Pictures from Sister Empey

Sister Empey's district in the CTM. In her words, "This is what my life was like for 5 weeks. Hanging out with about 23 or 24 elders every day"

Elder Snarr, Sister Empey, Sister Holladay, and Elder Hartzell in the MTC in Provo.

Sister Empey's new apartment in Londrina.

Sister Empey in front of the CTM in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

View from the CTM in Sao Paulo.

Outside the Sao Paulo temple.

View outside her window at the CTM.

Sister Empey's district at the CTM

26 Dec 2011

Hello!

It was incredibly nice to see and here from you guys yesterday. Christmas was good. Nothing too special besides the obvious of getting to talk to you all!

First week in the field and I am obviously dying. Haha as I told the family yesterday, I have already fainted and I cant really go 10 minutes once Im outside and not sweating.

Lets see...my companion is great. She is really good at sticking to ALLL the rules and working hard. Which is good for me. Im glad that I have her as a trainer.

This area is nice. Its on the edge of Londrina. And the airport is really close to us so I can watch planes take off sometimes which is cool. But sometimes I just think about how long its going to be until I am on a plane again which isnt exactly the best thing either haha. Um lets see...

Oh something I forgot to mention which Im actually excited about.
I cant really say much of anything in Portuguese. But the Stake President had us over for lunch one day and I gave the spiritual thought. It was Ether 2:17. He said that it was the best analogy with that scripture he has ever heard! Which I thought was pretty cool.

Um about the language. Yep good thing my comp knows what to say and what to do because I definitely dont. I just sit there, eat peoples food, and then leave. And the members at least are getting used to me looking at them with a blank stare because I dont understand anything. Its a rule in the mission that you cant speak English. And I didnt know that but I had a GREAT conversation with one of the stake presidents son who is fluent in English. It was GREAT! It was the first conversation that I had that didnt take too much effort obviously. Haha need to stop that one I guess.

Everyone has dogs. Its their way of letting them know they have someone at the door. Its like the door bell. You can definitely tell which areas have nice houses and which are kind of crappy. But its been a good experience so far. And really hard actually. Hopefully eventually, Ill get used to it. Ok I know I will, it just might take a while.

Also...family...you got a new computer?! What?!

I forgot to ask everyone what you all got for Christmas presents so spill the beans! I want to here it all. Im sorry I cant give anyone Christmas presents this year or next. Maybe someday Ill be able to make up for it!

Lets see. What else can I tell you? Not a whole lot to be honest. I think that this last week was a whole bunch of trying to get accustomed to this crazy hard life style.

Love you all!
-Sister Empey

13 Dec 2011 - Last week in the CTM

Hello Family!

First off, sorry mom and others for not always answering your questions. Its always so stressful when there is a little countdown timer going down from 30 minutes in the corner. But I´ll try to answer your questions first. The cute escorts are some of my elders in my district. I cant remember who was with me at the time but...if you send me the picture that she sent then I can tell you. Im thinking their names were Elders Vincent, Stanger, Otteson (sp?), and Jarrell. They´re pretty cool :) And Izabel likes me because theres not many american sisters here so we are well known :)

As far as pictures go, I apologize for not sending them. They don´t exactly have the easiest access to put pictures up, ESPECIALLY when we only have 30 minutes a week. So when I get out in the field, I can send more pictures because Im not timed with 30 minutes.

Im really excited to leave this place! I cant wait for next week. Im so nervous but excited too :) Im excited to get into the real "mission". Which means a lot of hard days coming up. But Im excited to meet my mission president. Ive heard good things about him today. I met an elder last night who is from Londrina. He was really excited I was going to Londrina and he said that I can convert his parents while Im there! Haha it was kind of funny but it also made me think of how excited that will be when we get to know real people instead of just hypothetical situations.

I want pictures from people! I would love to see all my neices and nephews (hint hint).

