First area... Maringá; Sister Scapin; So many hugs and kisses; Food is amazing;

FAMÍLIA!!!  I'm alive and well and (aaah, I can't believe it) in my FIRST area, Maringá!  It's a beautiful city, much smaller and cleaner and quieter than São Paulo. :) I am really enjoying being here, meeting so many of the wonderful people here and having the opportunity to really teach!  My new trainer's name is Sister Scapin, and she is wonderful - I'm really so lucky to have such a warm, loving companion to help me adjust to everything out in the field.  She is from the south of Brazil, a little city called Nova Palma that I think is in Rio Grande do Sul, I don't remember for sure.  But she's definitely a gaúcha, which is fun!  I think of Jamie every time she pulls out the chimarrão.  :)  She's an amazing missionary, and I know I'm going to learn so much from her example during the next few months.  It's a little bit difficult at times since she doesn't speak much English and I don't speak much Portuguese....but it's been fun, and I'm sure it's going to help me learn the language so much!  We're living in a little apartment with one other companionship of sisters, Sister De Jesus and Sister Lopez.  Sister Lopez is from Cedar Hills, and she knows Mary Bonham, a friend of Mike and Candy!  Small world, right?  :)  They are both awesome, hilarious sisters.   The ward that we work in is called Parque dos Pioneiros.  It's fairly big, though really the only thing I have to compare it with is our home ward in Provo.  :)  But the people there are very welcoming and warm, and I've gotten SO many hugs and kisses on the cheek over the last 5 days.  So many.  haha :)  It's probably something that I'll get used to here in Brazil!  We have lunch in the home of a member every day, and OH my.  The food is amaaazing.  Every day, someone's prepared a feast for us.

We've been teaching a few different families, and it's been so wonderful to see how we're helping people progress and come closer to the Savior.  We're teaching one family, Luciene and Reginaldo, and their two sons Rodolfo (17) and Gabriel (12).  Rodolfo was actually baptized last Sunday and confirmed yesterday, and yesterday Gabriel was baptized as well!  It was so exciting, and wonderful to see.  I think it's been a while since I last attended a baptism, so it was really cool to be able to be there, especially since it was for someone that I'd helped to teach a little bit.  I didn't understand the conversation perfectly, but from the pieces that I did pick up, Luciene is deciding to be baptized as well - so exciting!!!  We still need to help her and Reginaldo get married, but as soon as that happens she'll be ready.  :)

Me, Sister Scapin, Rodolfo, Gabriel, Luciene, and Reginaldo at Gabriel's baptism

 

Okay, well I'm out of time.  I love you all and hope everything is wonderful back at home!!!  Enjoy the autumn weather for me...it's getting HOT here.  :P

Love you and pray for you always!

Love, 

Sister Gee

Last P-day; Campinas Temple; God answers prayers - Adrian

Today is my LAST P-Day here at the CTM!!!  It's kind of sad because we have NO time to do aaaanything today...I'll probably finish emailing here and then my P-Day will be over.  We got back really late from the temple today because the São Paulo temple is closed for cleaning this week, so we went all the way to the Campinas temple instead (which was fine with me - the Campinas temple is GORGEOUS, and it was so refreshing to get away from the smoggy city for a while), and then the devotional today was moved to 4:00 since the speaker can't come later...so we have to be done with all of our P-Day activities in about a half hour.  :P  Lame, and sad, but I think it'll be okay.  I'll have more time for P-Day stuff in the field, right?  :)

 I can't believe how quickly those 9 weeks flew by...and looking back on everything I've learned and experienced, and all the people I've gotten to know and work with here, I'm amazed by how perfectly everything has ended up.  It's been such a good experience, every part of it.  It's amazing how the Lord guides you through experiences and even if you can't see how things are going to work out at the time, they always do somehow.  :)

On Sunday I was back in Branch 7 with my original district, and since I had been gone for so long...yep, I got to speak in sacrament meeting again.  :)  I was kind of anticipating that, so I prepared really thoroughly, and I feel really good about the talk I gave.  THIS time was a little different than the last time I spoke because last Sunday the CTM put a new rule in place regarding sacrament meeting talks: every district past Week 5 has to speak in Portuguese!  I actually think I liked speaking in Portuguese better than in English, because I really couldn't analyze and stress about how to word things perfectly - I just said what I could in the simple language that I know, and let it be.  I spoke on faith, and how we can increase our own faith as well as the faith of our investigators. 

