Okay everyone! I am officially in Brazil. I've been in the mtc for a little over a week now, and am loving it! I got my visa about two weeks ago and haven't been able to email.
So basically I love this place. The language is coming along slowly but surely. I don't remember the last time I spoke english, we always try to speak portuguese. My district is awesome, we are all really close! I am companions with Sister Pratt again! WOOOO!!! ha ha I was so surprised to see her on the flight! I don't have much time to email, but I will try to give you the gyst of everything! I'm sorry mom! Please forgive me!
We've gone prosilyting in sao paulo twice now. It is absolutely amazing. The people here are incredibly friendly. They love to talk to you, especially about God. They are so prepared and incredibly open. When we went tracting we found a woman sitting alone on a park bench. We asked her if we could sit with her. She told us all about her family and how she had wanted to be closer to god, but didn't know how to. So we gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to read and pray about it. Twenty minutes later we walked past her and she was still reading it! The sad part is I won't ever know what will become of her because the Sao Paulo missionaries take it from here. :)
One thing that we have noticed is... that Brazilians like blonde hair and blue eyes. The Brazilian missionaries are always touching my hair and asking if my eyes are real? I would get asked if my eye lashes are real in the states... but not my eyes.... ha ha and in Portuguese "Cullen" is actually said like "Culley"... so everyone here also thinks that I'm a vampire from twilight.... everytime I see one of the elders he yells "Vampire Vampire Aqui!!!" The sisters are always giving you kisses and helping you with the language and telling you to "eat more!" So basically I love brazillians! It's a bit of a problem when contacting and you realize that they don't want the Book of Mormon, they want your number... You just didn't understand what they were saying because you don't speak Portuguese! haha yeah... That happened.
Everything here is amazing. The city of sao paulo is GINORMOUS. It is absolutely breath taking! I love it! Everything is so green and lush, it doesn't look real. The traffic in sao paulo is absolutely INSANE. I have never seen anything like it. I will never ever complain about the traffic in utah ever again. The food is really good. We have a lot of fish and beef and chicken. and beans and rice every meal. Lots of fresh bread. So don't worry mom, I am not starving! ha ha
Since we aren't learning how to be missionaries, and just learning the language we play lots of games in potuguese to help us talk faster and listen better. I can talk fine, but I have a hard time understanding. The professor was so suprised when we gave out six books of mormon in half an hour. I guess he didn't realize that we have done this for a while! Just not in portutuese!
I am so glad to hear that Riley is doing well. My district had a twenty four hour fast for him. And I put his name on the temple pray roll today. Yeah, you guys have prayers coming at you from brazil now! We went to the sao paulo temple! It was amazing! I think it's my new favorite temple! It is so pretty! There is stained glass work everywhere. The grounds look like a well kept jungle! I love it!
Oh and I'm a sister training leader now... whatever that means. I have to basically help a bunch of brazilians with whatever they need even though I don't speak portuguese... ha ha but It is really fun. The visas are coming in hot now! so that's good news for all you visa waiters! my guess is that you will get your visas this next transfer! let me know k? I'm praying for you! You are needed here! Americans have a lot of success here... if you can imagine why! It's not like any other place, they love love love americans! ha ha
I love you guys so much! Please Please stay strong and positive! Turn it all over to God! I love you so much!
Com muito amor,
Sister Culley
So basically I love this place. The language is coming along slowly but surely. I don't remember the last time I spoke english, we always try to speak portuguese. My district is awesome, we are all really close! I am companions with Sister Pratt again! WOOOO!!! ha ha I was so surprised to see her on the flight! I don't have much time to email, but I will try to give you the gyst of everything! I'm sorry mom! Please forgive me!
We've gone prosilyting in sao paulo twice now. It is absolutely amazing. The people here are incredibly friendly. They love to talk to you, especially about God. They are so prepared and incredibly open. When we went tracting we found a woman sitting alone on a park bench. We asked her if we could sit with her. She told us all about her family and how she had wanted to be closer to god, but didn't know how to. So we gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to read and pray about it. Twenty minutes later we walked past her and she was still reading it! The sad part is I won't ever know what will become of her because the Sao Paulo missionaries take it from here. :)
One thing that we have noticed is... that Brazilians like blonde hair and blue eyes. The Brazilian missionaries are always touching my hair and asking if my eyes are real? I would get asked if my eye lashes are real in the states... but not my eyes.... ha ha and in Portuguese "Cullen" is actually said like "Culley"... so everyone here also thinks that I'm a vampire from twilight.... everytime I see one of the elders he yells "Vampire Vampire Aqui!!!" The sisters are always giving you kisses and helping you with the language and telling you to "eat more!" So basically I love brazillians! It's a bit of a problem when contacting and you realize that they don't want the Book of Mormon, they want your number... You just didn't understand what they were saying because you don't speak Portuguese! haha yeah... That happened.
Everything here is amazing. The city of sao paulo is GINORMOUS. It is absolutely breath taking! I love it! Everything is so green and lush, it doesn't look real. The traffic in sao paulo is absolutely INSANE. I have never seen anything like it. I will never ever complain about the traffic in utah ever again. The food is really good. We have a lot of fish and beef and chicken. and beans and rice every meal. Lots of fresh bread. So don't worry mom, I am not starving! ha ha
Since we aren't learning how to be missionaries, and just learning the language we play lots of games in potuguese to help us talk faster and listen better. I can talk fine, but I have a hard time understanding. The professor was so suprised when we gave out six books of mormon in half an hour. I guess he didn't realize that we have done this for a while! Just not in portutuese!
I am so glad to hear that Riley is doing well. My district had a twenty four hour fast for him. And I put his name on the temple pray roll today. Yeah, you guys have prayers coming at you from brazil now! We went to the sao paulo temple! It was amazing! I think it's my new favorite temple! It is so pretty! There is stained glass work everywhere. The grounds look like a well kept jungle! I love it!
Oh and I'm a sister training leader now... whatever that means. I have to basically help a bunch of brazilians with whatever they need even though I don't speak portuguese... ha ha but It is really fun. The visas are coming in hot now! so that's good news for all you visa waiters! my guess is that you will get your visas this next transfer! let me know k? I'm praying for you! You are needed here! Americans have a lot of success here... if you can imagine why! It's not like any other place, they love love love americans! ha ha
I love you guys so much! Please Please stay strong and positive! Turn it all over to God! I love you so much!
Com muito amor,
Sister Culley