I'm On My Way To...

Querida minhas familias e amigos! 

Como vai? Oi! Come esta? I am doing just great and I'm sure you are all dying to find out where I am going.... since I have been reassigned to the United States to await my VISA! I have received a second mission call and I will be serving in TEXAS, HOUSTON SOUTH! I fly out Tuesday morning and I AM SERIOUSLY SO EXCITED! My new mission is right on the coast of Texas and it's super super hot! It's going to be so nice!  I was kind of in shock because Texas was one of the last places that I was thinking, but hey if the Lord needs me there then I will be more than happy to serve there! The MTC has been a great training ground for the mission field, but I am so ready to finally get out into the field and teach people what I know WITH ALL OF MY HEART to be true :) 

Alright, this week was probably one of my longest weeks. I got a really bad cold last Saturday and it has just been horrible all week. Hopefully it starts to clear up right as I leave, but I decided that it was a test and I was going to pass it! There was no way I was going to sleep in or skip out on my personal study or missing class just because I felt sick! Nope! I got up every single day and only took an hour nap one day during free time! So take that cold sickness!

This week was neat because we did a lot of training for the actual field, like how to find investigators, service ideas, how to work with the members, and getting referrals WHICH ARE SO IMPORTANT! I am so pumped to be out in the field and to actually put everything I have learned to practice! I guess I could potentially be speaking Spanish in my new mission which would be totally nuts!!! I just learned Portuguese for six weeks I might as well throw in another language :) 

Exciting news! I had to redo my Online application this week which means that my visa is probably coming in the next two months or so, keep your fingers crossed! 

I finished the Book of Mormon last night! Can I just say that it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had to be able to read the Book of Mormon in six weeks! I have never read it all the way through, but the love I have for that book and for the Prophet, Joseph Smith kind of shock me. I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. It was written by prophets of old who spoke to God and the Savior. That book was written for our day and by reading it you can know for yourself the truth. That Joseph Smith is truly a prophet of God and the Church of Jesus Christ is truly on the earth again today. Now, I am going to start reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese, that should be fun :)

This week we spoke a lot of Portuguese and taught a lot of investigators! I can tell that when we plan for our lessons, the Spirit is truly there and will guide us in what to say. I have an absolute testimony of the Spirit and how it guides us and helps us. I also have had to learn a lot about patience and love this last week. I have loved serving in a leadership position, but it did not leave me a lot of time for study time or personal time. Yet, I had to be patient with the other sisters, with the Lord especially, and just love the sisters and the opportunity that I have been given to serve them and help them. 

I will officially be 21 on Sunday, so thank you family and Grandma Nancy for the card and the box that I got! I loved the touching words and the gifts Mom :) 

Eu amo voces muito con minha todo coracao! 

Sister Brotherson

One More Week in the MTC...Maybe!

Querida familia e mis amigos! I have only one more week in the MTC! Ahhhh I cannot believe that the time has gone so quickly, yet also so slowly! I have loved every second of it and honestly I have never felt better about myself, felt the Spirit more, or just felt like I was doing 100% the right thing. I just feel like this is where I am my best self without a doubt! I get my reassignment to the United States next Friday! I cannot believe it! If I don't get my VISA then I will go somewhere in the US, until my visa comes. I have good feelings though and I think I will be getting it within the next month for sure! One of my companions, Sister Haight, got her visa this week and AH she went through the Chicago consulate, so it is very possible that visas are going through that consulate rather quickly! We shall wait and see! I really am excited to serve speaking English in the US for awhile! I think it will be super neat to have both experiences! 

This week was amazing for lots of reasons! Sister Kron, my senior companion left and she was the other Sister Training Leader, so I was left in charge since the Zone Leaders also left! Sister Loo, was called as the other STL and she is seriously amazing! I love her so much! We had a lot of difficulties with some of the sisters this week, but she was so on the ball and she just knew exactly what to say, how to help, and where she needed to be to help these sisters who were struggling! I am so grateful for her and definitely count her as a kindred spirit.

This week we also did an English fast! I spoke Portuguese for a straight 24 hours with now English! It was so hard, but also so awesome just to see how far our district has come in four weeks! I mean I can speak Portuguese for a whole day! The gift of tongues and the Spirit are so real and true. I am so grateful for both of them! 

My district is still split, so there are only five of us in this humongous classroom with one teacher. We get a lot of personal training from our teacher and it has been so great to work one on one with our teachers! I still have a Brazilian teacher which has been great for pronunciation and figuring out what people actually say in Brazil! I now have James 1:5, the First Vision, D&C 4, and my purpose memorized in Portuguese, so that has been awesome! 

We are teaching four investigators! Andre, Sam, Jaime, and Junior! Three of them are super difficult and don't really care about what we have to say, but I know that without a doubt we will be able to help them if we just keep praying and listening to the Spirit! Jaime has committed to baptism and he is seriously having the best time with us! He is just so ready to change his life and he is just eating up what we say! 