So yesterday I got to go proselyting again, only this time with a different district and a different companion!  I didn't think I would be as nervous as the first time since I'd already been through the experience and sort of knew what I was doing, but I got out on the streets and was surprised by how hard it still is!  We finally got over the nervousness and started talking to people, and it turned out to be an AWESOME experience.  I definitely feel a lot better about it than last week, and I had SO much fun.  Sister Young and I gave out 5 Book of Mormons, and met some really amazing people.  Again, everyone was REALLY friendly and REALLY nice to us - even the people that weren't interested in what we had to say.  It was soooo good...we came back to the CTM and I couldn't stop smiling for the next couple hours.  :)We started out kind of rough, like I said, and after a while I decided that I needed to stop and say a quick prayer for help and for the Spirit to guide us as we spoke to people.  Sister Young agreed and so we sat down on a bench and prayed together.  Immediately after we stood up again, a man came over to us, calling for our attention.  I was really excited and hoped that this was a man that needed to hear our message....but pretty soon we could tell that he wasn't interested at all.  He was talking about the most bizarre things...quizzing us on random Bible stories and talking about demons or something?  I didn't understand a lot of what he said, but it was weird.  We were stuck there for what felt like a looong time, listening to this random man ... I was kind of discouraged, wondering how this is what came from our prayer, but after a while, another man came past in a wheelchair, stopped and interrupted our bizarre converstion for a moment to tell us what a wonderful work we were doing, and then continued through the park.  After we finished talking to the other man, we found him in the park.  He told us his name was Adrian, and we talked to him about the Church and the Book of Mormon - apparently he had already met some missionaries and had a copy of the Book of Mormon, but he was interested in learning more.  We gave him the telephone number of the missionaries here in São Paulo and he seemed really excited about meeting with them.  I was thinking about it later, and I realized that if we hadn't been stuck there talking to the first guy, we might never have met Adrian.  It was a testimony to me that God answers prayers, even if those answers aren't immediately apparent to you.  :)

Anyways, I'm out of time again.  Thanks for all the love and the emails and the letters....they're amazing.  :)  Next week, I'll be writing to you frooommmm LONDRINA!!!!!  :D

 

Love love love,

 

Sister Melissa Gee

My companion is here!; I'm here because it's TRUE

MY COMPANION IS HERE!!!  She finally got her visa, and she's finally HERE!  I honestly didn't think it was ever going to happen, so I was kind of shocked when my old district came and found me to tell me the news.  I got to meet her today at lunch and talk to her for a few minutes, and she seems awesome.  Here's what I know so far:  Her name is Sister Young, she's from Oregon, went to BYU-Idaho, has an amazing singing voice, and will be serving her mission in Porto Alegre Norte.  I'm so excited to get to know her better.  It's going to be weird since we'll only have a few weeks to really get to know each other and get used to teaching together, and then we'll be leaving the CTM!  I'll have the rest of my P-Day today and then as soon as she's finished with all of her orientations and stuff, I'll be headed back to my original district.  Crazy!  I'm also moving rooms again, so I have to re-pack all of my stuff and carry it down the hall...for the 2nd time here at the CTM.  haha, and then only 2 more weeks till I get to pack it all up AGAIN and leave for Londrina!  I just can't seem to find a place to settle.  :P  :)  But I'm excited!  And kind of sad to be leaving Sis. Brundage and Butterfield and the rest of my district here.  It's been awesome, and it really was JUST what I needed.  But they'll be leaving here for the field on TUESDAY, so I guess I wouldn't have that much time left with them anyways...  (Guess what they would have done for that last week if my companion hadn't come? ....they were going to put me with a BRAZILIAN district!!  Cool, right?)

 

Oh, and guessssss what else happened this week?  Since I've been with the older district, I got to go PROSELYTING with them for the first time on Monday!  It was CRAZY and awesome and hard, but I loved it!  It made all of this seem so much more real, like we've actually been studying and working and learning for a REASON.  It was exhilarating to talk to people about the gospel and even better when they actually listened!  :)  Everyone we talked to was sooo nice, even if they weren't particularly interested in what we had to say.  They were all very polite and friendly, and talked verrrryyyyy slow so we could understand them.  :)  We were able to give away 4 Book of Mormons, and I think each one went to someone who'll read it and appreciate it and hopefully it will help them find the Church!  One sweeeeet old lady named Lucia (we invited her to church and she said "I'll be there!  I'll look for you there!" :)  it was so sad to have to tell her that we wouldn't be there...), a lady who teaches history at a public school, who asked for a second copy for her sister....oh, and we found this cute little park and met a mom and her little daughter on the playground.  One of the other companionships in our district had already talked to her and given her a Book of Mormon, but we talked with her for a little bit anyways.  She seemed really awesome and her daughter was ADORABLE, 3 years old. :)  We testified of the message the other missionaries had shared with her and told her we knew it was true, and she said, "I know, it must be!  You wouldn't all be here sharing it with people if it wasn't!"  Only in Portuguese.  :) It was so cool.  It really made me realize how right she was...I'm here because it's TRUE, and because I know it's true, and I want other people to be able to know that, too! 

