I just met them an hour ago, they came from provo. Our distrito is wild, in we have such great and chill people, we never do the work. We just have so much fun and idk how but we are still learning portuguese. OOHH and our irmao was telling us about the goliath spiders he saw on his mission....in Brasilia....that eat birds...soo yay. I don't hate cockroaches so much anymore

Love you all, love Brazil!

Sister Cec

Oh yeah, uhm the language was super rough until about Sunday. IDK what happened but I kinda just broke through some barrier and now I can speak and listen and understand pretty much all. I'm sure the Lord will humble me soon about that -  so I will enjoy it while it lasts.

Beginning Of Week 3

So we are going on splits this week ALREADY and minha companhiera does not speak ANY english so this is gonna be a little rough to teach. I had to teach today and I forgot all my notes so I had to do it all on the spot and it actually went really well. I miss French like crazy and keep on speaking it accidentally, portuguese is weird. Good thing I’m sick because it is super nasally.

So Tanner Mckee, big football Stanford star whatever, committed on espn, probably going to NFL, calls up Steve Young, etc, got pooped on last Pday it was sooo funny. He also is having a film crew come in the middle of his mission to show everyone what being a mormon football player is like. Literally gonna be a star and he’s in my district, it’s wild. He is the most humble person I have ever met.

So presidente came and yelled at all the missionarios because apparently people are stealing from the vending machines and each other and having contests so gotta watch out for that.

I fasted for 24 hours and it was SO rough because that was the day they decided to switch up the rice and beans for BRAZILIAN BBQ it was the most difficult thing I have ever experienced i almost died but i made it through

For room check we all either got otimo or perfeito so we got ice cream and dude they go ALLLL out for that it was so nice to have. I am always hungry no matter how much I eat.

We also went to the police station and I got to be alone cause my companhiera didn’t come and got Brazilian IDs which is super hype

Our district is so hilarious but we have issues concentrating so i am the only one who has every scripture and phrase memorized that we are supposed to because we kinda just hang instead of studying. We are trying to work on that though.

I love Brasileroes they are so nice!! you can tell who is Spanish and Brazilian the second you sit down next to them for sure.

Love you all, keep sending pics (they show up super weird here, and are like 5x larger than the computer screen idk why)

Sis Cec

Week 1 - Sister “Suhseel”

A few explanations for her email: 

* she has always wanted Hugh and or I to take care of spiders/bugs for her...  I've been telling her the last few months... "You should take care of those spiders yourself... What are you going to do when you on your mission?"  Her response "Oh no worries, my companion will take care of stuff like that..." read below how that turned out...

 

 

** Mlle Hill is her high school french teacher. 

 

____________________________________

 

 

To sum up my first week I would like to quote a well known novel `it was the best of times, it was the worst of times`

This has probably been, simultaneously, the best and worst week of my life. My companion has definitely been a trial which I was kinda disappointed because it would be really nice to have a good companion in the CTM, but I won't be going into too much detail because I want to be positive. We learned that a companion is either a blessing, or an opportunity to be a better person so I am definitely going to try to be a better person lol. As I get impatient with her, i just remember that in a couple months i don't want to look back and be disappointed in my actions and thoughts. I just struggle because I have to push both her and me, make all the effort, try and learn the language and teach her and tell her what's going on at the same time so it's 2x as hard because I don't have someone who can help me. One day I was about to snap because she just is a little socially awkward and i prayed and the very next second I felt no negative thoughts, only love. I think I am with my companion because I can help her, so i am trying to think of it in that way, not as a trial. My roommates are super awesome though and so is my district so that’s great!

 

 

District!! My district is so great! Our room is the only girl's room, but the guys are so sweet. Our district leader is a quarterback at Stanford so uhm he's like 6`6 and super intelligent, but also really nice. We have a hard time focusing because everyone is just having fun and being hilarious. Two of the elders are from Australia and New Zealand which is super cool. Our elders are amazing. They decided to give us all priesthood blessings. Elder Chambers gave mine and was shaking the whole time, but at the end he blessed me with patience with my companions which is exactly what i needed to have. Everyone was crying at the end.

