Letter from Sister Waite- Letter #1

HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I made it to Brazil!!! :D I am so excited to be here! My first reactions for driving through Sao Paulo were little squeels and a lot of pointing to buildings and telling everyone in the car how cool it was that we were here! :D Finally here! Here to Teach! Here to help others the best way possible, letting them know about the Gospel! :D

Right after saying bye to my family, I went to the portal and there was a lady there with two older kids. Her daughter is 27 and her son was 15. (her oldest, and youngest.) She is from brazil and was telling me all about it. She is a member and it was so great! She took me right under her wing... 'Oh sister! Sister! Where are you serving? Come sit by me! Let's Talk!' :D I am grateful for her. I have a picture of her and the family but I'm not allowed to upload pictures here at the CTM. So once I get out in the field I will send a lot of picutres from the CTM!

The flight to Brazil was nuts! so long!!! I sat next to a lady named Michelle, I told her that was a beautiful name, and that it is my Mom's and my middle name. :) She spoke a little bit of English. She asked what I was going to do in Brazil and we had a GREAT conversation about religion. Both of us asked questions about the others belief and how we couldn't believe some people believe other things... It was great.

I love my companions! I met Sis. Stewart at the airport in Atlanta and she is excited to serve too! She is from Ceder City and is one of 14 kids in her family! cool huh! no twins, no triplets, and all from her mom and dad! She is the 9th missionary out of her brothers and sisters. She is a rock! I am grateful for her patience with me and those in our district. Sis. Johnson is from Washington state and is 6 foot 2 inches! She is great! she played ball for utah state and played professionally in Australia! she is really good!

My absolute favorite thing that happened this week was learning to pray in portuguese. I have been feeling really overwhelmed with teaching three lessons within the first 2 full days of being here, knowing zero portuguese. It is so hard to teach let alone carry on a casual conversation when you don't know any of it.  I'm super grateful Sis Johnson has a little background of Spanish, and Sis Stewart picks up really quick, so in the lesson I say the two or three sentances I know and just smile... ;) It's really frustrating NOT to be able to say how I feel, especially HOW I want to say it too... one day at a time, I just need to take it one day at a time. Anyway, I  had it up to the top of my head with this irritation and frustration and just felt like nothing was sticking. Starting to ask 'Why Portuguese?' 'Why Brazil nothing is sticking!' We were in our lesson, learning to pray in portuguese and we had to turn to our companion and say it outloud to practice. I will NEVER forget the feeling I had when I prayed to Heavenly Father, my first time in portuguese. I felt like my chest was about to burst! I felt SO good, and SO warm. I KNOW that Heavenly Father sent the Holy Ghost to comfort me. Right at that moment, I knew that it was going to be hard, and that I was going to work extra hard, but I was in the right place. Brazil IS the place I need to be. I know that God answered my prayer, and he will answer yours too! I am so grateful for the gospel! Just going through this trial of learning a language and pushing myself extra hard, I have never prayed so much nor so hard in my life. I am so grateful to be here at the CTM.

The food is different, but good. (Sis Stewart found a bug crawling in her green salad the second day we were here... haha welcome to Brazil!!! :D)

The schedule at the CTM is intense! We are expected to be here or there at a certain time, on time, ready to go. I love it! Never a dull moment. I ABSOLUTELY love my instructors. We have the same two teachers the whole time here at the CTM. Irmao Costa and Irmao Ramahlo. they are the best! I'm grateful for their patience. When I came in to the CTM, there were 3 sisters and 1 elder. Not enough to make a district, SO they bumped us up to the week two district. So NOW I'm in catch up mode with my companions, and my teachers have been awesome! My district was really hard to get a long with at first, but with time I can tell we'll get a long just fine!

I LOVE being a missionary!!!!! :D :D :D

I love you so much! Please write me LETTERS to the CTM. No packages.

With Smiles, Hugs, and LOTS of love, your favorite Missionary! (I can say that now, cause Greg isn't on a mission yet!)

Sis. Waite