Questions from Back Home:
1. Have
you heard anything about your visa or where you may be going? We find out this Thursday or Friday where we will be reassigned. I'm still hoping for a visa though! Everyone
in the district has a feeling that one of the sisters will get their visa. We'll see...
2. Any
funny adventures or funny stories this week?
Oh always. Just this morning I locked Sister L & I out of our
room. We were sitting on couches in the lobby doing our
personal study. Then I went inside to change, locked the door, and I
forgot to unlock it. Usually when you turn the handle, the door unlocks
but I forgot. So we waited it out about 10 minutes to see if any of the
sister would come back before lunch, but no
luck. Then we hailed down some random sisters to help us get to the
floor with all the custodians. (we have this little swipey card thing to
get in all the buildings and floors of the residences) So when we got
up to the custodians' office, no one was there.
I used the phone to call the front desk to send a key, but the random
sisters that were helping us out had to go get it for us because we
didn't have shoes or a card. It was a mess. But a fun little experience
overall. Tons of funny things happen, we have
to keep ourselves sane after all. Oh, I also creep on conversations
that I hear in French. Just to make sure I've still got it in my brain.
One day it won't be a huge jumbled up mess in there...
3. Do
you need any more sweaters? I am still looking for a Carolina sweatshirt.
Nope
I'm good I think. I wear my Carolina pjs basically every night &
they are wonderful! You're the best mom. But I guess it depends on where
I'll get reassigned. I'm going
to send some stuff home, do you want anything from the bookstore? They
have stuff in different languages and I can get it with a discount.
4. What
was the best thing you ate this week? BYU Creamery ice cream on Sunday. I had half Graham Canyon and half Coconut Joy. Pure bless, lemme tell ya.
5. Have
you been able to use the camera card adapter thing I sent you? Is it helpful?
I've
just been using my camera cord, but I let a few other missionaries
borrow it because their cords weren't working. So it's been working for
them and they send their gratitude!
6. What
is your typical schedule like each day? Wake
up at 6:00, class from 7-10, personal study from 10-11, lunch 11-11:45,
either language study or an additional study for
a few hours, gym for 50 minutes, we get 30 minutes to change/freshen
up/whatever, study more, class is usually from 6-9, then planning from
9-9:30. Sometimes we have gym in the morning which makes our first class
time after lunch. Oh yeah, and we eat dinner
at 4 every day. By the time we go back to our residence I'm starving.
One of the sisters' mom has sent this awesome coconut cake and yummy
brownies with marshmallows. If you really wanted to show off the family
name and your baking skills I would be perfectly
fine with that. And if Trevor wanted to get in on the action and throw
in some cookies that would be cool too.
7. What
do you do on P-Day? We
go to the temple from about 7-9:30, personal study from 10-11, lunch,
then laundry/letters, personal time (aka nap time), then dinner at 4,
walk
down to the marriot center for choir practice before devotional,
devotional, then we have a devotional review with our district and a
member of the branch presidency. Laundry takes a lot more time than you
think it would. But walking to devotional is funny
because people come outside and take pictures. It's like we're a
petting zoo or something.
8. How
long do you get to be on the computer on P-Day? one hour
9. Have
you gotten any letters from people? Yes
I have! Mama Page sent me one last week and I've gotten a few from
friends from school. I also saw Jeffrey Schilling from University
City ward today in the cafeteria! We were both kinda freaked out. Haha.
But I LOVE LETTERS! They're seriously so great & make me muito
feliz.
10. Do
people send you dear elders or emails? I've
gotten more dear elders than emails. Dad's dear elder to me was
awesome! I really liked reading that. And Trevor should stop
being a bum and tell me hi or something.
11. Do
you have money for flying when you leave the MTC? Yeah I just checked my account at the ATM. All good in the hood.
12. What
account were we going to use for your bank card? Bank of America, right?
Yup.
