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Milanesa Miracle

Milanesa Miracle

11/9/16

What’s up fam!?!  Hope you’re all doing well. Things are going pretty well here.  We got new roommates again, after having a whole week without any, so that was an adjustment.  There’s one that is just..ugh.  I’d tell you about it but it’s a rather long story, & also quite trivial.  I’ll get over it. Now to the good stuff. 2 days after last p-day started out as the worst day I had ever experienced in the CTM thus far.  (Sorry about the structure of that last sentence, Eu nao falo ingles.) The one new roommate that’s been giving me problems decided to flip on the lights to wake us all up, & I was like, “Oh heck to the nao.” (She doesn’t anymore btw)  Then I had to change clothing in the bathroom b/c I was not yet comfortable changing in front of our new friends (& I don’t mean the gnats.) And then for physical activity, we usually play volleyball, but because it rained the night before, the court was slippery & we had to go to the gym instead. Plus the Elder I have been struggling with was on one. BUT THEN…(Brace yourself for tender mercies) FOR LUNCH WE HAD MILANESAS!!! I can’t explain my feelings.  I seriously almost cried. They even had some lime juice w/cilantro to put on it & holy cow. It was probably the best milanesa I’ve ever had. (Sorry Dad. It could also be because I hadn’t had one in ages & it was sent from God.) But seriously, I know it sounds dumb because it was just food but it literally turned my day around. [A milanesa is a pounded out, lightly bread, fried steak- South American staple which we make every once in awhile & one of Aundrea’s favorite foods]  

Anyway, the other day I had an English Fast (where I only speak Portuguese all day or at least did my best.) He would allow me to feel the Love of Christ for the Elder I have been struggling with.  I came to the conclusion that I, myself, do not have the capability to love this kid, but God sure does.  And honestly, the results were not quite what I had expected. As I reflected on that day I realized I hadn’t felt the intense frustration that usually came with hearing his voice.  The next few days were the same. No frustration. Then yesterday, I was watching him trying to explain a question to our instructor, & I thought to myself, “I love that kid.” Then I was like “Whaaaaaaat?!?! So that was cool.

Anyway, I am officially on week 5.  2nd oldest district in the CTM.  Never thought I’d get this far. Time really does fly, even when we are working 15 hour days.  That is not an exaggeration, I counted.  I am just so ready to leave the CTM, in all honesty. I mean it’s great & I love learning but it is the same thing every single day.  Always.  12 hours in a class room. Rice & beans.  Same people. Same Hymns.  Sorry, that was disrespectful.  Every other day we do divisoes (splits), & do member lessons (TRC’s).  The only break is P-day (aka the love of my life) & Sunday, when we have 3 hours of free time. Oh & proselyting, which is also a blast.  Scary but so fun.  I’ll get through it.  The church is still true. I love this gospel & I am forever grateful for Christ’s Atonement so I am never alone, even when I may feel like it.

(Special advice for siblings but for all of us too) Be strong, & of good courage.  Don’t let fear get the better of you.  You are a disciple of Christ & a child of God, & you can do this.  Whatever it is you need to do.  I love you, & I advise you to imagine Christ standing just behind you smiling & giving you an encouraging thumbs up.  He loves you so much.  Your life is priceless to Him, & to everyone who knows you.  You are a blessing to everyone around you & I miss you a ton.  I can’t actually hug you right now so here’s a drawing of us hugging.  Anyway, love ya, hope you’re having a good time.  Love you all! Don’t worry about me. I haven’t been mugged yet. See ya in 17 meses! Love, Sister Evans

 

