Sunday, September 9, 2012

Week 2 - Letter

Hello My Dear Family!!!
 
      I hope this email finds you all doing well and having a blast with the adventures life is bringing to you.  Thank you for the emails Mom and Dad!  They were awesome and heartwarming and I am so grateful to have you two as my parents.  :) 
      So, week two went by much the same as the first week.  I wake up at six thirty every morning and am in class or try to be by seven to start personal scripture study for an hour and then it is breakfast time.  Every morning breakfast is the same.  Bowl of very soupy oatmeal with no oats in it, bannas, apples, and fresh bread with cheese and meat.  It is delicious and I love it.  We had pasta today for lunch and that is a taste I haven't experienced in a long time. LOL. 
      Class and the language is going well and I am learning lots.  I have memorized all the most common verbs in Portuguese and am now working on their tenses which adds about a 100 words to my vocab list for the week to memorize.  LOL.  From Present tense to preterite to imperfect...it goes on and on and on.  lol.  I will get them eventually.  I struggle the most with pronouncing words the right way.  I want to pronounce them with a spanish accent but, they are not like that.  My instructors laugh at me a lot.  LOL.  But right now I'm thinking spanish is so much easier to learn.  LOL.  But having a slight background in it from that semester of high school and college really helps with learning portuguese.  If I don't know a word in Portuguese, I say it in Spanish and they usually can understand what I am trying to say. 
      Okay, let me tell you about a cool experience.  My companion and I have been struggling with our practice lessons with our investigator(who is really our instructor, but anyways) because we both only know so little of the language and so we have been writing out everything we say to our investigator in Portuguese so we actually know what we are saying.  But the problem with doing that and reading from a script...it leaves know room to listen to the Spirit and have Him direct the lesson instead of me and my companion.  So, we spent a class period watching District videos of Missionaries teaching investigators and how they taught and listened to the spirit.  The key...Teach investigators..not lessons.  Ask the investigator questions and get to know them and care about them and learn to love them...only then can you create an environment where the investigator will be able to feel the Spirit.  And teach them a part of the lesson or all of the lesson that apples to their life and always always always....talk about Jesus Christ.  He is the most important.  He is our Savior.  He loves us and has done so much for us.  I want others to feel the love I feel from my Savior.  I know He lives and loves me. 
     Oh, everyone asks to see pictures of you...so I take out my family picture of all of us and they see a lot of red hair...cute little nephew....parents are so young...you look so much like your older sister.....they love it. 
     Oh, and if I get letters from Elder Baker at the house...just send them here....mail from the US takes about four days to get here.  But I get the emails he sends...I think....make sure you all send him an email by Sunday night...it is his Birthday on Monday and he would love that.  Turning 20....so weird...lol/
 
 Well, I love you all so much and you are herer with me every day.  I love you!
 
Write again next week!
 
Love,
Sister Whitley Ann Brickey
 
P.S. Keep Smiling!!!

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