YAY! Happy 1 Month in Brazil! Only 14 more to go... ;)

Let's talk about the fun and exciting stuff first and then I'll get a little serious with you.

Birthday Dress: For my birthday present to myself, Sister D. and I decided to go shopping in Sao Paulo. Oh man, it was so cool. Shopping in Brazil is divine. They have miles and miles of clothing shops. It's Heaven to say the least. Anyways, I ended up finding a flowy blue dress for R$60. I have to get it hemmed today, but I'll send you a pic next week. Also  we went to the train station to get there and I'm pretty sure I found platform 9 3/4...

The Youth! On Wednesday, we had a meeting at the Chapel and all of the youth were there. And, oh my heck, they are so awesome. They were all playing soccer in the back with a flat basketball (lol) and then they came and started trying to talk to me and telling me their names and what not. Talking with the Youth is WAY easier than talking with adults because when you ask them to speak slower, they actually speak slower instead of just talking louder at the same speed and giving you a wierd look. Also, there's a youth that is an olympic gymnast in our ward... it's fine. no big deal. and he wants us to teach his friends. shawn johnson maybe? 

English Class: Can I just tell you how much I love teaching English Class? I LOVE it. Not just because I get to forget all of my Portuguese for an hour and a half each week, but because they are just so funny! They love to ask me about my family back home and my love life and they always bring quotes from English movies to ask me about. This week they asked me about the term 'teenage kicks' and about how you leave the house when you are 18 in the US. 

M.: This week there is something very special attatched to my email... A picture of one of my investigators and me! Meet M.. M. is in his 60's and LOVES me. Seriously. He just loves me. Probably because the first time I met him, I told him I have an accent because I am from Recife... now every time he sees me he says OPA! The girl from recife is here! Haha he thinks I am hilarious. He has taken all of the discussions, but has a problem with being baptized again. thats the only thing holding him back... big surprise haha But anyways, this week he made us a HUGE cake, it was so good. Favorite thing about Brazil... Chocolate is its own food group.

A familia de S: Let me tell you about my favorite family in Brazil. Meet S. S is in her 40's. Her husband passed away about a month ago from Cardiac Arrest leaving three young children behind, C, P, and L. She works from the early morning to late at night everyday. They live in very humble circumstances. S has been learning with the missionaries for over a year and wanted to be baptized, but did not have enough money to get married to her husband. This week we brought cookies and taught S and her children about turning to Christ through your trials. P, who is five, drew pictures of missionaries and the Book of Mormon in my planner as we taught. :) S told us about all the hardships that she has been having since losing her husband. Afterwards, she made us salad and her kids taught me all about how to talk about Spider Man in Portuguese while Sister D talked with S.I now have a secret handshake with each of the cute kids. :D

Policei de Federal: It's official! I officially have my Brazilian ID card! On Monday night, all of the new missionaries and their companions rode the bus/train to Sao Paulo and spent the night with the senior missionaries. In the morning, Sister S (the next gen primary president, I swear!) made us french toast and bacon. Oh my heck, after 3 weeks of bread and maracuja for breakfast, it was so good. Then we all made the treck down to the police station. They took our pictures and fingerprints and gave us our OFFICIAL VISAS! WOOHOO. #imabrazilian

C. e Acai:

We had a lesson with a less active member this week. He runs a froyo/acai/sorvete shop. I swear to you, he is the fastest talking man I have ever met in my life. I didnt understand a word he said. My companion had trouble too. They would just talk back and forth and then all the sudden he was giving us keesh. It was soooo good.

4 horas com M....: M. is an investigator that we teach who is about 50ish years old. And let me tell you, he thinks I am hilarious because I speak with such an American accent... probably because the first time I met him, I told him I was from Manaus... oops.

Sisters' Training: This week we also had Sisters Training! Woo! President and Sister T. had all of the Sisters in the mission, about 25, at their house to eat and converse. So FUN! I also got to spend the whole day with Sister C.... so that was a plus. 

