OLA! I am in BRAZIL right now. WHATTTT?! Brazil is great. I really like the people here and the culture is awesome. I really miss the CoCoSprings though... My first night here was really hard. I realized that I definitely do not know Portuguese and even if I did, I would not be able to understand what the Brazilians are saying because they talk so fast!
Love you all,
Tuesday:
On the plane, I met two Brazilians, N and M (she was at LEAST 140 years old, I swear). They were both really nice and asked me questions about the church and I responded the best way that I could, but the language barrier is rough. Another rough thing? spending 11 hours on a plane... woof. Not my preferred location for sleeping, but I made the best of it. When I got off the plane, I got into the foreigners line and waited for like two hours for them to check my passport, visa and whatnot. Then I met the rep from the mission office and waited for the other missionaries to arrive. (PS, I ended up flying by myself, I was the only one who flew into Dallas, so I was without a companion for a whole day!!) Anyways, SISTER C CAME! And we had a great little reunion in the airport with a few others that I knew from the MTC, but Sister C and I were the only Sisters.
We all hopped in a big van outside the airport and began the trek to the mission home to meet Pres/Sis T. LET ME TELL YOU, it is a wonder I didn't die. Brazilians are insane drivers. They don't follow speed limits and weave in and out of the lane, and on top of that, there are people on motorcycles honking and weaving in and out of the cars. It was crazy.
We got to the mission office about an hour later and all (about 8 visa waiters) filed into the living room with about 6 Brazilian missionaries. Then we met President and his wife, who is AWESOME. We had our transfer meeting and I got my trainer. She is an American from California who has been out for 7 months, 4 in Brazil. Her name is Sister D. She is nice...
After the meeting and hostage pics and everything, we all carried our luggage to the train stations to travel to our areas. We got to our house at about 7ish. We live on the bottom level of the Stake Presidents house with his family. I'll attach pics of our living quarters to this as well... The picture that I sent of the plyboards is what I look up at every night. Many generations of elders have lived in our house before us so the bed is covered in peoples names and what not... but it says ´´shut up and work.´´ in Portuguese haha
I had my first Brazilian meal of rice and beans and salad and chicken... the first of MANY, but it was so good. I looooove Brazilian food... a LOT. It´s hard not understanding anyone though.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday, we had a zone meeting (in Portuguese) and just unpacked a lot... nothing too exciting, but we did walk up to the capella to meet with the bishop.
Thursday:
We went grocery shopping and to a farmers market, which was so cool! They had every cool fruit you could think of and every part of an animal anyone could every want haha so good. We walk a LOT. To anyone that had a car for their mission... you are so lucky. Sao Caetano is all sorts of hills everywhere. You'll be able to crack an egg on my calves when I get back. We heard some crazy explosions on Thursday... turns out there was a soccer game going on so they were lighting fireworks every time a goal was made.
Friday:
More hills today... so sore. We taught our neighbor, A... who is CRAY. While we were there she got a phone call and then asked us to go to the store with her, so we walked to the street corner store in the pouring down rain to meet this man who owed her some money and gave her like R$850... sketch.
Weekend:
Drank some heaven (Brigadeiro milkshakes) YUM... did a lot of visits, saw a Brazilian marching band. its hard to get ahold of people because not a lot of people have cell phones so we just have to stop by. and even when we make an appointment, sometimes, they're not there! I had my first Church day in Brazil, which was so good. and we also found R$55 on the ground, such luck!
The language is coming along, but it is really hard because people just see me as the American who doesn't speak Portuguese, so they don't really talk to me after they figure that out but I am trying really hard!
The first two weeks of the transfer are generally hard and the first three months of being in a foreign mission are also really hard, so I've got a long 11 weeks ahead of me. But I am finding a lot of comfort in reading my English scriptures every night.
My mailing address is:
Sister Hargrove
Sao Paulo South Mission
Rua Dr. Luis da Rocha Miranda, 159 - 8a ander
Pq. Japaquara - Sao Paulo SP
CEP 04344-010
WOULD LOVE SOME LETTERS!!!!!
Love you all,
Sister Hargrove
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