Love You All

it is so good to hear from you all. i actually prefer letters since it is easier to tell you everything in them. when we email we only get about 30 minutes to email everyone and that is not enough time to write you. but everything is good. the rules here are actually better than provo. last night was raining way to much and so the court for volleyball was soaked so we couldnt play at all. instead i decided to toughen up and go play basketball with the boys. here they dont care if you play contact with them or anything because they trust us to make the right choices. but i did really well. a lot of the boys were shocked at how well i played. i made the most points it was awesome. my quartet i sang in last week to everyone was awesome it went really well. i was so nervous and my leg shook but i did a good job. i am trying to remember everything that happened but it is all in a journal. i will keep writing you letter and now that i know how to send pictures i will being printing out pictures for you guys to have of me. i am not able to send you some through email because like i said everything on this computer is blocked so we cannot really do anything other than get onto email through lds.org. we dont have new roommates and a lot of girls are leaving which is very sad. every week groups come and go and it is very hard for me because i get so close to mostly Brazilians and they leave. so i have a lot of photos with them which is awesome. one elder gave me his tie. he was a good friend and his name was elder chavez which i thought was pretty cool. make sure you write coral for me and just tell her these things that i write in an email. tell everyone hi for me and that they all write my new address since i leave this ctm soon. and really dont want  letters going all over the place. also i am starting to get used to the days of non stop studying it is very frustrating to not know the language very well but i think i am doing a pretty good job of it. we had investigator training which i enjoy because we are filmed while teaching and get to go back and see how we do. i did really well with my companion. i feel kind of bad because i think either i am learning faster than her or i am just going by the spirit but either way i just talk non stop about the gospel and the lesson we are teaching. i will look at her to have her jump in but she has nothing to stay and gives me the i am scared look and so i continue talking. i am glad that i am not shy otherwise i would be struggling here. the weather has been cold the last few days but it feels nice and the rain is cold and feels good. the tress are blooming but sao paulo is such a trashy city that everything smells like sewage in some areas and on the way to the temple there are bums living in cardboard houses under the bridges. our president pointed to the river next to the road and we asked why it was so dirty. he told us its because its not just a river but all the sewage gets dumped into it. it was so gross to find that out. people park about an inch from each other and i ordered some really cool scripture covers for 60 reals which is about 40 dollars. they are custom made out of leather and i have the picture of christ holding the lost lamb carved into the front with sister tiana cesena across the bottom and on the back i have jose smith first vision. on the side it says brasil cuiaba mission which is awesome. also the candy here is delicious and the cocla cola is very sweet. i think i am losing weight. i am in a race with the class to see who drinks the most water and i drink 3 liters a DAY. i am so proud of myself. i cut back on food and just am careful. yesterday was only speak Portuguese day or what the missionaries call the English fast. we do not speak English at all which becomes difficult. i do a pretty good job i think and we make it a game. if you accidentally speak English you get a point and the one with the least points wins. elder merker and i had one point each for accidentally talking once. other than that i am doing great. really glad to be on my mission it still amazes me that i am here and that i am actually doing this but i know that i am here for a purpose. we sing the Brazilian national anthem all the time. you should look it up. it is amazing. i love it and get so excited when we sing it. i love you so much and happy to be here. cant wait to hear from you soon. love you all!!!

love, sister tiana cesena

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom, (Everyone)

 