As Problemas da OniBus: On the way to Sisters Training we had a little... problem. Sao Paulo is a BUSY city and so the trains in the morning are always packed. Like people shoved up against each other, pressed up against the windows packed. its absolutely insane. anyways, we were getting on the train and everyone was pushing and shoving and definitely invading my sister missionary bubble. Before I knew it Sister D. was on the bus and the doors were closing and people were shoving me off and then I was watching the train drive away... ALONE. hahaaha yes. I got left behind at the train station. Thankfully I had already expressed my fear of this event happening to Sister D. before and we had made a plan of what to do in the event that this happened... so I just rode the next train and got off at the next station and had a great reunion with my mission mom haha... it was still scary though.

Pasar Mal: When you have a cold, In Portuguese you say that you are passing evil/bad. really wierd, I know. But anyways, I have my first Brazilian sickness. Some nasty cold. Enough to make me feel terrible, but not enough to stay in bed all day. woof. makes the work miserable.

A Sala de Ingles: In our english class this week we talked all about English expressions and vocabulary words that go along with being sick. :) Then I opened the class up to any questions. They asked me about the wierdest things! For example... one asked me about laser hair removal... what? another asked me about some swear words. haha

Anyways, this week was good. Still don't speak Portuguese, but eventually... haven't gotten any mail yet, but anxiously awaiting ;)

Love,

Sister Hargrove

Awkward, almost kiss... again. SO, in Brazil, you greet people with a hug and a kiss on the cheek... I feel like I kiss more people in a day than most people do in their whole life haha anyways, as  sister missionaries, we are not allowed to greet those of the opposite gender like that so we usually just stick with a handshake. The other day we were teaching this man, L and at the end he grabs my hand and tries to pull me up off the couch and kiss me! When I realized what he was doing I was like "nao nao! somos missionarias!" and we had to explain things to him and he was really embarrassed, it was so awk... but sister D said that happens all the time.

21st Birthday! As some of you might know... I celebrated my 21 run in Brazil this week. We had a district/zone meeting in the morning and after that was done, Elder I (ZL) was like everyone go to the kitchen for a birthday surpise! Turns out my whole zone had brought some sort of sweet with them and they all sang me happy birthday in portuguese first and then english. it was so sweet! THEN, to top it all off, the ZLs presented me with "a taste of america for your bday" A HERSHEYS CANDY BAR. Oh man they're the best. And then I had my first Brazilian Pizza for dinner with my comp... IT WAS SO GOOD. Thankfully there is a pizzaria right across the street from our house. :) Other than that it was a pretty miserable day haha it poured rain all day and was COLD, we visited a lot of people too, so I felt like a real missionary all soaking wet in the cold. haha

3 Month Anniversary! This week I also celebrated my 3 month anniversary on the mission WOOHOO. On the 24th  our phone stopped working and President A called us 15 times and the ZL/DL couldn't get ahold of us as we
ll so they were all really worried. We were practically rogue missionaries haha anyways, they ended up calling our members home and we had to go all the way to San Bernardo to get a new phone from the office elders, which costs about R$20 to get there on the train. laammeee

Winter. Woof. Turns out, Sao Paulo has a winter time. And let me tell you, it stinks. Why did no one tell me this? It has been 7 degC and raining and windy all week!

Teaching. we are teaching a lot of people. J V is one of our new investigators and he is great. He knows the church is true and comes to church every Sunday. He is definitely elect, we just have to get over some law of chastity and word of wisdom issues first. We are teaching a lot of other people as well, but no one that is progressing immensely :( But all in good time. We are working with a recent convert less active T who is so great. She is married to a cocaine addict with a daughter so she is going through some really hard times, but we visit her a lot and I can see her faith in Christ growing everyday.

The Lingua: Portuguese is still really hard, but I know a lot more than I did last week... I just have to get rid of my American accent haha and maybe people will understand me.

Well I hope you all have a great week!

Jacob 4:1-3, Don't forget to read your sciptures every day... they were written for YOU.

Love,

Sister Hargrove

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!

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

V I S A !

