Danny's Letter 11/27/12

Family and friends! Thank you so much for the photos, words and support. Glad your thanksgiving was great I thought about you a lot this week. Love the baby clothes, good taste, I like the black tutu outfit too AJ! Jentri you are looking Pregnant!!! And Beautiful!!! I hope I look half as good as you when I am Prego.

 It is a way different experience living here but I love it, I really do. My companion is amazing and very patient with me. She doesn’t know English at all, so we laugh a lot haha. I feel like a little kid a lot of the time because I never fully know what is going on, where we are going or what people are saying ha. I just trust her and the Lord and know all with work out. So last week was sooo tiring and soooooo great. Every morning I wake up and think okay another day a nothing day of speaking Portuguese, another day or not understanding! ha but I have already learned a lot and Kelly Clarkson has been helping me out and her song "what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger" pops in my head a lot ha. 

So on my first day and the very first lesson we taught a young lady who is a little younger than me the first lesson about the restoration. A member came with us and invited her to be baptized and she accepted. Every day after we went to her house and taught. The second day my companion explained she needs to be married to be baptized she lives with her boyfriend and son and his family She said yes but she had some concerns and we invited them to read the scriptures and pray about it. They did and received an answer they needed to be married :) So yesterday we attended their marriage and Marion´s Baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so amazing and I love her and her family. I am so proud of her she has such a special spirit. It was so amazing and I feel so blessed so be part of a baptism so early in my mission. I am excited to keep teaching her in my very childlike Portuguese ha. 

So the language...is hard. But I keep just trucking a long and learning not to get defended when I say something and the investigator looks at my companion and says, what did she say haha. My companion I think has received the gift of tongues of understanding me, ha. She is so sweet after lessons she will say I understood every word, you did so great! So sweet. I am really grateful for her and I know we are going to be good really good friends. 

So yesterday at the wedding, it is not like the traditional wedding. Sister Braga and I got there at 5:30 in the morning to wait in line and save a spot. Then at 7 Marion showed up then at 10:30 their names got called and they showed their paper work and left us and went into a RV where the office is I guess, for like 20 minutes and then came out and I guess are now married haha. It was fun waiting with them and I practiced verbs and we played with her 2 year old son Pedro. 

Okay so you know how I am good at names, I have lost my talent. The names here are so hard for me, and I never know what is a name or what is a word ha. The other day my companion was talking about an investigator named Olinda, but she was talking very fast and I thought she was saying she was linda, which means really pretty haha. 

Campo Grando is neat, I am not in the city, and most of the roads are dirt roads. We walk a lot and yesterday my shirt was sweating as can be. But no fear I wear sunscreen and we walk around with umbrellas. I am so grateful to be here and I miss you all!!! I wish I was there to give you all hugs but know I am praying for you all. I love me new bed, and I like my color on my walls are very adultish, you can keep it just the way it is ;) No its okay if you paint it. Love you all :) I have so much more to write but little times, I will write more next week. Please pray I will learn the language!! 

p.s. My p-days are normally Mondays. 

So some cultural changes in Brazil or random fun facts:

People here wear shirts that have English words but don’t know what it says or means. A young woman at the baptism had a shirt that said "July noodle mood" haha the shirts never make sense it’s all about how it looks ha. 

Whenever you meet someone and you are a girl and they are a girl you hug and put your checks together and make a kissing noise or they just plant one on your check. I love this culture, it is so loving I wish America was more like that. Also when you say bye you say, "Kisses"

So here in Brazil the plumbing is not very reliable so people do don’t flush toilet paper down the toilet so you have to wipe and then put it in the trash can haha. 

Make a goal to say one very sincere prayer this week where you just bear your heart and ask questions and just talk to God like he is your best friends. I promise he will answer your prayer. 

November 6, 2012

Hey family, okay sorry for the confusion I still have one more week here. I leave the 20th, I am ready to go but it is nice that I will be able to learn more Portuguese before I go.

Sounds like everyone is doing well, thank you for the emails!!!

So this week was another great week. It is weird I am 22 now, it sounds old but I still feel young as ever. I think I will be a young soul for the rest of my life haha. My district is the best, like really I got very lucky. There are 13 of us and the Elders are so sweet. On my birthday, they sang to me, decorated the classroom, wrote me cards, poems and gave me candy. So nice! I felt loved. Thank you mom the Birthday card came on my Birthday!!! Perfect timing.

So last P-day it was so hot, it was little flash-forward to Cuiaba I think. So the streets here are really

super uneven with random steps and pot holes and trash. So last week we are walking from the paper store and I am talking to Sister Grimes and looking at her and I didn’t notice a pile of trash and some tiles on the ground and my foot hits it and slips. I fall smack down on my booty and laugh when I look up there is a man staring at me with wide eyes looking concerned. We get closer to his shop and I am pretty sure he asked if I was okay. I said I was good. We started talking and shared a little about the gospel and then said tchau and when we were leaving he pointed to me and waved his finger and said (know you be careful!) or something along those lines I am not sure exactly ha. Then he laughed and I laughed and said ( Eu estou aprendo caminar em Sao Paulo) then he smiled. So now I know what Bishop meant when he said that you will have opportunities to teach and connect with people through your personality haha. When I left another worker came out of the shop and I saw the nice old man point to him where I fell and then they both looked at me and laughed and I waved and laughed.

So my roommates left with week. They are the sweetest. Sometimes in the CTM I just stop and realize how funny my situations are sometimes. Like sister Correa how is super spunky and is always singing and saying things really loud and fast will say something to be and smile really big, then I will have no idea what she said and say (que? or uhuh) and then she will repeat very slowly and sometimes I get and sometimes I don’t and then she just laughs, haha so funny. Sister Reynose who is from Argentina is so awesome too and she will ask sister correa words to Portuguese to say or sometimes just speak to us in Spanish or both haha. I will miss them they are so sweet. It was so sweet last night Sister Correa had written out her testimony in English and said it to us. It was so sweet and showed me how I sound haha. I will miss them. We get 6 new American sisters tomorrow and

6 more Brazilian sister Thursday, I hope we get more roommates.

So life is great, thanks for all the love and the support.

The word Gospel means Good news, I love that because it is so true, I am lucky I get to share good news every day.

Eu amo vocês!