 

Okay, well I'd better get off pretty quick here.  I hope you're all doing great!  I love you all so much.  I love showing off pictures and telling stories and talking about how awesome my family is.  :D  Thanks so much for your love and support, I don't know what I'd do without you guys!!

 

Alright, até mais!

 

Love,

 

Sister Gee

Sharing my testimony through music; Spoke in sacrament meeting; 3 weeks left!

Hi everyone!  Another week has gone by at the CTM, and I'm down to 3 left!  It's been a pretty awesome week and I've had some good experiences with my companions and district.  I love being a missionary!  Even though I'm not able to go out and preach the gospel for real yet, I can still feel the blessings and the joy that come from serving the Lord.  It's amazing.  :)

Sooo, Sister Brundage and I were able to perform our musical number as prelude for devotional last night!!  I think I mentioned it in a previous email, right?  I played the piano for Sister Brundage and she sang Savior Redeemer of My Soul.  I LOVE that song...it's so beautiful and expresses so much of how I feel about the Savior so well.  We were so excited when we got the sheet music for it because it's really meaningful to both of us, and it was so amazing to be able to finally perform it.  It was a really challenging accompaniment for me, so I've spent a lot of time over the last few weeks practicing and practicing and trying to get it down.  But it went really well last night, and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to share it with the rest of the CTM.  Sister Brundage was AMAZING, and so many people have been coming up to us with compliments. :)  Oh, and guess what?  We're performing again on Sunday!  Haha, it's a good thing people love to hear Sister Brundage sing so much, or they might get sick of us.  :)  This time Sis. Brundage is singing a duet for the song His Hands with an elder in our district, Elder Stott, and I'll of course be at the piano.  It's so much fun to be involved with the music here...I'm glad I have so many great opportunities to play and share my testimony through music! 

Last Sunday I was called up to speak in Sacrament Meeting in our branch...I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to be, but I got up and I spoke and I shared my testimony, and I think it went pretty well.  I used Elder Ballard's Our Search For Happiness quite a bit, and I think that helped to fill up the time...haha :)  I am so amazed by how much the Lord has helped me to grow from my mission already.  I was thinking about my farewell talks, and how I spent daaays and days trying to prepare to speak, and then I looked at how I was able to prepare this talk in a half hour or so.  I think that's amazing!  I'm so grateful for all that I've learned and been able to do with the Lord's help.  :)

Everything else has been business as usual this week.  Classes and teaching and meals and gym and study.....same old, same old.  :)  My companions and I have started really trying to master the conjugations and different tenses of verbs this week.  It's SO HARD.  I'm grateful for the time that I have to learn and study here in the CTM, but even with these 9 weeks, I don't think I'll ever get it!  Imperfect and Preterit and Future Subjunctive....sheesh.  It's crazy stuff.  :P  But I'm definitely going to keep working at it and hopefully it will come after a while!  Any of you who have advice on how to study a new language, send it my way...

It sounds like things are going well at home!  Dad and Justin are off at Scout Camp for the rest of the week?  Make sure they tell me all about it next week!  That makes me miss Maple Dell and going to Family Camp every summer.  :)  I loooooved all the pictures you sent, thank you!!!  Megan sure makes a creepy Maleficent....haha :)  I hope you have a recording of the play so I can watch it in a year and a half!  Congratulations to Jamie on the new job!  I knew something amazing would come up for you sooner or later.  :)  You're going to be amazing working at an assisted living center, I can totally picture it!  It reminds me of all the times back in high school when you would go singing at Great-Grandma's rest home, just because you wanted to.  Do you remember the lady who lost her cat...?  Or the Stardust lady?  Yep, this definitely sounds like a job you'll be good at.  You have such a big heart, and are so good at working with people and bringing a smile to their faces.  You have to let me know how you like it! 

