Bençaos

A picture from the blog of Brian's companion, Elder Hughes

I didn't even realize that I left a month ago until one of the Elders mentioned it yesterday... It really doesn't feel like I've been gone very long, yet I can't remember what life is like outside of the CTM haha.... muito estranho!

Word of the Week: jardim de infância - kindergarten

This week our district had an English fast from Monday to Thursday, meaning we didn't speak any English until the last 45 minutes before bed (to wind down and say everything we didn't know how to express in Portugues). Foi muito ótimo, e eu acho que nosso português é muito melhor agora! It's just so awesome to realize how much the Lord helps us here, because I never imagined that I would be able to go multiple days in a foreign language after less than a month of speaking it! Bençãos.

A lot of times, someone will say something, and then a few seconds after I can't remember if they said it in English or Portuguese... it's super odd, becuase I'll be thinking "hey, they should be speaking portuguese because we aren't speaking english right now" but then realize that it was actually in Portuguese, I just understood it,so my mind defaulted to thinking it had to be English.

Our teacher, Irmã Correa, is the best. I know I've mentioned it before, but we just all love her so much. Every day, she walks out of the classroom and lets the door close, then after a few seconds opens it back up with a "gotcha" kinda face on and says "não esquecem: eu amo vocês" (don't forget: I love you guys). It's the best.

The first 2 weeks here were pretty long and difficult, but now I don't know where the time's gone! I sometimes worry that 2 years isn't going to be enough time to do everything that I need to here, but I haven't even gotten into the campo yet so I shouldn't fret about that yet, and just concentrate on my work to do here in the CTM learning the language and preparing the best that I can so that the first day out I'll be ready to go. I just love it here, it's so great.

We went to the São Paulo temple this morning, and it was awesome, as always. But this time I did the whole session in Portuguese. It's amazing to feel that the Spirit of the temple is the same, no matter what language is being spoken. 

I love you all!

Elder Merrill

Note from Brian about last week: 

I forgot to tell you guys last week that we got to work in the baptistry before our session last week! I did confirmations, and it was so amazing to do that work and say the blessing in Portuguese. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I loved it so much. It strengthened my testimony of the importance of the work we do as missionaries mainly to help people get the opportunity to receive the ordinances of Baptism and Confirmation. SO COOL.