V I S A: I GOT MY VISA! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! SISTER HARGROVE IS GOING TO BRAZIL ON MONDAY. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Good people of my family, last Friday, Mom's Brithday, I got THE PHONE CALL. Let me tell you the story. We had a lesson at the Church with a Returning Less-Active / Disfellowshipped member. Who is awesome, by the way. Anyways, We get this phone call in the middle of our lesson and Sister S says, "It's President Anderson!" But we didn't answer it. For the rest of our lesson, I was SO nervous. I just got this feeling that something crazy was about to happen because President Anderson doesn't ever just call to say hi haha Well we finish this lesson and immediately call President back. The whole time my heart is just pounding and then he says, "I just wanted to let you all know that we have received Sister Hargrove's Visa and she will be leaving on Monday, the 15th." And this is how I respond, cue the ugly tears... "OHMYGAWSH! AHHHH!!!!! I'M GOING TO BRAZIL!!! AHHH!!!!!!!!!!" repeat about 5 times while President is on the line talking to Sister H about my flight plan and other important stuff that I should have been listening to, but I was too busy freaking out. Craziest moment of my LIFE. So much changed in the five minute phone call. And now all I can think of is that fact that I need to eat as much American food as I can in the next 7 days because it's going to be rice and beans from here on out. SERIO.

4th of July: I had an AWESOME fourth this year. About a hundred missionaries walked in this huge parade in Monument, CO. It was soooo cool. we all dressed up in patriotic colors, held flags and sang hyms. We also threw a TON of candy. Our members, the Ss,  gave us $100 dollars to buy candy with. SO. MUCH. After the Parade we had dinner at the M's home. They are the sweetest couple I know. Brother M had a stroke a couple years ago has the sweetest testimony. They had my whole district over plus a member and fed us all a delicious barbeque. So good! 

Soup Kitchen Miracles: We went to the soup kitchen again last wednesday. As always, it was great. I was in charge of serving pasta. I stinking love those people!

Splits: At the beginning of this week I went on splits with a less-active member in one of the family wards. Her name is M and she is 18 years old. She is so nice. Anyways, so Sisters H and S went together in the car to a different area and M and I hit the streets. We visited about 8 less-active homes. half weren't there, but we found a new investigator while we were walking! His name is F, he is YSA aged and SO nice. We also visited a man named T who agreed to meet with us again. Turns out he works everyday except Sunday. How great is that?! ;)

Z: I can't remember if I have told you about Z already, but we had a lesson with him this week and I basically layed down the law. I have never been so bold in my life. I pretty much told him that he needed to get his life together and start taking action instead of smoking pot all day long. It was AWESOME. He told me that I blew his mind. Such a good feeling. Then later that week he had the audacity to try and drop us! He said he was only going to come to Church because he thought we were pretty. But fortunately for him, I stood my ground and told him we would be back next week to see how his Book of Mormon reading was going. :)

That's all I have time to write right now... I have to send home a few things... turns out I brought too much stuff... Who knew?! Anyways, I'll be sending that home soon.

LOVE YOU ALL!

I will talk to you in seven days! AHH! IN BRAZIL!

Love,

Sister Hargrove

Holy. Moly. Where do I even start. This week has been NUTS. But, overall, I LOVE COLORADO. Serio.

Dad, you would love Colorado. It is a combination of the Washington Forests and the Utah Mountains. I looove it. Also, we are surrounded by a bunch of 14,000 ft. mountains that people come from all over to hike and rock climb on. Unfortunately, missionaries are not allowed to do anything too risky, so I won't be climbing any of those anytime soon...

Well, here's my life for the past week...

I got in to CO on Monday. When we got off the plane, our mission president, President Anderson, was waiting to greet us along with five other elders to carry our stuff. Since the group of four that I was in arrived earlier than the rest of the group, President Anderson took us all out to Breakfast at Dennys. SO good. For the first two days, we were in a group of 28 new people (5 were visa waiters, 2 brazil, 3 peru) and we were just in training the whole time. Not going to lie, I hated it. The majority of the people there were going to Colorado and knew the people there from their districts at the MTC, so I felt kind of like an outcast. Then, we were basically in a church gym doing training the entire time. Lame.