13. Do
you need anything? Could
you sent a four generation pedigree chart? I forgot that. And also I
was thinking that I could use some weight watchers stuff. Like the book
that has the points for everything and the book you record stuff in. If
it's too hard to get your hands on, don't worry about it though. But I
LOVE the shampoo bars we got at Lush. I can tell those we're a great
idea. I ran out of the mini shampoo bar yesterday,
so I started using the lavender one. Those rock. And every time I use
the stuff from my first care package I just think about how awesomely
wonderful my mom is! I keep the little container of lotion in my
classroom and use it pretty frequently.
14. Have
you heard from Abby? I haven't. I emailed her last week, but haven't heard anything back. Mama Page says she's alive and well though!
15. Do
you have a mission president there at the MTC that you report to? We have a branch president. Our zone and our branch are the same thing. Does that make sense? There
are just a ton of branches and then the MTC presidency.
16. Did
your teachers go on their missions to Brazil, or are they native Brazilians?
So
far we've had a grand total of 12 teachers. And by that I mean we've
had a lot of subs. I think maybe 3 of them have been native Brazilians
The others are people that served in Brazil, Portugal, or Mozambique.
17. Do
you all have nicknames for each other (Elders and Sisters in your district)?
Umm..
Not really. We call Elder W "No Neck Nick", Elder E calls
himself the White Stallion and tells other people to do the same. We're
still not sure why... We called
Sister S "Sister Bonitinha" because she's so stinkin' cute. Turns
out the dictionary lies and bonitinha doesn't mean cute like we thought.
It really means ugly, but only cute in that particular moment. When our
teacher told us that we all almost died laughing!
We we're calling her Sister Ugly but Sortof Cute for about 5 weeks! We
call Elder G smiley because all he does is smile. He's this huge
body builder type and all he does is smile. It's great. So I guess we do
have nicknames for each other! Haha.
18. I
told Dad I feel like you are on another planet. He said you probably feel like you are on another planet. Do you? J Yep.
Every day.
19. Do
you have any questions for us? How
is everyone?! I like getting the dear elders all the time. It's nice to
be in the loop. I won't get that luxury in about a week! AHHHHH!
So last week you asked about the giant candy cane. Yes, it is wrapped in plastic. It's also in this cardboard container
with messages written from about 2 years worth of missionaries.
Yesterday
I bore my testimony in Sacrament Meeting. There were only like 3
sisters that got up, and I was one of them.
It's weird because my first week here was a fast and testimony meeting,
and I remember hearing the testimonies and thinking there was no way I
could get there in 6 weeks. But I did! My Branch President, President
Radebaugh said that he heard the best Portuguese
he's ever heard from MTC missionaries from us. He probably wasn't
talking about me, but I'll take the compliment anyway! Some of the
leader's wives came up to me and said that even though they didn't
understand what I was saying, they could feel the spirit.
Boo yah!!
Last Tuesday we heard from Elder Neil L. Anderson and it was awesome! He talked about love and sacrifice. Then on Sunday Sister L and I watched Character of Christ again, and it was even better the second time!
Our
district decided on Sunday that we were going to speak Portuguese all
day on Monday. We tried really hard that morning, but by the end of the
day it was all
sorts of Portuganglish. Rough. It's hard to stay consistently in
Portuguese when all the elders are speaking only English! I memorized the first vision and am working on James 1:5. S. Lewis says all the time she's so impressed with my memorization skills. I guess I never really thought I was that good at memorizing until I came here and we have to memorize eighteen million different things. All those years in theater and chorus, I guess. Lorna & Magie Mages, that's for you.
You wanted me to bear my testimony, so here it goes. (and my typing isn't all that good. I don't have much time & can't put in all the accents)
Eu sei que Jesus Christo e meu Salvador e Redentor. Eu sei que atraves de sua expiacao nos podemos ser limpo e feliz. Eu sei que a Igreja de Jesus Christo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias e a verdadeiro igreja em terra hoje e que temos um profeta que fala as palavras de Deus. Eu sei que nos temos a sacerdocio de Jesus Christo, a authoridade para fazer as coisas em Sua nome. En nome de Jesus Christo, amem.
Tchau tchau!
Sister Baker
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