Well, I'm out of time once again.  Thanks so much for everything.  I love you all and am so grateful to have such an amazing family and so much support from home.  I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to serve the Lord here in Brazil! 

Love you all, and can't wait to hear from you!  Keep the letters and the prayers coming!!

 

Sister Melissa Gee

Half way?!?!; Pioneer Day in Brazil :-)

Hello again from the CTM!

 

It's been another great week, and time is seriously flying.  Someone pointed out yesterday that in TWO weeks we'll be going out proselyting in São Paulo for our first time, and then the NEXT Tuesday we'll be on our way to the field!  Isn't that crazy?  It feels like yesterday that I was saying goodbye to all of you at the Salt Lake Airport... :) 

Besides all the normal classes and studying and teaching, we've had some pretty cool experiences this week.  On Friday we had TRC again, only this time was a little bit different....we got to be investigators!  They usually only have the oldest districts do that, so we were kind of surprised when they told us it was our turn.  I loved being an investigator.  It's definitely a lot less stressful than trying to have to teach a lesson and find out what the investigator needs you to help them understand...  An elder in my district was the main investigator, and I was there as his "sister".  The missionaries teaching us were there for their very first time at TRC, and they did such a good job!  It reminded me of the first time I had TRC, struggling to express the principles of the gospel in the little Portuguese I knew...not that I don't do that anymore, just....not quite as much.   :)  It made me laugh because the lesson actually started out the exact same way as my first TRC:  (Awkward silence.....)  "Trabalho?"  hahaha...good times. 

On Sunday we had our half-way interviews with our branch presidency!  HALF. WAY.  Sheesh. So weird.  :)  It was super awesome, especially because I got a new branch when I switched districts so I hadn't been interviewed by this president yet.  It was fun to get to meet him and talk with him a little bit about my experience at the CTM so far.  Before we started the interview he had me pray in Portuguese, so I did, and afterwards he looked up and said, "Where did you learn Portuguese??"  I wasn't sure if that was a trick question or not, so I hesitated for a second and then answered "Uhm.....here?"  :)  He looked surprised and told me how good my Portuguese was, especially for being a week behind my district.  It was SO good to hear that.  Definitely a confidence boost.  :) 

Yesterday was PIONEER DAY!!  We had a special fireside in the evening with a lot of pioneer stories and songs.  It was really great, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have realized that it was Pioneer Day otherwise.  :)  But it was a really fun night, and a great celebration of the holiday.  It was so cool to hear so many stories of sacrifice and complete commitment to the gospel...I'm so grateful for the examples of the pioneers!  There are so many that literally gave their lives for this gospel, so really, it's the least I can do to give 18 months.  :)  It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun celebrating back in Utah too!  I miss that!  When I realized what day it was I immediately thought of Mom in her pioneer outfit, leading a parade of Primary children around the block... :) 

Thanks so much for sending all those pictures, I LOVED it!!!  It looks like you had so much fun at the reunion, I wish I could have been there!  Jamie and Megan both have SUPER cute outfits.... ;)  And Megan as Maleficent!!!  Aaaahh.  So awesome.  The costume is perfect, if only I could hear the cackle that goes with it!  ;)

Well, I'm out of time once again.  I love you all so much!  I sent a postcard today, so keep an eye out for it! 

 

Love,

 

Sister Melissa Gee

First "baptism"; Churrasco!; Singing lessons for District 24-B

Helloooo everyone!!!  It's been another amazing week, and I have so much I want to tell you all about!  I swear, this 30 minutes of email time is the most stressful part of my week.  It goes SO fast, and I feel like I never have enough time to reply to all of your emails.  :P  I'm sorry, but know that I really appreciate all of them and wish I could respond! 

This past week I was SICK...gross congestion and a nasty cough and no happiness involved at all.  It made it pretty hard to study and teach, but I suffered through it and I think I'm almost completely through it now.  Thank goodness.  :)  There's so much coming up this next week, so I'm definitely grateful to be healthy again. 

Our first "investigator" is getting baptized today, which we've been REALLY excited about.  It's amazing how much happiness we feel for an investigator that isn't even real... hard to imagine how much HAPPIER we'll be when it's a real person accepting the gospel and changing their lives to come unto Christ!!  I'm guessing we'll be getting a new investigator to teach tomorrow, and the second one is supposed to be a lot more challenging....but it will be fun, and I'm looking forward to it.