A very funny thing happened yesterday :) My companions, me, and another girl in our district had a shaving cream fight in the showers in the bathroom. It was seriously SO MUCH FUN! We were completely covered though and had to clean up the whole bathroom, but it was so worth it! Unfortunately, we locked ourselves out of our room, so Sister Goodwin and I had to run to the front desk in soaking wet gym clothes to get a new key. Let's just say plan shaving cream fights accordingly and ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR KEY WHEN GOING TO THE BATHROOM!

That is all for this week :) I love you all and am so grateful for all of you! I'll let you know next where I am headed for my reassignment! Also, it's my birthday in like oh eight days which is seriously weird and surreal! I will be 21! That is soooo old! I don't mind cards at all :)

Love, Sister Brotherson

The Spirit Is Everywhere! (more pictures)

Oi familia e amigos! 

Funny story from the week! We learned the word "que droga" which means oh darn or what drugs in Portuguese, but most people use it as oh darn in Brazil! So, we have been saying it a lot this week! Oops, we were told by a teacher that it's a SWEAR WORD in Brazil! Now, I don't know why somebody didn't tell us before then, but we have learned our lesson that you do not say words you don't know :)

Como vai? How are all of you doing? You know that I really only hear from one or two of you, so if you ever have time to drop a note it would be greatly appreciated! Just so you know I am already four weeks into the MTC! I will be either getting my visa or my reassignment in the next two weeks, so I will let you all know once I know! This week has been more difficult than other weeks for me because I truly have very little personal time, but I love love love spending my extra time working with the other sisters in our zone! I just love them so much with all of my heart! The Spirit has worked through me in so many ways, so that I would know what to say to help these girls when they are in need. Also, my district was split up this last week. It was probably the saddest thing ever! I have only been with my district for three weeks, but I already feel like they are my brothers and sisters. I just love them so much and cannot imagine leaving them! I was not expecting to be this close to them! Anyways, some things have been happening here. Our district was split in half and five of us were put with an older district and two new teachers which was just terrifying because the older district is two weeks ahead of us and they have much better Portuguese! The Lord obviously has an idea about these things though :) So, I now have a new district with 20 people and 2 new teachers! But, 3/4 of our new district is leaving on Tuesday since they got their reassignments today! So, we will be a district of five people and I have no idea how that is going to work out! Our old district may be put in with us again?? We have no idea! 

Last week we also got to do TRC for the first time and it was SO MUCH FUN! We just talk to random members who speak Portuguese and we basically do like a visiting teaching message and share an experience that we have had that might help them. It was so neat because there was no stress of teaching someone new, we just got to talk about normal things in Portuguese and I loved it! Also, on Sunday I had three meetings which took up all of my extra time when I wasn't at mission conference and Sacrament meeting. It was the first of the month, so we had fast sunday! We didn't eat for 24 hours which I normally do, but to do it with everyone in the MTC and then to have a huge MTC conference with the MTC President, Lon B. Nally speaking to us was just so amazing! I felt the spirit so strongly and I am always so rejuvenated on Sundays! I can just really think about my purpose for serving a mission and why I am here! 

We started teaching two new investigators this week, Jaime and Junior. Both are super different. One already knows everything about the gospel and pretty much shut us down about everything that we said! It was so frustrating to try and defend my religion, but I didn't have the words to tell him what he needed to hear. All I could do in the end was bear my testimony. I was pretty upset after that meeting, but I also realized that this was a learning experience and that the Lord was trying to teach me something. I won't always have the answers and sometimes all I can do is testify. Jaime is what we call a golden investigator, he knows something is wrong in his life, but he doesn't know what. He wants to change and he really believes the gospel is true. We had an amazing lesson with him and really felt the spirit with what we were teaching. \

Another neat experience happened this week, we are studying the third lesson in Preach My Gospel about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and my teachers decided for some ridiculous reason that I would be the role play investigator while they taught me the lesson and how to teach the third lesson IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS! I mean I have only been speaking and listening to Portuguese for three weeks! I could not believe that they wanted me to go up there! I ended up telling everybody I was from Canada and that I had only lived there for twenty minutes! Everybody was laughing and I was beet red! From there, the lesson did go better, but it was so nerve-wracking and I was so nervous the whole time! It made me realize how little Portuguese I know and how much I need to study so hard! 

Tuesday night we had David F. Evans speak to us at devotional and it was phenomenal! My mind was seriously blown topsy turvey! He just talked about the revelation that has been received in the last year for missionaries and how the work is hastening and the Lord has his hand in everything! We are already at 85,000 missionaries in the field, is that not amazing! When a few short months ago we were only at 58,000! Oh, you should all go and read Jacob 5 and apply the last twenty verses to the Latter days because you will be amazed at the symbolism. The servant of the vineyard asks not for more time, but FOR MORE SERVANTS! HELLO! Thomas S. Monson lowering the age and calling for more servants which are the MISSIONARIES! Just think about it okay :) The church is so true and I am so grateful for it! I have to say that my Portuguese is doing alright, I am super worried about being reassigned state side and losing all my language, but I am trying my best to work hard and retain Portuguese! 

I am just so grateful for this amazing opportunity that I have to serve a mission and share the gospel with people! I know this church is true and I know that it can and does change lives if you let it. Love you all and thanks for your support!

Sister Brotherson