Oi! Bom dia!

Minha familia e amigos,

I HAVE ARRIVED! I made it to the MTC! I love it here so far. I've had a lot of fun & have been studying like crazy. Mom, you sent me like a bajilion questions and I'm trying to remember all of the to answer so I'll do my best to answer them all.

First things first, thanks for all the dearelders! I loved them! Especially getting like 6 of them from you mom. And one from dad. Haha that was funny.

Minha companheira- her name is Sister L and is from Oklahoma City, OK. She's pretty awesome and we have a lot of fun together. We've come to the conclusion that we're basically the same person. She just graduated form BYU with a degree in Communications and we have the same sense of humor. I want to figure out how to attach pictures because we took some great ones at the temple last week with a Brazillian flag. We both make crazy faces and tell funny stories and all the elders in the district are like, "Sisters, you study too much. You're going crazy."

So there are six sisters in my district and originally 8 elders. Two of the elders are going to Brazil today because they got their visas. I'm a wee bit jealous. Just a bit. But it's all good because I love being here. The spirit is so strong here all the time! I love it! So all six of us sisters share a room. It's a little cramped, but not too bad. One of the sisters is actually a friend from BYU! It was nice to find a familiar face on that first day, because it was kind of intimidation. Alright so in my district there's Sister L (Oklahoma), Sister M (from BYU - Ohio), Sister V (California), Sister H (Colorado) and Sister S (texas). I know most of the elders' names, but I can't remember where they're from.

You know how they always say the language comes fast? Well it's true! Sister L and I have already taught three lessons entirely in Portuguese! I'm amazed at how fast it's coming. I mean, I still have a long long way to go, but I'll get there. The Lord wants His gospel shared and He's going to help the missionaries learn their languages. It's funny because I thought my French would really help me, and in some ways it has. But so far it is just confusing me. During our lessons, if I would forget how to say it in Portuguese, I would automatically say in in French and our investigator would look at me like I was crazy. So that's kind of hard. But I find myself loosing more and more of my French, which doesn't really bother me. I'm here to learn Portuguese and that's what I'm going to do!

Tonight we have a devotional from Elder Christofferson! AHHH! I'm so excited! And on Sunday we all went and watched Elder Bednar's Christmas devotional, "The Character of Christ." Watch it. Seriously. Everyone. Everywhere. It was AMAZING. It really changed my perspective on my mission. It's not about me or any of the other missionaries really. This whole work is about bringing souls to Christ and I'm just here to stand in His place. Since He can't be here physically on the Earth, I have the priviledge of representing Him and teaching people about Him.

Oh, and here's a quote from one of the elders. Just for kicks and giggles.

Elder E: "The sisters are so lucky they get to wear jewelry. I want to wear a necklace. Like Kanye!"

Oh, silly silly elder. Sister L and I found this cheap gold chain necklace with this huge gaudy dollar sign on it and we're going to give it to him so he can look like Kanye! But not really. Remember, you're a representative of the Lord, Elder....

Well I'm almost out of time, and I still have to email my branch president. But I love you all! Thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers and letters! And Sister Davis- thanks for the letter from the nursery, I seriously melted my heart!

Love you all!

Sister Baker

So I lied. Sorry.  Apparently I get an hour to email! For some reason the computer told me I only have half an hour when everyone else says I can take an hour. I'm not really sure what's going on but I'm thankful that I get more time! So I guess you can just stick this on the end.

I like the food. Sometimes it looks pretty gross, but almost every day they have a place you can get salad wraps and salads, so I try to stick over there. But on Sundays and Wednesdays they have BYU ice cream! Life doesn't get much better than that. haha.

I can wear my chacos around campus, which is nice. I saw a few sisters wearing them the first day, so I figured it wouldn't be a problem if I did. Yeah, my classes are cold. I wear my sweaters almost every day. But they're perfect because they go with everything! So thanks mom! I got cold at night the first few days, then I just snatched up one of the blankets lying in the hallway. But if you REALLY want to, you could sent a Carolina sweatshirt or something. :) Wink wink. But other than that it's all good. I've been using the shampoo bar that we got and I looooove it! I'm not a huge fan of the conditioner, but I found some in the giveaway box in the hallway. So I don't have to buy one! Hurrah!

I'm surprised at how much I've written in my notebooks. I'll probably end up buying a journal before I leave because I'll have the one I'm using all filled up. I'll probably send them home before I leave or something.

Ok. Funny story. So the other day when you sent me my first dear elder I was so so so excited to read it. I had to wait the whole day until when I got home to read it. So hopped up on my top bunk, all excited and whatnot, open the letter and start reading something addressed to Jacob. Ummm... ok? Weird. I turn it over and it definitely has my name on it. I see at the bottom the last few sente

nces of your actual letter and know it's from mom. So... where's the rest of the letter!? At this point, I was a bit frustrated. I thought this letter to Jacob was just recycled paper or something. So I'm thinking, "Well since I can't read my actual letter, I'm going to read this one!" Yeah. Turns out Jacob is an elder in my district and I just read his letter. So awkward. The next day I was like, "So... Elder C. You're family is doing well. Your dad has a high priest group meeting tonight and Jonah is praying for you. Here's your letter that I accidentally read! Enjoy" *cue walking away awkwardly* Yeah. He was like "it's ok. Not a big deal." But I could tell he was a bit freaked out. He's one of the elder's that got his visa, so he was probably happy to get away from the creepy sister. Oh well.

So.. what else is there to talk about?? Umm. We study pretty much all day. Except when we work out. And sleep. Even at mealtimes we're practicing Portuguese.

I've seen quite a few people I know from BYU here. I still haven't seen Katie M, but I've seen my FHE brothers Spencer C and Spencer L, and a few of my coworkers from the Creamery. It's fun to talk to them and catch up.

I still haven't figured out how to attach pictures, but I'll send them as soon as I can!

Let's see.. I think handwritten letters are the bomb.com, soooo anyone who wants to write me a letter should go for it!

Oh! There's one elder in my district that's engaged. Yeah. Engaged. Not just a promise ring. Homeboy's got an engagement ring. Trying so hard not to judge.

And Sister L and I have to cut down on our slang. For every infraction we have to do five crunches. I had to do like 50 the other day. We keep saying that we're going to have rockin' temples of the Lord.

Well, looks like I'm actually out of time. So, until next week! I love you!

Sister Baker