1 Nov 2011

Hello Family and friends!

How are you all? Can I just say that I love my family and friends. My district has been a little annoyed with me because I have gotten so many letters and packages this week :) Everyone was a surpise and welcomed. All in one day I got 5 letters and 2 packages. Haha Carly...the apples were amazing! Did I tell you guys that all six of us in our room are going to Brazil? In any case, we have gotten pretty close the last couple of weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing the apples with my roomies. No word on the visa yet, but it just have to be coming within a couple of weeks! So Mom, if you''re phone rings and there is a number you don''t recognize..it might be me...so pick up! 2 more Elders from our district got their visas and are gone.

Anyhow, I really appreciate all the letters and packages. My district keeps on thinking "who is this girl?!?!" so THANK YOU. I can feel you're prayers in my life!

I feel like this last week wasn''t near as excited as last week. Not a whole lot has been going on. We got a new teacher. So what happens in that we get an "investigator'' like the 2nd day we get here. We have to give all of our discussions/lessons in Portuguese. Ya, hard. So after about 5 lessons, he becomes your teacher! So now we have 2 teachers. This second teacher is awesome. I mean so is the first, but the second has only been off his mission for 3 months...so he still has that fire in his eyes. Anyway, they are a lot of fun. Some exciting news is that I can pray in Portuguese now without looking at anything in a book!. Now granted, it probably is at the level of a 6 year old right now, but I''m working on becoming better at being creative and saying what I want to say in Portuguese. Um I got to see Bryan''s dad on Sunday too! He was so excited to see me :) They asked if they could get me anything and I couldn''t refuse them. I had to say I needed lotion! Haha of all things. So they said they would meet up with me tonight after the devotional to give me lotion.

The language...is hard. But it''s going. I''m not progressing as fast as I would like to be progressing and I feel like I am farther behind then the rest of my district. But everyone keeps on saying that I can''t compare myself to everyone else, that everyone gets it at their own pace. It''s fun though to be able to know different words and things. Portuguese is REALLY similar to Spanish in writing, but it gets me every time when someone talks. Now I''m starting to understand more and recognize the intonations and everything else, which means I am converted to Portuguese...I think it sounds so awesome and I can''t wait to be able to be myself in Portuguese. I can be myself speaking English just fine, but when I speak Portuguese (mainly because I don''t have the vocab), I completely use all personality I feel like :) But I know that will come, I just have to act goofy and crazy in English when I get the chance!

So I am learning a lot. My goal this week is to make goals and to organize myself. I feel so good when I can check off boxes and look at a list and say "ya, I did that'' (Wendy, you know exactly what I am talking about ;). And last week I was constantly stressed. And so I decided since I''m so good at checking off boxes, I need to be organized and plan out my day with specific goals I want to accomplish. That way nothing important slips through the cracks.

Well everyone, I must go. Sorry, this is a little shorter than last week, but nothing really excited has happened yet? Haha I hope this letter finds you all well. I can''t express enough thanks for everyone and your letters and support (and packages!). I know me and I know that I won''t be able to reply back to all of your letters, but please please know how much I love you all and I really appreciate ALLLL of it. After a long hard day (we only get letters once a day, 9:30pm), it is awesome to be able to read from home or from friends. It''s such a nice break for my brain!

Again, I love you all and good luck with this week!

Love,

Sister Empey