 

 

COCKROACHES save me pls, i’ve seen 8 and that is 8 too many... omg. Mom there is this cockroach or bug repellant thing that plugs into the wall or something that works really well idk what it's called but I'm gonna look for it here.Funny story... we found a spider in our room so I squished it with my shoe and picked it up and threw it away. no big deal right? well my roommates were actually screaming the entire time because i touched it lol i cant believe i'm the one who has to kill the spiders just because of that. also chacos...everyone has them and they'd be nice to have while out on the mission just as an option

 

 

The language is...ya know. It's a language. Our teachers haven't spoken any ingles at all so it was rough the first day. most people can understand because of spanish but I don't have that luxury sadly. We had to teach our first lesson on the 3rd day we were here and oh boy was it rough, I had to answer all the questions because minha companhiera was too shy to try. If MLLE hill had told me that on my 3rd jour de classe francaise I would've hopped out the window for sure.  One of the sisters told me that the gift of tongues means you learn the language slow enough for it to be a trial but fast enough for it to be a blessing. I’m getting there, we just don't have enough time to do all the goals and memorization so it is real stressful. So stressful they give us stress workshops every week hahaha. I keep getting french, english, spanish and portuguese mixed up and don't even realize it.

 

 

The food is muito bom, I love brown rice and beans and seeing them vending machines stocked up is like heaven. They have the best cookie place across the street too that we get on pdays. They do this finger slapping thing that I am trying to get but i usually just end up hurting myself, tudo bem. Im getting it. It is FREEZING here lol I have to sleep in a sweatshirt wow. not prepared for that, but Im totes ok with it. We will do whatever it takes to see the sun because all the windows in the ctm are like blocked and dark so we are inside all day and it is sad. 

 

 

I will now be emailing on Thursday but still have pday on wednesday because of the massive amount of missionaries starting next week.

 

 

The temples are so beautiful, we went to the campinas (which sounds super inappropriate if you say it right lolol) and the sao paulo. They`re my favorite celestial rooms so far. Also no pics for the next 5 weeks sadly. but we can receive paper mail\

 

 

I’m sick agora, bad bug going around but bless afrin spray

 

 

Love you all

Sista Cecil (everyone pronounces it suhseel

First Letter From My Mission President

Dear Parents,

 

 

Sister Martins Silva and I are very happy to let you know that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil Missionary Training Center.  What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they begin their missionary experiences with us! We will surely take good care of your missionary.  

 

                                                                                                  

The missionaries now have companions and are settled into their rooms.  They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study.  Their branch presidents and wives will meet them this Sunday. These wonderful couples are richly blessed as they work with, motivate, and interview the missionaries assigned to their branch.

The MTC has a physician to care for their health needs. We are also happy to report that the MTC food is plentiful, healthy and very good.

 

 

Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple.  

This will be either Wednesday or Friday, depending on individual assignments.

 

 

Your missionary is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of many others. President Lorenzo Snow said: “There is no mortal man that is as interested in the success of an elder when he is preaching the Gospel as is the Lord who sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord's children".  We love these missionaries as if they were our own.  We will watch over them carefully to ensure they are ready for a wonderful missionary experience after the rewarding time they will have in the MTC.

 

 

We thank you for preparing such a wonderful representative of the Lord.

 

 

Pres. João Roberto Martins Silva and Sister Maria Lucia Martins Silva

 

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:  

PLEASE DO NOT SEND PACKAGESto the Brazil Missionary Training Center. All packages must be sent directly to the mission where your missionary will be serving, not the MTC. If you have already mailed a package to the Brazil MTC, please understand that the package cannot be forwarded to his or her mission and will be returned to you.

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.

“Gone Girl”

Arrival in Sao Paulo Brazil CTM

Oi

I am alive

The flights were fine, I did not get bored at all.  I sat next to Thorderson´s nephew in law in the first flight so he talked to me the whole time. Then the next flight I was with a mom and a 3 year old who talked to me the whole time. I accidently left the Orlando airport and had to re-go through security which took about an hour but I had time to burn. I was lucky enough to meet up with an Elder and so we talked for our 6 hour layover but we were the only missionaries on that flight. We both got bumped up to Comfort so I kinda slept and I just so happened to wake up right as we went over Brasilia so that was super cool! We waited for about 2 hours for all the other 30 missionaries so we could take the bus to the CTM, most of them are guys there were only a few girls. Uhm  no one prepared me for how COLD it is here, I´ve been shivering all day. Also, we go to the temple tomorrow...not having any Portuguese lessons. Our Pdays are on Wednesday for all 350 missionaries so we only get 30 minutes to email so I might not have enough time to email people a whole lot and I can´t upload photos until I am out of the CTM. Everyone on the flight assumed I spoke Portuguese and would just start talking to me which is weird because I am probably the whitest person in Brasil right now...

Love you all! I miss the lake and the dry heat, it´s very humid here

Sister Cecil