Bringing back Rainbow Bright

From an email dated August 11, 2009

olá people,
You know you've been in the CTM for too long when you start to get reaaaaally creative with stuff to do. We have been here 8 weeks, and this is our last week, and then we leave for the field next Tuesday! CRAZY. We will find out our flight information next monday, and then next time you hear from me, I'll be in Brasilia, most likely with a Brazilian companion who dont speak no english.

But until that time, we're living it up in the CTM. Sister Hill and I were craving camping for some reason this week, so we decided to have a camp-out in our room. Employing a few creative methods of acquisition, we got a campfire, a tree, and then used my gnarlsbad teddy bear to represent the wildlife. Then we put our mattresses on the floor, and we've been having sleep-overs every night on the floor all week.

Our other made up games to stay entertained include finding random staircases in the CTM. there are fire escapes that we never knew about until like 3 days ago, right next to the main stairs, so now we just exclusively use those stairs. WILD ISN'T IT? jk, we're not that bored, its just there's only so much you can do in the same buiding for 8 weeks... oh ya, so we started taking the disposable plastic cups from the cafeteria and we're hoarding them in our room, and we're going to have a bowling night soon. the room keys are huge and we're going to use them as bowling balls and the cups are the pins you have to knock down. woot holler, good thing i'm such a good bowler/baller.

Our dress up day for the week was Rainbow Bright day (aka reign beau bright - corinne and jette i hope you remember that). i WISH i could get these pictures to work, because it turned out way cute. Sis Hill, Sis Christiansen, Sis Forste and I all wore bright solid colors. So our skirts and shirts and accessories were all just one solid color. and they were BRIGHT. It turns out you can have a lot of fun just being monochomatic. i was all yellow, hill was all red, christiansen was all green, and forste was all blue. Then as we walked around the CTM everyone would react with a different interpretation of the colors. we got everything from foods (i loved being called mustard and ketchup), to skittles, powder puff girls, YW virtues, stoplight, earth/wind/fire/water, and a bunch of other stuff. basically we looked like a box of crayons walking around.

The other day one of our teachers thought it would be a good idea for us to commit more to Portuguese, so he had us get together allllll of our materials in English. Then we had to take everything in English and go put it in our suitcases, and not take it out again. no scriptures, preach my gospel, ensigns, pamphlets.... nada. just Portuguese and a dictionary. yikes, and its just intimidating to think that next week we wont hear or read english for a long long time. so we're basically just copying Lasley's district and writing Dear John letters to English.

In ther news, we went proselyting again this week. It was cool because we know how to say and understand a lot more just compared to the last time we went 2 weeks ago. We didnt have any outstanding experiences like when we went in and taught a full lesson in someone's home, but there were a lot of cool people we talked to on the street, and its great getting to testify and talk to people who dont have what we have, and then sharing it with them for the first time. Sis Hill and I are a great match together. She's really good at picking the people to talk to, and I just rely on her a bunch. love her...

and this hasnt happened yet, but on sunday i'm leading the mtc choir. so the lady in charge asked me what song i wanted to do, and we're going to do a special little version of "put your Shoulder to the Wheel." I got the idea from our teacher, and then with some input from others, we're going to change the lyrics around to jazz it up a bit. In portuguese, the song doesnt have the pioneer connotation like in english. instead the verses are all about this great fight and how we have to work and work and stuff. but i wrote different lyrics for one verse in english, and then the choruses are all going to be different. so the first verse goes,

the Lord has need of missionaries
to serve here in brasil
prepare here in the ctm
put your shoulder to the wheel

then the 1st chorus in portuguese is about studying and preparying (Nossa lei é estudar, estudar, Estudar com alegria, preparar) Then the next time we sing the chorus it will be about working and singing, then the last 2 verses are about baptizing and confirming. (That was the part where all the inspiration came from when one of our teachers told us that was how they used to sing it. "Batisar con água fria, confirmar.") so hopefully that should go well.

umm and we're getting 104 new missionaries this week! this place is going to be packed. i'm excited to leave, and hit the field! we leave the ctm on August 18, and i'm SUPER glad sister hill and i are going to the same mission together. my address in the field is:

Sister Kat Wardle
Brazil Brasilia Mission
SHIN CA 05 Salas 304/307
LOTE B1 Brasilia DF
71503-305
BRASIL

write me in the field! woooot thats when i'll really start to need it.
klove you bye!
sis waaaaddle