Oi Familia 10/30/16 & 11/1/16

Oi Familia 10/30/16 & 11/1/16

10/30/16
Oi Familia! This Wednesday, November 3rd, 2016 I will be officially on week 4 of my mission! Time is really flying here at the CTM! Everyone said the first week & a half would be long, but every week after that would just fly at the speed of light, & boy, were they right! Okay, now to fill you all in. First, it is not very humid here. At least, not yet. Second, their storms are CRAZYYY! I love it. Third, the beans did not destroy my body like I thought they would. The only time I’ve been actually really bothered & uncomfortable was today & I have not eaten any beans today. (Which is quite an accomplishment, honestly.) Fourth, the Favellas look a lot like the thing they did in the Olympic show thing, no joke. The houses all look like they’re built on top of each other & it makes a big hill of houses. It’s insane. I can’t wait to teach people there. Fifth, everything is so colorful here! There is so much greenery & beautiful flowers, all the houses are different colors. I look out my CTM window & there are like 8 red & gray roof tops. Downtown, like on our way to the temple, graffiti is everywhere. Except it looks so cool! Usually its words or symbols I can’t understand, but there’s a lot of gorgeous artwork all over the buildings. Most buildings look run down & abandoned, covered in dirt, water stains, & graffiti, but it is so beautiful in its own way. I can’t really explain it. But I just love it so much. Anyway, I got to go proselyting on Saturday for the first times, & it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was so scared but once I got out there I was okay. We started off with this hippie vendor guy from Argentina. He straight out said he didn’t want the Livro de Mormon, but we got to talk to him about what he was selling & where he was from & stuff. I didn’t understand too much but it was enough. We then saw a girl sitting on a stair, & we went to talk to her. We talked for a little about what she was doing & I said I like her shoes. I then introduced ourselves as missionaries & told her a bit about the Book of Mormon. She accepted it, & we even got her reference info. It was so cool. We then continued down the sidewalk that is the size of a two lane road. We decided to pray to know who needs the gospel & mid prayer, we are walking towards a guy & we say “Oi” & he says oi back, & points at our Livro de Mormon & says “Biblia?” We say “Nao, Livro de Mormon!” And I basically told him it is a scripture like the Bible, & it is a history of the ancient people in the Americas & it is another testament of Jesus Christ. He basically was like, oh cool, & took it & went away. And we were like BOOM that’s how it’s done. It was awesome. Then we met a cute little family of 3, mom, dad, & a cute, tiny little baby. The dad knew we were Mormons, & they were so nice. We asked them where they were from & made small talk, & found they actually studied English in school so they understood us pretty well & we understood them fairly well too. We talked to a few other people as well, but they weren’t interested, or we didn’t feel it was the right time. But I still placed all of my LDM’s! Before we had to go back to the meeting place, we talked to 1 more guy. I really didn’t get anything he said except for “Mormons” & multiple wives. I had to explain that we don’t do that, & we believe in only having one spouse. It was hilarious!
11/1/16
I’m one of the oldies now, I can’t believe it! We did divisions again today & I’m in a trio w/another American girl, & a first week Brasilera. It was cool because I have 4 weeks under my belt, which equals RESPECT. And the Brasilera sister is fluent in Portuguese & knows a little English. My other companion is week 3 so we all work well together. It’s nice. Our district is pretty tight now. They’re my other family & I love them. They’re all like my hilarious, loving, & slightly annoying brothers. It’s such a party.
Update: I just got super homesick just now for the first time since I’ve been here. I told you it would be around a month later. What I’m feeling right now at this moment is tired of my district, tired of waking up at 6:30, tired of eating rice, beans, & chicken always, & just tired in general. I know these feelings will go away eventually with prayer & faith in the Atonement but I’m just tired. I just want to be at home on the couch with the fam deciding which movie to watch then only watching 30 minutes because it got too late while we were deciding. I miss you guys a lot. I also really miss sandwiches. Also, having free time.
For the past 2 nights my dreams have had Portuguese in them! My dream self would speak it & others would speak it, & I could understand it! The whole thing wasn’t in Portuguese but there were like little phrases that I know & it was so cool! Also DAD they have actually the best rice pudding on the whole earth here at the CTM. Be jealous. But anyway, please send me letters. Please pray for me. I love you guys, I hope you’re doing well! Keep sending me emails! I may not always respond but I read each one, & greatly appreciate them! Love you all!

KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
KODAK Digital Still Camera
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Bom Dia

Bom Dia

DANG elena is a baller!! tell her that even if she doesn~t like it at first, push through it and before she knows it she´ll be super good. at least that´s my experience here with portuguese. speaking of, yeah i still feel kind of behind on the teaching aspect, because i like write a script to go off of, and i start out with it, but then i go off on a tangent and idk if it~s the spirit and i can´t get back on script because i don´t know how to say things. but usually things go pretty well. we´re teaching 2 fake investigators right now named manoel and lucas. it~s going well, we~ve asked lucas to be baptized and he´s thinking about it as he reads the bom, and maneol is going to church sunday, and aslso is reading the bom. we haven´t done street contacting yet, but we get to proselyte this saturday. we did splits yesterday, and that was way better than i thought it would be. i mostly understood my companion, but once she went off our plan, and asked me to talk about joseph smith and i did! in portuguese! it was cool! i mosquitoes aren~t bad at all, but i´m mostly inside so who knows. but i´ve seen about 20 cockroaches. only one was a live but i about had a heart attack and died. ew. okay listen i really miss movies. and i am actually having physical withdrawals from music. and listening to people whistle and hum and sing ´called to serve´ in portuguese just isn´t cutting it. in fact, i don´t really like that song anymore, as awful as that sounds. my companion is still wonderful! we get 2 new elders from the provo this week in our district. i hope they´re cool. we have one elder that the lord placed in my district to test my patience. hopefully i learn something from the experience, haha but i´m getting better. also the flowers here are so much better here. also the butterflies and the plants and leaves and trees and humans (brasileros are usually super nice). also they don~t use toilet paper, its a big tissure dispenser and we use tissues. its weird but i guess it saves paper and money. i hate cockroaches. I SAW TWO GREEN PARROT LOOKIN BIRDS TODAY AT THE TEMPLE AND THEY WERE JUST CHILLIN IN A PALM TREE LIKE IT WAS NO BIG DEAL AND I FLIPPED BECAUSE A GREEN BIRD JUST FLYIN AROUND WAHHHTT also they were super talkative. so basically the mtc is a party. oh also the showers are filled with gnats always and i feel so weird like they´re a bunch of litle creeps like go away this is the only time i have to myself and i don~t want you here. although yesterday i had a spider buddy in there too. at least its not a cockroach.
any wayyyy, i love you and i hope you all continute to do well! STAY STRONG and also just embrace the suck because that seriously has kept me going this whole time. also when times get tough, and i think can i actually do this? i tell myself that i am not going home because i am NOT FLYING ANOTHER GRUELLING, 10 HOUR, BOWEL DESTROYING, UNCOMORTABLY COLSE TO PEOPLE flight again, and that is what has kept me here. oh and i guess the bringing others unto christ too i guess whatever. but seriously, just keep pushing, because every time you try something new, or complete somehting difficult, you gain a new experience, a new story to tell, a sense of accomplishment, and a stronger resolve that you will need to undertake the next difficult thing. i love you all so much, i´m praying for you! don´t miss me too much because i´m not homesick at all yet and i´ll feel bad if you miss me too much. love you!!!

