Walk every street, Climb every flight

It's so weird to think I've been here for only 15 days.  It feels like I just got here, and like I've been here for a month at the same time.  P-days aren't actually really restful, Sundays are the coveted days now. 

Update on the stickers, I found out what all the different colors mean.

Red=Learning Japanese

Yellow= Learning Spanish

Blue= Fresh meat.  Arrived within the last week.  Enthusiastic, but terrible Portuguese.  Hasn't had their first p-day and had the chance to buy a cookie.

Those cookies were seriously so good, I wanted to buy every single one.  It was so nice to have an American dessert.  We had an ice cream night on Saturday because everyone got good scores on their room checks.  We almost cried, we were so happy to see actual ice cream. 

I'm still not tired of the food here, so that's good.  I've started avoiding most of the meat though, cuz that stuff looks sketchy.

 (NOTE FROM SONJA:  I asked her what CTM stood for)

CTM is the Center for Training Missionaries, the word order is different here, so it is the CTM not MTC.

(NOTE FROM SONJA: I asked how her clothes are holding up)

My clothes are holding up so far, but I've only washed them once.  Round two is after this email.  The dryers don't work very well though, so that is a little frustrating. 

(NOTE FROM SONJA: I asked what the campus and her room were like) 

 It's all one big building around a little courtyard type thing.  They have a little baby one lane track and some volleyball courts for physical activity hour, so that's been kinda fun.

There are two bunk beds in our dorm.  I definitely fought for the bottom bunk.  I ain't climbing up and down that ladder every day.  No way Jose. Our roommates are so cute, I am really sad that I won't be with them the entire time here, since they leave after just three weeks.

(NOTE FROM SONJA: I asked what her address was) 

I think the mailing address is just the CTM address, with PO box or whatever it is, number 44.  

This week was really up and down, not going to lie.  There's another North American district that arrived the same time we did, and it feels like they're miles ahead of us.  One companionship of Elders likes to make annoying comments about things they already know, or things their instructors do differently.  Most of the time I don't notice the age gap between me and most of the Elders, but sometimes it just slaps me in the face.  I've decided not to let it bother me because guess what?  We all have a long way to go before we're even proficient, so joke`s on you guys.  I finally had to tell myself a couple days ago that I can´t be mad I don't understand words I´ve never heard before.  Sounds obvious, but the struggle is real.

At one point I was feeling particularly discouraged.  I didn't feel that my lessons were going well, my language study wasn't actually doing anything, and that the spirit wasn't there.  The thing was, I didn't want to pray for comfort because I just felt whiny.  Like, of course Heavenly Father cares if I'm having a hard time, but my problems are so small and temporary it would be like he was comforting a toddler and my pride just couldn't take it.  That sounds stupid, but that's how I felt.  As the days passed though, I started noticing so many little blessings.  My comprehension of the language began to grow, I found myself able to respond where before I would falter, I finally put away my notes in lessons and just tried to speak from the heart with whatever words I already knew.  So many things just went right, even though discouraging things still happen.  Pai Celestial knows us better than we can ever really understand.  He's  not just there for the big trials or the big blessings, he's beside us for all of it.  He wants to help is with anything we need help with, even stuff we're too stubborn to admit.

We had this crazy thunderstorm yesterday! The power went out, and we just listened to the thunder. I didn't see it, unfortunately, but the lightning hit a building nearby and the thunder was sooooo loud. We another one a week or so ago, but it didn't last nearly as long as this one, though the power went out four or five times that day instead of just the one. I love the rain, as long as I'm not out in it! 

Another testimony builder happened this week.  Irmão Terenciani was showing us videos of the different cities we would be serving in.  For that brief minute of looking at aerial shots of Campinas, I felt that it must contain all the people in the entire world it was so big.  I felt the sheer enormity of the work that I've been asked to undertake.  Campinas is a speck in the world, and all my mind could do was scream THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!  How am I supposed to make a difference on this Earth when a single city feels like the widest field I could imagine?    I received another little blessing though, when I was asked to give a lesson on humility next week in relief society.

I thought that those videos made me humble.  They didn't.  They made me doubt.  They made me feel like there was nothing I could do that would make a difference in that city.  Fear and doubt are not the same as humility.  Humility means that I have the confidence in God to do whatever he asks me to do.  God has asked me to preach the gospel in Campinas Brazil, and if I have to walk every street and climb every flight of stairs in that city to fulfill that call, then that is what I'm going to do. 

Heavenly Father won't ask me to do something that I can't accomplish without his help.