oi!!! i am so happy it is P day again. i keep forgetting to carry around with me my cuiaba address. i will try to remember it for next week. my roommates left today on their missions so it is just sister adair and i. which is good and bad. there is no brazilian girls in our room any more and now it is just tough. today we went out and bought things found the grocery store so i could get shampoo and stuff like that which is good. while sister adair, elder stevenson and elder pittsenbarger and i were walking some gentlemen came up to us and starting speaking portugues. elder stevenson and i wanted to know what he said. so he and i jumped in and started talking to him. us being dumb missionaries were not carrying around a livro de mormon and told the man to tell us where he worked and we would go back to the ctm and get him one. it was so exciting to be able to give out my first book of mormon. on the way to where we were going to meet the guy, i was writing in the front cover my testimony in Portuguese which was kind of hard since i had no time to think or anything. it was amazing. my district is starting to get along and i am to the point where i am ready to go and start being a missionary. the weather here has been so nice, and the food after fast Sunday was amazing. the funny thing is we fast from lunch to lunch, because in Brazil, lunch is their main meal since they are up all night working. so we have big lunches and small dinners. i drink about 96 oz of water a day. i really want to lose weight so i am drinking more water and eating more fruit. this next letter i send you i will be sending a few pictures with it. finally getting up the courage to speak to people outside these walls is great and i found a place to print pictures for one real which technically is like 57 cents in the US. which is good. i got 41 pictures. oh i love it here. i love the Brazilians i love my mission. oh and i also bought myself some really nice scripture covers that are leather for my livro de mormon. a guy pretty much carves the pictures into the leather and they look amazing. i got Christ holding the lost lamb on the front, Joseph smith seeing god and Jesus Christ on the back and on the side it says Brazil cuiaba mission. and then sister tiana cesena with a til above the n. woohoo. class is getting to the point where i get so bored. one of our teachers is very awesome and we teach him as an investigator which is cool. we have invited him to church and this next week i am going to ask him if we would like to be baptised. its all pretend but good practice. i am starting to memorize scriptures and everything it is awesome. you can look this up. voce seguira, sendo batizado por alguem que possua a atoridade, do sacerdocio de deus. tenemos uma reunia batismal do dia (25, mayo) ok its the baptismal invite it will be hard to look up since i cant spell. also i tried finding you a card to send for mothers day but i cant find any so far. so i want to tell you how proud i am that you are my mother. thank you so much for raising me up to who i am today and for being that example to me. i love you so much and so proud to be called your daughter. you mean so much to me and have done so much for me and i thank you for that. also as a welcome home present a car would be perfect. lol to lighten the mood. but really mom i appreciate you and all that you do for me. i am grateful to be here on this mission and to be preaching the gospel. let dad know i love him and that i miss you all. please send coral a letter for me because i got hers in the mail last week but have no time or money to be writing everyone letters. just let her know things from this letter and that i love her. let everyone know i am doing good, grandma, aunt tt....everyone. I love you all so much. talk to you in a week. boa tarde

 

Sister tiana cesena

First Week In Brazil CTM

Tudo bem!!

I am doing so great. When I flew in I could not believe I was actually in Brazil. The weather here is so nice and the thunder storms are amazing. The raindrops are huge. The language is coming slowly but i am able to speak small sentences now. My Brazilian roommate says. 'nos falamos Portuguese' which means we only speak Portuguese in our room. Which is great because I really need to learn it. We have like 10 girls in our room everynight and just stay up trying to talk. the girls want to learn English so we speak to them in one word to tell them the meaning of something. We also have a girl from Argentina that comes in handy who also lives in our room when I cant understand the Portuguese girl I look at the Argentinean and she speaks in Spanish to me to help me understand. It is a lot of fun. We leave the window wide open and get to leave the ctm all day to shop, eat, just walk around the city. We walked for about 4 hours today.

It was soooo nice! The food is amazing. I never ask what I am eating I just eat it. There was some rice I was eating a couple nights ago and it had a funky taste but I kept eating it. Elder Stevenson was sitting next to me and pointed out that it was different. I found a piece of shrimp and was all like "oh boy was i eating shrimp this whole time," and then Elder Stevenson laughed said there is something else in my rice and pulled something out from under his rice and put it on mine. It was a full squid tentacle! I had been eating squid without knowing it too. Good to know I like seafood now. Last night we had devotional and Elder Quentin L. Cook was here! He had all the missionaries line up to shake his hand. It was amazing. He looked at me and said "thank you so much for choosing to serve a mission." I was so happy. My roommates say I have a good singing voice so I sing every night out of my hinos book (hymn) to them. My roommmates are funny they dont know English but can sing American songs like Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber, with a little bit of Backstreet Boys. One of my roommates Sister Santos ( the Brazilian) cut my hair last night. Just a trim. This week has gone so fast.

We have two teachers everyday, one in the morning and one at night who teach us Portuguese and then we have like 6 investigators to teach and TRC which is where we go and teach people the gospel but we are taped and watch how well we did. It is kinda of intimidating but this last time we taught a family whose grandma just passed away and have a newborn baby, its not a real story but we use that and teach them. It was so weird we went in and I just took off speaking in Portuguese. I would stop and look at my companion and she had the "i am lost" look and I would turn and keep going. I taught for 30 minutes non stop and my companion finally jumped in at the end to bare here testimony but i have no idea how I did it. It was pretty awesome.

