February 24, 2015

WOW! 

holy cow i feel like i've been here FOREVER. The first couple days were hard but only because I was thinking about myself. It has been so amazing these past few days. The spirit that is in the MTC is incredible. I have already learned so many things that I would have never been able to learn without being here. I'M SO HAPPY. 

 

There are 12 people in my district. 6 elders and 6 sisters. all going to brazil! 4 are going to sao paulo south and then my companion is the only one going to sao paulo interlagos. Her name is Sister Holdsworth and is from Casa Grande Arizona. She's so sweet and funny and always makes the most random hilarious comments. 

Basically I am in class all day studying portuguese. But it's amazing to me how much responsibility we have here. We are given a schedule but then it's our job to stick to it. No one is telling you what to do except for when you have a teacher during one of the three, three hour blocks. My district is so great and we all really push each other. Our teacher Irmao Buttars has us do 20 contacts, 20 testimonies and 20 "estar" phrases everyday in Portuguese to random missionaries throughout the day so we are progressing really quick!! we teach lessons to our "investigator" Marcia (soon to be teacher) and our 1st lesson was on Friday, 2nd on Saturday and our 3rd lesson was yesterday. For our 3rd lesson we couldn't use ANY notes. And the lessons are 30 min. long! I was so scared. But wow. the gift of tongues is so real. My companion and I did it and it went so well! Our sentence structure definitely wasn't great but we were able to get across what we wanted to say about the restoration, prophets and the book of mormon! I can speak Portuguese!! All because of the Lord. If we put the Lord first He really will help us. On Sunday we had a devotional and then after I watched "Characters of Christ" by Elder Bednar. Changed my life. This mission is not about me or what I want. It's not about how much I want to speak the language or how many investigators I want. It's about Him. I'm learning so much here and I'm so grateful for this. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

The food could be better here... haha hello cannon center take two. but it's okay. I see Mason and Tiffany all the time everyday and so many other kids from Timpview and BYU. The girl I went through the temple with is in the room right next to mine along with Kari Larsen from Timpview so i love that! They are also in my Zone. And other kids from my mission prep class are in my zone so it's great!! The girl I met at the post office is in my district, Sister Piltcher. She's so great! I love her to death. 

I know the Lord is strengthening me every day. This is hard, don't get me wrong. I'm tired 75% of the time but it's so worth it. And like I said before, this isn't about me. I love you all so much!! 

xoxox

Sister Taylor