Today we were able to go to the temple again, and then one of our teachers, Irmão Mauricio, took us to a churrasco place, a lot like Tucanos.  It was DELICIOUS, and so much fun to get out of the CTM and try some authentic Brazilian food.  Ahh, the food here is so good.  Oh, and Jamie, I've definitely tried the guarana and grape juice thing.  AMAZING.  Squeeze a lime in and it's absolutely perfection.  :)

 I've definitely been loving my time with the new district.  This last week we played basketball together during gym, and I had a ton of fun even though I'm definitely not very good.  The elders are really nice and patient with the sisters, so we all have fun playing together.  Oh, and one night all the sisters in our district had a yoga night...so much fun, and I'm pretty sure that never would have happened in my last district with all the elders.  Sister Keller and Sister Ellis are the other companionship of sisters in our district, and I LOVE them so much!!!  They're the funnest, sweetest girls, and we have so much fun together!  :)  We also decided to start having "singing lessons" during our study time in the evening, which is verrry much needed....singing is not the biggest strength of district 24-B.  :)  I sat at the piano and played while Sister Brundage tried to slooowly walk everyone through a scale.  It was so much fun to sit with everyone around the piano, singing and laughing and just having fun together.  :)

Sister Brundage and I are working on a musical number we want to perform in a devotional in a few weeks.  You know that beeeeautiful arrangement of "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" from 17 Miracles?  I love it SO much, and it's so much fun to play, especially with Sister Brundage's amazing voice singing! 

Well everyone, thanks so much for your love and support.  It means so much to me.  :)  I'll write again next week, and try to answer your questions more. 

I love you ALL so much!!!

 

Sister Gee

New district, new companions; TIRO - TIme is Running Out

Querida Familia,

I'm guessing that Jared probably told you why I didn't email yesterday....I've been moved to a new district, and I have TWO new companheiras!!!!!  I'm SO excited about it, even though it's kind of sad to not be with Jared all the time.  We're even on different meal schedules now, so I usually only see him at devotionals or at lanche, the snack we have right before bed.  But it is sooo good to be with sisters, and I'm already beginning to feel like part of the group.  There are eight people in this district, four elders and four sisters, so now that I'm here we've got them outnumbered!  ;)  My companions are Sister Brundage and Sister Butterfield.  They are both so incredibly sweet and I feel like we have a lot in common.  We've had some very enthusiastic conversations about musicals, Jane Austen novels, opera .... yep, I think we're going to get along.  :) 

We've taught three lessons as a companionship already, and I've only been with them since Saturday.  Crazy!  They are both awesome teachers, and I feel like I'm learning so much.  It's VERY different from teaching with elders...haha :)  I'm really loving it so far.  They have been here one week longer that me, so I'm a little bit behind in the language, but I think I'll be able to keep up.  I'm not sure how long I'm going to be with them, since I'll probably go back to my original district once my companion in Provo gets her visa.  (Her name is Sister Young, by the way.  I don't think I mentioned that before.)  :)

I also have new teachers now, Irmão Mauricio and Irmã Pozete.  They are both REALLY great, and they speak Portuguese pretty much the entire class...which is hard, since my previous teachers mostly spoke English, but I know it's going to be so good for me.  I think understanding other people is the HARDEST part about the language so far.  I can read it, and I can speak it pretty well, but the understanding is not coming as easily.  They talk so fast!  :P  But I can tell that it's getting easier.  I'm trying to take more opportunities to talk to Brazilians here, which is really fun.  Even though I always have to ask them to repeat themselves two or three times before I understand, they're really patient and helpful and friendly.  :) 

The district motto is "TIRO", or Time Is Running Out ... a really good reminder that we only have so much time here at the CTM to prepare to be the kind of missionary the Lord needs us to be.  It's funny how it feels like we're going to be here FOREVER...but then I remember that there IS life after the CTM, and we need to be ready for it!  I'm so excited.  One of my original roommates left the CTM for Londrina on Tuesday, and she's going to write and tell me all about it, which will be so awesome. 

I love you guys so much, and pray for you every day!  It sounds like things are going really well back home.  Tell Kyle to write and tell me all about EFY!!  I LOVED EFY...we listen to a lot of the EFY music here at the CTM and it makes me remember how awesome it was.  :)  And I'm super jealous of your awesome vacation, Mom and Dad!  It sounds like you're having a blast.  :) 

Well, keep writing!  I love hearing about what's going on in your lives!  I'm so grateful for all the love and support I feel every time I read your emails.  Thanks for everything. 

Until next week :)

Sister Gee