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