The other girl going to Brazil with me, Sister S. is my companion and I love her! I am in a trio, so it is me, Sister S.  and our trainer Sister H. Sister H is great! We love her! On Wednesday we had our big companion/area reveal. All of the new missionaries sat in the front and all of the old missionaries sat looking at us. Then, President Anderson called us up, one by one, to read what I would call a THIRD mission call for me. haha. It just said what area we were going to be in and who our companions were. Sooo, I am in the Colorado Springs Area. AND I am opening a new area called the YSA Rescue Team. Cool title, huh? We are over FOUR stakes of YSA members. But, we only focus on the less-active members. There are about 1800 YSA's total in the area and only about 300 go to church. So we have our work cut out for us. We won't be doing any tracting, or teaching any new investigators, we're just bounty hunters for the astray YSA's. I love it!

We do a lot of drop-bys trying to see if the members still live at the house we have listed. We must have stopped by at LEAST 20 houses so far before someone answered the door. His name is J. , he is 28 and hasnt been to church since he was baptized at age 8. When we opened the door, he was wearing baggy jeans and a wife beater, His zipper was undone and I could see his nipple. lol. I am pretty sure he does some sort of drugs as well because his teeth are literally black and orange. ugh. But, anyways, he answered the door and we talked to him about his life and his religious beliefs. He told us that He believes in a God, but doesn't see the need for an atonement or Jesus Christ. He said that he doesn't take the Bible literally, but as a book of good stories and morals.Very interesting. We talked to him for about 15 minutes on his door step and then asked him if he would be willing to meet with us again. HE SAID YES! So we are meeting with him this Wednesday at 2 o'clock. It was way cool. His heart was definitely softening while we were talking to him and I am so excited to finally teach someone.

We haven't really been teaching because, since we are opening a new area assignment, we have been having to plan a lot of things out and get a lot of information from all 30 wards.So many phone calls! We are also trying to set up a bunch of dinner appointments as well because we have to live on $28/week for everything.

Also, we live in a mansion - seriously google earth it if you get the chance.

Sister Nicole Michelle Hargrove

c/o The Sherwoods

1975 Alamosa Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80920

You can send letters there until I am transferred or get my visa. Speaking of Visas, I have not heard any official news on my Visa status, but I am very happy to be reassigned in CoSprings until I get it. In fact, I wouldn't mind staying in CoSprings, I love it that much!

On a more spiritual note, for the entire week, I have had a feeling that I need to get a blessing... but I had no idea why and I felt weird asking for one when I didn't know the reason. I finally gave in yesterday and asked one of the elders, Elder C, in my district to give me a comfort blessing. It was GREAT. Turns out, God just needed to talk to me. I needed to hear every single thing he said too and I didn't even know it. In the blessing he told me a bunch of stuff, but what stuck out to me was that I would go to Brazil soon (he said SOON! ahh) and that there are people waiting to meet me here and that I would recognize them when I saw them. Crazy.

The church is SO true and I love it. Have a great week everyone. Read your scriptures. Eu amo voces.

Love,

Sister Hargrove

Holy. Moly. Where do I even start. This week has been NUTS. But, overall, I LOVE COLORADO. Serio.

Dad, you would love Colorado. It is a combination of the Washington Forests and the Utah Mountains. I looove it. Also, we are surrounded by a bunch of 14,000 ft. mountains that people come from all over to hike and rock climb on. Unfortunately, missionaries are not allowed to do anything too risky, so I won't be climbing any of those anytime soon...

Well, here's my life for the past week...

I got in to CO on Monday. When we got off the plane, our mission president, President Anderson, was waiting to greet us along with five other elders to carry our stuff. Since the group of four that I was in arrived earlier than the rest of the group, President Anderson tool us all out to Breakfast at Dennys. SO good. For the first two days, we were in a group of 28 new people (5 were visa waiters, 2 brazil, 3 peru) and we were just in training the whole time. Not going to lie, I hated it. The majority of the people there were going to Colorado and knew the people there from their districts at the MTC, so I felt kind of like an outcast. Then, we were basically in a church gym doing training the entire time. Lame.