Ok so guess what mom?! I used my sewing skills! I was so freaking happy. I turned out good I think. But there was an issue. The sewing kit you got me...there are SOO many different tools in them! Theres so much more then anyone needs I swear. But I just thought you should know about that :)

And guess who my roommates are?! Brazilians who dont speak any english! Ive decided that Heavenly Father didnt think I would pushing myself hard enough so I needed roommates who dont speak English to get me to be more brave with my Portuguese. But its been good so far and we are both patient with eachother. And if all else fails I give them a look of "I dont know what you are saying" and they try to use more simple words haha. Its great. We dont say much to eachother but enough to explain things...decently...

Also...we went proselyting yesterday around the CTM. It was crazy! And I made the stupid mistake and use my Born shoes...the cute ones. Ya...I forgot to put on my others. So I have these cute little blisters on my pinkie toes. But ya. We placed 5 BOMs between 3 of us. But I didnt do much talking. The Elders I went with were pretty good at filling in the gaps. But it was a cool experience to be out with the Brazilians talking to them. We practiced a lot before hand so we kind of had sometime to say. Brazilians are so nice. The favorite of the 5 was an older man who works a lot. He was taking a break from working and we stopped and talked to him. By the end we gave him a BOM and he was sooooo grateful for it. He kept on saying "Obrigado" over and over again. I couldnt catch what else he was saying, but it was all good...I think :S and he was just really happy and it was exciting. So it was a cool experience. Next monday we will be going into downtown Sao Paulo to proselyte there. Nerve wracking but cool.

And then I leave Tuesday! I dont know my plans yet but were leaving. Im supposed to be conducting the choir (which is made up of all the departing districts on Sunday) Why the heck the lady keeps on putting me in charge Ill never know. So wonderful! And I wont be able to write on Tuesday cuz Ill be traveling. But ya.

Gotta go. Times up and the teacher is right behind me!

Love you all!!

Sister Empey

A little surprise!

We received this picture from a nice lady near the CTM in Brazil! She runs the store across from the CTM and knew that the sister that walked in was "our Katelyn" so she snapped a picture and emailed it over!

Sister Empey looks good! We're excited to talk to her in a couple weeks! She leaves this week into the field. So excited for her!

6 Dec 2011

Hello all!

Merry Christmas season! Kind of crazy that its already the 2ndish week in December!

Before I forget, just so all of you know, if you plan on sending me letters, don´t send them to the CTM address. Start sending them to my mission address because Im leaving in 2 weeks! Crazy! Im so not ready. The language is coming along. I can communicate with the Brazilians a little bit better now. Well I can at least say simple statements that make sense to them.

Also, congrats on the State Championship! Madie! Im sure it was awesome being there and being a senior. Nothing better...honestly! Also...why does NO ONE inform me on BYU football news?! Like Im dying and Im slightly sad that I have NO idea what is going on. Jake Heaps left BYU?!?!?!?! I never liked him anyway. As far as other sports go from BYU, geez...keep me informed why dont you all?!

What else....oh I played basketball every day last week. It was so awesome. It did my heart so good! And I beat some of the boys and HORSE and at knock-out/bump. That felt really good too :) And then they beat me once or twice and that annoyed me. My elders have learned that Im just a tad competitive.

Man, I feel like there hasnt been much going on lately. Oh guess what?! After dinner, we have about a half hour to study or whatever. So I try to find a room to play the piano. So every day I go and play the piano for a little bit. Its actually a really nice way to get away from all the studying and everything and just play. Of course, you all know Im not amazing, but it is still nice all the same.

Funny story. This morning, I was supposed to go with my district to the temple. Meaning that when our district is called to go on the bus, then we all go and leave. It was our districts time to go on the rickety vans instead of the really nice charter bus. Im walking down the stairs with them and then the guard tries to talk to me in Portuguese...didnt work. And then he said that I could ride on the bus instead of the crappy vans. Haha I LOVE being a girl :)

A new district came into teh CTM on Wednesday and there are 3 girls going to Londrina! I was pretty excited about it. They are just a transfer behind me so thats pretty cool.

