First Hello from Brazil

Sister Empey's first letter from Brazil!! Sounds like she's right in her element, bossing all the other Elder's around .... :)


Hello family and friends! Happy Thanksgiving! I´ve forgotten that it´s this week! So hope it´s all an amazing weekend for you!

How is life! I can´t believe I made it Brazil in 1 piece! Haha jk. The flights were good. But I honestly didn´t like them at all because I was by myself (no other missionaries) the whole time. So that wasn´t exactly fun.

So this is what happened. We had to wait at the airport for pretty much ever...well ever for like 10 other missionaries to arrive and stuff. I´m not going to lie. That first day was not fun. It was stressful and overwhelming and I tried not to look at anyone because I was afraid they were going to try to talk to me and then I couldn´t say anything to them back!!! Haha so I just kinda looked down at my stuff...and then we get at the MTC and all the missionaries that saw us came and said welcome and stuff. And I got to see my old district. It´s funny because no one knows who is going to come until they show up. And then we are all really excited for them to be here. My old district was sooo excited to see me :)

And I was really excited because I thought I would be in their district again...nope guess again.

And then I went through some orientation things and we walked around the city for a little bit. Every P-Day we can leave the MTC and go walk around the city for a little bit and buy things. One of the first things I´m going to buy...food! Seriously...I get so hungry here. It´s probably because the last food of the day is at 4:45pm. Holy cow...do they really think that is a good idea to stop eating that early?! So I usually get hungry again about 8:30 and snack time isn´t usually until 9:30. So ya, we have snack time every night which is actually pretty cool. It´s usually chocolate milk and some kind of bread. Some of my elders´ favorites are chocolate chip bread. Anyways, that´s pretty cool actually.

Next crazy thing...I don´t have a companion! Crazy huh?! I can´t believe it but I am the only sister in my district. And I don´t think I´ll have one the whole time I am here because the only other sister to enter the MTC the same day as me was my comp back in Provo, and she hasn´t gotten her electronic visa yet...well as far as I know she hasn´t. But I´m honestly ok with it because my elders are really good at respecting me :) Probably because I kind of demand it, I´m sometimes the voice of reason among 8 19 year olds, and they have admitted a few of them are kind of scared of me. Hahaha I think that´s really funny but they have reason to. I´ve just had a diplomatic conversation with them about a couple of things, in the which I voiced my opinion and they couldn´t give their opinions because I wouldn´t stop expressing my point of view. Haha pretty much it has to deal with my elders FREAKING out about mail. Like mail is a HUGE HUGE thing at the MTC. Almost all of them have gfs and haha it´s funny because none of them get letters very often. But they hold out for this serious hope that they are going to get mail. I finally talked them into only checking the mail 1 time a day instead of 3 like before. And asked them to not complain or whine when they didn´t get a letter...as much. Haha so 2 days after I get here I get a letter. Thanks Grandma :) It was pretty funny because they got soo mad at me!

In any case, sister missionaries here are pretty much worshiped. There are only approx 15 of us here. We never have to wait in line, we always get to cut, the Brazilians love us, especially American sister missionaries, and we can go wherever we want.

So we have gym every day. And we have it with another district (which is my old district). So pretty much I play volleyball (volleyball mind you) with 18 other elders. Haha and I still kick their trash on a regular basis :) They are really good at including me, and they kind of follow me around sometimes which is pretty funny.

So I like it here a lot more than I did at first. For the first couple of days I missed the provo mtc soooo much. there is like no structure and it takes some serious self discipline for me to accomplish what I want to. And the devotionals and firesides arent as good here unfortunately...which is kind of sad :( I LOVEd the firesides in Provo. So I get kind of sad missing it sometimes. I dont think you can ever replace the feel of the Provo MTC. But here is good too. The last couple of days I´ve been really really thankful that I have been able to experience both. I mean there are some things that we can get here that we could never get in Provo and visa versa. I´ve been able to help my Elders out with some stuff which Im really glad I learned in Provo so I could help them. Because it´s so relaxed here, things that were stressed in Provo arent stressed here so I´m glad Ive been able to help out my elders. It´s all about becoming better together right?!

Um portuguese...is going ok. I´m slowly becoming a little braver with talking to the Brazilians here tho. Even if it is just saying hi. And they are really understanding and try to help us out. They actually don´t make us speak more portuguese then I expected. We always have a translater for firesides and things and my teachers speak English as well as Portuguese.

Um I miss American candy already! The food here is actually pretty good tho, other than the candy... The way they present the food is like awesome here. Its always so pretty. Like I said...the food is good. I have rice and beans every meal :) I actually like them mixed together :) They had fashwa yesterday (I have no idea how that is actually spelled). Its the meal where they put whatever they can in a pot (bones and everything) from an animal and then boil it and put it over rice. I just didnt think about it while I was eating it. But other than that...its pretty good.

Um what else can I tell you? I think thats a pretty good over view. Oh the weather is getting a little warm here but not that bad. Its been kind of reallly really nice since I´ve been here. I went to the temple today, the session was in English and the temple is beautiful! I went to the distribution center afterward and got a little mini hymn book.

So this is the deal to all of you...letters take approx 4-5 business days to get here (about) and I think about 10ish days to get back. So mail just takes a lot longer to get places.

So if you want to let me know something exciting that just happened or whatever, just send me a quick email. Youll know Ill get it Tuesdays at least!

Again, I really really really really appreciate all of your support. It´s kind of crazy being even more disconnected from the world but I´m praying for your success and safety.

Wish me luck going outside the MTC boundaries! Ahhhh...I´ll need it!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

-Sister Empey