This CTM stay is flying by!!!!

This CTM stay is flying by!!!! Yesterday was the halfway mark and its been the fastest three weeks of my life!!! The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days! 

 

 We went proselyting in the center of Sao Paulo this week and it was pouring rain! Even though it was pouring rain and we had no umbrellas, I could not wipe the smile off my face!! I was so excited to be out of the CTM and feel like I was actually going to get to do some work!! I learned that Portuguese speakers mumble when they talk and after 2.5 weeks of a language that makes things hard! 

 

 

I was able to understand enough and I placed three Livro de Mormons in an hour. I felt really bad because I stopped one lady on the sidewalk and talked to her about it and asked her to read the first part of the introduction and she could barely read! I felt super terrible but she took it and said she would read it, so I'm not sure how that will work out, but who knows, miracles happen! We got back soaking wet but it was one of my favorite days!!!

 

 Our schedule here at the CTM is starting to change some. We are having a lot more grammar lessons, doing a lot more teaching, and have more time to just study the language. I really like it but it's hard sometimes. Two times this last week we've had to teach our investigators, then go straight in to sharing a lesson with a member. They are both role play but there is no mercy so its a great way to practice! We can go teach those two lessons for an hour with almost no notes and minimal prep time. It's always stressful and not always pretty but we get a lot of spiritual help!! I know so much more Portuguese in three weeks than my Spanish for three years. 

 

I'm going to get a haircut this week so I'm going to need a lot of prayers!!! And nobody laugh when I send home pictures of what happened after I accidentally tell him to shave me.

 

Didn't turn out too bad!

We went to the Sao Paulo temple this week and it is BEAUTIFUL!!! Everything is a really nice dark wood with some of the most amazing stained glass I've ever seen! I got some really good pictures of the outside as well!

 

 

We have a general authority coming to speak to us tomorrow!! Super pumped to find out who its is . It'll probably be just an area 70 but you never know. I'll send the run down next week.

 

I'm getting better at studying but there have been multiple times during this CTM  stay where I've wished I did something besides have fun and catch up on sleep during high school! I realized I really don't know how to study much more than reading stuff over and over and writing things over and over. If you have study tips or exercises please share!! This will be good training for college though!! 

 

Well a lot of what happens here is exactly the same every week so I don't have a whole lot to share. Once I get into the field this might be more interesting! 

 

One thing that I want to share real fast before an angry Brazilian instructor kicks me off the computer is that Faith is one of the most amazing possessions a person can own. Faith has been one of my favorite topics to study before and after a mission and in this last three weeks I've just learned how critical faith is in EVERYTHING we do! When we have faith the Lord will help us with almost everything and the things he doesn't help you with, you are able to sit back and learn from the situation because you have faith that whatever it is, you're supposed to go through it , and you're going to learn from it.

I love you all and hope everyone is safe and happy back home,

Elder Little

The natural man always turns inward. Christ always turns out.

 

Cameron and his mission companion

 This week was awesome!! I'm starting to understand the language a lot more and actually be able to form a lot of sentences just on the spot! It's slow but it's a whole different language! I'm pretty happy with my progress over all. I have my moments of frustration but I just keep working and don't think. 

 

 

I learned a couple of important lessons this week. #1 is that you should always check inside a public dryer before using it. Especially when washing your whites. I dried six white shirts with a pen this week so I may be asking for a package to meet me at the mission field. Don't send anything yet because I need to see what sizes and all that and there were a few more things I needed.  Lesson #2 is don't eat your nightly snack while taking in the nice view of the city when you're on the seventh floor. I lost it all. Oh- and speaking  of the seventh floor... I'll send a video of me dunking by the time I get out of the mtc. We aren't allowed to use the elevators, so it's all just going up and down seven flights of stairs anytime you want to go any where. It's about 23 steps per flight of stairs. It's a workout. At least it might help me keep the all you can eat feijoada from hanging out too long. I don't want to have to write home asking for more pants too!

 

With President and Sister Grahl

 

 Things with the district and with the comp are great! I get annoyed sometimes when the district is not working and talking about all kinds of random stuff, but its getting better. We had a really good district meeting last night where we just took like an hour and a little bit for everyone to talk about their feelings coming here and what they've dealt with and what they've learned from the experience. It was a great meeting and its going to make the district a lot closer as a unit and grow up a little, too. 

 

"This is Elder Evans' tie on its second mission!"

 

On the topic of how we have felt coming here.... I'm doing great. I haven't really been homesick or having doubts or anything. It's a lot of long hard hours of studying, but its nothing you can't do if you're trusting in the Lord and then putting your head down and doing everything you can. There is nowhere I'd rather be and its only going to get better from here. Part of me is really scared because I haven't hated it. I feel like that means I'm just going to get it in the gut some other time on my mission. I guess I'll just have to keep working. 

