OI FAMILIA!
Alas the day has finally arrived! I am officially here in Brasil. It has seriously been the craziest longest different week of my life! So last time I wrote, I was hurrying to get everything done before I left. Well, I left, and I´m here now! I left in 6 inches of snow and 3 degrees, and I get here in 70 degree weather. Nothing can beat that!
So the plane ride. Would have been the best plane ride if I wasn~t a missionary. So me and Sister Andersen are sitting in the airport and realize all the people who were going to brazil were brazileiros. so we get on the plane, and no one speaks english. shocker right? In that moment, I had a small panic attack when I realized... aw crap. so the plane had like.... 400 movies that we could choose from to watch. a huge array of music and games. and so i listened to a christmas album they had over and over and over and over and over and over again for 12 hours. I slept for a little bit too, but you know how I am with sleeping and planes. I can never sleep for longer than half an hour at a time on a plane.
So we get to Sao Paulo and they have all the missionaries. And kind of move us around and all of us are so confused, and some how, I ended up on a plane to Goiania. The flight to Goiania was about an hour and a half. Not too bad. And then we were picked up by our mission president, and taken to the Best Western to drop off our stuff and then went to dinner at the mission presidents house. Everyone was so confused becuase 4 people spoke spanish, 5 of us were visa waiters, and 1 was actually brazilian, so there was a lot of confusion between everyone.
The next day we had an orientation. And then sat in this room for a while. We found out where we were going and then just sat in a room for a couple hours. Still no one could understand anything, but the Brazilian, Elder Barreta, said that my Portuguese was the best of the americans. I couldn~t understand him, but someone later explained it to me ahhahahahah.
So then me, this other sister, and an elder get thrown into a taxi to the chapel in goiania where they were having this huge christmas mission conference. It was so awesome. SO many people. I saw all of the people from the mtc and then everyone and their dog cameup to me screaming "sister marshalll!!!! lakfjsalfdslkdfjalsdkjfaslkfsdflskElderShortlanddjflskdfjlsdfjlskjflasjflsdfsdlfkjsfçasdçfa" I looked like a deer in the headlights the entire time. I was so confused. But guess who I did see! Elder Shortland! He´s also my zone leader. How funny is that? It was so fun. And then we did transfer meeting and it was so cool! There was a lot of screaming and freaking out. And President Kuceki is so legit. I love it here so much. SO much. And I~ll be honest. If they let me extend another transfer, I will.
So this all took place from 4 o clock in the afternoon.... until about 11:30 at night. Then we ate icecream outside until 1 in the morning when our taxis came to drive us to our new areas.
So my new area is Balneario. It´s in North Goiania. It looks a lot like some of the areas in dad~s mission pictures. And some parts of my area smells like dead animals and rotten eggs. There are dogs everywhere, and people just chilling in the streets. kids playing soccer in the streets tambem. They don~t really have any road laws and all of the drivers are terrible here. and there aren~t any places for pedestrians to walk, so we just kind of cross when no cars are coming. Theres also random holes in the street that just drop into the sewer. So don~t be surprised if you get notified that I was hit by a car or fell in the sewer. its very different from the states. My companion is Sister Melo. She is a chique Brazileira, and she doesn~t speak a lick of English! So a lot of the time, we~re both just acting out what we~re trying to say. The elders in my district live right next to us. they~re both american. One is from Cali and the other is from DC.
So Thursday Morning, I wake up and I ask my companion where the toilet paper was. She started laughing, but there are some things you just can~t live without. We finally just bought some because I can~t live without that stuff. We went contacting and talked to a lot of people. ANd weird!! The peole are very receptive and will listen. It~s way diffferent from detroit in that aspect. I acutally really like contacting here. I~ll just introduce, and then my companion will pick up after that point because I´m so confused all day every day.
One of our progressing investigator families are Val, Cosmo, and their daughters. Val and Cosmo have been investigating for about a year, but Cosmo has a drinking problem. Every time we go to visit them, Cosmo is super drunk. The first time I went over it was so funny. They were talking and then all of a sudden everyone was screaming and fighting and then everyone in the entire room was crying... except for me because I had no idea what was happening. Tehn the next day we went back to visit because they were interviewing their daughter yngrid for baptism. Cosmo was really drunk...again. and he would just look at me and be like.... you look brazilian. (except he~d say it in portuguese) and he would just laugh, and say "brasileira! brasileira! Fala!", which means brazilian brazilian! Speak.... and then he~d laugh and say... she doesn~t understand what I~m saying. thats kind of how all of my intereractions with people go. they greet me, realize that I have no idea what~s happening, and then say.... I thought she was brazilian! she doesn~t look like she~s american! EVERY SINGLE PERSON SAYS THAT. So irrits. I understand when people say.... she doesn~t understand! and a few other gospelly phrases but thats about it! I~m starting to pick up a little bit, but I~m still pretty lost. Like... really lost.
I feel sick all of the time. I don~t know if it~s the food that I~m eating or the water that I~m drinking. Its probably a mixture of both. But we eat giant lunches and no dinner, but i always feel sick and the people just keep feeding me and i don~t want to be rude so i eat until I~m practically shaking because i feel so sick. but i mean, that happens everywhere i go. hawaii, utah, detroit. brazil is the same. i~ll probably be sick for a few weeks. also my feet are totally blisterred and bleeding. I limp in both of them. One because of the blisters and what not, and the other because I hurt my ankle. but its okay.
ANyways, Christmas is coming up! AHHH! #stoked!