The Brazilians here are so nice and welcoming. For gym I play volleyball and play with the Brazilians. Its the more experienced players and it is so much fun. They always want me to set the ball to them so they can smack it. They love it when I serve because it is fast and low. I cant understand them yet and only say "aqui, or descupla, or ta mom!" Which means, "here, sorry, and its good!" They say "ta bom" for everything like "understand, or its good, or i am good". You dont say the "m" you do an "n" sound. (tah bon) and also we say "legal". Like its "legal or cool." (laygawl) with the hang loose sign. We also not snap our fingers but do a thing where are forefinger hits are middle finger to make a smacking noise and you do that when someone did something really cool or something was extremely funny.

Other than that I am fine, bought some coca cola today and 2 soccer jerseys (one for kylie) and a big Hershey's cookies and creme candy bar all for only 50 reals. Which is amazing so technically I spent like 25 dollars in American money. Please dont send packages here send them to my mission. I am so proud to be here and got to go to the temple it was soooo beautiful inside and they got to show us baptismal font. I love you all and hope to hear from you guys soon. Send me letters and pictures!!!! I miss you all and love you all!!!!!! I miss you and think of you guys everyday.

eu amo voce!
Sister Tiana Renee Cesena

Arrived in Brazil & Info

Dear Parents,
We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil MTC.  What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they come through the front door of the MTC for the first time. We promise to take good care of your missionary.
They 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.  The branch presidents and their wives, will soon give them a second greeting.  These couples are rewarded in their callings through the love they always develop as they embrace and watch over the missionaries.
The MTC has a full time live-in physician to care for their health needs.  He is assisted by his able wife. We are also happy to report that the Cafeteria food is abundant 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 Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on individual assignments.
Your very important young person is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others.  We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “ 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".
Please accept our love,
President Ralph Degn and Sister Mary Ann Degn

ADDITIONAL  INFORMATION . . .  

DO NOT SEND PACKAGES to 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 and it arrives after your missionary has left for the field, please understand that the package can not be forwarded to his or her mission and will be returned to you.
WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE SENDING HAND WRITTEN LETTERS. Please write your missionary´s first and last name. Your missionary will provide you with his district and box number. Also, please DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BY FEDEX, DHL, UPS, or other private carriers.  The cost to get this type of correspondence is exorbitant.

Message from Sister Cesena #1

Hey everyone! I am doing soo good! The MTC is so amazing and I have made a lot of friends here. I still miss you all and are constantly thinking and praying for all of you! First things first, do not write me at the Provo MTC anymore. I finally received my visa and going to brazil on tuesday morning. 

Abbys Family: I love you all and hope you guys are working hard making pizzas and having fun. I am thinking about you! 

The work here is hard. learning Portuguese is not as simple as I thought it was going to be. Yes, I have seen David Archiletta and yes he is so amazing and has a great voice! He sang for us last night before leaving on his mission and it was so good. I think he had all the sister missionaries crying. 

The food here is good but kind reminds me of being in a high school cafeteria only with suits and skirts. The girls I am rooming with are pretty much the most awesome girls i have ever met. other than my friends at home. Don't worry I havent replaced you. my roommates and i talk about the most random things. instead of talking about the gospel since we do that 16 hours a day, we find time to take breaks and talk about how to do our hair and other girly things like that. I love them and its fun to talk to them in Portuguese. Portuguese is coming a little easier than i thought but there is still soooooo much to learn. I have seen a few members of the quorum of 12 apostles and it has been great. I saw M Russell Ballard and Boyd K Packer. 

Gym is like the best part of my day. it gives me a break from church and language study and we play volleyball. for those of you who know I have a tie dye shirt i wear all the time. There is a girl from Samoa and she is going to France. Oh My Goodness she is the funniest person i have ever met. she thought i was really good at basketball and volleyball and would call and still calls me sister tie dye. I love it here. everyone is sooo nice!!!! Talk to you all soon! I love you all.

Love Tiana

Heading to Brazil

A little message from Sister Cesena:

"Hey everyone! I am just writing to let you all know that I love you all and that I am so happy to be serving a mission. I will try to be persistent with letting you all know how I am doing!! I am off to Brazil on tuesday so if you're writing me, please use my brazil mailing address otherwise I will not receive your letters until a month or so later. I am so happy to be able to speak Portuguese. It is so difficult, but fun. I love you all!!"


Sister Cesena's Brazil Address in MTC:


Sister Tiana Renee Cesena
Brazil Cuiaba Mission
Brazil Missionary Training Center
Rua Padre Antonio D'Angelo, 121
Casa Verde
02516-040 Sao Paulo-SP
Brazil