The other girl going to Brazil with me, Sister Schooley is my companion and I love her! I am in a trio, so it is me Sister Schooley (im fb friends with her, Chloe Schooley) and our trainer Sister Horrocks. Sister H is great! We love her! On Wednesday we had our big companion/area reveal. All of the new missionaries sat in the front and all of the old missionaries sat looking at us. Then, President Anderson called us up, one by one, to read what I would call a THIRD mission call for me. haha. It just said what area we were going to be in and who our companions were. Sooo, I am in the Colorado Springs Area. AND I am opening a new area called the YSA Rescue Team. Cool title, huh? We are over FOUR stakes of YSA members. But, we only focus on the less-active members. There are about 1800 YSA's total in the area and only about 300 go to church. So we have our work cut out for us. We won't be doing any tracting, or teaching any new investigators, we're just bounty hunters for the astray YSA's. I love it!

We do a lot of drop-bys trying to see if the members still live at the house we have listed. We must have stopped by at LEAST 20 houses so far before someone answered the door. His name is Josh (Don't forget to change that name for the Blog, madre), he is 28 and hasnt been to church since he was baptized at age 8. When we opened the door, he was wearing baggy jeans and a wife beater, His zipper was undone and I could see his nipple. lol. I am pretty sure he does some sort of drugs as well because his teeth are literally black and orange. ugh. But, anyways, he answered the door and we talked to him about his life and his religious beliefs. He told us that He believes in a God, but doesn't see the need for an atonement or Jesus Christ. He said that he doesn't take the Bible literally, but as a book of good stories and morals.Very interesting. We talked to him for about 15 minutes on his door step and then asked him if he would be willing to meet with us again. HE SAID YES! So we are meeting with him this Wednesday at 2 o'clock. It was way cool. His heart was definitely softening while we were talking to him and I am so excited to finally teach someone.

We haven't really been teaching because, since we are opening a new area assignment, we have been having to plan a lot of things out and get a lot of information from all 30 wards.So many phone calls! We are also trying to set up a bunch of dinner appointments as well because we have to live on $28/week for everything.

Also, we live in a mansion. Serio. Here's my new address google earth it sometime:

Sister Nicole Michelle Hargrove

c/o The Sherwoods

1975 Alamosa Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80920

You can send letters there until I am transferred or get my visa. Speaking of Visas, I have not heard any official news on my Visa status, but I am very happy to be reassigned in CoSprings until I get it. In fact, I wouldn't mind staying in CoSprings, I love it that much!

Would you mind sending me grandpa's email and/or mailing address in Saudi? Thank you!

On a more spiritual note, for the entire week, I have had a feeling that I need to get a blessing... but I had no idea why and I felt weird asking for one when I didn't know the reason. I finally gave in yesterday and asked one of the elders, Elder Curry, in my district to give me a comfort blessing. It was GREAT. Turns out, God just needed to talk to me. I needed to hear every single thing he said too and I didn't even know it. In the blessing he told me a bunch of stuff, but what stuck out to me was that I would go to Brazil soon (he said SOON! ahh) and that there are people waiting to meet me here and that I would recognize them when I saw them. Crazy.

The church is SO true and I love it. Have a great week everyone. Read your scriptures. Eu amo voces.

Love,

Sister Hargrove

Nicole and her companion getting ready to head out to Sao Paulo, Brazil - 1 more week left in the MTC.

Sister Missionaries....they are the greatest!!

Can you believe that I will have been here for a whole month tomorrow? NUTS. I don't even know how time has flown so fast. Two most weeks and I'll be outta here.

Mouse(s): So one day this past week all the elders came to classes going on and on about how there was a mouse in their room. They all screamed like little girls and then threatened that they were going to throw it into our dorm window that night. Well the next day. Sister E and I were getting ready for gym and I see something scamper across the room and underneath the bed. I've never screamed so loud in my life! Who knew I was afraid of mice? So we were trying to find it underneath the bunkbed when it darted out (more screaming) and ran under our door and out into the hallway... never to be found again.