 

 

My spiritual insights for the week are a few things. First is we have focused a TON on the Doctrine of Christ. I had never really noticed before what it was when we talked about the gospel. The gospel is Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, The gift of the Holy Ghost , and endure to the end. Everywhere in the scriptures when the prophets are speaking they are always talking about one of those five points. That is what I am going to share to the people of Brasil. I am here to share the doctrine that is necessary to return to Christ. Second is how we come unto Christ. We hear that all the time, but how do we do it? We have to work on developing Christlike attributes. The biggest thing I learned that we should work on is turning outward. The natural man always turns inward. Christ always turns out. Whenever we are offended, or hurt, or having a hard time, look at the reasoning behind it. Try to turn outward and look at how others are feeling and focus on them. As we do this, the light of Christ within us will grow and encourage us to come closer to him. We will come closer to him by following the things he was than by any other way. 

 

I love you all and hope this week goes well for y'all! Send candy.

 

Love, Elder Little

He believes in us and that's the reason He sent me here

I love it here!! Brazil is awesome. It's a big city, which I normally hate with a passion, but its an odd kind of pretty here and its not bothering me much (granted, I've been locked in a concrete prison compound the last 8 days...) I'll get to go out today after I finish emailing. I may not  have much time because we went to the Campinas temple today and I had to go in the second session. Campinas temple is beautiful!! I wish I could send pictures from the CTM. The São Paulo temple is closed this month so I'll keep going to the Campinas temple.

 

The language is definitely hard!!! I'm starting to understand quite a bit but I'm bad at speaking. I need to work on speaking Portuguese more, but I hate doing it cause I'm so bad at it. I should just get over myself and talk a lot more. We have some Brazilian room mates in my room and that helps a lot! It's only been a week so I'm obviously not going to be good in that amount of time, but I know it will come! 

 

My district is pretty good most of the time.  Some of the missionaries haven't figured out they're  missionaries yet and talk about their war stories from the dorms at college and how much they partied and all the girls they kissed and want to interrogate everybody about their stories. It's kind of annoying when I'm trying to have the Spirit and study the language in class, and it upsets me more when they speak so much better than me. I know it'll come so I'm not really stressing about the language. I can keep it in perspective well and I'm loving it!! 

 

Spirit is great here at the CTM and it's super fun. They are long days and I never thought the days would end, but the last three days have gone faster than the first day of classes. How are the Olympics going!??!!!!! I'm closer than anyone and I don't know a thing! 

 

The food here is awesome and there's a lot of rice and beans. I've totally enjoyed it even though I've never liked rice! And I've had a TON of guarana!! Breakfast every morning is ham and cheese paninis and some really good sweetened milk oatmeal stuff. I have no idea what it is but its good!

 

 I need candy desperately!! That is going to help me get through my stay here at the MTC! I don't know why, but just having something to chew on would make things so nice!  EVERYONE says the same thing. The candy store by the CTM is probably the most profitable store in São Paulo. 

 

I had a night where I was super frustrated with the language because we were teaching our fake investigator and I had this huge testimony and wanted to be able to just tell her about the plan of salvation and eternal families and I couldn't! I didn't know the tenses and the words! It felt like I was trying to drink concrete through one of those tiny coffee straws! Even when I did look stuff up and write it down it wasn't everything, and I couldn't answer her questions well. I went back and just said a prayer for help with the language and asked Heavenly Father to let me feel of his confidence in me learning the language. I put together a really good study plan and decided how I was going to go about learning the language.

 

 Just after that when we went to our rooms for the night, I remembered Ashley had sent me like 15 different notes to open at different times and there was one that said `` open when the language is just hard``.  I decided not to open it because it was only like 6 days in. When I was writing in my journal, I just had this strong prompting to go open it. When I opened it, Ashley had written about how we don't know how to speak another language, but God does! We have to rely on Him to learn it and mak e sure we do everything we can. Then she said how God knows we can do this and sent us to Brazil for a reason. He believes in us and that's the reason He sent me here. It was EXACTLY what I had prayed for earlier!! She's an amazing sister and definitely was inspired when she wrote those notes! I cant wait to open the rest!

 

I love it here and can't wait to really get serving the people. But for my time here in the CTM, I'm going to keep working harder and longer and do everything I can to live up to what the Lord wants.

 

Love you and tell everyone else I love them,

Elder Little

Arrival in Brazil!

 

Hey Mom, I made it here safe and tired! I'm companions with Elder Keeler  and we're on the 7th floor, so I'm not going to gain any weight. I actually slept really well on the flight with that sleep spray, but my knee hurt so bad when the morning came around. Good news is theyre going to give us two hours of free time later so we can sleep and unpack. View is awesome I'll send pictures next p-day when I get a chance. My pday is on Wednesday but I wont have it tomorrow since I'm getting to email today. 

 

It reminds me a lot of Jamaica so far! I'm super excited to live here! I actually took a picture of myself and the view out my window and not just my food! I did take one of my plane dinner though. Super impressive!! Well I'll email you next week when I have some news other than my food was good and I got here. Thanks for the note btw.

 

Love, Elder Little