Love Sister Marshall
Alas the day has finally arrived! I am officially here in Brasil. It has seriously been the craziest longest different week of my life! So last time I wrote, I was hurrying to get everything done before I left. Well, I left, and I´m here now! I left in 6 inches of snow and 3 degrees, and I get here in 70 degree weather. Nothing can beat that!
So the plane ride. Would have been the best plane ride if I wasn~t a missionary. So me and Sister Andersen are sitting in the airport and realize all the people who were going to brazil were brazileiros. so we get on the plane, and no one speaks english. shocker right? In that moment, I had a small panic attack when I realized... aw crap. so the plane had like.... 400 movies that we could choose from to watch. a huge array of music and games. and so i listened to a christmas album they had over and over and over and over and over and over again for 12 hours. I slept for a little bit too, but you know how I am with sleeping and planes. I can never sleep for longer than half an hour at a time on a plane.
So we get to Sao Paulo and they have all the missionaries. And kind of move us around and all of us are so confused, and some how, I ended up on a plane to Goiania. The flight to Goiania was about an hour and a half. Not too bad. And then we were picked up by our mission president, and taken to the Best Western to drop off our stuff and then went to dinner at the mission presidents house. Everyone was so confused becuase 4 people spoke spanish, 5 of us were visa waiters, and 1 was actually brazilian, so there was a lot of confusion between everyone.
The next day we had an orientation. And then sat in this room for a while. We found out where we were going and then just sat in a room for a couple hours. Still no one could understand anything, but the Brazilian, Elder Barreta, said that my Portuguese was the best of the americans. I couldn~t understand him, but someone later explained it to me ahhahahahah.
So then me, this other sister, and an elder get thrown into a taxi to the chapel in goiania where they were having this huge christmas mission conference. It was so awesome. SO many people. I saw all of the people from the mtc and then everyone and their dog cameup to me screaming "sister marshalll!!!! lakfjsalfdslkdfjalsdkjfaslkfsdflskElderShortlanddjflskdfjlsdfjlskjflasjflsdfsdlfkjsfçasdçfa" I looked like a deer in the headlights the entire time. I was so confused. But guess who I did see! Elder Shortland! He´s also my zone leader. How funny is that? It was so fun. And then we did transfer meeting and it was so cool! There was a lot of screaming and freaking out. And President Kuceki is so legit. I love it here so much. SO much. And I~ll be honest. If they let me extend another transfer, I will.
So this all took place from 4 o clock in the afternoon.... until about 11:30 at night. Then we ate icecream outside until 1 in the morning when our taxis came to drive us to our new areas.
So my new area is Balneario. It´s in North Goiania. It looks a lot like some of the areas in dad~s mission pictures. And some parts of my area smells like dead animals and rotten eggs. There are dogs everywhere, and people just chilling in the streets. kids playing soccer in the streets tambem. They don~t really have any road laws and all of the drivers are terrible here. and there aren~t any places for pedestrians to walk, so we just kind of cross when no cars are coming. Theres also random holes in the street that just drop into the sewer. So don~t be surprised if you get notified that I was hit by a car or fell in the sewer. its very different from the states. My companion is Sister Melo. She is a chique Brazileira, and she doesn~t speak a lick of English! So a lot of the time, we~re both just acting out what we~re trying to say. The elders in my district live right next to us. they~re both american. One is from Cali and the other is from DC.
So Thursday Morning, I wake up and I ask my companion where the toilet paper was. She started laughing, but there are some things you just can~t live without. We finally just bought some because I can~t live without that stuff. We went contacting and talked to a lot of people. ANd weird!! The peole are very receptive and will listen. It~s way diffferent from detroit in that aspect. I acutally really like contacting here. I~ll just introduce, and then my companion will pick up after that point because I´m so confused all day every day.
One of our progressing investigator families are Val, Cosmo, and their daughters. Val and Cosmo have been investigating for about a year, but Cosmo has a drinking problem. Every time we go to visit them, Cosmo is super drunk. The first time I went over it was so funny. They were talking and then all of a sudden everyone was screaming and fighting and then everyone in the entire room was crying... except for me because I had no idea what was happening. Tehn the next day we went back to visit because they were interviewing their daughter yngrid for baptism. Cosmo was really drunk...again. and he would just look at me and be like.... you look brazilian. (except he~d say it in portuguese) and he would just laugh, and say "brasileira! brasileira! Fala!", which means brazilian brazilian! Speak.... and then he~d laugh and say... she doesn~t understand what I~m saying. thats kind of how all of my intereractions with people go. they greet me, realize that I have no idea what~s happening, and then say.... I thought she was brazilian! she doesn~t look like she~s american! EVERY SINGLE PERSON SAYS THAT. So irrits. I understand when people say.... she doesn~t understand! and a few other gospelly phrases but thats about it! I~m starting to pick up a little bit, but I~m still pretty lost. Like... really lost.
I feel sick all of the time. I don~t know if it~s the food that I~m eating or the water that I~m drinking. Its probably a mixture of both. But we eat giant lunches and no dinner, but i always feel sick and the people just keep feeding me and i don~t want to be rude so i eat until I~m practically shaking because i feel so sick. but i mean, that happens everywhere i go. hawaii, utah, detroit. brazil is the same. i~ll probably be sick for a few weeks. also my feet are totally blisterred and bleeding. I limp in both of them. One because of the blisters and what not, and the other because I hurt my ankle. but its okay.
ANyways, Christmas is coming up! AHHH! #stoked!
Love Sister Marshall