Sunday Devotional: We have devotionals every Tuesday and Sunday. And guess who came last Tuesday... ELDER RUSSELL M NELSON. I mean, no big deal, he's just AWESOME. Seriously though. He is so funny and he really pumped me up about missionary work and the lives that it can change. He truly is called of God. No doubt about it. THEN, this Sunday, A sister in my district, Sister E, played her own rendition of Called to Serve on the piano. She is the most gifted person on the piano I have ever seen. She arranged the song herself, so she had no music with her and I swear her fingers were moving at lightening speed. All 5,000+ of us missionaries LOVED it. And she was able to get me and Sister D front row seats to Devo too. SCORE! Afterwards, everyone came up to her and shook her hand like she was a celebrity!

Progressing Investigators: We are still teaching I. and B.. B. is a progressing, punk of a 16 year old, and I think our teacher, Brother M. gets a LOT of joy out of giving us troubles. I think he feels a little overwhelmed with every thing as well. Funny story, yesterday Sis D and I were talking to him about the commandments and she said something about being "trische," but Bonno thought she said "xixi" (pronounced very similarly) and started busting up laughing. So we both looked at each other so confused and he was like "xixi?? xixi??" so he grabbed one of our Portuguese dictionaries and looked it up. turns out, "xixi" means urine. awesome. haha In other news, we had a really great lesson with Iris this past week as well. We taught about families and both brought in pitures of them and told her about what they like to do and all that jazz and she LOVED it. I really felt like we related and then afterwards, she came up to us and told us that we really found our teaching style this week and that our Portuguese sounded GREAT. YAYY!!

TRC: This week we taught a woman in TRC who was actually from Brazil! It was awesome! We taught her about prayer, which was great, but that's not even the best part. TURNS OUT she's from the SPS mission! And her family still lives there and they're not members. So as she was getting emotional she quickly wrote down all the names and contact information for her family in Brazil and told us to work hard! Such a cool experiance. It finally felt real!

Reassignments: So next week is our last week in the MTC! AHH! We will be getting our reassingments on Wednesday or Thursday, so GUESS WHAT. I'll get to call you on one of those days to tell you where I've been reassigned. I'll only have five minutes, but I was thinking that I could call dad first and then he could add mom in on the second line. yes? Also, I've forgotten your phone number, dad... so yeah. I'm going to need that por favor. ALSO, I can't be reassigned to a mission that touches my home mission... sooooo I could totally get called to Seattle, or Spokane or something. So weird, right? That would be CRAY.

Sister Training Leaders: This week we welcomed in our new district. We have 12 missionaries going to the Portugal Lisbon mission. They are GREAT. We got to have a mini testimony meeting on their first day and give them a tour and all that fun stiff so it was really cool. I felt so... old. haha They come and ask us questions all the time. I feel so experianced hahah

Brazilians: Our district has met 4 Brazilians in the MTC so far. And we talk to them ALL the time. It's the greatest. Our whole district just fawns over them and their perfect portuguese. I cannot wait to go to Brazil. I am going to fall in love (in a completely sister missionary appropriate way) with every single on of those Brazialians.

Well love and miss you guys. Love all the DearElders and letters and emails. Keep em' coming!

- Sister Hargrove

PS I need grandpa's address. They sent me a pie this week! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Hi everyone! It´s officially official. I´ve finished my second week at the MTC! YAY. This week was great, obvi. Didn´t get any emails from ANYONE this P-day sooooo hinthint. My email is nicole.hargrove@myldsmail.net for anyone that wants it...

I looooove getting the Dear Elders from you, mom. ALSO I found Matthew's letter and I responded to him a couple days ago. I can't remember when... oops. The MTC is like a time warp. Everyday feels like Sunday. I feel like I've been here for a year, but also like I just got here yesterday. it is WEIRD, to say the least. Also, in the world of MTC I completely forget about anything happening in the world. It's weird to think that life goes on outside the MTC grounds.