Today has been a really good day so far. Sometimes I feel bad because I either have to follow the elders around (when we are out on the town) or I have to make them follow me somewhere so Im not by myself. And then there always has to be at least 2 elders that go into the store after me because there cant be just me and another elder. But its always fun to try to figure that stuff out.

Also...I have been looking for HAIRSPRAY everywhere today and I cant find it. Which means for the next two weeks...my hair...is going to be IMPOSSIBLE. I cant find it anywhere and Im slightly annoyed/freaking out. Apparrently...brazilians dont USE hairspray? What in the world?

My roomates left for the field this morning, so Im going to be getting 3 more tomorrow! Crazy! Im spending this afternoon cleaning our bathroom and room. There are literally balls of hair on the tile. It is soooo disguisting.

Also, I memorized D&C 4 yesterday so now I just need to memorize it in Portuguese! I memorized the first vision in Portuguese too so Im pretty pumped about that. Im almost done with the Book of Mormon. Im in the middle of when Jesus comes to the Americas. Such an awesome part!

Thanks Grandma Empey for the letters! My district actually loves getting your letters. Did I mention that before? They love me reading the poems or stories that are attached with your letter. They say its always exactly what they need to hear. About having a positive attitude, being grateful, etc.

Anyways, time is up but I love you all!

Cant wait to update you all next week!!

Love,

-Sister Katelyn Empey

29 Nov 2011

Oí!

I´m sorry about not sending an email yesterday. The internet is sometimes crazy here! Yesterday we couldnt even get on because it was so busy.

How was everyone´s thanksgiving? I got a HUGE cookie from Mom. It was delicious! And they actually had a thanksgiving dinner which was really cool and it was actually pretty good for being in Brazil! Mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, you know the good stuff. And Im soo excited that I can get some fun stuff at Mr Cheneys (missionties place) for the next couple of weeks.

What was best was that the cafeteria was decorated for thanksgiving at lunch and by dinner there was a christmas tree in its place. Something really cool happens every year at christmas time at the CTM. There is an open to the sky atrium in the middle of the building and they decorate the plants and stuff with christmas lights. And we have a lighting ceremony the day after thanksgiving! So we all got together as a CTM and then counted down to light the lights and then sang 3 songs, english and portuguese to bring in the holidays. It was pretty sweet! And then we had an all you can eat ice cream bar. Also mind you...we didnt have class for the last hour because we hung out together. So I was pretty happy about that.

P-Day was good yesterday. It is also fun to go to the temple. We get up really early and drive a big charter bus to the temple (I cant remember if I told you all of this before) but its a lot of fun because all the americans go together :). I only have 2 more times at the temple :( And that actaully made me sad and nervous. Im worried that my first companion wont know any english. Also...there was a huge thunder/rainstorm yesterday and we got back to the CTM just in time. It was officially awesome :)

A lot of the Brazilians actually know some english. So with our broken portuguese and their broken english, we can create a conversation that lasts 10 minutes when it would probably take 3 minutes if we spoke fluently in one language or another.

Oh man. Guess what?! family you will all be shocked. I played the opening hymn for the devotional last night. Hahahaha isnt that CARAZY! It turned out ok. Also...guess what else?! This will blow your mind...it still blows mine. So there are 4 girls in our branch. We are all roomates together. And we sang in our sacrament meeting...like a quartet! And it was so goood, the music director wanted us to sing for the devotional. So we did! And everyone loved it. All the elders love it when sisters sing because they think we sound like angels. Which I dont see that, haha but whatever.

Also, the other day I had an issue where I couldnt speak english or write in english. It was frustrating but it was actually a good frustration. But dont worry...never fear, that lasted for about like 15 minutes. I snapped back to the opposite like usual (cant speak in portuguese) haha

Anyways...30 minutes fly by so fast!

Im sorry this isnt very long. But thanks like always for the emails and support.

If there are any specific questions email them to me so I can be sure to answer them specifically!

3 weeks left in the CTM! Ahhh I cant believe it! Im scared! I actually like it here in the sheltered environement. Imagine that!

Love you all!

-Sister Empey