sister gruwell

My MTC days are over so I´m a real missionary now. My first area is Camboriú and it turns out I was called to paradise. We live in the city of Balneário. It´s a huge city on the beach and outside the city are these huge green hills. I´ll take more pictures next week but it looks like they could have filmed Lost here. Every morning we get to run barefoot on the beach for physical activity. I´m truly living a dream. The weather is perfect but it´s winter here so I´m in for a rough summer.  You know how Rio is famous for the Christ the Redeemer Statue? Well we have a big statue of Jesus on a hill too and ours is even better because Jesus shines a light on the city and changes colors.  My trainadora is Sister Patrini. She is so kind a patient; She doesn't speak English so my Portuguese has improved so much this week it's crazy.  In Brazil we eat lunch with the members instead of dinner. They are so nice and they make huge meals with so many different dishes and ...

Last week in the CTM! Crazy. I've been thinking about my time here, and a few different things have surprised me. I'm surprised with how hard Portuguese is. I knew it would be hard, but it didn't really hit me until a few days in. On the other hand, I'm surprised with how much Portuguese i do know. The gift of tongues doesn't make it easy, it makes it possible (I hear that phrase like every half hour but it's kinda true). The biggest surprise for me is how much fun we have here!  I thought it would be like 6 weeks of straight church, and we do learn a lot, but we also laugh so so so much.  the scripture I put on my mission plaque is Alma 31. 34-35 which reads (mom can you just find it for me haha) I've been thinking about this scripture a lot this week since i'll be a real missionary next week! I know that on my own, I would not be able to convert anyone (especially not if I was only speaking Portuguese). However, I know that with the Lord, I will ...

Things are perfect at the Brazil MTC!  We're halfway done and while I love this place, I'm excited it's getting closer. I love this language even if I can't really speak it. It's so fun to teach investigators even if they're fake. The food here is wild. I haven't really known what anything I've eaten is. Top of the list include banana pizza and corn pudding. Sometimes they make American food but it's always so off that it's funny.  One of my favorite parts about the MTC is talking with the Brazilians. It helps the language so much and they're so nice. They love learning English so I've taught them all kinds of stuff this week including "It's all good in the hood", "Risk it for the biscuit", and "what's shakin' bacon?". I guess it's really catching on because an elder in another district told me that a Brazilian asked him if he risks it for the biscuit. I have also learned quite a bit...