SOOO we have three investigators so far. J. Our first investigator, from Sao Paulo, brother is a druggie, works in construction (or that's his 'story' at least. He's really a MTC teacher). ANYWHO, last week we had our last visit with him and he committed to pray about being baptized. it was AWESOME. Even though he's not a 'real' investigator, I just love him. Second Investigator. B. Immigrated to Brazil from Botswana. Has a very sad family story. 16 years old. Too cool for school. and lives with a bunch of kids. We taught him for the first time. It was also AWESOME. It was the first time I had taught a whole lesson with Sister Dixon without using very many notes. SO cool. We committed him to read the introduction and Moroni 10 (which I suggest you all do too :) it's good stuff) and he said he would. We haven't met with our third investigator I. yet (tomorrow), but we are excited to see her. All of the invesitigators that our teachers are 'playing' are based off of real investigators that they actually had in the field. So it's a really neat experience.

We got a second teacher. We still have Irmao Mateer (from Scotland) and he's still the greatest person ever, but we got a second prof for the second half of the day. She is Irma Petersen and is probably the sweetest person ever. You can just see in everything she says that she has a true testimony of the church. and GET THIS. she served in Brazil and is now getting married to a Brazilian (from Sao Paulo!) Elder that she met there. He moved to the states! :)

We got a new schedule that makes our breakfast at 630, earliest in the MTC, lunch at 11, and dinner at 4. NUTSO.

I've been sick with the missionary measles all week. It's nasty. And by measles I mean the flu that's slowly making its way around our district. No fun.

Some really weird things that I look forward to at the MTC:

- Gym Time (WHAT. but seriously, that 50 min every day is my saving grace because we get to get out of the cinderblock classroom they keep us in most of the day hah)

- Bedtime at 10:30 (if I can get in bed by 10, it's a DANG good day. that means like 7 hours of sleep hoollaaahhhhhh)

- Ice Cream (every Sunday and Tuesday the MTC serves ice cream at dinner from the BYU creamery. OH MY HECK. it is celestial.)

- Classroom Instruction Time (who knew learning Portuguese would be my most favorite thing ever?!)

- Temple Walks (Every Sunday we get to walk up to the the temple and walk around and take pictures and lay in the temple grass. soooo good)

- New Miss Wednesday (On Wednesdays the new missionaries arrive, so this past Wednesday we were finally not the newest people here and we got to bombard all the dork dotted, scared, new elds and sis with "BEMVINDOS a CTM!!!" (welcome to the mtc in portuguese) its so cool!!!

My companion is still awesome. I totally lucked out in that area because we get along so great! Her name is Sister Dixon if you want to look her up on fb.

The district is doing well, we get along for the most part, but we've had some struggles with a few things. Tuedo Bem (all is well) in the MTC though.

I'll clue you in about our district issues. :) So we have this one Elder, Elder B. He's from California, He's shortish, blonde. Anyways, he's got some social and communication issues, so it makes it really difficult to talk to him ever. He argues with everyone and the way he talks, he just gets louder and louder until he's yelling. scary. On three different occassions he's gotten mad about something and slammed his desk. yesterday he slammed his desk at me, sister Cox, and sister Empey, stormed out of the classroom and then proceeded to hit the wall in the hallway. Nuts. But the zone leaders and Bishop have met with us and him, so every thing is okay, no worries. The Bishop talked to us and told us that we're not the one's who need to worry about it and try and figure out what to change about ourselves. Because imagine if he did that in a discussion? to an investigator? NO good. But everything is good other than that. We've got some conflicting personalities, as every distict does, but the Lord is one our side so it's smooth sailing from here.

My Portuguese is still coming slowly but surely. I've been studying really hard though!

Tell Sister Benjamin THANK YOU! She sent me a journal this past week for which I am SO very grateful and excited to write in it!

No word on the Visa yet. The district next to us, going to Manaus, all just got reassigned to Spokane. They're even having some missionaries stay in the MTC for more time because there's just not enough room for the missionaries anymore! It's crazy. There are close to 5000 missionaries in the MTC right now. Crazy, right?!

I hope you guys had fun at GWL and dad in San Fran! Have you got the snail mail I sent you guys? There's that check in one of them, sooo watch out for that

Well I look forward to hearing from you this week. Have a great day!

Tchau, tchau

- Sister Hargrove