Plane Ride

Plane Ride

the plane ride to sao paulo was the worst thing of my life ever except
for i sat next to this really nice brazillian man who helped me learn
portuguese and told me a bit about the city. the food tasted okay but
it literally took me a whole week for my bowel system to recover. i
must have just walked too slow, plus i got a little lost. yeah i
actually haave never felt so much peace ever before as during that
incident. it was a great blessing. elder hall and i just explored the
whole atlanta airport, it was actually pretty fun haha. we basically
have it memorized. it was definitley to learn a lesson. i think it was
to show me that the lord keeps his promises, especially in blessings.
at least that~s what i~ve got for now. yeah i didn~t feel i should
call you either. it~s all good. the church travel got us a hotel and
so we stayed there for the night and went back to the airport in the
morning. that~s funny elder hall~s mom emailed you haha. he~s pretty
grea. we still make jokes at eachother about missing class and stuff.
ALSO the plane to salt lake and atlanta i sat by the same people! they
are an older couple from teneesee and were so nice. they definitly
were sent by god, they were christian, and they told me a bit about
their religion because i had told them i was a missionary for the lds
church. they also gave me some wheat thins because i actually had to
check my carry on bag in salt lkae to atlanta because they ran out of
overhead space. so i didn~t have any clothes or anything with me wehen
we muissed the plane. ONTO THE CTM it~s been pretty great here. the
food is delicuios, and i have been drinking guarana like nectar. the
rice and beans is actually pretty good, and my system is doing okay as
well. my companion is sister schultz. she is so great!! she loves
people so easily and is the sweetest thing. i love her. we have three
other brasilera roomates, they are a trio. it is so fun, we tach them
ingles prases and they teach us portugues phrases. its a party todos
os dias. my district is awesome too. it~s all elders except for sister
schultz and i. but they~re cool. except for one. but i~m
learning/praying to love him. I AM ACTUALLY KIND OF OKAY AT PORTUGUESE
like i surprised myself. i speak pretty well, and i can kind of
understand brasileros if i really try and they talk kind of slow. it
has been so fun. we ewent to the temple today, it~s beautiful. ALSO i
love brasilian enchiladas, sorry mom and dad. i have so many pictures
to sen d you but i left my camera in my room because we~re going out
after this and i only have 45 min to email and we can~t have cameras
in the city because people literally run up and steal them out of your
hands. like they sit and watch you with binoculars and then go for it.
so… yeah. anyway i~ll get those to you next week. ALSO sorry for all
the typos it physically hurts me but we have a very short span of time
and this keyboard is in portuguese. i just want you all to know that i
love you so much, and that through the lord, we can have not only
peace, but strength. eu se que e verdade. love you guys! Sister
Evans also i forgot to tell you we have an inverstigator who i s
our instrutor and it~s freakin hard. i do not know how to teach people
the gospel please pray for me AHHHH

Hi Mom, I Finally Made It!

Hi Mom, I Finally Made It!

Hey mom, I finally made it to the MTC! I missed my flight on Monday, and the next one to Sao Paulo wasn´t until Tuesday night. i called church travel and they got me a hotel. i happened to miss my flight with an Elder Hall, so technically he was my first ´companion´ haha. but anyway i~m safe and sound at the mtc here it´s really cool. i´m excited! also, i felt so peacful during the plane mishap, when normally i would have been panicking like crazy, but maybe that~s why prz firmage belssed me that i wouldn´t have anxiety on the plane. i gotta go now, also i forgot dad~s email so if you could email me what it is that would be great. tell the kids hi! love you all!

Sister Evans 🙂
Brazil MTC