Brazil Gets Cold

For those that are following the blog, sorry I haven't posted in a while. Here is the latest from Kat.

Hi hi hi,

Thank you guys for the emails and the letters this week! I loved them and the pictures were great too (Elizabeth, Siaoisis and Mangums - you're great!) Life at the CTM is great, except that I'm FREEZING. I dont know why I failed to think about checking the weather in São Paulo during the winter, to plan for cold weather. Its sooo cooooold. All I packed was light weight clothes, planning for walking around in heat, so I'm pretty chilly, but thaaats ok. I just asked for extra blankets and double up my chabamas to bed.

This week we got new Brazilian roommates. They're nice but not quite as clean as our old roommates. But they're super helpful with the language, and one of them is trying to learn English, so we take turns practicing both languages. This week we're getting 60 new Americans, and next week like 80 more. The CTM is really going to be filling up and we're supposed to have around 450 by end of August.

The other day Sister Hill and I were in the bathroom, and these two Elders accidentally walked into the girls one, but they didnt see us because we were in the stalls. So we didnt say anything, but we heard them talking and saying,' whoa, did they change this one? when did they change it? ... [pause] where are the urinals? .. wait, are we in a girls bathroom?" By that time, sister hill and I were trying SO hard not to laugh, and by the time they realized it and ran out of the bathroom, we were laughing super hard. So then we went back to class and we were telling our district about it, and we looked over and two of the elders in our district were looking all awkward, and it turns out it was them, which just made it 10x funnier. ohhh they were so embarrassed.

This week we had a practice teaching experience in TRC. Its when they have members of the church come and sit there and pretend to be investigators and we just teach them. They film you while your teaching a 10-15 min lesson, then you come out, watch yourself, get some feedback, and teach it again. When we went there weren't members to teach, so we were doing our lesson for some brazilian missionaries. I felt like the first time went pretty well, then we came out and our tape didnt work, so we couldnt watch ourselves. And then the second time we taught, we kinda bombed it. Then watching the video afterwards was pretty painful. I sounded like a croaking toad (I've had a little baby sore throat lately) and I was flipping back and forth in the scriptures because its a lot harder to find the exact verse you want in a portuguese, un-tabbed, non-king-james-version of the bible, and there was some other stuff too... plus i didnt realize how much my posture sucked (sorry mom, i'm still working on it.) Anyways, it was good to see though, so now I know what things to work on.

In sad news, Sister BreAnn Lasley is leaving next week. Today is our last P-dizzle with her, and then she leaves for the field next tuesday. She's going to Florianopolis - an island of the coast of brasil with "32 of the worlds most beautiful beaches." It will be a sad sad goodbye. So, to lessen the blow, Sister Hill and I are ordering matching shirts (of course) for the fab five (Buckley, Palmer, Lasley, Hill, Wardle). Which reminds me... corinne and juliette, you should look up her sister and be friends with Jessica Lasley. dont worry, its not that creepy.

Sister Lasley is sitting at the computer next to me and here's a little note for you from her:
Lama, connie, jet, and babalab!! i love love love your sister!! and i already love you and cant wait to shred the gnar gnar together! i really am so excited. i have heard so much about you. Dont worry about your fatter sister, i am taking good care of her!! babalab...good work in the husband department!! jet , connie and lama i hope you are having a fun summer i´ll send you some floripa sand to add to your carlsbad stomping grounds. save your money and come and pick us up!! Mom and Dad wardel i love you too!! Be friends with my family!
--sister lasley

Do you see why I love her? haha and she remembered all your nicknames from like 4 weeks ago when I first started talking about you.

Anywaysssss, this week we heard an incredible talk from Elder Jeffrey R. HOlland, from a re-broadcasted devotional he gave a few months ago at the provo mtc. It was really really cool. Basically it was like, "Wake up and be a good missionary!!" He touched on SO many different topics, and it was really really great to hear.

Today we went out for a district lunch, and our teacher took us to this sweet restaurant. It was full on brazilian style - like how tucano's in provo tries to imitate it. the meat is SO SO SO good. I dont know where the flavor comes from, but it was delicious. and it was like $7.00 in american money. i love this country.

Welp, time's up. I love you all so much. the church is WAY TRUE. my new favorite thing to do during personal study is from chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel about the Book of Mormon. it has a list of questions of the soul, and how all of the answers are found in the livro de mórmon. super true.

LOVE,
Sister Waddle